Earth has quietly gained a second moon. On October 29, 2026, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center announced that a small space rock designated 2026 QQ8 has been temporarily captured by Earth's gravity, making it a so-called mini-moon.

Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky first spotted the object from Hungary's Piszkéstető Observatory on August 20, but orbital modeling shows it actually entered orbit around our planet months earlier, in late April.

The visitor will stay in Earth's thrall through December before breaking away and resuming its orbit around the Sun in early 2027 — just in time to see out the year with us.

Don't expect to see it. The rock measures only a few feet across — space.com puts it at around 6 feet (2 meters) in diameter, while EarthSky estimates about 3 feet (1 meter) — and it is far too faint for the unaided eye, detectable only with sensitive telescope imaging.

At first, astronomers weren't even sure it was natural: there was debate over whether the object was a discarded rocket stage or old satellite.

Follow-up observations with the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope and the Lowell Discovery Telescope settled it, allowing the Minor Planet Center to confirm the object is of natural origin, likely a small asteroid.

The mini-moon's path around Earth is anything but a neat circle. Animations by Tony Dunn, shared by EarthSky, show QQ8 tracing a strange-looking loop around the planet before escaping again — a stark contrast to the near-circular orbit of our regular moon.

According to space.com, scientists reconstructed its orbital path and found it takes about 359 days, roughly 0.98 of an Earth year, to circle the Sun.

The rock passes close to Earth about once every ten years, but this time it came near enough to slip inside Earth's Hill sphere — the zone where our planet's gravity dominates over the Sun's — which is why it got captured this round.

The numbers differ slightly between outlets, but the picture is consistent: QQ8 keeps a respectful distance.

According to space.com, the Minor Planet Center says its closest point during this stay is around 353,000 miles (568,000 km) — roughly 110,000 miles farther than the average Earth–moon distance. Yahoo Tech reports it made its closest approach in August, passing about 333,700 miles away.

Either way, there is no collision risk: even on a direct impact path, the rock would burn up as a fireball in Earth's atmosphere before reaching the surface. Yahoo Tech adds that its next flyby is expected on August 1, 2037, at about 8.5 million miles.

QQ8 is far from the first temporary satellite. Previous captures include 2006 RH120, 2020 CD3 and 2024 PT5, plus the quasi-moon 2025 PN7 — an object that only appears to orbit Earth but actually shares a related path around the Sun.

Research last year, reported by space.com, suggested Earth could be hosting as many as six mini-moons at any given time, many of them fragments blasted off our own moon.

Modelling cited by space.com puts the average temporary satellite at just 75 centimeters across with a typical stay of nine months, and suggests a rock around 10 feet wide could linger as a mini-moon for 10 to 20 years.

The visit is winding down. QQ8 is expected to escape Earth's gravitational grip around late December or early 2027 and resume its independent journey around the Sun — a timeline in line with the modelled nine-month average stay for such objects, since it was captured in April.

EarthSky notes the rock has a long history of near misses: it came fairly close in 1965 without being captured, and it will approach again in 2058, though not close enough to regain mini-moon status.

For now, it poses no known threat, cannot be seen without powerful equipment, and will be gone before most people ever knew it was there.