Earth’s new mini moon 2024 PT5 will orbit briefly from September to November 2024, offering a rare chance for scientific study of near-Earth asteroids.

A recently discovered asteroid, named 2024 PT5, will temporarily orbit Earth as a “mini-moon” for nearly two months starting September 29. This rare event offers scientists a chance to study how smaller celestial objects interact with Earth's gravity.

Scientists call such phenomena mini-moons. The asteroid was found by a group called ATLAS, which stands for Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, in August. The researchers who found it published a nonpeer-reviewed study about the asteroid.