Jordanian Astronomical Society: A small moon orbits the Earth for two months

2024-09-29 2024-09-29T08:09:15Z

Arab Weather - Dr. Ammar Al-Sakaji, head of the Jordanian Astronomical Society, said that the planet Earth is attracting a small asteroid, 11 meters in size, called 2024 PT5, which is orbiting the Earth for about two months, and thus it can be considered a metaphorical additional small moon that is temporarily orbiting the Earth.

This small moon will enter the Earth's gravitational field at 10:54 pm on Sunday, September 29, 2024, and will continue until 11:43 pm on Monday, November 25, 2024, according to Jordan time, i.e. for about a month and 27 days, after which it will escape the Earth's gravitational field.

This asteroid belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is a secondary asteroid belt made up of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to Earth's and at an average distance from the sun of about 149 million kilometers. It was discovered on August 7 by the ATLAS system in South Africa, where the closest distance from Earth was about 567 thousand kilometers on August 8. Details of this asteroid were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Astronomical Society this September in Volume No. 8, Issue No. 9.

You may also like:

A new small moon will orbit our planet in the next two months

Earth is about to gain a temporary mini-moon—asteroid 2024 PT5. Discovered on August 7, 2024, this asteroid is roughly 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter and will be captured by Earth's gravity from September 29 to November 25, 2024.

During this time, the asteroid will loop around… pic.twitter.com/xDZERy3CsS

— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) September 13, 2024

This asteroid is invisible to astronomy and skywatchers due to its small size, with a diameter of about 11 meters and a magnitude of about 28. It can only be observed using large telescopes and specialists in astronomy and physics. It does not pose any threat or concerns to the Earth, as it moves away from the Earth during its rotation period at a rate of 4.5 million kilometers. This is much further than the distance between the Earth and the Moon, which is currently 396 thousand kilometers. Its speed is about 3541 kilometers per hour. This is not the first time that the planet Earth has attracted an asteroid and forced it to rotate around it temporarily.