Your shockin’ new buddy from space: it’s time to pay attention! Earth has a new friend that’s just been chillin’ here without us noticing for decades.
Recent research published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society introduces us to a fascinating object that resembles a ‘quasi-moon’. Essentially, it’s a small asteroid cruising around the Sun but stays near our planet for a while.
Imagine a cosmic situationship: it’s been orbiting near us for about sixty years, but don’t be fooled — this thing isn’t held by Earth’s gravity. In another sixty years, it’ll move back to its main orbit around the Sun.
Called 2025 PN7, this asteroid is one of the few quasi-moons spotted so far, and it’s like a window showing us how erratic the paths of strange cosmic visitors can be in our solar system.
“The Solar System is filled with surprises which is why we are always on the lookout,” says Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, co-author of the study. He added that the existence of 2025 PN7 hints that there might not even be a size limit for these quirky quasi-satellites.
So, just how big is this little guy? While the exact size remains a bit of a mystery, it could be around 98 feet across according to de la Fuente Marcos, although some estimates dip down to 62 feet. Either way, it’s currently the tiniest known quasi-moon to orbit close to Earth.
What’s curious is that 2025 PN7 belongs to a family of near-Earth objects called Arjuna asteroids. All of them show orbits quite like Earth’s, even though they never actually orbit our planet. The first member of this family was discovered back in 1991, making our new friend the latest addition.
Astronomers believe this mini-moon likely comes from the main asteroid belt but we still can’t confirm its origins just yet.
Interestingly, some quasi-moons have links to Earth directly. Just last year, another quasi-moon called Kamo’oalewa, found back in 2016, turned out to be a piece of the Moon that got knocked off by an asteroid impact ages ago — think a million years or more!
Earth is also home to various mini-moons, which take temporary detours into our orbit. For example, an Arjuna asteroid known as 2024 PT5 was briefly captured by Earth’s gravity and orbited us for just over a month last year, but 2025 PN7 doesn’t seem to be on the same path.
At its closest approach, this quasi-moon swings within about 186,000 miles of Earth — more than halfway to the Moon — yet its small size made it tricky to detect.
De la Fuente Marcos explained, “It can only be spotted with available telescopes when it gets near us, just like it did this past summer. Its appearances don’t happen very often, making it quite a tricky target!”.
Unfortunately, this little cosmic wanderer won’t stick around for long. After about six decades, it will leave its temporary orbit around us and fly off into a horseshoe-shaped orbit that takes it millions of miles away. Before it bounces, though, we should have a closer look, according to de la Fuente Marcos.
“These asteroids are relatively easy to reach with unmanned missions and can help us experiment with planetary exploration tech without breaking the bank,” he mentioned.
Related reading on asteroids:Scientists Discover Evidence of Flowing Water on Giant Asteroid
