Categories: Asteroids

Asteroid Found to Match Earth’s Orbit

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid in a companion orbit to the Earth. Named 2002 AA29, this 100 metre asteroid was discovered by the linear automated sky survey project in January. Although objects have been found to share the orbits of other planets, none have ever been found for the Earth. You don’t have to worry about it hitting the planet, though, as calculations of its orbit have determined that 2002 AA29 will never come closer than 4.5 million kilometres (12 times the distance from the Earth to the moon).

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast with Dr. Pamela Gay. Here's a link to my Mastodon account.

Recent Posts

Psyche is Still Sending Data Home at Broadband Speeds

When I heard about this I felt an amused twinge of envy. Over the last…

4 hours ago

Uh oh. Hubble's Having Gyro Problems Again

The Hubble Space Telescope has gone through its share of gyroscopes in its 34-year history…

10 hours ago

Astronomers Will Get Gravitational Wave Alerts Within 30 Seconds

Any event in the cosmos generates gravitational waves, the bigger the event, the more disturbance.…

2 days ago

Next Generation Ion Engines Will Be Extremely Powerful

During the Space Race, scientists in both the United States and the Soviet Union investigated…

2 days ago

Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes

The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers have tried to…

2 days ago

Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night

Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too…

3 days ago