Astronomers have discovered the asteroid closest to the Sun

Astronomers now know of about 800,000 asteroids, and only 21 of them orbit

These objects are part of the group of Atira, or the so-called inland asteroids.

Now, astronomers from the ZTF project managed to detect another object from the Atira group - it was named 2020 AV2 and is located in the constellation Aquarius.

Perihelion (the farthest point of the orbit from the Sunasteroid) and aphelion (closest to the star) are at a record distance from the Sun - 0.65 and 0.46 astronomical units, respectively. For comparison, the aphelion and perihelion of Venus are 0.73 and 0.72 astronomical units, respectively.

An asteroid revolves around the Sun, but at the same time its orbit is entirely inside the orbit of Venus.

The authors of the study note that the orbit and parameters of the asteroid are now being specified.

Previously, geologists found traces of an asteroid that fell to Earth 780 thousand years ago. A large gravity anomaly was found in Laos - it indicated the existence of a giant 20-kilometer crater.