A future view from Earth? Saturn's moons Rhea and Dione
as seen by the Cassini spacecraft

The discovery of mysterious tiny asteroids which constantly circle our planet.

Asteroids come and go so often we 'always' have a second moon
- Rather than launching missions to explore asteroids, we can simply wait for them to orbit Earth
  When astronomers caught sight of a mysterious titanium white object circling the Earth in 2006, they assumed it was a spent rocket. But it was actually a small asteroid captured by our gravitational field which rotated around the Earth until June 2007. And a new study published yesterday by astrophysicists at Cornell claims this little moon was not an anomaly - these asteroids come and go so often it means our planet always has a temporary second moon.
  Cornell University's Mikael Granvik, Jeremie Vaubaillon and Robert Jedicke say they have calculated the population of 'irregular natural satellites that are temporarily captured' by Earth.
  In a research paper the astronomers say that while these moons are small, the scientific implications of this discovery are phenomenal. 'At any given time, there should be at least one natural Earth satellite of one meter diameter orbiting the Earth,' the team say in their research paper 'The population of natural Earth satellites', published on the Cornell University website. Even at a few metres wide the asteroids qualify as a natural satellite just like our Moon. And although they are difficult to track, astronomers believe they could potentially save millions by waiting for them to orbit the earth, instead of launching missions into the solar system. Even though a fact-finding mission couldn't land on an asteroid only a few metres wide it could get close enough to collect information.

Posted in: Space,Universe

A future view from Earth? Saturn's moons Rhea and Dione
as seen by the Cassini spacecraft

The discovery of mysterious tiny asteroids which constantly circle our planet.

Asteroids come and go so often we 'always' have a second moon
- Rather than launching missions to explore asteroids, we can simply wait for them to orbit Earth
  When astronomers caught sight of a mysterious titanium white object circling the Earth in 2006, they assumed it was a spent rocket. But it was actually a small asteroid captured by our gravitational field which rotated around the Earth until June 2007. And a new study published yesterday by astrophysicists at Cornell claims this little moon was not an anomaly - these asteroids come and go so often it means our planet always has a temporary second moon.
  Cornell University's Mikael Granvik, Jeremie Vaubaillon and Robert Jedicke say they have calculated the population of 'irregular natural satellites that are temporarily captured' by Earth.
  In a research paper the astronomers say that while these moons are small, the scientific implications of this discovery are phenomenal. 'At any given time, there should be at least one natural Earth satellite of one meter diameter orbiting the Earth,' the team say in their research paper 'The population of natural Earth satellites', published on the Cornell University website. Even at a few metres wide the asteroids qualify as a natural satellite just like our Moon. And although they are difficult to track, astronomers believe they could potentially save millions by waiting for them to orbit the earth, instead of launching missions into the solar system. Even though a fact-finding mission couldn't land on an asteroid only a few metres wide it could get close enough to collect information.