The strange story of Lil' Moon, our tiny second natural satellite

Here's how crazy 2020 is: It's May and the fact that we had a small moon circle the Earth and then depart isn't the wackiest story of the year.

You read that correctly: A second moon orbited the Earth, then left. Now its just a footnote, because of a worldwide pandemic.

A second moon? Yes.

Astronomers announced the presence of a miniature moon (which we'll call Lil' Moon) in February, informing us that Lil' Moon (also called 2020 CD3) had circled the Earth for at least a year before they discovered it.

Lil' Moon was there for a long time before anyone noticed, like that extra kid in the family down the street.

It was a miniature moon by any standard: Lil' Moon was described as "about the size of a compact car," which is a significant contrast to the regular moon, which is the size of a stretch limousine or a minivan (I didn't check that, but I think  I'm right).

Earth had a new next-door neighbor, a miniature version of what was historically described as our only natural satellite. We suddenly had two natural satellites.

It should have been cause for celebration. The number of moons orbiting us was up 100 percent!

Then came the bad news.

In early March, the moon left us to instead circle around the sun, leaving Earth to feel like Richard Burton when Liz Taylor left him for John Warner (a 45-year-old pop-culture reference!).

Scientists say Lil' Moon was was drawn by the superior gravity of the sun (to be fair, the sun has more gravity, but the weather there is way too hot).

We barely knew Lil' Moon. It made a living circling the Earth for more than a year, but as soon as we discovered it, it left. Kind of like Jim Croce's music career (another 45-year-old pop-culture reference!).

An article in The Atlantic explains the whole phenomenon, including why Lil' Moon didn't stick around: While our regular moon has a predictable orbit, Lil' Moon was unstable, conducting a rotation like a little kid learning how to ride a bike – veering from one side to the other and wobbling. It finally wandered off to orbit the sun.

This isn't the first time this happened. Nearly 20 years ago, a discarded rocket booster from Apollo 12 (which was launched more than 30 years earlier) looped the earth several times. Presumably there have been other rocks that have done likewise, since the Earth has a good gravitational pull and there are many, many rocks floating in space.

But Lil' Moon was different, partly because we don't know what it is.

Is it a chunk that broke away from our moon?

Is it a random space rock?

Is it cheese?

Here's the one thing we know: It left us and headed for the sun.

Bill Gray, an astronomy-software developer who was the key source for article in The Atlantic, said Lil' Moon left our orbit around March 7. Within 10 days, most of the U.S. was on lockdown and we had forgotten our former satellite – if we ever knew it was there.

Lil' Moon is gone, but not forgotten – at least by me.  Even if it's now circling the sun, I'd like to take the opportunity to say something I should have said nearly two months ago.

Goodnight, Lil' Moon.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.