New 'moon' found around Earth By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor An amateur astronomer may have found another moon of the Earth. Experts say it may have only just arrived. Much uncertainty surrounds the mysterious object, designated J002E2. It could be a passing chunk of rock captured by the Earth's gravity, or it could be a discarded rocket casing coming back to our region of space. It was discovered by Bill Yeung from his observatory in Arizona and reported as a passing Near-Earth Object. It was soon realised however that far from passing us it was in a 50-day orbit around the Earth. Paul Chodas of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California says it must have just arrived or it would have been easily detected long ago. Calculations suggest it may have been captured earlier this year. Moon or junk? When he detected the object Bill Yeung contacted the Minor Planet Centre in Massachusetts, the clearing house for such discoveries, which gave it the designation J002E2 and posted it on their Near-Earth Object Confirmation webpage. Soon however, its motion suggested it was in an orbit around the Earth. Its movements had all the hallmarks of being a spent rocket casing or other piece of space junk. But experts are not completely sure what exactly the object is. Observations made by Tony Beresford in Australia indicate that the object's position does not match any known piece of space junk. Observations made in Europe have failed to see any variations in brightness that might be expected from a slowly spinning metallic object. Nasa's Paul Chodas says the object must have arrived quite recently or else it would have been easily detected by any of several automated sky surveys that astronomers are conducting. Its trajectory suggests that it may have been captured in April or May of this year, but there is still some uncertainty about this. If it is determined that J002E2 is natural it will become Earth's third natural satellite. Earth's second one is called Cruithne. It was discovered in 1986 and it takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity. Astronomers, professional and amateur, are carrying out further observations to determine if J002E2 is really another moon of the Earth, or just a piece of space junk.
Damn, no wonder heyscwheetie has been having funky (yet exhilarating) mood swings lately. The moon's have that effect. hmmm, this reminds me. In 1986, when the second moon (Cruithne) appeared, I had a really wacked out girlfriend.
Finally, the world has located Dasagna Diopp! I doubt the Cavs will pay to bring him back from orbit though.
I'm not a scientist but I'll play one here: wouldn't the tides get all out of wack with anther moon?? os
I am a nerdy scientist. Technically, your worry is correct. But unless the new moon is really big (say, 1/20 the mass of our "main moon"), nobody would really notice any tide effect. If the new moon is some medium-sized rock you can't see with the naked eye from your backyard, the tide effect would be hard to even measure at all.
That what's I was thinking as well. But I'm not a nerdy scientist, I just remember reading about moons in science. I would have mentioned it, but I wasn't sure. I haven't had any thing about space science in a while since I took Biology last year. This year I'm taking an integrated Physics and Chemistry class. I'd assume we will probably go over something like this. Or maybe we will just color pictures.
RC, Hope you get more than coloring out of your science class, but I know how it goes! Ask your teach about gravity; she or he will take you seriously with your new backpack. Everybody should wish RC a happy B-day in that thread. Anyway, tides are kind of tricky, and it might have to wait for college. Basically the moon pulls harder on the side of the earth that's closer to it at any one time. The ground can't bend too much, but the oceans can. So the world's oceans get two big buldges: one follows the moon, and one is opposite. When a bulge comes by your beach, there's your high tide. Okay, sorry for the science ramble.
Maybe they fired that NSync guy out into space, sick and tired of him singing all his teeny-pop songs in the simulation machine!??
I remember seeing a picture describing the tides in one of my sciene books, but this was about 2 years ago and I don't remember much. Your explanation does sound familar, though. I have a problem with science classes and the drawings you have to color. I hate art. I got a report from my school around 1st grade saying I may be a drop out because I couldn't cut, color, or paste. Lets just say drawing an Amoeba doesn't really help my grade. But I did show those people who's boss: I am the top student in my grade. I may look in my new book tomorrow about the tides. I may just take it home in my new backpack!
I've been into studying things about space and the universe since I was a kid, but god, I didn't know we technically had TWO freaking moons before this latest discovery! But I might as well throw out some theories: A killer asteroid that was thwarted a satellite created by an alien race A NSync member put out of our misery and shot into space (That's getsmartnow's theory and I like it and hope it's true) Or a secret military experiment. I can't think of anymore conspiracies at this moment. . . . .
