The Earth does not have one but three moons

published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, indicates that the new moons consist entirely of very small dust particles of less than one millimeter and reflect the light rather dimly. This is why they were hard to observe and study even when they were about the same distance as the Earth's Moon – 400,000 kilometers. "It is very difficult to detect clouds against galactic light, starlight, zodiacal light and radiation from the sky," journalist Gábor Horváth, a physicist at Eötvös Loránd University, told the media, . In 1961, Kazimierz Kordylewski, a Polish scientist, was observing these moons for the first time and they later bore the name of Kordylewski Dust Clouds (KDC). But their existence has been questioned by astronomers over the last six decades and few models or precise simulations of these objects are available.

In the present study, Horvath and his group used special filters on their cameras that polarize the incoming light to capture hold and study light scattered by the dust particles inside these moons. Using these data, astronomers were able to establish that the KDCs were spread over an area of ​​1,000,000 km by 70,000 km in space. This equates to 30 out of 20 lunar discs.

Although dust clouds are old, the particles they compose change and are replaced over time. They absorb dust from different sources: remains of planets, comets, meteors, asteroids and other objects strolling in space. When the Earth, the Sun, or the Moon become destabilized, particles slip under gravity and replace them with particles from other sources.

Kordylewski had discovered the dust clouds near a special point in the space known as L5. Lagrange point of the Earth-Moon gravitational system. The Lagrange points are places of equilibrium in space where the gravitational forces of two large and solid astronomical objects such as Earth and Moon cancel the centrifugal forces. Many other small celestial objects are often found around Lagrange points.

For example, there are minor planets close to the Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth gravitational system and the Sun-Jupiter system. These points are also perfect for parking satellites and other space vehicles because fuel consumption is greatly reduced. They will be essential for space exploration projects as transfer stations where space shuttles and stations can stop during long journeys to other planets and even to the Sun. Such a two-body system, including the Earth-Moon system, identifies five stability points.

This article was originally published on Down to Earth .