A small moon the size of a bus is orbiting Earth in its final days and will not return until 2055.
Asteroid 2024 PT5 has been on an Earth orbit since September 29. It was first detected on August 7 by an asteroid warning system funded by NASA. This object is approximately 10 meters wide, but poses no threat to Earth, according to Sun. 2024 PT5 is also much smaller than the Moon (which is about 3.4 million meters wide).
Simulation of a small moon orbiting Earth alongside the real Moon. (Photo: Earth).
Small moons are not particularly rare, but they are very difficult to detect. 2024 PT5 is especially interesting due to its size. It is one of the largest small moons, according to Barbara Castanheira Endl, an assistant professor of physics at Baylor University in Texas. They are very faint and can only be observed through the light they reflect.
2024 PT5 will leave Earth’s orbit on November 25. It was once near Earth as a small moon in the 1960s. Researchers predict this asteroid will not return until 2055. They have determined that it originates from the Arjuna asteroid belt. Asteroids from that belt follow an Earth-like orbit for about a year.
The asteroid 2024 PT5 passes Earth at a distance nine times that of the Moon. Based on the similarities between the motion of 2024 PT5 and Earth, scientists at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) suspect it could be a large rock ejected from the Moon’s surface after a collision long ago.
2024 PT5 was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) from the University of Hawaii, located in Sutherland, South Africa. The asteroid will gradually move away from Earth and continue its orbit around the Sun. If it approaches Earth, it would burn up, according to Matt Pryal, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia. “2024 PT5 helps us better understand near-Earth asteroids, detection techniques, and predicting when they come close,” Pryal shared.
