A potentially dangerous space rock was discovered for the first time by an AI algorithm.
AI has just found its first potentially Earth-threatening space rock. (Image credit: ATLAS/University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy/NASA)
A new artificial intelligence algorithm programmed to hunt for potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroids has discovered its first space rock.
The roughly 600-foot-wide (180 meters) asteroid has received the designation 2022 SF289, and is expected to approach Earth to within 140,000 miles (225,000 kilometers).That distance is shorter than that between our planet and the moon, which are on average, 238,855 miles (384,400 km) apart. This is close enough to define the rock as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA), but that doesn’t mean it will impact Earth in the foreseeable future.
The HelioLinc3D program, which found the asteroid, has been developed to help the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction in Northern Chile, conduct its upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky by searching for space rocks in Earth’s near vicinity. As such, the algorithm could be vital in giving scientists the heads up about space rocks on a collision course with Earth.
“By demonstrating the real-world effectiveness of the software that Rubin will use to look for thousands of yet-unknown potentially hazardous asteroids, the discovery of 2022 SF289 makes us all safer,” Vera C. Rubin researcher Ari Heinze said in a statement.