Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Earth Satellites . ... In 1943, Tombaugh unsuccessfully tried to track asteroid 2101 Adonis , this was one of the first near- earth asteroids discovered back in 1936. €аTombaugh also proposed that perhaps some of these small asteroids could be captured by our planetтАЩs gravitational attraction and become natural satellites of the Earth .€а A Near Earth Satellite search proposed by Tombaugh in 1952 funded by the Army Office of Ordnance ...