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How many moons does Earth have?
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Full moon shining in a night sky filled with stars and scattered clouds.
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Full moon shining in a night sky filled with stars and scattered clouds.
Moon in night sky Earth's one and only moon, the Moon, in the night sky.

How many moons does Earth have?

Really just the one, but

Written by
Erik Gregersen
Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the...
Erik Gregersen
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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‱History

You may have seen headlines such as “NASA confirms Earth now has two moons until 2083.” But we first need to define what a “moon” is. A moon is a natural satellite orbiting another body. The key part here is “orbiting.” A moon travels in an elliptical path around another central object.

There is only one object like that going around Earth. It’s called the Moon (imagine that), and it goes around Earth every 27.3 days.

Then what is this “new moon”? This object is an asteroid called 2025 PN7. It was discovered on August 2, 2025, and it is what is known as a “quasi-moon” of Earth. Quasi-satellites orbit the Sun, not Earth, but they orbit the Sun with a period of about one year. Sometimes these satellites come close to Earth and move along with our planet. Sometime in the 1960s, 2025 PN7 came close to Earth, and it will travel close to Earth until sometime in the 2080s.

The newly discovered 2025 PN7 is not Earth’s only quasi-moon. Seven others are known. The quasi-satellites are part of a group of asteroids called the Arjunas, which basically have the same orbit around the Sun that Earth does. More than a hundred Arjunas are known, and sometimes these asteroids can become quasi-moons.

Occasionally, these asteroids become temporarily captured by Earth’s gravity for brief periods during their journeys through the solar system. These objects are called “mini-moons.” The most recent of these was asteroid 2026 QQ8, which was briefly captured by Earth in April 2026 and is expected to leave Earth’s gravitational influence in December 2026.

Erik Gregersen