Earth’s temporary new mini-moon

Earth has a new “second moon” in the form of asteroid 2024 PT5 which has been caught by our gravitational pull and will make a captured flyby of the planet for 57 days


ASTEROID 2024 PT5

One of 18,874 Apollo asteroids

AMORS
ATENS
SUN
ATIRAS
APOLLOS
EARTH

Apollos: largest group of near-Earth objects

Sept 29: Asteroid enters Earth’s orbit

Period when asteroid becomes temporary “second moon”

Nov 25: Exits Earth’s orbit after 56.6 days

Aug 7: Discovered by Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) – robotic early warning system in South Africa

EARTH
MOON


Hails from Arjuna asteroids which include cluster of four asteroid belts: Amors, Apollos, Atens and Atiras

10m

Bus shown to scale


Will return to Earth again in 2055


Celestial objects not to scale


Sources: EarthSky, RNASS, NASA JPL, BBC
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