Earth has been capturing a new satellite for at least a few months

Earth has captured something interesting in its gravity that will orbit our planet for a few months before escaping and eventually ending up in solar orbit. The object he captured is not an asteroid. It is believed to be the upper-stage Centaur rocket that helped propel Surveyor 2 to the moon in 1966. The object was first detected by the Pan-STARRS1 sensing telescope in Maui in September.

The telescope noted that the object followed a slightly but distinctly curved path in the sky, which was a sign of its proximity to earth. The observed curvature is due to the observer’s rotation around the Earth’s axis as the planet rotates. Initially, the object was believed to be an asteroid orbiting the sun and was given a standard designation by the 2020 SO Minor Planet Center.

Scientists from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory observed the object’s orbit and believed it was not a typical asteroid. Typically, an asteroid’s orbit is more elongated and inclined than Earth’s orbit. However, the 2020 SW orbit around the sun was very similar to that of the Earth at roughly the same distance, almost circular and in an orbital plane that almost exactly matched our planet.

It was very unusual for an asteroid. Further observations revealed that solar radiation was changing the orbit of 2020 SO, which is not the case with an asteroid. After analyzing over 170 detailed measurements of the object’s position over the past three months, the impact of the solar radiation pressure became evident and confirmed the low-density nature of 2020 SO.

The researchers then decided to determine where the suspected rocket booster came from. Surveyor 2 was a lunar lander launched to the moon on September 20, 1966, atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket. The mission’s goal was to investigate the lunar surface prior to the Apollo mission that brought humans to the moon in 1969. However, control of the Surveyor 2 spacecraft was lost shortly after it separated from the Centaur upper stage booster.

Eventually the spacecraft crashed into the moon as the Centaur upper stage rocket flew past the moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit around the sun. Ultimately, 2020 SO is expected to remain in Earth orbit for about four months, with the closest approach slated for December 1 before being released into orbit around the sun once again.