Earth finds new mini-moon about the size of car

Earth seems to have found a tiny new moon for itself that is about the size of a car. Two astronomers have spotted an asteroid, temporarily captured by earth's gravity that has been whirling around our planet.

Kacper Wierzchos and Theodore Pruyne, astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey, have discovered the so-called 'mini-moon', which is an asteroid known as 2020 CD3. On February 19, the astronomers spotted a dim object moving quickly across the sky somewhere close to the earth. They tweeted that the object could be a "possible mini-moon".

"Earth has a new temporarily captured object/Possible mini-moon called 2020 CD3. On the night of Feb. 15, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Teddy Pruyne and I found a 20th magnitude object. The object has just been announced by the MPC and its orbit shows that it entered Earth's orbit some three years ago," Wierzchos said in a tweet.

Six other observatories around the globe later saw the same object, confirming the presence of what can now be considered a mini-moon.

The researchers say the new and perhaps temporary mini-moon is probably between 1.9 meters and 3.5 meters, the size as a mid-sized car. The asteroid seems to have entered the Earth's orbit about three years ago but until now it went unnoticed.

The mini-moon seems to circle our planet about once every 47 days on a wide, oval-shaped orbit, which is far outside the Moon’s path.

This asteroid, however, is not the first mini-moon that the Earth has captured for itself. Asteroid 2006 RH120, discovered in September 2006, is said to be the first known asteroid to revolve around the Earth's orbit.

"The story of 2006 RH120 is not without controversy, however, as its orbit appears similar to some Apollo-era spent rockets boosters, and therefore some scientists believe it may be an artificial object," as per the survey's website.