No, this isn’t “Land of the Lost,” but Earth will be getting a second moon. Okay, well, its a “quasi-moon,” until 2083, according to NASA. A “quasi-moon” is a rare type of space object that travels almost exactly in sync with Earth. The newest addition to our celestial family was discovered by the University of Hawaii; it’s a little asteroid named 2025 PN7.
The team at the University of Hawaii first found the asteroid during a standard telescope survey earlier this year. After weeks of careful observation, NASA confirmed this asteroid is following Earth’s exact pace around the Sun.
Scientists estimate 2025 PN7 is only 18 to 36 meters wide, so roughly the height of a small building. While this isn’t huge in the vast expanse of space, it is one of only 8 quasi-moons found by astronomers. Despite their small size, asteroids like this help scientists refine orbital models and improve predictions for near-Earth asteroids.
Astronomers estimate that 2025 PN7 has been traveling alongside Earth’s Moon for about 60 years. If its current trajectory holds, since it isn’t bound by Earth’s gravity, it’ll keep orbiting the planet until 2083. After that, it will drift off into space, possibly to tag along with some other planet’s moon.
2025 PN7’s current orbit has the asteroid coming within 4 million kilometers, or ten times farther than the Moon, and can go as far as 17 million kilometers away. These fluctuations in orbit stem from the competing gravitational pull of the Sun and nearby planets.
