2020 CD3 is a mini-moon which is also an asteroid that has been orbiting Earth for three years.
It was spotted on February 15, 2020 using the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) in Arizona, USA. Catalina Sky Survey is a NASA funded project supported by the Near Earth Object Observation Program (NEOO) under the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO).
- It is being called as new mini-moon of Earth.
- Its size is that of a washing machine and it has been circling Earth for about three years.
- This is only the second mini-moon to orbit Earth. Only one other mini-moon has ever been observed with a telescope and it orbited the Earth for 11 months before flying off into space.
- In 2006, the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey discovered a mini-moon about the size of a car. Known as 2006 RH120, it orbited Earth for less than a year after its discovery, then resumed orbiting the Sun.
- Our Moon is 2,000-miles in diameter and has orbited the Earth for four billion years. In contrast a mini-moon is thought to be a few feet across and only orbits the planet for less than a year before resuming its life as an asteroid or falling to Earth as a meteor fireball.
