Astronomers find an oddball asteroid totally inside the orbit of Venus
Gravity assist–.
” Surpassing the orbit of Venus must have been challenging.”
Eric Berger
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Enlarge / The Zwicky Transient Center at Palomar Observatory in California.
Caltech Optical Observatories
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Astronomers have actually found nearly 1 million asteroids in our Planetary system, with the large majority situated in the asteroid belt in between Mars and Jupiter.
It is far rarer to discover asteroids with orbits closer to the Sun, and specifically inside the orbit of Earth, due to Jupiter’s gravitational influence. There are just about 20 recognized asteroids with orbits entirely inside that of Earth’s. They are called Atira asteroids.
A Number Of these Atira asteroids have orbits that are substantially tilted far from the plane of the Planetary system, recommending past encounters with Mercury or Venus.
A rare find
Until now, scientists have theorized that Vatira asteroids may exist– those with orbits inside Venus– but had yet to find one. They would be difficult to observe since their orbits would bring them close to the Sun, leaving just a short window to find them in the dusk or dawn sky.
Enlarge /2020 AV2 orbits totally within the orbit of Venus.
Bryce Bolin/Caltech
But now astronomers have found a Vatira asteroid for the very first time. The body, called 2020 AV2, was found earlier this month by the California Institute of Innovation’s Zwicky Transient Center, and validated by other observatories around the globe.
” Getting past the orbit of Venus should have been challenging,” stated George Helou, a Caltech astronomer and co-investigator at the Zwicky facility, in a press release. “The only way it will ever leave its orbit is if it gets flung out via a gravitational encounter with Mercury or Venus, however more likely it will wind up crashing on among those two worlds.”
Astronomers say the asteroid spans about 1 to 3 kilometers in diameter and has an orbit tilted about 15 degrees relative to the plane of the Planetary system. Throughout its 151- day lengthened orbit, it stays within the course of Venus while also approaching the orbit of Mercury. It likely was tossed into the intervenusian orbit by an encounter with another world.
The Zwicky video camera, connected to a telescope at Palomar Observatory in Southern California, is well fit to finding asteroids since it scans the entire sky quickly and can observe asteroids during their temporary looks in the night sky.
