New mini-moon orbiting Earth — for now, astronomers say – NBCNews.com

“BIG NEWS,” Kacper Wierzchos, a scientist with the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, tweeted Tuesday. Let our news meet your inboxSatisfy BIG NEWS(thread 1/3). The last asteroid to get caught in Earth’s orbit was 2006 RH120. The area rock, which orbits the sun and passes close to Earth every couple of decades, was caught by the planet’s gravity in June 2006 and remained till around September 2007, prior to it swung back out into the solar system.

“BIG NEWS,” Kacper Wierzchos, a researcher with the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab,

tweeted Tuesday. Let our news meet your inbox. BIG NEWS(thread 1/3).

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