Earth to welcome temporary mini-moon from September to November

A small asteroid, named 2024 PT5, will become a temporary "mini-moon" of Earth from September 29 to November 25. This 10-meter-wide space rock was discovered last month and is expected to follow a horseshoe orbit around the planet. Asteroid 2024 PT5 is believed to be a fragment of the Moon and likely originates from the Arjuna asteroid belt. After its brief orbit, it will return to its path around the Sun and is expected to come back near Earth in 2055. Previous mini-moons have sometimes been misidentified debris, but researchers consider 2024 PT5 to be a natural object, similar to the confirmed asteroid 2022 NX 1.