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EI2GYB > ASTRO 24.08.21 12:46l 72 Lines 4242 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Fastest-orbiting asteroid in solar system discovere
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Sent: 210824/1141Z @:EI2GYB.DGL.IRL.EURO #:13545 BPQK6.0.16
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Fastest-orbiting asteroid in solar system discovered
t takes asteroid 2021 PH27 just 113 Earth days to complete a lap around the sun.
newfound asteroid zips around the sun faster than any of its known kin.
The space rock, known as 2021 PH27, completes one lap around our star
very 113 Earth days, its discoverers determined. That's the shortest
rbital period of any known solar system object except the planet Mercury,
which takes just 88 days to loop around the sun.
However, 2021 PH27 travels on a much more elliptical path than Mercury
oes and therefore gets considerably closer to the sun â€ö about 12.4
illion miles (20 million kilometers) at closest approach, compared
o 29 million miles (47 million km) for the solar system's innermost planet.
uring those close solar passes, 2021 PH27's surface gets hot enough
o melt lead â€ö about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius),
he discovery team estimates. Those deep dips into the sun's gravity
ell also mean the asteroid experiences the largest general relativity
ffects of any known solar system object. Such effects manifest as a slight
wobble in 2021 PH27's elliptical orbit around the sun, which the team
as observed.
That orbit, by the way, is not stable over the long haul. 2021 PH27 will
ikely collide with the sun, Mercury or Venus a few million years
rom now, if it's not ejected from its current path by a gravitational
nteraction first, team members said.
2021 PH27 was first spotted on Aug. 13 by astronomers using the Dark
nergy Camera (DEC), a powerful multipurpose instrument mounted on the
Ãctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American
bservatory in Chile.
The team was able to pin down the asteroid's orbit over the next
ew days, thanks to further observations by the DEC and the Magellan
elescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, as well as smaller
copes in Chile and South Africa operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory.
The 2021 PH27 push postponed some scheduled observations with those
nstruments, but the reshuffling was worth it, team members said.
"Though telescope time for astronomers is very precious, the international
ature and love of the unknown make astronomers very willing to override
heir own science and observations to follow up new, interesting
iscoveries like this," discovery team leader Scott Sheppard, an
stronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington,
.C., said in a statement.
Sheppard and his colleagues estimate that 2021 PH27 is about
.6 miles (1 km) wide. The space rock may have originated in the
ain asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, then gotten kicked inward
y gravitational interactions with one or more planets, the researchers say.
However, 2021 PH27's orbital path is tilted by 32 degrees relative to
he plane of the solar system. Such a high inclination suggests it
ight instead be an extinct comet that was born in the far outer
solar system, then captured into a closer orbit after passing by
ars, Earth or another rocky planet.
Further observations could help resolve this mystery, but Sheppard
nd other astronomers will have to wait a few months to collect more data.
021 PH27 is now moving behind the sun from our point of view, and it
on't re-emerge until early 2022, discovery team members said.
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