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.

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

An uncrewed spacecraft just snapped an iconic portrait of the blue marble from space. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander, a private spacecraft hired by NASA to take experiments to the moon, is flying laps around Earth right now as it gears up for its first attempt at a lunar touchdown.

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.

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