Earth To Have ‘Mini Moon’ This September, But Not For Too Long

In September, Earth will grab itself a second moon in the form of the tiny asteroid 2024 PT5. Unlike the moon, this ‘mini moon’ will stick around for just two months before it heads back to its home in an asteroid belt trailing our planet and orbiting the sun. A team of scientists identified the forthcoming gravitational capture event. They spotted the peculiar dynamic properties of 2024 PT5 as they routinely monitored newly discovered objects for potentially interesting behavior. They said the ‘mini moon’ belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, which is a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth at an average distance to the sun of about 93 million miles.