NASA has reported that a ‘mini moon’ will soon enter Earth’s orbit for a brief period as a result of its gravitational pull.
BBC reports that the Earth is about to get a second moon as a small asteroid is going to be captured by Earth’s gravitational pull from September 29 onwards.
Starting this weekend, the small asteroid is expected to spend about two months orbiting around the Earth.
Scientist Dr Jennifer Millard told BBC that the asteroid is predicted to leave the orbit on November 25.
The second moon will not be seen through the naked eye except through a professional telescope.
The asteroid was first noticed by NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (Atlas) on August 7.
A study related to the asteroid, published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, revealed that it came from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is full of rocks following an orbit just like it is around Earth.
Researchers say that if an asteroid is moving at the relatively slow speed of around 2,200mph (3,540km/h), Earth’s gravitational field exerts a strong influence, enough to trap it in its orbit temporarily, and this is exactly what has happened here.
The asteroid, named 2024 PT5, is approximately 10 metres long, which is tiny in comparison to Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of approximately 3,474km.
