New research suggests that the Earth at any given time can temporarily catch up to half a dozen fragments from the moon, known as minimons before continuing their journey around the sun.
However, due to their small size and rapid movement, these objects are difficult to detect, reported Space.com.
When influences occur on the moon, they push waste into space. While some larger pieces can be launched, most of the fragments are small – below 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide – and traveling at high speeds. Typically, this lunar waste ends in the sun lane, but occasionally some of the short -won of the Earth’s gravity before resuming its way around the sun, according to a study published in the journal Icarus.
It is “kind of like a square dance where partners change regularly and sometimes leave the dance floor for a while,” said Robert Jedicke, a researcher at the University of Hawaii and lead author of the study to Space.com via E email.
While the International Astronomical Union has not officially defined what a minimoon is, earlier studies suggest that it refers to an object that is temporarily tied to Earth, ends at least one lane and comes within about four times the moon distance under its path.
Minimons may come from different parts of the solar system, but a 2018 study suggested that most come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. However, recent discoveries of minimons with seemingly challenging this theory are challenging.
In 2016, Hawaii’s Pan-Starrs1 Asteroid Survey Telescope discovered an almost ground object, named Kamo’oalewa (or 469219 Kamo’oalewa), measuring between 131 and 328 feet (40 to 100 meters) wide.
Although it revolves around the sun next to Earth, later research showed that it probably originated from the moon, possibly thrown out under the influence that created the Giordano Bruno crater 1 to 10 million years ago.
Recently, astronomers reported another temporary soil satellite, 2024 PT5, which was discovered last year. Its composition seems to look like the moon more than an asteroid, which further supports the idea that some minimons may be fragments of moon material.
