Here’s what to know about our new, temporary celestial neighbor. Earth has a large gravitational pull. So it’s not uncommon for objects flying through space to be attracted to it or get caught up in an orbit — at which point they earn status as miniature moons. The same happens with objects purposefully placed in space, such as satellites.

The earth is getting a second "mini-moon" later this month, researchers confirmed; Asteroid 2024 PT5 will stick around from Sept. 29 to Nov. 25, 2024, but it won't be visible to t

The bus-size asteroid, which was discovered on August 7 by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), will be sucked in by Earth’s gravitational pull from September 29 to November 25, USA Today reported. During this interstellar layover, the space rock will likely become a “temporary mini-moon,” per Marcos.