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Earth and its satellites: number of objects near the third planet of the solar system. Learn more about the Moon and hypothetical natural satellites of the Earth with photos.
Let's look at the night sky and count the number of earth's satellites. How many satellites does the Earth have you see? Come on, you didn’t even try, because you know that next to us there is only the Moon. But this is strange, because Jupiter can boast a family of 67 members. Why are we worse?
Does the Earth only have one satellite?
It turns out that there is only one satellite in Earth's orbit? Well, officially it is. More precisely, at the moment we have a single satellite. But millions or billions of years ago, there is a chance that there were other neighbors nearby. This is also proven by the strange landscape on the far side of the Moon, which could have been hit by another satellite.
Companions are not immortal. For example, Mars has two, but this will not always be the case. Phobos is gradually approaching and one day it will simply crash into the planet. This should happen in 10 million years.
Perhaps in the future we will add to the earthly list. For example, Neptune's largest moon Triton rotates in the wrong direction and does not correspond to the others. It is believed that the planet pulled it towards itself with gravity from the Kuiper belt.
You may not know, but our planet already caught asteroid 2006 RH120 in its net in 2006-2007, until it broke out again. Or we have satellites that we simply cannot see due to their position, distance from Earth and small size. Millimeter-sized asteroids may be located in Earth's orbit.
Are there any other satellites on Earth?
How many satellites orbit the Earth? Several remarkable celestial bodies live not far from us. Asteroid 3753 Cruithney is in orbital resonance with the third planet from the Sun. His route is eccentric, but he spends a year orbiting the star. It was noticed in 1986 and after that a number of other objects were noted.
2007 TK7 is a Trojan asteroid that rotates in a stable position with us.
So, you know how many satellites the Earth has. The planet has only one Moon, but this is only now. We could have other satellites or will have them in the future. In the meantime, let's enjoy our bright neighbor.
Humanity has only just learned that the Earth has another satellite besides the Moon.
The second satellite of the Earth, astronomers say, differs from the big Moon in that it completes a full revolution around the Earth in 789 years. Its orbit is shaped like a horseshoe, and is located at a distance comparable to the distance from Earth to Mars. The satellite cannot approach our planet closer than 30 million kilometers, which is 30 times further than the distance to the Moon.
Relative motion of the Earth and Cruithne in their orbits.
Scientists say that the Earth's second natural satellite is the near-Earth asteroid Cruithney. Its peculiarity is that it intersects the orbits of three planets: Earth, Mars and Venus.
The diameter of the second Moon is only five kilometers, and this natural satellite of our planet will come to its closest distance to Earth in two thousand years. At the same time, scientists do not expect a collision between the Earth and Cruithne, which has approached our planet.
The satellite will pass from the planet at a distance of 406,385 kilometers. At this moment, the Moon will be located in the constellation Leo. Our planet's satellite will be fully visible, but the size of the Moon will be 13 percent smaller than at the time of its closest approach to the Earth. A collision is not predicted: the Earth's orbit does not intersect anywhere with Cruithney's orbit, since the latter is in a different orbital plane and is inclined to the Earth's orbit at an angle of 19.8 °.
Also, according to experts, in 7899 years our second moon will pass very close to Venus and there is a possibility that Venus will attract it to itself and thereby we will lose “Cruithney”.
The new moon Cruithney was discovered on October 10, 1986 by British amateur astronomer Duncan Waldron. Duncan spotted it in a photograph from the Schmidt telescope. From 1994 to 2015, the maximum annual approach of this asteroid to the Earth occurs in November.
Due to the very large eccentricity, the orbital speed this asteroid changes much more strongly than that of the Earth, so from the point of view of an observer on Earth, if we take the Earth as a reference system and consider it stationary, it turns out that not the asteroid, but its orbit rotates around the Sun, while the asteroid itself begins to describe ahead of the Earth a horseshoe-shaped trajectory, reminiscent of a “bean” in shape, with a period equal to the period of revolution of the asteroid around the Sun - 364 days.
Cruithne will approach Earth again in June 2292. The asteroid will make a series of annual approaches to the Earth at a distance of 12.5 million km, as a result of which there will be a gravitational exchange of orbital energy between the Earth and the asteroid, which will lead to a change in the orbit of the asteroid and Cruitney will again begin to migrate from the Earth, but this time in the other direction , - it will lag behind the Earth.
> How many satellites are there in space?
Find out how many artificial satellites are there in space?: history of space research, launch of the first satellite, number in low-Earth orbit.
On October 4, 1957, the space age began with the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1. He was destined to spend 3 months in orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. Since that moment, many devices have been sent into space: in Earth orbit, around the Moon, around the Sun, other planets, and even beyond the solar system. How many satellites are there in space? There are 1071 operational satellites in Earth orbit alone, 50% of which are US developed.
Half of the satellites are located in low Earth orbit (several hundred km). These include the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and observation satellites. A certain part is located in medium-Earth orbit (20,000 km) - satellites used for navigation. A small group enters an elliptical orbit. The rest rotate in geostationary orbit (36,000 km).
If we could see them with the naked eye, they would appear static. Their presence in a certain geographical area ensures communication stability, continuity of broadcasts and meteorological observations.
But this is not the whole list. There are many artificial objects revolving around the planet. Among this space debris, boosters, inactive satellites, and even parts of ships and suits are visible. It has been estimated that there are approximately 21,000 objects in orbit larger than 10 cm (a small part are operational satellites). 500,000 fragments reach a size of 1-10 cm.
Earth's orbit is so crowded with debris that the International Space Station has to move to avoid dangerous collisions. Scientists are worried that in the near future these fragments will become a serious threat to space launches. It will turn out that we will simply close ourselves off from the entire space with a layer of metal parts.
There are also several satellites around the Moon. In addition, one ship is located near Mercury, one on Venus, 3 on Mars and one near Saturn. The sun is also not alone, although they are located there at a distance that does not allow destruction. In 2013, Voyager left the solar heliosphere and entered the interstellar medium.
It's amazing how many devices we've been able to send over more than half a century. All these missions have expanded knowledge about space, and soon the inhospitable outer space will reveal its secrets. Visit our space debris 3D model page to see how many satellites are currently in space and explore the problem of debris in Earth's orbit.
Wisdom says that "wherever each of us is, we will always see the same Moon..."
Eternal satellite of the Earth
Our planet is one of the wonders of the Universe, which humanity, despite great minds and the latest technologies, has not yet studied. Perhaps we have not learned even half of the secrets that the Earth keeps. And one of the questions that has worried our researchers for centuries is: “How many natural satellites does the Earth have?”
At first glance, this question has a one-word answer: we were taught from childhood that the Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth. But is this really so? Could there be other satellites near the planet that are still unknown to us?
The moon has long been the subject of man's worship, fear and wonder. Today we can confidently say what the Moon looks like and what substances make up the main composition of its surface. However, it still remains a mystery, which perhaps humanity will one day unravel, because the natural satellite of planet Earth continues to be studied.
Numerous moons
In fact, the Moon is far from the only one in the Universe. Each of the planets in our solar system has a certain number of its natural satellites. The Earth can boast of only one “partner”, but Jupiter has as many as 63 of them! The largest of them is called Ganymede.
Pluto's satellite, which was named Charon, is so large compared to the planet itself that astronauts initially mistook this “pair” for a double planet.
The smallest moon found in the Solar System is Dactyl. This baby, just a mile in diameter, is the satellite not of a planet, but of an asteroid. But previously scientists were sure that only planets could have a satellite! Dactyl successfully disproved this theory.
The story of the "birth" of the Moon
According to scientists, the Earth billions of years ago collided with another planet called Theia. For reference: in mythology, Thea is the mother of the moon goddess Selene. As a result of a powerful collision, two planets merged into one, and the fragments that broke off from the celestial body soon formed into a satellite. This explained a lot, but as recently as 2016, scientists disproved this theory. The thing is that the heavy isotopes of potassium found on the Moon could only appear as a result of exposure to incredibly high temperatures. A collision that caused such an effect would lead to the evaporation of a large part of the Earth.
This is interesting! Samples of our Moon indicate that it was once covered with active volcanoes.
In Blavatsky's book The Secret Doctrine there is a theory that the Moon is older than the Earth. It was she who gave her energy and strength to our planet, and she herself turned into its lifeless shadow. This theory is based on the chronology of the Hindus.
In 2017, virtual ufologist George Graham published a new theory about the purpose of the Earth’s natural satellite: they say that the celestial body is hollow inside and is inhabited by aliens. Graham's theory is based on photographs of the satellite's surface taken by NASA's orbital station, which contain images of artificial objects of regular shape.
Another Moon of the Earth
Today, researchers are confident that billions of years ago our Earth had two moons. As you know, the Moon is considered a body formed from the collision of the Earth with Theia. This theory explained the differences between its sides. So, one side, constantly visible to us, has a smooth surface formed by solidified lava, and the second, on the contrary, is covered with multiple mountains. In addition, its bark is much thicker, and its composition is dominated by rare elements.
Today, scientists have decided to expand the hypothesis, suggesting that the Earth was once accompanied by two satellites at once, the collision of which shifted lava flows to the hemisphere visible to us. Of course, this is just a theory, but almost the entire scientific history of our world is a theory.
"Capture" of planets
In 2006, observers discovered an object orbiting the Earth, which, after verification, turned out to be a natural cosmic body. Despite its modest size (only a few meters in diameter), the asteroid qualified as a full-fledged satellite. But before 2007, it left Earth’s orbit.
Experts explain that these temporary satellites are a normal phenomenon. Small asteroids are regularly discovered near the Earth, which disappear from orbit after time. The reasons for such visits are the gravitational force of the Earth and the Moon. Attracted to each other, they capture other cosmic bodies. As it turns out, our planet is always accompanied by some kind of temporary satellite.
Mysterious Lilith
Each of us knows the name of the Earth's natural satellite. Natural and unique. But at the end of the 19th century, astrologer Georg Waltemath from Hamburg announced that he had discovered a whole system of small satellites of the Earth. One of them, according to Valtemata, reached 700 km in diameter and was rarely visible to the naked eye.
In the winter of the same year, postal workers in Germany actually saw a dark object that passed across the Sun. But experts, who at the same time observed the night sky from another part of Germany and Austria, said that they saw nothing on the Sun except spots.
However, in 1918, Walter Hornold rediscovered Valtemata's moon, calling it Lilith. He believed that the masses of the Moon and Lilith were equal, but the latter was very difficult to detect in the sky. But today scientists consider his assumptions to be incorrect, since another satellite with a similar mass would cause a certain reaction from the Moon.
It is noteworthy that in astrology there is such a thing as a black moon. It is used when calculating the horoscope by astrologers and refers to esoteric symbols.
Other Earth satellites
Scientists have been trying for hundreds of years to find out whether the Earth has natural satellites that are invisible to the naked eye, but their orbits are in resonance with our planet (resonance is the vibration of two bodies in unison). Multiple studies have confirmed that our Moon is not the only natural satellite that is located near the Earth.
Despite the fact that only the Moon is a full-fledged natural satellite of the Earth, astronomers often notice other cosmic bodies in the orbit of our planet - the temporary satellites described above. But there are several so-called quasi-satellites.
What are quasi-satellites? This term refers to space objects that are in resonance with the orbit of a planet, which allows them to stay close to it for a long time.
Today, together with the Moon, the Earth has as many as eight satellites. Six of them are considered quasi-satellites, and another belongs to the class of Trojan asteroids. Initially, they revolved around the Sun, but then were attracted by the Earth and are now in a 1:1 resonance with it. As a result, asteroids, together with our planet, make a simultaneous circle around the Sun.
The peculiarity of quasi-satellites is their degree of deviation from their appearance and inclination relative to the plane of the planet. In addition, they are always at the same distance from the Earth. True, their “loyalty” is unstable, and over time they can break the gravitational tandem, which sometimes lasts hundreds of years.
Cruithney Quasi-satellite
The largest quasi-satellite belonging to the rare spectral class Q, discovered in 1986. Cruithney reaches a diameter of 5 kilometers and has a very strange orbital shape. When observing it from Earth, it appears to be moving in a horseshoe shape. At the same time, Krutney crosses the orbits of not only our planet, but also Venus and Mars.
Every year in November, Cruithney comes very close to the Earth, 30 times the distance to the Moon. You can see it with the naked eye - it resembles a dim star. Astronomers have not yet figured out the nature of Cruithne.
Duende - space baby
The quasi-satellite Duende (the name given to creatures from Spanish folklore that resemble a type of elf or dwarf) is the Earth's smallest satellite. It was opened in 2012. Despite its small size (about 30 meters in diameter), Duende comes as close as possible to the Earth. There is an opinion that its approach in 2013 and the flight of the fireball over the Earth are somehow connected, but this opinion has not been confirmed.
Attention! In 2016, another satellite was discovered near the Earth, the diameter of which does not exceed hundreds of meters. It will accompany our planet for several more centuries, and then move away from it. The trajectory of its movement resembles the jump of a frog, as the researchers say.
Conclusion
Other temporary satellites of the Earth do not have names - only numbers. These are satellites that were recently discovered and will be present near our planet for some time. Nobody knows exactly how much.
Currently, the Earth has only one natural satellite - the Moon. But relatively recently - some 6-7 thousand years ago - two moons could be seen above our planet. This is evidenced not only by the myths and traditions of many peoples, but also by geological finds. Blocks of pure iron In the north of Argentina there is the area of Campo del Cielo (translated as “heavenly field”). This name is taken from an ancient Indian legend, which tells about mysterious metal blocks falling from the sky at this place.
Pieces of iron, according to old Spanish chronicles, were found here back in the 16th century. Conquistadors used them to make swords and spears. Particularly lucky was a certain Herman de Miraval, who in 1576, in a rather remote area, among swampy lowlands, came across a huge block of pure iron. The enterprising Spaniard visited her several times and beat off pieces from her for various needs. In 1783, the prefect of one of the provinces, Don Rubin de Celis, organized an expedition to this block and, having discovered it after a long search, estimated its mass at approximately 15 tons. A detailed description of the object has not been preserved, and no one has seen it since then, although attempts to find the block were made more than once. In 1803, a meteorite weighing about a ton was discovered in the vicinity of Campo del Cielo. Its largest fragment (635 kg) was delivered to Buenos Aires in 1813. It was later acquired by the Englishman Sir Woodbine Darish and donated to the British Museum. This block of cosmic iron still rests on a pedestal in front of the museum entrance. Part of its surface is specially polished to show the structure of the metal with the so-called “Widmanstätten figures”, indicating the extraterrestrial origin of the object.
Iron fragments weighing from a few kilograms to many tons are still found in Campo del Cielo and its surroundings. The largest weighed 33.4 tons. It was found in 1980 near the town of Gansedo. American meteorite researcher Robert Hug tried to buy it and take it to the United States, but the Argentine authorities opposed this. Today, this meteorite is considered the second largest among all those discovered on Earth - after the so-called Khoba meteorite, weighing about 60 tons. An unusually large number of meteorites found in a relatively small area suggests that once upon a time a “meteorite shower” fell in this place. rain". Evidence of this, in addition to the finds of the iron objects themselves, is a large number of craters in the Campo del Cielo area. The largest of them is the Laguna Negra crater with a diameter of 115 meters and a depth of more than 5 meters.
A huge meteorite exploded in the atmosphere
In 1961, W. Cassidy, a professor at Columbia University (USA) and the world's largest expert on meteorites, became interested in the findings at Campo del Cielo. The expedition he organized discovered a large number of small metal meteorites - hexaderites, consisting of almost chemically pure iron (96% of it, the rest is nickel, cobalt and phosphorus). Study of other meteorites found at different times in this area reveals the same composition. According to the scientist, this proves that they are all fragments of a single celestial body. Cassidy also drew attention to a strange fact: usually, when a large meteorite explodes in the atmosphere, its fragments fall to the Earth, scattering in an ellipse with a maximum diameter of about 1600 meters. And at Campo del Cielo the length of this diameter is 17 kilometers!
The published preliminary findings from Cassidy's research sparked interest around the world. The scientist was joined by hundreds of volunteer assistants, and as a result, new fragments of meteorite iron were discovered even at a considerable distance from Campo del Cielo, right up to the Pacific coast.
Satellite "two"
But it turned out that the area of finds was even wider. A discovery in Australia has shed unexpected light on the story of the Campo del Cielo meteorite. Here back in 1937, 300 kilometers from the town of Hanbury. In an ancient crater with a diameter of 175 meters and a depth of about 8 meters, an iron meteorite weighing 82 kilograms and several fragments of lesser weight were found. In 1969, they conducted a study of their composition and found that all these fragments are almost identical to the iron meteorites from Campo del Cielo.
Craters in the Hanbury area have been known since the 20s of the last century. There are several dozen of them, the largest of which reaches 200 meters, but most are relatively small - from 9 to 18 meters. During excavations carried out here since the 30s, over 800 fragments of meteorite iron were found in the craters, including four parts of one piece with a total mass of about 200 kilograms.
The final conclusion that Cassidy came to was this: a huge meteorite fell to Earth, but not suddenly. For some time before its fall, this celestial body revolved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, gradually approaching the planet. Being in orbit could last quite a long time - a thousand years or more. However, under the influence of gravity, this second Moon eventually came so close to the Earth that it crossed the so-called Roche limit, after which it entered the atmosphere and broke up into fragments of different sizes, which fell to the surface of the planet.
The approximate date of the disaster was determined by radiocarbon dating - it turned out to be about 5800 years ago. Thus, the catastrophe occurred already within the memory of mankind, in the 4th millennium BC. e., when ancient civilizations began to emerge, leaving behind written monuments. In them we find mythologized references to the second natural satellite of the planet and the catastrophe caused by its fall. For example, the Sumerian clay tablets describe the goddess Innana crossing the sky and emitting a frightening radiance. An echo of the same events is, apparently, the ancient Greek myth of Phaeton.
The luminous celestial body is mentioned in Babylonian, Egyptian, Old Scandinavian sources, and the myths of the peoples of Oceania. The English ethnologist J. Fraser notes that of the 130 Indian tribes of Central and South America, there is not a single one whose myths do not reflect this theme.
“There is nothing surprising in all this,” writes American astronomer M. Papper, “after all, metal meteorites are very clearly visible in flight. Reflecting sunlight, they sparkle much brighter than stone meteorites; As for the large fireball made of pure iron, its luminosity in the night sky should have been brighter than the luminosity of the Moon.”
The elliptical orbit along which the bolide moved suggested that at certain periods this object would pass close to the Earth. At the same time, the fireball came into contact with the upper layers of the atmosphere and became so hot that its shine should have been visible even in daylight. As the object approached our planet, its luminosity increased, causing panic among the population. According to M. Papper, the orbit, which forced the fireball either to heat up when it came into contact with the earth's atmosphere, or, moving away from it, to freeze again in the icy cold of space, led to its destruction into pieces. Judging by the fairly large area over which the fragments were scattered - from South America to Australia - the fireball broke up in orbit and entered the Earth's atmosphere in the form of a string of separate fragments. The fireball could have caused the Great Flood
The largest pieces, according to experts, fell into the Pacific Ocean, causing waves of unprecedented size that could go around the Earth. The legends of the Indians of the Amazon basin say that stars fell from the heavens, there was a terrible roar and roar and everything was plunged into darkness, and then a downpour fell on the earth, which flooded the whole world. “The water rose to a great height,” says one of the Brazilian legends, “and the whole earth was immersed in water. The darkness and rain did not stop. People fled, not knowing where to hide; climbed the tallest trees and mountains.” The Brazilian legend is echoed by the fifth book of the Mayan codex, Chilam Balam: “The stars fell from the sky, crossed out the sky with a fiery trail, the earth was covered with ash, rumbled, trembled and cracked, shaken by tremors. The world was collapsing."
All these legends speak of a catastrophe accompanied by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods. Its epicenter was clearly in the Southern Hemisphere, since the character of the myths changes as one moves north. Legends tell only about a strong flood. It was this event, apparently, that was preserved in the memory of the Sumerians and Babylonians and found its most vivid embodiment in the famous biblical myth of the Flood.
