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Earth might have a tiny new moon
- arethuza 7y agoIf it were a fair bit bigger it could be attached to the front of the ISS - you never know when things like that might come in handy...
- Double_a_92 7y ago> The orbit isn’t stable, so eventually 2020 CD3 will be flung away from Earth.
- lyxsus 7y agoBut could we keep it if we wanted to? Is it possible to make any use out of it?
- mkl 7y agoNo much point - it's tiny. A Falcon 9 can put 3-4 times [1] that mass (~4,900kg [2]) into a stable low Earth orbit. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_orbital_launch_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_orbital_launch_s... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_CD3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_CD3
- me_me_me 7y agoWe should call it Minmus.
- Faaak 7y agoCurious question: what are the red-blue-green artifacts on the picture ? Is it due to the CCD sensor ?
- diggernet 7y agoI'm going to guess that this telescope takes color pictures by making a series of long exposures while cycling through red/green/blue filters. The object being tracked will appear normal, while objects in relative motion (in this case, the background stars) will appear as a trail of colors.
- twodave 7y agoI thought to be classified as a moon you needed a distinctly observable gravity field?
- beckingz 7y agoTechnically the earth hasn't cleared it's orbit because of the moon. So the earth is not a planet.
- maxerickson 7y agoThe Moon is ~2% the volume of the Earth, you are stretching the definition of similar pretty hard.
- tyfon 7y agoAlso when you take into account that the moon is formed from the outer layers of the earth it lacks a lot of the heavy elements like iron that the Earth has in it's core making the mass about 1.2% of the mass of the Earth [1]. It's much smaller compared to the earth than you would think just by looking at it but it is still a very large moon for a planet the size of the Earth. "Of all the moons of the eight planets, Earth's moon is by far the largest relative to its planet, with a diameter of 3476 km and hence a ratio to Earth's diameter of 0.2764. By comparison, the next largest moon relative to a major planet (Triton of Neptune) has a diameter ratio of just .0546." [2] The moon is also larger than Pluto (in the same reference as above) :) [1] https://www.universetoday.com/20489/moon-compared-to-earth/ https://www.universetoday.com/20489/moon-compared-to-earth/ [2] https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Astronomy/Planetary_Moons https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/General_Astronomy/Planetary_Mo...
- jerf 7y agoIf we're going down to that level of pedentry (and why not?), the Earth is not a planet in that sense, it's part of a double-planet system.
- beckingz 7y ago
- tyfon 7y agoOne of the facinating things about this is that simulations show that it "may have been captured by Earth around 2016–2017" [1]. In 2017 we had a visitor from outer space called ʻOumuamua :) This new object is also about 2-3.5 meters according to wikipedia so I want someone to send a ship to capture this Van Neumann probe [2]! (Yes I know it's not likely but it is cool to think about) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_CD3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_CD3 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft
- ASalazarMX 7y agoWhy are space agencies not scrambling to capture this one? It's a 5 ton virgin asteroid, the scientific value must be high. Also, practicing emergency missions would prepare us for investigation of unusual objects like Oumuamua.
- taborj 7y agoPaging Elon Musk...
- galkk 7y agoAssuming that this isn't space Tesla, I'm curious how much damage it could bring to Earth if it hit it
- azernik 7y agoZero damage. It weighs about 5T and has a diameter of a couple of meters - smaller than a lot of artificial satellites that have reentered.
- droithomme 7y agoLikely very little to none. Something that size mostly burns up in the atmosphere. Maybe a schoolboy would be slightly singed by a pebble while walking home. https://www.space.com/6833-boy-hit-meteorite.html https://www.space.com/6833-boy-hit-meteorite.html Famous previous case: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_(meteorite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylacauga_(meteorite)
- kuu 7y agoElon said "Not mine": https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1232748533486276608 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1232748533486276608 :)
- droithomme 7y agoNot really but kind of. In the same way we have hundreds of thousands of small satellite bodies.
- peteradio 7y ago"Earth has acquired a brand new moon that's about the size of a car" fuckin elon
- GoOnThenDoTell 7y agoMust be someone else’s car, Elon Musk has his in a heliocentric orbit
- pvaldes 7y agoDude, where is my car? Maybe is a spy satellite trying to fix the seti canal TV. They must be worried by the sudden lack of signal In any case if is this tiny shouldn't be named a moon. I want to propose the term "miin" that seems more accurate.
- taneq 7y agoIf that's a moon then so's the ISS.
- justlexi93 7y agoA tiny asteroid captures the attention of astronomers that may have been around for a year, but will be gone in the spring.
- wjmao88 7y agoSo now any space station can claim to be "moon-sized fortress"
- overcast 7y agoThat's no moon!
- SketchySeaBeast 7y agoIs there a petition to rename the ISS "The Death Star" yet?
- TwoBit 7y agoI imagine this mini moon could be ejected from orbit if it gets sling shot by the moon in the right way.
- dfsegoat 7y agoThat’s no moon...
- thdrdt 7y agoThis also happened in 2006. The 'moon' 2006 RH120 stayed with us for about 11 months.
- nickm12 7y agoIt's technically correct, but let's not cheapen the word moon for this rock. "Natural satellite" will do.
- pferde 7y agoSo, not Luna, but a diminutive Lunita? :)
- singularity2001 7y agoLuniculum
- locopati 7y agolunatic
- RappingBoomer 7y agoour Great Moons and our Great Stock Market will never fall!