Mini-Moon:
According to a new study, the Earth’s gravitational field will temporarily capture a small asteroid named 2024 PT5 which will behave as a ‘mini moon’.
- Mini-moons are asteroids that fail to escape Earth’s gravity and end up orbiting the planet for some time.
- They are usually very small and hard to detect — only four mini-moons of Earth have ever been discovered, and none are still orbiting Earth.
- These events are relatively frequent, with similar occurrences happening every few decades.
- Mini moons are captured from the Near-Earth Object (NEO) population, which consists of asteroids and other celestial bodies that pass close to Earth.
- NASA classifies any space object that comes within 120 million miles (190 million kilometers) of our planet as a near-Earth object, while objects within 4.7 million miles (7.5 million kilometers) are considered potentially hazardous.
