Astronomers have recently uncovered a secret hiding behind the sun’s massive glare,
an asteroid so massive that it’s already being described as a “Planet Killer”! According to
researchers, this nearly mile long asteroid has prompted a significant risk to the Earth,
much more than any other risk from space seen in the last eight years. With this
planet killer apparently heading towards Earth’s orbit, will it pose an apocalyptic
threat to our own survival? And are there larger objects out there obscured from
our view?! Keep watching this video all the way to the end to find out what Astronomers
Warn About Planet Killer Asteroid Near Earth’s Orbit! Trust me, You don’t want to miss this!
Welcome back to Space Infinity.
Threats To The Planet In the vast darkness of outer space,
there are many objects that can pose a systematic threat to Planet Earth, and therefore, to all
living things on it as well. Asteroids and other objects from space that approach our solar system,
and those closer to Earth’s orbit are considered Near-Earth Objects, with these objects posing
viable risks to our planet. Most asteroids are leftover rubble from our solar system’s formation
some 4.6 Billion years ago, with millions that exist out there. Afterall, it is not uncommon
for asteroids to hit the Earth. We all know about the asteroid that struck the planet off Mexico’s
Yucatan Peninsula resulting in an impact crater 110 miles or 80 kilometers wide. This event is
thought to have caused a decades-long impact winter, and most likely caused the extinction
of the dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago. While space rocks of this magnitude that
could cause a global cataclysm are likely to hit Earth only once every hundred million years or so,
Near Earth Objects scaling from 50 to 100 meters across can strike much faster,
roughly every thousand years or so, and can still cause massive destruction on an epic
scale. Meteors and Asteroids of this relatively smaller size can still destroy a large city or
level similarly larger areas and can also lead to devastating ecological destruction. Asteroids pose
a great threat to our planet and for all living organisms existing within it, due to the fact that
an incoming asteroid the size of even 25 meters across can produce an airburst event, able to
unleash 1 megaton of energy. Double that asteroid size to 50 meters, and the impact can cause large
scale devastation that can exponentially increase the energy bursting onto the planet’s surface
to up to 10 megatons. This is why threats from unknown objects hailing from the dark reaches of
space should always be taken seriously, as any instance of a global cataclysm can erase human
civilization as we know it. And although while threats from outer space may seem looming, the
good news, according to scientists, is that there is currently no viable threat of any potentially
hazardous asteroids reaching our planet for at least the next 100 years, or so they thought!
Planet Killers Astronomers have recently
uncovered a remarkable discovery way closer to home, that could pose a significant risk to
our planet. It seems that for a longest time, the sun’s glare has been hiding an incredible secret,
a trio of space rocks that were revealed during a deep and wide twilight survey for asteroids
within the interior proximity of the Sun to Venus and Earth. Using the Dark Energy Camera with the
Blanco 4 Telescope located in Chile, researchers were able to look for objects interior to Earth’s
and Venus’ orbits and have discovered two rare asteroids, labeled 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27,
which have orbits completely interior to Earth’s orbit. What’s unnerving however, is the discovery
of a third asteroid, an Apollo-type Near Earth Object that crosses Earth’s Orbit, labeled 2022
AP7. Two of the three newly revealed asteroids are considered of “planet killer” size, which most
likely came from the main asteroid belt, where most asteroids within our solar system come from.
These near Earth Asteroids are on eccentric orbits that are stable for a million years or so, but as
they interact with the gravity of nearby planets, their orbits can shift before eventually getting
ejected to the outer solar system. Only about 25 asteroids with completely interior orbits to Earth
have been discovered to date. 2021 PH 27 has a diameter between 0.9 and 1.7 kilometers, or 0.5
to 1 mile long, and is the closest known asteroid relative to the sun, which means that it’s surface
is so hot that it can melt lead, which has a melting point of 327.5 degrees Celsius. While
2022 AP7, which is much larger with a diameter between 1.1 and 2.3 kilometers, is considered
the largest potentially hazardous asteroid that has been discovered in the last eight years.
Keep in mind that an asteroid with a diameter of more than 1 kilometer is enough to trigger a mass
extinction event here on Earth. Having an asteroid of this size, with its proximity to Earth’s orbit,
certainly is a cause for concern. But despite this discovery, scientists assure that there’s no need
to worry as these newly discovered asteroids have no probability of any direct collision with Earth
anytime soon. While the largest of the three asteroids, the 2022 AP7 does have the potential
of reaching Earth’s path in the distant future, no timetable has been released according to the
study. Any threat to the planet is already considered to be potentially centuries down
the line, with this recent detection already considered as the best possible outcome in
order to track these objects in space. One day in the far future, 2022 AP7 may travel into the
path of Earth’s orbit, passing within 4.6 million miles of our planet, going around the sun. That
possibility may be centuries or millennia away, so according to scientists, there’s
no eminent danger, with no interaction of these asteroids with Earth in the foreseeable future.
Threat Aversion Threats from outer space, such as these newly
discovered trio of asteroids, have managed to avoid detection for so long because it orbits in
the region between Earth and Venus. Finding space rocks in this area can be notoriously difficult,
since astronomers need to look in the direction of the sun, with the sun’s luminous glare providing
quite the challenge. Telescopes are also unable to look in the direction of the sun,
since the star’s brightness could fry their highly sensitive optics. This is why discovering massive
asteroids lurking relatively close to Earth can be quite a surprise. In 2013, a smaller asteroid with
a size of only 66 feet wide arrived on Earth and exploded above the city of Chelyabinsk in
southeastern Russia, to everyone’s surprise. It had arrived from the direction of the sun,
allowing it to get within Earth’s atmosphere without any warning at all. While it did not
meet impact on the planet’s surface, the explosion did cause windows on thousands of
buildings in the area to shatter. It is estimated that we’ve already discovered about 95% or over
30,000 near Earth Asteroids out there, with fewer than 1,000 having a size of over half a mile wide,
which pose a significant risk to the planet. And while NASA and other space agencies continue to
closely track all known objects in our Solar System, every now and again, an object can
quite possibly catch us all off guard. This is why surveys for asteroids are essentially conducted
to complete the census of asteroids near Earth, including some of the most likely Earth impactors
that cannot easily be discovered in other surveys. To protect humanity from asteroid strikes,
astronomers and planetary defense experts are keen to identify and monitor these near-Earth
asteroids in order to plot where these objects are headed. If one is projected to one day come
unsettlingly close to Earth, perhaps in decades or centuries to come, then we can surely do something
about it. Knowing what, and when an object is coming, as well as how hard it’s going to hit,
allows us to make the necessary action to avert or divert these space objects from hitting Earth,
or allow us the leeway to consider viable escape routes. One of the agencies that track
space objects that cross or approach Earth’s orbit around the sun is NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which has locked in the trajectories of these
recently discovered trio of asteroids, and has also provided the assurance that these asteroids
are currently not hazardous. The center’s database also determined that the biggest out of the three,
2022 AP7 is only projected to have close approaches to Mars and Jupiter within the
next 145 years. This ability of astronomers to calculate and determine asteroid trajectories
for centuries into the future allows us to level off our worry. The global community can also be
assured that tools have been set in place to protect the planet, should sudden instances
of global concern, such as an unforeseen asteroid with a collision trajectory to Earth come to rise.
So, what do you think about this Planet Killer Asteroid? Let us
know in the comments below. Be sure to hit that like button, subscribe,
and check out the Space Infinity archive for more shocking info about our universe.