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posted by janrinok on Tuesday January 21 2020, @08:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the waiting-for-evenball-asteroids dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Astronomers have found nearly 1 million asteroids in our Solar System, with the vast majority located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

It is far rarer to find asteroids with orbits closer to the Sun, and especially inside the orbit of Earth, due to Jupiter's gravitational influence. There are only about 20 known asteroids with orbits entirely inside that of Earth's. They are called Atira[*] asteroids.

Many of these Atira asteroids have orbits that are substantially tilted away from the plane of the Solar System, suggesting past encounters with Mercury or Venus.

Until now, scientists have theorized that Vatira asteroids might exist—those with orbits inside Venus—but had yet to find one. They would be difficult to observe because their orbits would bring them close to the Sun, leaving only a short window to find them in the dusk or dawn sky. And also because presumably they are quite rare due to the gravitational challenge of squeezing into a stable orbit so near the Sun.

But now astronomers have found a Vatira asteroid for the first time. The body, called 2020 AV2, was found earlier this month by the California Institute of Technology's Zwicky Transient Facility, and confirmed by other observatories around the world.

Wikipedia entry on Atira asteroids.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 21 2020, @10:57PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday January 21 2020, @10:57PM (#946571)

    Oh, apologies to Earth, Wind and Fire fans.

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