Newly-discovered #asteroid 2024 PT5 is about to undergo a "mini-moon event" when its geocentric energy becomes negative from September 29 - November 25.https://t.co/sAo1qSRu3J pic.twitter.com/pVYAmSbkCF
— Tony Dunn (@tony873004) September 10, 2024
Will a new moon soon join the moon we are used to seeing in the sky? A recent discovery of the ATLAS system reveals that from next week another moon will start orbiting earth.
The system, which consists of four telescopes that scan earth, was created by NASA and is designed to identify and warn of bodies that may be approaching earth.
The asteroid, detected this week by the ATLAS system, will orbit earth in the near future and has been nicknamed PT5 2024. The "mini-moon", only ten meters in size, will orbit earth from September 29 for two months, until it leaves and will continue its course towards the sun.
Surprisingly, the arrival of "new moons" to earth is not a rare occurrence, and in recent years there have been a number of mini-moons orbiting earth. Much interest surrounding the mini-moons stems from the many resources they may have on them, as many small asteroids contain precious metals, which makes them especially attractive when they approach earth.
Although it seems like science fiction today, companies such as AstroForge plan to start mining minerals from space that are rare on earth, but abundant in asteroids around it.
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