Overview

• A University of São Paulo study led by Valerio Carruba identifies 20 known co-orbital asteroids of Venus and suggests many more remain undetected.
• Several of these bodies qualify as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids and include one deemed capable of ‘city-killer’ impacts on Earth.
• Detection is hampered by fleeting ground-based observation windows and solar glare, with objects below eccentricity 0.38 posing the highest collision risk.
• Orbital simulations show a Lyapunov time of roughly 150 years, meaning their future trajectories become unpredictable beyond that span.
• Scientists propose deploying a space-based observatory near Venus to systematically chart these asteroids before the Vera Rubin Observatory begins full operations in July 2025.