Earth will get a second "mini-moon" for 2 months this year
Earth will get a second "mini-moon" for 2 months this year
The asteroid was discovered in August and is set to become a mini-moon, spinning around Earth in a horseshoe shape for about two months.
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I've read like eight of these articles about this Moon just trying to find out if we can see it without a telescope.
I'm assuming we can't see it, but none of the articles I've read mention it. it seems crazy that none of them mention its visibility.
Will we be able to see the second moon?
The posted article says no, not even with an amateur telescope
of course i skim this one and it's in the final paragraph.
thank you!
The closest approach is about 600,000 Km away. That's more than twice the distance to the moon. At that distance, to be (just barely) visible to the naked eye, it would have to be about 170km across, which would put it among the largest asteroids in the solar system. In fact, 2024 PT5 is only about 11m across (~36ft). You would need quite a powerful telescope, indeed, to see an object that small at that distance.
With a good telescope: https://www.space.com/earth-mini-moon-asteroid-2024-pt5
rad, thank you