Because it takes slightly less than a year, Earth 'falls behind' the bean a little more each year, and so, from the point of view of an observer on Earth, the circuit is not quite closed, but rather like a spiral loop that moves slowly away from Earth. Дue to a high orbital eccentricity, Cruithne's distance from the Sun and orbital speed vary a lot more than Earth's, so from Earth's point of view Cruithne actually follows a kidney-bean-shaped horseshoe orbit ahead of Earth, taking slightly less than one year to complete a circuit of the 'bean'.

In 2058, Cruithne will come within 0.09 AU (13.6В million kilometres or 8.5В million miles) of Mars. However, it does not orbit Earth and is not a moon. This is why Cruithne is sometimes called 'Earth's second moon'. Because of this, Cruithne and Earth appear to 'follow' each other in their paths around the Sun.

Its period of revolution around the Sun, approximately 364 days in the early 21st century, is almost equal to that of Earth. Д¬ruithne is in a normal elliptic orbit around the Sun. Cruithne, having a maximum near-Earth magnitude of +15.8, is fainter than Pluto and would require at least a 320-millimetre (12.5В in) reflecting telescope to be seen. Its orbital path and Earth's do not cross, and its orbital plane is currently tilted to that of Earth by 19.8В°. There is no danger of a collision with Earth for millions of years, if ever. ДЄlthough Cruithne's orbit is not thought to be stable over the long term, calculations by Wiegert and Innanen showed that it has probably been synchronized with Earth's orbit for a long time. From 1994 through 2015, Cruithne made its annual closest approach to Earth every November. Cruithne appears to make a bean-shaped orbit from the perspective of Earth.Д¬ruithne is approximately 5 kilometres (3В mi) in diameter, and its closest approach to Earth is 12В million kilometres (0.080В AU 7,500,000В mi), approximately thirty times the separation between Earth and the Moon.

Star stable database horseshoes