Earth is going to have its very own mini-moon from 29 September until 25 November. The regular Moon’s new, temporary friend is 2024 PT₅, an asteroid captured from the Arjuna asteroid group (called the “Arjunas”).
Our new mini-moon is approximately 10m in diameter and will be captured by Earth’s gravity for 57 days. It’s small and faint, so it won’t be visible by the eye or with small telescopes, but will be visible to larger telescopes.
Earth is getting a tiny new mini-moon that will stick around in our orbit for a few weeks. It won’t be the first (or the last).
www.australiangeographic.com.au