A team of astronomers from Hungary has proven that the Earth has three moons. According to the Hungarian scientists, these moons are totally formed of dust, and these mystery clouds orbit the earth 250,000 miles distant, nearly the same distance as the moon.
The research, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, says that the new moons are entirely made up of extremely tiny dust particles less than one millimetre size and reflect light rather faintly. This is why they were difficult to observe and study in the first place even when they are located at around the same distance as the Moon from the Earth—400,000 kilometres. “It is very difficult to detect the clouds against the galactic light, star light, zodiacal light, and sky glow,” coauthor of the paper Gábor Horváth, a physicist at Eötvös Loránd University, told the media.
Surprisingly, a controversy regarding the existence of these two celestial bodies began in 1961, when Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski found two mystery clouds that became known as Kordylewski dust clouds. The Polish scientist further speculated that these dust clouds could be orbiting the Earth near the Lagrange points L4 and L5. Further examination of these celestial bodies has revealed that these dust clouds are essentially fake satellites orbiting the Earth.
“The Kordylewski clouds are two of the toughest objects to find, and though they are as close to Earth as the moon, are largely overlooked by researchers in astronomy. It is intriguing to confirm that our planet has dusty pseudo-satellites in orbit alongside our lunar neighbor,” said Judit Slíz-Balogh, an astronomer at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary and the co-author of the study.
According to specialists, these satellite clouds have remained hidden for so long because they are extremely faint. However, due to the sun’s reflection, these dust clouds can appear briefly. During the study, scientists used advanced polarising filters on their cameras to detect dispersed light reflecting off individual particles within the dust clouds.
Despite the fact that Hungarian researchers have proven the existence of two extra moons orbiting the Earth, some space experts believe that these strange dust clouds are merely a passing occurrence. According to these critics, the massive dust clouds observed by astronomers participating in this study might be quickly swept away due to gravitational jostling from other planets or solar winds.
This is not the first time that fresh space studies have reshaped humanity’s knowledge of the solar system. Some astronomers hypothesize a few weeks ago that a rogue space planet, most likely Planet Nine, could be hiding beyond Neptune in the solar system. The researchers also showed that the space in which Planet Nine resides is too dark, which could explain why present observatories on Earth are having difficulty locating this space body.
.jpg)
0 Comments