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We love the moon cause it’s close to us.
we love the… quasi-orbital satellite?
Hey guys Julia here for DNews.
Seriously the moon is awesome, it has phases and makes the tides come and go, plus it’s
just so freaking pretty.
I wouldn’t mind another one hanging out in the sky.
The more the merrier right?
Wait, what that’s you say?
We have another moon?
Well not so fast, we actually have a quasi-orbital satellite called 3753 Cruithne (croo-ee-nya).
Named for the early Celtic people in the British Isles.
It’s not technically a moon since it’s not in orbit around Earth.
Just like us, it orbits the Sun.
It’s in orbital resonance with us, which is when two or more bodies get stuck in a
gravitational dance with one another.
The Earth and Cruithne are at about 1 to 1 ratio, so our orbits are really similar.
At times it looks like we’re playing cat and mouse with each other.
Except Cruithne’s path follows what’s called a “horseshoe orbit”.
To the sun it looks like a typical elliptical orbit, But to us on Earth, Cruithne orbit
looks kind of bean shaped.
Wondering why you haven’t seen it before?
Well… its small.
it’s only 5 kilometers wide, while the moon is 3,476 kilometres.
plus its kind of far away, it gets closest to earth at 30 times the distance to the moon,
which is a pretty big distance.
So Cruithne can’t be seen with the naked eye, it takes at least a 12.5-inch telescope
to be seen.
But Cruithne isn’t the only sort of moon we have.
A couple other planets, like Jupiter have what are called Trojan objects, and in 2010
we found our very own.
Trojan objects are natural satellites that share an orbit with a larger body at what
are called Lagrangian points.
These areas follow 60 degrees ahead of or behind the bigger body, at a gravitationally
stable spot, like an island in space.
Our Trojan is named 2010 TK7 and orbits the Sun at Earth’s L4 Lagrange point.
At 300 meters across it’s just a little guy, although still not exactly a moon since
it doesn’t orbit around the Earth.
And then there’s 2006 RH120 - a miniature teeny tiny moon only a few metres wide.
The Catalina Sky Survey of Arizona found it in 2006.
It seems Earth snagged it out of solar orbit for about 11 months and by June 2007, it was
gone.
We miss you 2006 RH120, it felt like we barely knew you.
*sniffle*
But don’t get too sad, we have another object, well a bit of space debris really, orbiting
us right now!
B44E is also tiny, at just a few metres across.
B44E orbits Earth about 2 to 3 times the distance of the Moon.
It’s pretty similar to J002E3, which researchers think might be a piece of the Apollo 12 Saturn
V rocket.
So B44E it might also be something left over from humans going into space.
So for now second moons remain in the realm of science fiction, but they’re still pretty
fun to think about.
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Alright guys, how much would you love another moon?
Let us know in the comments below and while you’re at it, hit those like and subscribe
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