An artist's illustration depicts a typical asteroid. Quasi-moon 2025 PN7 is an asteroid that orbits the sun but appears close to Earth. JPL-Caltech/NASA

Astronomers have spotted a quasi-moon near Earth — and the small space rock has likely been hanging out near our planet unseen by telescopes for about 60 years, according to new research.

The newly discovered celestial object, named 2025 PN7, is a type of near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun but sticks close to our planet. Like our world, 2025 PN7 takes one year to complete an orbit around the sun.

Quasi-moons differ from temporary mini-moons that occasionally orbit Earth such as 2024 PT5 , which circled the planet for two months in 2024 and could be an ancient fragment that was blasted off of our primary moon.

The newly found 2

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