Goodnight other moon (1 Viewer)

[superchuck500]

And so this is also happening:

This is going to sound preposterous, but I promise it’s true: Earth has another moon.

It is not the kind that will illuminate the night sky. It’s invisible to the naked eye and too tiny to do any classic moon moves, like tugging on the planet’s oceans. But it’s there, orbiting the Earth, accompanying us on our journey around the sun.

A pair of astronomers discovered the miniature moon on the night of February 15. It showed up in the nightly observations of the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA-funded project in Arizona. The survey is designed to study asteroids and comets near Earth, the kind that could potentially menace the planet if they got too close. To Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne, the mystery object appeared as a few pixels of light moving quickly across a dusky, fixed background.

Researchers at other observatories and amateur astronomers around the world raced to monitor the newcomer in the sky, collecting as much data as they could. When they calculated its orbit, they were baffled. The object wasn’t a newcomer at all. So far, their work suggests that the object has been moving around us, gravitationally bound to the Earth, for at least a year but probably closer to three. We’ve had a tiny new moon all this time, and we didn’t know about it.

More at https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/mini-moon-earth/607171/

 

[0rion]

Just read about that today.

 

[nolaspe]

 

[tomwaits]

Size of a compact car.
I just assumed there were a lot of chunks of junk and rock that were compact car size floating around the earth.

 

[Brad Mojo]

I also heard that there are rings around Uranus.

 

[gboudx]

Is that Planet X finally showing up?

 

[efil4stnias]

I also heard that there are rings around Uranus.

those are typically worm-made.

 

[49erKiller]

those are typically worm-made.

If you let Dennis Rodman near Uranus, you kind of have it coming.

 

[UndeadSnoopy]

This is nothing.

With everything happening in the world lately, I'm waiting for Wormwood to come crashing down on us.

Where is David Robbins when we need him?

I may owe him an apology.

 

[boutrous]

Size of a compact car.
I just assumed there were a lot of chunks of junk and rock that were compact car size floating around the earth.

Does it look like this?

 

[Joe OKC]

might as well put this here.

 

[Bleu Raeder]

I, for one, welcome our new second moon overlords.

 

[Zack Lee]

might as well put this here.

Why didn’t they swap the names hemorrhoids and asteroids. Doesn’t it seem like that would make more sense?

 

[tenordas]

Such implications! Will there now need to be an extra Rosh Kodesh observance every month - or should there just be one big one since that what this is?

 

[GrandAdmiral]

I, for one, welcome our new second moon overlords.

Show some respect. It's our third. Now go pray for forgiveness.