Yes, I'm absolutely serious. In addition to our, uh, regular moon, a temporary new "mini-moon" will orbit the Earth from Sept. 29 and Nov. 25.
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But what does this mean? For all my non-astronomy folks, I'll break it down for you. Basically, a small astroid (33 feet, or 10 metres) is about to be pulled into Earth's orbit, making it our "second moon." But, the sun's strong gravitational influence will eject it from our orbit and return it to space after about two months.
Nazarii Neshcherenskyi / Getty Images
So consider this a little feature. A temporary little visit from a cute lil astroid. And as fun as this is already, I know you have tons of questions, so let's go through some more details.
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First, unfortunately, it won't be visible to most people, according to professor and researcher Carlos de la Fuente Marcos. "The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers." So good news for telescope owners! Although I'm certain we'll be seeing some super cool pics on the internet anyway.
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Another question: how common IS this? Are we about to experience another super-rare event, like the recent total solar eclipse?
Well apparently, even though this is the first time I've ever heard of this happening, it's actually fairly common. Space.com says this kind of thing is "relatively frequent, with several events happening per decade."
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But!!! One thing that's pretty unique about this particular asteroid — which they're calling "2024 PT5," by the way — is that it's gonna make some returns back to our orbit after it's gone. Like, it's apparently gonna come back in early 2025, and then again in 2055.
So although it appears this news is only for astronomy nerds, the internet is actually super excited about it too. And honestly, the reactions and jokes have become more interesting to me than the news itself. Sorry!
The worst person you know is about to do something insane and then post an insta story blaming it on the mini-moon https://t.co/NADkXE8uCw — Caitlin Canahai (@caitlincanahey) September 18, 2024