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A 'quasi-moon' discovered in Earth orbit may have been hiding for decades
How It Works UK
|Issue 208
A new paper describes a possible 'quasi-moon' of Earth, an interloping asteroid that may have been following our planet around for decades, undetected.

Quasi-moons, the Planetary Society states, are "like a gravitational sleight of hand." They are asteroids that, from our point of view on Earth, appear to be orbiting our planet like our permanent Moon does. However, they actually orbit the Sun, only temporarily moving through the Solar System alongside our planet. If the status of the newly detected asteroid, called 2025 PN7, is confirmed, it would not be the only object seemingly behaving as a moon of Earth. There are seven other known quasi-moons in Earth-like orbits, and they are "full of surprises," said Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid. Of these quasi-moons, 2025 PN7 is the "smallest a
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