The two orbital planes intersect as a line. Although each of the orbits intersect that line in two points, they may not necessarily intersect the line at the same two points. The orbits do not necessarily cross paths, as they may have eccentricities that prevent this from happening. This is why 2022 AP7 is not an immediate danger to Earth, as Robert wrote: “2002 AP7 is the largest such potentially dangerous asteroid discovered in eight years. Its present orbit however never brings it closer to the Earth than 4.4 million miles, and it will be many thousands of years before that orbit might result in an impact. “

Any time that the asteroid come this close to Earth, its orbit (and its plane) would be affected about 1/300th as much as the Moon’s, and the Earth would be affected by the asteroid about 1 trillionth as much as the asteroid would be affected. It would take quite a few close passes before such an asteroid would pose an immediate danger. An impact from an asteroid of this size would cause severe damage to any civilization on Earth, and it is difficult to push around in order to prevent an impact.

Perhaps we can mine this asteroid and make it small enough to be less dangerous or easier to push around.

“As the orbital period of 2022 AP7 is near exactly 5 yr, it does have an orbit that currently aliases with Earth’s, keeping it well away from Earth when near opposition for now, meaning it would only be efficiently found in a twilight type survey as it would be near the Sun and brightest only when Earth is more on the other side of the Sun and its elongation very low”

The big one “aka planet killer” is actually mostly further from sun than Earth. It sounds like it’s hard to find because it’s orbit keeps it away from us in a near 5:1 resonance.

How can the two orbital planes not intersect twice per orbit?? I don’t see how two orbital planes around the same gravitational source can fail to interact if they are equidistant.

But.. and object in motion stays in motion, until acted upon by another force.

Who is to say a comet won’t come a long and throw a wrench into the works.
I seem to remember a sci-fi novel with that premise doing that in the Oort Cloud.

I feel we are safe.. but prudence says we should take steps to look, and watch.

Odds have it that we will not be hit anytime soon. But there is always that 1 in a billion chance. We are long over due for a good hit.

People hit the lottery every week.

Edward wrote, “The asteroids in the inner part of the Solar System are not Earth crossing asteroids, so they are not as dangerous.”

I do not agree, based on this very survey. AP7 was hard to find because its orbit puts it in the Sun’s glare when it is closer to Earth and brighter. Only when it is very faint and far away is it possible to see it, and for this reason it wasn’t seen until this survey looked.

Getting a survey telescope closer to the Sun to look out will find such asteroids, and do it more thoroughly.

The asteroids in the inner part of the Solar System are not Earth crossing asteroids, so they are not as dangerous. Although I agree that we need to complete this survey and find all the asteroids, the higher priority is to find those that are more dangerous. Not all Earth crossing asteroids cross the plane at Earth’s orbit, and those that don’t are not currently dangerous, either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Earth-crossing_asteroids

The ones we need to find soonest are the Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, and in searching for those we will find many, many others, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potentially_hazardous_object

Someday we may set up mines on some of these newly-found asteroids, as has been dreamed for the past decade or more (remember the movie Highlander?). Planetary Resources had wanted to mine asteroids before they went out of business.

Getting one to Mercury would be harder, and would need much more shielding, and thus mass.