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Earth is limit to gain another moon by the remainder of the month — a small asteroid that will be snared by our planet ’s somberness until the end of the year , scientist say .
The mini - Sun Myung Moon , an asteroid call 2024 PT5 , was spotted by theAsteroid Terrestrial - Impact Last Alert System(ATLAS ) on Aug. 7 . The blank space rock music will make one complete orbit of our planet between Sept. 29 and Nov. 25 before scarper Earth ’s gravitation .
A digital rendering of a near-earth asteroid.
Yet despite this 57 - day close-fitting flyby of our major planet , the asteroid will be toilsome to descry as it ’s just 33 feet ( 10 metre ) wide .
Ourplanet now and again snags supernumerary moons . For instance , a alike event come about in 1981 and 2022 , when the target 2022 NX 1 became an short-lived companion to our planet before swinging further aside , the astronomers noted . The research worker published their findings in September in the journalResearch Notes of the AAS .
Related : Undiscovered extra moons may orb Earth . Could they assist us become an interplanetary species ?
" Earth can on a regular basis capture asteroids from the Near - Earth object ( NEO ) population and draw them into reach , making them mini - moon , " the researchers wrote in the paper . " The recently discovered Apollo - socio-economic class NEO 2024 PT5 be a path that resemble that of 2022 NX1 and may soon become a mini - moonshine . "
NASAdeems any space object that amount within about 120 million mil ( 190 million klick ) of Earth a " near - Earth object " and sort any expectant objective within around 4.7 million mile ( 7.5 million km ) of our satellite as " potentially hazardous . " NASA tracks the location and orbit of just about 28,000 asteroid usingATLAS , an array of four telescopes that performs a scan of the entire night sky every 24 hr .
— ' Stepping stone to Mars ' : Minimoons may serve us become an interplanetary species , says MIT astrophysicist Richard Binzel
— NASA flyby of " Dinky " asteroid reveals hidden moon
— A chunk of the synodic month appear to be orbiting near Earth , new field suggests
NASA has forecast the trajectory of all these penny-pinching - Earth object beyond the end of the century . Earth facesonly a flyspeck riskof an revelatory asteroid collision for at least the next 100 years .
concord to the fresh study , 2024 PT5 likely originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt — a divers jumble of space rock that revolve the sun nigh to our planet . Due to its orbit being closely matched to our own , calculations indicate the asteroid will orb Earth again in January 2025 and then in 2055 .
miniskirt - moonshine are n’t just curio for asteroid - watchers . Researchsuggeststhatthe rocks hold valuable mineral and water that can be used for rocket fuel , making them ideal " stepping Harlan Stone " for company preparing to mine asteroid .
