Does Earth have a second moon? Celestial software image of Earth with two moons,. Celestial software image of Earth with two moons,. Mars has two moons, Jupiter has 66, Saturn 62, Uranus 27, Neptune 13. But our planet Earth has just one moon. Doesn’t it? : Many planets in our solar system have more than one moon. Mars has two moons, Jupiter has 66, Saturn 62, Uranus 27, Neptune 13. Those numbers keep changing, and you can see a relatively current count of solar system moons here from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But our planet Earth has just one moon. Doesn’t it? Moons are defined as Earth’s natural satellites. They orbit around the Earth. And, in fact, although Earth sometimes has more than one moon, some objects you might have heard called Earth’s second moon aren’t, really. Let’s talk about some non-moons first. Image of Earth with two moons, generated in Celestia software, by Grebenkov in Wikimedia Commons. 3753 Cruithne in 2001. Astronomer Duncan Waldron discovered this faint asteroid on October 10, 1986, on a photographic plate taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. Image via Sonia Keys via Wikimedia Commons. The orbits around the sun of Cruithne and Earth over the course of a year (from September 2007 to August 2008). More information about this animation here. Quasi-satellites are not second moons for Earth. A quasi-satellite is an object in a co-orbital configuration with Earth (or another planet). Scientists would say there is a 1:1 orbital resonance between Earth and this object. In other words, a quasi-satellite is orbiting the sun, just as Earth is. Its orbit around the sun takes exactly the same time as Earth’s orbit, but the shape of the orbit is slightly different. The most famous quasi-satellite in our time – and an object you might have heard called a second moon for Earth – is 3753 Cruithne. This object is five kilometers – about three miles – wide. Notice it has an asteroid name. That’s because it is an asteroid orbiting our sun, one of several thousand asteroids whose orbits cross Earth’s orbit. Astronomers discovered Cruithne in 1986, but it wasn’t until 1997 that they figured out its complex orbit. It’s not a second moon for Earth; it doesn’t orbit Earth. But Cruithne is co-orbiting the sun with Earth. Like all quasi-satellites, Cruithne orbits the sun once for every orbit of Earth. As seen from Earth Cruithne has what is known as a horseshoe orbit. In other words, viewed from Earth, it appears to orbit a point beside Earth. More information about horseshoe orbits here. Earth’s gravity affects Cruithne, in such a way that Earth and this asteroid return every year to nearly the same place in orbit relative to each other. However, Cruithne won’t collide with Earth, because its orbit is very inclined with respect to ours. It moves in and out of the plane of the ecliptic, or plane of Earth’s orbit around the sun. Orbits like that of Cruithne aren’t stable. Computer models indicate that Cruithne will spend only another 5,000 years or so in its current orbit. That’s a blink on the long timescale of our solar system. The asteroid might then move into true orbit around Earth for a time, at which time it would be a second moon – but not for long. Astronomers estimate that, after 3,000 years orbiting Earth, Cruithne would escape back into orbit around the sun. By the way, Cruithne isn’t the only quasi-satellite in a 1:1 resonance orbit with Earth. The objects 2010 SO16 and (277810) 2006 FV35, among others, are also considered quasi-satellites to Earth. These objects are not second moons for Earth, although sometimes you might hear people mistakenly say they are. Does Earth ever have more than one moon? Surprisingly (or not), the answer is yes. Read the history of the search for Earth’s second moon here. my p
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 04:54:35 +0000
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