Earth’s most loyal stalker

Found this article today, thought it was interesting.

Faraway, so close: the Earth's most loyal stalker

Astronomers at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland believe that an asteroid that’s been trailing the Earth for a quarter of a million years may share some of our planet’s DNA. In a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Apostolos Christou and David Asher reveal the unusual orbit of 2010 SO16, an asteroid discovered in 2009 by the WISE satellite. 2010 SO16 orbits the sun at about the same distance as the Earth, almost sharing our planet’s orbit. But when it reaches the Earth, it does an abrupt about-face and goes back around the sun in the opposite direction, moving in a horseshoe pattern. Source: Armagh Observatory On the Observatory’s website, Christou described the asteroid as “terraphobic”: “It keeps well away from the Earth. So well, in fact, that it has likely been in this orbit for several hundred thousand years, never coming closer to our planet than 50 times the distance to the moon.” The asteroid takes 175 years to move from one end of the horseshoe to the other, and is currently at one of the ends, trailing closely behind the earth. At least three other known asteroids have a horseshoe-shaped orbital, but these are much younger and much smaller than 2010 SO16, and are expected to soon move off through the solar system to other orbits. 2010 SO16, however, has been in the same orbit for at least the last 250,000 years. Christou and Asher are hoping to learn more about the asteroid while it is still nearby. They postulate that it may be leftover material from the formation of the Earth, moon and other inner planets 4.5 billion years ago. Continued study could reveal some clues about our own planet’s past. Meanwhile, those wanting to get a glimpse of 2010 SO16 only need a medium-sized professional telescope to spot it. The astronomers say that the asteroid will remain as visible in the evening skies for years to come.

Paper
A long-lived horseshoe companion to the Earth

Cool but try search and you'll find it already been posted www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69


Bummer

I am always late to the party.

Thannks

Originally posted by Tygart
reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69

 

Bummer

I am always late to the party.

Thannks

edit on 9-4-2011 by Tygart because: (no reason given)

Better luck next time guy, I've seen your avatar in real life a few times lol they are scary but really cool, in the day time like that little one there they don't scare me but any of them at night and I get freaked

Originally posted by FarBeyondDriven69

Originally posted by Tygart
reply to post by FarBeyondDriven69

 

Bummer

I am always late to the party.

Thannks

edit on 9-4-2011 by Tygart because: (no reason given)

Better luck next time guy, I've seen your avatar in real life a few times lol they are scary but really cool, in the day time like that little one there they don't scare me but any of them at night and I get freaked

Thanks, it was a fun photo to take.