Earth will have another moon by the end of October, scientists revealed Monday, as a small asteroid will be captured by our gravitational pull until at least the end of 2024.
The mini-moon was given the oh-so-catchy name “2024 PT5,” and was first spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on August 7, 2024, according to Live Science. PT5 is expected to join us here on planet Earth as we orbit around our closest star between September 29 and November 25.
PT5 will orbit our little space rock once during the 57-day visit, before being flung off into the universe, never to be seen again.
NASA May Have Accidentally Created The First Man-Made Meteor Shower, And It Might Not Be A Good Thing https://t.co/fudwkNu9az
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 29, 2024
Don’t expect to see PT5 while it’s circling us though. The asteroid is only 33 feet wide and may not be visible to us here on the ground, certainly not like our current moon.
PT5 is not the first mini-moon to visit Earth. Mini-moons have occurred in both 1981 and 2022, Live Science noted. They really aren’t anything to be worried about. What we really need to be worried about is the Taurid meteor stream and our current solar storm cycle, which went into overdrive in 2024. (RELATED: Dear Kay: I Watched ‘Ancient Apocalypse’ And Now I’m Scared We’re Going To Die Before 2025)
NASA estimates that there is only a very small risk of a cataclysmic asteroid event in the next 100 years. But NASA also doesn’t notice a lot of asteroids until they’re already almost here, so take everything they say and do with a pinch of salt.