NASA Reveals Earth May Have Once Had Two Moons After Asteroid Collision—Here’s What Scientists Just Discovered

A surprise companion has slipped into Earth’s orbit, and NASA says it will linger for decades. The newly confirmed asteroid 2025 PN7—nicknamed a “quasi-moon”—now shares our planet’s journey around the Sun and could remain nearby until 2083, giving Earth, in effect, two moons. What exactly is a quasi-moon? • Unlike our 4.5-billion-year-old natural satellite, 2025 PN7 is a small near-Earth asteroid roughly 200 ft (60 m) wide. • It loops around the Sun in an orbit so similar to Earth’s that our planet’s gravity corrals it into a gentle dance, making it appear to orbit us. • Because the asteroid’s path is unstable over long timescales, scientists classify it as a “temporary captured object,” not a permanent second moon. Discovery and confirmation Astronomers first spotted the rock in early 2025 using the 1.8-meter Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. Orbital calculations performed at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) revealed the asteroid has actually been tagging along since the 1960s, completing one lap around the Sun every 365.4 days—just a shade longer than Earth’s year. Radar follow-ups confirmed the asteroid poses no impact threat and will eventually drift away when gravitational tugs from Earth and other planets nudge it onto a new trajectory. Why 2025 PN7 matters 1. Rare orbital dynamics: Only five quasi-moons have ever been documented; the most famous, 469219 Kamoʻoalewa, will stay until about 3000 CE. 2. Mission target potential: Its slow relative speed makes 2025 PN7 an enticing candidate for future sample-return missions, offering a testbed for asteroid-mining technology and planetary-defense techniques. 3. Public fascination: The idea of a “second moon” fuels curiosity about near-Earth objects and the constant flux of small bodies in our celestial neighborhood. Can you see Earth’s temporary mini-moon? Even at closest approach—about 9.6 million mi (15.5 million km), or 40 times farther than the Moon—2025 PN7 is far too faint for the naked eye. Backyard astronomers with mid-size telescopes might glimpse it during favorable apparitions in 2026 and 2029 when its magnitude brightens to around 20. NASA recommends consulting updated ephemerides before hunting for the object. Safety first: no collision risk Because 2025 PN7 never comes nearer than 0.04 AU, it is officially categorized as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid” only as a formality; current simulations show no impact scenarios for at least a century. Its elongated corkscrew motion relative to Earth keeps the asteroid safely ahead of or behind us, rather than in a direct line of fire. What happens after 2083? Gravitational nudges—mainly from Earth, Venus, and Jupiter—will eventually push 2025 PN7 out of resonance. Models suggest it will slide into an independent solar orbit, perhaps returning as a quasi-moon in a few centuries. Such transient tagalongs remind scientists that Earth’s immediate environment is far from static. Bottom line Earth still has one true Moon, but for the next 58 years a tiny asteroid companion is hitching a ride. The discovery of 2025 PN7 underscores NASA’s expanding watch on near-Earth space and offers a fresh opportunity to study an object that is, for now, our planet’s fleeting second moon.