How many moons r there orbiting earth?

Question

I heard three was three( no harsh answers plz.lol)

Answer 1

Well I know what you are referring to. The first moon is the big one with an American flag stuck in it. The second is a small asteroid called Cruinthe and it actually orbits the Earth's orbit in a horseshoe shape. It was discovered in 1986. The third object, was discovered in 2002 and designated J002E3. It made headlines as "Earth's Third Moon?" Closer inspection of the third object indicates that it is possibly one of the Apollo rockets, the most likely candidate being Apollo 12. For more info, Google Cruinthe or J002E3.

Answer 2

Although there are some sites which mention other bodies that co-orbit the Sun with the Earth, there is only one natural object - the Moon - that can be said to orbit the Earth. In fact both the Earth and Moon orbit a common centre of gravity (called the barycentre). This can be illustrated by imagining a pair of ice-skaters spinning around each other whilst holding each other's hands - They will spin about a single point. If one of the skaters is much more massive than the other, then the point will be closer to that person than to the other. The Earth is 81 times more massive than the Moon and the barycentre is within the radius of the Earth, so the Moon can accurately be said to orbit around the Earth.
This is the same with all other moons in the solar system, exceptin the case of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. In their situation, the barycentre is beyond the radius of Pluto, so both bodies orbit a position in space. This is what led the International Astronomical Union to propose that both should be regarded as planets - a view that was subsequently rejected.

Answer 3

That's a great question. There's THE moon of course (the proper name of the moon is Luna).

Then of course there are all of the hundreds of satelites we have launched , the most famous at the moment are Chandra X-Ray telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station (ISS), Right now the USS Discovery is also en route to the space-station, so one could suggest that there are two manned satellites - until they meet up.

This link below will take you to a web-page by NASA which tracks all the major publicly acknowledged satelites that are in space at the moment. This does not (probably) include secret spy satelites of any nation of which there are at least a few dozen.

http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

There are also a group of asteriods in synchronous orbit with the earth and moon mostly hanging out in what are called La Grange points. They are mostly space-rocks / asteroids but may also include some of the booster sections from the Apollo lunar mssions in the 1970's. While they could be considered moons, it would be more correct to consider them co-orbital objects - that is they share the orbit of the earth/moon but are not always in stable consistent orbital positions relative to the Earth.

There is of course the TV show "Three Moons Over Milford".

Answer 4

Only On Moon Surrounds Earth. The Other 7 or 8 Planets Have 1 or More. Jupiter Has 31 +

Answer 5

How many moons r there orbiting earth?

One, the Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. Cruithne is an asteroid in orbit around the Sun. Due to its unusual orbit relative to that of the Earth, it is sometimes (inaccurately) described as Earth's second moon.

In 1997 the asteroid Cruithne was found to have an unusual Earth-associated horseshoe orbit, and has been dubbed by some to be a second moon of Earth. It is not considered a moon by astronomers, however, and its orbit is not stable in the long term.

Three other near-Earth asteroids (NEAs), which exist in resonant orbits similar to Cruithne's, have since been discovered.

Answer 6

The moon is technically a natural satalite orbiting the Earth. It is the only "moon" (anywhere) and the only satalite of Earth that is of significant size. There are also small dust particles that orbit and can be considered natural satalites and there are a lot of things like space junk, communications satalites, telescopes, the International Space Station that are artificial satalites.

Answer 7

Just on moon orbiting earth. There isnt even a planet in our solar system with 3 moons.

Answer 8

There's just the one. Although there are hundreds of satellites orbiting Earth, which may have been what they were referring to.

Answer 9

i think there is 1 moon orbitting around the earth.no anyone.

Answer 10

The one you can see