Latest discovery has house lovers ‘over the moon’

TEXAS — Some house lovers are geeking out over the newest celestial occasion that has been hidden in plain sight for the final six a long time. 

This summer time, astronomers in Hawaii found a quasi-moon close to Earth referred to as 2025 PN7.

Ryan Bennett and different stargazers have their eyes set on the newest house invader looping across the galaxy.

“This guy is just really close to us in our orbit, and it’s going around us in a racetrack. Kind of about the same speed we are, but sometimes we get ahead of that. Sometimes it gets ahead of us. We’re starting to observe these things a lot better. So really what we’re just starting to see are just things that have been there for a while,” stated Bennett, planetarium and astronomy program director on the University of North Texas.

This little man has been in our orbit for roughly 60 years, to be precise.

“One astronomer said, ‘It’s like trying to look at a picture of a piece of charcoal five miles away.’ It’s dark, you can’t really see much, and it’s so far away you need a very powerful telescope to even detect it,” stated Michelle Risse, planetarium coordinator on the Scobee Education Center in San Antonio.

Not even the telescope at UNT’s observatory is gonna lower it.

Earlier this yr, astronomers in Hawaii found that the near-Earth asteroid had been orbiting the solar unnoticed.

“I would say it’s probably not a huge deal. It’s just interesting; it’s a new discovery that we’ve actually made of these quasi-moons and quasi-satellites,” stated Bennett.

Bennett stated there have been six discoveries like this earlier than. Most lately, final yr, Earth had a second moon for about two months round this similar time.

He might say it’s not an enormous deal, however different house lovers say in any other case.

“There’s nothing more spacey than near-Earth asteroids, and I’ve been passionate about them and trying to inform any audience that I have willing to listen,” stated Ken Ruffin, president of the National Space Society of North Texas.

His love for this topic led him to offer his new firm the identify of his favourite near-Earth asteroid. 

“The name of the asteroid is Didymos. The name of the company is Didymos Consulting,” stated Ruffin.

Earlier this month, this quasi-moon was the subject he introduced at his month-to-month assembly.

“There’s about 40,000 of them that we have found. We believe there’s a million. We’ve only found 4%. That is an extremely risky situation,” stated Ruffin.

Risse additionally shared with the general public in regards to the asteroid.

“They often ask us, like, hey, can you show it, and I’ll be like, I wish I could, unfortunately, it’s so tiny especially with our current modern-day telescope,” stated Risse.

She stated there are not any considerations or threats with this lately found asteroid due to its distance and the way it’s not gravitationally sure to Earth in any respect.

“I kinda think it’s really great that this is something that we’re paying attention to,” stated Bennett.

Experts say the quasi-moon is predicted to stay round for about one other 60 years.