Marvels Of The Mini-Moon
Earth's temporary second moon, 2024 PT5, is a 37- foot asteroid from the Arjuna belt. It will orbit Earth for around 2 months before returning to its heliocentric orbit.
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Did you know that Earth just got itself its second moon?
The 'mini-moon', called 2024 PT5, is a space rock, a part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is not too far from Earth in space terms, just 2.8 million miles (4.5 million kilometres) away. The asteroid will orbit our blue planet in a horseshoe shape, before returning to a heliocentric orbit (around the Sun).
Astronomers first spotted the asteroid on August 7 using the South Africa-based observatory of the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS and is said to be 37 feet in diameter. Marcos De La Fuente and his colleagues plan to observe 2024 PT5 to collect more data and details using the Gran Telescopio Canarias and the Two-Meter Twin Telescope, both on Spain’s Canary Islands.
Contrary to popular belief, this is not the first time we are getting ourselves a second moon. In February 2020, a tiny asteroid named 2020 CD3 was found to have been orbiting Earth for a few years.
So what makes this incident so alien?
Short mini-moon events can occur several times per decade, but long mini-moon events are rare and only occur every 10 or 20 years
It is not a permanent fixture, but this second moon will stay until 25th November, nearly two months after its anticipated start on 29th September. After a staggering 56.6 days, the sun’s gravitational pull will bring Asteroid 2024 PT5 back into its normal heliocentric orbit. According to predictions, this rock will not come into Earth's orbit again until 2055.
When Asteroid 2024 PT5 does come back around again, astronomers expect it to become Earth’s mini-moon for a few days in November 2055 and again for a few weeks in early 2084. We don’t know if we will live that long to witness it, so here's hoping that we can make the most out of the event right now.
Whilst the prospect of seeing this brand-new second moon is definitely enticing, sadly, if you're not a professional, chances are you won't be able to see it for yourself. This event can't be seen by the naked eye, binoculars or even with a consumer-grade telescope as it will be too faint to see. High-tech equipment is essential to see the ‘mini-moon’ but even then many professional telescopes will struggle to provide a crystalline look at the asteroid.