They discovered a strange body near Mars. It can come from the moon

In the orbit of Mars around the Sun, in addition to the red planet itself, a special body orbits.

Its composition does not match any asteroid we know of. Instead, it looks like the moon.

An international team of astronomers has warned it could be a piece of our space companion, ejected to Mars by a massive ancient collision.

The research work was published in the scientific journal Icarus.

Triple Mars

The investigated object belongs to a group of asteroids, which we call Trojans. These are asteroids orbiting the Sun at the same distance as some planets and are named after the heroes of the Trojan War.

Several thousand Trojans orbit Jupiter. Only a handful could be found closer to the Sun – for example, none of the Earth’s orbits have been confirmed so far.

An international team of European and American scientists led by researchers from the Armagh Planetarium and the Northern Ireland Observatory focused on the search for trojans on Mars.

As these may be relics from the time of the creation of the planets, astronomers were interested in what they reveal about the early development of the solar system’s rocky planets.

The famous asteroid in a new light

The researchers analyzed the light spectrum of the Martian Trojans, which they compared with the spectra of the best studied bodies to determine the composition of these objects.

One of the bodies they studied was the asteroid (101429) 1998 VF31. Previous research has suggested that it is a common asteroid. However, new, more detailed observations have revealed that its spectrum does not match any group of asteroids or meteorites that we know of. The astronomers then expanded the analysis to include spectra from other bodies.

To their surprise, they found the greatest deal with our Moon.

As if the moon had fallen from the rocks

“At first glance, the moon resembles the spectral analysis data for many bodies, but a closer look reveals important differences,” said study co-author Galin Borisov, who said: “However, the spectrum for example at the bottom to the craters. “

How to explain this match? According to astronomers, there are several possible explanations. One possibility is that the similarities with lunar rocks and object 101429 arose as a result of billions of years of exposure to solar radiation, that is, in the process of so-called cosmic erosion.

The second possibility is that the asteroid looks like the moon because it actually comes from there.

From the Moon … or from Mars?

“The young solar system was a completely different place from what we see today. The space between the emerging planets was filled with debris, so collisions often occurred. Large asteroids constantly hit the moon and planets,” points out the study’s lead author , Apostolos Christou.

“A fragment ejected in such a collision may have reached the orbit of Mars at a time when the planet was still forming and the body captured a cloud of Martian Trojans,” the scientist said.

The third explanation, according to astronomers, is of Martian origin.

“Spectral analysis suggests that 101429 is rich in pyroxene, a common mineral in the crust of planet-sized bodies. Like the Earth and the Moon, Mars was hit by cosmic bombardments in the early days of its existence. One created a huge one. Boreal basin, almost as wide as the planet. Such a colossal collision could throw 101429 where we observe it, “explains Christou.

“Our” Trojans will no longer flee

According to astronomers, research on Martian Trojans can help discover and definitively confirm the Trojans on our planet. According to some experts, these bodies are the source of some small asteroids near the Earth.

The search for terrestrial Trojans is one of the tasks of the planned and most detailed survey of the solar system to date using the Very C. Rubin Observatory.

The number of known asteroids is expected to increase more than tenfold in the coming years.