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• A team of astronomers has discovered three massive near-Earth asteroids hiding in the glare of the Sun. Of these, one called 2022 AP7 is believed to be the largest planet killer-sized asteroid to be spotted in nearly a decade. It is “potentially hazardous” to Earth.

PHO

• A potentially hazardous object (PHO) is a near-Earth object – either an asteroid or a comet – with an orbit that can make close approaches to the Earth and is large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact.
• They are defined as having a minimum orbit intersection distance with Earth of less than 0.05 astronomical units (19.5 lunar distances) and an absolute magnitude of 22 or brighter.

What makes an asteroid potentially hazardous?

• NASA designates asteroids and comets that pass closer than 120 million miles of Earth as “Near-Earth Objects.” Within that group, the agency labels asteroids as “potentially hazardous” if they come within about 4.6 million of our planet and are roughly wider than 500 feet.
• As of June 2022 there are 2,270 known PHAs (about 8% of the total near-Earth population), of which 150 are estimated to be larger than one kilometer in diameter

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/planet-kill-asteroid-threat-to-earth-explained-8246385/

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