A miniature planet — with a 600,000 year long orbit — will soon make its closest path to Earth since the days of the caveman.
The space rock 2014 UN271 has already careened into the inner solar system and will reach its closest point to Earth in 2031, according to New Atlas.
The celestial body is too large to be a comet and too small to be classified as a planet, according to the outlet, which characterizes 2014 UN271 as “extremely eccentric.”
The object is already closer to the sun than Neptune, and in a decade the space rock will be about the same distance as Saturn, according to the report.
This object was found as part of a full search of the six years of DES data for trans-Neptunian objects. This is my second processing of the data, the first used the first four years of DES (t.co/an7Dd5kFEN) and found 316 objects. This full search found over 800 objects
— Dr. Pedro Bernardinelli (@phbernardinelli) June 20, 2021
We are currently finishing a paper that fully describes this search and presents the full catalog, including UN271. This will take 1-3 months to become public due to internal review inside DES.
— Dr. Pedro Bernardinelli (@phbernardinelli) June 20, 2021
h/t Digital mix guy