Earth's new mini-moon swings by, then ghosts us by late November

[Rick]

Earth's new mini-moon swings by, then ghosts us by late November

Everybody be on their best behavior: Earth has a visitor. 2024 PT5 is an asteroid that took up residence in orbit on Sunday to become a "mini-moon."

Alas, even if humanity could clean up our space junk, the asteroid would not be staying with us. It's lingering in the neighborhood until November 25, when the forces of gravity will coax it back into a heliocentric trajectory.

2024 PT5, which measures about ten meters across, was first spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on August 7 – not an overly reassuring time period for space objects that are about to thread the needle between Earth and the Moon.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/01/earth_minimoon_2024/