The Earth had two moons in the past. He has visited one of the small moons twice and will return in 27 years

Earth now officially has two moons after its gravity collided with an asteroid. Our planet took a photo of asteroid 2024 PT5 on Sunday, September 29, which is now our little moon. However, did you know that this is not the first time that Earth has had a small moon?

The asteroid was discovered on August 7 by the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Alert System (ATLAS). Carlos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos, researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain, were the first to discover it and published their findings in Research Notes of the AAS.

These space rocks move regularly around the Sun like other asteroids. But when they get close to Earth, sometimes the planet’s gravity pulls them down. It is certainly a rare event, but not the first.

The two astronomers say in their paper that our planet once had a small moon, too. The first such event on record occurred in 1981. A cosmic object, called 2022 NX1, was temporarily captured by Earth’s gravity. The young moon returned in 2022. Both times, it only stayed for a short time. It will return to Earth in 2051.

Another short-lived minimoon, according to the authors, was 1991 VG. It was captured briefly in February 1992 during an overflight. Both of them did not complete a complete revolution of the Earth

However, in 2006 we had a small moon that stayed with us for an entire year. Asteroid 2006 RH120 remained gravitationally bound to Earth until July 2007 after it was captured in July 2006.

Another asteroid that has been with us for many years is 2020 CD3. It remained in orbit for years and escaped in early May 2020.

Our newest mini-moon looks similar to 2022 NX1. It will not complete a full orbit around Earth and will only remain with us for a few days before flying away on November 25. 2024 PT5 lives in the Arjuna asteroid belt. The space rocks that live in this region follow orbits similar to Earth’s orbit, which is about 93 million miles from the sun.

Some objects in Arjuna’s asteroid belt can approach Earth at a very close distance of about 2.8 million miles.

The young moon cannot be seen because it is too small and dim. Amateur telescopes and binoculars will not be enough to see it. Our moon is about 2,159 miles in diameter, while the newcomer is thought to be only 37 feet across.