[AstroNet] [Fwd: Two moons...]

[Kevin Govender]

Hi all
Please see the query below from Hildegarde regarding Earth's "second 
moon" (called Cruithne).

If any of you have come across this similar question (or even if you 
haven't as yet) you may be interested to know that Cruithne is an 
asteroid (a small rock that goes around the sun) but because it's orbit 
is relatively close to the earth's it appears to have a complicated 
motion around the earth (hence the impression that it is a second moon). 
There's a cool diagram on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3753_Cruithne and 
also a some nice references, check out especially the NASA JPL reference 
which has more data on it.

In short, it's an asteroid near to the earth's orbit - but NOT a second 
moon.

Please continue to send in any queries or interesting things you may 
come across.

Regards
Kevin




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Two moons...
Date: 	Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:05:06 +0200
From: 	Hildegarde Mouton <hsmouton at gmail.com>
To: 	kg at saao.ac.za



Hello Kevin,
 
One of my friends (Etienne Koen, a NASSP student) forwarded me your 
email concerning the "Two moons" on 27 August. I understand why that is 
false, but I want to ask you something else. A couple of months ago I 
watched a British quiz series, Quite Interesting, where they unearth 
interesting facts and disprove facts that we grew up learning. On one of 
the episodes they said that the Earth actually has two moons- the one we 
know and one called "Cruithne". I just wanted to know if that is in fact 
a second moon?
 
Your help will be greatly appreciated seeing that I am now thoroughly 
confused!
 
Kind regards,

-- 
*Hildegarde Mouton*
M.Sc Applied Mathematics (1st year)
University of Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch
South Africa

Cell Phone: +27 (0)72 408 9566
Alternative e-mail: hmouton at dip.sun.ac.za <mailto:hmouton at dip.sun.ac.za>
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