Friday 8 April 2011

Asteroid 2010 SO16 - another near-earth space rock

 

DailyMail - Asteroid 2010 SO 16 is in a strange horseshoe type orbit around the Sun. It was discovered in September 2010 by Apostolos Christou and David Asher at Armagh Observatory, N. Ireland. It is a few hundred feet across.
"...At the moment SO16 is travelling at one of its closest approach points and will be visible in the evening sky for several decades to come..."

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Very unusual: Rather than follow its new friend all the way round, SO16 orbits the sun in a horseshoe shape, playing a constant game of catch up with Earth

Newly Discovered Asteroid is Earth's Companion -
Astronomy Now On-line
A 200-400 metre wide asteroid first discovered by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has been found by astronomers at Armagh Observatory to have been following Earth in its orbit for at least a quarter of a million years, and could represent a theorized but not-yet-seen population of asteroid.
2010 SO16's average distance from the Sun is identical to that of the Earth, unlike typical near Earth asteroids (NEAs) that loop through the Solar System on highly elliptical orbits. It is also the largest of Earth’s so-called "horseshoe" asteroids, which mimic closely the orbital motion of our planet around the Sun, but as seen from Earth, appear to slowly trace out a horseshoe shape in space.
"The asteroid takes 175 years to move from one end of the horseshoe to the next," Apostolos “Tolis” Christou tells Astronomy Now. "For example, SO16 was near the leading edge of the horseshoe in the 1830s and before that in the 1660s. Also, its elongation from the Sun (and thus its visibility) is maximum near the ends of the horseshoe."
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http://apparitionsourlady.blogspot.com/2011/04/asteroid-2010-so16-another-near-earth.html

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