A minimoon is usually a tiny asteroid or rock that gets pulled in by Earth's gravity for a short time
Scientists have come across something pretty surprising — Earth might actually have at least six minimoons floating around it that we’ve never spotted before.
These minimoons are basically small space rocks or asteroids that end up getting caught in Earth’s gravitational pull for a while.
And thanks to new research, we now know that tiny moon-like fragments might be regularly circling our planet at any given moment.
The study, which was published in the journal Icarus, explained that these fragments are created when different objects crash into the moon. When this happens, bits of the moon break off and are sent flying into space.
Most of these fragments go on to orbit the sun, but some take a detour. They briefly get caught in Earth's orbit before heading back out into space and rejoining the sun’s path again, according to the study.
Robert Jedicke, a researcher from the University of Hawaii, told Space.com: "It's kind of like a square dance, where partners change regularly and sometimes leave the dance floor for a while."
As part of their research, Jedicke and his team tried to figure out just how many of these little lunar companions might be out there.
They estimated that about 20 percent of the space particles near Earth have the potential to become minimoons. Their findings suggest that at any one time, there could be roughly 6.5 minimoons orbiting Earth. These objects usually stick around for about nine months before they drift off and are replaced by others.
Even though the estimates are helpful, Jedicke noted that it’s still very tough to pin down the exact number of minimoons circling Earth.
"If there were that many temporarily bound objects, the telescopic surveys would probably detect more of them." he said. "So the nominal prediction is almost certainly wrong. That's science."
One of the main reasons it’s so tricky to spot these minimoons is because of how tiny and fast they are.
"Detecting objects in that size range means they have to be close so they are bright, but if they are close, it means they also appear to be moving quickly across the sky." Jedicke said.
"It is incredible that modern telescopic surveys have the ability to detect such small objects up to millions of kilometers away."
Just last year, Earth temporarily caught a “second moon” named 2024-PT5 in its orbit, adding even more excitement to these discoveries.
Speaking to Space, Professor Carlos de la Fuente Marcos shared: "The object that is going to pay us a visit belongs to the Arjuna asteroid belt, a secondary asteroid belt made of space rocks that follow orbits very similar to that of Earth at an average distance to the sun of about 93 million miles 150 million kilometers."
"Objects in the Arjuna asteroid belt are part of the near-Earth object population of asteroids and comets."
As for that second moon, scientists say it isn’t expected to loop back into Earth’s orbit until sometime in 2055.