Abu Dhabi Astronomer Discovers Asteroid UY56 Six Times the Size of Burj Khalifa

An astronomer based in Abu Dhabi has discovered a giant asteroid that is thought to be between 5 to 10km in size – that is six times the height of the mighty Burj Khalifa! Largest I’ve ever seen, the asteroid for now known as ‘2022 UY56’ is not a threat to our planet.

Mr Mohammad Shawkat Odeh who is the director of the International Astronomical Centre in Abu Dhabi, identified the comet when using the Pan-STARRS 2 telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii. The discovering certificate for the asteroid has been put into detail but it lacks acknowledgement and a permanent name by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) due to a lack of further observations to make accurate orbital determinations.

The given celestial body is sited in the asteroid belt which is located between the red planet known as Mars and the big planet called Jupiter and this area of space is the home to most of the asteroid. Mr. Odeh said that though the asteroid is small and not much is known about it now, preliminary computations indicate that the body could be between 5 and 10 kilometers in diameter.

The space rock traces a rather elliptical path around the Sun in a single orbit taking four years to and crosses the Sun at an average distance of 375 million kilometers. Despite the fact that the object was photographed since 2006, until the moment when these photographs were taken by Mr. Odeh, no one declared this asteroid.

Khadijah Ahmad from the Dubai Astronomy Group agreed that such a discovery could motivate other persons in the UAE pursue space exploration projects and asteroid searches. The advancements in AI have helped in the tracking of asteroids but the human eye is still an important tool.

It turns out that the UAE’s interest in asteroids is still evolving, and the country has the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) planned for 2028. The endeavour, backed by the $1 billion UAE Space Fund, will include a 13-year mission whose goal is to further the country’s knowledge of how and why asteroids formed.