You read that correctly. Our moon is temporarily getting a friend to orbit with around Earth. Scientists have discovered a large asteroid has been trapped by Earth’s orbit and is traveling around the moon and Earth for the next 50-plus days.
This “mini-moon” is about the size of a school bus but will not be visible to the unaided eye or from a small backyard telescope. Experts recommend using a telescope with a 30 inch diameter or larger to see the asteroid, which has been named 2024-PT5 by scientists. How does an asteroid become part of our orbit? Space.com reports that an object must approach the Earth slowly (but still very fast in terms of speed on land) and will join orbit when it reaches a range of 4.5 million kilometers from Earth.
Scientists believe the asteroid comes from the Arjuna belt, which is an asteroid belt about 150 million kilometers from the sun. While it may seen unusual to have another object orbiting the moon and Earth, scientists say it’s not unheard of. The most recent “visitors” in our orbit were in 1991, 2006, 2020, and 2022. This visitor will only stick around for about 50 days before breaking orbit and continuing on it’s journey.
Hopefully the moon gets a Facebook friend request from this asteroid later!
(Photo from: Photo by Rámon van Raaij)
