Scientists Discover Asteroid Circling Earth

Scientists have lately discovered a small asteroid has been circling Earth and orbiting together the sun too.

Called as 2016 HO3, the asteroid has been orbiting for about fifty years and may not disappear anytime soon.

Manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, Paul Chodas, said the asteroid has been a stable quasi-satellite of our planet for about a century and it will continue the same circling pattern for centuries.

The asteroid is believed to be between 120 and 300 feet in diameter and is believed not to hit the Earth. It has never got closer to our planet below 9 million miles distance.

It was first discovered on 27 April 2016 by Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey telescope in Haleakala, Hawaii.

NASA said the asteroid cannot be considered as another moon or a satellite as it is very far comparatively. Instead the scientists are called it a “”quasi-satellite.

Our moon is at a distance of about 239,000 miles and having diameter of about 2,000 miles.

Chodas said, “One other asteroid — 2003 YN107 — followed a similar orbital pattern for a while over 10 years ago, but it has since departed our vicinity. This new asteroid is much more locked onto us.”