Silently "accompanied" for 4,000 years, another "companion" of the earth was discovered! How does the moon look?

Xinhua News Agency, February 3 news, around the sun rotation journey, the earth is not only accompanied by the moon. The researchers also found an asteroid that accompanies Earth. The asteroid, numbered 2020 XL5, is about 1.2 kilometers in diameter and began to accompany Earth about 500 to 1,000 years ago, will orbit with the Earth for at least 4,000 years, and will not pose a threat to Earth.

Image source: Visual China (picture and text independent)

Researchers in Spain and the United States announced the findings in a paper published in the British journal Nature Communications on February 1. Using telescope observations from places such as Chile, the United States and Spain, they described the main features of the 2020 XL5 with the help of computer model analysis.

The researchers say XL5, discovered in December 2020, was originally an asteroid "wandering" in the solar system, captured by Earth's gravity about 500 to 1,000 years ago to orbit the Sun in the same orbit as Earth, and is one of two Trojan asteroids currently known to Earth. In astronomy, such special asteroids with the same orbit as the planets are called Trojan asteroids.

Among the planets of the solar system, Jupiter, Mars and Neptune have successively discovered Trojan asteroids, while Earth's first Trojan asteroid was discovered in 2011, numbered 2010 TK7, with a diameter of about 400 meters.

Study lead author Tony Santana-Ross, a planetary scientist at the University of Alicante and the University of Barcelona in Spain, said that XL5 2020 is the most common C-type asteroid in the solar system, with compositions including carbon and some minerals, and a blackened color.

Cesar Briceño, a researcher at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, said 2020 XL5 poses no threat to Earth and is expected to operate in its current orbit for at least 4,000 years. It is currently located at lagrangian point, the fourth of the solar-terrestrial system, between 90 million and 270 million km in front of the Earth.

Santana-Ross said Jupiter has a huge gravitational pull due to its massive mass, with nearly 10,000 Trojan asteroids. Earth's gravitational situation is more complex, interfering with the gravitational pull of Venus, Mars, and even the Moon. Reuters quoted him as reporting that gravitational interference will allow 2020 XL5 to finally escape the fourth Lagrange point and leave Earth.

The researchers speculate that Earth may have more Trojan asteroids, but since they are usually located at the fourth or fifth Lagrangian point of the helio-Terrestrial system, they are more difficult to observe from the ground. Still, Santana-Ross says, if large telescopes on Earth look in a direction close to the ground plane at dusk, there may be unexpected discoveries.

Edited | Duan Lian Du Hengfeng

Proofreading | Wang Yuelong

Article source: Xinhua News Agency

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