Nearly invisible asteroids around Venus could threaten Earth — but don't worry, not for a while

A hidden population of asteroids sharing Venus' orbit could threaten Earth in a few thousand years, and we might not even see them coming without better telescopes.

These so-called Venus co-orbital asteroids are currently undetected because of their alignment in the sky but could one day drift into Earth’s path, at least according to simulations combining analytical models and long-term orbital integration.

"Our study shows that there’s a population of potentially dangerous asteroids that we can’t detect with current telescopes," Valerio Carruba, first author and professor at São Paulo State University (UNESP), said in a statement.

Unlike asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, these objects orbit the sun near Venus in a one-to-one resonance, completing one solar circuit in