Details about the “minimoon” and its path were published this month in the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society. After nearly two months in Earth's orbit, the space rock is set to return “home,” or to orbit around the sun.
An asteroid is coming. Earth will gain a new “mini-moon”
As reported by CNNastronomers first spotted the asteroid on August 7 using a South African-based observatory funded by NASA and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) devices.
The asteroid's diameter is likely to be about 11 meters, but more observations and data are needed to confirm its size.
– said the lead author of the study, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, from the mathematics department of the Complutense University of Madrid.
Space rock could be bigger than asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk
The space rock could be between 5 and 42 meters in diameter and could potentially be larger than the asteroid that entered Earth's atmosphere over Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013. At that time, an asteroid measuring 17-20 meters in diameter exploded in the air, releasing 20-30 times more energy than bomb atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The maximum brightness of the fireball was estimated at about -27 magnitude, which is brighter than the sun. Fragments of the space rock damaged over 7,000 buildings and injured over 1,000 people. Scientists emphasize, however, that the Earth is not at risk of being hit by 2024 PT5 “now or in the next few decades.”
The space rock will orbit at a distance of about 4.2 million kilometers from our planet, or about 10 times farther than the distance between Earth and the Moon.
– explains Carlos de la Fuente Marcos.
The scientist emphasizes that in order to become a “mini-moon”, the approaching body must approach the Earth to a distance of about 4.5 million km and approach at a speed of about 3540 km/h. – In such conditions, the object becomes temporarily bound to the Earth. So far, science has identified only two objects that have undergone long interceptions: 2006 RH120 and 2020 CD3. Three examples of short interceptions have been published: 1991 VG, 2022 NX1 and 2024 PT5. But there are several others that have not been published – explains the scientist quoted by the portal space.com. Unfortunately, during its “Earthbound” time, 2024 PT5 will not be visible to the vast majority of skygazers. – The object is too small and faint for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, it is within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers, the scientist explains.