Earth has "adopted" a second "mini-moon" the size of a car, astronomers have announced, discovering an object orbiting our planet.
The mass, about 1,9x3,5 meters in size, was spotted by astronomers Kasper Virzos and Teddy Prine of the NASA-funded Arizona Observatory.
"Big news. Earth has temporarily captured an object called 2020 CD3," likely a C-type asteroid, Virzos announced.
It is only the second asteroid known to have orbited the Earth, after an object called 2006 RH120, which was also discovered in Catalina.
Its trajectory indicates that it entered Earth's orbit three years ago, Virzos said.
It is probably an asteroid that was attracted by Earth's gravity because no evidence has been found that it is an artificial object. The Earth's new neighbor is not in a stable orbit and it is unlikely that it will stay there for a long time, Hina agency reports.
"It is moving away from Earth and will probably escape in the spring and travel to another system," the astronomers said.
The first asteroid, 2006 RH120, orbited the Earth from September 2006 to June 2007.
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