Petit's moon is the first known claim of a second moon orbiting Earth. It was originally announced by Frédéric Petit in 1846 at the Toulouse Observatory, but was also claimed to have been seen by two other observers, Lebon and Dassier.[1]
Properties & Later history[]
Petit's moon was believed to have sat over 3,570 kilometers (2218.3 miles) away from the Earth at its apogee, and 11.4 kilometers (7.084 miles) at its perigee. It would've taken over about 2 hours and 44 minutes to circle the planet in its highly elliptical orbit. However, the orbital claims were dismissed by Petit's peers, as the perigee for the proposed second moon was similar to the cruising altitude of most modern airliners within the Earth's atmosphere.[2] In 1861, Petit would soon publish another paper on his 1846 observations, basing the second moon's existence on the perturbations in movements of The Moon itself.[3] However, this second hypothesis was not confirmed either.