3I, Earth and ATLAS
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NASA and ESA say 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth. We explain its nickel-heavy readings, IAWN’s training drill, and why the Harvard alien claim lacks proof.
Earth just got a new tag-along in space — a little asteroid named 2025 PN7. NASA confirmed this week that the rock, discovered by the University of Hawaii, is officially a “quasi-moon” — a rare type of celestial companion that travels almost exactly in sync with Earth.
Quasi-moons are not real moons and don't actually orbit the Earth, although they sometimes appear to do so for short periods of time, Phil Nicholson, professor of astronomy at Cornell University, told ABC News. Instead, they orbit the sun -- like typical asteroids -- on paths that are "very similar" to Earth's.
According to NASA, "Asteroid 2024 YR4 is now too far away to observe with either space or ground-based telescopes. The space agency expects to make further observations when the asteroid’s orbit around the Sun brings it back into the vicinity of Earth in 2028.
NASA has confirmed the discovery of 2025 PN7, a small quasi-moon that has been orbiting near Earth since the 1960s and may stay until 2083. Though closer than our main Moon, it’s too small and faint to be seen without powerful telescopes.
An asteroid just flew closer to Earth than many satellites, according to space agencies. The space object, named 2025 TF, zoomed over Antarctica at a distance of just 265 miles above the Earth's surface last Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 8:47 p.m. ET, the European Space Agency said on Monday. The International Space Station orbits at a similar altitude.
Scientists have confirmed the discovery of a new quasi-moon, 2025 PN7, a small asteroid that will shadow Earth’s orbit for more than a century before being pulled away by the sun’s gravity, according to a September study from the American Astronomical Society.
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A New 'Quasi-Moon' Has Been Discovered Near Earth and Will Stick Around for Another 60 Years
Scientists out of the Pan-STARRs observatory in Hawaii discovered the new quasi-moon on Aug. 29, according to CNN and ABC News. It is believed that PN7 has been a quasi-moon for an estimated 60 years.