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Originally Posted by Argos
I confess I never heard about Cruithne (our minor moon, as I learned early this morning) and its curious name.
From the site I linked:
The number 3753 is just its official number in the catalogue of known asteroids. The name "Cruithne" was given to it by its discoverers, and refers the first Celtic racio-tribal group to come to the British Isles, appearing between about 800 and 500 B.C., and coming from the European continent. They were also known as the Picts. The correct pronunciation for 'Cruithne' is 'croo-een-ya'. The emphasis should be on the -een-". |
I too never heard of it until today. Judging by this website
http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...on_991029.html I'd say it's one of the oddities of the Solar System for sure. In a way, not quite a second moon to Earth, but on the other hand, Earth dictates how it moves. Kind of cool actually.
And yes, the "third" moon of Earth is nothing more than a rather large chunk of space junk, destined to either impact the Moon or burn up in our atmosphere some day. Still, there is always something exciting about our planet recruiting a new neighbour.