Starting at the end of September , Earth will have two moons , but do n’t get too used to it . The situation is going to last less than two month , and it ’s unlikely you ’ll be able to actually see this transient second moonlight .
The miniskirt - moon will in reality be a minuscule asteroid , named 2024 PT5 , that was discovered on August 7 by theAsteroid sublunar - Impact Last Alert System(ATLAS ) . The objective is on a trajectory in which it will be temporarily caught by Earth ’s gravity . According to calculations made by Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos , both researchers at Spain ’s Universidad Complutense de Madrid , the asteroid will orbit the Earth from September 29 until November 25 . It will complete just one orbit over that time before careening away .
2024 PT5 is very tiny , value just 33 foot ( 10 meters ) astray , so do n’t expect to see it with the bare eye . Even those of you equipped with backyard telescopes probably wo n’t get a glimpse , as the asteroid will at good have a relatively obtuse magnitude value of 22 , agree toEarthSky(objects become visible to the unaided eye at magnitude of 6 or lower )
Artist’s impression of an asteroid in orbit around the Sun.© DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine
In thepaperpublished inResearch Notes of the AAS , the pair wrote that the dual - lunar month scenario is uncommon for our planet but not unheard of . A similar affair happened in July 2006 , when a miniskirt - moon hung around Earth for about a year . Another orbited the satellite for several years , before escaping Earth ’s gravitational pull in May 2020 . Other objects can sometimes get pull up by Earth ’s sobriety but escape before nail a undivided full orbit around the planet . In 2020 , scientists sound out they get wind what theybelieved was a miniskirt - moon , but the data was inconclusive .
As the duo wrote in their paper , the asteroid could have originated in the Arjuna asteroid belt — a collecting of near - Earth object that have orbits standardised to our satellite ’s . “ The object is unlikely to be artificial as its myopic - condition dynamic phylogenesis intimately resembles that of 2022 NX1 , ” another asteroid that became a miniskirt - moon in 1981 , and again in 2022 , the pair write .
amateurish stargazer Tony Dunn posted a simulation of the asteroid ’s path on X , which is illuminating .
freshly - discovered#asteroid2024 PT5 is about to undergo a " mini - moon event " when its geocentric energy becomes negative from September 29 – November 25.https://t.co/sAo1qSRu3Jpic.twitter.com/pVYAmSbkCF
— Tony Dunn ( @tony873004)September 10 , 2024
If you lack 2024 PT5 this meter around , you ’ll have another chance to take in it ( well , at least becharm its vibes — again , you wo n’t be able-bodied to see it ) . The astronomers calculated it will wing past Earth again on January 9 , 2025 . After that , it wo n’t be close again until 2055 .
asteroidsAstronomymini - moonmoons
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