Question

Earth will get a second moon for two months

Comments

The fact check seems a little misleading the term mini moon is simply a device used to explain the orbit pattern to the average reader. Upon further reading the object doesn't meet all the criteria to be considered a moon.

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Although the claim in this article title was not completely inaccurate, it was misleading and taken out of context. In the article "Earth will get a second mini-moon for 2 months" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/earth-second-mini-moon-2024/Links to an external site. , the author highlights the fact that an small asteroid will orbit our Earth for a short period of time. The fact that they changed the title to say that Earth would have a second moon is exaggerated and misleading. By reading the article "Planetary Defense at NASA" https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense/Links to an external site. , I was able to come to the. conclusion that the title was in fact taken out of context and highly exaggerated. They did this by changing the fact about it being an asteroid to a second moon which is false because they are not the same thing. Also after researching NASA's original article, I found that the asteroid will not be sucked into our gravitational orbit therefore not allowing for it to be considered a second moon.

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I agree that it wasn't totally inaccurate but definitely could have been phrased better for clarity. Also, the NASA article is a great source and they explain why it would not affect Earth like a "real" moon and that it is an asteroid that will join our orbit temporarily.

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The fact check seems slightly misleading. There is no information in the article about this "second moon", for a more accurate statement I would have suggested explaining the tiny astroid that will be floating around the moon rather than calling said astroid a "tiny moon".

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According to phys.org, the new moon is actually a tiny asteroid. They say it is going to orbit the planet and stick around for a little less than two months. I understand how this could be perceived as a new moon, but I'm unsure if that's technically true.

Answer 1

The title of "Earth will get a second moon" is technically true. As a moon is defined as "the large round object that circles the Earth and that shines at night by reflecting light from the sun." (Webster Dictionary). Since the asteroid is revolving around earth, and reflecting light off from the sun, it can be classified as a moon. On the other hand, it is misleading, because it will be too small to see with a telescope or binoculars.

Answer 2

By looking at these three articles relating to the claim, multiple of these articles discuss the same thing with the dates being all the same and talking about earth getting a temporary second moon being of any tiny asteroid.  This claim is consistent with the facts being the same making this not misinformation the one thing I will say they could been a little more specific with the tiny moon being asteroid but overall everything else is accurate and each article backs up each claim. 

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/21/earth-to-get-a-mini-moon-for-two-months-but-what-is-i

www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2024/09/19/temporary-mini-moon-will-begin-orbit-around-earth-next-week-what-to-know/.

www.space.com/earth-mini-moon-asteroid-2024-pt5.