Earth will temporarily gain a second Moon this autumn.
Scientists have confirmed that a small asteroid will be captured by our planet’s gravitational pull and will briefly become a “mini-moon”.
The lunar visitor will be around Earth from September 29 before it escapes from the planet’s gravity a couple of months later.
However, the new moon will be too small and dim to be seen and will only be visible through the use of a professional telescope.
Astronomer Dr. Jennifer Millard told BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme: “It’s not going to complete a full revolution of our planet, it’s just going to kind of have its orbit altered, just twisted slightly by our own planet and then it’ll continue on its merry way.”
She added: “Professional telescopes, they’ll be able to pick it up. So you’ll be able to look out for lots of wonderful pictures online of this little dot kind of moving past the stars at great speed.”
