Is Earth getting a second moon and will it be visible? We VERIFY claims about Earth’s “mini moon.”
“Earth is set to temporarily obtain another moon on September 29th. The asteroid known as a ‘mini-moon’ is expected to make a single orbit journey around Earth, ending on November 25th,” a post with 19 million views says.
Google Trends shows a spike in people searching whether there’s a second moon and if it can be seen from Earth.
THE SOURCES
QUESTION #1
Is Earth getting a second moon?
THE ANSWER
Yes, Earth is getting a second moon for a short period of time.
WHAT WE FOUND
“Earth can regularly capture asteroids from the Near-Earth object (NEO) population and pull them into orbit,” a 2024 report published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). This typically occurs when the asteroid or object’s geocentric energy turns negative if it flies closely towards Earth.