2024 PT5: Leaving Earth’s orbit, staying in our minds

A graphic of the asteroid’s predicted flight path around the Earth (Ryan Win-Ruan/The Puma Prensa)

Written By: Ryan Win-Ruan, staff writer

Earth has had one moon since the earliest humans and the oldest stories of the dark, star-studded mass that we call space. But for a few more days until the end of November, a second “mini-moon” has appeared, which is fascinating to scientists worldwide. But this isn’t the first time an asteroid like this has orbited the Earth recently, so why is this one receiving so much attention?

The asteroid, called 2024 PT5, is about 10m (~32.8 ft.) long and orbits Earth until Nov. 25. It is being called Earth’s “temporary second moon” because it, like the moon, will be orbiting around the Earth for a short duration in what has been described as a “horseshoe” pattern. The phenomenon has grabbed the attention of many social media channels and newspapers, which is quite peculiar, as other “mini-moons” have also appeared previously. Still, they did not garner nearly as much attention as 2024 PT5 has.

Tyson Ruszler, an Earth Science teacher at Maria Carrillo High School, voiced his opinion on the subject, saying, “It’s always cool when there’s interesting astronomical stuff going on that us teachers can share with our students...which is good because it’s more relevant than stuff happening millions of years ago and millions of light years away.” However, he didn’t know why this asteroid was so popular compared to its predecessors, simply stating, “sometimes we have events that occur that are not uncommon, but just kind of catch people’s interest and we hear about them more.” He also encourages studying and learning more about the asteroid and others like it to anyone who would consider it interesting.

Anish Acharya, a freshman who occasionally enjoys studying outer space, said: “It’s cool that [the asteroid] is passing this close [to Earth] because most asteroids are [discovered] pretty far away from Earth, so one that’s this close is interesting.” As for why it’s so popular, he suggested that 2024 PT5’s relation to the Earth and the lengthy duration of its orbit around the planet might be why it stood out from the other, less well-known asteroids that appeared in 2020 and 2022.

Reinforcing its popularity, other newspapers, such as Time Magazine, NPR, and CBS, have also covered the asteroid, spreading the story to an even wider audience. For any possible reasons as to why the asteroid is so popular, NPR stated that “the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers,” which means that scientists can easily observe and study the asteroid, while CBS wrote, “Even after it leaves orbit, it will stay near Earth for a few months, making its closest approach on Jan. 9, 2025.” The asteroid’s locality means it may stay on the scientific community’s radar even after it leaves Earth’s orbit, which will cement it as a notable event and help it stand out in the vast sea of asteroids that occasionally frequent our lonely planetary neighborhood.