Earth is getting a second moon! Yes, you read that right. From September 29 to November 25, “mini-moon”—an asteroid— will enter Earth’s orbit and circle around just like our regular moon. Sadly, this celestial event won’t be visible to the naked eye. Keep reading to learn more about Earth’s second moon and how it came to be!
What to know about Earth’s second moon
Scientists have named Earth’s second moon Asteroid 2024 PT5. Measuring about 10 meters (32 feet) long, it’s quite small compared to Earth’s regular moon, which is 1,737 kilometers (5,681,819 feet) in diameter.
“Asteroid 2024 PT5 [the mini-moon’s scientific name] was discovered on 2024 August 7, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System [ATLAS] observing with the instrument located in Sutherland, South Africa,” researchers Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos explained in their research.
In their September study, the researchers also noted, “Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit, making them mini-moons.”
The exact origin of Earth’s second moon remains a mystery. However, Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, suggests it could “possibly be a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon.” In other words, this mini-moon may be a fragment of Earth’s regular moon that ended up in orbit.
Regardless of where it came from, Marcos confirmed that “it is a natural object, no doubt about that.”
Marcos also noted, “The object that is going to pay us a visit belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth.”
The mini-moon won’t cause any damage to Earth or the moon and will peacefully leave orbit after its two week stay is up.
Why scientists are excited about the Earth’s mini-moon
Space remains full of mysteries, and events like Earth’s second moon provide a unique opportunity for scientists to study asteroids up close.
If you were to ask an asteroid dynamics researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, how she feels about it, she would say, “It is pretty cool.”
However, Marcos warned people, “Every time an object with an orbit so earthlike is discovered, there is a chance that we are just recovering space debris.”
How to see Earth’s second moon
Unfortunately, the mini-moon won’t be visible to the naked eye. Marcos explained,“The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers.”
If you want to view it, though, he recommends getting “a telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches plus a CCD or CMOS detector are needed to observe this object; a 30-inch telescope and a human eye behind it will not be enough.”
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