Posted on 12/24/2010 12:01:47 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Astronomers have been busy trying to determine the spin period and composition of Venus' moon. On Dec. 8, 2010, results of the study were announced by JPL/Caltech scientists, led by Michael Hicks... It has the rather unfortunate name of 2002 VE68. That's because it was discovered on Nov. 11, 2002 by LONEOS, the Lowell Observatory Near Earth Object Search. 2002 VE68 is an Earth orbit-crossing asteroid that has been designated a Potential Hazardous Asteroid by the Minor Planet Center... 2002 VE68 used to be a run of the mill, potential impact threat Near Earth Object (NEO). But approximately 7,000 years ago it had a close encounter with Earth that kicked it into a new orbit. It now occupies a place in orbit around the sun where at its closest it wanders inside the orbit of Mercury and at its furthest it reaches just outside the orbit of the Earth. It is now in a 1:1 orbital resonance with Venus... In the case of Venus and 2002 VE68, they both take the same time to orbit the sun once. They are in a 1:1 orbital resonance. So by definition, 2002 VE68 is considered a quasi-satellite of Venus.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
The orbit of Venusian quasi-satellite 2002 VE68. NASA/JPL/Caltech
- The asteroid 2002 VE68 takes the same time as Venus to orbit the sun once.
- The near-Earth asteroid dives as deep as Mercury's orbit and scoots through our planet's neighborhood.
- 2002 VE68's orbit is on shaky ground and will probably leave Venus alone again within 500 years.
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No offense to the OP, but that title is horrible. I hope the author gets laughed at in he science community. Shhesssh.
“They” still laugh at Uranus!
I think they are reaching a bit.
To me, the more interesting question is what its orbit around Venus looks like.
Mooned by Venus, hmmmmm ... Laz would hit it; let’s hope it doesn’t hit us.
There are a number of asteriods ( 3753 Cruithne, 54509 YORP, (85770) 1998 UP1, 2002 AA29, and 2003 YN107) in orbits that are in resonance with Earth’s. The earth resonant ones don’t scare me, this one does.
That’s one wild and quasi-satellite!
This one could be a game ender for Earth....Hey... It could happen.
This is a bit off-topic, but since we’re talking about moons, it was 42 years ago tonight that Apollo 8 orbited our moon. That was the first time that human beings saw with their own eyes the backside of the moon. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were that crew. They read the first ten passages of Genisis, a very powerful moment in the long history of the US manned space program.
On Christmas day, they left lunar orbit and Lovell reported that “there is a Santa Claus” after coming around from the backside.
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Venus stalked? Potential suspect? ;)
‘This is a bit off-topic, but since we’re talking about moons, it was 42 years ago tonight that Apollo 8 orbited our moon. That was the first time that human beings saw with their own eyes the backside of the moon. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were that crew. They read the first ten passages of Genisis, a very powerful moment in the long history of the US manned space program.
On Christmas day, they left lunar orbit and Lovell reported that “there is a Santa Claus” after coming around from the backside.’
I wa just reminiscing about that this morning. That was an exciting time...
This New “Moon” or what ever it is needs a classical name. Might I suggest:
Xena, Demeter, satyr, Kraken, Or Daphne, Velma, or Scooter.
Does that not fit in with at least one of Velikovsky's theories...?
It could, since the comet-like version of Venus was running around for a long while before the orbits crossed. To make the so-called Ammizaduga tablets’ observations of Venus visibility work requires different orbits for either Venus, or Earth, or both; the conventional method of making them work is to throw out the observations which don’t fit current expectation.
That the encounter of this asteroid with the Earth is thought to have taken place 7000 years ago is based on retrocalculation, and probably doesn’t have a unique solution in the math.
.....
Thanks!
:’) Merry Christmas!
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