An asteroid called 2020 CD3 was bound to Earth for several years before leaving the planet’s orbit in 2020
How can something that’s in an orbit for years then just leave again?
Is the orbit so big it crosses other planets’ sphere of influence?
Or is its apoapsis far enough away for the sun to snatch it away?I’ve read like eight of these articles about this Moon just trying to find out if we can see it without a telescope.
I’m assuming we can’t see it, but none of the articles I’ve read mention it. it seems crazy that none of them mention its visibility.
Will we be able to see the second moon?
The closest approach is about 600,000 Km away. That’s more than twice the distance to the moon. At that distance, to be (just barely) visible to the naked eye, it would have to be about 170km across, which would put it among the largest asteroids in the solar system. In fact, 2024 PT5 is only about 11m across (~36ft). You would need quite a powerful telescope, indeed, to see an object that small at that distance.
spinning around Earth in a horseshoe shape for about two months
what? what kind of orbit is that?