The Earth was hosting an asteroid called 2024 PT5 as its temporary “mini-moon,” orbiting Earth for the last almost two months. 2024 PT5 was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in South Africa on August 7, 2024. Approaching Earth’s orbit on September 29, 2024, the asteroid is expected to leave the orbit today, November 25, 2024. Because the visitor was temporary, there was much that could be learned from it by astronomers and enthusiasts of the sky alike, serving as a source of useful information about history from the moon and the dynamics of near-Earth objects.
2024 PT5, about 10 meters (33 feet) across, followed an unusual in a horseshoe-shaped path around our planet-a trajectory that will eventually take it back into its orbit around the Sun. Unlike true moons, mini-moons like 2024 PT5 get temporarily tacked by gravity onto Earth due to their low velocity and particular orbit, which makes their stays short-lived. The time the object spent in Earth’s orbit was small yet significant in that it granted much-needed opportunities for studying its characteristics and gaining new understanding of our cosmic neighborhood.
The close approach of the asteroid to Earth was about 568,500 kilometers, a distance similar to that between Earth and the Moon, enabling significant detail into the observations made by astronomers. Small in size, 2024 PT5 has surely turned up the heat in scientific interest in its composition and motion for possible clues into the history of our Moon and other near-Earth objects.
What makes 2024 PT5 different from other asteroids is that it is believed to have a lunar origin. The spectral analysis indicated the chemical composition of the asteroid was much similar to that of the lunar basalt, which was retrieved during NASA’s manned Apollo missions and the unmanned Russian Luna missions. The implication is that 2024 PT5 could be a piece ejected from the surface of the Moon during a massive impact event that happened billions of years in the past.
Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a physics professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, detailed more: “Several lines of evidence indicate this asteroid could be of lunar origin. The relatively high rotation rate and composition reported for 2024 PT5 boost the possibility that it may be a boulder or fragment of a larger one lying on or near the surface of the Moon.”.
These findings add a new thread of information to the history of the Moon and provide a direct link with the far past of the impacts on the lunar that may have created the celestial body as we presently see it.
Although 2024 PT5 is too faint to be seen by the naked eye, sky watchers with telescopes have had an unusual chance to spy the mini-moon before it goes away.
To those with telescopes at least 30 inches in diameter, the asteroid brief sojourn near Earth has been a very exciting object. However, once it’s gone, it won’t come back until 31 years later predicted return to Earth’s vicinity: 2055.
Astronomers look forward to continuing their observations of 2024 PT5, especially as it completes its orbit around the Sun. Such mini-moons, like 2024 PT5, are of great interest to researchers since both the dynamics therein provide far-reaching insight into how such objects generally interact with planetary bodies. Events of their temporary capture by Earth, even though very rare, remind us that the solar system is dynamic and in a continuous state of change.
But 2024 PT5’s encounter is setting in memory the ancient impacts that scarred Earth and the Moon. Under the giant impact hypothesis-even the Moon itself was formed from debris after a huge collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body roughly 4.5 billion years ago. This mini-moon briefly embraces Earth to provide a glimpse into the ongoing influence of such collisions on the trajectories taken by objects in our solar system. With 2024 PT5 heading back into its orbit around the Sun, this rare and unusual cosmic event comes full circle. But it won’t be the last of its kind. Mini-moons like 2024 PT5 are bound to come again, and Earth will most likely meet more temporary visitors in the future.
