Match made in heaven: Earth finds new companion as giant asteroid joins its path around the sun

I never now ther wher more???


But this asteroid orbits the sun in a highly unusual horseshoe pattern
Earth has found a new companion that has joined its orbit around the sun, scientists have revealed.
It may not have the most romantic of names, but Asteroid 2010 SO16 could pursue Earth for anywhere between the next 120,000 to a million years.
And at a few hundred metres across, it is the largest space rock ever discovered so close to earth.

More: www.dailymail.co.uk...

If it was found in September 2010 why is that we only hear about it now?.

I've heard people saying that Phobos was on it's way to Earth. I didn't know how they'd know that or why they said it, but could this be Phobos?

Originally posted by YoungMind92
If it was found in September 2010 why is that we only hear about it now?.

When it was first found, we didn't know the orbit:

Asteroid 2010 S016

Dr. Asher said:

Not knowing precisely the location of a newly-discovered NEA is quite common. The only way to eliminate the uncertainty is to keep tracking the asteroid for as long as possible, usually months or years.

That site also has an animation of the orbit, but I really don't understand it so if anyone can explain it please do. First, look at the animation:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/eef68c15bc6c.gif[/atsimg]

It shows the rock almost catching up with the Earth, then being flung around "backwards".

Now I could understand this better if it actually caught up to the Earth, went a little past it, then I could see perfectly how the Earth's gravity might fling it around backwards just as shown in the animation. But I'm not really seeing how the interaction works if it never catches up with the Earth. I read several articles, but none really explain it too well, so if anyone can clarify that, I'd appreciate it.

It seems like it turns around and does a near 180 degree turn to go in the opposite direction, but I don't see what's pulling on it in the opposite direction to make it do that.

Could it possibly be the Anunnaki on their Nibiru spaceship? Stopping by to do a little resupplying then off again? Might their actually be something to all these rumours? I don't know, but time will tell. With more of these reports saying something is coming it does make you wonder.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by YoungMind92
If it was found in September 2010 why is that we only hear about it now?.

When it was first found, we didn't know the orbit:

Asteroid 2010 S016

Dr. Asher said:

Not knowing precisely the location of a newly-discovered NEA is quite common. The only way to eliminate the uncertainty is to keep tracking the asteroid for as long as possible, usually months or years.

That site also has an animation of the orbit, but I really don't understand it so if anyone can explain it please do. First, look at the animation:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/eef68c15bc6c.gif[/atsimg]

It shows the rock almost catching up with the Earth, then being flung around "backwards".

Now I could understand this better if it actually caught up to the Earth, went a little past it, then I could see perfectly how the Earth's gravity might fling it around backwards just as shown in the animation. But I'm not really seeing how the interaction works if it never catches up with the Earth. I read several articles, but none really explain it too well, so if anyone can clarify that, I'd appreciate it.

It seems like it turns around and does a near 180 degree turn to go in the opposite direction, but I don't see what's pulling on it in the opposite direction to make it do that.

edit on 7-4-2011 by Arbitrageur because: clarification

As i understood it, from what was presented in these two articles;
Astronomers Find Newly Discovered Asteroid is Earth's Companion
Earth-Companion Asteroid Discovered in Horseshoe-Shaped Orbit
It does not actually have a horseshoe orbit...
It fully orbits the sun along nearly the same orbit as earth, as seen in the illustration you provided, as it approaches earth it gets slightly caught up in earths gravitational pull, which draws it further out from the sun, slowing its orbit down, and eventually the earth pulls away from it only to encounter it again (about 350 years down the road). At which point the asteroid is again pulled by the earth into a closer orbit than before, in essence speeding the object up and "seemingly" propelling it forward away from earth again.

It only has a horseshoe orbit when observed from earth.

It's strange how it fly's , what influence make it backwards before it come to the earth? There are some strange things going on out there???? You almost think it's aliën?? But then again, up and down, again and again???

Originally posted by RadicalRebel
It only has a horseshoe orbit when observed from earth.

So it doesn't really have a horseshoe orbit from outside Earth's perspective, that makes a lot more sense.

Thanks for the explanation!

They really shouldn't have used that illustration with respect to the sun, must be an editors 'artistic license' to make a point. They should have drawn their 'horseshoe' from the perspective of the earth's sky view. They purposely illustrated confusion especially showing it changing directions.

I fully understood the object orbit from the text, and then got confused looking at how they illustrated it. (An illustronic, they are not).

reply to post by Illustronic
Yeah I think that's part of what confused me, the illustration shows a view from above the ecliptic showing a horseshoe and you won't see it from that perspective, it's misleading art. If they at least had the Earth moving around the sun in that animation it would have been more realistic, but it would be a busy animation seeing as it spans maybe 60 years or more.

wow that looks like a diagram of the womb kinda
one big universal movie of the "birds and bees"?
sun in the middle..blah blah blah
sheez I gotta get off this subject
its driving me nuts or playing
tricks on my eyes I think

Originally posted by Illustronic
They really shouldn't have used that illustration with respect to the sun, must be an editors 'artistic license' to make a point.

That's the same illustration as in the research paper. It looks odd because it's plotted in the ecliptic coordinate system.

reply to post by nataylor


They could have stated somewhere in the text about the object's inclination from the equatorial plane and that was what they were illustrating with their 'backwards' directional turn, when in fact they were showing it's above and below the plane while talking about a closer and further faster and slower orbit. I just find their text to be confusing as well now.

This simple illustration does more to explain what they glossed over. (illustration NOT of this object)




But this JPL illustration puts it all into perspective.


ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...


I suppose it would be clearer to me if I studied such things professionally.

Originally posted by Illustronic
But this JPL illustration puts it all into perspective.
ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...

Star for that animation!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a thousand frame animation with a thousand pictures is worth a million words.

That's the best description of the orbit, the JPL animation!

Thanks!!

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Yeah, but you know people here don't trust NASA, so grounded in our ignorance, feeding our lack of knowledge with Photoshopped images from the moon, while hiding the truth from us poor laymen. *wink*