Posted on 03/30/2017 8:13:58 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The unnamed asteroid shares Jupiter's orbital space while moving in the opposite direction as the planet, which looks like a recipe for a collision, astronomers said. Yet somehow, the asteroid has managed to safely dodge Jupiter for at least tens of thousands of laps around the sun, a new study showed.
It was given the provisional designation 2015 BZ509 with the nickname "BZ." Scientists noticed that the asteroid moves in the opposite direction of every planet and 99.99 percent of asteroids orbiting the sun, in a state known as retrograde motion.
...
BZ may seem like a lucky asteroid, narrowly dodging its own demise over and over for such a long time. But surprisingly, Jupiter's gravity has played a big role in helping the asteroid to avoid such a collision, Wiegert said.
"BZ passes once inside and once outside Jupiter each time they orbit the sun, and the two gravitational tugs that Jupiter gives the asteroid cancel out, giving BZ opposing 'nudges' that keep it on track," Wiegert said. "Ironically, BZ would be more likely to crash into Jupiter if that planet had no gravity at all, because without the gravitational nudges, [the asteroid] would gradually drift out of sync with that planet."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
i hate when your ‘roids get out of sync with your planet!
Fortunately the orbital periods are so long (about 11.8 years) that if it does not get caught by Jupiter’s gravity and “slingshotted” towards Earth this time around, I’ll (probably) be dead by the time it does. And my heirs will have found a way to deflect it.
retrograde motion is not natural and could be a signal or sign post saying,”Look at me; there’s something here” ... aliens again!
But point of fact, there are a lot of inexplicable oddities surrounding the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
Wow, what could possibly have caused that ridge?
Accretion due to 2 large bodies smashing together?
That is super cool.
Aw....that’s just a picture of a walnut.
“Accretion due to 2 large bodies smashing together?”
Last I read, all natural causes had been ruled out by those studying the object (a very large object but not a natural moon - perhaps).
Remember, the ridge is perfectly aligned with the equator, not a random alignment as one might expect from some natural cause.
Then there is the very strong radio source in Saturn’s B-ring ...
Wait ‘til you see the nutcracker ...
2017 Western U., Athabasca U., Large Binocular Telescope Observatory [Backwards asteroid shares an orbit with Jupiter without crashing | Leah Crane]
Note: this topic is from . Thanks BenLurkin.
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A walnut was my first thought too.
Like it's the one that's going the wrong way. How do they know everyone else isn't going the wrong way?
© Scott Sheppard [Two new moons discovered around Jupiter, bring total to 69 | Kelly Beatty | Sky & Telescope]
It got t-boned by another planet. In fact, you may as well call it "T-Bone."
Jupiter’s Known Satellites
http://home.dtm.ciw.edu/users/sheppard/satellites/jupsatdata.html
Jovian Satellite Fact Sheet
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/joviansatfact.html
What is a barycenter?
Planets and stars actually orbit around their common center of mass.
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/barycenter/
I was hoping for a star to be named after me, but I’ll take what I can get.
Can I name my daughter “Accretia”?
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