Earth: A “dark brother” of the Moon will accompany for two months

A asteroid was discovered just a month and a half ago, on August 7, approaching the orbit of Earth and will reach it next Sunday, September 29.

This means that the asteroid and the Earth will move in parallel around the Sun and for about two months we will be joined by…the moon’s “little, dark brother”.

Speaking on ERTNews’ PRIME program, Anezina Solomonidou, planetary geologist and researcher at the Hellenic Space Center, said that this is a phenomenon that happens quite often.

However, she pointed out, a distinction needs to be made between natural bodies. “The one that will join us is a Near-Earth Object (NEO for short): very small celestial bodies – relative to the size of a planet – such as asteroids and comets.”

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This particular asteroid, called 2024 PT5, inhabits an asteroid belt that is close to Earth. When the Sun has some gravitational fluctuations, as is currently the case, this body, which is only 11 meters in diameter – something very small and dark – is pulled closer to the shorter planet and enters its orbit.

“What happened with 2024 PT5 is that it did get close – it was also very slow, it had an average speed of about 3,500km/h – it was grabbed by the Earth’s orbit and will hold it for about two months. So for two months we can proudly say that we have two moons,” Solomonidou said.

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