A mini-moon can be a fragment of a real moon

During the last few months, a space rock-bus-bus-bus called 2024 pt5 gained fame as the “new Mini-Moon.” Astronomers rushed to study the object while it was still close enough to Earth to observe the details.

Now, a team has concluded that 2024 pt5 is a real moon fragment. The rock was actually ejected from space by its landing on the lunar surface that happened in the past decade, according to a study published earlier this month in the paper Astrophysical Journal.

This is the second time scientists have linked a near-Earth object to the moon, after a 2021 study identified the object 469219 kamo’oalewa as possibly lunar in origin. Inspired, research has revealed a population of exiles accused, or “lunar ejecta, which has been hidden until now.

“We know that the Ejecta Ejecta is hiding some of the closest-to-Earth objects,” said Teddy Kareta, a postdoctoral researcher at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona who led the research.

The Earth is often faced with gravitational objects, including asteroids or meteoroids, which can become short-lived moons or “quasi-satellites.” Continuous monitoring, such as the emergence of the latest Astrestrial-Crowrestrial-Citestrial-SystemE, or atlas, is designed to find fellow travelers, who are often seen for a few weeks or months.

2024 pt5 was the first recorded by Atlas on August 7, the discovery of which saw the monitoring of the whole world. On August 16, Dr. Kareta and his colleagues tracked the object with the NASA Infrared Telescope in Arizona and the NASA Infrared Telescope in Hawaii.

Dr. Kareta compared the light pattern released by the rock to the way the light was illuminated by the explosion of other surfaces. He found a strong match with the large amount of silicate plant seeds collected by the Apollo crew and a Soviet robot. The object followed the unique “horse” also during the meeting on the ground, a fact that indicates its local origin.

The rock’s trajectory challenged the debate over whether the object should be called a Mini-Moon, as it had never entered Earth’s orbit. But the word is still used in academic and popular circles.

“In the official sense, this thing didn’t change the Earth, but it was very close, very close,” said Dr. Card says Dr. Card. “We don’t have a great vocabulary to describe the exact situation of this object which, for a short period of time, barely moved the earth.”

Vishnu reddy, a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona who reviewed the study, said the team did a “remarkable job” estimating the onset of 2024 pt5.

“The circumstantial evidence is the most logical choice,” said Dr. Reddy, who is also a medical advisor to the two authors. “But if you don’t go and bring a sample, you can’t say for sure that this moon is a piece of food.”

There are no current plans to collect part-time 2024 pt5 on Earth to study on Earth. But China is developing a mission called Tianwen-2 to collect samples of 469219 Kamo’oalewa, the other object stuck out like a lunar rock.

Raul de la Fuente Marcos, an astronomer at the University of Madrid who was not involved in the study, called it a “shameful affair” for the first of the year 2024 Pt5. The hypothetical explanation is consistent with the results of his own team in a future paper that identified a third rock, 2022 NX1, but there are still other possible moons.

This family of moons orbiting Earth is full of glimpses of the planet’s surface. A study has already tried to identify the beginning of 469219 in 469219 Kamoalewa back to Giordano Bruno Bruno on the moon, and established the possibility of future rocks in the place of lunar. These efforts can explain the process of the processes that shape the fruit rock and the moon – if it satisfies the popular demand of the Mini-moon.

“It’s good to see the public interested in Asteroid, which will not kill us,” said Dr. Card says Dr. Card. “It’s a lot of fun.”