By Web TeamFirst Published Aug 30, 2021, 4:05 PM IST
The world of science has seen the speed of a newly discovered asteroid. Although it is close to the Sun, scientists say it is much closer to Earth. Known as 2021 pH 27, the asteroid completes one orbit around the Sun every 113 days. It is estimated to be about 20 million kilometers from the Sun. This space rock has the distinction of being the shortest orbital period for an asteroid. It is the second smallest orbit around the Sun after Mercury. Mercury will take 88 days to complete its orbit.
The asteroid was discovered on August 13 by astronomer Scott Shepard of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Ian del Antonio and Shenming Fu, astronomers at Brown University. Vector M. of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The images were taken using a dark energy camera mounted on a Blanco 4 meter telescope.
The asteroid is 0.6 miles (1 km) in size, and very few asteroids of this size remain unknown in the Solar System, he said. 2021 pH 27 As it gets very close to the Sun, its surface can reach temperatures of 900. That’s 482 degrees Celsius, hot enough to melt lead, and at this extreme temperature, scientists believe that 2021 pH 27 is unlikely to be made of any volatile material. It is made of rock, which is mostly iron-like metals.
It also has an unstable orbit that surpasses the orbits of Mercury and Venus as it orbits the Sun. In a few million years, this orbit of the asteroid may cause its own destruction. These rocks may collide with Mercury, Venus, or the Sun, or fall from their current position in the Solar System. Because the asteroid is so close to the Sun’s massive gravitational field, it experiences all the effects of its orbit. This asteroid is only one of about 20 asteroids that are completely in the Earth’s Sun orbit.
Although some asteroids are known to be closer to the Sun, such as 2021 pH 27, they have longer orbits. Some of these asteroids appear to have dust in their orbits, and they slowly decompose or explode under the intense thermal stresses of these objects. A notable example of this is the comet-like asteroid Python created by the Geminid meteorites that occur in our skies every December.
Scientists believe that such asteroids could be ejected from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but that pH 27 by 2021 could actually become an extinct comet. Comets come in longer and longer orbits from the outer solar system, interact with inner planets by gravity, and receive more circular short-lived orbits. The inner planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
When this happens, some elements of the comet will evaporate until it looks like a comet. The scientific world is now looking for incredibly distant objects in the solar system and beyond. However, understanding the population of asteroids near Earth’s orbit is also crucial. Near-Earth asteroids are likely to affect Earth in the future, but some of them are incredibly difficult to observe because they approach our planet during the day. It is difficult to observe the area against the sun due to the bright light of the sun.
But the Dark Energy Camera 2021 is a powerful tool for looking for objects like pH27. Especially at sunset and just before sunrise. On August 14 and 15, scientists decided to observe the asteroid using multiple telescopes from Chile and South Africa.
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