[ad_1]
The mystery is finally over – the space object captured by Earth’s orbit is indeed a rocket thruster from the 1960s, confirmed NASA.
On Wednesday, the government space agency said the object known as “2020 SO” was not an asteroid, but rather part of a Centaur rocket booster from the Surveyor 2 spacecraft, which was launched. towards the moon in 1966.
“Due to the extreme weakness of this object after [Center for Near-Earth Object Studies] prediction it was a difficult object to characterize, ”Vishnu Reddy, associate professor and planetary specialist at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said in a statement. “We got color observations with the Large Binocular Telescope or LBT which suggested that 2020 SO was not an asteroid.”
This 1964 photograph shows a Centaur top stage rocket before it was mated to an Atlas booster. A similar Centaur was used at the launch of “Surveyor 2” two years later. Credit: NASA
MYSTERIOUS ITEM THAT COULD BE THE 1960s ROCKET BOOST WILL FLY TO EARTH’S PAST TODAY: HOW TO SEE IT
“This conclusion is the result of a tremendous team effort,” added Reddy. “We were finally able to solve this mystery thanks to the tremendous work of Pan-STARRS, Paul Chodas and the CNEOS team, LBT, [Infrared Telescope Facility], and sightings around the world. “
On Tuesday, the rocket thruster most closely brushed Earth, less than 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) from the planet, according to Virtual Telescope Project founder Gianluca Masi.
NASA has released a video of the 2020 SW looping orbits around Earth.
Unfortunately, the Surveyor 2 never completed its journey, crashing into the lunar surface on September 23, 1966. However, the Centaur thruster “sailed beyond the Moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit around the Sun” , NASA said previously.
The rocket thruster was initially discovered by the Pan-STARRS investigation on September 17, 2020 and announced two days later.
2020 SO initially “slowly drifted” into Earth’s Hill sphere on November 8, 2020, and will stay there for about four months before returning to orbit around the Sun in March 2021.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
[ad_2]
Source link