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.

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.

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 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.

A near-Earth object was likely ejected into space after an impact thousands of years ago. Now it could contribute new insights to asteroid and lunar science.

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