[ad_1]
A recently discovered asteroid was spotted around the Sun, passing the star every 151 days, the shortest orbit ever recorded in space.
Known as 2019 LF6, this asteroid is quite bulky, measuring 1 kilometer in diameter and is part of the group of "Atira" asteroids, 20 space rocks whose orbits fall entirely into that of the Earth.
"Thirty years ago, people began to organize methodical searches for asteroids, first looking for larger objects, but now that most of them have been discovered, the larger ones are rare birds, "says Quanzhi Ye, a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech, who discovered 2019 LF6, in one statement.
(California Institute of Technology)
NO ALIEN NEEDS: THE IMPOSED PROPERTIES OF THE FIRST KNOWN INTERSTELLAR VISITOR MAY BE NATURAL
"The LF6 is very unusual both in orbit and size, and its unique orbit explains why such a large asteroid has escaped several decades of careful research," said Ye. "We only have 20 to 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset to find these asteroids."
Another Atira asteroid was discovered by the ZTF team, 2019 AQ3, which revolves around the Sun about once every 165 days.
"The two large Atira asteroids discovered by ZTF are turning out of the solar system plan," said NASA researcher JPL and Caltech professor Tom Prince in his statement. "This suggests that they have already been thrown into the past by the solar system because they have moved too close to Venus or Mercury."
In its 151-day elliptical orbit, the LF6 2019 comes out of Venus and approaches the Sun at certain times in the same way as Mercury. In comparison, Mercury revolves around the Sun every 88 days, that of Venus lasts 225 days and the Earth revolves around the Sun every 365 days.
The LF6 2019 was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility, "an ultramodern camera" at the Palomar Observatory. He quickly looks at the sky in search of objects such as exploding stars or moving asteroids, making it the ideal tool for searching for Atria asteroids.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
[ad_2]
Source link