The asteroid 2023 FW13 was recently discovered, and it showed an interesting feature. It seems to orbit the Sun in sync with the Earth, that is, it could be a “quasi-moon” of our planet, as well as the asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, which also remains close thanks to its orbit.
The new rock appears to be 20 meters in diameter. If preliminary orbital calculations are correct, it has been orbiting Earth since 100 BC, and should continue here until the year 3700 — and, if confirmed, these estimates will make 2023 FW13 the most stable Earth-quasi-moon asteroid ever found.
It was observed for the first time on March 28 through the Pan-STARRS telescope, installed on top of the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii. Afterwards, new observations with other telescopes helped to confirm that, in fact, it was a new asteroid, officially announced in early April.
His curious orbit was discovered by journalist Adrien Coffinet. While analyzing the asteroid’s trajectory with an orbital simulator created by astronomer Tony Dunn, Coffinet discovered that asteroid 2023 FW13 takes the same amount of time as Earth to travel around the Sun. As it orbits our star, it moves around the Earth.
This is what makes the asteroid a “quasi-moon” of our planet, but despite accompanying the Earth on its path through space, astronomers point out that, in fact, the asteroid is orbiting the Sun, and is not gravitationally bound to our planet. ; what happens is that it has orbital resonance with the Earth and therefore moves around it.
It is worth remembering that, despite the orbital resonance, the asteroid has no risk of colliding with Earth. “The good news is that such an orbit does not result in an impact trajectory ‘out of the blue,'” said Alan Harris, a scientist at the Space Science Institute. “In fact, this orbit has greater long-term stability than other orbits without resonance.”
Source: Sky & Telescope
