[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Fw: Asteroid 3753 (1986 TO)


-----Original Message-----
From: Bernd Pauli HD <bernd.pauli@lehrer1.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
To: Meteorite List <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 1999 4:32 PM
Subject: Asteroid 3753 (1986 TO)


Hi Ron and list,

According to this article , the asteroid's peculiar horseshoe orbit is based
upon the very interactions it has with the Earth/Moon system and the Sun.
I concluded that these interactions were based on gravitational influences
at given positions of the four objects stated in the report,( and probably
others)
i.e., Earth, Moon, Asteroid 3753 and the Sun.  I have a question below the
article.

|Astronomy, March 1998, p. 30:
|
|Solar System: Asteroid Shares Orbit with Earth
|
|How many natural companions does Earth have? If you thought there was
|just one, the moon, then you're in for a surprise. Planetary scientists
|have recently discovered a second - this one an asteroid. However, the
|new companion doesn't orbit Earth on a nice elliptical path like the
|moon but instead follows a complex, horseshoe-shaped path.
|Asteroid 3753, also known as 1986 TO, is not a second moon of Earth but
|instead plays the role of a "traveling companion." Its complicated
|movement, which involves interactions with both the Earth-moon system
|and the sun, was discovered by Paul Wiegert and Kimmo Innanen of York
|University in Ontario, Canada, and Seppo Mikkola of Tuorla Observatory
|in Piikkiö, Finland.
|The asteroid is in a spiraling horseshoe orbit. To envision a simple
|horseshoe orbit, think of a three-lane, circular race track. Earth is a
|large truck traveling at constant speed in the middle lane and the
|asteroid is a car moving a little slower in the outer lane. Just before
|the truck is ready to pass, the car switches to the inner lane and
|speeds up. It then starts to pull away from the truck but, being on a
|circular track, the car eventually catches up from behind. just before
|it passes the truck, however, it again switches to the outer lane and
|slows down. Then the whole pattern repeats. In the case of 3753, the
|asteroid's path spirals as it performs these maneuvers.
|The asteroid won't stay in this relationship forever. Over the course of
|thousands of years, gravitational interactions with Venus, Mars, and
|Jupiter will eject it from its current orbit. "Having waltzed with Earth
|for thousands of years," says Wiegert, "it may go looking for a new
|dance partner."
|
Ron wrote:

">there's no connection to our moon with Asteroid 3753.
The only shepherd moons are around Saturn, and they're shepherding
Saturn's rings"

|So if our moon has no connection, why did they include the Earth/Moon
system as a whole as influencing the asteroid's orbit?  Why not just the
Earth?  It
must be the combination that affects it.  Am I correct to deduce that the
influence these objects have over the named asteroid is gravitational in
nature given it's speeding up and slowing down as if being repelled and/or
attracted?  At what distance is the asteroid?

Further, I used the term Shepherd as correlating the existence of this
asteroid as being a possible reminent of planetary rings around the Earth.
I used probably misstated it but so I looked up the definition of shepherd
satellite :  The gravitational influence of a moon in orbit near the edge of
a planetary ring can have the effect of repelling the ring material. This
"shepherding" effect has been found to confine a number of rings in the
solar system, and the moons that do the shepherding are called shepherd
satellites. "  Do you see that this asteroid is suspiciously (possibly) a
reminent of a ring around Earth?  Correct me where I am wrong:-)

Best,
Julia
|
|Best regards,
Julia
|
|----------
|Archives located at:
|http://www.meteoritecentral.com/list_best.html
|
|For help, FAQ's and sub. info. visit:
|http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing_list.html
|----------
|
|









----------
Archives located at:
http://www.meteoritecentral.com/list_best.html

For help, FAQ's and sub. info. visit:
http://www.meteoritecentral.com/mailing_list.html
----------
Follow-Ups: