Far out cosmology: Earth has two dust cloud moons! (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, November 11, 2018, 04:36 (1993 days ago) @ David Turell

Actually discovered many years ago, but now confirmed:

https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/earth-has-hidden-moon

"Hungarian astronomers have proven the existence of two "pseudo-satellites" in orbit around the earth.

These dust clouds were first discovered in the sixties, but are so difficult to spot that scientists have debated their existence since then.

"The findings may be used to decide where to put satellites in the future and will have to be considered when interplanetary space missions are undertaken.

"After more than fifty years of stargazing, debate, and controversy, scientists have confirmed the existence of two "moons" or "pseudo-satellites" made of dust orbiting the Earth. Though the clever use of mathematics, they also argue that the location of these dust clouds gives them some unique characteristics.

"The Kordylewski clouds are two dust clouds first observed by Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski in 1961. They are situated at two of the Lagrange points in Earth's orbit. These points are locations where the gravity of two objects, such as the Earth and the Moon or a planet and the Sun, equals the centripetal required to orbit the objects while staying in the same relative position. There are five of these spots between the Earth and Moon. The clouds rest at what are called points four and five, forming a triangle with the clouds and the Earth at the three corners.

"The clouds are enormous, taking up the same space in the night sky as twenty lunar discs; covering an area of 45,000 miles. They are roughly 250,000 miles away, about the same distance from us as the Moon. They are entirely comprised of specks of dust which reflect the light of the sun so faintly most astronomers that looked for them were unable to see them at all.

"The clouds themselves are probably ancient, but the model that the scientists created to learn about them suggests that the individual dust particles that comprise them can be blown away by solar wind and replaced by the dust from other cosmic sources like comet tails. This means that the clouds hardly move but are eternally changing.

***

"Lagrange points have been put forward as excellent locations for a space station or satellites like the James Webb Telescope to be put into orbit, as they would require little fuel to stay in place. Knowing about a massive dust cloud that could damage sensitive equipment already being there could save money and lives in the future. While we only know about the clouds at Lagrange points four and five right now, the study's authors suggest there could be more at the other points."

Comment: presented as points of interest. There is still much to discover.