Earth caught car-sized 'mini-moon' in its orbit

It won't be sticking around for very long.

Julia Yeo | February 28, 2020, 11:55 AM

Earth has captured a "mini-moon" and pulled it into orbit.

Size of a car

This "mini-moon" is an asteroid (2020 CD3) that was pulled into Earth's orbit, and it is only the second asteroid known to orbit Earth, according to CNN.

While its orbit around Earth is only temporary, the asteroid will stick around until April before it drops out of Earth's orbit and returns to a heliocentric orbit around the sun.

The discovery was made by Kacper Wierzchos and Theodore Pruyne, researcher specialists for a NASA-funded project in Arizona, United States.

The team discovers and tracks near-Earth objects that could be potentially hazardous for Earth.

In this case, the asteroid was discovered, and is likely to have been pulled into Earth's orbit two to three years ago.

https://twitter.com/WierzchosKacper/status/1232460436634656769

According to Wierzchos, the object is around 1.9m to 3.5m in diameter, making it roughly the size of a car.

To which Tesla founder Elon Musk clarified that the asteroid was not his.

Has its own Twitter account?

While the discovery was made barely two days ago, the "mini-moon" has gain wide social media traction, and a Twitter account for the newly-discovered asteroid was created.

Catch it before it's gone.

Top image via euronews/YouTube