Just about everyone can agree, Earth is not the place to be in 2020. However, scientists recently discovered that the moon, Earth’s only natural satellite, is not having a great year either.

As the moon is under constant pressure and stress, the surface is constantly shifting making it nearly impossible to map. New areas of the moon are always being exposed and covered up. A new area of the moon that has never been seen by humans was discovered on September 28th at 6:51 p.m. A seismic event that took place on the moon uncovered a crack that seems to be expanding at a linear pace, (linear meaning a constant rate). This crack was recently uncovered by an earthquake with a projected magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale. To put that into perspective, on September 27th, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale hit Japan leaving the Japanese with a tsunami warning, and 143,000 citizens dead.

The India Times said; “Future colonizers of the moon will have to seriously attend the issue of seismic activity on its surface. It is also possible that in this case, it will be necessary to build a settlement directly inside the satellite.”

This devastating news about the moon might leave some hopeless, but there may be hope. The Haleakala Observatory discovered a so-called “Mini-Moon” that will act as Earth’s second moon for the months of October, 2020-May 2021.

“This moon may never be visible with the naked eye,” said scientists of the Haleakala Observatory, however they predict it will be visible with a telescope and a 14-inch telescope lens.

The observatory made complex projections that the new moon will be closest to Earth on the days of December 1st, and an un-trackable day in February. Not only is the so-called “Mini-Moon” extremely rare, this one seems to be human-made. This mini-moon is scientifically referred to as an asteroid, but appearing to not have natural origins, it may not fall into this category.

The moon’s proximity already takes a toll on the tides of our oceans here on Earth, and now this new moon is close enough to also greatly influence Earth’s atmosphere and gravitational pulls. Who knows what will happen in the near future.