Of all the planets in our solar system, Earth is the only one with a single Moon. However, for about two months starting today, the planet will welcome a second ‘mini moon’.
A mini-moon is a “small asteroid or space rock temporarily captured by Earth’s gravity,” according to Khadijah Ahmad, Operations Manager at Dubai Astronomy Group.
It is expected to enter Earth’s gravitational field at 11.54pm today, September 29, and will remain in orbit until 12.43am on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, according to Ammar Sakaji, theoretical physicist at the International Astronomical Center (IAC).
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While our moon will have company for a short period, the recently discovered ‘mini-moon,’ named 2024 PT5, is significantly smaller, around the size of a bus.
The Earth’s moon has a diameter of about 3,475 km while 2024 PT5 is roughly 10 to 11 metres wide. This means the moon is “approximately 308,108 times wider than typical mini-moons”, Khadijah said.
Ammar noted that the ‘mini moon’ belongs to the “Arjuna Asteroid Belt,” a secondary asteroid belt consisting of space rocks that follow orbits similar to Earth’s, with an average distance from the Sun of about 149 million km.
The mini-moon was discovered on August 7 at the Atlas Observatory in South Africa, and its closest approach to Earth was on August 8, at a distance of approximately 567,000 km.
Can UAE residents spot the mini moon?
Due to the small size of these space rocks, they can not be seen by the naked eye. They are “too dim or faint”, and can not be seen even through binoculars or average telescopes in the UAE or other parts of the world, Khadijah said.
Only telescopes with a diameter of 8 metres or larger, equipped with the appropriate cameras, can be used to observe the asteroid, according to Ammar. He added: “The asteroid poses no threat to Earth, as it orbits at a distance of 4.5 million km — much farther than the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, which is currently 396,000 km.”
The asteroid will also not have any noticeable impact on Earth’s tides or other natural occurrences, as “the mass and gravitational influence are negligible compared to that of Earth’s moon,” according to Khadijah.
After orbiting Earth, the asteroid will escape the planet’s gravitational field, be drawn towards the Sun and continue to orbit around it, Ammar noted.
Why 2024 PT5?
Khadijah broke down the different elements in the naming of the asteroid:
- 2024 – the year it was discovered.
- P means it was found in the second half of August, following the naming system by the IAU that assigns letters to the 2 halves of each month. For example, A and B correspond to the first and second halves of January, and so on for each month
- T5 denotes that it is the fifth object discovered in that period