From an observatory in the Hako mountains, in Namibia, in mid-2022 a group of amateurs captured an object orbiting the Earth, which turned out to be an asteroid that experts called minimoon 2022 NX1, reported a study published recently by the Astronomy & Astrophysics magazine.
According to the results of the investigation, carried out by a Spanish team, the object had already been temporarily seen around the planet for three decades.
The specialists’ calculations indicate that the asteroid had passed close to Earth in 1981, and they also estimate that it will approach again in the years 2051 and 2052, as well as in the 1970s, at which time they believe that NX1’s orbit will be placed on a collision course with Earth.
“As a consequence of the close encounter at the end of that year or at the beginning of 2052, its subsequent trajectory could be altered in such a way that it would have a certain probability of colliding with the Earth from December 2075,” said Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, author of the study and member of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain.
However, they are almost certain that the asteroid would fall into the sea and would not cause catastrophes, since the object only measures between 5 and 15 meters when compared to the size of the asteroid that caused the Chelyabinsk superbolide in Russia.
The superbolide of February 15, 2013 was caused by an asteroid of about 20 meters and about 13,000 tons that burst into the atmosphere that, at a speed of more than 18 km/s, impacted Chelyabinsk. The event left more than 3,600 buildings damaged and at least 1,200 people injured.
Trajectory.
So far, studies suggest that 2022 NX1 is rocky, so it is not space junk, like the remains of a rocket, although that was the theory that was put forward in July of last year after it was discovered by amateurs at the observatory. from Hakos, Namibia.
Another approach was that it was a piece of material from the Moon, but it was determined that it was not and that it was not a natural satellite that resembles the Moon either.
In August 2022, he cites the study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, astronomers from the UCM together with those from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, observed the object with a spectrograph and image generator from the Gran Telescopio Canarias, on the island of La Palma, and they concluded that it is an asteroid.
In relation to this, de la Fuente Marcos explained that the asteroid does not revolve around the planet like the Moon, but moves in a horseshoe trajectory. This means that the asteroid orbits the Sun like a horseshoe, that is, it is entwined with the Earth and occasionally the planet’s gravity pulls it out of its orbit, causing it to circle the planet temporarily as if it were a small natural satellite. That’s why it’s called a mini moon.
The NX1 minimoon completes its path around the Sun in 365 days, the same as Earth, and travels at the same speed.
History
Minimoons have been a theory since the 1960s, but 2006 was the first time the presence of one was confirmed, RH120, which is about six meters in size. Astronomers define minimoons as objects that orbit in an elliptical fashion and are not satellites or regular moons because they are smaller in size, as well as in mass.
In addition, they are usually very difficult to detect, so they go undetected by Earth surveillance devices and methods. After RH120, several minimoons have been identified and the projection is that there are many.
Experts believe that these celestial objects are of great importance for research, since it would continue to investigate how the formation occurs and how planetary systems evolve.
Other asteroids such as Cruithne 3753, AA 29 2002, YN 107 2003, Yorp 54509 and UP1 1998 are also known to have briefly occupied the same orbit with planet Earth.
The same thing happens with other planets, such as two of Saturn’s satellites, Epimetheus and Janus, which occupy a relative orbit with respect to each other. Some studies indicate that in the case of Saturn there are more than 150 small moons between its rings.
Likewise, in the year 2020, astronomers detected an object that they called 2020 SW, and which had particular characteristics in relation to its trajectory and speed because, unlike the mini-moons, it seemed to have an orbit similar to that of the Earth, and its low speed implied that it was not natural, but an artificial object created by human beings.
Data
- Background. Until 2022 there was only a record of three minimoons, which are 2006 RH120, 2020 CD3 and 1991 VG. The first two completed several turns and orbits around the Earth, and 1991 VG has not completed one spin.
- Collision. The experts of the study on the minimoon 2022 NX1 indicate that the probability that it impacts the sea in 2070 is greater than 70%.