Minimoon space junk, few measures of our planet's constant dance around the sun

 Minimoon space junk, few measures of our planet's constant dance around the sun.

Every once in a while, orbital trajectories and fate's gravity conspire to let Earth briefly adopt a miniature moon to join us for a few measures of our planet's constant dance around the sun.

Scientists rarely get to watch the process in action, but now they think they've spotted something that will slip into Earth's orbit later this year and spend about six months as a minimoon. But researchers who have been eyeing the object, dubbed 2020 SO, think there's another special trait to the future minimoon: It may not be a space rock but a rocket booster that launched in the 1960s.

"I suspect this newly discovered object 2020 SO to be an old rocket booster because it is following an orbit about the sun that is extremely similar to Earth's, nearly circular, in the same plane, and only slightly farther away the sun at its farthest point," Paul Chodas, head of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies in California, told CNN.

Scientists first spotted the object on Aug. 19 using the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) observatory in Hawaii. Pan-STARRS specializes in spotting brief phenomena and fast-moving objects, making it one of the vital tools of scientists looking to identify new asteroids.

But as scientists continued to study the object into September, they began to suspect that 2020 SO may not be a new asteroid after all, thanks to that strange orbit Chodas described. In particular, the object is moving much more slowly than an asteroid typically does.

He said the orbit matches the track of a lunar mission's rocket stage and ran the object's trajectory back to estimate that it was near Earth in late 1966. Between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, then at the height of the Cold War space race, 10 missions headed toward the moon that year. Chodas told CNN he suspects 2020 SO may be a Centaur booster from NASA's Surveyor 2 mission, a lunar lander that launched on Sept. 20 but crashed into the moon three days later.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tyler Technologies ransomware, but insisted customers were safe

 Tyler Technologies ransomware,  but insisted customers were safe. Tyler Technologies has copped to the ransomware attack that still has the company’s phone lines and website off line. In an update to its online statement, Plano, Texas-based Tyler confirmed that early Sept. 23 it was hit with ransomware. It did not specify which variant was used against its network. The company -- No. 46 on the 2019 CRN Solution Provider 500 -- is sticking by its claims that the only portion of its system that was attacked was the internal network used by Tyler Technologies employees, as well as the telephone systems. Tyler said addressing this with clients is the company’s “highest priority.” “We are deploying every resource at our disposal, both internal and external, to take whatever steps are needed to return to business as usual,” the company said. “We are committed to doing that in a responsible, deliberate way, and we are laser-focused on those efforts.” Tyler said it has been in contac...
Read more

Spain choir practice COVID-19, infects 30 of 41 members with virus

 Spain choir practice COVID-19, infects 30 of 41 members with virus. At least 30 of 41 members of a gospel choir in northeastern Spain have contracted coronavirus following a rehearsal indoors with little air circulation, local authorities and the chorus say. The River Troupe Gospel, a volunteer gospel group, rehearsed on Sept. 11 ahead of an open-air performance two days later for a local festival in Sallent, a town in the province of Barcelona. It was their first public show since the beginning of the pandemic. After one member of the chorus tested positive following the Sept. 13 performance, more than 40 other members and their close contacts went into isolation, the chorus said. Since then, at least 30 singers have tested positive, the Sallent municipal government said. Although the chorus claims that it complied with most health safety measures -- temperature checks on arrival, hand washing, social distancing between each member and masks on for most of the rehearsal -- the ve...
Read more

Chuck E. Cheese animated show, Jumping to Movies and Cartoons

Image
 Chuck E. Cheese animated show, Jumping to Movies and Cartoons. For over forty years, the  Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza parlors  have entertained rowdy and hungry kids all over America. The combination of pizza, ice cream, video games, and singing animatronics in a kid-centric restaurant chain was a genius mash-up. And it was the brainchild of  Atari co-founder  Nolan Bushnell. Although good ol’ Chuck isn’t quite  as ubiquitous a rodent  as Mickey Mouse, we’d wager most American kids are very familiar with him. Now, they may be about to become even more familiar, as Chuck E. Cheese is getting ready to star in both live-action movies and animated TV shows. Chuck E. Cheese In an interview with  Business Insider , Chuck E. Cheese CEO David McKillips said that his company has just launched its own entertainment division. The goal of this new segment of the company is to get their brand mascot—whose full legal name is Charles Entertainment Cheese, by t...
Read more