GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Our moon will soon be getting a new friend— for a little while, that is.
It's called 2024 PT-5 (PT-5), an asteroid stemming from a continuous asteroid belt that currently orbits our sun.
“Every once in a while, like with this 2024 PT-5, they get temporarily captured by the Earth's gravity,” explains Jim Foerch, Treasurer for the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association.
Earth will catch PT-5 at a gentle 2000 miles per hour— slow enough to disrupt its helio-centric path and hang out with us, but fast enough to horse-shoe back out into space soon after a few weeks.
"From the end of this month until towards the end of November, it'll be controlled by the Earth's gravity, but then it will drift on and once again, be controlled mainly by the sun's gravity," explained Foerch.
Although it will be in our planet's orbit for some time, it won't be visible to the naked eye.
"If you have a 30-inch diameter telescope and real sensitive CCD cameras, you can image it. And there's a few amateurs that have that sort of equipment," said Foerch.
You can track PT-5's path here.
According to NASA's Near-Earth Object Small-Body Database, 2024 PT-5 was first observed in early August by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) from Southerland, South Africa.
TALK NERDY: Check out the research notes on 2024 PT5 here!
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