Starting next week, the moon, Earth’s closest celestial body, will be joined by a new neighbour: a second moon.
From 29th September until 25th November, astronomers have calculated that 2024 PT5—an object scientists believe to be an asteroid but have dubbed a “mini-moon”—will be orbiting Earth. Eventually, it will break free from the planet’s gravitational pull.
Unfortunately, at just about 10 metres in size, the mini-moon will be extremely difficult to see from Earth, but it will nonetheless be present for almost two months. The asteroid, which was discovered on 7th August by NASA, originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt and is expected to return there once it leaves Earth’s orbit.
“Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth Object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit, making them mini-moons,” researchers Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos wrote in their published research.
According to NASA, a Near-Earth Object is any body, asteroid or otherwise, that is “nudged” by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets, pushing them into Earth’s vicinity. NASA has its own programme that works to track the locations and orbits of tens of thousands of asteroids—around 28,000 in total—with data pages for every NEO, including their orbital parameters and close approach summaries.
Paul Chodas, director of the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, mentioned that 2024 PT5 is possibly a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon, meaning the mini-moon may have originally been part of our moon, according to
From 29th September until 25th November, astronomers have calculated that 2024 PT5—an object scientists believe to be an asteroid but have dubbed a “mini-moon”—will be orbiting Earth. Eventually, it will break free from the planet’s gravitational pull.
Unfortunately, at just about 10 metres in size, the mini-moon will be extremely difficult to see from Earth, but it will nonetheless be present for almost two months. The asteroid, which was discovered on 7th August by NASA, originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt and is expected to return there once it leaves Earth’s orbit.
“Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth Object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit, making them mini-moons,” researchers Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos wrote in their published research.
According to NASA, a Near-Earth Object is any body, asteroid or otherwise, that is “nudged” by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets, pushing them into Earth’s vicinity. NASA has its own programme that works to track the locations and orbits of tens of thousands of asteroids—around 28,000 in total—with data pages for every NEO, including their orbital parameters and close approach summaries.
Paul Chodas, director of the Centre for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, mentioned that 2024 PT5 is possibly a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon, meaning the mini-moon may have originally been part of our moon, according to
The New York Times
.
10 things to know about earth’s “mini-moon”:
- Starting next week, Earth will temporarily have a second moon known as 2024 PT5.
- This mini-moon will orbit Earth from 29th September until 25th November.
- 2024 PT5 is thought to be an asteroid, measuring approximately 10 metres in diameter.
- Due to its small size, it will be almost impossible to see from Earth.
- The asteroid was discovered on 7th August 2024 by NASA.
- 2024 PT5 originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt and is expected to return there after leaving Earth’s orbit.
- Earth can occasionally capture asteroids from the Near-Earth Object (NEO) population, which become temporary mini-moons.
- Near-Earth Objects are celestial bodies nudged into Earth’s vicinity by the gravitational pull of nearby planets.
- NASA tracks around 28,000 NEOs, monitoring their orbits and close approach summaries.
- 2024 PT5 might be a piece of ejecta from a
lunar impact , suggesting it could originally be part of the moon.
Source Agencies
