Rogue Asteroid Orbits the Wrong Way Around the Sun

For at least a million years, an asteroid orbiting the "wrong" way around the sun has been playing a cosmic game of chicken with giant Jupiter and with about 6,000 other asteroids sharing the giant planet's space.

The asteroid, nicknamed Bee-Zed, is the only one in this solar system that's known both to have an opposite, retrograde orbit around the sun while at the same time sharing a planet's orbital space, researchers say.

Little is known about the asteroid, which was discovered in January, 2015. It has a diameter of about three kilometers and it may have originated from the same place as Halley's comet, which also has a retrograde orbit. The team hasn't been able to determine yet if Bee-Zed is an icy comet or a rocky asteroid.

The calculations conducted by the team show the orbit has been stable for at least a million years and will be stable for at least a million more.

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