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Earth gets new companion for trip around sun

Waspie_Dwarf

By Waspie_Dwarf
in Space: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Waspie_Dwarf Eternal

Waspie_Dwarf

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Earth gets a new companion for trip around sun

Add one to the entourage. A newly discovered asteroid called 2014 OL339 is the latest quasi-satellite of Earth – a space rock that orbits the sun but is close enough to Earth to look like a companion.

The asteroid has been hanging out near Earth for about 775 years and it will move on about 165 years from now, say Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, who have just described it.

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Waspie_Dwarf
Waspie_Dwarf

Earth gets a new companion for trip around sun

Grandpa Greenman
Grandpa Greenman

That is just going to throw all the Pagans into a tizzy.

McNessy
McNessy

Again another misleading title. This asteroid is sharing the earths orbit around the sun. Its not orbiting the earth as our moon does. So technically how can it be considered a satellite of the earths

j4k3 Novice

j4k3

Posted
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"entourage" aha. Weird that it took as long as it did to discover this seeing they have been 'hanging out' for 775 years now. Just shows how big the Solar System really is.

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Waspie_Dwarf Eternal

Waspie_Dwarf

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Weird that it took as long as it did to discover this seeing they have been 'hanging out' for 775 years now.

Not that weird.

For most of that 775 years we didn't have the ability to see it. It is only in the last few years that systematic searches for small, near Earth objects have begun. As this asteroid is at best 100m in diameter it is not at all surprising that it has gone unseen.

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j4k3 Novice

j4k3

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Oh wow, must of not had my coffee yet.. 100m is meters here in the USA.. Do you mean miles? Miles makes alot more sense than meters. :P Lol don't mind me, new here.. don't know much about asteroids. Just figured that it would have been found sooner seeing that it's orbiting the sun, and we are spotting out Earth-Like Planets light-years and light-years away.

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Waspie_Dwarf Eternal

Waspie_Dwarf

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Oh wow, must of not had my coffee yet.. 100m is meters here in the USA.. Do you mean miles?

No, I meant exactly what I said, 100 metres.

Edited to add:

An object a 100 miles across would be very large by asteroid standards and would certainly not have gone unseen for centuries.

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf
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j4k3 Novice

j4k3

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No, I meant exactly what I said, 100 metres (we can spell metres in Europe too).

sorry, for confusing what ya said dude! I was simply asking. I'm no good when it comes to converting meters and KM to miles. 100m is equal to a little over half a mile. I guess 100m is definitely not small. Just did some research up on it "A typical impact of a 50m object releases about 10 megatons of TNT, and that of a 100m object releases about 75 megatons of TNT - One of these is equivalent to a thermonuclear explosion and they can cause devastation over thousands of square kilometers"

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keithisco Sagacious

keithisco

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sorry, for confusing what ya said dude! I was simply asking. I'm no good when it comes to converting meters and KM to miles. 100m is equal to a little over half a mile. I guess 100m is definitely not small. Just did some research up on it "A typical impact of a 50m object releases about 10 megatons of TNT, and that of a 100m object releases about 75 megatons of TNT - One of these is equivalent to a thermonuclear explosion and they can cause devastation over thousands of square kilometers"

No... 1000 m is just over half a mile, this object is one tenth of that size

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j4k3 Novice

j4k3

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No... 1000 m is just over half a mile, this object is one tenth of that size

Wow it's time for me to touch up on some of my Gen. Eds. Lmfao, i read ''.06'' as over half a mile.. I'm officially brain dead. That's what you get for staying up all night i guess. haha

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pallidin Immortal

pallidin

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It's Ok, we are all entitled to our mistakes.

God knows I've made enough of them.

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Junior Chubb Enlightened

Junior Chubb

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Is this what the Americans are keeping their Nukes for? ;)

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Harte Transcendent

Harte

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We never actually landed there, you know.

Harte

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Junior Chubb Enlightened

Junior Chubb

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We never actually landed there, you know.

Harte

The moon or the asteroid? :whistle:

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Hawken Transcendent

Hawken

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Will it's orbit decay and eventually impact the earth?

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Junior Chubb Enlightened

Junior Chubb

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Will it's orbit decay and eventually impact the earth?

Its not orbiting the Earth, its orbiting the Sun, not sure whether a decaying orbit would bring it closer to us or further away...

I'm sure someone will chime in with the facts. :)

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Grandpa Greenman Transcendent

Grandpa Greenman

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That is just going to throw all the Pagans into a tizzy. :passifier: ;)

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Hawken Transcendent

Hawken

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Its not orbiting the Earth, its orbiting the Sun, not sure whether a decaying orbit would bring it closer to us or further away...

I'm sure someone will chime in with the facts. :)

My bad. I thought it was in orbit around the earth like the moon. Now we won't have to call upon the Space Cowboys. :w00t:

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Junior Chubb Enlightened

Junior Chubb

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Now we won't have to call upon the Space Cowboys. :w00t:

Really...?

Some people call me the Space cowboy, nobodies ever called me the gangster of love.... :whistle:

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Parsec Experienced

Parsec

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Really...?

Some people call me the Space cowboy, nobodies ever called me the gangster of love.... :whistle:

Aren't you Maurice?

Very interesting find, althought reading the article I don't understand how far this asteroid is from us.

Could it be a good candidate for a space tour? A nearby space body, probably coming from the farther side of the solar system and made of different rocks than Earth and the Moon.

It should be relatively easy to reach too.

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DieChecker Celestial

+DieChecker

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Does this mean that the Earth hasn't cleared it's orbital path? If so, then is Earth demoted to a Dwarf Planet? Ha Ha Ha! :innocent::w00t:

More explicitly, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines a dwarf planet as a celestial body in direct orbit of the Sun[1] that is massive enough for its shape to be controlled by gravity, but that unlike a planet has not cleared its orbit of other objects.[2][3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwarf_planet

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Waspie_Dwarf Eternal

Waspie_Dwarf

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Does this mean that the Earth hasn't cleared it's orbital path? If so, then is Earth demoted to a Dwarf Planet? Ha Ha Ha! :innocent::w00t:

Nope.

By that criterion there are no planets in the solar system.

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qxcontinuum Illuminated

qxcontinuum

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Maybe it is an alien observation outpost ... It's gotta be aliens

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McNessy Neophyte

McNessy

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Again another misleading title. This asteroid is sharing the earths orbit around the sun. Its not orbiting the earth as our moon does. So technically how can it be considered a satellite of the earths.

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Noteverythingisaconspiracy Sagacious

+Noteverythingisaconspiracy

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Again another misleading title. This asteroid is sharing the earths orbit around the sun. Its not orbiting the earth as our moon does. So technically how can it be considered a satellite of the earths.

It is only misleading if you don't actually read it.

The title says companion and quasi satellite, which is exactly what it is, so what is wrong with that ?

That you don't know what a quasi satellite is, isn't the OP's fault.

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Stubbly_Dooright Sagacious

Stubbly_Dooright

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I thought I was feeling a bit moody lately! :tu:

Kidding a side, makes me wonder if we could see it visually at all. Somewhere it had the title, Earth gets new moon, and yet it really is orbiting the sun. Anyways, I always figured there is so much orbiting the sun, I'm not surprised it's there.

Ok, something made me do this. Some inner force:

We're surrounded by mini moons?

http://fantasyanime.com/sailormoon/smchar_minimoon20.jpg

We in trouble! ;)

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