The school-bus-sized asteroid known as 2024 PT5 might actually be a huge boulder that broke from the moon after another space rock crashed into it centuries ago, astronomers say.
Its farewell pass will bring it as close as 1.1m miles in January for a final look before the sun's gravitational pull hauls it deeper into space.
Given the similarity between asteroid 2024 PT5's motion and that of our planet's, scientists at NASA suspect that the object could be a large chunk of rock ejected from the moon's surface after an asteroid impact.
After analysis of this object's motion, it has been determined that 2024 PT5 is more likely of natural origin than being a man-made object.
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