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This asteroid's orbit keeps it near the Earth, but not orbiting it in the usual sense. When analyzing its orbit from the perspective of different bodies, the presumed quasi-satellite does seem to have a more stable location near the Earth The orbit of 2020 CD 3 around the Earth. The white band is the orbit of the Moon.
Earth also has more than 20 known co-orbitals, including the asteroids 3753 Cruithne and 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, and the occasional temporary satellite, like 2020 CD 3; however, since they do not permanently orbit Earth, they are not considered moons. (See Other moons of Earth and Quasi-satellite.)
The existence of shepherd moons was theorized in early 1979. [1] Observations of the rings of Uranus show that they are very thin and well defined, with sharp gaps between rings. To explain this, Goldreich and Tremaine suggested that two small satellites that were undetected at the time might be confining each ring. The first images of shepherd ...
The giant planets have extensive systems of natural satellites, including half a dozen comparable in size to Earth's Moon: the four Galilean moons, Saturn's Titan, and Neptune's Triton. Saturn has an additional six mid-sized natural satellites massive enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium , and Uranus has five.
This ring system may have originated from a large asteroid that passed by Earth at this time and had a significant amount of debris stripped by Earth's gravitational pull, forming a ring system. Evidence for this ring comes from impact craters from the Ordovician meteor event appearing to cluster in a distinctive band around the Earth's equator ...
Earth may have had a ring made up of a broken asteroid over 400 million years ago, a study finds. The Saturn-like feature could explain a climate shift at the time.
With a spherical Earth, half the planet is in daylight at any given time and the other half experiences nighttime. When a given location on the spherical Earth is in sunlight, its antipode – the location exactly on the opposite side of Earth – is in darkness. The spherical shape of Earth causes the Sun to rise and set at different times in ...
The 400-meter moonlet Earhart in Saturn's A Ring, just outside the Encke Gap Another image of Earhart Another moonlet named Bleriot A moonlet named Santos-Dumont A moonlet in Saturn's A ring A moonlet , minor moon , minor natural satellite , or minor satellite is a particularly small natural satellite orbiting a planet , dwarf planet , or other ...