Today it is generally accepted that the Moon is the only natural satellite of our planet. But how many assumptions have been put forward about other satellites - both by astronomers and science fiction writers!
Attempts to find "additional" satellites were made up to human space exploration - during the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th.
Petit satellite
Until the end of his days, the director of the Toulouse Observatory, the French astronomer Frederic Petit, was convinced that the Earth, besides the Moon, had other natural satellites. All of them, according to Petit, are fireballs.
The most famous are the reports of the astronomer about the fireball, which he observed in 1846. Petit also relied on the observations of other scientists - Le Bon, Dassier, Larivier, and concluded that the fireball revolves around our planet in an elliptical orbit with a period of 2 hours 45 minutes, an apogee of 3570 km and a perigee of 11.4 km. Nevertheless, the results of his research were refuted by the scientist Le Verrier in 1851, and then by the scientific community as a whole.
Frederic Petit.
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Valtemat's satellites
Meanwhile, already in 1898, another scientist, Dr. Georg Waltemat from Hamburg, announced his discovery of a whole system of small earth satellites. One of these satellites, according to the astronomer, is located at a distance of just over 1 million km from our planet and has a diameter of 700 km, making a revolution around the Earth in 119 days. The satellite does not reflect enough light, and therefore is rarely visible with the naked eye.
Referring to observations made in Greenland in 1881, Waltemath even stated that "sometimes it shines like the sun in the night, but only for an hour or so." According to the calculations of the researcher, in February 1898 the satellite was supposed to pass over the disk of the Sun. And on February 4 this year, postal workers in the city of Greifswald (Germany) actually saw a dark object that passed through the Sun and occupied one-fifth of its diameter. And all would be fine, but at the same time the luminary was also observed by professionals - astronomers W. Winkler from Jena (Germany) and Ivo von Benko from Pula (Austria). They saw nothing on the Sun but spots. However, all this did not stop Valtemat in search of an Earth satellite, and in July of the same 1898 he sent a message to the Science journal about the discovery of the third satellite (746 km in diameter),which is allegedly located 427,250 km from our planet. The magazine commented on this message as follows: "Perhaps it is this satellite driving the madness."
Valtemat's message about the discovery of the second Earth satellite.
Lilith
Nevertheless, in 1918, a certain astrologer Walter Gornold (Sephariel) announced that he had "rediscovered" the moon of Valtemat, which he named Lilith, after the first wife of Adam in Kabbalistic theory. Like Valtematus, the astrologer said that Lilith is a "dark" satellite that cannot be seen most of the time, but can only be seen when it passes over the disk of the Sun. According to Sefariel, the satellite has about the same mass as the Moon. The astrologer did not consider the considerations that if there was a satellite with a similar mass near our planet, it would cause significant disturbances in the motion of the moon, which are not observed.
Conspiracy theory
Of course, there were other - even more unsubstantiated - reports of allegedly discovered satellites of the Earth. One of the conspiracy theories is even connected with their search, which was born in the restless head of the American ufologist Donald Kiho (who later became director of the National Research Committee on Air Phenomena). Citing some sources in the Pentagon, Kiho claims that in 1953-1954, two satellites of the Earth were allegedly discovered in Earth's orbit, though artificial. Later, the media wrote that the satellites, in fact, are of a natural nature. However, in 1959, the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto, presented the final conclusion that the search for any satellites in Earth's orbit did not yield results: no objects brighter than 12-14th magnitude were found.
Rings of the Earth
In 1980, NASA scientist John O'Keefe suggested that 34 million years ago, the Earth could have rings similar to those that can be seen today at Saturn. The rings could have formed in the Late Eocene, when a decrease in winter temperatures was observed. Then a large number of tektites fell out (pieces of molten dark green, sometimes black glass, having a meteoric, cometary and asteroid origin - NS). Tektites could be captured by the Earth's gravitational field and thus form a ring that has been stable for several million years.
Whether such a ring actually existed is difficult to say. But scientists do not exclude the possibility that the Earth has rings even today. However, if they exist, they consist of small dust grains, which cannot be seen in the optical range.
Trojan asteroids of the Earth
These are not satellites of our planet. Is this the name of the hypothetical group of asteroids located near the L4 and L5 Lagrange points of the Earth system? The sun and thus orbiting the sun along the earth's orbit 60 ° in front of (L4) or behind (L5). When viewed from Earth, they would be located in the sky 60 ° behind or in front of the Sun.
In 2010, the first Trojan asteroid, called 2010 TK7, was indeed discovered near our planet. It is a small object about 300 m in diameter. No Trojan asteroids have yet been found at the L5 point.
Olga Fadeeva