The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Earth has a second moon - but only temporarily

2020-02-27T14:15:19.861Z


A second moon has been orbiting the earth for some time, researchers have discovered. However, the little asteroid will soon say goodbye again.


A second moon has been orbiting the earth for some time, researchers have discovered. However, the little asteroid will soon say goodbye again.

  • The earth is currently orbiting a second small moon
  • The small asteroid 2020 CD3 was captured by Earth's gravity some time ago
  • The mini moon will probably soon be out of orbit again

Earth has a moon that orbits the blue planet once in a little over 27 days - at least that's what people thought so far. Now astronomers who are working on the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) project have discovered a second, significantly smaller celestial body that also orbits the Earth - and has been for some time. As calculations of the orbit of the small celestial body show, the small moon has been orbiting the earth for about three years.

On February 15, 2020, researchers located in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, discovered the little moon . It is now called 2020 CD3 . "No connection to a known artificial object was found," says the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is why it is most likely a small asteroid.

BIG NEWS (thread 1/3). Earth has a new temporarily captured object / Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3. On the night of Feb. 15, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne and I found a 20th magnitude object. Here are the discovery images. pic.twitter.com/zLkXyGAkZl

- Kacper Wierzchos (@WierzchosKacper) February 26, 2020

"Mini-Moon" 2020 CD3: Asteroid was captured by the Earth's gravity

This asteroid was “caught” by gravity as it passed Earth and has been orbiting it since then as a second, small, and temporary moon . According to the researchers, the small celestial body has a diameter of approximately 1.9 to 3.5 meters. This makes it significantly smaller than our "actual" moon, which has a diameter of almost 3,500 kilometers.

The Mini-Moon 2020 CD3 takes 47 days to go around the earth once. It orbits the blue planet in a wide oval and is usually outside the orbit of the big moon. Because the orbit of the mini moon 2020 CD3 is not stable, it will not orbit the earth forever. On the contrary: "It is currently moving away from the Earth-Moon system," quotes "New Scientist" Grigori Fedorets from Queen's University in Belfast. The mini moon may already be leaving Earth in April 2020.

Here's an animated GIF of our new mini-moon 2020 CD3, discovered by @WierzchosKacper. Rotating frame keeps the Earth / Sun line stationary. Orbital elements courtesy of IUA MPEC. https://t.co/dok3jn3G9hhttps://t.co/x1DXWLq2vm pic.twitter.com/O3eRaOIYjB

- Tony Dunn (@ tony873004) February 26, 2020

Asteroid 2020 CD3 is not the first small moon on earth

It is not the first time that the earth's gravity temporarily captures a small celestial body: The small asteroid 2006 RH120 orbited the earth from September 2006 to June 2007 as a temporary moon , before it could free itself from its gravity and left it again. The asteroid called 2016 HO3 or 469219 Kamoʻoalewa also orbits the earth *. However, it is significantly further away than the moon and never comes closer to Earth than 14 million kilometers. Since it is still held by the gravity of the earth, it is considered a kind of "quasi-satellite" of the earth, which it has been orbiting for more than a hundred years.

Planets with multiple moons are common in the solar system

The fact that a planet in our solar system has only one moon is rather unusual. While Mercury and Venus have no satellites and Earth has only one moon *, all other planets have several moons that orbit:

  • Mars: 2 moons
  • Jupiter: 79 moons
  • Saturn: 82 moons
  • Uranus: 27 moons
  • Neptune: 14 moons

By Tanja Banner

The moon landing
It was the greatest journey of the millennium: In July 1969, people made their way to the moon for the first time. The FR * multimedia web special tells the story of the Apollo 11 mission, its breakdowns and problems - and that of the men and women who knew how to solve them.

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital central editorial office.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2020-02-27

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-09T12:05:47.950Z
News/Politics 2024-03-17T15:56:23.800Z
News/Politics 2024-02-24T19:13:15.630Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.