3753 Cruithne
The Asteroid 3753 Cruithne was originally discovered in 1986 but it
was not until 1997 that its 1:1 resonant orbit with Earth was
determined. The integration shows that Cruithne has quite an
elliptical orbit with a period very similar to Earth. Most of the time
Cruithne is a long way from Earth but sometime it approaches quite
close. Use the tilt and rotate controls to see that its orbit is quite
well inclined to that of Earth.
Use the Back control to reverse the
integration and see that, during the mid 1990's, Cruithne came quite
close to Earth once each year. Since then its close approaches
have been getting further away and they will continue to do so. In
about 290 years a new series of close approaches will occur but from
the opposite direction. Speed up the integration up to year 2280 and
observe the series of close approaches around 2285 - 2295 at the
opposite crossing point of the orbits.
Cruithne describes an interesting shape of orbit relative to Earth
and this is shown more clearly on the next page.
This integration includes Asteroid 3753 Cruithne and all the main
bodies of the Solar System. Earth and Cruithne are shown in their
normal colours while the others are shown faintly.
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