Earth might have a new moon, but it's not here to stay

The Moon.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

There's a new moon in town.

Dubbed 2020 CD3, a newly-discovered mini moon is about the size of a car and orbits around Earth every 47 days. It was discovered earlier this month by scientists at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, reports New Scientist.

Alas, our newly-acquired moon is fleeting. The Minor Planet Center states that the object is "temporarily bound to Earth." It's likely 2020 CD3 has been orbiting earth for three years, but its expected to "escape" the Earth-moon system in April, Research Fellow Grigori Fedorets at Queen's University Belfast told New Scientist.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Astronomer Kacper Wierzchos has been tweeting about the discovery, and notes it's a "big deal as out of ~ 1 million known asteroids, this is just the second asteroid known to orbit Earth."

See more

Though more observations are necessary, there's no evidence that it's a piece of artificial debris rather than a mini moon, according to the Minor Planet Center.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.