Tonight, while India sleeps, Earth will get a 'mini moon'

New Delhi:

Earth will welcome a new and temporary “mini-moon” tonight that has a connection to the Indian epic Mahabharat. It is called “2024 PT5” and has a diameter of almost ten meters. It will remain in Earth orbit for about 53 days before heading back into the far reaches of the solar system.

However, due to its size, it is far too small to be recorded – the moon's diameter is 3,476 kilometers. The “2024 PT5” is 350,000 times smaller and invisible to the naked eye. But special telescopes could still see it well after 1:30 a.m.

Any body that naturally orbits a planet is called a moon.
The planet Saturn has 146 known moons and Jupiter has 95. Mars has two moons and Earth has only one moon. Venus has no known moons.
ISRO monitoring experts of '2024 PT5' said it would 'not collide with the Earth'.

Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos – the two scientists who reported on it – said: “Near-Earth objects (NEOs) that follow horseshoe orbits and approach our planet at close range and at low relative speeds could suffer minimizations.” -Lunar events in which their geocentric energy becomes negative for hours, days or months, but without completing a revolution around the Earth.

“The object is too small and too faint for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers,” Marcos told US website space.com.

“To observe this object requires a telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches and a CCD or CMOS detector,” he added.

“2024 PT 5” was discovered on August 7, 2024 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), an automated system funded by NASA and operated from Hawaii. It is used to monitor near-Earth asteroids.

The Indian space agency ISRO's keen lookout – the Network for Space Objects Tracking and Analysis (NETRA) – is keeping an eye on the asteroid, which is set to disappear by November 25, 2024.

Mr. Marcos said this is not the first time minimoons have appeared around Earth. It happened in 1997, 2013 and 2018.

“Such orbital elements are consistent with those of the Arjunas, a sparsely resonant population of small NEOs,” he added.

The “Arjuna” scientists refer to a unique group of asteroids. The other group of asteroids in the solar system are Apollo, Atira, Amor and Aten.

The “2024 PT5” is said to have its origins in the Arjuna Group and is expected to have a periodicity of one year.

Astronomer Robert H. McNaught, a prolific discoverer of asteroids and comets, discovered an asteroid later named “1991 VG” on November 1, 1991 at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.

The name “Arjuna” was chosen by the explorer, Mr. McNaught, inspired by Arjuna, a hero of the epic Mahabharata.
In mythology, Arjuna is known for his courage, archery skills, wisdom and spiritual growth.

The name reflects the asteroid's rapid transit through the solar system (like Arjuna's swift arrows); unpredictable nature (like Arjuna's complex character).

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially approved the asteroid's name.

Dr. Anil Kumar, head of ISRO's Space Object Tracking and Analysis Network (NETRA), confirmed that the '2024 PT5' is part of the Arjuna group of asteroids.