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tech / alt.astronomy / Newly Discovered Space Rock Loops The Sun Quicker Than Any Known Asteroid

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Newly Discovered Space Rock Loops The Sun Quicker Than Any Known Asteroid

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From: a425cou...@hotmail.com (a425couple)
Newsgroups: alt.astronomy,alt.books.arthur-clarke
Subject: Newly Discovered Space Rock Loops The Sun Quicker Than Any Known
Asteroid
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2021 10:13:17 -0700
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https://www.sciencealert.com/newly-discovered-space-rock-has-the-shortest-asteroid-year-in-the-solar-system

Newly Discovered Space Rock Loops The Sun Quicker Than Any Known Asteroid
MICHELLE STARR24 AUGUST 2021

A newly discovered asteroid has the second-shortest orbit that we know
in the entire Solar System, pipped only by Mercury.

It's named 2021 PH27, and it takes just 113 days to complete a circuit
around the Sun, on an unstable elliptical orbit that crosses the orbital
paths of both Venus and Mercury.

This means that it comes extremely close to the Sun at its closest
approach, or perihelion, skimming close enough to reach scorching
temperatures up to 480 degrees Celsius (900 Fahrenheit).

It also means that the asteroid's time is limited: within a million
years, it will either be flung off its current trajectory, or it will be
annihilated in a collision with one of the two planets or the Sun.

Although its lifespan – at least in its current orbit – is short, at
least on cosmic timescales, 2021 PH27 and other inner Solar System
objects can reveal information about the evolution of our planetary system.

orbit
The orbital path of 2021 PH27. (Katherine Cain and Scott
Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science)

That is, if we can figure out where it came from.

"Most likely 2021 PH27 was dislodged from the Main Asteroid Belt between
Jupiter and Mars and the gravity of the inner planets shaped its orbit
into its current configuration," said astronomer Scott Sheppard of the
Carnegie Institution for Science.

"Although, based on its large angle of inclination of 32 degrees, it is
possible that 2021 PH27 is an extinct comet from the outer Solar System
that ventured too close to one of the planets as the path of its voyage
brought it into proximity with the inner Solar System."

Spotting asteroids inside Earth's orbit – known as Atira asteroids when
their orbits are entirely contained within Earth's – are usually very
hard to see, since they tend to be very close to the Sun in the sky.

This means that the best time for spotting them is just before sunrise,
or just after sunset – when the asteroid is illuminated by the Sun, but
not outshone by it.

This is how astronomers Ian Dell'Antonio and Shenming Fu of Brown
University imaged 2021 PH27, on 13 August 2021, using the National
Science Foundation's Blanco 4-meter telescope in Chile.

In their observations, taken just after sunset, Sheppard found the
asteroid. David Tholen of the University of Hawai'i, who frequently
collaborates with Sheppard, then used those images to calculate where
the asteroid would be the following evening.

"Because the object was already in the Sun's glare and moving more
toward it, it was imperative that we determine the object's orbit before
it was lost behind our central star," Tholen said.

"I surmised that for an asteroid this size to remain hidden for so long,
it must have an orbit that keeps it so near to the Sun that it is
difficult to detect from Earth's position."

discovery
That little moving dot is 2021 PH27. (Ian Dell'Antonio and Shenming
Fu/Brown University)

The data obtained over the following two nights allowed the researchers
to calculate a precise orbit and learn a few things about 2021 PH27.

We know, for instance, that its size is roughly 1 kilometer (0.62 miles)
across. We also know that, because it flies so close to the Sun, it
experiences very strongly the effects of its gravitational field as
described by General Relativity – in particular, the rotation of its
orbit, a phenomenon known as apsidal precession.

Prior to the discovery of 2021 PH27, Mercury had the strongest apsidal
precession in the Solar System; but, although Mercury's orbital period
is shorter – just 88 days – its orbit is much more round, which means it
doesn't approach anywhere nearly as close to the Sun as the asteroid.

2021 PH27 is about to swing around behind the Sun, which means we won't
be able to get another look at it until early next year. At that point,
the researchers hope to take more observations that will help refine its
orbit even further, which in turn will reveal more detail about where
the asteroid came from, and what its future might hold.

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