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

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.

The small near-Earth asteroid 2024 PT5 has been creating a buzz among researchers. Discovered last year with the help of a NASA-funded telescope, it is only about 33 feet across and does not pose any threat to Earth.

The study suggests that the Moon likely formed largely from Earth's mantle material — with minimal involvement from Theia.

For a brief, but exciting, time last year, Earth had two moons. A small asteroid lingered close to our planet in its orbit around the Sun, temporarily caught by Earth’s gravity to become a far away mini-moon. A closer look at the space rock reveals a rather familiar origin: Earth’s mini-moon might actually be a broken-off piece of our regular Moon.

A chunk of space rock that visited near Earth's orbit last year was widely called a "mini-moon," a nickname that was more appropriate than thought.