Terrifying! A new class of Planet-killer asteroids create BIG threat for Earth

Recently, scientists made a discovery that can have terrifying consequences for us. A group of researchers found three new asteroids, one of them labeled ‘potentially hazardous’, orbiting in the space between Earth and Venus. While NASA has been tracking more than 20,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs), it was not known that asteroids existed in this particular space. And the main reason behind it was the Sun and its glare. These asteroids have the potential to catch us blindsided and strike us when we don’t expect them. And if that happens, even the DART planetary defense system would not be able to save us.

The study regarding this discovery has been published in The Astronomical Journal and has used the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to find this scary space rock. The largest among the three asteroids has been named 2022 AP7. The concern with this particular asteroid is that it is 1.5 kilometers wide. And this large size has made it a potential planet-killer for us. If it struck the Earth, it could spell the end of human civilization.

Why this new class of asteroids are a concern

The main reason why discovery of such asteroids have been so slow is because of the intense glare of the Sun. As telescopes contain highly light-sensitive instruments to view objects far away in space, a bright light from the Sun can either overexpose any image taken or damage the instrument itself. This is why most telescopes only operate on the night sky-field of the Earth.

But this is bad news for us. We cannot protect ourselves from something that we cannot see. The entire idea of planetary defense relies on tracking asteroids and predicting any incoming threat months before it can actually impact the Earth. Further, these asteroids pose a greater threat than the space rocks that come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter because they are not governed by the heavy gravitational pull of the gas giant.

With these new risks, the scientists are now concerned about an incoming asteroid strike that we are probably not even aware of.