Scientists discover two extra hidden ‘moons’ orbiting Earth

Scientists have claimed in a new study that the Earth is being orbited by two extra ‘ghost moons’, which are located at exactly the same distance as our moon.

In a paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, scientists stated that there is a presence of two clouds of dust orbiting Earth at almost the same distance as the moon. The discovery is the confirmation of the study that dates back to early 1960s when the dust clouds were actually spotted.

The clouds are very faint and are collections of incredibly tiny particles stretched over a huge area that makes Earth seem like a dwarf. These ‘moons’, as people are calling them, aren’t exactly like the moon. These are just huge, thin clouds of dust that are trapped in Earth’s orbit, reported BGR.

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The clouds are many times the size of Earth, but cannot be seen with naked eye since not enough light bounces off the tiny particles to travel to Earth. These dust clouds have actually been named ‘Kordylewski clouds’ – in respect of astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski, the first one to actually spot the clouds in 1961.

“The Kordylewski clouds are two of the toughest objects to find, and though they are as close to Earth as the moon, are largely overlooked by researchers in astronomy. It is intriguing to confirm that our planet has dusty pseudo-satellites in orbit alongside our lunar neighbor,” said co-author Judit Slíz-Balogh.

The clouds are about 250,000 miles from Earth’s surface, existing at ‘Lagrange points’ where the gravitational pull of Earth keeps objects in stable orbit. Scientists believe that the Lagrange point can now be used to store Earth’s pollution or even serve as ‘transfer stations’ for Mars missions, reported Metro.