NASA astronomers confirm that the mysterious object orbiting Earth is not an asteroid but a 54-year-old rocket.
According to Channel News Asia, on December 2, astronomers at the US Aerospace Agency’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed that the mysterious object orbiting Earth was not small. This planet is a 54-year-old rocket.
Earlier in September, this object orbiting Earth was classified as an asteroid after it was discovered by scientists. However, NASA’s leading asteroid expert Paul Chodas quickly raised doubts about the object’s identity.
Mr Chodas said the object was the top deck of the Surveyor 2 spacecraft’s Centaur missile. It was the spacecraft that carried out the moon landing mission as part of the US unmanned Surveyor program. However, this mission failed in 1966, from which the Earth lost contact with this ship.
The Chodas’ conclusion was corroborated after a team led by Vishnu Reddy from the University of Arizona used an infrared telescope in Hawaii to observe this object.
Images obtained from the telescope show that the mysterious object orbiting Earth is part of the Centaur rocket.
“This result is a huge effort on the part of the group,” Reddy said. We are finally able to solve this mystery.
This object was officially known as 2020 SO and has entered a large orbit around the Earth since September. On December 1, 2020, the SW approached its closest point in orbit around the Earth, the Earth Road is only 50,000 km away.
Astronomers predict that 2020 SO will leave the surrounding area by March 2021, returning to the main orbit around the sun. This object will return to Earth in 2036.
