by Nancy Atkinson on April 6, 2011
In this graphic of a horseshoe orbit from NASA, Horseshoe orbits follow contour lines that enclose Lagrange points L3, L4 & L5. Credit: NASA
There are plenty of near-Earth asteroids out there, but this latest one studied by two researchers at Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland is extremely rare in that it has a weird, horseshoe-shaped orbit. Not that Asteroid 2010 SO16 does an about-face and turns around in mid-orbit — no, the asteroid always orbits the Sun in the same direction. But because of its unique orbital path and the gravitational effects from both the Earth and the Sun, it goes through a cycle of catching up with the Earth and falling behind, so that from our perspective here on Earth, its movement relative to both the Sun and the Earth traces a shape like the outline of a horseshoe: it appears to approach, then shift orbit, and go farther away without ever passing Earth.
[click to continue…] Related> Dailymail Earth-joined-giant-asteroid-sun-unusual-horseshoe-pattern
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Horsehocky….a)its running under its own steam.
b)it also has severe curvature of the spine.
c)i love lasagna
Lol, I go for c.
I imagine with an orbit that bent it has to be political,either that it was caused by climate change.
oooo, i pick C
Holy shit! A BARRACUDA posting that’s actually factual!? THE END IS NEAR!
Regardless, these asteroids are pretty neat. This isn’t the first one discovered either, which was Cruithne. Saturn and Jupiter also have moons that follow similar orbits around their parent.