How many moons you say?
Astronomers have discovered that Earth's large, ever-looming moon is about to get company.
Beginning on Sunday, the planet will capture an asteroid sailing nearby, drawing it in for one loop around Earth before making its exit on Nov. 25. When it leaves, it will continue its trajectory around the sun. The two-month visit puts this space rock in the class of so-called "mini-moons."
Two astronomers from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain made the latest mini-moon discovery while calculating the dynamics of near-Earth objects. Their findings were published in the journal Research Notes of the AAS.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f
Prior research through NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System had already shown that the space rock was not a threat to smashing into Earth.
https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/nasa-asteroid-tracking-system-now-capable-of-full-sky-search/
Compared to mini-moons of the recent past, 2024 PT5 is a short-timer. In July 2006, a visitor dubbed RH120 stayed in orbit around Earth for a year before getting flung out in July 2007.
https://minorplanetcenter.net//mpec/K08/K08D12.html