Ten things you don’t know about the Earth

Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy Blog (which is now a part of the Discover Magazine website) has some interesting facts about Mother Earth. Did you know that there are at least four natural objects in space that stick near the earth? They are sometimes referred to as moons, but they aren’t quite moons.

The biggest is called Cruithne (pronounced MRPH-mmmph-glug, or something similar). It’s about 5 kilometers across, and has an elliptical orbit that takes it inside and outside Earth’s solar orbit. The orbital period of Cruithne is about the same as the Earth’s, and due to the peculiarities of orbits, this means it is always on the same side of the Sun we are. From our perspective, it makes a weird bean-shaped orbit, sometimes closer, sometimes farther from the Earth, but never really far away.

That’s why some people say it’s a moon of the Earth. But it actually orbits the Sun, so it’s not a moon of ours. Same goes for the other three objects discovered, too.

Also find out what it would be like to fall through the center of the earth, and eight other strange things about our planet. Link -via Digg