As we know that space objects like asteroids could pose threat to earth, astronomers keep a close eye at these space rocks. About two years ago, astronomers found that some asteroids were missing from the observable universe.

Now, in a new study published in journal Nature, scientists have predicted that the missing asteroids must have disintegrated. There are many space rocks orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They continue to roam and stay visible when they are around planets, but when they come close the sun, they disappear. The new study has suggested that the missing asteroids must have destroyed when they appeared close to the sun.

The study was originally planned to map all near-earth space rocks and objects in the solar system. Near-earth objects, also known as NEOs, are space bodies like a comet or an asteroid hovering near our planet. Most of these asteroids belong to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. As per scientific reports, there are more than 1 million asteroids in the circumstellar disc of the solar system. Many of them are more than half a mile in diameter.

Most of the asteroids stay in their orbit for a long period of time, but a time comes when a gentle force of solar radiation pushed a space rock to leave it original place and other region’s gravity. When such events take place, an asteroid comes into our planet’s neighborhood.

For the study, the researchers collected data on about 9,000 near-earth objects and created a model. “The new model did a great job of matching the data in almost all areas of the solar system except for in the part closest to the sun”, said Robert Jedicke, a researcher from the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and an author of the study.