Wednesday, February 26, 2020

New moon - temporarily


The title of this post is not about the orbital alignment that happens once about every 28 days, when the big Moon that orbits the Earth gets between the Earth and the Sun, and hence can't be seen because the dark side is facing us earthlings.  This is when lunar eclipses can happen, but they don't happen that often.

No, this is about a discovery that I just read about, that Earth picked up a little temporary moon in the form of an asteroidal rock.   I first saw the article in the Daily Mail, but I figured something about it that was more scientifically authoritative would be a better link to share.

Earth's got a new moon - here's what to expect

There's no way to predict how long this little visitor will be hanging around our home planet, but I think they ought to give it a name while it's here, other than its designation, which is 2020 CD₃.

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