For the past two months, earth has enjoyed the company of another celestial object, an astroid, that is tagging along with our planet as a “mini moon.” The spacerock, which currently poses no immediate threat to our planet, is going to be tugged away from Earth’s orbit due to the sun’s gravitational pull, but it will make a quick reappearance in January.
NASA is going to utilise a radar antenna to observe the 33-foot (10-meter) astroid. The object called 2024 PT5 has fascinated the scientists, who think that this might be a boulder ejected from the moon after an asteroid impact that created a crater. It is a small, mysterious space rock that is considered an interesting subject for scientific study that could help enhance knowledge of such celestial bodies.
An Asteroid That Behaves Like a “Mini Moon”
2024 PT5, for all the weirdness it shows, will not be considered technically to be a moon as the object was never caught by the gravity of Earth, but it orbits around the sun and will just transverse near Earth temporarily. According to NASA, even if it behaves like a moon, its classification is quite other: “an interesting object,” worthy of scientific observation.
The Discovery and Observations
Astrophysicist brothers Raul and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos from Complutense University of Madrid were the first to identify the object’s “mini moon behavior.” Their work has involved hundreds of observations conducted with telescopes based in the Canary Islands. Currently, 2024 PT5 is more than 2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) away, and due to its small size and faint light, it can only be seen through powerful telescopes.
Close Encounter and Future Plans
In January, 2024 PT5 will approach to about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers) from Earth—a safe distance for our planet. This will be the closest that the asteroid will pass before moving on into the rest of the solar system. It will not return until 2055, when it will be nearly five times as far away as the moon.
Raul de la Fuente Marcos said, “By the time it returns next year, it will be moving too fast — more than double its speed from September — to hang around.”
NASA’s Observational Efforts
NASA intends to follow 2024 PT5 more closely during its January close approach. It will be over a week before the object passes a Goldstone solar system radar antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, which is part of the Deep Space Network; scientists will get additional path and characterization data.
More Returns
Data collected suggest that 2024 PT5 will make a brief, partial loop around Earth during its next passage in 2055. This passage will be an opportunity for scientists to gain more knowledge about the movement and orbit of the asteroid.
ALSO READ: How India’s Aditya-L1 Sun Mission Can Revolutionize Solar Storm Predictions Globally
