Scientists Discover New Class of Easily Captured Asteroids: 12 Objects for Study

NASA recently announced that it plans to capture an asteroid and tow it into orbit for further study. Now, researchers have identified a new class of asteroids that could help with that. They've discovered asteroids that might be easily captured, giving both NASA and asteroid mining companies a new target for their endeavors.

Identifying asteroids that would be the best targets for missions is hugely important. Scientists can conserve resources by finding asteroids that are not difficult to access. In order to help with this, researchers searched through the current database of around 9,000 near-Earth objects. They looked for asteroids that could be maneuvered into an accessible orbit by changing their velocity by less than 500 meters per second.

Accessible orbit is around the L1 or L2 Lagrangian points. At this point, the gravitational force of the Earth and sun balance exactly. These points are about half a million miles or so from Earth.

So how many of these asteroids exist? It turns out that only 12 meet this criteria. Known as "Easily Retrievable Objects" or EROs, these asteroids could help scientists pinpoint targets for study in the future. In fact, these asteroids could be brought back to Earth's orbit or nearby in only three to 7.5 years, according to The Verge.

One of the most likely asteroids for study is one that has a diameter between six and 22 feet. Known as 2006 RH120, this particular asteroid could be moved into orbit around L2 by changing its velocity by just 58 meters per second. In fact, this could be done with a single burn and would take just five years for it to reach its destination, according to MIT Technology Review.

While this category of asteroids could be extremely useful, there are some concerns. After all, there is the potential for one of these asteroids to fall out of orbit and crash into Earth. That said, these objects do hold the potential for a wide variety of studies which could allow scientists to learn a lot more about our solar system.

The new category of asteroids is described in the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.