Earth has acquired atemporary moon. It has been tagging along with us for about 60 years and willcontinue to tag along until 2083. It is a small asteroid going by the name 2025PN7.

Officially discoveredby the University of Hawaii and confirmed this past week, it is what’s known asa “quasi-moon”—a rare celestial companion that travels almost exactly in syncwith Earth. It’s not a true moon because it doesn’t orbit around the Earth.Right now, it is orbiting the sun, keeping pace with us so that it appears toshadow our planet.

2025 PN7 is estimatedto be 18 to 36 meters wide, about the height of a small building, which is tinyby cosmic standards. That may be why it took so long to notice it.

Our real moon is heldtight by gravity, but this asteroid isn’t bound to us. Think of it as afriendly jogger matching our stride on the same track—close enough to noticebut never touching.

After 2083—if itscurrent orbit holds that long—it will drift away into open space. At itsclosest approach to us, it gets within 4 million kilometers, which is roughlyten times the distance between Earth and the moon. At its most distant, it canswing out to 17 million kilometers. That changing distance is because of thecompeting gravity of the sun and various planets.

So far, astronomershave confirmed only eight quasi-moons. Each of them is a small but valuableclue in understanding how asteroids move and how Earth’s gravity shapes thespace around us. These objects are more than curiosities. They help refineorbital models, improve predictions for near-Earth asteroids, and could serveas testing grounds for future missions. After all, they’re close, relativelystable, and reachable without traveling too far from home.

2025 PN7 will neveroutshine our real moon. But it’s there and worth knowing about.

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