By RNZ

Earth is set to become a two-moon planet for the next couple of months as a 10-metre-wide asteroid – officially known as 2024PT – will begin orbiting the planet.

University of Auckland astrophysicist Professor Nick Rattenbury told RNZ’s Afternoons that it will start doing a loop-de-loop around Earth from September 29.

“A moon is typically the term that we give to a world which is orbiting in a fairly stable orbit around a parent body, like our own Moon going around the Earth, or something like it going around Jupiter,” he said.