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Earth is put to gain another moon by the oddment of the calendar month — a small asteroid that will be snare by our major planet ’s gravity until the end of the year , scientist say .
The mini - moon , an asteroid call 2024 PT5 , was spotted by theAsteroid Terrestrial - Impact Last Alert System(ATLAS ) on Aug. 7 . The distance careen will make one complete orbit of our satellite between Sept. 29 and Nov. 25 before escaping Earth ’s gravity .
A digital rendering of a near-earth asteroid.
Yet despite this 57 - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. close flyby of our major planet , the asteroid will be hard to spot as it ’s just 33 feet ( 10 meters ) wide .
Ourplanet occasionally snags extra moon . For case , a similar effect occurred in 1981 and 2022 , when the object 2022 NX 1 became an fugacious companion to our major planet before swinging further aside , the astronomer noted . The researchers bring out their findings in September in the journalResearch Notes of the AAS .
Related : unexplored redundant lunation may revolve Earth . Could they facilitate us become an interplanetary mintage ?
" Earth can regularly appropriate asteroids from the Near - Earth object ( NEO ) universe and pull them into range , making them mini - moons , " the research worker wrote in the paper . " The recently discovered Apollo - year NEO 2024 PT5 follow a path that resemble that of 2022 NX1 and may before long become a mini - moon . "
NASAdeems any blank object that come within about 120 million miles ( 190 million klick ) of Earth a " near - Earth object " and classifies any large physical object within around 4.7 million miles ( 7.5 million km ) of our satellite as " potentially hazardous . " NASA tracks the locations and orbits of rough 28,000 asteroid usingATLAS , an array of four telescopes that perform a scan of the full night sky every 24 hour .
— ' Stepping stone to Mars ' : Minimoons may help us become an interplanetary species , says MIT astrophysicist Richard Binzel
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— A chunk of the moonshine come along to be revolve near Earth , novel study suggests
NASA has estimated the flight of all these skinny - Earth objects beyond the oddment of the hundred . globe facesonly a tiny riskof an apocalyptic asteroid collision for at least the next 100 years .
grant to the new study , 2024 PT5 belike originate from the Arjuna asteroid smash — a diverse jumble of space rock candy that revolve the sun near to our satellite . Due to its orbit being closely matched to our own , reckoning indicate the asteroid will orbit Earth again in January 2025 and then in 2055 .
Mini - moons are n’t just curiosities for asteroid - looker . Researchsuggeststhatthe rocks bear valuable mineral and water that can be used for rocket fuel , making them ideal " stepping pit " for companies preparing to mine asteroids .
