Abstract
Granvik et al. (2012) predict that the Earth is surrounded by a cloud of small temporarily-captured asteroids. These temporarily-captured orbiters (TCOs) originate in the near-Earth-object (NEO) population and are temporarily captured in the potential well of the Earth-Moon system (EMS). Granvik et al. (2012) predict that the largest object in orbit around Earth at any given moment (other than the Moon) has a diameter D ~1 m (Sect. 6.2). The number of TCOs is inversely proportional to their size such that there are on the order of 103 0.1-meter-diameter TCOs in orbit around Earth at any given time.
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Granvik, M., Jedicke, R., Bolin, B., Chyba, M., Patterson, G., Picot, G. (2013). Earth’s Temporarily-Captured Natural Satellites – The First Step towards Utilization of Asteroid Resources. In: Badescu, V. (eds) Asteroids. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39244-3_6
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