NASA confirms 2025 PN7 is a transient Earth quasisatellite until 2083

NASA and astronomers have confirmed that a small asteroid, designated 2025 PN7, is temporarily traveling alongside Earth and will remain in a co-orbital configuration with the planet until at least 2083. First detected in August by the PanSTARRS observatory in Hawaii, the object is a quasisatellite, meaning it follows a Sun-centered orbit very similar to Earth’s and can appear to trail the planet without being gravitationally bound to it.

The object is tiny by celestial standards, about 19 meters across, and faint except when it approaches closer to Earth. Astronomers say its size and low brightness likely explain why it escaped detection for decades. Researchers estimate 2025 PN7 has likely been following Earth’s path since roughly the 1960s, and its discovery was reported in a recent Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society paper. Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a coauthor of the study and researcher at the Complutense University of Madrid, said, "This new quasimoon is small, faint and visibility windows from Earth are rather unfavourable, so it is not surprising that it went unnoticed for that long."

Quasisatellites belong to a broader dynamical class sometimes called...