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When he withdrew from Venus, NASA’s Mariner 10 spacecraft captured this view of Venus. | Credit: NASA
Astronomers are exploring a little-known and essentially unseen group of asteroids, which quietly orbits the sun along with Venus-and can be much more than we thought.
“It’s like a discovery on a continent that you didn’t know that it existed,” Space.com told Valer Carruba from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil, who led the analysis. “It is very likely that there are other asteroids that we do not notice today.”
These cosmic rocks, known as “venera coorbital asteroids”, are a special class of asteroids moving on the lock planet, sharing her orbit around the Sun. So far, only about 20 has been confirmed, but a new study conducted by Carruba and his colleagues show that he can hide even more.
Many of Venus coorbital asteroids are particularly difficult to detect from the ground. They look close to the sun in the sky, where the terrestrial telescopes have limited visibility. Even in ideal conditions, they can be followed by fast motion.
Only one of the famous Venus coorbital asteroids sequences almost a circular orbit; Others follow more extended roads that sometimes bring them closer to the ground, making them easier to detect. However, the Carruba team believes that this model can reflect the observation bias rather than the real makeup of the population.
“It’s impossible to say for sure,” he said, “but I suspect we will find hundreds of asteroids around Venus.”
To try this idea, the Carruba team carried out computer modeling by modeling hundreds of hypothetical venus coorbital asteroids orbits, predicting their knees for up to 36,000 years.
They found that many of these objects could remain gravitational with Venus orbit an average of about 12,000 years. It is noteworthy that objects orbits have appeared chaotic, which means that small shifts can direct them to different paths over time, including those who bring them closer to the Earth.
There is no reason at this time; None of the known asteroids are a threat and the period has been involved in many thousands of years.
“The likelihood that the earth is facing the Earth soon is very small,” Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Washington Carnegie Science Institute, told National Geogry. “It’s not too much to worry about here.”
In a study published earlier this year, the Carruba team analyzed the development of 20 famous Venus co -cororbital asteroids. Their modeling showed that three of these objects – each – between 1,000 and 1,300 feet (300 to 400 meters) – could eventually take about 46,500 miles (74,800 kilometers) from the Earth’s orbit. In some cases, this gradual transition to almost earth trajectories can take up to 12,000 years.
To observe such objects and understand how they are moving, it is very important to create a more detailed view of the closest space of the Earth, a new study says.
“We should be aware of these objects,” Carruba said. “They are very interesting dynamically – I think it would be a reason to continue learning them.”
Because Venus asteroids are so difficult to notice from the ground, the Carruba team has studied how it may be better for us from other points. Their modeling has shown that the spacecraft, which is closer to Venus, will have a much better opportunity to detect these fast -moving asteroids.
Related stories:
– Rubin Observatory found 2 104 asteroids in just a few days. Soon it could find more than a million
– Europe wants to descend on a small spacecraft on the infamous asteroid Apophis in 2029.
– Astronomers discover the largest comet from the outskirts of the solar system
The approaching Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which has just released its first images on June 23, could also help. Although it is not specifically designed to focus on the internal solar system, its special twilight tracking campaigns may be able to catch some of these hidden asteroids. In fact, the observatory has already identified 2104 new asteroids in its primary data sets.
The following in the future, the proposed mission concept, called Crown, could offer an even more targeted approach. The concept of the mission provides for the park of small spacecraft operating near Venus orbit specifically for asteroids to look for the internal solar system.
These efforts “can discover many of these objects if they exist,” Carruba said.
This study was published on ARXIV on May 21. And it was published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.