DN160822 03

DN16082203 was a quasi-satellite of the Earth which entered the atmosphere as a fireball (bolide) over Australia on 22. August 2016. The size of the object was thought to be two to three metres in diameter. The fireball was detected by the cameras of DFN Australian Desert Fireball, an automated network which watches for fireballs over Australia.

The Russian website Russia Pulse (russiapulse.ru) reported in Russian as follows, translated into English:

Scientists of University of Kertin in Australia have found out that on 22. August 2016, the atmosphere of the Earth above Australia included natural Earth satellite. The small meteorite grasped by an attraction of a planet and for a while become its moon, [it has been learnt by] Science Alert.

Researchers have defined, that speed of the object designated as DN16082203, at falling was [remarkably] low and made 11 kilometers a second, and its trajectory was [somewhat] steep. Low speed specifies that the object rotated around of the Earth, and the angle of falling excludes space garbage, including idle space vehicles and their fragments. With 95 percent reliability the meteorite was temporary Earth satellite.

In [a] computer model created in 2012, astronomers simulated capture by the Earth of asteroids. It has appeared that if number of heavenly bodies in vicinities of a planet reaches 10 million, in a circumterraneous orbit will appear grasped 18 thousand asteroids, however their actual quantity remains unknown. As of 30. November 2019, only 21 495 small near-Earth asteroids have been revealed.

Up to DN16082203 two other mini-moons were known: 2006 RH120, rotated around of the Earth in 2006-2007, and low-speed asteroid 2014_OL339, also descended from a circumterraneous orbit.

The Los Viajeros Estalares blog (https://oceanoestelar.blogspot.com) reports in Spanish as translated into English:

On August 22, 2016, a fireball exploded over the desert of this continent [Australia], although high enough not to affect the surface. It is not an unusual phenomenon, since hundreds of entrances to the Earth's atmosphere are produced every year by interplanetary visitors, from objects no larger than a grain of sand, to large rocks of the order of meters, of sufficient size to generate big fireballs, meteors of an unusual glow. Some are captured by surveillance cameras, but most occur over oceans or areas with little or no population, so they go unnoticed. So and we see enough to get an idea of ​​their number.

The one known as DN16082203 was one of them, observed over the skies of Australia in 2016. It could be considered another meteor, however the trajectory and speed of the object at its entrance into the atmosphere, and that could be calculated thanks to the numerous images collected by the cameras of the DFN (Australia's Desert Fireball), installed precisely to try to "hunt" this type of event, they suggested that it was not always an object just arrived from the depths of space, but that it was in orbit around the Earth until finally She was fatally attracted to the atmosphere and burned into it. That is, it was a tiny Earth moon.

Although it may seem surprising, it is a newly discovered phenomenon and of which we have other examples. In 2006, the small asteroid 2006 RH120, 2 or 3 meters in diameter, was discovered in orbit around the Earth, a situation that remained for 11 months, until finally the gravitational ties were broken and this visitor continued on his way. The minilunas [Quasi-satellites of Earth] had been discovered, asteroids that were temporarily trapped in Earth's orbit, becoming moons of our planet for months. It is the only one known at the moment, but it is certain that this has happened before and will continue to occur in the future.

DN16082203, along with another meteor seen on Europe in 2014, are two evidences that this is so, since everything indicates that they were in Earth orbit until they burned in our skies. That already implies three known ones, although two of them only discovered them with their end, when those unknown moons burned in the sky.

DN16082203 is one of two known quasi-satellites of its type known, namely temporary natural satellites of Earth which were destroyed, with the 9. February 1913 Great Meteor Procession being either a third or the last remnants of a ring around the Earth composed of ejecta of a lunar volcano. The near-Earth asteroid 3753 Cruithne is a co-orbital object in a Horseshoe Orbit