Astronomers have found a brand new asteroid orbiting Earth, performing as our planet’s “half-moon”. Sure, it’s being known as Earth’s second moon. In accordance with Sky & Telescope’s David Chandler, the asteroid, named 2023 FW13, has a singular and complicated orbit that stretches midway between Mars and Venus.
This asteroid It was first found on March 28 by astronomers utilizing the Pan-Stars Survey telescope, positioned on high of Haleakala, an inactive volcano in Hawaii. The Canada-France-Hawaii telescope, in addition to the Kitt Peak Nationwide Observatory and the Mount Lemmon Sky Heart in Arizona, later confirmed its existence. The invention was formally introduced in April.
The information caught the eye of Adrien Coffinet, a journalist from the French information web site Futura – Inspirons l’avenir. Coffinet used an orbital simulator developed by beginner astronomer Tony Dunn to map the asteroid’s path. Their evaluation revealed that 2023 FW13 shares the identical orbital interval the earth Whereas additionally looping round our planet. Based mostly on these findings, Coffinet concluded that the house rock is probably going a half-moon or half-satellite of Earth.
Though 2023 FW13, estimated to be about 65-feet (20 meters) large, follows an identical path to Earth, astronomers say the Solar’s gravitational pull has a better affect on the asteroid. Earth’s affect on its orbit is minimal, permitting the asteroid to remain near our planet. Every year, it comes inside 9 million miles (15 million kilometers) of Earth, whereas the Moon, at its closest level to Earth, is about 223,693 miles (360,000 km) away.
This isn’t the primary asteroid of its sort to be found close to Earth. Astronomers evaluate the orbit of asteroid 2023 FW13 with one other asteroid often known as Kamoalewa or 2016 HO3, which was additionally recognized as an Earth quasi-satellite in 2016. Like its predecessor, the 2023 FW13 knowledge has been considered within the again archive. Till 2012. By analyzing this data, civilian astronomers have decided that the asteroid has been in our normal space since 100 BC and is predicted to stay till no less than 3700 AD. In accordance with Sky & Telescope’s Chandler, if these calculations are correct, 2023 FW13 can be Earth’s most secure quasi-satellite ever.
