An international team of astronomers has discovered an asteroid about 1.5 kilometers across. The name: 2022 AP7. It could ultimately affect and destroy our planet.
2022 AP7 is the largest asteroid “discovered in the past eight years and potentially dangerous to Earth,” said the US Institute Noirlab, which operates several observatories in North America and under whose auspices the research was conducted.
The asteroid “intersects Earth’s orbit, making it a potentially dangerous asteroid,” said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science and lead author of the study, which was published in The Astronomical Journal. He even calls the asteroid 2022 AP7 a “planet slayer”.
Collision would cause a mass extinction
But there is no danger yet, Sheppard reassures. Several centuries, if not millennia, will likely pass before the asteroid can collide with Earth. In addition, predictions over a longer period of time are difficult because the asteroid changes orbits due to the gravity exerted by planets on it.
But if it collided with Earth at some point, it would have “devastating effects on life as we know it,” Sheppard explains. Dust thrown into the atmosphere would protect the earth from sunlight. The planet would cool and mass extinction would result.
He hid in an area too bright for telescopes
According to the researchers, most asteroids of this size have already been discovered. But 2022 AP7 was hiding in an area where sunlight is usually too bright for telescopes. The asteroid has now been detected using a high-tech instrument at the Victor M. Blanco telescope in Chile. This was originally developed to study dark matter.
To send a dangerous asteroid past Earth in an emergency, NASA successfully conducted a test mission in late September: It deliberately collided with a harmless asteroid with a space probe, altering its orbit. (hey/AFP)