Get ready for a second leading lady, at least on the space stage; Moon, Earth’s closest neighbour, will have company soon.
A ‘mini moon’ will be making its rounds around the Earth from September 29 to November 25 this year before flying off into space, as reported in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
This is what we were able to find about ‘mini-moons’.
What is a 'mini-moon'?
The term ‘mini-moon’ is associated with frequency of asteroid 2024 PT5, which will be the satellite of the Moon for two months.
Comets that never leave the earthly orbit are those that have failed to leave the Earth’s gravitational pull, change direction momentarily and go round the planet for sometime. Such space rocks are dubbed mini-moons.
They are usually small and can travel at a very high speed and hence can be hard to identify.
Raúl de la Fuente Marcos an astronomer at the Complutense University of Madrid and co-author of the study in question noted to the NYT, “ Every time an object with an orbit so Earth-like is discovered, there is a chance that we are just digging up space debris. ” Nevertheless this time it is in fact “ natural object”.
According to a report published in RNAAS said by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, and Raul de la Fuente Marcos, the Earth has a predilection for capturing the asteroids and dragging them into its family. Occasionally these celestial objects may make one or more full revolutions round the Earth while other times they may deviate from the Earth’s elliptical route without making a round.
Some of the facts that have been gathered about Asteroid 2024 PT5
Asteroid 2024 PT5 was first observed on August 7 by NASA’s ATLAS system, which is financially supported to detect potential asteroid impacts.
2024 PT5 is a small object that is only 10 metres (33 feet) in diameter; its orbit is similar to one of the asteroids in the Arjuna asteroid belt that has an orbital path comparable to the Earth’s.
It is called as Horseshoe orbit because it will take 53 days to orbit but due to the curve it will not be full circle & will leave the earth’s gravitational field completely.
Earth is about to gain a temporary mini-moon—asteroid 2024 PT5. Discovered on August 7, 2024, this asteroid is roughly 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter and will be captured by Earth's gravity from September 29 to November 25, 2024.
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) September 13, 2024
During this time, the asteroid will loop around… pic.twitter.com/xDZERy3CsS
According to Paul Chodas, the director of the NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Study at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2024 PT5 can be a part of moon or in other words, it may be an ejecta of the moon formed by an impact, though it may not consist of the material of the moon.
Nevertheless, this is a possible role, and it may not really be qualified as a mini-moon if it does originate from the surface of the moon.
‘It won’t even do a full orbit around the Earth-Moon system this fall,’ Lance Benner, principal investigator of the asteroid radar research program at JPL said to NYT.
Forthwith, Earth has been host to other mini-moons before but 2024 PT5 is dusky or too weak to be seen with naked eye or with many small telescopes. It is expected to measure 22, thus being observable only to advanced observatories, researchers noted.
In fact, though small in both size and time scale, the asteroid 2024 PT5 has important implications for understanding the behavior of near Earth object. Understanding its behaviour in relation to the gravity of the Earth will enable the astronomers to enhance the models on gravitational influence and so enhance predictions of the behaviour of other asteroids in the proximity of the Earth.
Is Earth in familiar with ‘mini-moon’?
Of course, the Earth has had mini-moons before.
There is a good NASA record of asteroid being orbited by the gravity of the Earth for a year starting from July 2006 to July 2007 respectively.
The newly discovered 2024 PT5 has resemblance with 2022 NX1 which moved around the Earth in 1981 and 2022 briefly before moving away without making a full round. It is expected to come back for another half-orbital flight by year 2051.