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If we are not exactly alone in the Universe, we will certainly be a little more alone. The mini moon that has accompanied our planet for at least three years, the car-sized asteroid 2020 CD3, has definitively detached itself from the gravity of our planet and, little by little, is advancing into the unknown.
Discovered on February 15, 2020 by astronomers Theodore Pruyne and Kacper Wierzchos, scholars initially thought it could actually be an artificial object, a rocket used in previous missions. Months of analysis were needed to unravel the mystery of the detected visitor; the collected data then revealed the sample size, speed and other characteristics.
Based on its color and brightness, it is assumed that the mini moon is actually made up of silicate rocks, a composition of many of the bodies found in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. It is about 1.2 meters in diameter and orbit simulations revealed that it flew very close to our natural satellite, which placed it in a more stable position and also allowed it to stay in our environment for a much longer time. longer than the usual nine months.
The stay was short, but impressive.Source: reproduction
Meetings and goodbye
While in the first observations the Mount Lemmon Observatory, the monitoring program run by NASA Catalina Sky Survey and a series of telescopes around the world, provided the details of the CD3 2020 – collected by Grigori Fedorets, of Queen’s University in Belfast, in The UK, and his colleagues -, scientists will soon have the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, under construction in Chile, at their disposal. The equipment may reveal much more than expected.
This is because many similar mini moons must be around us, but are still hidden from the earthly public. “At best, we could detect a mini moon every two or three months. And, at worst, maybe once a year. In any case, these are far more Earth” companions “than anyone can imagine. “concludes Fedorets.
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