Page 74 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

74 From The Page Of Fringe News

Earth has TWO MOONS:

Mind-blowing discovery

after scientist’s largest

computer simulation

THE Earth has more than one moon, a
computer simulation has revealed, dispelling
what scientists think they knew about the
planet’s natural satellites.

When we think of Earth’s moon, we imagine the
bright white ball that helps to illuminate the
night sky.
However, the definition of a moon is a
natural satellite that is captured by a planet’s
gravitational pull.
So when experts say the Earth has more
than one moon, they do not necessarily mean
that there are two or more of the giant white Astronomers from Columbia University
rocks in the sky. believe they have found the first evidence of a
What they actually mean is Earth has moon orbiting a huge planet outside of our solar
pulled in small asteroids that are now caught in system which could have huge implications in
its orbit. the search for alien life.
A team of scientists used a Some scientists believe the origin of life
supercomputer to run simulations on the on Earth was aided by the fact our planet has a
movements of 10 million near-Earth asteroids large moon.
that pass our planet. It is theorized, but not proven, that the
They ran these simulations against the gravitational pull of a large moon on a planet can
trajectory of 18,000 space rocks that have been stabilize the planets axis rotation, leading to a SPACE FACTS
pulled into Earth’s orbit. stronger ecosystem and a greater chance of life
Results showed at least one mini- beginning. - In space, fish swim in loops, rather than
asteroid, usually measuring no more that three The suspected moon was brought to straight lines.
feet in diameter – virtually nothing compared to experts’ attention by analyzing data from the
the 2,000 mile diameter moon – is circling our Hubble Space Telescope. - First Canadian in space: Marc Garneau
planet at any given time. The researchers wrote in their paper (1984).
The asteroids are usually caught up in published in the online journal arXiv:
Earth’s orbit for about nine months before they “Exomoons represent an outstanding challenge - Animals that have flown in space: dogs,
continue their normal orbit around the sun, but in modern astronomy, with the potential to chimps, mice, spiders, frogs, and jellyfish.
the team say they can get stuck there for provide rich insights into planet formation
decades. theory and habitability.” - The Apollo 11 lunar module had only 30
The mini-moons do not have a normal The team believe the moon could be seconds of fuel left when it landed safely on
orbit though – the simulation also revealed they about the size of Neptune – almost four times as the Moon.
twist and turn under the gravitational influence. big as Earth – and orbiting a Jupiter-like planet.
One day, the team hopes that they can The moon, known as Kepler-1625b, is - According to NASA, the food astronauts
capture a mini-moon so they can see some of the approximately 4,000 lightyears away – to put miss the most are pizza, ice cream, and soda.
purest ingredients of the solar system to learn that into perspective, one lightyear is roughly
about how it was formed. 9.5 billion kilometres. - Outer space officially begins at 62 miles up.
Co-author Robert Jedicke of the Alex Teachey, a National Science
University of Hawaii at Manoa said: "Mini- Foundation graduate research fellow at - Astronauts gave Walter Cronkite an
moons are scientifically extremely interesting. Columbia University, told Fox News: “It would “honorary astronaut” title for his 24-hour
"A mini-moon could someday be be a pretty big deal if this exomoon candidate coverage of Apollo 11.
brought back to Earth, giving us a low-cost way turns out to be real, because it would be the first
to examine a sample of material that has not of its kind, and moons stand to tell us quite a bit - Nineteen years elapsed between the first and
changed much since the beginning of our solar about our solar system and other star systems. second woman in space. Both were Russians.
system over 4.6 billion years ago." “This could provide vital clues about
Another co-author, Jeremie Vaubaillon how star systems form and evolve.” - First African American woman in space:
of the Paris Observatory, said: "This was one of However, Mr Teachey says more Mae Jemison on the space shuttle Endeavour.
the largest and longest computations I’ve ever research is needed to confirm that this is indeed
done. the first exomoon to be discovered. - To date, only one man-made satellite has
"If you were to try to do this on your He said: “Of course, its strangeness is been destroyed by a meteor: The European
home computer, it would take about six years." reason enough to pause and say, ‘is this for Space Agency’s Olympus (1993).
[] real?’ and believe me, we’ve asked ourselves
that quite a bit.
The above are just some of the thousands
Discovery of first exomoon “And so we just want to be as clear as of Fact*oids that you find in the newest
possible that, while we think this candidate is
could help find ALIENS worthy of follow-up with Hubble, there’s still a book by Rob McConnell,
chance we end up seeing nothing when we “DID YOU KNOW”
To order your very own copy of
observe it in October.
THE first moon may have been discovered DID YOU KNOW by Rob McConnell
“We’ll just have to wait and see.” []
outside of the solar system, massively for $4.95 USD, Go To
increasing the chances of finding alien life in The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show with Rob McConnell www.rel-mar.com/didyouknow
the universe. www.xzoneradiotv.com