This link describes and asteroid that is apparently permanently in approximately url=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2347663.stm”] the same orbit as the earth It was discovered near its point of closest approach in orbit ahead of the earth.
Apparently it is in orbit ahead of the earth, going slightly slower than the earth, until a certain critical separation is reached, then it accelerates enough that it speeds up to slightly faster than earth. 95 years later it has caught up with the earth and again approaches but now in orbit behind the earth. The close approach now slows it and it reverses direction relative to the earth which then catches up in another 95 years, etc.
I’m fuzzy as to why these close approaches alternately slow it down and speed it up. Maybe some of your orbital dynamics experts can explain it.
Gravity not only sucks, but blows as well?
This article: www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=8834
says that it’s “close to being trapped” by the Earth.
But otherwise apparently it’s still mostly under the control of the sun. Why it reverses . . . I don’t know. Something to do with the moon?
Simon P. Worden, Brigader General, US Space Command (I’d forgotten we had such a thing . . .) says it would be good to capture so as to avoid mistaking an asteriod for a nuclear weapon. Uh-huh.
Yeah, it’d be awfully embarassing going into the afterlife, proclaiming, “Well, I just got nuked. I suppose there are gonna be a whole lot more of us coming any minute now…”
Only to have someone tell you, “Uh, dude, you didn’t get nuked, you got stoned.”
[sub]Personally, I think it’d be good to capture it so as to avoid getting dead and embarrassed.[/sub]
Argh… Here is the text which should be below that quote:
Strangely space does neither, but both. heh.
Arrgh, we’re all gonna die!!!
Wait, how big is this asteroid?