Earth will soon gain a second moon. But it will only be temporary – Space – Science and technology

Asteroid 2024 PT5 will become the new orbiter of the Earth, and will remain there for several weeks. However, you cannot see it with the naked eye.

Asteroid 2024 PT5 will become Earth’s temporary “moon”. (illustrative photo)

This month, the Earth briefly “owns” the second moon, which will accompany it for the next two months or so. Asteroid 2024 PT5 will become the new orbiter of the Earth.

“The object visiting us is from the Arjuna asteroid belt. This secondary asteroid belt is formed by asteroids orbiting the Sun in a very similar orbit to Earth at a distance of approximately 150 million kilometers,” Professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid told Space.com. Marcos is the lead author of a new study by a team investigating minimoons. It was published in the journal The Research Notes of the AAS, which publishes non-peer-reviewed, indexed and secured records of ongoing studies, comments, explanations, but also null results of studies or current reports on observations from astronomy and astrophysics.

There are two types of mini-months: long-term and short-term. Long-term ones orbit the Earth for at least a year, short-term ones less, for example only a few days. A body that approaches the Earth at a distance of about 4.5 million kilometers moving at a low speed, about 3540 kilometers per hour, can become a minimoon of the Marcos field. So far, only two long-term and three short-term mini-moons of the Earth have been scientifically described, adds Marcos. However, he points out that several descriptions of short-term mini-months have not yet been published.

Short-term minimoons occur relatively often near Earth – several times per decade, while long-term minimoons appear only once every ten or 20 years, according to Science.com. Minimoons are deflected from their geocentric orbit by the Sun’s gravity. When 2024 PT5 stops orbiting Earth, it will return to the Arjuna asteroid belt into a heliocentric orbit.

The asteroid will be invisible to most sky watchers. It is too small for that and it will not be possible to observe it even with commonly used amateur telescopes or binoculars. “To observe it, a telescope with a diameter of at least 76 centimeters, equipped with sensors with CCD or CMOS technology, is required. For the human eye, the help of only a 76-centimeter telescope will not be enough,” explains the scientist. Together with colleagues, he plans to subject asteroid 2024 PT5 to spectroscopic and photometric analysis to better understand its composition.