Back in September, skywatchers worldwide were promised a chance to glimpse a rare sight: the appearance of an asteroid briefly circling the Earth, mimicking the moon’s orbit. However, despite reports heralding the arrival of 2024 PT5 and the advice to seek a proper telescope for viewing, reports of actual sightings are scarce.
Reports carried by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration say 2024 PT5 — a near-earth asteroid about 30 meters wide — was detected in August by a telescope in South Africa that is part of the University of Hawai’i’s Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System.
Since then, not even Earth’s most powerful telescope — the James Webb Space Telescope — has detected the item known as the “mini-moon.”
Likewise for the research-grade 0.5m automated Cassegrain telescope at the University of the Virgin Islands Etelman Observatory on St. Thomas. “Unfortunately, the object isn’t bright enough for us to get a clear view of it (according to the astronomers),” said UVI Chemistry and Physics Department Chair Stan Latesky.
Researchers track the passage of asteroids to monitor potential hazards to the Earth in the event that one enters the atmosphere and crashes on the surface. Millions of asteroid fragments — called meteors — enter the atmosphere daily. Most burn up on the way down, leaving a coating of dust, scientists say.
The extraterrestrial visitor is said to have begun its orbit around the Earth in late September and is expected to leave and return to its loop around the Sun around Nov. 25.
The UVI observatory upgraded from an amateur telescope to a “fully automated, robotically-controlled, and queue-driven 0.5m research-grade telescope” during renovations in 1999.
“As part of this renovation project, the Etelman’s original house was converted into an observatory control and science education center. The New Etelman Observatory serves as a center for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), a venue for public science outreach activities, and a fundamental astrophysics and geophysics research station,” according to a narrative found on the university’s website.
