Scientists have released new images of a mysterious object that has joined Earth’s orbit.
The object created excitement earlier this week when it was announced that it appeared to be a new “minimoon” that had arrived in Earth’s orbit.
But scientists say it is too soon to say for sure what the mystery object is and further research is required.
Though it could be the artificial object suggested by other astronomers, it might also be an old satellite, or space debris.
“Either way this is a very compelling object and needs more data to determine what it is,” Grigori Fedorets, the lead astronomer for the observations, said in a statement.
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Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa’s New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth
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The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth
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Pluto, as pictured by Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015
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A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun
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Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015
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Mystic Mountain, a pillar of gas and dust standing at three-light-years tall, bursting with jets of gas flom fledgling stars buried within, was captured by Nasa’s Hubble Space Telelscope in February 2010
Nasa/ESA/STScI
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The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa’s Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012
Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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Death of a star: This image from Nasa’s Chandra X-ray telescope shows the supernova of Tycho, a star in our Milky Way galaxy
Nasa
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Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa’s New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth
Getty
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An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust
Nasa
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The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth
Getty
7/10
Pluto, as pictured by Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015
Nasa/APL/SwRI
8/10
A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun
Nasa
9/10
Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand
Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona
10/10
Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015
Nasa/Scott Kelly
Earlier this week, the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced the object had been given the designation 2020 CD3.
Many speculated the object was a rocky asteroid, which would make it only the second natural satellite to be spotted around the Earth, other than the Moon. The only other similar object was spotted in 2006 and has since left its orbit around the Earth.
The newly discovered satellite will also leave Earth’s orbit, in the coming months, leaving astronomers scrambling to get images of the object and understand its origin.
“Obtaining the images was a scramble for the Gemini team because the object is quickly becoming fainter as it moves away from Earth. It is expected to be ejected from Earth’s orbit altogether in April,” said John Blakeslee, head of science at the international Gemini Observatory, which was responsible for the new images.
In the picture, the object can be seen glowing at the centre, with stars streaking across because the telescope was moving to track the object as it moved around the Earth.
The image was taken on 24 February, soon after 2020 CD3 was first spotted.
Astronomers hope to get more images of the object, in an attempt to learn more about it.
They will look in particular to understand how bright it is shining and how much light it reflects – if it is especially dim, then it is likely to be a rocky body, but if it is shining brighter it is more likely to be a reflective piece of debris, such as a used rocket booster.
“Additional observations to refine its position will help us determine this mystery object’s orbit and its possible origin,” he said.
Astronomers expect to find many more such objects as new ways of observing them come online.
The Gemini Observatory is part of the NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, which is currently preparing the Vera C Rubin Observatory, which will scan the sky of seeing yet more similar objects.
“We expect to find a population of these objects once the Rubin Observatory is operational,” said Mr Fedorets in a statement. “Stay tuned!”
