The biggest Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) in eight years has been discovered hiding in the sun’s glare.

It’s estimated at 1.5km wide – nearly a mile – a size that astronomers class as “planet killers” due to the damage they can cause.

The rock is believed to be in the top 5% of largest-known PHAs.

Called 2022 AP7, it’s one of several newly discovered asteroids found orbiting near Earth and Venus.

The asteroid crosses the Earth’s own orbit, but there’s no need to panic for now: experts say any possible collision probably wouldn’t happen for a few thousand years.

The asteroids were detected using the Cerro Tololo observatory in Chile and detailed in a study in the Astronomical Journal.

“So far we have found two large near-Earth asteroids that are about 1km across, a size that we call planet killers,” said Scott S Sheppard from the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Read more: Sky News