The earth is all set to welcome its new 'mini-moon' on September 29, i.e., Sunday. According to scientists, a small asteroid named 2024 PT5 is going to be captured by Earth’s gravitational pull and will become a temporary 'mini-moon'.
It will orbit the earth for about two months, i.e., from September 29 to November 25, before escaping gravity. However, it cannot be seen with naked eyes as it is tiny and formd with dull rock. The experts have suggested that the 'mini-moon' orbiting our plantet can be visible through a professional telescope.
In a conversation with BBC programme, Astronomer Dr Jennifer Millard, host of the Awesome Astronomy podcast, said “Professional telescopes will be able to pick it up. So, you’ll be able to look out for lots of wonderful pictures online of this little dot moving past the stars at great speed.”
How did the 'mini-moon' come to light?
The 'mini-moon' was first spotted by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on August 7. According to NASA, it is believed to be around 33 feet wide. The asteroid, belonging to the Arjuna belt, contains rock that follow an orbit quite similar to that of the earth.
“It's not going to complete a full revolution of our planet, it's just going to kind of have its orbit altered, just twisted slightly by our planet and then it'll continue on its merry way,” Millard said.
Scientists also opine that 'mini-moons' have been spotted before and many of them might have gone unnoticed.
According to Jennifer Millard, the incident suggests how happening our solar system is and there is a lot to be unearthed yet.
"This story highlights just how busy our solar system is and how much there is out there that we haven't discovered, because this asteroid was only discovered this year."There are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of objects out there that we haven't discovered and so I think this highlights the importance of us being able to continually monitor the night sky and find all of these objects," she said.
Why the 'mini-moon' will orbit the earth?
It is pertinent to note that many asteroids, every now and then, keep passing by our planet. Some of them even get closer to the earth, up to 4.5 million kilometeres. As per the experts, when such asteriods move at a slow speed of 3,540km/h, the earth's gravitational force tends to exert an influence over them, which causes them to stay trapped in the orbit on a temporary basis. This is what has happened with our new 'mini-moon'.
