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Although the Moon is Earth's only natural satellite, there are a number of near-Earth objects (NEOs) with orbits that are in resonance with Earth. These have been called "second" moons of Earth or "minimoons". [2] [3] 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, an asteroid discovered on 27 April 2016, is possibly the most stable quasi-satellite of Earth. [4]
Some planetary rings are influenced by shepherd moons, small moons that orbit near the inner or outer edges of a ringlet or within gaps in the rings. The gravity of shepherd moons serves to maintain a sharply defined edge to the ring; material that drifts closer to the shepherd moon's orbit is either deflected back into the body of the ring ...
A Search for Objects near the Earth–Moon Lagrangian Points, by Francisco Valdes and Robert A. Freitas Jr., did not find any objects at the Earth–Moon or Earth–Sun lagrange points, but this survey was not sensitive to diffuse clouds. Roach, J. R. (January 1975). "Counterglow from the earth-moon libration points". Planetary and Space Science.
Some 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth was only 100 million years old or so, a Mars-sized protoplanet named Theia smashed into our planet, ejecting loads that eventually returned to the Earth’s ...
Moons are classed into two separate categories according to their orbits: regular moons, which have prograde orbits (they orbit in the direction of their planets' rotation) and lie close to the plane of their equators, and irregular moons, whose orbits can be pro- or retrograde (against the direction of their planets' rotation) and often lie at ...
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.
The ring was first formally proposed after 21 impact craters from the meteor event were found to be located along a straight band around the Earth's equator. [10] [11] Andrew G. Tomkins, [9] Erin L. Martin [9] and Peter A. Cawood, [9] working with Monash University, released a study in September 2024 that gave evidence on the existence of the ...
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 ...