Scientists say we are about to get a second moon – for more than two months. The so-called ‘mini moon’ will orbit our planet from September 29, say researchers in Madrid.
Researchers at Universidad Complutense de Madrid say it will be overhead from September 29 until November 25 – and you may actually be able to see it. From that point, after weeks in our orbit, it will go back home to an asteroid belt revolving around the sun.
The Guardian reports that a study published this week has announced that the second moon, as it being called, is actually an asteroid about the size of a large bus. It will be grabbed by our planet’s gravitational pull and become a ‘mini moon’, orbiting our planet.
Such events are rare. But this won’t be the first time for our planet by any means.
Researchers wrote in their paper that two mini moon events occurred. They were in 1981 and in 2022.
“The object that is going to pay us a visit belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the lead research author, told Space.com. He said it may become a ‘temporary moon of Earth’.
Some of the asteroids in the belt can get quite close to us here on Earth. That’s about 2.8m miles away – or a quick trip to the supermarket.
Why might this happen? Well, if an asteroid is going quite slowly (by its standards – a velocity of around 2,200mph), then its path is more likely to be affected by our planet’s gravity.
The professor said: “Under these conditions … the object may become a temporary moon of Earth,” he said. He advised the asteroid would be affected from next week in a situation that would last for about two months.
Yet it will not follow a full orbit around the Earth, he said. The asteroid was spotted on August 7 and Forbes is calling the upcoming event a ‘temporarily captured flyby’.
It was found by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (Atlas), a programme funded by NASA. But this will be nothing like our moon.
It is about 10 metres long. That compares with our moon, which has a diameter of about 3,474km.
The good news is you might actually be able to catch a glimpse of it. It will be “too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars”, the professor said.
“However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers.” And don’t worry too much if you miss it this time – well, if you’re really patient.
The scientists think it will return to Earth’s orbit again in 2055.