Hey there, space explorers! 🌟 Did you know that Earth had a tiny visitor called a ‘mini moon’? But guess what? It might actually be a piece of our very own Moon! Let’s dive into this cosmic adventure.
For the past two months, an asteroid named 2024 PT5 has been hanging out near Earth, acting like a mini moon. But it’s about to head off on its own journey, pulled away by the Sun’s stronger gravity. Don’t worry though, it’ll swing by again in January for a quick hello! 👋
This space rock is about 10 meters wide—that’s like the size of a school bus! 🚌 Scientists think it might be a boulder that was blasted off the Moon a long time ago when something hit it and made a crater. How cool is that?
Even though we call it a mini moon, it wasn’t really captured by Earth’s gravity like our real Moon. Instead, it followed a special path called a horseshoe orbit, which brought it close to us.
Two astrophysicist brothers from Spain, Raúl and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, have been studying 2024 PT5 using telescopes in the Canary Islands. They’ve made hundreds of observations to learn more about this mysterious object. 🔭🌌
Right now, the asteroid is more than 3.5 million kilometers away—that’s super far! In January, it’ll come closer, about 1.8 million kilometers away, but still a safe distance. That’s almost five times farther than our Moon! 🌕
NASA plans to use a special radar antenna in California’s Mojave Desert to study it when it gets closer. This will help scientists understand more about asteroids and maybe even learn more about our own Moon!
And guess what? 2024 PT5 will come back again in 2055! By then, maybe some of you will be space scientists studying it yourselves! 🚀
Isn’t space amazing? Keep looking up at the stars—you never know what you might discover! ✨
Reference(s):
Earth's 'mini moon' may have been a chunk of our actual moon
cgtn.com
