This video details the asteroid 524522 (2002 VE68). It is a quasi-satellite of Venus. The asteroid does not enter a real orbit around Venus to become a true satellite of this hot planet. Instead, it moves in its orbit around the Sun, but at the same time, it constantly accompanies Venus. The period of the asteroid revolution around the Sun coincides very precisely with the period of Venus revolution, that is, Venus and this asteroid are in orbital resonance 1:1. The trajectory of the asteroid in space relative to Venus is a complex curve and looks very bizarre. For example, in the projection from some angles it resembles a trefoil.
Asteroid 524522 (2002 VE68) never approaches Venus closer than 30 million km. At the point farthest from Venus in its trajectory, the asteroid is about 4 times farther from the planet than at the nearest point. The large range of distances is due to the fact that the asteroid orbit around the Sun is rather strongly inclined to the plane of the orbit of Venus. Also, its orbit is elongated so much that it crosses the orbits of three planets at once: Mercury, Venus and Earth. During the period of rotation around the Sun, the asteroid sometimes overtakes Venus, then lags behind it. it then rises above the plane of the orbit of Venus, then falls under it. Because of this, such an intricate trajectory is obtained. Asteroid 524522 (2002 VE68) may remain a quasi-satellite of Venus for several more centuries.
Despite the fact that asteroid 524522 (2002 VE68) is a quasi-satellite of Venus, it sometimes approaches the Earth much more closely. And this happens every 8 years. The next approaches of the asteroid to the Earth will occur on November 2, 2026 and November 1, 2034. In both cases, it will fly 6 million km from the Earth. This means that this asteroid is in orbital resonance with the Earth, too. While the Earth makes 8 revolutions around the Sun, asteroid 524522 (2002 VE68) makes 13 revolutions.
Watch the video with subtitles.
Modeling and rendering were performed using own software. The calculations took into account the mutual influence of the Sun, all the planets of the Solar System, the Moon and the asteroid on each other. Relativistic effects were also taken into account in the calculation.
The track ‘Fly-away’ by Koi-discovery sounds in this video. This track was not changed. Link: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/koi-discovery/hypercube/fly-away/
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license:
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
