Mile-wide planet-killer asteroid spotted hiding in the glare of the sun

A PLANET-killer asteroid has been spotted hiding in the glare of the sun.

The mile-wide space rock is the largest hazardous asteroid detected in eight years.

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But it could only be seen during ten-minute windows of twilight.

It was one of three near-Earth asteroids discovered in the inner solar system by a team of astronomers based at an observatory in Chile.

The largest, called 2022 AP7, has an orbit that may one day send it crashing into Earth.

The others, called 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27, have orbits that are considered to be no threat.

Scott S. Sheppard, an astronomer at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the lead author of the paper describing this work, explains: “Our twilight survey is scouring the area within the orbits of Earth and Venus for asteroids.

“So far we have found two large near-Earth asteroids that are about one kilometre across, a size that we call planet killers.

“There are likely only a few NEAs with similar sizes left to find, and these large undiscovered asteroids likely have orbits that keep them interior to the orbits of Earth and Venus most of the time.

“Only about 25 asteroids with orbits completely within Earth’s orbit have been discovered to date because of the difficulty of observing near the glare of the Sun.”