Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said Asteroid 2016 HO3 “never ventures very far away”. Its orbit is also tilted a little, causing it to bob up and then down once each year through Earth’s orbital plane.
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This small asteroid has an orbit very similar to Earth’s path around the sun that it stays as a our constant companion and astronomically, is our second moon, as discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii, designated as 2016 HO3 on April 27, 2016. The size of 2016 HO3 asteroid has not yet been confirmed but it is likely to be larger than 120 feet and smaller than 300 feet.
NASA’s armageddon spotting program is called Asteroid Watch, and it monitors and tracks potentially unsafe near approaches of asteroids and comets.
Asteroid 2016 HO3 is considerably more attached to Earth and has been orbiting our planet for over a hundred years already.
NASA recently discovered the asteroid, 2016 HO3, and named it a quasi-satellite.
The asteroid’s orbit also undergoes a slow, back-and-forth twist over multiple decades.
Another near-Earth object that has been considered as a quasi-orbital satellite of Earth is 3753 Cruithne, discovered in 1997, according to a report by Discover Magazine.
Scientists say that its orbit never gets close to around 38 times the distance of the moon, while its farthest point is around 100 times the distance of the moon.
The chances of Asteroid 2016 HO3 colliding with another body are minimal as well as the satellite is far too small. It’s yearly orbit keeps it closer to the sun about half the time, but the other half of the time is hurtles through space keeping pace with us. Along with the moon, which has been around since the earth was formed and unlikely to leave us anytime soon, we have had a number of other asteroids join us on our merry journey. After initially being dismissed as space debris or the remnants of a previous rocket booster, it was later confirmed as an asteroid circling earth.
The new “moon” is a small asteroid that has been orbiting us for some time and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, according to boffins at Nasa.
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NASA’s plan, which depends heavily on prime contractor Boeing to implement it, aims to gradually build up proficiency in “deep space” missions beyond low earth orbit, or even geosynchronous transfer orbit around the Earth.
