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First Earth Trojan Asteroid Discovered

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 27, 2011 @07:51AM from the little-brother dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "Astronomers have found the very first Earth Trojan asteroid, a rock that more-or-less shares Earth's orbit around the Sun. Seen in data by NASA's WISE mission, 2010 TK7 is about 300 meters across and leads the Earth by 60 degrees around the Sun. Trojans have been seen for Jupiter, Neptune, and Mars, but this is the first for our planet."

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Re:Pluto rules by idontgno · 2011-07-27 08:26 · Score: 1, Interesting

Actually, the Earth-Moon barycenter follows an orbit around the Sun. It just looks like it's Earth's orbit.

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Re:Pluto rules by Anonymous Coward · 2011-07-27 08:27 · Score: 2, Interesting

Planets can clear their orbits by placing things in their Lagrange points. Same way teenagers clean their rooms by shoving everything in the closet or under the bed.