Astronomers Discover the Fastest-Orbiting Asteroid From Our Solar System

Whether we like it or not, our Solar System is a pretty active place. The eight planets and the dwarf planet Pluto are far from representing the only space objects that are present. Asteroid 2021 PH27 is one of those other objects, and it’s a pretty special one since it’s the fastest orbiting asteroid from our Solar System, as a new article from Space.com reveals.

2021 PH27 completes a full rotation around our star in only 113 Earth days. The asteroid gets “pretty intimate” with our Sun, as it’s located just about 20 million kilometers away from our star at its closest approach.

2021 PH27 is one hot piece

Considering its close distance to the Sun (roughly 7 times closer than Earth is to our star), you might have already guessed that the weather is pretty bad on the 2021 PH27 asteroid. The surface even reaches 500 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead.

Astronomers first found the 2021 PH27 asteroid on August 13 by using the Victor M. Blanco Telescope from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory from Chile. The space object is roughly 0.6 miles wide, and it may have originated in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter.

Scott Sheppard, leader of the team who activates as an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science from Washington D.C, declared:

Though telescope time for astronomers is very precious, the international nature and love of the unknown make astronomers very willing to override their own science and observations to follow up new, interesting discoveries like this.

Considering that the 2021 PH27 asteroid’s orbit is far from stable, the object is likely doomed to perish in the flames of the Sun or by colliding with Venus or Mercury in several million years. However, a gravitational interaction ejecting the asteroid from its current path could save it from annihilation.