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Its official this time: Earth has a Second Natural Satellite
Wiki says: [wikipedia.org]
Claims of the existence of other moons of Earth—that is, of one or more natural satellites other than the Moon that orbit Earth—have existed for some time. Several candidates have been proposed, but none have been confirmed.
That changed today. CNN is reporting [cnn.com] that Earth has has another satellite in an unusual parallel orbit of the sun as well as a polar orbit of Earth.
A small asteroid has been found circling Earth as the two objects orbit the sun together.
Scientists say it looks like the asteroid -- called 2016 HO3 -- has been out there for about 50 years and isn't going away anytime soon.
"Our calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth's companion for centuries to come," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies.
The CNN story links to NASA-JPL's site [nasa.gov] where there is a cool video animating the complex orbit.
"Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
