Unique asteroid! Meet Venus Girl | Tech News

Unique asteroid! Meet Venus Girl

The 'Aylo'chaxnim Asteroid is the only asteroid within the orbit of Venus. It means Venus Girl.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Aug 22 2022, 16:43 IST
Asteroid
'Aylo'chaxnim asteroid is classified as near-earth objects. (Representative image) (NASA)
Asteroid
'Aylo'chaxnim asteroid is classified as near-earth objects. (Representative image) (NASA)

Not only planets but there are a bunch of asteroids in the Solar System that orbit the Sun and many of them have been detected by Nasa while some of them are yet to be found. While we have been reading about several asteroids hurtling towards Earth and flying by, there are many other asteroids that are beyond the orbit of Earth. They are mostly located in the mid- and outer-Solar System. However, there is one unique asteroid- 'Aylo'chaxnim. According to Sciencealert.com, scientists have found only one asteroid within the orbit of Venus: the asteroid 'Aylo'chaxnim. Detected in 2020, the space rock was named 'Venus Girl' in the Luiseno language.

Scientists have been closely looking at asteroid 'Aylo'chaxnim to see if they can figure out what it is, how it got there, its evolution, as well as if it can lead us to more inner-Venus asteroids.

The paper describing the study is available on preprint server arXiv, according to which the inner-Venus asteroid population should consist of rocks around 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) in diameter or below.

However, finding these asteroids is pretty hard due to their closeness to the Sun in the sky. They can mostly be found between sunset (or sunrise) or full darkness. Here is all you need to know about 'Aylo'chaxnim.

What is 'Aylo'chaxnim?

'Aylo'chaxnim is a mid-sized asteroid. NASA JPL has categorised it as a "Near Earth Asteroid" due to its orbit's proximity to Earth. However, it's not potentially hazardous.

According to Nasa, 'Aylo'chaxnim orbits the sun every 151 days (0.41 years) coming close to 0.46 AU. Aylo'chaxnim is estimated to be between 1.522 to 3.404 kilometres in diameter.

No Close Approaches

'Aylo'chaxnim's orbit is located 0.35 AU from Earth's orbit at its closest point which is a wide distance between the asteroid and Earth at all times. Orbital simulations conducted by NASA JPL's CNEOS do not show any close approaches to Earth as of now.

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First Published Date: 22 Aug, 16:43 IST
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