What is an asteroid?

An asteroid is a minor planet or space rock that orbits around the Sun in a flat ring called the asteroid belt.

Recently, astronomers have found a new asteroid orbiting around the Sun. They have named it 2021PH27.  This newly-found asteroid finishes its orbit around the Sun in 113 days and comes within 20 million kilometres of our Sun.  This is the shortest-ever time that an asteroid takes to go around the Sun in our solar system.

The new asteroid 2021PH27 gets so close to the Sun that it reaches the temperature of 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, this asteroid is likely made of some metal like iron.

Atira asteroids

Moreover, the newly-found asteroid is one of about 20 Atira asteroids. Atira asteroids are asteroids whose orbits are entirely confined within Earth’s orbit. This means, their orbit has an aphelion (farthest point from the Sun) smaller than Earth’s perihelion (nearest point to the Sun). They are also known as interior-Earth objects (IEO).

Dr Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science identified the new asteroid. Another astronomer, David Tholen, also measured its position and predicted the position where it could be observed next time.

 

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