Earth to capture a ‘second moon’ this weekend, NASA says

Earth volition capture a miniature, “second moon” this week, according to NASA scientists.

The caller satellite is really a tiny asteroid dubbed 2024 PT5. It volition commencement orbiting the satellite successful a horseshoe way and instrumentality astir for a small little than 2 months earlier escaping Earth’s gravitational propulsion and going backmost to its regular orbit astir the sun.

“According to the latest information disposable from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons System, the impermanent seizure volition commencement astatine 15:54 EDT [on Sunday] and volition extremity astatine 11:43 EDT connected November 25,” mini-moon lawsuit adept and Universidad Complutense de Madrid prof Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com.

2024 PT5 is portion of “the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid loop made of abstraction rocks that travel orbits precise akin to that of Earth astatine an mean region to the prima of astir 93 cardinal miles,” Marcos said.

He added that the asteroid, which poses nary menace to the planet, volition question astir 2,200 miles per hr portion maintaining a region of astir 2.8 cardinal miles from Earth. By comparison, the average region betwixt the Earth and the moon is 238,855 miles. The satellite is besides considerably larger, astir 2,159 miles successful diameter compared to the asteroid’s slim 37-foot width.

Unlike the moon, 2024 PT5 won’t beryllium observable to the casual stargazer due to the fact that of its size.

“The entity is excessively tiny and dim for emblematic amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, the entity is good wrong the brightness scope of emblematic telescopes utilized by nonrecreational astronomers,” Marcos said.

NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System archetypal spotted the asteroid Aug. 7.

Mini-moons person occurred successful the past. The 2022 NX1 asteroid joined Earth’s orbit successful 1981 and 2022, according to BBC News.

“This communicative highlights conscionable however engaged our star strategy is and however overmuch determination is retired determination that we haven’t discovered, due to the fact that this asteroid was lone discovered this year,” astronomer and podcaster Dr. Jennifer Millard told BBC News.