In a rare celestial event, an asteroid, named 2024 PT5, heading towards Earth is set to have an unusual fate. Instead of smashing through the planet’s atmosphere, as usually others do, 2024 PT5 is likely to be trapped in Earth’s orbit and become a mini-moon. However, 2024 PT5 is likely to remain in Earth’s gravitational pull for only two months.
The asteroid 2024 PT5, discovered on August 7 by two astronomers from the Complutense University of Madrid, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos using NASA’s asteroid impact early warning system Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).
According to a report published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, both astronomers stressed that 2024 PT5 is approximately 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter and will be captured in Earth’s orbit for a brief window between September 29 and November 25. During this two-month period, the 2024 PT5 will loop around the Earth but will not complete a full orbit, it will break free from earth’s gravitational pull and fall back into the Sun’s orbit and continue its journey through the Solar System.
In simple words, for a total of 56.6 days, Earth will have two moons.
“It is pretty cool,” said Federica Spoto, an asteroid dynamics researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.
“2024 PT5 will help scientists better understand asteroids that come close to Earth—some of which occasionally collide with it,” Spoto added.
Mini-moon
The study further notes that 2024 PT5 is “unlikely to be artificial.” It is not just a piece of space junk. The researchers suggest it could be defined as a near-Earth object with a similar orbit to our planet.
The researchers said, unfortunately, it would be too dim to see with the naked eye. According to the NASA JPL, 2024 PT5 has an absolute magnitude of 27.6, which is very dim and won’t be visible through most amateur telescopes.
According to Paul Chodas, the director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2024 PT5 might be a fragment of the moon itself, possibly ejected by a past lunar impact.
The researchers further said 2024 PT5 is expected to make multiple mini-moon visits. The asteroid will return to Earth’s orbit in January 2025 before quickly leaving and returning again in 2055.