Earth Will Get a Second 'Mini-Moon' For 2 Months This Year

A small asteroid, 2024 PT5, will temporarily become a mini-moon for Earth, orbiting in a horseshoe shape from September 29 to November 25, 2024. CBS News reports: Researchers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, an asteroid monitoring system funded by NASA, spotted the asteroid using an instrument in Sutherland, South Africa and labeled it 2024 PT5. Scientists from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid have tracked the asteroid's orbit for 21 days and determined its future path. 2024 PT5 is from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which orbits the sun, according to their study published in Research Notes of the AAs. But Earth's gravitational pull will draw 2024 PT5 towards it and, much like our moon, it will orbit our planet -- but only for 56.6 days. 2024 PT5, which is larger than some of the other mini-moons, will also return to Earth's orbit -- in 2055. [...]

The study's lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com the mini-moon will be too small to see with amateur telescopes or binoculars but professional astronomers with stronger tools will be able to spot it.

Obligatory quote

[egilhh]

"That's no moon"

Re:

[martin-boundary]

I for one will only believe it when there's an xkcd comic that discusses it!

Sordid

[backslashdot]

I get it, PT5 is hot. But do we really need to do this to the moon, after all she's done for us?

Verne Troyer

[Dwedit]

Too bad we can't get Verne Troyer to play Mini Moon anymore.

If a moon falls in the forest ...

[cascadingstylesheet]

The study's lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com the mini-moon will be too small to see with amateur telescopes or binoculars but professional astronomers with stronger tools will be able to spot it.

Oh ... so for me personally, it's no different than if somebody just made up some fake photos/videos and showed them to me and just told me it was happening.

When I saw the headline I was hoping we could just look up and see a two moon sky, lol

Inquiring minds want to know

[e3m4n]

How visible will this be from our back yard?

Laser-schmaser!

[VeryFluffyBunny]

That's no asteroid, that's the Jewish space laser sent by the lizard-Illuminati people to control our minds through the 5G chips implanted in us through "vaccines" during the COVID-19 fake pandemic! It'll turn TrueAmericans(TM) into socialist paedophiles who'll vote Democrat. Stop the steal (Part II)!

Please don't make me tap the Poe's Law sign.

Re: Laser-schmaser!

[blastard]

You may have something there. How convenient that it shows up weeks before the election and then disappears before a House select committee can investigate it.

Hmmm...

Re:

[ArsenneLupin]

If it was really a jewish laser, it would make those 5G chips explode rather than control our minds.