Called the asteroid 2023DZ2 follows an orbit synchronized with that of Jupiter and there is no real danger of a collision with Earth in the short and medium term, according to an international scientific team.

This celestial body was discovered by the telescope in February this year Isaac Newton on the island of La Palma (Spain). It measures about 40 meters and its orbit crosses that of our planet.

The object is affected by an unusual resonance with Jupiter and “despite the fact that Earth’s orbit intersects that of the asteroid, there is no real danger of a collision in the short and medium term“, reports the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), according to a new study published in Astronomy and astrophysics.

The results also show that the object is extremely solid and rotates about ten times an hour. According to the scientific team, the composition is most likely metallic. In the event that an object of this type were to collide with Earth, most of it would reach the surface of our planet and not disintegrate as it passed through the atmosphere.

“Having this information is important in the context of preventing and reducing its destructive effects on the natural environment,” emphasizes Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and co-author of the article. “Cosmic impacts, collisions of asteroids or comets with Earth, are one of the few natural disasters that can be predicted with great precision if enough data is available.“, Add.

To carry out the research, various observation techniques (spectroscopy and photometry), machine learning algorithms (machine learning) and artificial intelligence to identify new objects in the images obtained with the telescope, as well as numerical simulations to investigate their dynamic evolution. (JO)