A new ‘moon’ has been trailing Earth for decades and no one noticed until now

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Earth has a temporary companion! Scientists have found a ‘quasi-moon’ – an asteroid that shares Earth’s orbital path – but it won’t be orbiting with us for much longer, as it will move away in a few decades.

On August 29, 2025, the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii discovered a near-Earth object, officially designated 2025 PN7, that behaves like a temporary moon for Earth.

A quasi-moon is an asteroid that circles the sun alongside a planet, appearing to orbit it like a moon. But unlike a true moon, it doesn’t actually orbit the planet – it has its own independent path and will eventually move away to continue traveling through space on its own.

Although astronomers just recently discovered this ‘quasi-moon,’ records show it’s been orbiting with Earth for about 60 years. It’s not surprising it went unnoticed for so long, as it’s very faint and too distant for most telescopes to see.

I was reading about this asteroid, 2025 PN7, and it’s surprisingly tiny – only about 62 feet across! What’s really cool is that scientists think it’ll hang around as a little buddy to Earth all the way until 2083. It’s amazing to think something so small will be traveling with us for so long!

Earth has a new mini-moon companion, and it’s vanishing in 2083

This recently discovered ‘quasi-moon’ isn’t alone in orbiting Earth. Scientists have found seven of these small asteroids before, and one might even be a fragment of our Moon that broke off after a collision long ago.

I remember when astronomers discovered 1991 VG back in the early 90s, there was a lot of buzz! At first, people were actually worried it might be some kind of alien spacecraft because it came so close to Earth. Now we know these things – we call them near-Earth objects, or NEOs – are just natural space rocks, but it was definitely a fun time imagining the possibilities!

Early worries about alien interactions have faded, but new ideas continue to emerge. Currently, scientists are closely studying 3I/ATLAS – only the third interstellar object ever detected in our solar system. Its unusual brightness and speed of rotation are sparking discussions about whether it could be evidence of alien technology.

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2025-10-20 22:18