A transient celestial visitor known as a “mini-moon” is arriving on Earth. Earth’s gravitational pull has drawn in an asteroid known as 2024 PT5, which will orbit the globe from Monday through November 25.
This is the eighth time that a mini-moon—a phrase for tiny objects that orbit Earth momentarily—has been seen.
2024 PT5, which was found by former ISRO scientist Manish Purohit, has a diameter of about 10 meters (33 feet) and came from the Arjuna asteroid belt.
The asteroid will circle the Earth in a horseshoe shape for almost 55 days before reentering space, although never finishing an orbit.
