374E-408-Earth's Pet Rock

On it's gravitational leash, Earth's pet space rock, 2016 HO3, accompanies us at a distance of between 38 and 100 times the Moon's distance from Earth as we both travel about the Sun. As this tiny asteroid orbits the Sun it spends about half of it's time inside the Earth's orbit where it moves faster and passes ahead of us and the other half of it's yearly path outside of our orbit which causes it to lag behind our home planet. Since it's discovery little has been known about Earth's pet space rock leaving some to speculate that perhaps it is an old rocket booster or other piece of space junk. To answer this question, Dr. Vishnu Reddy of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory headed up a team of astronomers who used the University of Arizona's Large Binocular Telescope and the Discovery Channel's Telescope to determine some of it's properties. This team of researchers found that 2016 HO3 is indeed a natural object about 100 to 300 feet in diameter, rotates about once every 28 minutes, and is made of material similar to meteorites which have landed on Earth. Our pet space rock, 2016 HO3, has apparently been in it's present relationship to Earth for a hundred years and is likely to remain so for hundreds of years to come. Even though 2016 HO3 is not gravitationally bound to the Earth, the combination of the Sun's and Earth's gravitational pulls keeps it relatively near making it easy to reach and thus is an ideal candidate for visits by human or robotic spacecraft.

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Jaksot(1000)

402E-443-Unsung Heroes

In 2017 observers in 50 countries at 440 different observatories made nearly 19 million observations of asteroids and comets which enable scientists to calculate where about 800,000 objects will be in...

18 Elo 2min

912-Boston Bolide

Recently on a Saturday afternoon a loud double booming sound startled residents of Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a large bolide meteor exploded high above. This type of space rock is a message fr...

14 Elo 2min

401E-442-Brian's Debut

During the only 3 clears hours of his first night solo as an asteroid hunter, my new Catalina Sky Survey teammate Brian Africano discovered two new Earth approaching asteroids with our Schmidt Telesco...

11 Elo 2min

911-Comet Brightness Explosion

Comet 220P/McNaught orbits the Sun once every 5.5 years on a path which is between Mars and Jupiter. At that extreme distance, more than 1.5 times the Earth’s distance from the Sun, it still receives ...

7 Elo 2min

400E-441-Carson's Pair

My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls was observing, in the constellation Lynx, with our Schmidt telescope on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona , when within the space of only 35 minutes, he discovered two s...

4 Elo 2min

910-Mega Constellations

In an experiment that will involve all of the residents of planet Earth SpaceX has asked the FCC for permission to launch 1 million satellites into low Earth orbit to create a solar powered data cente...

31 Heinä 2min

399E-440-Tracking Elon's Car

Elon Musk decided not to use a traditional mundane concrete block dummy payload for the first launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle to test his rockets lifting capabilities. After orbiting ...

28 Heinä 2min

909- 2026 JH2

My Catalina Sky Survey teammates Josh Hogan and Alessandra Serrano were asteroid hunting in the constellation of Ursa Major when they discovered a fast moving point of light in the night sky. My team...

24 Heinä 2min