When it passes in 2029, could Apophis technically be captured by Earth’s gravity and become a second “Moon”?
In: Physics
It’s going way too fast, and it’s predicted to make a second pass in 2036. AFAIK that one will be closer, the trajectory I saw has it passing between Earth and the moon, but it still goes too fast to get captured by Earth’s gravity.
It goes way too fast for this. If it was going slower in theory it could, but too slow and it will just de orbit until it crashes into earth. So it would need to go at the perfect speed for this to work. So in theory, yes an asteroid could be captured into a permanent orbit, but it will probably never happen.
There are theoretical ways it could happen, but they are excedingly unlikely and we can calculate if they will happen.
since the astronomy community isnt abuzz with the news of a new moon soon, the answer is probiably “definitly no”
We should send a team of astronauts, or train some sort of tradesman to BE astronauts, and nuke the asteroid from the INSIDE to slow it and double our moonage
Thanks for all the answers folks!
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