The world is currently talking about the fact that there is a small celestial asteroid that will enter the gravitational field of the planet Earth in less than a week and will last for two months This asteroid is called 2024 PT5.
Comment from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University
Federica Spoto, a researcher in asteroid dynamics at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard, says that a large group of objects track their paths around the Sun in different orbits, and that the most of them go beyond our senses, but some get close enough to Earth. to humble us.
She said: Many of them pass close to us, and sometimes they land, but in rare cases, an asteroid of the right size and speed is caught by the Earth’s gravity and enters to its orbit for a time, becoming a small moon.
Discover asteroid 2024PT5
Asteroid 2024PT5 was first discovered on August 7 by the NASA-funded Asteroid Earth Impact Warning System (ATLAS).
What is asteroid 2024PT5?
According to recent program observations, asteroid 2024 PT5 belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, which orbits the Sun with almost the same path as Earth.
In a report published in the American Astronomical Society Research Notes, the asteroid was estimated to be only 33 feet long, which is about a thousand times smaller than the Chicxulub asteroid that caused the asteroid. to disappear near Earth from September 29 to November 25.
Asteroid tracks
Technically, asteroid 2024 PT5 will not have a complete orbit around Earth. Instead, it will take a horseshoe-like path without completely orbiting it. are classified as moon.
The appearance of small moons is the result of a delicate balance in physics, where the body must be close enough to the Earth for its gravity to pull it, and it must move at a certain speed (2,200 miles per hour), to make It is certain that it will not escape from the Earth’s gravitational field, and to transform into a permanent moon, its distance must be Less, noted Derek Richardson, an astronomer at the University of Maryland.
History of the appearance of small moons
It should be noted that the phenomenon of small moors is not new; Two similar cases were recorded in 2006 and 2020, each lasting at least a year, while 1992 and 2022 saw another moon appear for just a few days or weeks according to Space.com, the This phenomenon happens regularly, at the rate of several times per decade.
Sometimes, objects orbiting the Earth are confused by artificial debris, such as rocket stages, but for asteroid 2024 PT5, scientists agree that it is a natural object, possibly part of a moon far away
Description of asteroid 2024PT5
In terms of visibility, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a researcher and astronomer at the Complutense University in Madrid, pointed out that asteroid 2024 PT5 is faint and too small to appear on home telescopes, but professional telescopes can see it.
Planetary threats: NASA’s role in protecting life on Earth
Although this asteroid does not represent a threat, astronomers continue to monitor the skies for larger and more dangerous asteroids, and a NASA experiment in 2022 showed that the path of a 530-foot asteroid was possible. change by hitting a spaceship, which gives. effective solution against planetary threats.
In addition, asteroids are of interest to scientists because they are potential targets for mining, as they could be rich in minerals after the end of their orbit around the Earth, asteroid 2024 PT5 will continue its orbit around the Sun, and return to the Sun. Earth in 2055, Smithsonian Magazine.
