NEO confirmed as 1960s booster rocket

SCIENTISTS have confirmed suspicions that a strange near-Earth object (NEO) dubbed 2020 SO is in fact a Centaur booster rocket from the 1960s.

The object, discovered in September by astronomers searching for near-Earth asteroids, piqued the interest of the scientific community due to its unusual size and orbit, and there was speculation about what it could be.

Using data collected in From NASA Installation of the Infrared Telescope (IRTF) and orbit analysis of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists have now been able to confirm that it is a man-made object, most likely the Centaur upper stage booster rocket from NASA’s ill-fated 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the Moon.

Studies revealed that the object has come close to Earth several times over decades, with a focus in 1966 bringing it close enough to suggest that it may have originated on Earth. Comparing this data with NASA’s previous mission history, Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS, concluded that 2020 SO could be the rocket.

Equipped with this knowledge, a team led by Vishnu Reddy, associate professor and planetary scientist at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, conducted follow-up spectroscopy observations of 2020 SO using NASA’s IRTF in Maunakea, Hawaii, which initially confirmed that it was not an asteroid, and they have finally identified the object as a rocket booster from the 1960s.

The 2020 SW came closest to Earth on December 1, 2020 and will remain within the sphere of Earth’s gravitational domain, a region in space called the “Hill Sphere” that extends to approximately 1.5 million kilometers from our planet, until it returns to a new orbit around it. the Sun in March 2021.

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