Earth is set to have another moon — a small asteroid that will be caught in our planet’s gravity by the end of the year, scientists say.
The mini-moon, an asteroid called 2024 PT5, was spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on August 7. The space rock will make a complete orbit of our planet between September 29 and November 25 before escaping from Earth’s gravity.
However, despite this 57-day approach to our planet, the asteroid will be difficult to spot because it is only 10 meters wide.
Occasionally, our planet receives additional satellites. For example, a similar event occurred in 1981 and 2022, when the object 2022 NX 1 became a short-lived companion to our planet before moving away, astronomers noted.
The researchers published their results in the journal Research Notes a AAS.
A small asteroid will be caught in the gravity of our planet
“Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the population of near-Earth objects (NEOs) and pull them into orbit,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
“Recently discovered, the Apollo-class NEO 2024 PT5 follows a trajectory similar to that of 2022 NX1 and may soon become a mini-moon”.
NASA considers any space object within about 120 million miles of Earth a “near-Earth object” and classifies any large object within about 4.5 million miles of our planet as a “potential dangerous”.
NASA tracks the locations and orbits of about 28,000 asteroids with ATLAS, an array of four telescopes that scan the entire night sky every 24 hours.
Mini-Moons, curiosities for asteroid watchers
NASA has estimated the trajectories of all these near-Earth objects beyond the end of the century. Earth faces only a tiny risk of an apocalyptic collision with an asteroid for at least the next 100 years, writes LiveScience.
According to the new study, 2024 PT5 likely comes from the Arjuna asteroid belt – a diverse jumble of space rocks orbiting the Sun near our planet. Due to the fact that its orbit is very close to ours, calculations indicate that the asteroid will orbit the Earth again in January 2025 and again in 2055.
Mini-moons aren’t just curiosities for asteroid watchers. Research suggests the rocks contain valuable minerals and water that can be used as rocket fuel, making them ideal “launch pads” for companies preparing to mine asteroids.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
