Bus-sized asteroid will temporarily join Earth's orbit as 'mini moon' starting Sunday

LOS ANGELES -- Earth's satellite volition soon person immoderate institution - a "mini moon."

The mini satellite is really an asteroid astir the size of a schoolhouse autobus astatine 33 feet (10 meters). When it whizzes by Earth connected Sunday, it volition beryllium temporarily trapped by our planet's gravity and orbit the globe - but lone for astir 2 months.

The abstraction stone - 2024 PT5 - was archetypal spotted successful August by astronomers astatine Complutense University of Madrid utilizing a almighty scope located successful Sutherland, South Africa.

These short-lived mini moons are apt much communal than we realize, said Richard Binzel, an astronomer astatine Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The past known 1 was detected successful 2020.

"This happens with immoderate frequency, but we seldom spot them due to the fact that they're precise tiny and precise hard to detect," helium said. "Only precocious has our survey capableness reached the constituent of spotting them routinely."

The find by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society.

This 1 won't beryllium disposable to the bare oculus oregon done amateur telescopes, but it "can beryllium observed with comparatively large, research-grade telescopes," Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said successful an email.

Binzel, who was not progressive successful the research, said it's not wide whether the abstraction stone originated arsenic an asteroid oregon arsenic "a chunk of the satellite that got blasted out."

The mini satellite volition ellipse the globe for astir 57 days but won't implicit a afloat orbit. On Nov. 25, it volition portion ways with the Earth and proceed its solo trajectory done the cosmos. It's expected to walk by again successful 2055.