Earth's Second Moon

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Since prehistoric times, mankind has known about the bright object in the sky that is visible even when the Sun has risen: our Moon. However, in much more recent times we have discovered a second object, 3753 Cruithne (1986 TO), that orbits the Sun in almost exactly the same period as Earth and comes fairly close to Earth. The result of this odd set of circumstances is that, at least from certain points of view, it seems Earth has a second moon with a kidney‐bean shaped orbit.

Contributed by: Jeff Bryant (March 2011)
Suggested by: Ed Pegg Jr
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA


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