A temporary ‘mini-moon’ will appear on Earth for two months

On Tuesday, September 17, 2024, a supermoon with a partial lunar eclipse will rise over Lake Michigan in Chicago. Credit: AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File
Earth’s moon will soon have a companion called a “minimoon.”
This mini-moon is actually an asteroid the size of a school bus, standing 10 meters (33 feet) high. When it passes close to Earth on Sunday, it will be briefly captured by Earth’s gravity and orbit around the planet for only about two months.
This space rock, 2024 PT5, was first discovered in August by astronomers from Madrid’s Complutense University using a powerful telescope in Sutherland, South Africa.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology astronomer Richard Binzel said these short-lived mini-satellites are likely more common than we think. The last known one was detected in 2020.
“This happens with some frequency, but it’s rarely seen because it’s so small and so hard to detect,” he said. “It’s only recently that our investigative capabilities have reached a level where we can find them on a regular basis.”
The discovery by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society.
The object cannot be seen with the naked eye or with amateur telescopes, but “it can be observed with relatively large research-grade telescopes,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in an email.
Binsel, who was not involved in the research, said it is not clear whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or a “blown-out chunk of the moon.”
The minimoon orbits the Earth for almost 57 days, but not completely. It will leave Earth on November 25th and continue its solo orbit through space. It is expected to pass again in 2055.
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