Earth's 'mini moon' set to disappear for decades as NASA outline plans

A 'mini-moon' which partially entered Earth's orbit in September began to move towards the sun on Monday, November 24, as it was overcome by strong gravity. The small asteroid has been hovering above the Earth for around two months.

The celestial object, known as 2024 PT5, began to partially circle Earth in a horseshoe-shaped path but NASA has clarified that it never fully entered orbit. Daniel Brown, associate professor in astronomy at Nottingham Trent University, said: "A mini-moon is a small object orbiting another solar system body. It could be either just a rock, which we call an asteroid, or a mixture of rock, dust and ice, which we call a comet."

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It belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, a group of space rocks in the solar system that revolves around the Sun. Prof Brown said the mini-moon will orbit Earth for 57 days before eventually swinging out of the planet’s gravitational pull.

The space rock is not expected to reappear for another 30 years, in 2055. Data suggests that during its next visit, the sun-circling asteroid will once again make a temporary and partial lap around Earth.

The "mini-moon measures approximately 11 meters in diameter, which is roughly the length of a London bus, 2024 PT5 has been orbiting about 1.9 million miles (three million kilometers) from Earth. 2024 PT5 is not visible to the naked eye from Earth and can only be seen through telescopes.

This is not the first time the Earth has had a mini-moon. Four years ago, scientists identified another mini-moon, called 2020 CD3, which orbited the Earth for more than a year.

Discussing the object, NASA said: "Because 2024 PT5 has a similar motion to Earth’s around the Sun, the asteroid will linger as a distant companion of our planet for a few months at a distance of about nine times farther away from Earth than the Moon.

"The object will never be captured by Earth’s gravity. So while it’s not quite a “mini-moon,” 2024 PT5 is an interesting object and NASA has plans to track it with planetary radar."