Experts say Venus is hiding some asteroids that could potentially be deadly should they impact Earth.
Venus currently has at least 20 co-orbital asteroids that have the potential to “approach the Earth,” according to a new study published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
The study from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, led by Valerio Carruba, said that some of these asteroids “can pose a collisional hazard to Earth.”
In fact, the study stated that a number of these asteroids are “capable of numerous close encounters—and perhaps collisions—with Earth.” One particular asteroid is even considered a potential “city-killer.”
Gravitational shifts and other factors could cause many of these space rocks to be propelled toward Earth, according to the researchers.
But the study said these potentially dangerous asteroids can be hard to spot, making it more difficult to predict how they could potentially interact with the Earth.
Additionally, the experts said, “there are still undetected asteroids in the inner Solar System with the potential to cause significant damage to Earth.”
“While surveys like those from the [Vera] Rubin Observatory may be able to detect some of these asteroids in the near future, we believe that only a dedicated observational campaign from a space-based mission near Venus could potentially map and discover all the still ‘invisible’ PHA [potentially hazardous asteroids] among Venus’ co-orbital asteroids,” the researchers said.
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The Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to begin full operations in July 2025, according to Daily Galaxy.
The observatory can help improve detection of these potentially-dangerous asteroids, but experts said the sun’s positioning will only offer limited windows of time to do so.
