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 earth for just two months before returning to its home. This mini-moon is a tiny asteroid 2024 PT5. It will he back to its home in an asteroid belt, dragging our planet and orbiting sun. 

When Will Mini Moon Orbit Around Earth? 

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

Will We Be Able To See 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 fed. However, scientists with hi-tech telescopes can view it to study more about asteroid. 

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

" object that is going to visit us belongs to Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt me of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth at an average distance to sun of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometres), research le author and  Universid Complutense de Mrid professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com. "Objects in Arjuna asteroid belt are part of near-Earth object population of asteroids and comets," he ded.

"Under se conditions, geocentric energy of object may grow negative, and object may become a temporary moon of Earth. This particular object will undergo this process starting next week and for about two months," Marcos ded. "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.