Planet Earth is parting ways with an asteroid that, for the past two months, has been with it as a “mini-moon”. The space rock will move away for a while, but will come closer for a short visit in January.
NASA will use a radar antenna to observe the 10-meter asteroid then. This should deepen scientists’ knowledge of the object known as 2024 PT5, quite possibly a chunk that was torn from the Moon by an asteroid that hit Earth’s natural satellite.
Although, from a technical point of view, it is not a moon – NASA points out that it was never captured by Earth’s gravity and was not completely in orbit – it is “an interesting object” worthy of study, notes Noi.md with reference to .
Currently more than 2 million miles (3.5 million kilometers) away, the object is too small and faint to be seen without a powerful telescope.
In January, the object will pass within 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) of Earth, maintaining a safe distance before moving away into the solar system as it orbits the Sun, only to return in 2055. It is almost five times farther than the Moon.
