It’s a bad time to be a werewolf. NASA has just confirmed that for the next five-ish decades, Earth—and yes, that includes New York City—will have two moons.
Well…sorta.
The second moon isn’t exactly the same as our 4.5 billion year celestial companion. In fact, it’s not really a moon at all.
Astronomers at the Pan–STARRS observatory in Hawaii recently spotted something wild: an asteroid, now called 2025 PN7, that’s been quietly shadowing Earth since the 1960s.
Scientists are calling it a “quasi-moon”—a cosmic companion that follows nearly the same orbit around the Sun as our planet, giving the illusion that it’s orbiting Earth itself.
Quasi-moons are part of a special category of space objects called Arjunas, that move in sync with our planet’s journey around the sun. Experts from The Planetary Society stated:
It’s like a gravitational sleight of hand. From our point of view on Earth, each of these asteroids looks like it is orbiting our planet, yet they actually orbit the Sun. In fact, the quasi-moons of Earth essentially share its orbit. They follow almost the exact same path as we do around the Sun.
So, to us Earthlings, it looks like a second moon. Scientifically, though, it can’t even hold a candle to the real thing.
Unlike our true Moon—spanning about 11.4-million feet wide—this new space tag-along measures only 60 feet across, making it the smallest and least stable of the six quasi-moons following Earth’s orbit. Additionally, rather than being bound to Earth like our Moon is, this quasi-moon follows a synchronized path with us around the Sun, drifting in a long loop that keeps it close by.
And if you’re wondering, this isn’t even our only extra companion. The Planetary Society stated:
Earth hosts seven known quasi-moons, an unknown number of minimoons, and maybe, sometimes, two ghost moons. Though none of these pseudo-moons are as big or influential as Earth’s one true natural satellite — the Moon — they are still valuable for science and exploration.
None are as iconic as our original Moon, but they’re still scientifically valuable—each one offering clues about how objects move through our shared orbit.
Sadly, if you’re interested in catching a glimpse of the tag-along you won’t be able to do so with your naked eye. Even at its closest, 2025 PN7 stays about 2.5 million miles away—ten times farther than the real Moon. You’d need a powerful telescope to even spot a glimmer.
But for space lovers, the thought of an unofficial second moon hovering nearby is pretty poetic. And since it poses no risk to Earth, we can simply enjoy its company for the next half-century.
And who knows, by the time 2083 rolls around and we have to bid our tiny companion adieu, we might just have another mysterious guest joining the Earth-Moon party–just last September a mini-moon, otherwise known as asteroid 2024 PT5, kept us company for about two months. 🌝