Asteroid 2016 HO3 was first spotted on 27 April 2016, by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii, operated by the University of Hawaii.
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“This is pretty rare because it’s in an orbit that’s essentially the same as the Earth”, Chodas told the Monitor.
We can’t call it a second moon because it’s too distant and it doesn’t orbit Earth in the neat elliptical path the moon takes.
Preliminary estimates suggest the space rock has a size between 120 feet (36 meters) and 300 feet (91 meters).
“The asteroid’s loops around Earth drift a little ahead or behind from year to year, but when they drift too far forward or backward, Earth’s gravity is just strong enough to reverse the drift and hold onto the asteroid so that it never wanders farther away than about 100 times the distance of the moon”, said Chodas.
Move over, Moon – Earth has as new celestial companion.
Is an astronomical body with certain orbital configuration with the sun and a planet, in which the mass remains close to the planet during orbital intervals.
Technically speaking, this newly discovered asteroid, dubbed 2016 HO3, is in orbit around the sun. Having a tilted orbit, it also wobbles up and down the ecliptic.
In effect, this small asteroid is caught in a game of leap frog with Earth that will last for hundreds of years.
“It was a very interesting object because it appeared to be very close to the Earth but it appeared to be nearly possibly a satellite of the Earth of a quasi satellite of the Earth”, said Richard Wainscoat, an astronomer for the UH Institute of Astronomy.
The asteroid, which we’ve made a decision to call Rocky, is “engaged in a game of leap frog with the Earth that will last hundreds of years”. It spends the other half of its time further away which causes it to fall behind.
Astronomers say that it wobbles slightly, drifting up and down in Earth’s orbital plane, and that Earth’s pull makes the orbit contort over the decades, stopping it from drifting too near or too far.
‘The same effect also prevents the asteroid from approaching much closer than about 38 times the distance of the moon.
As we orbit the Sun, a little asteroid orbits us, scientists have discovered, in a dance that will go on for centuries.
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“It’s a potential mission target”, adds Chodas.
