Earth has picked up a tiny new traveling companion. NASA has confirmed that a small asteroid, named 2025 PN7, is now moving through space in near lockstep with our planet, making it a temporary quasi moon that will linger nearby until roughly 2083, as reported by Earth.com.
At about 62 feet across, 2025 PN7 is extremely small, and its presence only became clear thanks to sky surveys that repeatedly scan the same regions of space looking for faint, slow moving objects. It shares Earth’s orbital period so closely that, from our point of view, it seems to hover near us for decades even though it actually orbits the Sun, as detailed in this study.
Quasi moons aren’t true satellites. They aren’t bound to Earth the way the Moon is. Instead, they follow their own solar orbits that stay so close to ours that they appear to accompany us. The Minor Planet Center validates these discoveries and publishes the orbital data that lets researchers track them, while NASA’s near Earth object database confirms whether an object matches the signature of a co orbiting visitor.
Astronomers first spotted 2025 PN7 using the Pan STARRS survey in Hawaii. Its faintness made it hard to detect earlier, but once its brightness measurements came in, researchers could estimate its size and test how closely its orbit matched Earth’s year. That match is the giveaway that an asteroid might be a quasi moon instead of just a passing rock.
These objects stick around because of a timing trick called mean motion resonance. They orbit the Sun in a rhythm that keeps them near Earth for long periods, even though Earth’s gravity isn’t what holds them there. Over decades, small forces like sunlight and planetary tugs eventually nudge them away, but for now, 2025 PN7 is locked into a long, slow dance with our planet.
Although tiny, these companions matter. They help scientists study how small objects behave near planets, refine risk estimates, and test navigation and sampling techniques for future missions. Some quasi moons, like the longer lived Kamo?oalewa, have even shown hints of lunar like minerals, raising questions about whether some might be ancient fragments knocked off larger bodies.
2025 PN7 won’t affect tides, won’t brighten the night sky, and won’t come close to Earth. It simply circles the Sun alongside us, a harmless visitor that offers researchers another chance to study the dynamics of our cosmic neighborhood.
