An asteroid that orbited near Earth for a few months as a mini-moon may be a chunk of the moon that was blasted off by an impact thousands of years ago.

PT5, a near-Earth object discovered last year, has captivated scientists with its potential lunar origins. Likely ejected into space after a massive impact on the Moon thousands of years ago, the asteroid’s orbit closely matches Earth’s.

New research suggests that Earth's recent mini-moon might have originated as part of our actual moon long, long ago.

Scientists studying 2024 PT5 have new data pointing to the Moon as the source of this rock. They suspect it was knocked off the lunar surface after a powerful impact several thousand years ago. This ejection event hurled it into a path around the Sun that keeps it near Earth.