Latest news with #PotentiallyHazardousAsteroids
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Venus's hidden asteroids could be Earth's next major impact risk
It may look like Earth's twin, but Venus is keeping secrets. New research suggests that dozens—possibly hundreds—of asteroids are quietly orbiting the Sun in sync with Venus. Known as Venus co-orbitals, these stealthy rocks follow a similar path around the Sun, making them difficult to spot from Earth. For a long time, experts have only known about 20 of them, and most have been easier to spot. However, new research suggests a significant yet undetected population of these asteroids. "Twenty co-orbital asteroids of Venus are currently known. Co-orbital status protects these asteroids from close approaches to Venus, but it does not protect them from encountering Earth," a team led by Valerio Carruba, an assistant professor at São Paolo University in Brazil, wrote in the study paper. Venusian co-orbital asteroids are classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) if they are at least 140 meters (460 feet) in diameter. In terms of distance, these asteroids are calculated to approach Earth's orbit within 0.05 astronomical units (4.6 million miles). An important question researchers are investigating is whether these objects pose a genuine collision threat to Earth or not. 'We aim to assess the possible threat that the yet undetected population of Venus co-orbitals may pose to Earth and investigate their detectability from Earth and space observatories,' the study noted. The team suspects the known 20 Venus co-orbitals are just the tip of the iceberg. It could be even more challenging to spot Venus's hidden co-orbital asteroids. Current ground-based telescopes face limitations in detecting Venus co-orbital asteroids due to fleeting observation windows and the Sun's bright glare. A particularly unsettling aspect is that these asteroids have a "Lyapunov time" of roughly 150 years. Universe Today explained that the Lyapunov time measures the point at which an object's orbit enters a chaotic, unpredictable state. In a nutshell, experts might be able to monitor the path of asteroids for a while, but the future orbital behavior will remain unpredictable. This makes it challenging to assess whether they will have a close encounter with Earth or even a collision. Researchers digitally replicated these hidden asteroids and conducted 36,000-year orbital simulations to understand the potential threat. The findings are alarming: "There is a sizable population of potential co-orbitals at lower eccentricity capable of numerous close encounters—and perhaps collisions—with Earth." "There is a range of orbits with e < 0.38, larger at lower inclinations, for which Venus' co-orbitals can pose a collisional hazard to Earth," the study added. The results indicate that the asteroids with eccentricities below 0.38 could strike Earth. Eccentricity measures how stretched out an orbit is. An eccentricity of 0 means a perfectly circular path, while larger numbers indicate a more elongated ellipse. In terms of studying the hidden asteroids, the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory offers hope. Its incredibly powerful camera may help us catch some elusive objects under favorable conditions. But even Rubin's capabilities might not be enough to find the entire population. The researchers suggest that a space-based observatory, perhaps a constellation of spacecraft near Venus, could be our best bet. NASA has already taken a step towards planetary defense by successfully executing the DART asteroid mission. In the worst-case scenario, it could prevent a catastrophe similar to the one that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. However, accurately predicting the precise path of these Venus co-orbitals is critical for any successful deflection effort. The study is posted on the pre-print server it has also been submitted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
NASA monitoring trio of house-sized asteroids skimming Earth at hypersonic speed
This week, five asteroids will fly past Earth, close enough to be categorized as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). However, NASA predicts that none will pose any real risk to the planet for another hundred years. Known as "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids" (PHAs), these pieces of cosmic debris come within 4.6 million miles of the planet. There are over 1,400 PHAs in our system as of early 2013, with diameters ranging from 460 feet. Today, May 26, asteroid "2025 KT1" will miss Earth by 1,240,681 miles. And four more are coming this week, about the size of a house. Last Thursday, '2025 KH' flew past Earth with a diameter of 37 feet at 25,000 miles per hour, just 687,000 miles away. Though an impressive distance, on NASA's map, it's 'just next door.' "2025 KT1" will pass Earth at about double that distance today with a diameter of 42.1 feet. Tomorrow, May 27, "2025 JP" is scheduled to fly by 3,190,383 miles away from Planet Earth with a diameter of 83.1 feet. On May 28, three asteroids will burn past our planet: 2025 KW, 2025 JR, and 2025 KU1. Asteroids pass Earth all the time. Unless they come within a certain distance, however, they don't signal NASA's radar as potentially threatening. According to USA Today, NASA's survey telescopes find over 3,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) every year. According to Newsweek, NASA spotted the closest PHA with a scheduled flyby in 2032. With a diameter of 200 feet, or the height of a 15-story building, 2024 YR4 had the highest impact probability that NASA had ever recorded of this size or larger back in February of this year. However, it went from a 3.1 percent to a .004 percent chance. No significant asteroid risks are heading to Earth for the next century. There's still a slight chance that YR 2024 will impact the Moon. The Chicxulub impactor, at 6.2 miles in diameter, hit Earth at 40,000 mph and killed the dinosaurs with the energy of three billion WWII-era atomic bombs, CNN reported. An asteroid that large, over 330 feet in diameter, strikes Earth about every 10,000 years, according to NASA's predictions via USA Today. Ceres is currently the largest asteroid in our system, with a radius of 296 miles. In the grand scheme of things, if the Earth were the size of a nickel, Ceres would be about the size of a poppy seed. So, asteroids constitute a significant part of our solar system and come in all shapes and sizes. According to NASA's website, asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the sun. When our solar system began 4.6 billion years ago, most of the material fell to the center of a collapsed big cloud of gas and dust, forming the sun. Asteroid bodies have always been present and will always be an integral moving part of our cosmic lives. However, they can come too close at times, especially this week. Still, NASA doesn't foresee any asteroid body flying by within a truly threatening distance anytime in the next century. "But tiny meteors burn up in Earth's atmosphere all the time!" NASA explained.
