A tiny object called 2026 QQ8 has been looping around Earth since late April, astronomers say. The Minor Planet Center announced the capture Oct. 29, and it should leave in December.
Earth has picked up another hitchhiker. It’s about the length of a yardstick, and it won’t be staying long.
The object is called 2026 QQ8. The Minor Planet Center, the official clearinghouse for asteroid sightings, announced it on Thursday, Oct. 29. “Orbit integrations indicate that this object is temporarily bound to the Earth,” its notice said.
In plain English, Earth has a mini-moon. EarthSky and Gizmodo reported on Wednesday, Nov. 4, that Earth’s gravity caught it in late April and that it should break free in December.
Don’t expect a rival for the real moon. Both outlets put it at about 3 feet (1 meter) across.
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Who discovered Earth’s new mini-moon?
Hungarian astronomer Krisztian Sarneczky found it in August, EarthSky reported. Gizmodo noted that he has discovered hundreds of asteroids.
The MPC’s notice dates his first sighting, from an observing station at Piszkesteto in Hungary, to just after midnight local time on Aug. 20. Observers in Italy, Croatia, Namibia, the Canary Islands, Arizona and Hawaii followed up.
Why did astronomers think it might be space junk?
Its path around the sun is almost a copy of Earth’s, according to the MPC’s orbit data. Gizmodo reported that astronomers first thought it might be debris, possibly from a rocket or satellite.
That has happened before. In 2020, a supposed mini-moon called 2020 SO turned out to be a NASA rocket stage, Smithsonian Magazine reported. It had launched the Surveyor 2 moon lander in 1966.
So the MPC took its time. In a Sept. 2 notice about the object, then tagged Sar2901, it said it “would prefer to delay the assignment of a designation” until astronomers were more convinced it was natural. The community was divided, the notice said.
The Oct. 29 notice gave it a name. “No link to a known artificial object has been found,” the MPC wrote. EarthSky reported that it’s likely a small asteroid.
How long will 2026 QQ8 stay?
About eight months. EarthSky and Gizmodo reported that it crossed into Earth’s Hill sphere in late April. That’s the zone where Earth’s gravity can hold onto something despite the pull of the sun.
It’s expected to slip away in December. After that, EarthSky said, it will go back to orbiting the sun on its own.
While it’s here, it traces a wide, kidney-shaped loop, Gizmodo reported. Gizmodo noted that it poses no danger, and a rock this small would burn up in the atmosphere anyway.
Those dates could still shift a little. The MPC said “further observations and dynamical studies are strongly encouraged.” We didn’t find a published paper or preprint on the object yet.
Will 2026 QQ8 come back?
It’ll swing by again, but it won’t get caught. Tracing its orbit backward and forward, astronomers found that it comes near Earth roughly every 10 years, EarthSky reported.
It came fairly close in 1965 without being captured. Its next close pass, in 2058, won’t be close enough to make it a mini-moon again.
You won’t spot it from the backyard, either. The follow-up work needed big research telescopes, like the Lowell Discovery Telescope in Arizona.
What other mini-moons has Earth had?
The list is short. The first confirmed one, 2006 RH120, circled Earth from September 2006 to June 2007, CBC News reported.
Next came 2020 CD3, found on Feb. 15, 2020, by Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne of the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. It left on March 7, 2020, according to Queen’s University Belfast.
A team led by Grigori Fedorets of Queen’s later described it in The Astronomical Journal. It was roughly 3 to 5 feet wide, and Fedorets said it was “a silicate shard of a larger body.”
Then there’s 2024 PT5. The ATLAS survey’s telescope in South Africa spotted it on Aug. 7, 2024. At about 33 feet wide, it dwarfed the new arrival.
It was temporarily captured from Sept. 29 to Nov. 25, 2024, and never finished a full loop.
A study led by Teddy Kareta of Lowell Observatory, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in January 2025, found that its light closely matched lunar rock. The team thinks it was knocked off the moon by an impact.
Nobody has published a close look at what 2026 QQ8 is made of yet. Astronomers have until December to try, and then our tiny second moon heads back out on its own.
Article compiled and written by Thom Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
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Minor Planet Center (Sept. 2 and Oct. 29): The editorial notice and the capture announcement.
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EarthSky, Kelly Kizer Whitt (Nov. 4): Discovery, size and timeline.
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Gizmodo, Passant Rabie (Nov. 4): Space junk suspicions and the loop.
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Sci.News (Jan. 22, 2025): 2024 PT5 and the lunar-origin study.
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Queen’s University Belfast (Nov. 2020): The 2020 CD3 study.
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CBC News (February 2020): 2020 CD3’s discovery and 2006 RH120.
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Smithsonian Magazine (December 2020): 2020 SO.
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