Earth's New "Mini-Moon": 4 Things To Know

news image
Top Stories
23 Sep 2024 8:30 AM

Earth is about to get a new asteroid friend, but not the kind that crashes and causes havoc. It’s more of an “in-laws that overstay their welcome” kind of situation. Here’s what you need to know about a new mini-moon: 

What’s happening? 

Back in August, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) program discovered a roughly 10-meter-wide asteroid from the Arjuna asteroid belt that will get close enough to Earth to classify it as a “mini-moon” starting on September 29th. The report published in the American Astronomical Society journal, said asteroid 2024 PT5 will make a horseshoe shaped orbit around our planet over the course of 57 days; ending on November 25th. 

 

What is a “Mini-Moon"? 

“Mini-moons” can range from asteroids to random pieces of space junk floating around. These near-Earth objects will enter Earth’s gravitational pull and will often complete at least a partial revolution around our planet. Sometimes the object doesn’t even complete a full revolution before exiting and continuing its regular heliocentric trajectories.  While asteroid 2024 PT5 won’t complete a full orbit of Earth, some astronomers may call it a “temporarily captured flyby”. 

Will I be able to see it? 

Short answer: no. 

Long answer: 2024 PT5 won’t be bright enough, even with a typical home telescope.  

NASA classifies how bright celestial objects are by their magnitude. Low numbers, including negatives, are brighter, while higher numbers are fainter. 

2024 PT5 has a magnitude of 27.595. The naked eye can see objects as faint as roughly 6.5 magnitude, and a traditional 12-inch telescope can see things with magnitudes between 16-17. To put it in perspective, the moon sits at –13 magnitude.  

Is this a rare event? 

These phenomena aren’t partially rare as the Earth can capture Near Earth Objects all the time. In 2022, a mini-moon called Asteroid 2022 YG entered the Earth’s orbit. Our planet has had a repeated visitor of 2022 NX1 asteroid who became a mini-moon in both 1981 and 2022. That asteroid won’t be back until 2051 though.  

In fact, this happens so often, some researchers believe Earth always has at least one mini-moon hovering in space.  

 

All Weather News
More
Storms Picking on the High Plains

Storms Picking on the High Plains

CENTRAL U.S - A trough pushing in from the we

15 Sep 2025 8:00 PM
Monitoring Another Tropical Wave in the Atlantic - Invest 92L

Monitoring Another Tropical Wave in the Atlantic - Invest 92L

September 10th marked the climatological peak

15 Sep 2025 7:50 PM
Coastal Low Spins Trouble Onshore

Coastal Low Spins Trouble Onshore

We've got a distubance out over the open wate

15 Sep 2025 7:50 PM
Northern Lights Close Out the Weekend For Many

Northern Lights Close Out the Weekend For Many

Did you see them? Many might have had better

15 Sep 2025 7:45 PM
Eastern Pacific: Mario Returns, Sends Moisture to California

Eastern Pacific: Mario Returns, Sends Moisture to California

While the Atlantic has been relatively quiet

15 Sep 2025 7:35 PM
Florida Rainfall: Nuisance or Beneficial?

Florida Rainfall: Nuisance or Beneficial?

The dry time has been a little hard to enjoy

15 Sep 2025 2:00 AM
Fall Color Starting to Show In Parts of the Lower 48

Fall Color Starting to Show In Parts of the Lower 48

Grab the pumpkin spice and apple cider donuts

15 Sep 2025 1:10 AM