{"id":452,"date":"2025-08-01T10:03:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T10:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.sciencepicker.com\/?p=452"},"modified":"2025-08-01T10:03:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T10:03:22","slug":"does-earth-have-a-second-moon-know-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/does-earth-have-a-second-moon-know-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Earth have a second moon?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claims have often been made that\nplanet Earth has more than one moon. In the early 19th century, astronomers and\nNASA scientists have sought these other bodies. While the media channels or\npress release might refer to some of the discovered objects as our second or\neven third moon. But the reality is that we have one single moon only. To\nunderstand reality, let\u2019s first understand what makes a moon, a moon.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes the moon, a moon?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A body of a moon must be a natural\nsatellite<\/strong> in orbit around a planet in order to qualify as a true moon<\/strong>.\nBecause a moon must be natural no artificial satellite<\/strong> or spacecraft\norbiting the Earth should be called a moon. There are no restrictions on the moon\u2019s\nsize. Although, most people think of a moon as a round object, there are other smaller\nmoons with irregular shapes. Yet even without a size restriction, there are not\nany objects that really orbit the Earth,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earth Quasi-satellites <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Whenever you read in an article on a newspaper\nor watch some news about tiny-moons or second moons, this usually refers to quasi-satellites<\/strong>.\nWhile quasi-satellites<\/strong> don’t orbit our planet, they are near the planet\nand orbit the Sun<\/a> from the same distance away as us.\nQuasi-satellites are believed to be in 1:1 vibrancy with the Earth, but their\norbit is not tied to the Earth\u2019s gravity or even the Moon. If the moon and\nEarth get suddenly vanished, the orbits of these bodies would be largely\nunaffected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quasi-satellites<\/strong> examples include 2014 OL339, 2016 HO3, 2013 LX28, 2010 SO16, (277810) 2006 FV35, (164207) 2004 GU9, 2002 AA29, and 3753 Cruithne. Some of these quasi-satellites<\/strong> have staying power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3753 Cruithne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cruithne is the noteworthy object most\noften termed as Earth’s second moon<\/strong> and the one most likely to become\none in the future. Cruithne is an asteroid having a width of approximately 5\nkilometers, which was discovered in 1986. It’s a quasi-satellite that doesn\u2019t orbit\nEarth but orbits Sun. But at the time of its discovery, its complex orbit made\nit appear that it might be something known as the true moon. Cruithne’s orbit\nis affected by Earth’s gravity, though. At present, the Earth and the asteroid\nreturn to about the same position relative to each other every year. Cruithne\nwon’t collide with the Earth because its orbit is inclined to ours. In another\n5,000 years or so, the Cruithne orbit will change. At that time, it might truly\norbit the Earth and be recognized as a true moon. But still, it will only be a temporary\nmoon<\/strong>, escaping after another 3,000 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Short-term Satellites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\n\nIf you’re okay with a moon being a temporary\nvisitor, then there are small objects continuously orbiting the Earth that\nmight be considered as true moons. According to Mikael Ganvik, Robert Jedicke,\nand Jeremie Vaubaillon, who are astrophysicists, there is at least one natural\nobject around 1-meter in diameter orbiting the Earth at any given time. Usually,\nthese short-term moons remain in the orbit for several months before vanishing\nagain or falling to our planet as a meteor.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claims have often been made that planet Earth has more than one moon. In the early 19th century, astronomers and NASA scientists have sought these other bodies. While the media channels or press release might refer to some of the discovered objects as our second or even third moon. But the reality is that we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-and-astronomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":762,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science-pickers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}