The Victor Blanco Space Telescope in Chile helped scientists discover a potentially dangerous substance for Earth.
What is known
The 4-meter telescope belongs to the Inter-AmericanCerro Tololo Observatory in Chile. It is equipped with a DECam camera that operates in the infrared and optical ranges. The camera is used to search for black matter.
The sun blinds telescopes, so for observationbehind space objects near Venus and Mercury, scientists have only a few minutes a day. In about a year and a half, they managed to fix three potentially dangerous asteroids on the rhinestone. These are 2021 LJ4, 2021 PH27 and 2022 AP7. The diameter of the first two is 0.3-0.4 km and 1 km, respectively.
Our hero is the largest asteroid inthe last eight years, which crosses the orbit of our planet. Its diameter is 1.5 km. At the same time, scientists' calculations show that any space object larger than 1 km is a planet killer.
Even though 2022 AP7 is inclose proximity to the Earth, it was discovered only in January 2022. This is due to the fact that he was hiding behind the Sun. Fortunately for all mankind, the asteroid has an elongated orbit with the farthest point in the orbit of Jupiter, and the period of revolution around the Sun lasts for five years. Scientists do not yet see a direct threat to the Earth in 2022 AP7, but they fear that other dangerous celestial bodies may be hiding behind the Sun.