Earth just grabbed a new moon, but don’t get too attached. Scientists believe the celestial partnership won’t last very long.
Astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona, who search the skies for potentially hazardous asteroids, recently found one that appeared to have been captured by Earth within the past couple of years. As a result, it is temporarily in our orbit:
BIG NEWS (thread 1/3). Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3. On the night of Feb. 15, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne and I found a 20th magnitude object. Here are the discovery images. pic.twitter.com/zLkXyGAkZl
Don’t expect to gaze at it or enjoy a walk under its glow. The moon is very small, with a diameter of between 6 and 12 feet.
“It would probably fit in a bedroom, even in San Francisco or New York,” Alessondra Springmann, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, told The New York Times.
Now, more astronomers are trying to observe the object, known as 2020 CD3, to confirm the finding and learn more about it, including where it came from, where it’s headed and when.
“Small objects like 2020 CD3 are often pulled in close to the Earth,” Catalina Sky Survey astronomer Theodore Pruyne told CNN. “This happens when the Earth intersects close enough to asteroids in orbit to the sun. If the object is close enough to the Earth, Earth’s gravity will pull on the objects, changing the object’s orbit.”
Mini-moons ― basically, captured asteroids ― were long theorized, but rarely observed until recently. The Catalina Sky Survey found the only known asteroid/mini moon in 2006; it departed in 2007. That one is now in its own orbit around the sun, which is the predicted fate of the latest mini moon.
Pictured here is a false color image from NASA of Saturn's moon, Rhea.
Jupiter's Europa
This image details the frozen surface of Europa, one of Jupiter's estimated 63 moons. Europa was named after a lover of Zeus, the Greek counterpart of Jupiter. NASA took this enhanced-color image from the Galileo spacecraft, which has been circling the largest planet on our solar system since 1995. NASA says the red lines are cracks and ridges are most likely created by the intense gravitational pull of Jupiter. As NASA writes, "The red material at the ridges and chaotic terrain is a non-ice contaminant and could be salts brought up from a possible ocean beneath Europa's frozen surface." Europa is one of Jupiter's largest moons.
Neptune's Triton
This photo, taken by NASA through green, violet and ultraviolet filters, shows the bright southern hemisphere of Triton. Triton is named after the Greek sea god Triton, the son of Poseidon (the Greek god comparable to the Roman Neptune). Triton is the only Neptune moon that has an internal geology; it is known to have geological activity like geysers and volcanic activity. It is one of very few such moons in the solar system. Experts believe that Triton could have been a captured object from the nearby Kuiper Belt, where the dwarf planet Pluto and other objects reside. Triton is the largest of Neptune's moons and the only object that orbits any planet in a retrograde orbit. Just like our own moon, it is locked in a synchronous rotation with its home planet.
Jupiter's Io
Io is the closest large moon of Jupiter and was named for a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus. Io has the most volcanic activity of any moon in the solar system, and its entire surface is covered with lava every few thousand years. NASA notes that this photo is based on real infrared, green and ultraviolet-light images and has only been adjusted to show the contrast. Io has an irregular elliptical orbit and is slightly larger than our own moon. It was discovered in 1610 by Galileo.
Mars' Phobos
One of only two Martian moons, Phobos has been described as no more than a tiny rock. NASA also notes that Phobos is on a collision course with Mars. As NASA writes, "Phobos is nearing Mars at a rate of 1.8 [meters] every hundred years; at that rate, it will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring." It has a six-mile gouge in it called the Stickney crater, which experts believe was caused by a meteorite impact. Phobos is named for one of the mythical sons of the Greek god Ares, who is the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Mars.
Jupiter's Ganymede
Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system. In fact, it's bigger than the planet Mercury and the dwarf planet Pluto, and it is almost three-quarters the size of Mars. NASA explains that if Ganymede orbited the sun instead of Jupiter, it would be a planet. This color-enhanced view from NASA shows the "frosty polar caps in addition to the two predominant terrains on Ganymede, bright, grooved terrain and older, dark furrowed areas." There is evidence of a thin oxygen atmosphere on Ganymede, but experts believe it is too thin to support life.
Uranus' Oberon
Oberon is named for Shakespeare's King of the Fairies from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It is the second largest moon of Uranus, and was first studied when NASA's Voyager 2 flew by in 1986. This photo, taken by Voyager 2, shows "several large craters in Oberon's icy surface surrounded by bright rays similar to those seen on Jupiter's moon Callisto." Like the rest of Uranus' large moons, Oberon is mostly made of ice and rock. It was first discovered in 1787 by astronomer William Herschel. At present, Uranus has about 27 named moons.
Jupiter's Callisto
NASA reports that Callisto is the third largest satellite in the solar system and roughly the size of Mercury. Pictured here in color, NASA points out that its many markings show a turbulent history of collisions with space objects. In fact, Callisto is known to be the most heavily cratered object in our solar system. And while Callisto is uniformly cratered, it is not uniformly colored. Experts believe the different colors come from ice and ice erosion. It is the darkest of Jupiter's four largest moons, known as the Galilean satellites. But it is still twice as bright as our moon.
Saturn's Mimas
This color-enhanced view of Mimas from NASA shows a bluish band around the equator. Experts are unsure of the nature of this blue band, though NASA speculates it could have something to do with the high-energy electrons that drift in an opposite direction to the flow of plasma in the magnetic bubble around Saturn. As NASA reports, Mimas is named for a giant who was killed by Mars in the war between the Titans and the gods of Olympus. It is the smallest and innermost of Saturn's major moons. Some note that its giant impact crater makes it similar to the Death Star featured in the "Star Wars" series.
Earth's moon transiting the sun
Our moon is one of the largest satellites in the solar system, which is impressive considering how much smaller the Earth is compared to Jupiter or Saturn. It has a diameter of 2,160 miles, as opposed to 3,280 miles, the diameter of Jupiter's Ganymede, the largest satellite. Most experts agree that the moon formed when a Mars-sized planet collided with Earth several billion years ago. The ensuing debris cloud reformed into the moon. Here the moon is seen in a NASA composite image transiting the sun from the STEREO-B spacecraft.
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Yahoo News 
![One of only two Martian moons, <a href="http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/mars/" target="_hplink">Phobos</a> has been described as no more than a tiny rock. NASA also notes that Phobos is on a collision course with <a href="http://www.mnn.com/eco-glossary/mars" target="_hplink">Mars</a>. <a href="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mar_Phobos" target="_hplink">As NASA writes</a>, "Phobos is nearing Mars at a rate of 1.8 [meters] every hundred years; at that rate, it will either crash into Mars in 50 million years or break up into a ring." It has a six-mile gouge in it called the Stickney crater, which experts believe was caused by a meteorite impact. Phobos is named for one of the mythical sons of the Greek god Ares, who is the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Mars.](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/l31h9pD468RPPKzivc.cDg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/5bb10558210000e700c713af.jpg)
