A “planet killer” asteroid that is hiding in the glare of the sun has finally been detected, and the giant space rock could smash into Earth one day.

The 0.9-mile-wide (1.5 kilometers) “potentially hazardous” asteroid, named 2022 AP7, is one of several large space rocks that astronomers recently discovered  near the orbits of Earth and Venus. 

Currently, 2022 AP7 crosses Earth’s orbit while our planet is on the opposite side of the sun, but scientists say that over thousands of years, the asteroid and Earth will slowly start to cross the same point closer together, thereby increasing the odds of a catastrophic impact. The asteroid, discovered alongside two other near-Earth asteroids using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, was described in a study published Sept. 29 in The Astronomical Journal.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-killer-asteroid-found-by-sun