No Challenge to the Moon

A moon that we see once a year,

A rock in Near Earth Orbit,

Swings past Venus, out to Mars,

Approaching, but it won’t hit.

An asteroid that loops the Sun,

No poets rhyme, no singers croon.

To pass nearby but once a year

Makes no rival to The Moon.

Fancy calls this a moon,

Passing each November.

Named for folk of County Down

And Antrim to remember.

Not many Irish are ensconced

In cosmic objects dim or bright.

But so you are, my neighbor rock,

A name that I can’t say right

From Solvenia –

Kroo-EEN-yuh -

Too faint to see from mountain crest

Who’s seen ya –

KROOee-nyuh –

Tied to the Sun, no earthly guest.

Few dream a’

Cruithne,

The painted people of the west.

While claiming Cruithne is a second moon seems a stretch, it is an interesting object. At half the size of the asteroid that killed off the last non-avian dinosaurs, it would be an existential disaster if it struck us. But don’t worry – it’s not going to impact Earth. Despite its benign orbit, you’d think the dooms dayers would have latched onto it by now. Maybe it’s that tough Gallic name that saves Cruithne from infamy.

“Variations of the name include Cruthen, Crutheni, Cruthin, Cruthini, Cruthne, Cruthni, Cruithni and Cruithini. This is the Gaelic version of the Brittonic term *priten��, both derived from an earlier Insular Celtic form *k��riten��, which is taken to mean ‘painted/tattooed people'” wikipedia