24 July 2025
If you thought the Earth only had one moon, think again. Researchers have revealed that our planet may actually have an entire collection orbiting us at any given time.
A new study has found that Earth has at least six ‘minimoons’ in orbit on a regular basis, with most of them being smaller pieces of the actual moon we see in the sky each night.
A team from the US, Italy, Germany, Finland, and Sweden said these tiny satellites are generally around six feet in diameter and were formed by asteroids impacting on the moon’s surface.
The collisions essentially kick up a bunch of dust and moon debris, with some of it being large enough to float away and get pulled into the Earth’s gravitational field.
The study suggested that these broken moon pieces, known as ‘lunar ejecta,’ can move into somewhat stable orbits, staying near Earth for years.
Minimoons typically stay in Earth’s orbit only for a short time before escaping or, in rare cases, hitting our planet or the moon.
Most of the time, these temporarily bound objects (TBOs) break away from Earth and are pulled into the sun’s gravity, where they’ll remain indefinitely, while new chunks of the moon are broken off to replace them.
‘Given that 18 percent of TBOs can also be classified as minimoons, our nominal results suggest that there should be about 6.5 minimoons larger than 1 m diameter in the [Earth-Moon system] at any time,’ the researchers wrote in their new report.
The new study could upend the belief among scientists that these minimoons which quietly circle Earth all come from the solar system’s asteroid belt.
Last year, 2024 PT5 was dubbed Earth’s temporary ‘second moon’ because of its size and lingering presence so close to our planet.
Astronomers collected data on the supposed asteroid as it circled Earth, which led astronomers to suggest that it may have been a chunk of our moon instead.
