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Earth is set to obtain another moon next week

Home> News> World News

Published 18:46 18 Sep 2024 GMT+1

Earth is set to obtain another moon next week

Don't get too obsessed with the new moon, it's not sticking around

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

Good news everyone! The moon is about to get a new best friend in the form of a mini-moon which will begin orbiting planet Earth from next week onwards.

While normally we're going round and round in space with just the one moon going round us, it's set to be double lunacy for a short while.

Yes, sorry people who are already coming round to the idea of a mini-moon becoming a regular new fixture in the sky, it's not going to last and it'll be gone by the end of the year.

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This new moon was spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, a group of people who really wanted their organisation's name to form the acronym 'ATLAS'.

They caught sight of an asteroid named 2024 PT5 on 7 August, and they reckon it'll fully orbit our planet between 29 September and 25 November before breaking free of Earth's gravitational pull and hurtling off somewhere else in space.

The mini-moon is going to be much, much smaller than our actual moon. (Getty Stock Photo)
The mini-moon is going to be much, much smaller than our actual moon. (Getty Stock Photo)

According to Live Science, the new moon will be with us for just 57 days in which time it'll be very difficult to spot because it's only going to be about 10 metres wide.

Just to put that into perspective, our actual moon is about 3.4 million metres wide so perhaps we ought to be putting more emphasis on the 'mini' aspect of this mini-moon.

They also report that from time to time we do get the occasional mini-moon, with similar things happening in 1981 and 2022.

Meanwhile, space aces have suggested that learning to mine mini-moons for their resources could be a possible stepping stone for extracting material from asteroids which hurtle by.

Enjoy the mini-moon while you can, it'll be gone by the end of November. (Getty Stock Photo)
Enjoy the mini-moon while you can, it'll be gone by the end of November. (Getty Stock Photo)

Of course, the announcement of a mini-moon has got lots of Earthlings in a bit of a tizz over what this could do to the werewolves (which definitely don't exist).

As long as it doesn't slam into our planet and hit anything particularly important then we ought to be fine with the mini-moon, though it being on the exceedingly small size means people trying to spot it are likely to be disappointed.

In other space related happenings, you'll soon be able to get a look at a comet that's been orbiting our solar system for 80,000 years.

The last time it was zipping above Earth was during the Stone Age, so don't miss out.

Meanwhile, those two astronauts who were supposed to be back from the International Space Station by now are having to wait a while longer.

There are worse places to be stuck.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images

Topics: Space, Science

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

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@MrJoeHarker

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