Spectacle from the end of September The moon gets a little brother
It will almost be like a second moon: From the end of September, a lump of rock will complete a spin around the Earth. There is a bizarre detail.
When will the second moon orbit the Earth?
Earth will have a new companion in the next few weeks: an asteroid will probably orbit the planet in a horseshoe-shaped path from September 29 to November 25, researchers report. It will then fly on into space. "This is "pretty cool", astrophysicist Federica Spoto from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told the New York Times.
Can the companion be seen with the naked eye?
However, astro-fans cannot hope for two clearly visible moons in the night sky. The asteroid named "2024 PT5" is too small to be seen with the naked eye: "2024 PT5" was detected with ground telescopes at the beginning of August. The lump is only around ten meters in size. Without a suitable telescope, it will therefore be difficult for amateur astronomers to spot the short-lived Earth companion.
Where does the asteroid come from?
Most asteroids whiz by more or less far away from Earth; very rarely does one enter our planet's atmosphere or even make a crater. Asteroid "2024 PT5" has a different fate: it is captured by the Earth's gravity and accompanies the planet for about eight weeks, as researchers report in the "Research Notes" of the American Astronomical Society.
"The discovery of "2024 PT5" reminds us that there is a fairly busy highway around the Earth," said Spoto. Incidentally, the next time the asteroid is expected to fly past the Earth is in 2055.
Visitors similar to "2024 PT5" have already been recorded several times: in 1981 and 2022, for example, the asteroid "2022 NX1". It is expected to return in 2051.
The mini-moon could actually be made of lunar material
The asteroid's two-month spin around the Earth is topped off by a bizarre detail: the rocky lump is probably a piece of ejected material from an impact on the moon, according to reports. The temporary miniature moon could therefore be a fragment of the actual moon.
It is probably a so-called Arjuna asteroid with an Earth-like orbit around the sun, explain Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid in the "Research Notes". It is unlikely that it is an artificial object such as space debris due to its trajectory.
In the coming months, those who dream of mining raw materials in space may be looking up at the sky with particular longing: "Every time there is talk of asteroid mining, it's about mini-moons," Spoto told the New York Times. A metal-rich chunk of rock orbiting the Earth would therefore be a nice target for prospectors.
Transparency notice: This article was first published on September 24.
dpa