Not only the Moon: it was announced yesterday that there are hundreds of satellites in Earth’s orbit
[ad_1]
Over the centuries of space exploration, scientists have discovered that the Moon is not the only satellite in the Solar System that orbits the Earth. In addition to it, there are asteroids and clusters of interplanetary dust in Earth’s orbit, according to LiveScience. When the Earth was formed, about 4.5 billion years ago, there was no moon in its orbit, scientists say. Its appearance is attributed to the big bang, when the Mars-sized protoplanet Theia collided with Earth, about 4.4 billion years ago. Photo: rfphoto/Depositphotos As a result of the explosion, pieces of the Earth’s crust were thrown into the air and, according to a 2022 study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, it was these rocky fragments that combined to form the Moon. What is known about other satellites? Scientists emphasize that it is almost impossible to name the exact number of satellites in Earth’s orbit. They are much smaller than the Moon and are called temporary, because they are not constantly in the Earth’s orbit. In 2006, for example, the asteroid 2006 RH120, up to 6 meters wide, orbited our planet. He stayed there for 18 months. In March 2020, asteroid CD3, up to 3.5 m in diameter, left Earth’s orbit. Before that, it had been there for three years. In the same year, scientists also spotted the so-called temporary mini-moon SO 2020, which returned to space in early 2021. Later, scientists investigated that SO 2020 was not a natural moon, it was the remains of a rocket booster from the 1960s. What else is in Earth’s orbit? In addition to satellites that periodically appear in the Earth’s orbit, there are space objects that NASA calls quasi-satellites. These space rocks revolve around the Sun in the same way as the Earth, so they stay close to our planet during its entire 365-day rotation period. For example, the quasi-moon of Kamoaleva moves under the influence of solar gravity. According to scientists, it rotates around the Earth on a trajectory similar to a corkscrew. Some space objects, such as asteroid 2010 TK7, are called satellites because they fall under the unique gravity of the Sun-Earth or Earth-Moon systems. According to NASA, the gravity of the two larger bodies creates regions of centripetal force, called Lagrange points, that hold the smaller objects in place at gravitationally stable points in space. Two Lagrange points – L4 and L5 – form an equilateral triangle with the Earth, and objects captured at these points fall into the same line with the Earth and join its orbit around the Sun. Photo: lexaarts/Depositphotos These triangles can also contain particles of interplanetary dust, also known as “ghost moons” or Kordylewski clouds, after the Polish astronomer who first described them in the 1960s. According to Gabor Horvath, an astronomer at Etves Lorand University in Hungary, such clouds would never form a more solid body like the Moon. We previously reported that in Texas, starting in June 2023, four volunteer astronauts will spend a year in a closed room that will resemble the conditions of Mars. Read also: Why flying to Mars is no longer a fantasy. A scientist from the Mars Society explains
[ad_2]
Original Source Link
