CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Planet Earth is about to part ways with an asteroid that has been trailing it as a “mini moon” for the past two months.
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The Departure of Asteroid 2024 PT5
The harmless space rock, officially designated 2024 PT5, will drift away from Earth’s vicinity on Monday, as the sun’s stronger gravitational pull takes over. Despite its departure, the asteroid will make a brief return in January, offering scientists a closer look.
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An Opportunity for Observation
NASA plans to study the 33-foot (10-meter) asteroid using the Goldstone solar system radar antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, a key part of the Deep Space Network. This will help deepen understanding of the object, which is believed to be a fragment possibly blasted off the moon by a crater-forming impact.
While not technically a moon — NASA emphasizes that the asteroid was never fully captured by Earth’s gravity — the space rock exhibited “mini moon behavior,” making it a subject of interest for researchers.
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Discovery and Characteristics
The asteroid was first identified in August and began its semi-orbit around Earth in late September, following a horseshoe-shaped path influenced by Earth’s gravity. Raul and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, astrophysicist brothers from Complutense University of Madrid, have been leading the study of the asteroid. Working with telescopes in the Canary Islands, they’ve conducted hundreds of observations.
Currently more than 2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) from Earth, 2024 PT5 is too small and faint to be seen without a powerful telescope. When it returns in January, it will pass safely at a distance of 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), roughly five times farther than the moon, before accelerating away into the solar system.
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Future Encounters
During its next close approach in January, the asteroid will be traveling at more than twice the speed it had in September, making it too fast to linger in Earth’s orbit. However, calculations suggest that when the asteroid returns in 2055, it might once again follow a temporary and partial path around Earth before continuing its journey around the sun.
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What Lies Ahead
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NASA’s upcoming observations in January are expected to provide invaluable data about the asteroid’s composition and origin. Such studies could help scientists better understand the dynamics of objects influenced by Earth’s gravitational field and their potential connections to the moon’s surface.
