The earth acquired a temporary ‘mini moon’ last month as a passing asteroid continued its orbit around the sun. The somewhat cumbersomely named ‘2024 PT5’ is approximately 33 feet wide and located nine times farther away from Earth than the Moon. NASA is slated to track it with planetary radar as it keeps the planet company over the next few months.
According to an official NASA press note, the Goldstone Solar System Radar in California will track the object during its next close pass of our planet — in January 2025. At this time it will be five times as far from Earth as the Moon.
The asteroid will circle the globe for nearly two months but depart before completing a full orbit. Earlier reports indicated that it is slated to part ways with the Earth in late November before it continues its solo trajectory through the cosmos. It’s expected to pass by again in 2055.
Referring to it as a ‘mini moon’ is something of a misnomer as the asteroid will never actually come under the gravitational force of the earth. Scientists at the NASA Center for Near Earth Object Studies however suspect that 2024 PT5 may be a large chunk of rock ejected from the Moon’s surface after an asteroid impact long ago. Analysis of its motion has ruled out the possibility of this being a rocket body from a historical launch.
The space rock was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in South Africa. Experts indicate that these short-lived mini moons are more common than we realise with the last known detection in 2020.
Asteroid 2024 PT5 will however not be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes. Astronomer Carlos de la Fuente Marcos — one of the two people who discovered the ‘mini moon’ said that it “can be observed with relatively large, research-grade telescopes”.
(With inputs from agencies)