{"id":158915,"date":"2025-09-15T17:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/158915\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T17:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:28:08","slug":"earths-new-quasi-moon-2025-pn7-went-undetected-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/158915\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth&#8217;s new Quasi-moon 2025 PN7 went undetected for decades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A shy space rock is making its lunar debut.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers believe they\u2019ve discovered another so-called quasi-moon of Earth, though it\u2019s likely been circling undetected in near space for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Dubbed 2025 PN7, this mini moon is actually an asteroid \u2014 which, unlike our own full-fledged moon, orbits the sun alongside Earth.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.77777778;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37116702\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/elements-3d-render-furnished-nasa-111474265.jpg\" alt=\"Earth and moon in space.\" class=\"wp-image-37116702\"  \/>Measuring just 62 feet wide, astronomers say that quasi-moon 2025 PN7 is actually an asteroid that has likely gone undetected in our solar system for decades. JohanSwanepoel \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>The discovery of 2025 PN7 was described in a new study <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/2515-5172\/ae028f\/ampdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published in<\/a> the journal Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) on Sept. 2. <\/p>\n<p>According to the report, 2025 PN7 is just 62 feet wide and bright enough to spot only through a high-quality telescope. <\/p>\n<p>Lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid wrote that 2025 PN7  is the \u201csmallest and the least stable known quasi-satellite of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>French journalist Adrien Coffinet was the <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.io\/g\/mpml\/topic\/2025_pn7\/114980804\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first to introduce<\/a> 2025 PN7 to the world on Aug. 30, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/space\/astronomy\/earths-newest-quasi-moon-may-have-been-secretly-orbiting-our-planet-for-decades\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">per Live Science<\/a>, for the Minor Planet Mailing List, where amateur astronomers gather online to share and collect the latest data. <\/p>\n<p>According to Coffinet\u2019s calculations, \u201c2025 PN7 seems to be a quasi-satellite of the Earth for the next 60 years,\u201d he wrote, who based his predictions on <a href=\"https:\/\/minorplanetcenter.net\/mpec\/K25\/K25QN2.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 30 observations<\/a> by the Haleakal\u0101 Observatory\u2019s Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Maui, Hawaii.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37116703\" width=\"734\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/2025-pn7-object-small-estimate-111474263.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the orbit of asteroid 2025 PN7 in relation to Earth, Mercury, Venus, and the Sun.\" class=\"wp-image-37116703\" style=\"width:734px;height:auto;aspect-ratio:1.79964851;display:block\"  \/>2025 PN7 is one of 7 quasi-moons known to Earth, all of which orbit the sun \u2014 as opposed to our own moon, which orbits us.  NASA\/JPL<\/p>\n<p>When asked why it took us so long to find 2025 PN7, de la Fuente Marcos told Live Science, \u201cIt is small, faint and its visibility windows from Earth are rather unfavorable, so it is not surprising that it went unnoticed for that long.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aside from 2025 PN7, there are 7 other quasi-moons, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetary.org\/articles\/the-quasi-moons-of-earth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to the Planetary Society<\/a>, which they refer to as \u201ca gravitational sleight of hand.\u201d From our terrestrial point of view, they may appear to travel around Earth, when in fact they\u2019re being tugged by the sun\u2019s orbit. <\/p>\n<p>Given this latest discovery, de la Fuente Marcos believes more quasi-moons could be added to the roster. adding that these fledgling Earth satellites can be \u201cfull of surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shy space rock is making its lunar debut. Astronomers believe they\u2019ve discovered another so-called quasi-moon of Earth,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[6949,7042,718,79,193],"class_list":["post-158915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-asteroids","tag-moon","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}