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Earth’s gained a temporary ‘mini-moon’ – but can you spot it in Australia?

The ten-metre asteroid will orbit Earth for 57 days, but only those with professional telescopes can catch a glimpse

Melissa Woodley
Written by
Melissa Woodley
Travel & News Editor, Time Out Australia
Earth with two moons
Photograph: Grebenkov via Wikimedia Commons
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What do holiday sales, concert tickets and mini-moons have in common? They’re all here for just a limited time. Speaking about mini-moons, Earth has just gained a new travel companion, but it’s only here for a short and special visit.

Known as 2024 PT5, this mini-moon was caught by Earth's gravitational pull and will complete a single orbit between September 29 and November 25. It will then break free of Earth’s grip and resume its regular orbit around the sun. 

As cool as a ‘second moon’ sounds, it sadly won’t be visible to the naked eye in Australia – or anywhere in the world, for that matter. The clingy asteroid measures about ten metres wide, which is at least 300,000 times smaller than the Earth’s moon. Amateur telescopes and binoculars won’t do the trick either, but we can count on professional astronomers with large-scale telescopes for some pretty epic images.

Mini-moons are incredibly rare, with only a handful of instances ever recorded, including similar events in 1981 and 2022. After its brief visit, 2024 PT5 is not expected to return until 2055.

If you start feeling funny over the next 50 or so days, just blame it on the mini-moon.

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