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According to a new study, the Moon’s long-missing twin has been spotted behind Mars.
The 3,280-foot-wide asteroid named (101429) 1998 VF31 was first identified 22 years ago and new analysis reveals it is “strikingly similar” to the moon.
Scientists from the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) in Northern Ireland used the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study space rock.
The lead author of the study, Dr. Apostolos Christou of the AOP, believes it is possibly a piece of the moon that was displaced by a massive impact during the forming years of the Solar System, some four billion years ago.
However, although the origin of this rock may be lunar, the research team says it is also possible that it may have come from the Martian surface.
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The asteroid is a Mars Trojan that orbits the Sun while dragging the red planet around at an angle of about 60 degrees to the Sun, at a so-called Lagrange point. These are positions in a planet’s orbit where the gravity of the Sun and the planet balance, allowing a rock to remain in a static position. L4 is in front of Mars and L5, where VF31 is, is behind Mars
Dr. Christou studied space rock with a technique called spectral matching.
“It’s similar to the photo identification done by the police when chasing criminals, you try to match your data – the spectral profile – with the same kind of data taken from other objects, such as other asteroids or meteorites,” he told MailOnline .
‘None of these matches were particularly satisfying until we included the Moon’s spectra in our analysis. The resemblance to parts of the lunar surface was striking.
The asteroid is part of a group known as Mars Trojans, and their origin is a long-standing astronomical mystery.
They orbit the Sun as they drag the red planet behind them at an angle of about 60 degrees to the Sun, L5, or 60 ° in front of Mars, L4.
For example, if Mars reaches a point in its orbit deemed equal to 12 o’clock on a clock face, the Trojans will be at two.
They remain in this position because they are trapped in a Lagrange point, a piece of space where the gravitational pull of various celestial bodies balances.
As a result, they never circle Mars and always hide behind it, following in the wake of the planet.
The study, funded by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), reveals that VF31 has a very different composition from all other Mars Trojans.
This, Dr Chrisotu told MailOnline, was surprising. None of the other Trojans bore any resemblance to the moon, making this object unique.
The research team speculates that the moon may have been hit by an asteroid, called a planetesimal, which caused VF31 to chip off the surface.
“The early solar system was very different from the place we see today,” says Dr. Christou.
“The space between the newly formed planets was full of debris and collisions were the order of the day.
‘Large asteroids – we call these planetesimals – were hitting the Moon and other planets.
“A fragment of such a collision could have reached the orbit of Mars when the planet was still forming and was trapped in its clouds of Troy.”
Although the researchers are unable to definitively say that the space rock is a fragment of the moon, the evidence is compelling.
To see if it was even possible that the asteroid, which is less than a kilometer in diameter, originated from the moon and ended up in Martian orbit, the researchers worked out the numbers.
Previous studies show that a rock would have to travel at 2.4 km / s (5,368 mph) to escape the lunar gravity.
For it to enter orbit around the Sun, it would have to travel at a minimum of 3.5 km / s (7.829 mph).
The researchers say it’s possible for a rock fragment about one kilometer in diameter to travel at this speed if the moon is hit by a bullet of at least 125 km (77 mil), traveling at 10 km / s (22,369 mph).
Such a monumental collision would create a crater 974 km (604 miles) in diameter.
For a piece of loose rock from the lunar surface to escape the moon’s gravity and enter a solar orbit, the moon must be hit with a bullet at least 125 km (77 mils) in size, traveling at 10 km / s ( 22,369 mph). This would create a 974 km (604 mile) crater, much smaller than the Aitken Crater (pictured) on the opposite side of the Moon, which is much larger than this. This shows that it is at least possible that the asteroid originated from the moon
A 1km-wide asteroid named (101429) 1998 VF31 was first spotted 22 years ago and new analysis reveals it is “ strikingly similar ” to the moon, astronomers say (stock)
“This is considerably smaller than the size of the largest lunar basin, so this scenario is at least plausible,” the researchers write in their study, published today in the journal Icarus.
While no other asteroid has been discovered that may be an ancient remnant of the moon, researchers believe there may be more lunar “twins” to discover.
“It is reasonable to expect that, if there is one, there may be more,” says Dr. Christou.
“However, to preserve those objects for 4 billion years to date, they would have had to be trapped from the start in similar” safe havens “along the orbits of nearby planets, Mars or Earth.
“Maybe there’s some other asteroid out there that looks exactly like this; so far we have not found it. But we will continue to search. ‘
WHAT IS A LANGRANGE POINT?
A Lagrange point is a point in space where the combined gravitational forces of two large bodies are equivalent to the centrifugal force of another body.
The way the forces interact creates zero net directional force and allows an object to remain stationary in space.
These points are named after Joseph-Louis Lagrange, an 18th-century mathematician who wrote about them in 1772.
the main astronomical bodies have five points – labeled L1, L2, L3 L4 and L5.
L1, L2 and L3 are all unstable as they rely entirely on a fragile equilibrium.
L4 and L5 are much more stable.
L1 – Between the two objects. This position between the sun and the Earth is currently occupied by the SOHO – Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and the Deep Space Climate Observatory.
L2 – The second point is a million miles beyond the Earth and in the opposite direction to the sun. This is currently occupied by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and will be the target area for the upcoming James Web telescope.
L3 – This point is behind the sun and away from the Earth. This point remains unoccupied for now.
L4 and L5 – They are located along the Earth’s orbit at 60 degrees in front of and behind the Earth.
NASA created the four concepts and said they will likely be positioned at L2, an astronomical position one million miles beyond the Earth and in the opposite direction to the sun.
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