Earth Will Get A Second Moon This Month; Everything You Need To Know About Temporary Mini Moon

New Delhi: Earth will get a second moon this month. Yes, you heard it right! However, this new mini-moon will accompany the earth for just two months before returning to its home. This mini-moon is a tiny asteroid 2024 PT5. It will head back to its home in an asteroid belt, dragging our planet and orbiting the sun. 

When Will the Mini Moon Orbit Around Earth? 

This temporary moon will orbit around Earth from September 29 to November 25, 2024. This asteroid gets caught by the gravity of Earth after which it will start orbiting around it. The Asteroid 2024 PT5 is about 10 meters (33 feet) in size. The brightness magnitude of the asteroid is 22 and thus only very advanced observatories can detect it.

Will We Be Able To See The Mini Moon? 

Unlike our permanent moon, we will not be able to see this mini moon with our bare eyes or even through amateur telescopes because it is too faded. However, scientists with hi-tech telescopes can view it to study more about the asteroid. 

Asteroid 2024 PT5 was first spotted by NASA’s ATLAS programme on August 7, 2024. Its path is similar to other asteroids from the Arjuna asteroid belt. However, it will not make a complete orbit around the planet. The study suggests that it will follow a horseshoe-shaped path before breaking free from the gravity of the Earth.  

"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 kilometres), 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," he added.

"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," Marcos added. "It will not follow a full orbit around Earth. You may say that if a true satellite is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers," he said.