Earth Gets a New 'Mini-Moon' for About 59 Days: Washington, Oregon Coast Astronomy

Published 9/23/24 at 7:15 p.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Oregon Coast) – It gives the term “new moon” a whole other, second meaning. (Photo courtesy ISS in 2015: the Pacific Northwest and Oregon / Washington coast seen from space.)

Earth will get a second “mini moon” next week – but only temporarily as it floats away back to an asteroid belt in a little less than 60 days.

Asteroid 2024 PT5 will get hooked by Earth's gravity and hang out near the planet for a time, although it won't be visible to the average person on the Oregon coast, Washington coast or anywhere else on Earth. Seeing it will require actual professional astronomy equipment. Even they need at least a 30-inch telescope and some very specific tech.

It is too dim and too small, say the two Madrid-based astronomers who discovered it: Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos. PT5 measures only about 10 meters.

“Near-Earth objects (NEOs) that follow horseshoe paths, and approach our planet at close range and low relative velocity, may undergo mini-moon events in which their geocentric energy becomes negative for hours, days or months, but without completing one revolution around Earth while bound,” said the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in the introduction to the Marcos' paper.

The object will enter the space territory of Earth on September 29 and be around until November 25, when gravitational disturbances from the sun will shoot it back out into the asteroid belt it came from. It's not going to even achieve a full orbit but will instead wander a “horseshoe path” around the Earth for those 50-some days.

While you can't see the mini-moon from the Oregon coast, you will likely again be able to see the aurora borealis from the coastline this year, like this shot from Port Orford. Courtesy Discover Port Orford.

In order to become considered a mini-moon of Earth, it has to approach within 2.8 million miles and at low velocities of around 2,200 miles per hour.

Asteroid 2024 PT5 was discovered just last month, on August 7, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System via instruments in South Africa.

Above: the transition of Venus a decade ago as seen from Portland, Oregon / Oregon Coast Beach Connection.

This is considered a short capture, and there have been several discovered over recent decades. There are also long captures around Earth, which are much rarer, happening every decade or less, according to Space.com.

PT5 comes from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which lies about 93 million miles from the sun (on average). It sends asteroids and comets our way on occasion.

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Yet this won't be the last we'll hear of this strange little “mini-moon event” (an actual phrase scientists use for this sort of thing). While – again – it won't be visible to those on Earth, much less to those on the Washington / Oregon coastlines, scientists expect it back in 30 years.

Our regular moon, seen from Manzanita - Oregon Coast Beach Connection

“2024 PT5 is currently following a horseshoe path and that its geocentric energy will remain negative for 56.6 days due to a temporarily captured flyby,” the AAS said. “After completing the mini-moon episode, it will approach Earth at approximately 1 km s−1, reaching a minimum distance of 0.012 au on 2025 January 9, leaving the neighborhood of Earth shortly afterwards, until its next return in 2055.”

Then again, in 30 years maybe we'll have that particular gear available to the general populace in our cellphones?

What you can see from the Oregon coast and Washington coast soon – and towns like Lincoln City, Yachats, Manzanita, Coos Bay or Ocean Park - is the Orionid meteor showers, which peak October 20.

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Andre' GW Hagestedt is editor, owner and primary photographer / videographer of Oregon Coast Beach Connection, an online publication that sees over 1 million pageviews per month. He is also author of several books about the coast.

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