Fryed astronomy

Sadly, I cannot embed this video (hey BBC, it's the 21st century! Hello? Hello? Free publicity here! Sigh.), but it's worth clicking to see this clip of the brilliant comic (and even better skeptic) Stephen Fry hosting the game-like show "Quite Interesting" -- a program where he quizzes comedians over various topics, though it's really just an excuse to make lots of pretty funny jokes. In this particular clip, he asks the celebrity contestants how many moons the Earth has, and the answer is... well, surprising. Let me know when you're done watching, OK? I'll wait. Great, finished? Good. Stephen was talking about the asteroid Cruithne (pronounced GORR-bleccchhh), which orbits the Sun on a path very similar to the Earth's, but slightly more elliptical. Back when the object was first determined to have this odd orbit, I wrote about it on the BA News page. It wasn't named Cruithne yet, ...