Astronomers using WISE telescope found the asteroid, named 2010TK7 which is the first known Trojan asteroid in Earth’s orbit. Trojan asteroids were predicted but never discovered until now. A Trojan asteroid shares an orbit with a larger planet or moon, but does not collide with the planet because it orbits around one of two Lagrangian points.
The asteroid is 300 meters in diameter. It has an unusual orbit that traces a complex motion near the L4 point. The object is about 80 million kilometers from Earth. The asteroid’s orbit is well-defined and for at least the next 100 years, it will not come closer to Earth than 24 million kilometers.
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