{"id":47092,"date":"2016-06-16T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T00:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=47092"},"modified":"2019-02-07T16:30:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-08T02:30:37","slug":"newly-discovered-asteroid-is-earths-companion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2016\/06\/16\/newly-discovered-asteroid-is-earths-companion\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly discovered asteroid is Earth\u2019s companion"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> &lt; 1<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minute<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oO-xsqlGipo?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"Youtube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Astronomers at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifa.hawaii.edu\/\">Institute for Astronomy<\/a> discovered a small asteroid that has been in an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth. The asteroid, designated 2016 <abbr title=\"code name\">HO3<\/abbr>, was detected in April by the <a href=\"http:\/\/pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu\/public\/\"><abbr Title=\" Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System\">Pan-STARRS<\/abbr><\/a> telescope on Haleakal&#257;, and subsequent research into <abbr>Pan-STARRS<\/abbr> archives revealed faint images of it as far back as 2011.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_47105\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-47105\" style=\"width: 260px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-ifa-asteroid2016HO3-260x151.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"151\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-47105\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-ifa-asteroid2016HO3-260x151.jpg 260w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-ifa-asteroid2016HO3.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 260px) 100vw, 260px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-47105\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Asteroid 2016 <abbr>HO3<\/abbr> has an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth. Credit: <abbr title=\"National Aeronautics and Space Administration\">>NASA<\/abbr>\/<abbr title=\"Jet Propulsion Laboratory\">JPL<\/abbr>-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&ldquo;It was a very interesting object because it appeared to be very close to the Earth but it appeared to be almost possibly a satellite of the Earth or a quasi satellite of the Earth,&rdquo; said <abbr title=\"Institute for Astronomy\">IfA<\/abbr> astronomer <strong>Richard Wainscoat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Collaborating with <abbr>NASA<\/abbr> researchers from other telescopes, the <abbr>Pan-STARRS<\/abbr> astronomers worked out how the new asteroid behaves. As it orbits the sun, 2016 <abbr>HO3<\/abbr> appears to circle around Earth as well. It is too distant to be considered a true satellite of Earth, but it is the best and most stable example to date of a near-Earth companion, or quasi-satellite. Because of its stable orbit, 2016 <abbr>HO3<\/abbr> poses no danger to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The object may be of interest for future space missions (including both robotic and human) because its velocity relative to Earth is quite low, making it is relatively easy to get to,&rdquo; said Wainscoat. &ldquo;It is much further away than the Moon, but much closer than Mars. This could be a bridge to getting to Mars, getting to this object.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Read more about 2016 <abbr>HO3<\/abbr> at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jpl.nasa.gov\/news\/news.php?feature=6537\"><abbr>NASA<\/abbr> news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><abbr>NASA<\/abbr> Jet Propulsion Laboratory video<\/h2>\n<div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SbbAnVU4rmY?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Institute for Astronomy researchers discover an asteroid close to Earth that follows the planet around the Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":47127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[34,35,36,9,56],"class_list":["post-47092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-astronomy","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-pan-starrs","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/manoa-ifa-panstarr-telescope-f.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47092"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84660,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47092\/revisions\/84660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}