The Earth has a new moon: Thuringian astronomers photographed it

Astronomers are confident that they will get more good images of the ten-meter rock by the end of the year, or perhaps even later. “The visibility ends for us in mid-February because the asteroid is already low in the southern sky,” the observatory said in response to a request from MDR Wissen. “Until then, we will definitely watch it many times.”

Caroline Lefke (Astronomy House) believes. But the asteroid cannot be detected this way. “And you shouldn't expect a lot from professional recordings either,” Lefke says. She fears that there will be a large gray patch at best. Or just a small white dot, as in the image above. However, anyone can tell where 2024 PT5 is located in the night sky. Sky Live has created a special page (Where is asteroid 2024 PT5 located?), where you can see when and where the asteroid will fly across the night sky.

Astronomer Lefke believes it could actually be part of the moon, as preliminary investigations indicate. “There are assumptions, but you won't know for sure until you examine them.” This was not planned for PT5, unlike some other asteroids such as the Hera mission. Knowing what asteroids are made of could be vital to Earth's survival, Lefke says, when it comes to fending off such threats.