Earth to Host a Rare Celestial Event: A ‘Second Moon’ For Two Months This Year

Photo byCNN/Adobe Stock

A temporary ‘mini-moon’ known as Asteroid 2024 PT5 will begin orbiting around the Earth on September 29th and last until November 25th. The asteroid is part of the Arjuna asteroid group and is roughly the size of a bus. Unfortunately, it won’t be visible to the naked eye or even amateur telescopes, but according to researchers, professional astronomers with stronger tools will be able to spot it.

Our new ‘mini-moon’ was first discovered on August 7th by scientists at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, an asteroid monitoring system funded by NASA. To be classified as such, the asteroid must approach the Earth at a distance of around 2.8 million miles and travel at a relatively slow speed of about 2,200 mph. Earth's gravitational pull will draw 2024 PT5 towards it, and much like our moon, it will orbit our planet for a short time frame but will also return to us in 2055 (if you can wait that long). The ‘mini-moon’ will orbit around Earth in a horseshoe shape before reverting to rotate around the sun again, like the other planets in our galaxy.

Photo byTony Dunn / Janet Loehrke / USA TODAY

As we prepare to welcome this fascinating cosmic visitor, the temporary presence of Asteroid 2024 PT5 serves as a stunning reminder of the beauty and complexity of our universe. You can find more information about the scientists’ research here.