Manok101 Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I was wondering what are the chances that our earth captures Apophis in its orbit and it becomes a second moon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianb Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I was wondering what are the chances that our earth captures Apophis in its orbit and it becomes a second moon? It will take several "lucky" encounters to lose enough energy to enter an orbit, there is a good chance that at least one of the encounters would be "unlucky" and result in either being flung into a completely different solar orbit or impact with Earth or Moon. The chance of Apophis temporarily entering an earth orbit are non zero but not high, and even if it did the orbit would be unstable & it would most likely soon be slung out again by the effect of our large Moon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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