Earth apparently has a new cosmic object companion, as a new asteroid was detected that orbits around the Sun and also follows the orbit of Earth, where astronomers believe that this will continue to do so for hundreds of years more.

This new asteroid known as 2016 HO3 is now circling around Earth, however it might be too distant to be considered as a true, natural satellite of the planet, as scientists dub this as a "quasi satellite".

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According to NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Paul Chodas, this asteroid is now looping around our planet, however, it also does not venture very far away, as both the Earth and this quasi satellite orbits around the sun.

New findings also reveal that 2016 HO3  has already been a stable quasi satellite of Earth for more than a hundred years now, in which it will continue to do so in this pattern for centuries.

During half of the time asteroid  2016 HO3 orbits around the sun, it is also half as close compared to the distance of Earth from the sun and half of the time, it is also half as farther away from Earth's distance from the sun. It also possesses an odd orbit, that is tilting a bit, making it bob up and down each year Earth's gravity affects its orbit.

Over the decades, this asteroid also experiences a twisted back and forth orbit. Chodas describes this orbit as looping a little bit ahead and behind from Earth's orbit every year, however, the gravitational forces of Earth is powerful enough to reverse this drift that the asteroid does not stray away from more than 100 times the distance of the moon, resulting in a "little dance" with our planet.

This asteroid is estimated to measure more than 120 feet but less than 300 feet in diameter. This was also first detected just last April by the Pan-STARRS 1 asteroid survey in Haleakala, Hawaii, in the Institute for Astronomy of Hawaii.

Tagsearth two moons, earth constant companion, earth small asteroid, asteroids, quasi satellite, NASA JPL, NASA NEO