Planet Earth has been saying goodbye to an asteroid considered a “minimoon” for two months. This harmless piece of space will rise on Monday, overcoming the strong attraction of the Sun. But in January it will approach our planet again for a short time. NASA will then use a satellite dish to observe the 33-foot (10-meter) asteroid. This will help scientists understand the nature of the object known as “2024 PT5,” a chunk of rock that likely broke off from the Moon due to an asteroid collision.
Oku.Az“2024 PT5” is not technically the Moon (NASA notes that it has never fallen under Earth’s gravity and has never been in full orbit), but it is an object worth studying, according to information from the “Associated Press.”
The astrophysicists from the Complutense University of Madrid, the brothers Raúl and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, who identified the “minimoon” behavior of the asteroid, made hundreds of observations with telescopes in the Canary Islands.
The object is currently more than 3.5 million kilometers from our planet, but is too small to see without a powerful telescope. In January it will pass within 1.8 million kilometers of Earth, maintaining a safe distance, orbiting the Sun and entering the Solar System, and will not return until 2055. That is about five times the distance to the Moon.
The asteroid, first observed in August, traced a semicircle around our planet after falling under Earth’s gravity in late September. According to Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, when he returns next year it will be twice as fast.
In January, the Goldstone Solar System radar dish in California’s Mohave Desert, part of NASA’s Deep Space Network, will track the asteroid for more than a week.
According to current information, during its “journey” in 2055, the asteroid orbiting the Sun will temporarily and partially orbit the Earth again.
