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.

The asteroid will orbit the Earth for about two months starting from Sept. 29. By Shafiq Najib. September 19, 2024, 4:54 PM. 2:34. NASA/Adobe Stock.

The space rock came as close as within 4.15 million miles from our planet, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Asteroid 2010 S016 has been following Earth for 250,000 years, scientists say. ... In diagrams, the asteroid's orbit resembles a giant letter "C" with the Earth ticked between the endpoints.

The asteroid is expected to enter Earth’s orbit Sunday and lurk there until Nov. 25, just over 56 days, Marcos said. Earth as seen from the surface of the moon by the Apollo 11 Command Module in ...

Orbital stability analysis and photometric characterization of the second Earth Trojan asteroid 2020 XL5. Nature Communications . Published online February 1, 2022. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-27988-4.

At first, they thought it was just a near-Earth asteroid crossing our planet’s orbit, but data from the SOAR telescope was compared with previous observations captured by the Víctor M. Blanco 4 ...

Scientists have proven the existence of an Earth Trojan asteroid — or a small rock that shares the same orbit as our planet — that will be following us for several thousand years. The study ...

A diagram shows the five Earth-sun Lagrange points. (Image credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/M. Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab)) Two other points, L4 and L5, were discovered in 1772 by Euler's student ...

An asteroid that was discovered riding along in Earth's orbit is about three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) wide and might remain as a hitchhiker with our planet for at least 4,000 more years while ...

NASA has warned that a giant asteroid bigger than the Eiffel Tower will break into Earth’s orbit in just over a week.. The 1,082-foot space rock is heading our way and should skim past us on ...

Astronomers have discovered a captive asteroid shadowing Earth in its orbit. The asteroid, known as 2020 XL5, is only the second of its type ever seen, shepherded by Earth’s gravity into an ...