Earth |s to obtain a Quasi-moon

Earth will soon have a new moon,
*wonders if bush might...as a result appoint bruce willis his chief advisor*

ok, lame joke, i admit..just had to post it *dodges*

right then, new moon,

Earth has acquired a "quasi-moon" - an asteroid that will encircle our planet for the next couple of years while it orbits the sun on a horseshoe-shaped path, according to a report to be published on Saturday in New Scientist.


*sigh* yes, the link (sorry)

newsfromrussia.com...


[Edited on 26-3-2004 by Cyrus]

Ant link? It's not that I don't beleive you, just that I would like to see a full article about it. Looks really cool!

I read about that several months ago. I think that I actually read it here. This actually isn't a huge event, although an interesting one. Especially the orbit, that part I found to be wild!

The Earth, however, has many of these pseudo-moons orbiting it for a while then leaving on their merry way either to burn up in the atmosphere, take a long journey through deep space, start orbiting the sun, or just take a nose dive into big old Mr. Sun. Unfortunatelly, they're all so small you can't see them with your naked eye, and I don't believe you can see any of them with a home telescope. If you can, someone give me a name and some positions or a website so I could program my telescope to track one of them buggers!

EDIT: Hang on, I'll find a more legitimate source than Pravda. When I was told about it I didn't believe it until I went to some more reputable astronomy sites.

EDIT #2: Here we go, Space.com is legit, in my experience:

www.space.com...

[Edited on 3-26-2004 by junglejake]

[Edited on 3-26-2004 by junglejake]

junglejake,
i shall try to find and track this pseudo-moon, (however...this really is nothing, there already is enough junk in the earth's orbit as it is).
Cyrus

very intersting, i hadn't heard of this before. you're right though, junglejake... stuff is orbiting the earth at all times. and no, you can't see them naked eye (until they burn up in the atmosphere, that is!). you can't evens ee the asteroids naked eye, the only way to do this is to catch one occult a star or planet... that is to eclipse it, basically.

The International Occultation Timing Association

Gee thats interesting....


I wonder if we could stick some instruments on one and let it go along for the ride into the big unknown. Sort of like a parasite on an elephant...

Originally posted by Netchicken
Gee thats interesting....


I wonder if we could stick some instruments on one and let it go along for the ride into the big unknown. Sort of like a parasite on an elephant...

The exit trajectory of Galilao (SP?) was higher then what an asteroid would be because we sent it with such a trajectory as to use the Earth, Sun, and Jupiter as slingshots to catapult it into space as quickly as it could go. It would be more time efficient to just send out a satelite.

Also, there would be a LOT more involved in landing something on the asteroid and then securing instruments and shielding on the asteroid so it would withstand a trek through space. Not that it wouldn't be cool to see where it goes, what it does, and what it sees, just impractical.

there are certain ways of getting around that, something on the lines of drilling a nice big hole right into the center...and then

lol
no.

more like, simply attaching things that could well stay on-board the asteroid long enough to reach outerspace...even if they were dislodged there would still be enough velocity to keep the objects going for several hundred years.
(note: space is not "empty", to every centimeter of "space" you are likely to find a few atoms of hydrogen, helium...etc..)

I didn't bother clicking the link because I'm lazy, but www.newscientist.com... says it was a quasi-moon since 1996 and will go until 2006. Does this have anything to do with the stupid weather we've been having since maybe '96? In Illinois we haven't really had a "normal" summer or winter for so long, maybe this is nature's excuse? I don't know what I'm talking about, but ... moon, tides, oceans evaporating... blaaaaaa... weather experts prove my half-baked theory wrong, please.