For almost 60 days, Ukrainians, along with the rest of the world, will be able to observe a rare astronomical phenomenon: “big” and “small” moons. This will happen because a small asteroid will begin to orbit our planet, according to Krapka.media.
The Earth’s gravity will pull it into its orbit, and the asteroid will have negative geocentric energy, which means it will not be able to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. It will orbit the Earth in a horseshoe shape before reverting to heliocentric energy, meaning it will orbit the Sun again like other planets in our galaxy.
Even after it leaves orbit, it will remain close to Earth for several months, making its closest approach on 9 January 2025. Shortly after that, it will move away from the Earth and re-enter its orbit 30 years later.
It is worth noting that the asteroid, with a diameter of 10 metres, was discovered only recently – in August 2024. Researchers from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, a NASA-funded asteroid monitoring system, spotted the asteroid in Sutherland, South Africa. And scientists from the Complutense University of Madrid tracked the asteroid’s orbit for 21 days and determined its further path