Overview
- Carnegie Science astronomer Scott S. Sheppard first observed 2025 SC79 on September 27 using the Dark Energy Camera on the NSF’s Blanco 4-meter telescope.
- The asteroid is estimated to be about 700 meters in diameter, making it a large object of interest for planetary defense studies.
- 2025 SC79 follows an orbit interior to Venus, crosses Mercury’s path, and circles the Sun every 128 days.
- Follow-up observations by the NSF’s Gemini telescope and Carnegie’s Magellan telescopes confirmed the discovery and refined its trajectory.
- The object has moved behind the Sun and will be unobservable for several months, underscoring the value of targeted twilight searches partially funded by NASA.