Earth’s next mini-moon could be space junk from the 1960s

Earth is about to receive a temporary mini-moon – and this could be a space junk. Researchers are looking for an object object that looks like it will be captured by Earth’s gravity this winter for just a few months, before safely returning to the solar system. It may be a standard asteroid, but some astronomers say the path of the mysterious object suggests it may be part of a 1960s-era rocket.

“I’m very keen on this,” said Paul L. Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Neer Earth ject budget studies. Associated Press. Fourteen is one of the world’s leading experts on asteroids and has been waiting for decades to return to space debris, he said. A.P.

The first budget was identified by researchers in Hawaii last month. They named it 2020 SO and designated it as the closest asteroid to Earth.

But for typical asteroids the budget is a bit strange. It is moving relatively slowly, it is in the same plane as the Earth, and it has got an almost circular orbit around the Sun like the Earth. All of those characteristics are “red flags”, according to Chodas, indicating that the project once started from Earth.

“It’s definitely the type of orbit that a rocket stage separates from a lunar mission, once it passes through the moon and escapes into the orbit of the sun. It is unlikely that asteroids could evolve in orbit in this way, but it is not impossible, “Chodas said. CNN In September.

Object objects are about 26 feet long, about the size of the upper stage of a centaur rocket. In addition, its passage through the solar system makes it a good match for the rocket booster that helped launch NASA’s Surveyor 2 mission in 1966. The mission itself was a failure. After a successful start, a thruster causing a defect in the spacecraft, sending it to the moon for care.

NASA

The booster that launched the impure spacecraft kept going to the moon, and into the solar system. Researchers will be able to determine if the 2020 SO is a booster, and once space is not rock, the object budget comes a little closer. Boosters like these are made of relatively lightweight metal – they will not move in space like gaense rocks.

Whatever the budget, it is expected to remain in Earth orbit for a few months this winter before continuing. Only a few of these temporarily captured (or (informally, mini-moons)) have been observed, one hanging around 2006-2008, and the other about a year before departure in March 2020. Was ignored until.