There could be another one
Posted on 09/11/2002 11:35:35 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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Much uncertainty surrounds the mysterious object, designated J002E2. It could be a passing chunk of rock captured by the Earth's gravity, or it could be a discarded rocket casing coming back to our region of space.
It was discovered by Bill Yeung from his observatory in Arizona and reported as a passing Near-Earth Object. It was soon realised however that far from passing us it was in a 50-day orbit around the Earth.
Paul Chodas of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California says it must have just arrived or it would have been easily detected long ago. Calculations suggest it may have been captured earlier this year.
Moon or junk?
When he detected the object Bill Yeung contacted the Minor Planet Centre in Massachusetts, the clearing house for such discoveries, which gave it the designation J002E2 and posted it on their Near-Earth Object Confirmation webpage.
Soon however, its motion suggested it was in an orbit around the Earth. Its movements had all the hallmarks of being a spent rocket casing or other piece of space junk.
But experts are not completely sure what exactly the object is.
Observations made by Tony Beresford in Australia indicate that the object's position does not match any known piece of space junk. Observations made in Europe have failed to see any variations in brightness that might be expected from a slowly spinning metallic object.
Nasa's Paul Chodas says the object must have arrived quite recently or else it would have been easily detected by any of several automated sky surveys that astronomers are conducting.
Its trajectory suggests that it may have been captured in April or May of this year, but there is still some uncertainty about this.
If it is determined that J002E2 is natural it will become Earth's third natural satellite.
Earth's second one is called Cruithne. It was discovered in 1986 and it takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity.
Astronomers, professional and amateur, are carrying out further observations to determine if J002E2 is really another moon of the Earth, or just a piece of space junk.
Thank God! The estimated diameter of Cruithne is 2.9 - 6.4 km according to http://earn.dlr.de/nea/03753.htm, slightly more than a "rock!"
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Yankees in Georgia!
Dang!!!
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