Earth Has a Long Term Traveling Companion
Unraveling of the wonders in outer space continues with the latest discovery of an asteroid that is expected to keep company with earth, for several hundred years.
The asteroid named Trojan 2010 TK7, is a tiny one that accompanies Earth as we revolve around the Sun, and is only 300 yards across. Along with our Moon, this tiny stowaway asteroid. No need to worry about it crashing into Earth as it is almost 50 plus million miles away and won’t get closer than 12 million.
The asteroid is sort of like having your dog run ahead of you while you’re walking down the road or riding your bike. The dog is smaller and sometimes can’t be seen. Sometimes these objects can’t be seen because they’re obscured from the brightness of the Sun, or with this asteroid sometimes it moves to the opposite side of the Sun. There are other planets in our solar system that have asteroids within their same orbit however there hasn’t been one discovered within Earth’s orbit. This now makes Earth part of a popular planetary club that has an asteroid or asteroids traveling along within their orbits.
This discovery shows that we still have a lot to keep an eye out for regarding astronomy. Our solar system is full of planets, asteroids which are nothing more than small to large rocks that are caught within the orbit of the Sun. We also have comets which are nothing more than ice covered rock or ice and rock bodies of various sizes that travel around the Sun as well. When they come close to the Sun, the heat of the Sun makes the ice on a comet glow and leave a trail of debris behind them. Asteroids, the smaller versions sometimes enter Earth’s atmosphere and become meteors and if not deflected by our atmosphere, they fall to Earth as meteorites. So again, Trojan 2010 TK7 the asteroid that travels along with us on Earth is probably going to become quite a companion and one for further study.
Scientists speculate that Trojan 2010 TK7 is going to be with us as a traveling companion for several hundred years. This may tempt future scientists to try to land an object on the asteroid and use it for experimentation of some kind. Our telescopes are in constant change as new technologies emerge to not only search the universe but also to search the nearby space for dangers and discoveries. We may need to put telescopes on other planets and asteroids or improve on what we have to better detect these solar system objects like Trojan 2010 TK7.
It’s going to be quite an adventure to keep on top of any errant asteroids that may stray dangerously in our path. We need to work out a plan on how to detect, deflect, and destroy any dangerous objects such as big asteroids and comets that might hit Earth or our Moon causing devastation. That’s why this discovery of Trojan 2010 TK7 is like having a laboratory in our own backyard.
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