Meet 2021 PH27, the Fastest Asteroid Found in the Solar System

The fastest-moving asteroid named 2021 PH27 was discovered back in August 2021. An American astronomer, Scott Sheppard, found it utilizing Dark Energy Camera (DEC), a multi-purpose instrument that can capture images of objects in the cosmos at multiple frequencies.

This new-discovered asteroid circles around the sun every 113 earth days, and it is the quickest orbital period of any astronomical objects after Mercury, which takes 88 days to complete a lap around the sun.

The characteristics of 2021 PH27 Asteroid

Sheppard and his team estimated the asteroid is 1 km in size, with an absolute brightness scale of 17.73, reflecting 15 percent of the light it gets from the sun. Despite its size, this asteroid is not in the category of a Potential Hazardous Object/PHO because its Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance/MOID, when measured from the earth, is much higher than MOID for PHO.

The space rock might have started off in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, before being pushed inside by gravitational interactions with one or more planets.

The temperature of 2021 PH27 asteroid reaches 500 degrees Celsius when it comes near the sun. Due to its capacity to approach the closest point to the sun, 2021 PH27 has the biggest general relativity effect of any other space objects.

As a result of such effect, Sheppard’s team discovered a slight shake in the elliptical orbit of 2021 PH27. The team stated that if the asteroid is not expelled off its path by a gravitational interaction, it will crash the sun, Mercury, or Venus in a few million years.

In addition to having a shorter orbital period than Mercury, the 2021 PH27 orbit is also more elliptical. It is nearly 3,5 times more elliptical than Mercury’s orbit.

Image credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/DOE/DECam/AURA/S.S. Sheppard (Carnegie Institution of Science)

The status of 2021 PH27 Asteroid

According to Andi Pangerang, a researcher at Indonesia’s Institute of Aeronautics and Space, 2021 PH27 would pass safely close to the earth on May 20, 2024, May 8, 2025, April 28, 2026, and May 1, 2031, with the closest distance of 37 million kilometers.

The information was provided based on data from NASA regarding the astronomical database of small objects in the solar system, or SBDB (Small Body Database). This asteroid will also pass close to Venus in 2022 on March 7 and October 26, June 7, 2023, and January 18, 2024, according to the data.

The orbital path of this asteroid is 32 degrees inclined relative to the plane of the solar system.

As reported by space.com, “Such a high inclination suggests it might instead be an extinct comet that was born in the far outer solar system, then captured into a closer orbit after passing by Mars, Earth or another rocky planet.”

To answer this enigma, Sheppard and the other astronomers need to do more observations, which means they have to wait for a few months longer to obtain more data. This second-fastest asteroid is currently moving behind the sun from our viewpoint and will not reappear until early 2022.