We Just Spotted an Asteroid That Could Destroy a Continent

Bright Side

A newly detected asteroid, known as 2025 SC79, has sparked global attention due to its massive size and potential impact risk. This so-called “twilight killer” asteroid is large enough to devastate an entire continent if it were to collide with Earth. Scientists track near-Earth objects using powerful telescopes, and thousands of asteroids pass close to our planet every year, though only a small percentage pose any real threat. In this video, we explore asteroid detection, impact scenarios, planetary defense systems, and what makes an asteroid truly dangerous. If you’re interested in space news, asteroid threats, NASA discoveries, and real science behind doomsday asteroids, this video covers everything you need to know.  Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/: Ymir-full: by Brett Gladman/Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ymir-full.gif asteroid 35107 1991 VH: by ESA - European Space Agency, https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/06/Flyeye_s_view_of_asteroid_35107_1991_VH, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flyeye_Telescope_view_of_asteroid_35107_1991_VH_acquired_on_20_May_2025_during_the_telescope%27s_%27first_light%27_campaign.gif Dark Energy: by DOE/FNAL/DECam/R. Hahn/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, https://noirlab.edu/public/images/11-0200-10Dhr-CC/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dark_Energy_Survey_(DES),_Dark_Energy_Camera_imager_and_CCDs_at_SiDet_(11-0200-10Dhr-CC).jpg Metal Asteroid: by Full Circle CS Inc., https://skfb.ly/YEuN CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/: Magellan-Telescopes: by Jan Skowron, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magellan-Telescopes-at-LCO-2014-04-19.jpg Gemini Observatory: by Mailseth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gemini_Observatory_at_sunset.jpg Asteroids: by NASA/JPL-Caltech, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asteroids-KnownNearEarthObjects-Animation-UpTo20180101.gif Asteroid-2017-YE5: by NASA/JPL-Caltech, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PIA22560-Asteroid-2017-YE5-Orbit-20180712.gif Pan-STARRS: by Pan-STARRS Observatory, https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2019/12/4315-Image, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pan-STARRS_Observatory_(2019-12-4315).jpg Asteroid Bennu: by NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona, https://www.asteroidmission.org/?attachment_id=7915, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OSIRIS-REx_First_Image_of_Asteroid_Bennu.gif Asteroid 2004 FH: by Stefano Sposetti, Raoul Behrend, Geneva Observatory, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asteroid_2004_FH.gif Asteroid Bennu: by NASA Goddard/OSIRIS-REx, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14772/ Lost World: by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14774/ NASAs Asteroid: by NASA, https://images.nasa.gov/details/JPL-20240801-NEOWISf-0001-NEOWISE%20Legacy%20of%20NASAs%20Asteroid%20Hunting%20Telescope Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00So, we just spotted an asteroid so massive, it could wipe out an entire continent if it ever hit Earth.

00:08And it's moving insanely fast, almost record speed.

00:12But what makes it really scary is how it's basically playing hide-and-seek with us.

00:18It can slip right into the sun's glare and vanish completely.

00:22And yeah, it just did it again. It disappeared.

00:25So, when we finally spot it again, will we have enough time to prepare?

00:31Or could it already be too late for humanity?

00:34Do I have your attention now? Ah, thanks.

00:38So, meet 2025 SC-79.

00:42That's a mouthful, so I'll just nickname it Scooby.

00:46This newly found asteroid is a sneaky one, the kind that loves hiding in the sun's glare.

00:52Think of it as trying to spot a firefly next to a stadium light.

00:56The brightness hits your eyes and outshines anything faint nearby.

01:01So, yeah, you won't see that firefly.

01:04Now, asteroids hide in the same frustrating way.

01:07When they end up close to the sun from our point of view on Earth,

01:11the glare overwhelms our telescopes.

01:13And the asteroid's dim, reflected light gets lost in it.

01:17That's why some asteroids can cruise along in the sun's direction and stay basically invisible to us.

01:24And scientists say the most dangerous asteroids,

01:27the ones that could wipe out a whole city, are the hardest to detect.

01:31That's why astronomers need to somehow dodge the sun's glare.

01:36One way they do it is by observing the sky during the short window of twilight.

01:41I mean, right before sunrise or just after sunset.

01:43And that timing is a big deal.

01:46Because it's the only way to catch some risky asteroid before it sneaks up on Earth.

01:52Scientists say that if one of these so-called twilight asteroids ever gets close to Earth,

01:57it could be a serious impact threat.

02:00And it was during one of these twilight observing sessions

02:03that scientists finally spotted this huge asteroid.

02:07It was September 27, 2025.

02:10Scott Shepard, an astronomer at a Washington-based institute,

02:14was scanning the sky, hunting for anything unusual in our solar system.

02:19And he had an incredible tool in his hands,

02:21the dark energy camera, ooh, or DECAM,

02:25one of the most powerful sky survey cameras on Earth,

02:28built to spot faint objects across huge areas of the universe.

02:32At one point, he spotted a faint dot moving across the image.

02:38So he quickly aimed the high-tech camera at it,

02:41and things got more interesting.

02:44Its movement matched what astronomers expect from asteroids

02:47that orbit very close to the sun.

02:50Then, follow-up observations with the Gemini and Magellan telescopes

02:54confirmed the discovery.

02:55Yes, this really was an asteroid.

02:59And there are two particularly curious things about it.

03:03First, it's fast.

03:05Like, really fast.

03:07In fact, it is the second-fastest-known asteroid orbit in the solar system.

03:12It loops around the sun once every 128 days.

03:16For comparison, Mercury, the closest planet to the sun,

03:19takes 88 days to go around once.

03:21Second, its orbit is super-rare.

03:26This is only the second-known object that stays completely inside Venus's orbit.

03:31That also puts it in one of the rarest asteroid groups out there,

03:35the Ateris.

03:36These are asteroids whose orbits sit entirely inside Earth's orbit.

03:41Astronomers have found only a few of them so far,

03:44and Scooby is the 39th one in the list.

03:47The team of scientists also figured out that this asteroid is pretty big,

03:52measuring about 2,300 feet across.

03:56That's roughly the size of Merdeka 118,

03:59the second-tallest building on Earth.

04:02If an asteroid this size ever slammed into Earth,

04:06it wouldn't just be bad.

04:07It would be catastrophic.

04:09We're talking about damage on a continental scale.

04:12It would blast a huge crater into the ground,

04:15then throw out a shockwave powerful enough to wipe out forests and wreck cities.

04:21Seismic waves would ripple through the crust,

04:23triggering widespread earthquakes around magnitude 7.4,

04:27and people could still feel them about 300 miles away from the strike.

04:32And that's not all.

04:33A brutal air pressure blast would race outward,

04:36shattering windows more than 1,000 miles away.

04:39Then comes the aftermath.

04:41Dust and debris from the impact could shoot up into the atmosphere,

04:47block some sunlight, and mess with our climate.

04:50I know, you might feel scared right now,

04:52but don't worry about it.

04:55Thankfully, Scooby isn't going to do anything like that,

04:58because it's not on a collision course with Earth.

05:01Right now, the math shows it won't be making any close passes by our planet,

05:06at least not anytime soon.

05:08Still, there's a lot more to learn about this asteroid.

05:11But any further studies will have to wait.

05:15For now, it has disappeared behind the Sun and is out of sight.

05:19Once it reappears, astronomers will take a closer look

05:22and try to learn more about what it's made of.

05:25That part really matters,

05:27because this asteroid is somehow holding up

05:29while orbiting so close to the Sun's brutal heat.

05:32You see, this asteroid gets very near to the Sun.

05:37At its closest point, this asteroid is blasted with almost six times Earth's sunlight.

05:43At that distance, its surface could heat up to about 440 degrees Fahrenheit.

05:47What scientists don't know yet is how a rock this big can get baked over and over again

05:54without falling apart.

05:56And there are two more things astronomers want to check once it comes back into view.

06:01How fast it spins and how bright it looks.

06:05Now, by bright, I mean how much sunlight it reflects.

06:08Because asteroids don't make their own sunlight.

06:12They're just big rocky chunks that shine by reflecting sunlight back at us.

06:17Anyway, those clues can tell scientists what Scooby is made of.

06:22One possibility is that this asteroid is loaded with dense metal.

06:26And that could explain how it survives the Sun's brutal heat.

06:29And if that turns out to be true,

06:32this asteroid could be a relic from when the solar system was just forming.

06:37Or maybe it slowly moved closer to the Sun,

06:40because the gravity of Venus and Mercury gently pulled on it again and again over millions of years.

06:47Now, even though SC-79 isn't a real danger to us,

06:51and there's still a lot we don't know about it,

06:53just finding it is already a big deal.

06:56It's a reminder that big asteroids can hide from us.

07:00So, even in our own cosmic backyard,

07:03there are still blind spots where large objects can stay hidden

07:06until the right moment of twilight gives them away.

07:10And as our detection tech gets better,

07:13we keep finding more and more asteroids.

07:16By now, scientists have spotted over a million in the solar system.

07:20They come in all sizes,

07:21from monsters like Vesta that measure about 329 miles wide,

07:27all the way down to rocks that are smaller than a house.

07:31Now, out of all the asteroids we know,

07:33about 40,000 are what we call near-Earth asteroids, or NIAs.

07:38That just means their orbits bring them close to our neighborhood.

07:42Technically, their closest point to the Sun

07:44is less than 1.3 times the Earth-Sun distance.

07:47That's close enough for planetary defense systems

07:50to keep a careful eye on them.

07:53And that's exactly why we can relax.

07:57I mean, nobody has to lose sleep

07:59imagining an asteroid slamming into our planet.

08:02Every time scientists discover a new asteroid

08:05that comes anywhere near Earth,

08:07they track it and run the numbers right away.

08:10And then they map out its path years,

08:12decades, or even centuries into the future.

08:15And they don't do it by guesswork.

08:18NASA's automated systems, like Sentry,

08:21constantly scan the asteroid catalog

08:23and calculate whether any of these objects

08:25has even a small chance of hitting Earth

08:28over the next 100 years.

08:30If something looks risky,

08:32it jumps to the top of the watch list

08:34and gets followed up fast.

08:37So yeah, there are almost 2,000 near-Earth asteroids

08:40that technically have some chance

08:43of hitting us in the next 100 years.

08:45But don't panic.

08:47Most are small and harmless.

08:49Hey, like me.

08:50And their odds of impact are usually way under 1%.

08:53See why I said we shouldn't stress too much?

08:57Cool.

08:58Now, sleep tight.

08:59That's it for today.

09:03So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

09:05then give the video a like

09:07and share it with your friends.

09:08Or if you want more,

09:09just click on these videos

09:10and stay on the bright side.

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