{"id":227523,"date":"2025-10-27T03:57:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227523\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T03:57:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:57:18","slug":"astronomers-discover-hidden-moon-shadowing-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/227523\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers discover hidden ‘moon’ shadowing Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have discovered a peculiar \u2018moon\u2019 shadowing Earth as it moves through space. Known as a quasi-moon, it doesn\u2019t orbit our planet directly but stays nearby as both travel around the Sun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to new research<\/a> published in Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, the space rock<\/a> may have been accompanying Earth for as long as 60 years.<\/p>\n

Known as 2025 PN7, it may have evaded previous observation because it\u2019s so small. While its exact size isn\u2019t yet known, researchers think it\u2019s about 30m (98ft) across. That\u2019s roughly the wingspan of a typical short-haul passenger plane \u2013 making it the smallest known quasi-moon to have orbited Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are discovering Near Earth Objects faster than ever before, thanks to rapid advancements in technology,\u201d Dr Darren Baskill<\/a>, astronomy lecturer at the University of Sussex, told\u00a0BBC Science Focus. \u201cDigital cameras are more sensitive than ever before, allowing us to see such faint objects, and computers are now able to rapidly sift through vast amounts of data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The celestial object, at its closest, comes 300,000km (186,400 miles) away from Earth. Typically, it sits about 384,000km (238,600 miles) away \u2013 but during its horseshoe-shaped orbit, it can drift as far as 297 million km (185 million miles).<\/p>\n

That means it can only be noticed when it\u2019s near \u2013 as it was in August 2025, when researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain spotted it from Hawaii\u2019s Pan-STARRS observatory. <\/p>\n

Looking back through old records, the scientists realised it matched an object that\u2019s likely been accompanying Earth for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main question is: where could 2025 PN7 have originated?\u201d said Baskill. \u201cWhen at its closest, 2025 PN7 is at a similar distance from the Earth as the Moon, giving a hint as to a potential lunar origin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother clue you can spot yourself simply by looking at the Moon on a clear night \u2013 it is full of craters. Each impact would have thrown debris skywards, and some material could have escaped the gravitational hold of the Moon into space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FullThe craters on the Moon give a clue as to where some space rocks originated – Photo credit: Getty<\/p>\n

A different theory is that the space rock came from an asteroid belt \u2013 but, according to Baskill, \u201ccollecting enough light<\/a> from such a moving object to observe its chemical composition \u2013 and so identify its origin \u2013 is challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cAstronomers have to be patient and wait to take observations only when PN7 is at its brightest, which is when the object is closest to the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

2015 PN7 is just one of seven quasi-satellites near Earth right now. Another is space rock Kamo\u2018oalewa, the target of China\u2019s Tianwen-2 mission. In May 2025, Tianwen-2 launched with the aim of collecting samples from the asteroid to learn more about Earth\u2019s origin and how asteroids form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to their occasional proximity, some of these Near Earth Objects could potentially be targets for the first-ever mining operations beyond Earth, or even enter the Earth\u2019s atmosphere,\u201d said Baskill.<\/p>\n

2025 PN7 will be around until 2085, at which point gravitational pull<\/a> will yank it out of its orbit.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers have discovered a peculiar \u2018moon\u2019 shadowing Earth as it moves through space. Known as a quasi-moon, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[90,416,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-227523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}