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Hungarian scientists claim to have confirmed the existence of a spatial phenomenon that we suspected up to now
Apparently, the Moon is not alone in its incessant journey around the Earth.
A pair of shadowy companions follows the same elliptical route, about 400 000 kilometers from our planet.
This is a kind of dusty satellites that came to call them "ghost moons".
Already in 1961, a Polish astronomer had detected them, but their appearance is so tenuous and mysterious that, like a ghost, their existence was in doubt.
But now, a group of Hungarian astronomers and physicists say they have confirmed the existence of these elusive travelers .
It is about L4 and L5, two clouds of stellar dust gravitating around the Earth in a "semi-stable" form
Interplanetary Dust
The authors of the investigation Explain that between the Earth and the Moon, there are five "stability points".
Zones have gravitational forces which maintain a relatively stable position of the objects therein.
L4 and L5 are two of these points, in which interplanetary dust is thought to accumulate, at least temporarily, and form the clouds of dust that surround the Earth.
To detect them, the researchers visited an observatory in Hungary, where they used polarized lenses to capture cloud images.
According to their report, their observations are consistent with the predictions that they had made in a previous survey and they are in the same direction as the observations that had been made nearly a year ago. 60 years.
"We were able to eliminate optical artifacts and other effects, which means that confirms the presence of the dust cloud," said astronomer Gábor Horváth in a statement from the Royal Society of astronomy of the United Kingdom.
Thanks to their stability, researchers consider L4 and L5 as an area where they could be located . spacecraft or transfer stations for missions that will explore the solar system.
Proposals have also been made for these areas to be used as reservoirs of pollutants.
In all cases, astronomers warn that this is necessary. more research to find out how stable these areas are and if this stellar dust is a hazard for astronauts or their equipment.
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