In addition to supporting NASA’s various planetary missions, NASA’s Infrared Telescope facility at Maunkea on Hawaii’s Big Island is also used to determine the composition of objects close to Earth. Credit: University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy / Michael Connelly
Astronomers discovered asteroids near Earth in September, and the object gained interest in the planetary science community due to its unusual size and orbit.
Using the data collected on NASAThe Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and Orbit Analysis Center at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been carried out by the Center for Near-Earth Ject Project Studies (CNEOS). Era Centaur Rocket Booster.
Discovered in September by astronomers who discovered the Earth’s asteroid from the Pan-StarRS1 Survey Telescope, funded by NASA on Maui.
Further analysis of the 2020 SO’s orbit revealed that the project had come close to Earth a few times in several decades, an approach in 1966 bringing it close enough to the possibility that it originated from Earth. Comparing these data with the history of previous NASA missions, CNOS director Paul Chodas concluded that the 2020 SO could be NASA’s offense from the 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the lunar centurion upper stage rocket booster.
This animation shows the temporary orbit of the 2020 SO around the Earth from November to March 2021. The Surveyor 2 mission is believed to be the Centaur Upper-Stage Booster Rocket, which landed on the Moon in 1966. When Surveyor 2 Lender crashed. The lunar surface, the spent centurion rocket flowed towards the moon and ended up in an unknown solar orbit. More than a year later, the Centaur rocket has apparently returned, entering Earth orbit on Nov. 10 where it will remain until March 2021 before returning to the new solar orbit. This animation is a million times faster than real-time. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Equipped with this knowledge, a team led by Vigyan Reddy, an associate professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and a planetary scientist, conducted a follow-up spectroscopy of the 2020 SO using NASA’s IRTF on Maunkea, Hawaii.
“Due to the extreme dizziness of the object following the CNEOS forecast, it was a challenging object to bring,” Reddy said. “We found color observations with a large binocular telescope or LBT, indicating that 2020 SO was not a planet.”
This photograph shows a model of Surveyor Lender. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Through a series of follow-up observations, Reddy and his team analyzed the design of the 2020 SO using NASA’s IRTF and compared the spectrum data of the 2020 SO with 301 stainless steel, material St. Rocket and Rocket Booster built in the 1960s. Although not a perfect match immediately, Reddy and his team continued, experiencing discrepancies in spectrum data could be the result of analyzing fresh steel in a lab against steel that would have been exposed to harsh weather conditions for space for years. Following which, Reddy and his team conducted some additional investigations.
“We knew that if we wanted to compare apples with apples, we needed to get spectral data from many Centaur rocket boosters that had been in Earth orbit for many years then it would be good to see if they would better match the 2020 SO spectrum. eating.” Reddy. “Because of the speed at which Earth-rotation centaur boosters move in the sky, we knew it would be very difficult to keep a long lock with the IRTF to get solid and reliable data sets.”
This 1964 photograph shows the Centurion’s upper-stage rocket before mating the Atlas Booster. The same centaur was used two years after the start of Surveyor 2. Credit: NASA
However, on the morning of December 1, Reddy and his team pulled what seemed impossible to them. They observed the second Centaur de Rocket Booster since the launch of the Communication Satellite in 1971’s Geostationary Transfer Orbit, which is too long to get good spectrum. With these new data, Reddy and his team compared it to the 2020 SO and found that the Spectra is compatible with each other, so the 2020 SO definitely concludes that it is also a Centaur rocket booster.
“This conclusion was the result of the tremendous efforts of the team,” Reddy said.
2020 S.O. It made its closest approach to Earth on December 1, 2020, and will be dominated by the Earth’s gravity, an area known as the “Hill Sphere”, which extends approximately 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from our planet – until it exits. Back in March 2021 it entered a new orbit around the Sun. Telescopes funded by NASA survey the skies for asteroids that could pose a hazardous threat to Earth, nations have continued to research, and the ability to distinguish between natural and artificial objects is valuable as they are more artificial. Objects find themselves in the orbit of the sun. Astronomers will continue to observe these special fossils from the early space age.
