Discovery observations of 2021 PH27 from 13 August 2021 (annotated)

The fastest orbital period asteroid in the Solar System has been discovered at NOIRLab’s CTIO using the powerful 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) in Chile — the Sun’s new nearest neighbor.

The asteroid was imaged inside Mercury’s orbit and has been colored red and blue to show the two different times where it was imaged on the discovery night of 13 August 2021 — just three minutes apart.