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An asteroid named 2022 AP7 is reportedly heading towards Earth and has been dubbed the largest planet killer-sized asteroid discovered in eight years.
According to The Astronomical Journal, a group of astronomers using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile recently spotted three near-Earth asteroids (NEA) hiding in the glare of the sun.
Among the trio named 2022AP7, 2021 LJ4, and 2021 PH27, the former reportedly holds the possibility of crossing the Earth’s orbit.
Astronomer Scott Sheppard and his colleagues at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington said 2022AP7 could be considered potentially hazardous:
“Any asteroid over 1km in size is considered a planet killer.”
They also noted that the impact of such an element could be devastating to planet earth:
“The Earth’s surface would likely cool significantly from sunlight not getting to the planet. It would be a mass extinction event like hasn’t been seen on Earth in millions of years.”
He told The New York Times that if 2022 AP7 reaches the Earth, it may cause destruction across the entire planet:
“Over time, this will get brighter and brighter in the sky as it starts crossing Earth's orbit closer and closer to where the Earth actually is… this is what we call a planet killer. If this one hits the Earth, it would cause planetwide destruction. It would be very bad for life as we know it.”
However, Sheppard also confirmed that 2022AP7 “has no chance to hit the Earth currently” and will only cross the planet’s orbit in the later future:
“This will be centuries into the future and we do not know the orbit of 2022 AP7 precise enough to say much about its dangers centuries from now.”
Jay Tate, Director of the National Near Earth Objects Information Centre in mid-Wales, also echoed a similar statement while speaking to the Guardian about 2022 AP7:
“At the moment, anyway, the impact probability is fairly low. I wouldn’t say negligible, but fairly low.”
Planetary scientist Tracy Becker told The Times that an incident that could wipe out the planet in the “foreseeable future” has an “extremely low probability.”
Meanwhile, Sheppard said that his team is expected to find “a few more” planet-killer objects located near the Earth measuring 1km or more in size in the days to come.
The 2022 AP7 has a diameter of about 1.1km to 2.3km. It is now considered to be the largest PHA discovered since 2014 and the top 5% of the largest ever found in history.
According to the Noir Lab, 2022 AP7 is the closest asteroid to the sun and has a surface reportedly hot enough to melt lead. CBS noted that it also has an orbit path that could force the element to come into contact with Earth one day.
Everything to know about Asteroid belt
Asteroids can be defined as a minor planet present within our solar system. These are often rocky, airless bodies left behind during the formation of the solar system nearly 4.6 billion years ago.
Meanwhile, an asteroid belt is a space where most of the asteroids in the solar system are found orbiting the sun. The belt is reportedly located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and contains millions of such bodies.
As per Cool Cosmos, astronomers are of the opinion that the belt was either created by material that never became a planet or is made up of remnants of a planet that broke apart several years ago. The asteroids within the belt come in a different variety of sizes.
According to NASA, some are very small, measuring less than a mile, and have bodies that are less than 33 feet (10 meters). Meanwhile, others are significantly larger. The largest one, named Ceres, is a dwarf planet and measures approximately one-quarter the size of Earth's moon. The current count of minor planets is reportedly 1,113,527.
Amid the looming threat of 2022 AP7, NASA recently introduced the DART test.
The test is a planetary defense technology demonstration. It can make a spacecraft intentionally collide with any possible planet killer and deflect its path to prevent it from coming into contact with the Earth.
