Asteroids That Could Destroy Earth Hiding In Jupiter’s Shadow, Study Warns

A new study conducted by an astronomer revealed that Jupiter could be harboring dangerous asteroids that could hit Earth. If the orbits of these asteroids change, they could end up on a collision course with the planet.

Jupiter is known as the largest planet in the Solar System. As such, the planet has a strong gravitational force that attracts various cosmic objects such as asteroids and comets into its orbit. Due to its massive size, many of the asteroids that orbit around and near Jupiter are often hidden behind the planet’s shadow.

Currently, these asteroids are on steady orbits near Jupiter. Some of them orbit the planet while the others follow the massive planet as it travels around the Sun.

However, according to a study conducted by Kenta Oshima of the Astronomical University of Japan, there’s a chance that the orbital path of these asteroids might change. Once this happens, the asteroids could end up on a collision course with Earth.

“We point out that populations of undetected potentially hazardous asteroids of high eccentricity and inclination may reside in Jupiter’s vertically unstable quasi-satellite orbits, which can intersect the orbits of the terrestrial planets, including Earth by reducing their inclinations down to near zero via vertical instability,” Oshima wrote in the abstract of the study, which was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

So far, Oshima has identified one particular asteroid that could veer away from Jupiter and hit Earth. The asteroid, known as 2004 AE9, currently orbits about 1.5 astronomical units or roughly 139 million miles within Jupiter’s path.

As the asteroid completes its orbit, it occasionally flies near other large cosmic objects such as Mars. The gravitational interaction between Mars and 2004 AE9 could eventually alter the latter’s path, causing the shape of its orbit to change.

Scientist Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid, who was not part of the study, said that the gravitational effect of Mars or any large object on 2004 AE9 could increase the asteroid’s chances of causing an impact event on Earth.

“Objects originally moving in highly inclined but nearly circular orbits have a low probability of impact,” he told Space.com. “If they become unstable and inclination is traded for eccentricity, the path may become planet-crossing with a low inclination, which translates into a higher probability of impact.”