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There is a mysterious object rushing towards Earth right now that will pass in front of us early Tuesday morning, and in perfect 2020 fashion … no one is sure what it is.
The unknown space mass has been dubbed “2020 SW” and is expected to fly over our planet at an extremely close, but safe distance of 31,605 miles at 3:50 am ET on December 1.
The object was discovered by the Pan-STARRS investigation in Hawaii in September, and initially thought to be an asteroid measuring around 15 to 33 feet in diameter.
However, scientists at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) quickly began to postulate that it was not an asteroid at all or even a “natural body.”
Instead, the director of CNEOS Paul Chodas said he believed the object was the Centaur rocket thruster from NASA’s failed Surveyor 2 lunar mission … which was launched on September 20, 1966.
Chodas used a bunch of computer science and math to track the 2020 SW orbit backwards to come to the conclusion … that it was probably launched from Earth.
Of course, scientists will be able to take a closer look at the object as it approaches to determine exactly what it is … and hopefully that’s more exciting than a piece of space debris.
Not likely, however.
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