While it is expected that the second moon will shoot out on the day of Thanksgiving, it is expected that it will not be sticking around. Space.com reports that the moon will be sighted on November 28, but no one understands what happened with it.
Earth’s second moon shoots out
Thanksgiving is upon us, especially from an American perspective and we look at what will happen on this day as many expect to see the moon. According to the science publication, an analysis of the asteroid 2024 PT5 is anticipated to leave the Earth on Monday, November 25.
The analysis was conducted during its stay around our planet and it reveals that it may have been born from material ejected from our true moon after one of the old collisions that left the lunar surface pitted and scarred with craters.
The discovery lead author and a professor at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, told Space.com “There are multiple lines of evidence suggesting that this asteroid may have a lunar origin.
“Current research favors its rapid rotation with a rotational period under one hour, to be expected if 2024 PT5 is either a large boulder from the surface of the moon or a fragment from a larger object.”
The theory of moon formation
Also named ‘giant impact hypothesis’, the leading theory of moon formation suggests that the Earth’s loyal lunar companion was born when a titanic collision around 4 billion years ago sprayed out molten material from Earth that eventually cooled and condensed.
In simple terms, this then means Earth is likely the grandparent of this “second moon,” or “mini-moon.” It is also reported that the mini-moon’s lunar origin is further hinted at by its spectra, which also suggest its chemical composition matches well with lunar material brought to Earth by the Russian Luna missions and NASA’s Apollo moon missions.
How Earth captured a mini-moon
As the publication suggests, the “mini-moon” asteroid originally comes from the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow an orbit around the sun that’s very similar to Earth’s orbit, thus dwelling at an average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) to the sun.
“Some Arjuna asteroid belt objects can approach Earth at a close range of around 2.8 million miles (4.5 million kilometers) and a relatively low velocity of less than 2,200 miles per hour (3,540 km per hour),” Marcos explained.
“Asteroid 2024 PT5 will not describe a full orbit around Earth. You may say that if a true satellite is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers.”
Earth bids farewell to ‘mini moon’
ABC News has it that the harmless space rock will peel away on Monday, overcome by the stronger tug of the sun’s gravity. However, it will zip closer for a quick visit in January.
An aeronautics company, NASA will use a radar antenna to observe the 33-foot (10-meter) asteroid and that should deepen scientists’ understanding of the object known as 2024 PT5, quite possibly a boulder that was blasted off the moon by an impacting crater-forming asteroid.
The astrophysicist brothers who identified the asteroid’s “mini-moon behavior,” Raul and Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid, have collaborated with telescopes in the Canary Islands for hundreds of observations so far.
First spotted in August, the asteroid began its semi-jog around Earth in late September, after coming under the grips of Earth’s gravity and following a horseshoe-shaped path. By the time it returns next year, it will be moving too fast — more than double its speed from September — to hang around, said Raul de la Fuente Marcos.
NASA will track the asteroid for more than a week in January using the Goldstone solar system radar antenna in California’s Mojave Desert, part of the Deep Space Network.
Current data suggest that during its 2055 visit, the sun-circling asteroid will once again make a temporary and partial lap around Earth.