A Second Moon?

Psalm 19:1

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

In a previous Creation Moment, we discussed the perennial Mars Hoax, which seems to resurface every August 27th. But could it be that the Earth really does have a second moon, albeit much smaller and less significant?

The British TV comedy panel show QI certainly seemed to think so. In season A, in 2003, host Stephen Fry suggested that there was a second Moon, called Cruithne, after panelist Alan Davies had opined that there was one Moon, made of cheese.

Other panelists found this hard to swallow. One panelist pointed out that there were no romantic songs, featuring Cruithne. Where are the songs “Blu Cruithne”, “the Cruithne in June”, or “Under the Cruithne of Love”?

The BBC website now carries an erratum to the effect that Cruithne is no longer considered a moon of Earth, as it does not actually orbit Earth, but is synchronized with it, following an elliptical orbit, and taking 364 days to orbit the Sun, as opposed to the Earth’s 365 days. It is, therefore, technically a co-orbital object of Earth rather than a moon.

It is certainly a real object – an asteroid about three miles across. It never comes closer to the Earth than 7.5 million miles and is more often to be found much further away, as its orbit is at a severe angle to the plane of the Earth’s orbit.

Cruithne might not be an object of romance, but it certainly points to the glory of our living, loving God who created it.

Prayer: Father, we praise Your Name because of all the wonderful things that You have made. Thank You most of all for making us, and I thank You for saving me. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: < https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/qi/episodes/1/2/ >, accessed 9/1/2020. Image: The photographic plate on which Cruithne was first discovered, Sonia Keys, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported.

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