According to reports, a small asteroid called a ‘mini-moon’ will circle Earth for 53 days starting at the end of September. The 2024 PT5 was detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on August 7, 2024. This space rock will complete one full orbit around Earth from September 29 to November 25 before drifting away from the Earth's gravity.
However, it will be difficult to observe due to its small size, measuring only 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter. As per a LiveScience report from September 16, 2024, a similar event happened in 1981 and 2022, when the object 2022 NX 1 briefly became a companion to Earth before moving farther away, according to astronomers.
A recent study suggests that the mini-moon 2024 PT5 probably came from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which consists of space rocks orbiting the sun near Earth. Because its orbit closely aligns with ours, calculations predict that the asteroid will orbit Earth again in January 2025 and 2055.
Studies indicate that these mini-moons are rocks that contain valuable minerals and water, which could be used for rocket fuel. NASA considers any space object that approaches within about 120 million miles (190 million kilometers) of Earth as a ‘near-Earth object.’
However, any larger object within approximately 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) of our planet is ‘potentially hazardous.’ The agency monitors the positions and orbits of roughly 28,000 asteroids using ATLAS, a system of four telescopes that surveys the entire night sky every 24 hours.
The 2024 PT5 mini-moon is like a window shopper
In a statement released by Space.com, Professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos explained that some objects in the Arjuna asteroid belt can come close to Earth, within about 2.8 million miles (4.5 million km), and move at relatively low speeds of around 2,200 miles per hour (3,540 km/h). He added that the object's geocentric energy may grow negative and may be a temporary moon.
Nonetheless, the mini-moon will not follow a complete orbit around Earth. He compared such objects to window shoppers rather than true satellites, which are more like customers making purchases inside a store.
Mini-moon events fall into two categories. The first involves extended periods where the asteroid completes one or more orbits around Earth, with these gravitational interactions lasting for a year or more. The second category includes shorter engagements where it does not complete a full orbit, with these temporary captures lasting from just a few days to several months.
Although the object will be too small to be detected by standard amateur telescopes and binoculars, it is bright enough to be observed with the telescopes typically used by professional astronomers.
To view the mini-moon, a telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches and a CCD or CMOS detector is required since a 30-inch telescope alone with only the human eye would not suffice. Professor Marcos mentioned that he and his team plan to conduct spectroscopic and photometric observations of 2024 PT5 to understand its characteristics better.
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