Astronomers Discover Tiny Asteroid 'Quasi-Moon' That Has Been Shadowing Earth For Decades
In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have confirmed the existence of a tiny asteroid, dubbed 2025 PN7, which has been shadowing Earth and its moon for decades. This quasi-moon, also referred to as a moonlet or sister moon, has been traveling closely to our planet, keeping pace with Earth and appearing to orbit the sun in a similar trajectory and timeframe of about a year.
According to John Gianforte, director of the University of New Hampshire Observatory, quasi-moons like PN7 are a group of celestial tag-alongs to Earth that are too small to pose a threat. "They're actually not orbiting the Earth, but they hang relatively close to us," Gianforte explained. "So it's kind of drifting in and out of our orbit.
It's constantly shifting." PN7's orbit is influenced mostly by the sun's gravity, and it is not truly captured by Earth's gravity. Instead, it appears to have a synchronized dance with planet Earth around the sun, as noted by Anton Petrov, an astrobiology researcher and former teacher. A team of researchers from the University of Hawaii, working at the Pan-STARRS Observatory on the Haleakala volcano in Maui, captured observations of PN7 during a routine telescope survey in August.
It's been called a moonlet. Sister moon. You could even call it a moon "buddy," a companion or quasi-satellite, if you will, to our steady lunar ...Alternative viewpoints and findings: See here
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