Asteroid Approaching Earth to Become Temporary ‘Mini Moon’ in Orbit | Nature

Earth is about to play host to a visiting “mini-moon.”

An asteroid is anticipated to swing by Earth subsequent week, then spend about two months orbiting the planet because it will get quickly caught by Earth’s gravity, in accordance to two astronomers in Spain who reported the invention.

The asteroid, dubbed 2024 PT5, is 33 toes lengthy — roughly equal to an ordinary college bus. The house rock doesn't pose a menace to Earth, and it's not anticipated to stick round for lengthy earlier than it swings again out into house on a path across the solar.

“It will not complete one orbit around Earth, just part of it,” stated Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, who co-authored a examine concerning the asteroid revealed this month in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.

The asteroid is anticipated to enter Earth’s orbit Sunday and lurk there till Nov. 25, simply over 56 days, Marcos stated.

It’s not every single day that Earth adopts a brand new companion, however such mini-moon occasions should not altogether unusual, both.

Astronomers in Arizona noticed a unique visiting mini-moon — a tiny asteroid named 2020 CD3 — in Earth’s orbit in February 2020. It was estimated to measure 6 to 11 toes throughout, and it orbited Earth for greater than a yr earlier than it was flung again into house.

Studies subsequently discovered that asteroid 2020 CD3 had most definitely been captured by Earth’s gravity in 2017, three years earlier than it was found in our planetary yard.

Before that, an asteroid named 2006 RH120, which orbits the solar and passes shut to Earth each few many years, was captured by Earth’s gravity in June 2006 and stayed till round September 2007.

Mini-moons have a tendency to come in two “sizes,” Marcos stated: brief or lengthy.

“A short mini-moon episode may last hours, days, weeks or a few months, and the affected object does not complete one revolution around Earth,” he stated in an electronic mail. “On the other hand, long mini-moon episodes last at least for one year and probably more, and the object involved completes one or more revolutions about Earth.”

The upcoming go to from asteroid 2024 PT5 can be brief.

The house rock can be too small and faint to be seen with common telescopes and binoculars. Marcos stated he and his colleagues plan to examine it with the Gran Telescopio Canarias, a ground-based observatory in the Canary Islands.

The scientists hope to study concerning the asteroid’s floor composition and how briskly it rotates, he stated. Those observations might assist researchers work out its origin, which in flip might make clear different asteroids, together with ones that could possibly be harmful to Earth.

An early warning system for asteroids referred to as ATLAS (brief for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) found 2024 PT5 in early August. The ATLAS telescopes have been funded by NASA and developed by the University of Hawaii.