Scientists discovered the new nearest neighbor of our star

The new nearest neighbor of the Sun has been revealed.

Astronomers who have used a new telescope in Chile have found the asteroid with the fastest orbit so far and is closer to the Sun than even the planet Mercury.

Although its orbit of the Sun is, at 113 days, longer than the 88 days of Mercury, the asteroid 2021 PH27 has an elliptical and very inclined orbit that crosses the orbits of Venus and Mercury.

2027 PH27 is about a kilometer in diameter and reaches less than 20 million kilometers from the Sun, where it reaches almost 500 degrees C. This is hot enough to melt lead.

PH21 2021 has just gone behind the Sun and will not be seen again until early 2022. Further observations are then planned to determine its precise orbit, which will allow for its official name.

The discovery of the 2021 PH27 is significant because it will help astronomers figure out which asteroids could one day impact Earth.

“Understanding the asteroid population inside Earth’s orbit is important to completing the census of asteroids near Earth, including some of the most likely terrestrial shocks that can approach Earth during Earth’s orbit. daylight and that cannot be easily discovered in most surveys that are being observed at night, far from the Sun, ”said Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Science.

Sheppard found PH21 2021 in images taken at dusk by Ian Dell’Antonio and Shenming Fu of Brown University. They used the 570-megapixel Dark Energy (DECam) camera on the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) of NOIRLab in Chile.

Where it originally came from in 2021 PH27 is a mystery, but there are theories. “Most likely, in 2021 the PH27 was dislodged from the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars and the gravity of the inner planets shaped its orbit in its current configuration,” Sheppard said.

“Although, based on its wide 32-degree tilt angle, it is possible that 2021 PH27 is an extinct comet from the outer solar system that ventured too close to one of the planets as the path of his journey brought him closer to the inner solar system, “Sheppard said.

So what does the future hold for the 2027 PH27? It’s unclear, but astronomers suspect it will likely be destroyed in a collision with Mercury, Venus, or the Sun, but possibly not for millions of years.

I wish you clear skies and wide eyes.