Earth will have two moons this month, temporarily making our home planet feel a little more like Mars.
A team of scientists made the discovery. According to research from Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marco, the new temporary moon is an asteroid named PT5.
You’ll likely want to know whether you’ll be able to see this second moon in the night sky, and well, it depends.
The research states that the asteroid will orbit the Earth for around 53 days, beginning near the end of the month between September 29 and ending around November 25. It will then go back “home” to an asteroid belt.
The ATLAS project, an asteroid impact early warning system, discovered PT5, which researchers are calling a mini-moon.
Based on the research, there was some speculation about whether it was a natural object.
“The object is unlikely to be artificial as its short-term dynamical evolution closely resembles that of 2022 NX1, a confirmed natural object.”
While two moons might almost sound alarming, this sort of thing happens occasionally, with Space.com suggesting it happens several times per decade.
Whether you’ll be able to see it depends on the type of skywatching equipment you have. The object is relatively small, so binoculars and amateur telescopes won’t be able to find it.
A researcher told Space.com, “A telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches plus a CCD or CMOS detector are needed to observe this object.”
That sadly means the human eye won’t pick it up either unless you have super-human sight.
Are you excited about the prospect of the Earth having two moons, or does it freak you out?