![]() This diagram shows the five Lagrange points for the Earth-Sun system. Lagrange points are places in space where the gravitational forces of two massive bodies, such as the sun and a planet, balance out, making it easier for a low-mass object (such as a spacecraft or an asteroid) to orbit there. Earth's new Trojan asteroid orbits Lagrange point 4 (L4) in an elliptical orbit that flings it nearer to the sun than Venus and about as far away as Mars. It's called a "Lagrange point," and it's a gravitationally balanced position in space. In the meantime, 2020 XL 5 is held in place due to a far-out concept in orbital mechanics, or the application of the laws of physics to describe the motion of spacecraft. (It's considered a Trojan asteroid of Earth, following the naming convention for Jupiter's Trojan asteroids.) □ You love the cosmos. After that, it will escape from that orbit and fly off into our solar system. Known as "2020 XL 5," the asteroid will be trapped in Earth's orbit for at least 4,000 years according to simulations detailed in a new paper published earlier this month in Nature Communications. ![]() And now, experts wonder if that asteroid could help us with future space travel. Physicists have discovered a tiny asteroid, about one kilometer wide, that is locked into the same orbit as Earth-only the second such cosmic body of its type that has been identified to date.
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