Earth will have a temporary “mini-moon” for two months

WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth's moon will soon have company — a “mini moon.”

The mini-moon is actually an asteroid the size of a school bus and 33 feet (10 meters) tall. When it flies past Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily captured by our planet's gravity and orbit the globe – but only for about two months.

The space rock – 2024 PT5 – was first discovered in August by astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope in Sutherland, South Africa.

These short-lived minimoons are probably more common than we realize, said Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was discovered in 2020.

“This happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they are very small and very difficult to detect,” he said. “It is only recently that our survey capabilities have reached the point where they can be routinely detected.”

The discovery was made by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos published by the American Astronomical Society.

This will not be visible to the naked eye or with amateur telescopes, but it “can be observed with relatively large research telescopes,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in an email.

Binzel, who was not involved in the research, said it was not clear whether the space rock formed as an asteroid or as “a blown-out piece of the moon.”

The mini-moon will orbit the globe for nearly 57 days, but will not complete a full orbit. On November 25, it will separate from Earth and continue its solo trajectory through the cosmos. It is expected to pass again in 2055.

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