Every once in a while, orbit and future gravity conspire to allow the Earth to adopt a miniature. The moon Join us for some steps of our planet’s constant dancing around the sun.
Scientists rarely get to see the process in action, but now they think they’ve found something that will slip into Earth orbit later this year and spend a minimum of about six months. But researchers who are keeping an eye on 20 budgets are looking at 2020 S.O. That being said, there seems to be another special feature in the future minimal: it may not be this Space rock But the rocket booster that started in 1960.
“I suspect that this newly discovered 20 BJ2020 SO is thought to be an old rocket booster because it follows an orbit about the Sun in a single plane, almost circular like the Earth, and the farthest from its distance from the Sun,” in California. Paul Chodas, head of Earth Ject Project Studies near NASA’s Center Four, Told CNN.
Related: Watch the dramatic increase in near-Earth asteroids discovered by NASA (video)
Scientists spotted the first spot August 19 Using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and the Rapid Response System (Pan-Stars) Observatory in Hawaii. Pan-Stars specializes in brief phenomena and the discovery of fast-moving objects, making it one of the most important tools for scientists looking to identify new asteroids.
But as scientists continued to study object objects in September, they began to suspect that there could be no new planets after 2020 SO, thanks to the bizarre orbit described. In particular, object objects move more slowly than asteroids normally do.
He said that the orbit coincides with the rocket stage track of the lunar mission and that in late 1966 it was moving around to predict that it was close to Earth. U.S. And between the Soviet Union, then at the height of the Cold War Space race, 10 missions to the moon that year. Chodas told CNN that he fears the 2020 SO could be a centaur booster for NASA’s Surveyor 2 mission, a lunar lander that launched on Sept. 20 but crashed into the moon three days later.
The identity of the 2020 SO will become clearer next month with more observations as to how scientists view it. The sun affects matter, Chodas said. “We should be able to detect the effect of sunlight pressure on the motion of this object: if it were indeed a rocket body, it would be much less ga ense than the planet and a small amount of pressure due to sunlight would change considerably. Should be able to. “
Technically, confirming that an object object is a vintage rocket booster will eliminate the need to consider it as a minimum: Junk of space Staying close to the earth is not particularly special.
Astronomers last reported a minimum in February, when they called a planet 2020 CD3 And it is determined that he was tagging with the earth for about three years.
Minimoon or space junk, scientists currently suspect that 2020 SO will come into orbit this fall, followed by a closer approach to Earth on December 1 and February 3. According to NASA, Spring before you slip again.
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