Astronomers have discovered that the world is big, always evolving month you are about to find company.
From Sunday, the planet will capture the an asteroid cruises by, pulling it through one loop around Earth before its exit on Nov. 25. When it takes off, it will continue its path around the Earth. the sun. A two-month tour puts this space rock in the class of so-called “small moons.”
The asteroid getting its 15 minutes of fame is called 2024 PT5, discovered with the help of NASA-funded asteroid detection system and South African observatory in August. But before digging through the closet for binoculars, know this: They’re only 33 feet across — about the length of a Greyhound bus — and not bright enough to look at with the naked eye or amateur telescope.
NASA’s Mars rovers had plenty of rocks this summer
Scientists suspect that the only fixed-orbit moon on Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.
Credit: NASA
Throughout the solar system, about 300 months orbit the eight planets once Plutoand scientists often discover new ones as experimental methods improve. Most of the moons revolve around gas giants Saturn and Jupiter.
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They come in many shapes and sizes, but their defining characteristic is that they orbit some cosmic object larger than themselves. Although these natural satellites are very common, the moons are special to humans because the Earth has only one fixed orbit – albeit a large one. with stones about one-fourth the size of Earth at about 239,000 miles.
Earth has captured asteroids and pulled them into orbit with their own gravity before, but usually these space rocks fly without completing a full circuit around the world. Compared to recent short months, 2024 PT5 is short term. In July 2006, a visitor was named RH120 it spent a year orbiting the Earth before it was ejected in July 2007. Astronomers believe that the one that escaped in May 2020 may have been sweeping the planet for several years.
In the entire solar system, about 300 moons orbit the eight planets and Pluto, and scientists often discover new ones as observational methods improve.
Credit: NASA design drawing
Two astronomers from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain made the latest discovery of a small moon while calculating the energies of near-Earth objects. Their findings were published in the journal AAS research notes. Previous research by NASA Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System it had shown that the space rock was not a threat to it hitting the Earth.
While learning the path of 2024 PT5, the research duo, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, can also go back to their origins. The space rock probably came from the so-called The arjuna asteroid belta group of small rocks centered near Earth discovered in the early 1990s.