An asteroid, which is on track to be pulled into Earth’s orbit, is likely to get stuck in it and become a “mini moon” in November 2020. The space object, dubbed as 2020 SO, will then circle the planet for several months before going back its own way.
However, Nasa asteroid experts believe that the “cosmic object”, which is believed to become a “mini moon” for Earth in November after being nabbed by Earth’s gravity, might actually be just junk from an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission in the 1960s.
After over 50 years, the old rocket is finally making home!
“I’m pretty jazzed about this,” Paul Chodas told The Associated Press. “It’s been a hobby of mine to find one of these and draw such a link, and I’ve been doing it for decades now.”
Paul Chodas speculates that asteroid 2020 SO is actually the Centaur upper rocket stage that successfully propelled Nasa’s Surveyor 2 lander to the moon in 1966 before it was discarded.
The lander had then crashed into the moon after one of its thrusters failed to ignite on the way there. The rocket swept passed the moon and then into the orbit around the sun — unusual for an asteroid. The rocket is now coming back home to circle into Earth’s orbit like a mini moon before going back its track.
The object was first discovered last month in Hawaii. Based on its brightness, the object is estimated to be roughly 26 feet long.
WHAT GAVE THE ‘MINI MOON’ AWAY?
The Nasa experts said that while it was being considered an asteroid that would become a mini moon, circling Earth for several months, there were several features that gave it away.
First, its near-circular orbit around the sun, which is unusual for an asteroid.
The object is also in the same plane as Earth, not tilted above or below, another red flag. Asteroids, on the other hand, are usually zipped by at odd angles.
Another fact that it is approaching Earth at 2,400 kph. Asteroids are faster.
There likely are dozens of fake asteroids out there, but their motions are too imprecise or jumbled to confirm their artificial identity, Chodas was quoted as saying by AP.
“I could be wrong on this. I don’t want to appear overly confident,” Chodas told AP. “But it’s the first time, in my view, that all the pieces fit together with an actual known launch.”