An asteroid the size of double-decker bus hurtling at 2,200mph towards Earth will become trapped by gravity in orbit for around two months, scientists have revealed.
The interplanetary celestial object, named 2024 PT5 will effectively become a “mini moon” orbiting our planet from roughly September 29 until late November.
The asteroid was discovered by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) at the observatory in Sutherland, South Africa, on August 7.
Asteroids commonly do pass by Earth, but they only become dangerous when significantly larger ones collide with the planet potentially causing catastrophic damage.
2024 PT5 is thought to be around 37-feet in diameter, and at that size it’s likely if it did suddenly start to plummet towards us it would be burned up in the atmosphere before it reached the ground.
However, according to CNN, scientists have not yet fully confirmed the size and it could be up to 137 feet across.
2024 PT5 is expected to come within 2.8 million miles of Earth, around seven times further away from our planet than the moon.
Speaking to Space.com, Professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, from the University Complutense Madrid, said: “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 at an average distance to the sun of about 93 million miles.
“Objects in the Arjuna asteroid belt are part of the near-Earth object population of asteroids and comets.
“Under these conditions, the geocentric energy of the object may grow negative, and the object may become a temporary moon of Earth.”
Professor Marcos said objects like the asteroid from the Arjuna belt travel at around 2,200mph, which is a relatively low velocity compared to other space bodies such as comets.
He added: “This particular object will undergo this process starting next week and for about two months. It will not follow a full orbit around Earth.
“You may say that if a true satellite is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers.”
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