Other Companions of Earth
Earth has a second companion, asteroid 3753 Cruithne, about 5 km across, in a peculiar type of orbital resonance called an overlapping horseshoe. It is probably only a temporary liaison. Several other small objects have been found in similar orbits. Although these objects are in 1:1 orbital resonance, they are not Earth trojans because each of them does not librate around a definite Sun–Earth Lagrangian point, either L4 or L5.
Read more about this topic: Earth Trojan Asteroid
Famous quotes containing the words companions and/or earth:
“There was never a man born so wise or good, but one or more companions came into the world with him, who delight in his faculty, and report it. I cannot see without awe, that no man thinks alone and no man acts alone, but the divine assessors who came up with him into life,—now under one disguise, now under another,—like a police in citizen’s clothes, walk with him, step for step, through all kingdoms of time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.”
—William James (1842–1910)