Yes, our earth is going to get another moon from next week, i.e. there will be two moons in our sky but this phenomenon will be only for a short period of two months.
As per scientists, the new mini-moon will loop around the Earth from September 29 to November 25 and then will eventually break free of the planet’s gravitational orbit.
Sadly, at just about 10 meters, the mini-moon will be extremely hard to see from Earth, but its presence will be there nonetheless for almost two months. The asteroid, which was discovered on Aug. 7 by NASA, originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt, where it will likely return once it leaves Earth’s orbit.
“Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit, making them mini-moons,” researchers Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos wrote in their published research.
Unlike the moon, Earth’s primary companion which has accompanied our planet for around 4 billion years, this “new mini-moon” will stick around for just two months before it heads back to its home in an asteroid belt trailing our planet and orbiting the sun.
A team of scientists well-versed in the study of so-called “mini-moon events ” identified the forthcoming gravitational capture event. They spotted the peculiar dynamic properties of 2024 PT5 as they routinely monitored newly discovered objects for potentially interesting behavior.
“The object that is going to visit us belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth at an average distance to the sun of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers), research lead author and Universidad Complutense de Madrid professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com.
“Objects in the Arjuna asteroid belt are part of the near-Earth object population of asteroids and comets.”
Marcos explained that some of these objects in the Arjuna asteroid belt can approach Earth at a close range of around 2.8 million miles (4.5 million km) and low velocities of around 2,200 miles per hour (3,540 km/h).
“Under these conditions, the geocentric energy of the object may grow negative, and the object may become a temporary moon of Earth. This particular object will undergo this process starting next week and for about two months,” he added. “It will not follow a full orbit around Earth.
