We all know and love our moon. It has been a constant companion of the earth for billions of years, the mainstay of the sky. But he is not our only ally.
Now and then, a few months or years before returning to space – a small object is temporarily trapped in the orbit of our planet.
We call these objects objects minimums, and while we have made a few temporary statements of such temporarily captured asteroids, the 2006 RH120, which visited in 2006 and 2007, and the 2020 CD3, in Earth orbit from 2018 to 2020.
Now astronomers have discovered a new object called 2020 SO, which is likely to be temporarily captured by the Earth’s gravity on its way. The next budget of the projections is to arrive next month, in October 2020 and hang around until May 2021, when it will be shipped elsewhere for the environment.
As you can see in the simulation below, the path of the object object indicates that it will enter and depart from the two luggage points of the earth, the gravitational fixed points created by the earth’s gravitational interaction with the sun.
Asteroids 2020 SO, October 2020 – May be occupied by Earth from 2021. The current trivial ball shows that it is captured by L2, and escapes by L1. Very messy road, so be prepared for a lot of research with new observations coming. renerpho nrco0e https://t.co/h4JaG2rHEd pic.twitter.com/RfUaeLtWq
– Tony Dunn (@ Tony 873004) September 20, 2020
This in itself and that would be pretty significant – but there’s a twist to it. Earth-like orbit and the low speed of 2020 SO indicate that it is not really a planet; According to experts, its characteristics are more consistent with something man-made.
The 2020 SO is classified as an Apollo asteroid in the JPL Small-Body Database – a class of asteroids whose path crosses Earth’s orbit. This class of asteroids often come close to Earth. But there are some indications that 2020 SO is not like others.
The Object object is on an orbit that is only one smudge during a year, and on a very low tendency with respect to the Earth’s orbit; That is, it is not tilted, but it is on the same orbital path. Its depth – the deviation of the shape of its orbit from a perfect circle – is slightly larger than that of the Earth. And its velocity is much less than that of the Apollo asteroid.
“The momentum seems to be a big one,” space archaeologist Alice Gorm of Flinders University in Australia told Science Alert. “What I’m seeing is that it’s moving very slowly, which reflects its initial momentum. It’s essentially a big opportunity.”
Objects that have come from the moon have even less velocity than asteroids; But, Gorman noted, 2020 SO is even slower than lunar rocks.
All of this material potentially points to space junk; In particular, according to JPL’s Paul Chodas, the abandoned centaur phase of the rocket, which began an experimental payload on the moon in September 1966 called Surveyor 2.
Asteroids # 2020SO Launched on September 20, 1966, Surveyor 2 is suspected to be a Centaur rocket booster. Earth-like orbits and low relative velocities indicate possible man-made matter.
– Kevin Heather (@Kefider) September 21, 2020
Reusable rockets are only the latest invention, as ret retrieval is technically extremely difficult. Solutions that have been widely used for decades were designed to differentiate multi-stage rockets. The booster stage falls back to Earth for reuse; The rest of the rocket, while transporting the payload, is released into space after its work is completed.
These phases make up a lot of space. And, according to Gorman, they are surprisingly easy to lose.
“There are a lot of factors in the space environment, such as gravitational factors and other things that affect movement, which can often be unpredictable.”
“You have to keep track of these things, or you can just look at them easily. And if they do something unexpected, and you look the wrong way, you don’t know where it’s gone. It’s very surprising, which is missing. Number of things done. “
The approximate size of the 2020 SO matches the properties of the 1960s centurion stage. According to NASA’s CNEOS database, the 6 object is between 6.4 and 14 meters (21 and 46 feet); The centaur stage measures 12.68 meters (41.6 feet).
Asteroids are detected when moving bright objects in the sky – a point in the dark. From them, we can estimate velocity and orbit, and estimate size, but it is impossible to determine shape or composition without more detailed observations.
2020 S.O. Two swaps are to be made near the earth. On December 1, 2020, it will cover a distance of about 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles). On approximately February 2, 2021, it will fly a distance of 220,000 kilometers.
Both are not close enough to enter Earth’s atmosphere – the object is absolutely no risk. But those distances, especially at slow speeds, may be enough to study it more closely and find out what 2020 SO is.
We will be able to create rough shapes. Spectroscopy can help determine if the object has been painted. And how much light it reflects can also provide information to help plan long-term space missions. If the 2020 SO is that 1966 Centaur stage, it has been out of space for 54 years – a man-made spacecraft, it has been void for all decades.
“It will be interesting to do some reflection spectroscopy, which will show how rough the surfaces are, how bad and crumbling they have become from being bombarded by dust and microscopic meteors,” Gorman said.
“It’s human material that has come out in different parts of space. So, it would be interesting to compare that to the results you get from the orbital material of the Earth, which is a lot higher in material.”
And, of course, whether it’s the rocket stage or not, the properties of the 2020 SO can help us identify other objects closer to Earth in the future. If it is man-made, it means that next time we see a see object with similar properties, we have a little more information to support the origins of anthropology.
If it’s an asteroid, it means we have a really weird rock that shows that asteroids can move – really unexpectedly – like a rocket stage.
So, whatever the 2020 SO, we will have a lot to learn from the mysterious guest coming.
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