An asteroidal companion to the Earth
@article{Wiegert1997AnAC, title={An asteroidal companion to the Earth}, author={Paul A. Wiegert and Kimmo A. Innanen and Seppo Mikkola}, journal={Nature}, year={1997}, volume={387}, pages={685-686} }
Near-Earth asteroids range in size from a few metres to more than 30 km: in addition to playing an important role in past and present impact rates on the Earth, they might one day be exploited as bases for space exploration or as mineral resources. Many near-Earth asteroids move on orbits crossing that of the Earth, but none has hitherto been identified as a dynamical companion to the Earth. Here we show that the orbit of asteroid 3753 (1986 TO), when viewed in the reference frame centred on…
65 Citations
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