Earth now has a “mini moon” as an asteroid enters our orbit

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Earth has a new “mini-moon” after an asteroid enters our orbit.

The object known as 2024 PT5 has been tracking us for years. Now it's close enough that it's being pulled by our gravity.

It will stay with us until November, then it will no longer be tied to the earth and we will leave it behind. It then remains in its new orbit around the sun.

Minimoons form when an asteroid slowly approaches Earth, deflected more strongly by our own planet's gravity than by the Sun's normally much stronger gravitational pull.

They are usually formed from asteroids or other natural objects floating in space. However, it is possible that they were created by humans, such as if pieces of space junk get stuck in our gravity.

The newly discovered example, 2024 PT5, was discovered just last month when it was discovered by scientists as part of the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System. The year 2024 in its name refers to the year of its discovery.

This warning system is a project to detect near-Earth objects that could endanger life on Earth. However, it is not believed that the mini moon poses a danger.

The find was reported in an article published in the magazine last month AAS research notes under the title “A two-month mini-moon”. Researchers there reported that the object was expected to take a horseshoe-like route that would result in it being pulled into our orbit before falling back out, likely around November 25.

It will then leave our neighborhood in January. Researchers believe it could fly by again in 2055.

Although the object can be seen with special telescopes, it is too small and dim to see with the naked eye. Like many of the asteroids that come close to Earth, it is believed to come from the Arjuna Belt, where the objects are small.

While it is relatively common for Earth to fly past and even attract small objects of this type, it is less common for them to become minimoons and join our orbit, as was the case with 2024 PT5. But we have had them in the past, as in the case of 2022 NX1 – which came to Earth as a mini-moon in 1981 and then returned in 2022.

Other planets also have their own minimoons, with Jupiter appearing to be the most common host due to its much larger mass and stronger gravitational pull, although they have also been spotted on other planets in our solar system. Some planets can also get quasimoons that orbit the Sun on similar routes to their planets – and these objects can also attract their own minimoons.