#AstroMiniBR: The asteroid that became the Earth’s “moon”!

TecMundo and his team every week #AstroMiniBR We will update you with the latest news and curiosities about our fantastic universe. Check it out below!

1. Earth’s “mini Moon”!

First identified in August this year, Asteroid 2024 PT5 has been confirmed to be a temporary “mini moon” of Earth, meaning an object that briefly orbits our planet before being launched back into space. It was captured by Earth’s gravity at the end of September and remained in orbit until the 25th of this month.

The dimensions of this asteroid are estimated to be between 5 and 15 meters, making it small compared to ordinary asteroid objects. The phenomenon of capture occurs when an asteroid enters the Earth’s gravitational field with a certain speed and orbit and enters a temporary orbit before continuing its path in the Solar System.

Mini moons like 2024 PT5 They are scientifically valuable because they provide unique opportunities for studies of the composition of near-Earth asteroids. This particular object is also of interest due to its potential as a target for future missions, including space exploration and mining projects.

The discovery highlights the importance of monitoring and studying near-Earth objects to both expand our understanding of orbital dynamics and reduce the risks of potential impacts to our planet’s surface.

2. Do you know what a galactic halo is?

Galactic halos are large spherical regions surrounding galaxies, extending far beyond the visible boundaries of stars and gas. These structures consist mostly of dark mattersuch as hot ionized gas and relatively few stars and globular clusters.

Dark matter is the dominant and invisible component of the halo and can only be detected by gravitational effects, such as the intrinsic rotation of galaxies and the effect it exerts on the light of distant galaxies through the phenomenon of gravitational lensing. The gas in the halo, heated to millions of degrees Kelvin, emits X-rays, making it an important piece in the study of galactic evolution.

Physically Halos play a very important role in the dynamics and evolution of galaxies. They act as reservoirs of material and provide gas that can fuel the galactic disk to form new stars. Additionally, halos help stabilize the central galaxy, preventing stars and gas from escaping.

Recent research, aided by observations from telescopes such as Hubble and Chandra, shows that halos may contain fine structures such as streams of stars formed by the interaction of smaller galaxies with larger galaxies.

These properties make halos not only an astronomical curiosity, but also an essential part of understanding the history of the universe and the formation of galaxies.

3. An unprecedented alignment in the Serpent Nebula

Since its continuous operation, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed a number of amazing discoveries about the Cosmos. One of these was a fascinating feature in the Serpent Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth.. The detailed image showed aligned protostar streams, a phenomenon that has not been directly observed before.

These streams, produced by gas jets ejected by newborn stars, often have different directions. However, in the observed region, all streams align at similar angles, suggesting a unique moment in the star formation process. This alignment provides fundamental information about star formation and the role of intense magnetic fields in this process..

Did you like the content? So always stay up to date with all the astronomy news on TecMundo! See you next Monday!