Earth’s new Mini-Moon for the next 2 Months

Earth’s New Mini Moon

Earth’s new Mini-Moon for the next 2 Months At the end of September, a small asteroid will begin its 53-day orbit around our planet.

Earth’s new Mini-Moon for the next 2 Months

By the end of the month, experts predict that Earth will have gained a new moon: a tiny asteroid that will be trapped by the gravity of our planet until the end of the year.

The Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) detected the mini-moon, an asteroid known as 2024 PT5, on August 7. Between September 29 and November 25, the space rock will complete one orbit of our planet before escaping Earth’s gravitational pull.

However, because the asteroid is only 33 feet (10 meters) broad, it will be difficult to see even during its 57-day near flyby of our planet.

READ MORE: Why Moon Orbit Earth?

Periodically, our planet acquires additional moons. The researchers saw that a similar process happened in 1981 and 2022 when the object 2022 NX 1 became our planet’s transitory companion before swinging further away. The journal Research Notes of the AAS published the researchers’ findings in September.

The researchers stated in the report that “Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit, making them mini-moons.” “The recently discovered Apollo-class NEO 2024 PT5 follows a path that resembles that of 2022 NX1 and may soon become a mini-moon.”

Earth’s new Mini-Moon for the next 2 Months NASA designates as “near-Earth object” any space object that approaches Earth within approximately 120 million miles (190 million kilometers) and designates as “potentially hazardous” any large object that approaches Earth within approximately 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers). With ATLAS, a collection of four telescopes that scans the entire night, NASA monitors the positions and orbits of about 28,000 asteroids.

All of these near-Earth objects have predicted trajectories that NASA has calculated to the end of the century. For the next 100 years at least, there is very little chance of a catastrophic asteroid crash affecting Earth.

READ MORE : Asteroid

The latest research indicates that 2024 PT5 most likely formed in the Arjuna asteroid belt, a varied collection of space pebbles that orbit the sun near Earth. An asteroid’s orbit is predicted to revisit Earth in January 2025 and then again in 2055 since it closely resembles our own.

Earth’s new Mini-Moon for the next 2 MonthsMini-moons are more than simply a curiosity for astrologers. According to research, the rocks contain water that can be used to make rocket fuel and rich minerals, which makes them perfect “stepping stones” for businesses getting ready to harvest asteroids.

Visible:

“The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers,” Marcos said. “A telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches plus a CCD or CMOS detector are needed to observe this object, a 30 inches telescope and a human eye behind it will not be enough.”

Conclusion:

Earth’s new Mini-Moon for the next 2 Months According to Marcos, some of these asteroidal bodies in the Arjuna asteroid belt have the ability to approach Earth at low speeds of about 2,200 miles per hour (3,540 km/h) and at a near range of about 2.8 million miles (4.5 million km).

“Under these circumstances, the object’s geocentric energy can go negative and it might turn into a temporary moon of Earth. This specific thing will go through this process for roughly two months, beginning next week,” he continued. It won’t circle the planet in its entirety.

“You may say that if a true satellite is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers.”