A small asteroid is due to enter Earth’s orbit later this month and continue going around our planet until late November, according to a published study.
The asteroid known as 2024 PT 5, which is about 32 feet in diameter, will be in orbit around Earth starting on Sept. 29 and will stay there until Nov. 25, Complutense University of Madrid researchers and brothers Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos wrote in their study in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society journal.
The pair said 2024 PT 5 was a “mini-moon” flying on a horseshoe-shaped path. After orbit, the asteroid will get closer to Earth until Jan. 9, 2025, after which it will leave the planet’s proximity until returning again in 2055.
The asteroid is not expected to complete a full revolution around the Earth, instead performing an eight-week flyby. The study’s authors compared its path to the one taken by asteroid 2022 NX 1, which appeared in Earth’s orbit in 1981 and 2022 and is projected to return in 2051.
“You may say that if a true satellite is like a customer buying goods inside a store, objects like 2024 PT5 are window shoppers,” Mr. Carlos de la Fuente Marcos told Space.com.
People hoping to observe 2024 PT 5 will need a professional-grade telescope.
“The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars. However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers,” Mr. Marcos told Space.com.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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