Earth will briefly gain asteroid as second moon, scientists say

The asteroid was first spotted by NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on 7 August.Scientists worked out its trajectory in a study published, external in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.The asteroid, which scientists refer to as 2024 PT5, hails from the Arjuna asteroid belt, which contains rocks that follow an orbit quite similar to Earth’s.Occasionally, some of these asteroids get relatively close, getting as near as 2.8 million miles (4.5 million km) from our planet.According to the researchers involved in the study, if an asteroid like this is moving at a relatively slow speed of around 2,200mph (3,540km/h), Earth’s gravitational field can exert a strong influence, enough to trap it temporarily.Which is exactly what’s about to happen – starting this weekend, this small asteroid will spend about two months orbiting Earth.Dr Jennifer Millard, astronomer and host of the Awesome Astronomy podcast, told the BBC’s Today programme…