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Space: Earth has new, probably temporary, mini-moon

Introversion

Introversion

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The object measures about 6 feet to 11 feet across, and its orbit suggests that it entered Earth's orbit around three years ago.

NBC said:
A visiting mini-moon is circling Earth, according to astronomers who discovered the cosmic squatter in our planet's orbit.

The tiny asteroid, dubbed 2020 CD3, was spotted by astronomers in Tucson, Arizona, on Feb. 15.

"BIG NEWS," Kacper Wierzchos, a researcher with the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab, tweeted Tuesday. "Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3. On the night of Feb. 15, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne and I found a 20th magnitude object."

Wierzchos said that the object measures about 6 feet to 11 feet across and that its orbit suggests that it entered Earth's orbit around three years ago.

He added that the discovery is a "big deal" because, out of roughly 1 million known space rocks, this is "just the second asteroid known to orbit Earth (after 2006 RH120, which was also discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey)."

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Enlightened

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YouTubers of the future may land on one of these and perform stupid human tricks on it for subscribers.

Orbits, gravitational pull.... Space physics are interesting.
 
MaeZe

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Gravity is fascinating:
The last asteroid to get caught in Earth's orbit was 2006 RH120. The space rock, which orbits the sun and passes close to Earth every few decades, was captured by the planet's gravity in June 2006 and stayed until around September 2007, before it swung back out into the solar system.
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Glad to hear there's more than the option of it crashing into Earth.
 

Anne_B

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That's about the size of a Ford Anglia, isn't it?
 
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