Earth has picked up a second moon, at least for a while. Astronomers confirmed that a small asteroid, named 2026 QQ8, is looping around our planet after Earth’s gravity pulled it into orbit in late April.
The rock measures about one metre across. Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky first spotted it on 20 August. Follow-up observations with telescopes in Hawaii and Arizona then confirmed it was a natural asteroid rather than a piece of space debris, and the Minor Planet Center reported the capture on 29 October.
2026 QQ8 follows a wide, looping path around Earth and never comes closer than roughly one and a half times the distance to the Moon. It poses no danger. At about one metre wide, it would burn up in the atmosphere if it ever fell towards Earth.
The visit will not last. The asteroid is expected to slip free of Earth’s gravity in December and resume its orbit around the Sun. It swings past Earth roughly once every ten years, and astronomers expect its next close pass in 2058.
Earth has caught temporary moons before. Asteroids 2020 CD3 and 2024 PT5 both spent time in orbit around the planet before drifting away.
Source: Gizmodo
