Romain Rouillard 17:25 pm, April 18, 2023
Astronomers recently discovered an asteroid located more than 10 million kilometers from Earth and orbiting the Sun, following the same path as our planet. Named 2023 FW-13 and described as a "quasi-moon", this celestial object could accompany us for 1,700 years.Does our Moon have a distant cousin in space? This is in any case what suggests this discovery by the amateur astronomer Tony Dunn, confirming the data provided by the telescopes. Located more than 10 million kilometers from Earth, 25 times farther than the Moon, this asteroid follows the path of the Earth around the Sun and thus acts as a "quasi-moon" or a "quasi-satellite" of the blue planet.
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Initially, the object was simply supposed to orbit the Sun but its passage close to the Earth would have caused a disturbance of its orbit. "This asteroid is in 1:1 resonance with the Earth, that is to say that it takes as long as the Earth to go around the Sun," says science journalist Adrien Coffinet in an article in Futura-sciences. Nevertheless, the gravitational force of the Earth, compared to that of the Sun, plays only a minor role in the path of this giant stone. Enough, however, to accompany our planet on its journey for about 1,700 years, according to calculations by French and American amateur astronomers.
No danger on the horizon
Much smaller than the Moon - only a few tens of meters in diameter - 2023 FW13 does not always keep the same distance from Earth. The asteroid "regularly passes a few million kilometers from the Earth, a position favorable to its observation," says Adrien Coffinet. He added: "What is interesting is the repetition of these connections: between 2019 and 2027, it has passed and will pass each year within 15 million kilometers of our planet."
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Should we then be worried? Not in the least, according to the American astronomer Alan Harris, with the specialized site Sky & Telescope. "The good news is that such an orbit does not translate into an impactful trajectory unexpectedly," he explains. No risk, therefore, of collision with the blue planet. If various similar objects have already been seen around the Earth in recent years, this type of discovery remains "relatively rare since we know only a dozen asteroids that are, have been or will be in this configuration".
On the other hand, this celestial body could act as a "stepping stone" to Mars, notes Richard Binzel, an asteroid specialist in Sky & Telescope. Taking advantage of a rather low travel speed, due to the quasi-correspondence of its orbit with that of the Earth, 2023 FW13 could therefore be reached by spacecraft in just a few months.