Asteroid that orbits alongside Earth discovered after 60 years
Astronomers just spotted a new space neighbor: 2025 PN7, a tiny near-Earth asteroid that orbits the Sun alongside us without actually being Earth's moon.
Discovered in August 2025 by Hawaii's Pan-STARRS observatory, it's been hanging out near our planet for about 60 years and will stick around for another 60 before moving on—making its visit pretty short compared to other quasi-moons.
What do we know about the asteroid?
This asteroid is only about 62 feet (19m) wide and gets as close as 299337km from Earth—over halfway to the Moon.
It belongs to the Arjuna family of asteroids, which have orbits a lot like ours.
After its time as a quasi-moon ends, it'll drift into a more distant "horseshoe" path around the Sun.
Future unmanned missions could study PN7
Finding 2025 PN7 shows how dynamic our cosmic neighborhood really is.
Its close approach makes it an exciting target for future unmanned missions and could help scientists learn more about how small bodies form and move in our solar system.
For space fans, it's another reminder that there's always something new zipping by out there!