Space rock is Planet Earth’s “constant companion”, NASA reveals
Recently discovered mini moon expected to continue circling the globe "for centuries to come"
We only seem to hear about asteroids when it looks like they're going to crash into the Earth and wipe out everything on the planet.
But there's a perfectly nice space rock that's locked into orbit around our planet - and NASA wants us all to say hello to it.
The space agency's stargazers have revealed the existence of a small asteroid that's been circling Earth for more than a century and will continue to do so for hundreds of years.
It's not close enough to be considered a satellite, which is the name given to moons which orbit planets.
"Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's centre for near-earth object studies.
"One other asteroid -- 2003 YN107 -- followed a similar orbital pattern for a while over 10 years ago, but it has since departed our vicinity.
"This new asteroid is much more locked onto us. Our calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth's companion for centuries to come."
Like any pet, the asteroid needs a name.
But all that NASA has managed to come up with is the rather bland moniker 2016 HO3.
The asteroid, which we've decided to call Rocky, is "engaged in a game of leap frog with the Earth that will last hundreds of years". It keeps zooming off into space before being tugged back by our planet's gravity, a process which forces it into a long, distant circular orbit.
Rocky was first spotted on April 27, 2016, and is thought to have a size of between 40 and 100 metres.
Let's hope he remains peaceful, because an asteroid of that size would be enough to cause major damage if it plunged into the surface of our planet.
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