Does Earth Really Have a Second Moon? What NASA Actually Found

"NASA confirms: Earth now has two moons." Did NASA really say that? We checked every candidate: a rock that showed up the year Sputnik launched, a "mini-moon" that never came close, and a tiny world that might be a broken piece of our own Moon, with a spacecraft next to it right now. Chapters 0:00 Did NASA confirm a second moon? 0:39 1. What NASA actually said 1:37 2. 2025 PN7: the quasi-moon 3:35 3. Cruithne, Trojans and other companions 5:02 4. Real mini-moons (and 2024 PT5) 7:07 5. Kamo'oalewa: a piece of the Moon? 9:09 6. Second moons that never existed 10:16 7. The verdict Main sources • NASA Planetary Defense, Oct 2, 2024 (2024 PT5): https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/planet... • Snopes, Jan 9, 2026 (NASA: "not gravitationally bound to Earth"): https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ear... • de la Fuente Marcos & de la Fuente Marcos, RNAAS 9, 235 (2025), 2025 PN7: https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ae028f • JPL Horizons / Small-Body Database / Close-Approach Data (orbits and distances): https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/ • Wiegert, Innanen & Mikkola, Nature 387, 685 (1997), Cruithne: https://doi.org/10.1038/42662 • Jedicke et al. (2018), Earth's minimoons: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/... • Jedicke et al. (2025), what counts as a minimoon: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17985 • Sharkey et al. (2021), Kamo'oalewa: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.06372 · Jiao et al. (2024): https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20411 • Sharkey et al. (2026, preprint, JWST): https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.24017 · Zhang et al., Nature Communications (2026): https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146... · Fenucci et al., A&A (2026): https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08923 • Tianwen-2 arrival and first image (Astronomy.com, Jul 2026): https://www.astronomy.com/space-explo... • Claimed moons of Earth (Petit, Waltemath): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claimed... · Tombaugh's search (NMSU): https://libexhibits.nmsu.edu/onlinexh... • Granvik, Vaubaillon & Jedicke (2012), minimoon population: https://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3781 Headlines shown were published by Earth.com (Nov 21, 2024), GEEKSPIN/Yahoo News (Oct 20, 2025) and others; recreated on screen without logos. Orbit animations use JPL data; some diagrams are schematic (noted on screen). Big questions. Checked answers. #space #moon #science