{"id":6394,"date":"2015-03-07T17:51:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-08T00:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=6394"},"modified":"2015-03-17T17:56:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-18T00:56:38","slug":"second-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2015\/03\/07\/second-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

from geek.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s mysterious \u2018second moon\u2019 and its odd orbit<\/h1>\n

By\u00a0Graham Templeton<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It sounds like one of those crazy conspiracy theories: There are aliens at Area 51. Abraham Lincoln was a lizard. The Earth has a second, secret moon. However, the last of these is actually pretty widely repeated in scientific circles, though only with a very colloquial definition for the word \u201cmoon.\u201d Though it\u2019s technically a near-Earth asteroid, the astronomical body called 3753 Cruithne spends much of its time following the Earth like our much more famous satellite, Luna.<\/p>\n

First, a quick explanation of why Cruithne is not actually a moon, then an explanation of why many refuse to accept that fact. It\u2019s not a moon because, well, it\u2019s an asteroid. Cruithne orbits the Sun, not the Earth, and its seemingly wonky orbital pattern is definitely not tied to the Earth\u2019s in any satellite-like fashion. By no means is Cruithne actually a secondary body orbiting the Earth \u2014 so why is it so often referred to that way?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0answer is that<\/a>\u00a0Cruithne has a very similar orbital period to the Earth\u2019s, just a day or so\u00a0off at 364 days per cycle. This means that when the astroid happens to be close to the\u00a0Earth<\/a>, it will also happen to\u00a0stay<\/em>\u00a0close to the Earth for quite a while. The tendency of this small celestial body to move in tandem with the Earth, often for long portions\u00a0of the year, has led some to incorrectly dub it our second moon.<\/p>\n

However, though it may take a similar amount of time to loop around our star, Cruithne\u2019s orbit is anything but regular. As seen from an objective viewpoint (above right), it\u2019s easy to see how the two orbits are\u00a0independent of one another. Seen from a more realistic\u00a0perspective, one which keeps the Earth stationary and simulations our view from its surface, shows a very different picture. View the video below, which offers a great three-dimensional look at Cruithne\u2019s so-called \u201chorseshoe orbit.\u201d Seen from this perspective, it\u2019s a lot easier to understand why Cruithne has been so widely mischaracterized as a moon of the Earth.<\/p>\n

[ click to continue reading at geek.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from geek.com Earth\u2019s mysterious \u2018second moon\u2019 and its odd orbit By\u00a0Graham Templeton It sounds like one of those crazy conspiracy theories: There are aliens at Area 51. Abraham Lincoln was a lizard. The Earth has a second, secret moon. However, the last of these is actually pretty widely repeated in scientific circles, though only with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}