Asteroid 2026 QQ8 Becomes Earth’s Newest Temporary Mini-Moon

Asteroid 2026 QQ8 mini-moon orbiting Earth, Digi Mart USA News: A new “lilliputian” mini-moon is orbiting Earth after falling into the planet’s gravitational pull, according to a report by The Independent.

Asteroid 2026 QQ8 was caught in Earth’s gravity in April and has entered a looping orbit around the planet. It was first detected by Hungarian astronomer Kriztián Sárneczky, a prolific asteroid hunter, who first observed the space rock in August.

The object has only recently been reported by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center.

The new moon is expected to complete one and a half revolutions before escaping in 2027. The asteroid typically orbits the Sun every 359 days, according to a reconstruction of its orbital path, and makes a close approach to Earth every 10 years or so.

During its brief orbit of the planet, the closest it will come to Earth is around 568,000 kilometres (353,000 miles), roughly 1.5 times the average distance between the Moon and Earth. With a diameter of around 2 metres, the asteroid poses no risk to Earth, as it would likely be destroyed by the atmosphere if it were on a direct collision course.

It is not unusual for small chunks of space rock to fall into Earth’s orbit. A study last year suggested there could be up to six temporary mini-moons around Earth at any one time.

Many of these could be fragments of the Moon itself, ejected into space following an impact event.

One such object is Kamoʻoalewa, a 40-metre asteroid discovered in 2016 when it became a quasi-satellite of Earth. Its spectrum closely resembles that of space-weathered lunar samples, which suggests a lunar origin, according to the study’s authors.

They wrote that impacts on the Moon have scattered substantial fragments into the Earth-Moon system, which is crucial for understanding near-Earth objects, the formation of terrestrial planet satellites, and their potential hazards to Earth.

Near-Earth objects typically have a lifespan of between 1 and 10 million years, though some persist for up to 150 million years.