A planet-killing asteroid could crash into Earth?

Asteroids have played a role in the developmentlife on our planet. As you remember, 66 million years ago, the asteroid Chicxulub crashed into the Earth, which led to a global catastrophe and destroyed the dinosaurs. Quite possibly, if not for him, the current flora and fauna looked completely different. But most importantly, this event may not be the last catastrophe in the history of the Earth. Recently, scientists have discovered a large asteroid, which was previously hidden from the view of scientists in the bright light of the sun. According to experts, it may collide with the Earth. Its width is about one and a half kilometers. This celestial body was discovered by an international team of scientists near the orbits of the Earth and Venus. The asteroid was named 2022 AP7, but it is also called the planet killer. How did he deserve such a name and how much threatens our planet?

Scientists have discovered a killer asteroid that could crash into Earth

Planet killer asteroids - what are they?

Planet killers are called largeasteroids, which, due to their size, are capable of causing extinction in the event of a collision with the Earth. The latter occurs as a result of the release of a large amount of dust into the upper atmosphere. Dust is known to absorb sunlight. In fact, there is a "nuclear winter" with all the ensuing consequences, as happened after the fall of the Chicxulub asteroid. You can read more about this event here. In addition to the "nuclear winter", the fall of a large celestial body causes a powerful tsunami, volcanic eruptions, massive fires, etc.

2022 AP7 is considered not just a planet killer, but alsopotentially dangerous asteroid. This is due to the fact that it theoretically crosses the orbit of the Earth. True, now this is happening when our planet is on the other side of the Sun. It was possible to detect a celestial body that was hiding behind the sun's rays thanks to a unique dark energy chamber. This apparatus is possessed by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

Asteroid 2022 AP7 has a diameter of about one and a half kilometers

Despite the use of modern technologyin the study, sunlight still significantly limits the ability of scientists. Therefore, the team had only two 10-minute windows of twilight to detect previously unknown objects. This time was enough to discover not only 2022 AP7, described in the journal in The Astronomical Journal, but also two other asteroids - 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27. But we'll talk about them some other time.

How much actually exists nearby withEarth killer asteroids, scientists can not say. Now only 25 such objects are known, which are located between the orbits of the Earth and Venus. But, keep in mind that they are difficult to detect. Therefore, according to experts, there are several more killer asteroids that are inside the orbits of Venus and the Earth. It is possible that soon we will find out about them too.

Asteroid 2022 AP7 crosses Earth's orbit and is considered potentially hazardous

How dangerous is a killer asteroid

When scientists say that an asteroidwith a diameter of one and a half kilometers crosses the Earth's orbit, you see, it becomes a little uncomfortable. But in fact, there is nothing to be afraid of, or rather, almost nothing. The point at which the asteroid crosses the orbit of our planet is likely to gradually approach us. Accordingly, at some point the asteroid will crash into the Earth. However, this will not happen now.

The fact is that in order to bring our planet closer to2022 AP7 will take thousands of years. During this time, our descendants will probably figure out how to solve the problem, if, of course, by this moment they will exist at all. Already, scientists are working on a system to protect the planet from asteroids and even successfully tested it.

NASA monitors all potentially hazardous asteroids

Are asteroids a threat to Earth?

As you understand, at the moment not about allpotentially dangerous asteroids are known to science. However, there is no need to worry about this. The ATLAS system monitors the safety of the starry sky. It includes four telescopes that scan the entire night sky every 24 hours.

Any space object located inwithin 190 million kilometers of Earth, NASA takes note. In addition, if a celestial body is up to 7.5 million kilometers from our planet, NASA classifies it as a “near-Earth object” and begins to observe it. All such objects are considered potentially dangerous.

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Since 2017, this system has already identified more than 700near-earth objects. Two of them subsequently even fell to Earth. But they were small. There are currently no real threats from outer space for our planet, and they will not appear in the next hundred years.