A small asteroid discovered in August and named 2024 PT5 will be pulled into orbit around Earth, acting as a second “mini-moon” of the planet for a short period of time.
Earth will briefly have a mini-moon. Shutterstock photo
The space rock, named 2024 PT5, is part of the Arjuna asteroid belt, one not very far from Earth, so the asteroid can travel quite close to us, at a distance of about 2.8 million miles (4.5 million kilometers).
When traveling relatively close to Earth, some of these asteroids can become stuck in Earth’s orbit and earn the title of “mini-moons”.
Unlike the Moon, asteroid 2024 PT5 will not follow a full orbit around Earth, but will gravitate in a horseshoe shape between September 29 and November 25. Eventually, it will break out of orbit and return to a heliocentric orbit, which is an orbit around the Sun. Specialists estimate that it will then not visit Earth again until 2055, writes The Sun.
Unfortunately, the event will not be visible to the vast majority of amateur astronomers because the “mini-moon” will be too faint to be detected without professional equipment.
Other astronomical events
In the cosmic calendar, however, there are other events that we can witness.
Astronomers say they expect many “shooting stars” to be seen by comet 21 P/Giacobini-Zinner next week as it passes by Earth. This is the Draconid meteor shower, which will be active between October 6 and 10, but will peak around October 8-9.
Unlike other meteor showers, which are best captured in the early morning, the Draconids are best seen in the evening.
Also, until October 2, one of the brightest comets, C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, can be seen in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere.
