Sun hiding ‘invisible asteroid threat’ as scientists warn Earth risks ‘collision’ with ‘highly chaotic’ Venus space rock

A FIELD of at least 20 asteroids has been found lurking near Venus, having previously been hidden by the Sun’s glare, experts have revealed.

The belt of asteroids is currently co-orbiting Venus, swinging around Earth’s closest planetary neighbour with differing proximities to our planet.

Scientists from Brazil have warned that there could be more asteroids hiding near Venus, and that they may even pose a risk to Earth.

“Twenty co-orbital asteroids of Venus are currently known,” the authors wrote in their studypublished in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

“Co-orbital status protects these asteroids from close approaches to Venus, but it does not protect them from encountering Earth.”

Asteroids are considered potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA) if they have a diameter of at least 140 metres and come within 0.05 astronomical units of Earth’s orbit, according to experts.

“We aim to assess the possible threat that the yet undetected population of Venus co-orbiters may pose to Earth, and to investigate their detectability from Earth and space observatories,” the authors wrote.

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Only one of the 20 known asteroids has an orbital eccentricity below 0.38 – with 0 being a perfectly circular orbit and 1 meaning an elliptical or oval-shaped orbit.

This means some asteroids with wider orbits will be easier to spot, but those with minor orbital eccentricities may be difficult to detect.

However, Venus asteroids with an orbital eccentricity higher than 0.38 could “pose a collisional hazard to Earth,” the researchers warned.

Co-orbital asteroids – ones that share an orbit with their nearby planet – are also known for having unpredictable orbits.

This makes it harder to figure out how dangerous they are.

“The co-orbital asteroids of Venus are highly chaotic, with Lyapunov times of the order of 150 years,” the authors explained.

The Lyapunov time refers to how long an object’s orbit takes to become unpredictable because of chaotic dynamics.

So scientists have no idea how the orbit of an asteroid will evolve over the next 150 years, and if it could collide with Earth in the future.

It’s unclear how big the Venus asteroids are.

But even a relatively small asteroid of 150 meters in diameter could strike Earth with a force equal to hundreds of megatons of TNT, Universe Today reported.

For context, that is thousands of times more potent than the atomic bombs dropped in World War 2.

The researchers said that more research is required to determine just how many asteroids are hiding near Venus.

But since they are only observable periodically due to the Sun’s glare, research from Earth’s perspective might be difficult – even with powerful telescopes.

The researchers suggest, therefore, that the best way to learn more about these hidden asteroids is to get a closer look.

“Observations conducted from Venus’ orbit, positioned facing away from the Sun, may enhance the detection of these bodies,” the researchers explained.

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