But every now and again an object will catch us off guard. NASA closely tracks all known objects in the Solar System. Statistically, there’s less of a chance of a larger asteroid colliding with Earth compared to a smaller one. The work of Sheppard and colleagues highlights that hunting down the remaining 5%-some 50 asteroids-will be a massive effort. It is estimated we've already discovered about 95% of potentially hazardous asteroids, and that there are fewer than 1,000 of these. The important point is it has been detected and can now be tracked. In the case of 2022 AP7, any threat is centuries down the track. For context, an asteroid with a diameter more than 1km is enough to trigger a mass extinction event on Earth.Īs well as having a diameter greater than 1km, an asteroid also needs to have an orbit that crosses Earth's to be considered potentially dangerous. But how many? And what's being done to find them?Īsteroid 2022 AP7 is the largest potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) found in eight years, with a diameter between 1.1km and 2.3km. At the same time, we suspect there could be other "planet killers" out there yet to be discovered. We simply don't know enough about 2022 AP7 to precisely predict the danger it may pose centuries from now. Eventually its movement will sync with Earth's and it will cross much closer by, but this will be centuries into the future. He and his international team of colleagues observed 2022 AP7 in a trio of "rather large" asteroids obscured by the sun's glare (the other two don't pose a risk).Ģ022 AP7 orbits the sun every five years, and currently crosses Earth's orbit when Earth is on the other side of the sun to it. Luckily for us 2022 AP7 "has no chance to hit the Earth currently", according to Scott Sheppard at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
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