Asteroid heading towards Earth set to be a ‘mini moon’ for two months in rare celestial event<\/p>\n
It’s set to arrive later this month<\/p>\n
An asteroid called ‘2024 PT5’ is heading towards Earth and it’s set to have a rather unusual fate.<\/p>\n
While most asteroids that come hurtling our way smash through the planet’s atmosphere, scientists predict that this one will get trapped in orbit and become what is known as a ‘mini-moon.’<\/p>\n
Two researchers from Spain’s Universidad Complutense de Madrid discovered the small asteroid – which measures around 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter – last month (August 7).<\/p>\n
Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Ra\u00fal de la Fuente Marcos explored a number of calculations related to the object’s orbit as it approaches Earth in a paper published in the journal Research Notes of the AAS.<\/p>\n
The asteroid dynamics researchers concluded that it will become captured in our planet’s orbit for a brief window between September 29 and November 25.<\/p>\n
In other words, for a total of 56.6 days, Earth will have two moons – well, one proper Moon and one mini-moon.<\/p>\n
After this, 2024 PT5 will fall back into the Sun’s orbit and continue its journey through the solar system.<\/p>\n
After its time with us starting later this month, the asteroid is predicted to make two further mini-moon visits. It will return to Earth’s orbit in January 2025 before quickly leaving and returning once again in 2055.<\/p>\n
While pieces of space junk can sometimes be mistaken for mini-moons, the researchers note that the asteroid is ‘unlikely to be artificial.’<\/p>\n
They suggest that it could be part of a group of asteroids called Arjunas, near-Earth objects with a similar orbit to our planet.<\/p>\n
One astronomy enthusiast posted a video of what we can expect on X (formerly Twitter) and people are pretty excited about it.<\/p>\n
\nNewly-discovered #asteroid<\/a> 2024 PT5 is about to undergo a "mini-moon event" when its geocentric energy becomes negative from September 29 – November 25.https:\/\/t.co\/sAo1qSRu3J<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/pVYAmSbkCF<\/a><\/p>\n
— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) September 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n