http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_668725.html?menu=

An amateur astronomer from the US may have found another moon of the Earth.

It's been designated J002E2 and experts say it may have only just arrived.

It was discovered by Bill Yeung from his observatory in Arizona and reported as a passing Near-Earth Object.

BBC Online says it was soon realised however that far from passing us it was in a 50-day orbit around the Earth.

If it is determined that J002E2 is natural it will become Earth's third natural satellite.

Paul Chodas of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California says it must have just arrived or it would have been easily detected long ago.

Calculations suggest it may have been captured earlier this year.

Observations made by Tony Beresford in Australia indicate the object's position doesn't match any known piece of space junk. Observations made in Europe have failed to see any variations in brightness that might be expected from a slowly spinning metallic object.

Earth's second satellite, which is called Cruithne, was discovered in 1986. It takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity.

Astronomers, professional and amateur, are carrying out further observations to determine if J002E2 is really another moon of the Earth, or just a piece of space junk.

Story filed: 17:42 Wednesday 11th September 2002 ==== "That's no moon..."

Obviously it's the Marcab flagship!

Ron of that ilk.

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