What is the natural satellite of the earth. How many natural satellites does the earth have? Hypothetical natural satellites of the Earth
Natural satellites are relatively small cosmic bodies that revolve around larger "host" planets. In part, a whole science is devoted to them - planetology.
In the 70s, astronomers assumed that Mercury had several celestial bodies dependent on it, as they caught ultraviolet radiation around it. Later it turned out that the light belonged to a distant star.
Modern equipment makes it possible to study the planet closest to the Sun in more detail. Today, all planetary scientists unanimously repeat that it has no satellites.
Moons of the planet Venus
Venus is called similar to the Earth, since they have the same compositions. But if we talk about natural space objects, then the planet named after the goddess of love is close to Mercury. These two planets of the solar system are unique in that they are completely alone.
Astrologers believe that Venus could have previously observed such, but to date, not a single one has been found.
How many natural satellites does the earth have?
Our native earth many satellites, but only one natural one, which every person knows from infancy, is the Moon.
The size of the Moon exceeds a quarter of the diameter of the Earth and is 3475 km. It is the only celestial body with such large dimensions relative to the "owner".
Surprisingly, its mass is small at the same time - 7.35 × 10²²² kg, which indicates a low density. Multiple craters on the surface are visible from Earth even without any special devices.
What are the moons of Mars?
Mars is a rather small planet, which is sometimes called red because of its scarlet hue. It is given by iron oxide, which is part of it. Today, Mars boasts two natural celestial objects.
Both moons, Deimos and Phobos, were discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877. They are the smallest and darkest objects in our comic system.
Deimos is translated as the ancient Greek god, sowing panic and horror. Based on observations, it is gradually moving away from Mars. Phobos, named after the god who brings fear and chaos, is the only satellite that is so close to the "owner" (at a distance of 6000 km).
The surfaces of Phobos and Deimos are abundantly covered with craters, dust and various loose rocks.
Moons of Jupiter
To date, the giant Jupiter has 67 satellites - more than any other planet. The largest of them are considered an achievement Galileo Galilei, since they were discovered by him in 1610.
Among the celestial bodies orbiting Jupiter, it is worth noting:
- Adrastea, with a diameter of 250 × 147 × 129 km and a mass of ~3.7 × 1016 kg;
- Metis - dimensions 60 × 40 × 35 km, weight ~ 2 1015 kg;
- Thebe, which has a scale of 116×99×85 and a mass of ~4.4×1017 kg;
- Amalteyu - 250 × 148 × 127 km, 2 1018 kg;
- Io with a weight of 9 1022 kg at 3660×3639×3630 km;
- Ganymede, which, with a mass of 1.5 1023 kg, had a diameter of 5263 km;
- Europe, occupying 3120 km and weighing 5 1022 kg;
- Callisto, with a diameter of 4820 km having a mass of 1 1023 kg.
The first satellites were discovered in 1610, some from the 70s to the 90s, then in 2000, 2002, 2003. The last of them were discovered in 2012.
Saturn and its moons
Found 62 satellites, of which 53 have names. Most of them are composed of ice and rock, with a reflective feature.
The largest space objects of Saturn:
How many moons does Uranus have?
At the moment, Uranus has 27 natural celestial bodies. They are named after characters. famous works by Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare.
Names and list by quantity with description:
Moons of Neptune
The planet, whose name is consonant with the name of the great god of the seas, was discovered in 1846. She was the first to be found through mathematical calculations, and not through observation. Gradually, new satellites were discovered in her, until 14 were counted.
List
Neptune's moons are named after nymphs and various sea deities from Greek mythology.
The beautiful Nereid was discovered in 1949 by Gerard Kuiper. Proteus is a non-spherical cosmic body and is studied in detail by planetary scientists.
Giant Triton is the iciest object in the solar system with a temperature of -240°C, and also the only satellite that rotates around itself in the opposite direction to the rotation of the "master".
Almost all satellites of Neptune have craters on the surface, volcanoes - both fiery and ice. They spew mixtures of methane, dust, liquid nitrogen and other substances from their depths. Therefore, a person will not be able to be on them without special protection.
What are the "satellites of the planets" and how many of them are there in the solar system?
Satellites are cosmic bodies that are smaller in size than the "host" planets and orbit the latter. The question of the origin of satellites is still open and is one of the key questions in modern planetary science.
To date, 179 natural space objects are known, which are distributed as follows:
- Venus and Mercury - 0;
- Earth - 1;
- Mars - 2;
- Pluto - 5;
- Neptune - 14;
- Uranus - 27;
- Saturn - 63;
- Jupiter - 67.
Technologies are improving every year, finding more celestial bodies. It is possible that new satellites will be discovered soon. We can only wait, constantly checking the news.
The largest satellite in the solar system
The largest in our solar system Ganymede is considered to be a satellite of the giant Jupiter. Its diameter, according to scientists, is 5263 km. The next largest is Titan with a size of 5150 km - the "moon" of Saturn. Closes the top three Callisto - Ganymede's "neighbor", with whom they share one "owner". Its scale is 4800 km.
Why do planets need satellites?
Planetologists at all times asked themselves the question "Why do we need satellites?" or “What effect do they have on the planets?” Based on observations and calculations, some conclusions can be drawn.
Natural satellites play important role for "owners". They create a certain climate on the planet. No less important is the fact that they serve as protection against asteroids, comets, and other dangerous celestial bodies.
Despite such a significant impact, satellites are still not mandatory for the planet. Even without their presence, life can be formed and maintained on it. This conclusion was made by American scientist Jack Lissauer from the NASA Science Space Center.
> > > How many satellites does the Earth have
Earth and its satellites: number of objects near the third planet in the solar system. Learn more about the Moon and Earth's hypothetical natural satellites with photos.
Let's look into the night sky and count the number of earthly satellites. How many satellites does the earth have you see? Come on, you haven't even tried it, because you know that there is only the Moon next to us. But this is strange, because Jupiter is able to boast a family of 67 members. Why are we worse?
Does the Earth only have one satellite?
It turns out that there is only one satellite in the orbit of the Earth? Well, officially it is. More precisely, at the moment we have a single satellite. But millions or billions of years ago, there is a chance that other neighbors were nearby. This is also proved by the strange landscape on reverse side A moon that could have been hit by yet another satellite.
Companions are not immortal. For example, Mars has two, but this will not always be the case. Phobos is gradually approaching and one day it will simply crash into the planet. This should happen in 10 million years.
Perhaps in the future we will add to the earthly list. For example, the largest satellite of Neptune, Triton, rotates in the opposite direction and does not correspond to the rest. It is believed that the planet pulled it towards itself by gravity from the Kuiper belt.
You may not know, but our planet already caught asteroid 2006 RH120 in its nets in 2006-2007 before it broke out again. Or we have satellites that we just can't see because of their position, distance from Earth, and small size. Millimeter asteroids can be located in the earth's orbit.
Are there any other satellites on Earth?
How many satellites revolve around the earth? Several remarkable celestial bodies live not far from us. Asteroid 3753 Cruitney is in orbital resonance with the third planet from the Sun. Its route is eccentric, but it takes a year to fly around the star. He was noticed in 1986 and after that a number of objects were noted.
2007 TK7 is a Trojan asteroid that rotates in a stable position with us.
So, you know how many satellites the Earth has. The planet has a single moon, but that's only now. We may have other satellites, or we will have them in the future. In the meantime, enjoy a bright neighbor.
The Earth currently has only one natural satellite, the Moon. But relatively recently - some 6-7 thousand years ago - two moons could be seen above our planet. This is evidenced not only by the myths and traditions of many peoples, but also by geological finds. Blocks of pure iron In the north of Argentina is the area of Campo del Cielo (in translation - "heavenly field"). This name is taken from an ancient Indian legend, which tells about the fall from the sky at this place of mysterious metal blocks.
Pieces of iron, according to old Spanish chronicles, were found here as early as the 16th century. The conquistadors used them to make swords and spears. Particularly lucky was a certain Erman de Miraval, who in 1576, in a rather remote area, among marshy lowlands, stumbled upon a huge block of pure iron. The enterprising Spaniard visited her several times and beat off pieces from her for various needs. In 1783, the prefect of one of the provinces, Don Rubin de Celis, organized an expedition to this block and, having discovered it after a long search, estimated its mass at about 15 tons. Detailed Description the object has not been preserved, and since then no one has seen it, although attempts to find the block have been made more than once. In 1803, a meteorite weighing about a ton was discovered in the vicinity of Campo del Cielo. Its largest fragment (635 kg) was delivered to Buenos Aires in 1813. It was later acquired by the Englishman Sir Woodbine Darish and donated to the British Museum. This block of space iron is still resting on a pedestal in front of the entrance to the museum. Part of its surface is specially polished to show the structure of the metal with the so-called "Widmanstetten figures", which speak of the extraterrestrial origin of the object.
In Campo del Cielo and its environs, iron fragments are still found weighing from a few kilograms of grams to many tons. Most big weighed 33.4 tons. It was found in 1980 near the town of Gancedo American meteorite researcher Robert Hag tried to buy it and take it to the United States, but the Argentine authorities opposed this. To date, this meteorite is considered the second largest among all those found on Earth - after the so-called Hoba meteorite, weighing about 60 tons. rain". Evidence of this, in addition to the finds of the iron objects themselves, is a large number of craters in the Campo del Cielo region. The largest of them is the Laguna Negra crater with a diameter of 115 meters and a depth of more than 5 meters.
Huge meteorite exploded in the atmosphere
In 1961, the professor of Columbia University (USA), the world's largest specialist in meteorite W. Cassidy, became interested in the finds in Campo del Cielo. The expedition organized by him discovered a large number of small metal meteorites - hexaderites, consisting of almost chemically pure iron (96% of it, the rest is nickel, cobalt and phosphorus). The study of other meteorites found at different times in this area gives the same composition. According to the scientist, this proves that they are all fragments of a single celestial body. Cassidy also drew attention to a strange fact: usually, when a large meteorite explodes in the atmosphere, its fragments fall to the Earth, scattering in an ellipse with a maximum diameter of about 1600 meters. And on Campo del Cielo, the length of this diameter is 17 kilometers!
The published preliminary findings of Cassidy's research have generated worldwide interest. Hundreds of volunteers joined the scientist, and as a result, new fragments of meteoric iron were discovered even at a considerable distance from Campo del Cielo, up to the Pacific coast.
Satellite "two"
But it turned out that the territory of the finds is even more extensive. An unexpected light on the history of the Campo del Cielo meteorite was shed by a discovery from Australia. Here back in 1937, 300 kilometers from the town of Hanbury. in an ancient crater with a diameter of 175 meters and a depth of about 8 meters, an iron meteorite weighing 82 kilograms and several fragments of a smaller weight were found. In 1969, they conducted a study of their composition and found that all these fragments are almost identical to the iron meteorites from Campo del Cielo.
Craters in the Hanbury area have been known since the 1920s. There are several dozen of them, the largest of them reaches 200 meters, but most are relatively small - from 9 to 18 meters. During the excavations carried out here since the 1930s, over 800 fragments of meteoric iron were found in the craters, including four parts of one piece with a total weight of about 200 kilograms.
The final conclusion that Cassidy came to was this: a huge meteorite fell to Earth, but not suddenly. For a while before its fall heavenly body revolved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, gradually approaching the planet. Being in orbit could last quite a long time - a thousand years or more. However, under the influence of the force of gravity, this second Moon eventually approached the Earth so much that it crossed the so-called Rocher boundary, after which it entered the atmosphere and broke up into fragments of various sizes, which fell to the surface of the planet.
The approximate date of the disaster was determined by radiocarbon analysis - it turned out about 5800 years ago. Thus, the catastrophe occurred already in the memory of mankind, in the 4th millennium BC. e., when the civilizations of antiquity began to emerge, leaving behind monuments of writing. In them we find mythologized references to the second natural satellite of the planet and the catastrophe caused by its fall. For example, on the clay tablets of Sumer, the goddess Innana is described, crossing the sky and emitting a frightening radiance. An echo of the same events is, apparently, the ancient Greek myth of Phaethon.
The luminous celestial body is mentioned by Babylonian, Egyptian, Old Norse sources, myths of the peoples of Oceania. The English ethnologist J. Fraser notes that out of 130 Indian tribes of Central and South America there is not one in whose myths this theme would not be reflected.
“There is nothing surprising in all this,” writes the American astronomer M. Papper, “after all, metal meteorites are very clearly visible in flight. reflecting sunlight they sparkle much brighter stone meteorites; as for a large fireball made of pure iron, its luminosity in the night sky should have exceeded the luminosity of the Moon in its brightness.
The elliptical orbit along which the fireball moved assumed certain periods the passage of this object close to the Earth. At the same time, the fireball came into contact with the upper layers of the atmosphere and became so hot that its brilliance should have been visible even in daylight. As the object approached our planet, its luminosity increased, causing panic among the population. According to M. Papper, the orbit, which made the fireball either heat up when it came into contact with the earth's atmosphere, then, moving away from it, freeze again in the icy cold of space, and led to its destruction to pieces. Judging by the rather large territory over which the fragments scattered - from South America to Australia - the fireball broke up while still in orbit and entered the Earth's atmosphere in the form of a string of separate fragments. The fireball could have caused the Flood
The largest pieces, according to experts, fell into Pacific Ocean, causing waves of unprecedented size that could bypass the Earth. In the legends of the Indians of the Amazon basin, it is said that stars fell from heaven, a terrible roar and roar was heard, and everything plunged into darkness, and then a downpour fell on the earth, which flooded the whole world. “The water rose to a great height,” says one of the Brazilian legends, “and the whole earth was submerged in water. The darkness and the rain didn't stop. People fled, not knowing where to hide; climbed the most tall trees and mountains." The Brazilian legend is echoed by the fifth book of the Mayan code “Chilam Balam”: “The stars fell from heaven, crossed the firmament with a fiery plume, the earth was covered with ashes, rumbled, trembled and cracked, shaking with tremors. The world was falling apart."
All these legends are about a catastrophe accompanied by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods. Its epicenter was clearly in the Southern Hemisphere, since the nature of myths changes as you move north. Traditions tell only about a strong flood. This event, apparently, was preserved in the memory of the Sumerians and Babylonians and found its most vivid embodiment in the well-known biblical myth of the Flood.
It is now generally accepted that the only natural companion The Earth is the Moon, however, assumptions about the existence of other satellites have been repeatedly put forward by astronomers, published in popular publications and described in works of art.
There are several near-Earth objects that are sometimes referred to as "second moons" or "second moons". First, these are asteroids whose orbits are in resonance with the Earth's orbit. For example, quasi-satellites like Cruitney move in orbital resonance with the Earth but orbit the Sun, or Earth's Trojan asteroids like 2010 TK7 move in the same orbit as the Earth, but before or after it. In addition, it is possible for the Earth to capture temporary satellites whose orbit is unstable. An example of such a satellite is the asteroid 2006 RH 120.
But it is much more interesting to see how the battles on the scientific front regarding our issue have occurred in the past.
Satellites of Valtemath
In 1898, Dr. Georg Waltemat, a scientist from Hamburg, reported that he had discovered a system of small satellites orbiting the Earth.
One of the satellites described by Valtemat was at a distance of 1,030,000 km from the Earth, had a diameter of 700 km and made a revolution around the Earth in 119 days. It was also pointed out that the satellite does not reflect enough light to be visible to the naked eye, but at certain times it is still visible. Waltemat made several predictions about the possible moments of observation of the satellite. Referring to observations made in 1881 in Greenland, he pointed out that "sometimes it shines in the night like the Sun, but only for an hour or so." Waltemat believed that his companion was previously observed by Giovanni Cassini and Jacques Maraldi, who mistook him for sunspot. In addition, he referred to the observations of the satellite of Venus at St. Neot in 1761, believing that in this case, too, a second satellite of the Earth was observed. However, he did not provide arguments in favor of such an interpretation of these observations.
In February 1898, according to Waltemat's calculations, the satellite was supposed to pass over the solar disk. On February 4, 1898, employees of the Greifswald post office, observing the Sun with the naked eye, saw a dark object, the diameter of which was approximately 1/5 of the diameter of the Sun, which made a passage from 1:10 to 2:10 Berlin time. However, at the same time, the Sun was observed by astronomers W. Winkler and Ivo von Benko (Austria), who saw nothing but ordinary sunspots.
Failures did not weaken Valtemat's desire to search for a new satellite, and on July 20, 1898, he sent a message to the journal Science about the discovery of a third satellite, located at a distance of 427,250 km from the Earth and having a diameter of 746 km. Waltemat called it "a truly stormy and magnetic satellite". The magazine commented on this message in this way: "Perhaps this satellite is leading the madness" (Eng. "perhaps it is also the moon presiding over lunacy" ).
Further searches
The possibility of the Earth having a second satellite was studied by William Pickering. To begin with, he calculated that a satellite orbiting at a distance of 320 km from earth's surface, having a diameter of 30 cm and the same reflectivity as the Moon, should be visible in a 3-inch telescope, and a satellite with a diameter of 3 m will be visible to the naked eye. Pickering did not search for additional satellites of the Earth, although from 1888 he did search for a satellite of the Moon. Not finding such satellites, he concluded that if they exist, they must be less than 3 meters in diameter. Also in 1923, he published the article "Meteoritic Satellite" in Popular Astronomy, which called on amateur astronomers to look for small natural satellites.
Clyde Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto) was assigned by the US Army to search for near-Earth asteroids. In March 1954, a press release was published explaining the need for such a study: it was indicated that such satellites could play the role of a kind of transfer stations for spaceships. Also, their detection was necessary in order to ensure that there were no false positives from radars tracking spacecraft. In fact, this was the first systematic search for objects in near-Earth space. The search technique involved the use of a camera set to track an object circling the Earth at a certain height. In the resulting images, the stars will appear as long lines, a satellite at a given altitude will be visible as a point, and a satellite with a higher or lower orbit as a short line.
One of the "conspiracy theories" is associated with this search. According to ufologist Donald Keyhoe, who later became director National Air Phenomena Research Committee citing Pentagon sources, the search was undertaken to locate two Earth-orbiting objects detected by long-range radar in mid-1953. Keyho stated in May 1954 that the search had been successful and that one or both of the objects had been discovered and were artificial. On August 23, 1954, Aviation Week magazine published a report that two natural satellites were found at a distance of 400 and 600 kilometers from Earth. However, Tombo publicly stated that no objects were found. The magazine "Popular Mechanics" in October 1955 reported:
Professor Tombo remains silent on the results of the study. He does not say whether any small natural satellites have been discovered. However, he pointed out that the reports published in the press about the discovery of natural satellites 18 months ago at a distance of 400 and 600 kilometers from the Earth are not true. He also added that the research program had nothing to do with reports of sightings of so-called "flying saucers".
In 1959, Tombaugh presented the final conclusion, stating that the search had yielded no results: no objects brighter than 12-14 magnitudes had been found.
Currently, an active search for objects in near-Earth space is being carried out as part of several projects: Spaceguard, LINEAR, NEAT, LONEOS, the Catalina survey, and others. No permanent satellites have been found by these studies.
To be continued
Wisdom says that "wherever each of us is, we will always see one moon..."
Eternal satellite of the Earth
Our planet is one of the wonders of the Universe, which mankind, despite great minds and the latest technology, still not learned. Perhaps we have not even known half of the secrets that the Earth keeps. And one of the questions that have been worrying our researchers for more than one century is: "How many natural satellites does the Earth have?".
At first glance, this question has a simple answer: we have been taught since childhood that the Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. But is it really so? Can there be other, yet unfamiliar, satellites near the planet?
The moon has long been the subject of worship, fear and wonder of man. Today we can say with confidence what the Moon looks like and what substances are included in the main composition of its surface. However, it still remains a mystery, which, perhaps, humanity will one day unravel, because the natural satellite of the planet Earth continues to be studied.
Numerous moons
In fact, the Moon is far from the only one in the Universe. Each of the planets in our solar system has a certain number of its natural satellites. The Earth can boast of only one "partner", but Jupiter has as many as 63 of them! The largest of them is called Ganymede.
The satellite of Pluto, which was named Charon, is so large compared to the planet itself that the astronauts initially took this "pair" for a double planet.
The smallest moon found in the solar system is Dactyl. This baby, just a mile in diameter, is not a satellite of a planet, but of an asteroid. But before, scientists were sure that only planets could have a satellite! Dactyl successfully disproved this theory.
The story of the "birth" of the moon
According to scientists, billions of years ago, the Earth collided with another planet called Thea. For reference: in mythology, Thea is the mother of the moon goddess Selene. As a result of a powerful collision, two planets merged into one, and the fragments that broke away from the celestial body soon formed into a satellite. This explained a lot, but more recently, in 2016, scientists refuted this theory. The thing is that the heavy isotopes of potassium found on the moon could only appear as a result of exposure to incredibly high temperatures. A collision that caused such an effect would have led to the evaporation of a significant part of the Earth.
It is interesting! Our Moon's patterns indicate that it was once covered in active volcanoes.
In Blavatsky's book Secret Doctrine There is a theory that the Moon is older than the Earth. It was she who gave her energy and strength to our planet, and she herself turned into its lifeless shadow. This theory is based on the chronology of the Hindus.
In 2017, virtual ufologist George Graham published new theory about the purpose of the natural satellite of the Earth: they say, inside the celestial body is hollow and aliens inhabit it. Graham's theory is based on images of the satellite's surface taken by NASA's orbital station, which show an image of regular-shaped artificial objects.
Another Earth Moon
Today, researchers are sure that billions of years ago our Earth had two moons. As you know, the Moon is considered a body formed from the collision of the Earth with Thea. This theory explained the difference between its sides. So, one side, which is constantly visible to us, has a smooth surface formed by solidified lava, and the other, on the contrary, is covered with multiple mountains. In addition, its crust is much thicker, and rare elements predominate in its composition.
Today, scientists have decided to expand the hypothesis, assuming that once the Earth was accompanied by two satellites at once, the collision of which displaced lava flows to the hemisphere visible to us. Of course, this is just a theory, but after all, almost all scientific history of our world is a theory.
"Capture" of planets
In 2006, observers discovered an object orbiting the Earth, which, as it turned out after verification, was a natural cosmic body. Despite its modest size (only a few meters in diameter), the asteroid qualified as a full-fledged satellite. But before 2007, he left Earth's orbit.
Experts explain that these temporary satellites are a normal phenomenon. Small asteroids are regularly found near the Earth, which disappear from orbit over time. The reasons for such visits are the gravity of the Earth and the Moon. Attracted to each other, they also capture other cosmic bodies. As it turned out, our planet is always accompanied by some kind of temporary satellite.
Mysterious Lilith
Each of us knows the name of the natural satellite of the Earth. Natural and unique. But at the end of the 19th century, astrologer Georg Waltemat from Hamburg claimed to have discovered a whole system small satellites Earth. One of them, according to Waltemat, reached a diameter of 700 km and was rarely visible to the naked eye.
In the winter of that year, postal workers in Germany actually saw a dark object that was passing across the sun. But experts who at the same time were observing the night sky from another part of Germany and Austria said they saw nothing on the Sun but spots.
Nevertheless, in 1918, Walter Gornold again "discovered" the satellite of Valtemath, calling it Lilith. He believed that the masses of the Moon and Lilith are equal to each other, but the latter is very difficult to detect in the sky. But today, scientists believe his assumptions are incorrect, since another satellite with a similar mass would cause a certain reaction from the moon.
It is noteworthy that in astrology there is such a thing as a black moon. It is used in the calculation of the horoscope by astrologers and refers to esoteric symbols.
Other satellites of the Earth
Scientists have been trying for hundreds of years to find out if the Earth has natural satellites that are invisible to the naked eye, but their orbits are in resonance with our planet (resonance is the oscillation of two bodies in unison). Multiple studies have confirmed that our Moon is not the only natural satellite that is close to the Earth.
Despite the fact that only the Moon is a full-fledged natural satellite of the Earth, astronomers often notice other cosmic bodies in the orbit of our planet - the temporary satellites described above. But there are several so-called quasi-satellites.
What are quasi-satellites? This term refers to space objects that are in resonance with the orbit of the planet, which allows them to stay near it for a long time.
To date, along with the Moon, the Earth has as many as eight satellites. Six of them are considered quasi-satellites, and one more belongs to the class of Trojan asteroids. Initially, they revolved around the Sun, but then they were attracted by the Earth and are now in 1: 1 resonance with it. As a result, asteroids, together with our planet, make a simultaneous circle around the Sun.
The peculiarity of quasi-satellites lies in their degree of deviation from the exterior and inclination relative to the plane of the planet. In addition, they are always at the same distance from the Earth. True, their "loyalty" is unstable, and over time they can break the gravitational tandem, sometimes lasting hundreds of years.
Quasi-satellite Cruitney
The largest quasi-satellite belonging to the rare spectral type Q, discovered in 1986. Kruitney reaches a diameter of 5 kilometers and has a very strange shape of the orbit. When observing it from Earth, it seems that it moves in a horseshoe shape. At the same time, Krutni crosses the orbits of not only our planet, but also Venus and Mars.
Every year in November, Cruitney approaches the Earth at a very close distance, 30 times the distance to the Moon. You can see it with the naked eye - it resembles a dim star. Astronomers have not yet figured out the nature of Kruitni.
Duende - space baby
Quasi-satellite Duende (the so-called creatures from Spanish folklore, reminiscent of a variety of elves or gnomes) is the smallest satellite of the Earth. It was opened in 2012. Despite its small size (about 30 meters in diameter), Duende approaches the Earth as close as possible. There is an opinion that its approach in 2013 and the flight of the fireball over the Earth are somehow connected, but this opinion has not been confirmed.
Attention! In 2016, another satellite was discovered near the Earth, the diameter of which does not exceed hundreds of meters. It will accompany our planet for several more centuries, and then move away from it. The trajectory of its movement resembles a frog's jump, the researchers say.
Conclusion
Other temporary satellites of the Earth do not have names - only numbers. These are satellites that have been recently discovered and will be present near our planet for some time. How much - no one knows for sure.
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