Scientists have found a new satellite of the Earth – asteroid 2016 HO3 – RIA Novosti

10:57 16.06.2016

(updated: 16:55 16.06.2016 )

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MOSCOW, June 16 – RIA Novosti Astronomers have discovered a new quasi-satellite of the Earth -. asteroid 2016 HO3, which has become a temporary companion of our planet about a hundred years ago, and will circle around a few hundred years, according to the jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA.

“Since 2016 HO3 circling around our planet and never moving away from it as the Earth’s rotation around the sun, it can be called a quasi-satellite of the Earth. Another asteroid – 2003 YN107 – moved by a similar rate of about ten years ago, but he had long since left our district. The new satellite of the Earth is much more stable, and our calculations show that it is accompanied by the planet over a hundred years and will do so even centuries, “- said Paul Chodas (Paul Chodas) of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena (USA).

Chodas and his colleagues opened a “new moon” Earth observing near-Earth space with the help of Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. at the end of April this year they managed to find a small asteroid with a diameter of one hundred meters, which proved to be quasi-satellite of the Earth.

The asteroid 2016 HO3 – is not the first object, which in the past became a companion of the Earth As the scientists explain, the gravity of the planet can “capture” soorbitalnye asteroids, after which they begin to delineate the giant spiral around the Earth, turning into a “quasi-satellite. “.

Astronomers know four of these celestial bodies, which becomes a temporary” moons “: this asteroid 2003 YN107, 2004 GU9, 2001 GO2 and 2002 AA29 All of them are regularly close to the Earth, but these objects. Unlike 2016 HO3, spent in the company of the Earth moment in astronomical terms -. years and tens of years

according to calculations Chodas and his colleagues in 2016 HO3 periodically “overtakes” the planet is closer to the Sun than she then goes into the Earth’s shadow. In addition, it periodically rises “up” and “down” with respect to the ecliptic (the Earth’s orbit around the Sun), changing its position after each turn around the world.

2016 HO3, as well as the so-called “Trojan asteroid “2010 TK7, a kind of herald of the Earth, suffering from” terrafobii “- he never comes close to our planet closer than 38 the distance from the Earth to the Moon. On the other hand, according to Chodas, he never moves away from her for more than a hundred distance between our planet and its main companion.

Now Chodas and his colleagues carried out additional monitoring of this quasi-moon, trying to specify its dimensions and calculate other important parameters – weight HO3 2016, its density and chemical composition, which is necessary for an accurate prediction of future asteroid

.