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Although the Moon is Earth's only natural satellite, there are a number of near-Earth objects (NEOs) with orbits that are in resonance with Earth. These have been called "second" moons of Earth or "minimoons". [2] [3] 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, an asteroid discovered on 27 April 2016, is possibly the most stable quasi-satellite of Earth. [4]
One complete orbit takes 365.256 days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth has traveled 940 million km (584 million mi). [2] Ignoring the influence of other Solar System bodies, Earth's orbit, also called Earth's revolution, is an ellipse with the Earth–Sun barycenter as one focus with a current eccentricity of 0.0167. Since this value ...
Makemake has one moon, discovered in April 2016. A number of other objects in the Kuiper belt and scattered disk may turn out to be dwarf planets. Orcus, Quaoar, Gonggong, and Sedna are generally agreed to be dwarf planets among astronomers, and all but Sedna are known to have moons. [9]
Some 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth was only 100 million years old or so, a Mars-sized protoplanet named Theia smashed into our planet, ejecting loads that eventually returned to the Earth’s ...
Earth is getting a temporary second "mini moon," a.k.a. the 2024 PT5 asteroid. Here's how you can see it and if it will affect your astrological star sign.
An asteroid called 2020 CD3 was bound to Earth for several years before leaving the planet's orbit in 2020 and another called 2022 NX1 became a mini-moon of Earth in 1981 and 2022 and will return ...
An eclipse of the Moon or Sun can occur when the nodes align with the Sun, roughly every 173.3 days. Lunar orbit inclination also determines eclipses; shadows cross when nodes coincide with full and new moon when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align in three dimensions. In effect, this means that the "tropical year" on the Moon is only 347 days long.
This small difference in the Sun's position against the stars causes any particular spot on Earth's surface to catch up with (and stand directly north or south of) the Sun about four minutes later each day than it would if Earth did not orbit; a day on Earth is therefore 24 hours long rather than the approximately 23-hour 56-minute sidereal day ...