Earth had a temporary 'mini-moon' last month as a passing asteroid continued its orbit around the sun. The somewhat cumbersomely named '2024 PT5' is about 10 meters wide and nine times further from Earth than the moon. NASA plans to track it with planetary radar as it keeps the planet company in the coming months.
According to an official press release from NASA, the Goldstone Solar System Radar in California will track the object during its next flyby of our planet – in January 2025. At that time, it will be five times further from Earth than the moon.
The asteroid will orbit Earth for almost two months, but will leave before completing a full orbit. Previous reports indicated it will bid farewell to Earth in late November before continuing its solo trajectory through the cosmos. This is expected to be over by 2055.
Referring to it as a “mini-moon” is a misnomer, as the asteroid will never actually pass under Earth's gravity. However, scientists at NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies suspect that 2024 PT5 could be a large piece of rock ejected from the moon's surface long ago after an asteroid impact. Analysis of its motion has ruled out the possibility of this being a rocket body from a historic launch.
The space rock was first spotted in August by astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope in South Africa. Experts indicate that these short-lived mini moons are more common than we realized at the last known detection in 2020.
However, Asteroid 2024 PT5 will not be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes. Astronomer Carlos de la Fuente Marcos – one of the two people who discovered the 'mini moon', said it “can be observed with relatively large research-quality telescopes”.
(With input from agencies)
