The last visitor to Earth is about to leave us forever – BGR

• At the end of 2020, Earth received a new visitor in the form of what was originally thought to be natural space debris, such as a small asteroid.
• The object turned out to be a discarded rocket stage that was launched half a century ago and has just returned and been sucked in by Earth’s gravitational pull.
• Now, as it completes its final loop of our planet, the object will soon throw itself into space and likely not return to our planet.

You might have missed the news last year – you know, because of the global pandemic and so on – but a mysterious object was intercepted by Earth in November. When astronomers first saw it heading towards us, they thought it was some sort of space rock, and although it was not on a collision course with our planet, it was meant to orbit the Earth for at least a little while.

It turned out that the object was not a rock or a space comet, but a piece of man-made debris. The object, a rocket thruster launched more than half a century ago, was part of the Surveyor 2 mission to the moon, and debris has been lying around our planet ever since. Now, with one more round of our world to complete, the “mini-moon” will soon be headed into space, and we are unlikely to find it again.

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As EarthSky reports, the rocket first flew very close to Earth before moving away from our planet to be attracted again. This last loop will be the last, as it will have enough momentum to escape Earth’s gravity and embark on an adventure in orbit around the Sun.

The concept of a “mini-moon” isn’t exactly science fiction, and as we know a lot of small rocky bodies lying around our necks of the woods, it seemed entirely possible that the object was indeed a space rock. If it had, it would have been a true miniature (and temporary) moon, but the fact that it’s all man-made waste means she doesn’t qualify for such a label.

Astronomers were initially wary of the object’s being man-made when they realized that its path around the Sun seemed very similar to that of Earth. It completed one orbit every 387 Earth days, which is virtually identical to our planet’s orbit, and its incredibly slow speed suggested it was not an asteroid. Now that we know what it really is, all of these clues make a lot more sense.

Soon, however, it will be gone. The object is likely to pass the Earth one last time in early February and leave us for good. Now everyone is saying goodbye.

Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in virtual reality, wearable devices, smartphones and future technologies. Most recently, Mike served as a technical writer for The Daily Dot and has been featured on USA Today, Time.com, and countless other websites and print. His love of reporting comes right after his gambling addiction.