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Astronomers have discovered an asteroid with the shortest orbit known to date, a space rock that flies 12 million kilometers from the sun every 113 days.
This 3,280-foot-wide asteroid, known as 2021 PH27, was discovered on August 13 by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science, using data from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) in Chile. .
Although asteroid 2021 PH27 completes its orbit around the sun in 113 days, well over 88 days than Mercury, it has a steeply inclined elliptical orbit that determines the trajectory of any stellar body closer to our star.
2021 PH27 is in an unstable orbit crossing that of Mercury and Venus. This means that in a few million years it will likely be destroyed in a collision with one of these planets or the Sun, or it will be thrown from its current position. pic.twitter.com/AtbNNxrFqD
– Carnegie Science (@carnegiescience) 23 Aug 2021
In fact, this asteroid is so close to the sun that it “experiences the most important general relativistic effects of any known object in the solar system,” according to a statement released by the United States’ National Optical and Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab). -United. National Science Foundation.
Due to its proximity to the sun, Sheppard added, the surface temperature of 2021 PH27 reaches nearly 500 degrees Celsius (around 900 degrees Fahrenheit) at the closest approach (around 20 million kilometers from the sun), which is hot enough to melt the lead.
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Photographs of the space rock were taken by Ian Dilantonio and Xinming Fu of Brown University.
Asteroid 2021 PH27 was reviewed on August 14 and 15 by separate astronomers, confirming Sheppard’s discovery.
“Although telescope time is invaluable to astronomers, the international nature and love of the unknown make astronomers very willing to go beyond their science and observations to pursue exciting new discoveries like those -Here, ”Sheppard said in the release.
In addition to being the fastest known asteroid to orbit the Sun, the elliptical orbit of 2021 PH27 (common to all planets and asteroids) intersects the orbits of Mercury and Venus.
At this point, the researchers are not clear where the 2021 PH27 space rock came from, but they are speculating that it may have started life in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and has been displaced by “gravitational disturbances of the inner planets”.
The statement added that its high orbital tilt of 32 degrees indicates that it could instead be an extinct comet from the Outer Solar System that was captured in a short-range orbit while passing near one of the terrestrial planets.
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Experts also believe that the orbit of 2021 PH27 is unstable, which leaves it with two possible outcomes: either it ends up colliding with Mercury, Venus or the Sun “in a few million years”, or it is ejected. of the internal solar system by the gravitational influence of the planets.
It is difficult to find asteroids very close to the sun because the star’s glow obscures them. Some of them get very hot from their proximity to the sun and disperse. Gravitational forces on the planet can also cause asteroids to crash. However, none of them have affected the PH27 2021 yet.
“The ratio of asteroids inside the Earth and Venus relative to the outside will give us insight into the strength of these objects and their components,” Sheppard explained. He stressed that this discovery will help complete the tally of asteroids that could eventually affect Earth.
The space rock is now entering the solar conjugation phase, where it will be behind the sun from Earth’s perspective. It will not be visible again until early 2022. Further observations are planned to determine its exact orbit.
Source: Daily Mail
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