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TJ
Lv 6

Did Earth Have More Than One Moon?

25 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    There are two other objects that some scientists have referred to as Earth's other moons, but they aren't really moons.The first is called 3753 Cruithne, and it's not a moon at all, but an asteroid that orbits the Sun. Since its orbit takes the same amount of time to orbit the Sun as the Earth, it sometimes looks like it's following Earth in orbit around the Sun. Although Cruithne's path comes very close to Earth, the two objects can never really collide because Cruithne's orbit is tilted to that of the Earth's by 19.8°. It's a very interesting object, and has an orbit that interacts with Earth, Cruithne really doesn't quality as a satellite of Earth.

    Have you been keeping count? How many moons does Earth have? Still just 1.

    The other object is called 2002 AA29, and it takes an even more bizarre orbit around the Sun. It spends most of its time in a horseshoe orbit, oscillating up and down near the Earth. Every 95 years or so, 2002 AA29 comes within 5.9 million km of Earth. Because it's so close to Earth, scientists have suggested that it might make an ideal target for a space mission to retrieve a sample and bring it back to Earth.Astronomers thought they might have discovered another moon in 2002, which they designated J002E3. But it turned out to be the third stage of the Apollo 12 Saturn V rocket.

  • 1 decade ago

    It used to, but for probably less than a day. When the moon was formed, it was by a huge planet sized thing hitting into the Earth billions of years ago, and some of the Earth was thrown into space. This chunk of rock formed into thin rings for a while, which then clumped together into several small moons, which then clumped together into the Moon as we know it. So yes, it did have moons for a short time, and it even had rings. But not for very long at all.

  • John R
    Lv 5
    1 decade ago

    The earth has only one moon, this moon was formed after a planet about the size of Mars collided with the earth.

    But today the earth has it's norman moon and thousands of man made moons, known as Satellites.

    Source(s): Gloom & Doom
  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    When the planetesimal smashed into the Earth around 4 billion years ago, the debris formed a ring that would have been thousands of "moons" in orbit around the Earth.

    That debris coalesced into a single object that we call the Moon.

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  • David
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Well there was speculation in the 19th century that sparked off from a claim made by a german scientist that Earth had two more moons. However this claim wasn't backed up by other scientists so until any evidedence comes to light then we can only assume there is one.

  • 1 decade ago

    Well that's a good question. We know Earth to have 1 moon. It may be possible that a long time ago another moon formed.. but we can't be sure

  • ?
    Lv 4
    1 decade ago

    To our knowledge no.

    However there is a possibility since our current moon is going farther away from earth every year.

    Thus, probably another moon could have existed but flown away. (A POSSIBILITY, but ridiculous)).

  • 1 decade ago

    Well, ..., Actually, Earth does have more than one moon. There is a Trojan asteroid (3753 Cruithne) orbiting (albeit in a strange manner) around Earth's LaGrange points. Ok, so technically it's not a second moon but it is another body that has become a companion to the Earth.

  • George
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    It is possible many years ago, although we have no proof there were two or more Moon. The Moon you see now is approximately the same age as Earth (4.5 billion years old)

  • 1 decade ago

    yes! we had two moons before but then something happened that the other one become a shadow, it's invisible now, so whatever we see now is our only moon.

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