News Planetary Science

For the first time, an asteroid has been found nearer to the sun than Venus

The space rock probably reached its orbit after a series of close encounters with rocky planets

Asteroid 2020 AV2

Asteroid 2020 AV2 (arrow), found orbiting closer to the sun than Venus, appears as a white dot in this image from a telescope in Italy that is part of the Virtual Telescope Project.

Gianluca Masi/The Virtual Telescope Project

By Christopher Crockett

- More than 2 years ago

For the first time, an asteroid has been found orbiting closer to the sun than Venus — a neighborhood where asteroids are thought to be rare and tricky to find.