Astronomers have discovered a 700-meter (2,300-foot) wide asteroid hidden in the sun’s glare. This asteroid is hurtling through the solar system at a near record-breaking pace.
The skyscraper-sized asteroid, named 2025 SC79, orbits the sun once every 128 days and has the second-fastest asteroid orbit in the solar system. It is also the second known space object to orbit entirely within the orbit of Venus, and sometimes even cross the orbit of Mercury.
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“The most dangerous asteroids are also the most difficult to detect,” Shepard said in a statement. “Most asteroid studies find these objects in the darkness of night, where they are easiest to spot. However, asteroids lurking close to the sun can only be observed at dusk, just before the sun rises or sets. When these ‘twilight’ asteroids approach Earth, they can pose a serious impact risk.” ”
Asteroids like 2025 SC79 are definitely worth watching. To put that 2,300-foot diameter in perspective, the so-called “city-killer” asteroid 2024 YR4 discovered earlier this year is only about 180 feet (55 meters) wide, and if it were to collide with Earth, it could release 500 times more energy than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima (don’t worry, it’s almost certainly not).
Shepard discovered 2025 SC79 using the Dark Energy Camera on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Blanco Four-Meter Telescope. The presence of the asteroid was subsequently confirmed by observations from NSF’s Gemini telescope and Carnegie Science’s Magellan telescope, the statement said.
This is the second hypervelocity asteroid discovered by Shepard and colleagues in recent years, and the fastest known asteroid was also discovered in 2021. The object, named 2021 PH27, orbits the Sun every 113 days, just 15 days earlier than 2025 SC79. The only planet in the solar system with a fast orbital period is Mercury, which orbits the sun once every 88 days.
2025 SC79’s orbit has put it behind the sun, making it invisible for several months. The researchers plan to perform further observations to learn more about the object, which will ultimately become another piece of the galactic puzzle that will help astronomers understand how our solar system and its potential asteroid-shaped threats evolved.
“Many of the solar system’s asteroids live in one of two bands of space rock, but perturbations can cause objects to rocket into closer orbits, making them more difficult to detect,” Shepard said. “Understanding how they got to these places can help us protect our planet and also help us learn more about the history of our solar system.”
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