2hats
Dust.
Say both hello and goodbye to Earth's brief lived 'second moon'.
Not unsurprisingly (based on the trajectory dynamics and characteristics) 2020SO turns out to be a discarded upper stage. In this case a Centaur-D from the 1966 Surveyor 2 mission. Such stages, co-orbiting with the Earth, are not infrequently perturbed out of their heliocentric orbits (here most likely by solar radiation pressure) to briefly dance with the Earth-Moon system before being kicked back out into the inner solar system (note the final close lunar encounter) to co-orbit once more.
earthsky.org
Not unsurprisingly (based on the trajectory dynamics and characteristics) 2020SO turns out to be a discarded upper stage. In this case a Centaur-D from the 1966 Surveyor 2 mission. Such stages, co-orbiting with the Earth, are not infrequently perturbed out of their heliocentric orbits (here most likely by solar radiation pressure) to briefly dance with the Earth-Moon system before being kicked back out into the inner solar system (note the final close lunar encounter) to co-orbit once more.
| EarthSky
In November, a new mini-moon began orbiting Earth. NASA later confirmed it's a lost-and-found 60s-era rocket from the Surveyor 2 moon mission, launched more than 50 years ago. Now the object - SO 2020 - is coming close again for one last time. Here's how to see it!
earthsky.org
Last edited:
