Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAce
That's what I saw. It says it is in a 1:1 resonant orbit with the Earth, which means it goes around the sun 1 time for every 1 time we go around the sun. I think the term "second moon" is only because it approaches so closely (.1AU). Reading about it and watching the simulations, it is clearly not orbiting the Earth as we keep passing through its orbital plane.
SpaceAce
|
The simulations seemed very strange to me, as well... But I don't think that just beacuse it is close to the Earth's orbit around the sun that it is considered a moon of Earth's... It should be shown to orbit the earth. There are two moons going around Jupiter or Saturn that swap places every orbit when they get close, so they are sort of orbting each other according to the definition you gave there... but they are considered two moons of Jupiter (or Saturn, I can't remember which). It's really weird... To be honest, according to the sims, this second moon does not appear to be a moon of Earth's... I wish I knew more about it. They have categorized it as Earth's second moon, though... back in 1986, I believe.