Dhaka, Nov. 10 -- A new "lilliputian" mini-moon has been captured by Earth's gravitational pull and is currently orbiting the planet.

The space rock, designated Asteroid 2026 QQ8, fell into Earth's gravity in April and has entered a looping orbit around the planet, reports The Independent.

First detected in August by Hungarian astronomer Kriztian Sarneczky, the discovery was recently published by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.

Measuring approximately two metres in diameter, the asteroid typically orbits the Sun every 359 days and poses no risk of collision with Earth, maintaining a minimum distance of roughly 568,000 kilometres -- around 1.5 times the distance to our Moon.

Astronomers expect the object to ...