NASA Declares Earth Has a New "Mini-Moon" That Will Follow Us for the Next 50 Years
indiandefencereview.com • • science
Key Points:
- Asteroid 2025 PN7, about 19 meters in diameter, has been confirmed as a quasi-satellite of Earth, maintaining a stable co-orbital relationship until the early 2080s by orbiting the Sun with a period nearly identical to Earth’s.
- Detected by Pan-STARRS in August 2025 and confirmed through international observations, 2025 PN7’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 1.003 AU and a low inclination, enabling it to stay near Earth without being gravitationally bound like the Moon.
- The asteroid’s orbital stability arises from mean-motion resonance with Earth, keeping it close but posing no impact threat, with a minimum orbit intersection distance of about 360,000
