{"id":12162,"date":"2025-09-25T14:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/?p=12162"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T12:16:24","slug":"una-quasi-luna-della-terra-ci-seguira-per-altri-60-anni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/a-near-moon-of-the-earth-will-follow-us-for-another-60-years\/","title":{"rendered":"A near-moon of the Earth will follow us for another 60 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new \u201ctravelling companion\u201d is added to the history of our planet: it is called <strong>2025 PN7<\/strong> and is a <strong>quasi-moon of the Earth<\/strong>. It is a <strong>asteroid approximately 19 metres in diameter<\/strong> which for sixty years has been moving in a particular <strong>orbital resonance<\/strong> with our planet. Because of this dynamic, it appears to orbit the Earth, even though it actually follows the Sun along a path very similar to our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discovery was made official by astronomers from the\u2019<strong>Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii<\/strong> and published in <em>Research Notes<\/em> of the\u2019<strong>American Astronomical Society<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How the near-moon was discovered 2025 PN7<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to the <strong>Horizons from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory<\/strong> and Python-based calculation tools, the researchers identified the asteroid the <strong>2 August 2025<\/strong>. Simulations show that <strong>2025 PN7 has followed this trajectory for about 60 years<\/strong> and will continue to do so for at least another six decades, before moving away for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A relatively short period, compared to other known quasi-moons, some of which have accompanied the Earth for much longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quasi-moons and mini-moons: what is the difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Le <strong>quasi-moons<\/strong> like 2025 PN7 do not really orbit the Earth, but follow trajectories that make them appear to be bound to our planet. The <strong>mini-moons<\/strong>, Instead, they are temporarily captured by the Earth's gravitational attraction and actually revolve around us for a limited period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We currently know <strong>six other quasi-moons<\/strong> in addition to 2025 PN7:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>164207 Cardea (2004 GU9)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>469219 Kamo'oalewa (2016 HO3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>277810 (2006 FV35)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2013 LX28<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2014 OL339<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2023 FW13<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A new class of celestial bodies: the Arjuna<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Astronomers explain that these objects belong to the class of <strong>Arjuna asteroids<\/strong>, bodies with orbits very similar to Earth's. Some of them can become <strong>temporary satellites<\/strong> of the Earth, but most remain in an \u201cequilibrium\u201d position, accompanying us on our journey around the Sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOver 30 years ago, it was thought that the first quasi-satellite might even be an alien probe,\u201d Pan-STARRS scientists recall. \u201cToday we know that these are natural objects and that they constitute a secondary population of near-Earth asteroids.\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Una nuova \u201ccompagna di viaggio\u201d si aggiunge alla storia del nostro pianeta: si chiama 2025 PN7 ed \u00e8 una quasi-luna della Terra. Si tratta di un asteroide di circa 19 metri di diametro che da sessant\u2019anni si muove in una particolare risonanza orbitale con il nostro pianeta. A causa di questa dinamica, sembra orbitare attorno [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":12163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":44,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vita-nello-spazio"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12164,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12162\/revisions\/12164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbottle.space\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}