Hitchhiking in Earth's orbit, asteroid may be with us for 4 000 years - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.

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An asteroid that was discovered riding along in Earth’s orbit is about 1.2 km wide and might remain as a hitchhiker with our planet for at least 4 000 more years while posing no danger, scientists said on Tuesday.

Using observations from telescopes in Chile, Arizona and the Canary Islands, researchers provided the most comprehensive description yet of the asteroid, named 2020 XL5 and first detected two years ago.

Trojan asteroids can be wanderers in the solar system – as appears to be the case with this one – or material left over from their home planet’s formation. These five locales allow for stable orbits due to the competing gravitational forces of Earth and the sun.The only other Trojan asteroid seen around Earth, discovered 12 years ago, also at the L4 point, and called 2010 TK7, is smaller, with a diameter of about 400 meters.2020 XL5, first detected in December 2020 using a telescope in Hawaii, may have been captured by Earth’s gravitational pull somewhere between 500 to 1 000 years ago, Santana-Ros said.

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