An asteroid named 2024 ON just passed near Earth without causing any damage, and another asteroid, which might appear like a mini-moon, is on its way. That asteroid, named 2024 PT5, is just 33 feet long and is travelling in cosmic space.
It will soon be captured by Earth’s gravity for a singular orbit, which means the 2024 PT5 asteroid will make half a revolution in a horseshoe-shaped orbit around the planet before it continues its cosmic journey.
It is quite rare to see an asteroid being attracted by Earth’s gravitational pull, as in most cases asteroids either miss Earth or burn upon entering the planet’s atmosphere. An asteroid that cannot escape Earth’s gravitation is called a mini-moon. As 2024 PT5 is a smaller asteroid, despite falling into Earth’s gravitational pull, it will be visible only through special telescopes.
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.
During this time, the asteroid will loop around… pic.twitter.com/xDZERy3CsS
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) September 13, 2024
The asteroid 2024 PT5 is not a mini-moon technically, as it will not complete one full revolution around Earth but will remain in the planet’s orbit for over 56 days. In most cases, when astronomers discover a mini-moon, it turns out to be a man-made object such as a part of a spacecraft or satellite.
The 2024 PT5 asteroid, first discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System on August 7, will make one complete revolution around Earth, starting from September 29 to November 25, before it breaks free of our planet’s gravitational pull and continues its journey.
A report in The New York Times quoted Federica Spoto, an asteroid dynamics researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, as saying that “it is pretty cool” and that 2024 PT5 could help scientists gain more knowledge about the space rocks that pass Earth very frequently.
According to Paul Chodas, director of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2024 PT5 “is possibly a piece of ejecta from an impact on the moon”.
Mini-moons are considered important in the science community, as they contain precious metals. When they get attracted by Earth’s gravitation, it opens up the possibility of mining those precious metals.
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