Scientists have found a satellite of the sun that’s been our constant companion for more than 100 years.
Because of the way the space rock wobbles in orbit, it actually circles our own planet in addition to circling the sun.
Meet 2016 HO3, the little asteroid companion we never knew we had. The celestial object was discovered in April using the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii.
Because 2016 HO3’s orbital plane wobbles like a hula hoop slowly settling onto the ground, it leapfrogs up and over Earth as both bodies make their way around the sun.
“Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth,” said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
2016 HO3 has a diameter somewhere between 120 and 300 feet, scientists estimate.
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