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Earth gained a new moon, but it won’t stay long

For the next couple months, Earth will have a temporary “mini-moon.” Known as asteroid 2024 PT5, this small celestial body is approximately 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter and was only detected on August 7 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System in South Africa. It was captured by Earth’s gravity September 29 and is expected to remain bound to the Earth-Moon system until November 25 before continuing on its heliocentric trajectory.

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NASA Lucy mission on track to study Trojan asteroids at Jupiter’s distance from Sun

NASA is planning to embark a spacecraft on a 12-year journey starting next year on a first-of-its-kind mission called Lucy. The Lucy spacecraft will flyby and study distant asteroids in our Solar System as part of a mission to learn more about the origins of our planet and species.

The space agency shared a status update on the upcoming Lucy mission today as the mission team passed a major milestone that puts the launch on schedule for a launch in October 2021.

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NASA building spacecraft launching in 2022 to study metal-rock asteroid Psyche

NASA is progressing toward an upcoming mission dedicated to exploring a unique asteroid called Psyche. The metal-rock asteroid orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter and could give us answers on how Earth was formed. The spacecraft that will be used for NASA’s Psyche mission is graduating from a design phase to manufacturing ahead of a planned launch in 2022.

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