Sep 19, 2024 - Science

Earth will have 2 moons this month

Sareen Habeshian

Full harvest moon rises over San Francisco Bay during cloudy skies in San Mateo, California, United States on September 18, 2024. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images) — The full Harvest Moon rises over San Mateo, California, on Sept. 18. Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

Earth will have a second moon orbiting the planet when it grabs a tiny astroid in its gravitational pull later this month, according to a new study.

The big picture: The "mini-moon" will be around from Sept. 29 until Nov. 25, following a horseshoe path before returning to its home in an asteroid belt orbiting the sun, per the study, published in the September edition of the The Research Notes of the AAS journal.

Zoom in: The object will be "too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars," Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, lead author of the study, told Space.com.

"However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers," said the Universidad Complutense de Madrid Earth, physics and astrophysics professor.
The "mini-moon" is not expected to complete a full orbit around the Earth.

Fun fact: Scientists discovered the astroid using the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), which is an asteroid impact warning system developed by the University of Hawaiʻi and funded by NASA.

What they're saying: "The object that is going to pay us a visit belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth," Marcos said.

Such objects can approach Earth at a close range of around 2.8 million miles and at low velocities of around 2,200 miles per hour, he added.

Flashback: Similar temporary fly-bys of a "mini-moon" have occurred in 1981 and 2022, according to the study.

Go deeper: When to see the super Harvest Moon eclipse

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Earth will have 2 moons this month

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