A space rock found near Earth called the “mini-moon”, may actually be a piece of the moon, chipped off of it thousands of years ago.
The celestial object, officially referred to as 2024 PT5, has a diameter of about 33 feet (10 meters). According to scientists 2024 PT5 runs no risk of colliding with our planet. After a few decades nearing Earth, it has begun to drift off to another distant orbit.
Researchers first found out about it on August 7, 2024. Thanks to a South African observatory of the funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System)
Dr. Teddy Kareta, Lead author of the paper “Astrophysical Journal Letters”, has begun researching 2024 PT5 with his colleagues.
Kareta and his team analyzed the space rock at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. As sunlight reflected off the surface of the “mini-moon”, they realized it looked very similar to the rocks from the Moon’s surface. Making scientists suspect that 2024 PT5 might be in fact be a chunk of the Moon.
