Fastest orbiting asteroid

found in our solar system

By: Dante Salatino
What is an asteroid?

• Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit

the Sun.
• They are minor planets of the inner Solar
System.
• Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets,
they are much smaller than planets.
• In our Solar System, most asteroids reside in
the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars
and Jupiter.
What is a dark energy
camera

• A dark energy camera is a camera that

observes hundreds of millions of galaxies.
• This is done for research and to discover all
sorts of new things outside our planet.
• The Dark Energy Survey records images
using five filters. Each filter images the sky
in a different color of light. 
What happened?

• The fastest orbiting asteroid in our

Solar System was discovered.
• It gets very close to the sun, much
closer than Earth, or even closer
than Mercury
• The name given to this asteroid is
2021 PH27
2021 PH-27

• The asteroid completes an orbit

around the sun every 113 days
• It is the shortest known orbital
period for an asteroid and only the
second shortest orbit around the
sun after Mercury.
• It comes within 12.4 million miles
(20 million kilometers) of the sun.
2021 PH-27

• The asteroid is 0.6 miles (1

kilometer) in size
• Gets so close to the Sun that its
surface can reach temperatures of
482 degrees Celsius, hot enough
to melt lead
• It has an unstable orbit that crosses
the orbits of Mercury and Venus as
they make their way around the
sun.
How was it
discovered
• Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for
Science, discovered the asteroid.
• Twilight observations made by Brown University astronomers
• Twilight is the illumination of the lower atmosphere when the
Sun is not directly visible because it is below the horizon
• Best hour to look at stars and asteroids
How was it
discovered
• Scott Sheppard took a look at the images and found the
asteroid.
• Later other telescopes took a look and more discoveries about
it where made.
• Was found on a telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American
Observatory in Chile.
• Found August 13, but released to press August 23
Why was it
discovered?

• Actually, it was pure coincidence!

• The observations made by Brown University
were only being made to keep track of other
interstellar entities
• Scott Sheppard was lucky to find the asteroid
while looking at the images from those
observations.
Questions you might have
• Where did the asteroid come from?
• Can it hit Earth?
• Why is this discovery important?
Where did the asteroid come from?
• It is still unknown where did the asteroid come from
• It's likely that the asteroid became dislodged from the main asteroid belt located between Mars and
Jupiter
• Sheppard hasn't ruled out the possibility that 2021 PH27 is actually an extinct comet.
Can it hit Earth?
• It can’t hit Earth, but it can hit other planets.
• It could, in the future, hit Mercury or Venus due to the orbit of the asteroid.
• No major event should happen if this occurs since the asteroid is quite small in size.
Why is this discovery important?
• It is important because it is a very rare discovery
• It is only one of about 20 Atira asteroids, which are those asteroids that are completely interior to
Earth's orbit of the sun.
• There are very few asteroids of that size in the inner solar system that are unknown.
Significance
• It is important because understanding the population of
asteroids interior to Earth’s orbit is important to have better
understanding of asteroids near Earth, including some of the
most likely Earth impactors that may approach in the future to
stop them from hitting our planet.
Sources

• https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/24/world/asteroid-shortest-orbit-sun-scn/index.html
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2021/08/23/mercury-is-no-longer-the-closest-
world-to-the-sun-scientists-just-discovered-the-suns-new-nearest-neighbor/?sh=52a9f5803ee2
• https://weather.com/en-IN/india/space/news/2021-08-24-scientists-discover-the-fastest-
orbiting-asteroid-our-solar-system
• https://www.darkenergysurvey.org/the-des-project/instrument/the-camera/
• https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/asteroid/en/
• https://www.newscientist.com/article/2287725-astronomers-have-just-found-more-than-half-a-
million-new-asteroids/
Thank you for
your attention