Overview
- The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center announced on Oct. 29 that 2026 QQ8 is a confirmed temporary mini-moon that entered Earth’s Hill sphere in April 2026.
- Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky first observed the object on Aug. 20 and follow-up imaging from the University of Hawaii 2.2‑m and the Lowell Discovery Telescope ruled out an artificial origin.
- Orbital reconstructions show QQ8 follows an irregular, loopy path around Earth with a closest approach near 0.0038 AU, roughly 1.5 times the distance to the Moon, before escaping by early 2027.
- At about one meter across, the rock poses no meaningful impact risk because it would almost certainly burn up in the atmosphere, and its small size makes detection difficult.
- The capture is part of a known pattern in which meter-scale near-Earth objects are briefly bound to Earth for months, offering scientists short windows to study small asteroids and test orbit models.