Looks like Earth has a new natural moon

The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center (MPC) announced late yesterday that Earth has a new “temporary captured object”: a tiny new moon apparently captured into Earth orbit three years ago. This object has been designated 2020 CD3. In a Minor Planet Electronic Circular (MPEC) for February 25, 2020, astronomers wrote that multiple observations confirmed:

… this object is temporarily bound to the Earth. No evidence of perturbations due to solar radiation pressure is seen, and no link to a known artificial object has been found. Further observations and dynamical studies are strongly encouraged.

2020 CD3 was discovered on February 15 by astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey, based in Tucson, Arizona. More than 30 observations were made of the object by February 17, according to asteroid- and comet-hunter Kacper Wierzchos, one of its discoverers along with astronomer Theodore Pruyne. Those observations were needed to refine an orbit for the object, and to confirm it does appear to be orbiting Earth.