In a rare celestial occurrence, asteroid 2024 PT5, which is heading towards Earth, is set to have an unusual fate. Instead of smashing through Earth’s atmosphere like many other asteroids, 2024 PT5 is expected to be temporarily trapped in Earth’s orbit, becoming a “mini-moon.”
However, this mini-moon status will last only for about two months.
Discovered on August 7 by astronomers Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos from Complutense University of Madrid using NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), asteroid 2024 PT5 is approximately 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter. According to a report published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, the asteroid will be captured by Earth’s gravitational pull between September 29 and November 25.
During this period, 2024 PT5 will orbit Earth but won’t complete a full loop. After two months, it will escape Earth’s gravity and resume its path around the Sun, continuing its journey through the Solar System. For a total of 56.6 days, Earth will have two moons.
“It is pretty cool,” said Federica Spoto, an asteroid dynamics researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian. “2024 PT5 will help scientists better understand asteroids that come close to Earth—some of which occasionally collide with it,” she added.
Although 2024 PT5 is unlikely to be artificial or just space debris, researchers note that it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye, with an absolute magnitude of 27.6. According to Paul Chodas, director of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, 2024 PT5 might even be a fragment of the moon, possibly ejected during a past lunar impact.
The asteroid is expected to make multiple returns as a mini-moon, including brief visits in January 2025 and again in 2055.
Source: Mint
