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Book Review: How One Weird Rodent Ecologist Tried to Change the Fate of Humanity
A biography of the scientist whose work led to fears of a ‘population bomb’
Hybrid Chickadees Reveal How Species Boundaries Can Shift and Blur
When different chickadee species meet, they sometimes choose each other as mates—with surprising results
October 2024: Science History from 50, 100 and 150 Years Ago
Best baseball batting order; mummies demystified
New Hope for Treating People with Sickle Cell Disease
Improving sickle cell care by expanding treatment options, advancing new therapies and amplifying the voices of people with the disease
New Treatments Address Addiction alongside Trauma
A new generation of treatments addresses the trauma that often underlies addiction
Book Review: A Bold Profile of the James Webb Space Telescope
In Pillars of Creation, Richard Panek gets up close to the JWST
People Living with Sickle Cell Disease Share Their Experiences
Life expectancy for people with sickle cell in the U.S. has increased to about 50 years, but some people with the disease still face stigma and other barriers in health care
Why Is It So Much Harder for NASA to Send People to the Moon Now Than It Was during the Apollo Era?
NASA's Artemis moon program faces challenges the Apollo missions never did
A Global Initiative to Advance Sickle Cell Research Could Benefit Millions
Increased funding and new public health policies for sickle cell research are needed to ease the burden on low-income nations and improve patient care
Researchers Seek New Solutions to Ease Sickle Cell’s Extreme Pain
Sickle cell disease causes severe pain that’s hard to treat, but researchers are finding new ways to offer relief
The Arctic Seed Vault Shows the Flawed Logic of Climate Adaptation
The difficulties of the Svalbard seed repository illustrate why we need to prevent climate disaster rather than plan for it
Book Review: Powerful Myths Shape a Postapocalyptic World
In a postapocalyptic world on the verge of its next crisis, history gets rewritten
Time to be inspired by planet Earth
Swatch has again teamed up with ESA to give space fans a new opportunity to design a custom watch featuring breathtaking images of Earth from space.
Two new satellites added to Galileo constellation for increased resilience
The European Galileo satellite navigation system keeps growing: a new pair of satellites has joined the constellation after a journey on a Falcon 9 rocket, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 18 September at 00:50 CEST (17 September 18:50 local time).
Scientists spot ancient 'smiley face' on Mars — and it could contain signs of life
Auroras galore! Severe geomagnetic storm sparks stunning northern lights across US (photos)
Earth may once have had a ring like Saturn
Earth may once have had a ring like Saturn
Earth Will Have a Tiny New Mini-Moon for a Few Months
The Moon has inspired poets and artists, musicians and playwrights. The sight of our one and only Moon is familiar to anyone that has ever glanced up at the night time (and sometimes day time sky!) Every so often though, our Moon (note the use of capital ‘M’)is joined by a small asteroid that wanders too close. Astronomers have detected an 11-metre wide asteroid that has the snappy name 2024 PT5 and it came within 567,000 kilometres of Earth and will become a temporary satellite from 29 September until 25 November when it will leave our system.
Planets, comets, satellites and asteroids are the main constituents of our Solar System, plus of course, the Sun. The asteroids are small rocky objects that orbit the Sun with the majority in orbits between Mars and Jupiter. These remnants of the early Solar System come in a wide range of sizes from those measuring just a few centimetres to others measuring hundreds of kilometres. They have no atmosphere and are usually irregular in shape.
The asteroid Dimorphos was captured by NASA’s DART mission just two seconds before the spacecraft struck its surface on Sept. 26, 2022. Observations of the asteroid before and after impact suggest it is a loosely packed “rubble pile” object. Credit: NASA/JHUAPLAsteroids that pass within 1.3 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the average distance between the Sun and Earth) are typically referred to as near-earth objects (NEOs.) Their proximity to Earth means they may – if not immediately – pose a potential impact threat to Earth. Most NEO’s pass by harmlessly on each orbit but they are tracked for future threats. The study of this family of asteroids helps us to understand about the formation of the Solar System.
On occasions, Earth can capture asteroids from the NEO group and for a short period, pull them into an orbit. These temporary captures can be very short lived not even lasting for an entire orbit before returning to their regular trajectory. Others like 2006RH120 remained in orbit around Earth for a year, while some have been captured for more than a year. These mini-moon events have even turned out to be pieces of space junk like one identified in 2020 which turned out to be a rocket booster from the launch of Surveyor 2 in 1966!
This 1964 photograph shows a Centaur upper-stage rocket before being mated to an Atlas booster. A similar Centaur was used during the launch of Surveyor 2 two years later. Credit: NASAAsteroid 2024 PT5 is a NEO that was discovered on 7 August 2024 by ATLAS, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. It measures 11 metres across and can approach within 1 million kilometres of Earth in an orbit whose path resembles a horseshoe shape. This complex type of orbit occurs when a smaller object orbits a relatively larger object. In the case of 2024 PT5, the gravitational attraction of Earth changes the shape of the asteroids elliptical orbit. The horseshoe shape is only evident when the orbit of the asteroid is mapped relative to both the Sun and the Earth.
The dynamics of the two objects means that for a period of 56 days from 29 September to 25 November, 2024 PT5 will officially orbit the Earth although it is only classed as a ‘temporary captured flyby.’ It will only perform one single orbit however before it returns to its usual heliocentric, Sun centred orbit. This won’t be the only time though as it is predicted to return again in 2055.
Don’t get too excited about seeing it though. The object will be far too faint to be seen with the naked eye, even beyond the visual range of amateur telescopes. It is however possible for experienced amateur astronomers to capture images of the asteroid using astronomical imaging techniques.
Source : A Two-month Mini-moon: 2024 PT5 Captured by Earth from September to November
The post Earth Will Have a Tiny New Mini-Moon for a Few Months appeared first on Universe Today.