A previously unknown celestial body has been orbiting the earth for decades. A hobby astronomer has now discovered “2022 YG”.
The earth has had a new companion for several years: the Asteroid “2022 YG”. It has probably been orbiting our planet since 1961 and was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov on December 15 last year. Borisov had already discovered the first interstellar comet “2I/Borisov” in 2019.
“2022 YG” is said to have an estimated diameter of 16-30 meters and was “captured” by Earth’s gravity. computer simulations show that the asteroid takes about a year to orbit the earth. It does not move forward smoothly and evenly like the moon, for example, but moves in elliptical orbits.
2022 YG will leave us again
However, the asteroid will not stay with us forever. how computer models calculate, it will continue to orbit the earth until the year 2181 and then free itself from the clutches of its gravity.
2022 YG is not the first mini moon to orbit the earth. The asteroids “2020 CD3” and “2006 RH120” also once got into it gravitational field the earth and orbited it for a while. However, the discovery of the celestial body “2020 SO” turned out to be a disappointment: instead of a mini-moon, it was space junk orbiting the earth. (lro)
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