Earth’s ‘mini moon’ departs, is likely part of our actual moon

The “mini moon” that’s been tagging along successful Earth’s orbit precocious is departing connected Monday — leaving down a technological surprise: It may person erstwhile been portion of our ain existent moon.

Asteroid 2024 PT5, arsenic it’s been dubbed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is not really orbiting Earth since it was ne'er carried by Earth’s gravitational field. But it did hover astir 2 cardinal miles away, and volition instrumentality successful January immoderate 1.1 cardinal miles from Earth earlier its orbit of the prima takes it farther into the star system.

After studying 2024 PT5 during its two-month sojourn, scientists learned its chemic creation is akin to lunar worldly obtained by the Russian Luna missions and the Apollo satellite missions of NASA, Space.com reported.

“There are aggregate lines of evidence suggesting that this asteroid whitethorn person a lunar origin,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, 1 of 2 astrophysicist brothers who discovered the abstraction rock, and a prof astatine the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, told Space.com. “Current probe favors its accelerated rotation with a rotational play nether 1 hour, to beryllium expected if 2024 PT5 is either a ample boulder from the aboveground of the satellite oregon a fragment from a larger object.”

AP

A flock of birds alert successful beforehand of the afloat satellite implicit the metropolis centre successful Tallinn, Estonia, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Scientists judge the satellite itself was astir apt formed erstwhile a monolithic cosmic collision 4 cardinal years agone ejected molten worldly from Earth, which cooled and condensed into the moon. Astronomers present fishy a bully galore of abstraction rocks whitethorn person lunar origins arsenic well.

NASA plans to observe 2024 PT5 via radar antenna astatine its adjacent flyby successful January, tracking it for a week utilizing the Goldstone star strategy radar antenna successful California’s Mojave Desert, portion of the Deep Space Network.

With News Wire Services