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Will Earth discover the second mini-moon in 2020? Unlikely to be.
NASA
There’s a huge moon coming over your head, and you can think of it as “this is enough moon.” However, sometimes the Earth becomes greedy and begins to attract small asteroids to stay in orbit longer. Short visits to this “mini moon” are very rare and only 2 have been confirmed so far. The most recent release is the Little Rock CD3 on February 15th, 2020. Discovered by astronomers From the Catalina Sky Survey sponsored by NASA Glorious mini moon As early as 2015, it trapped Earth’s gravity, stayed with us until May 2020, and then jumped back into space.
However, in the unprecedented year of 2020, astronomers announced they had discovered another potential mini-moon, 2020 SO.
Except it doesn’t act like a small asteroid at all. Our mini moon is not the moon. It moves too slowly to become a rock emitted from the body of the universe. So, astronomers think it’s probably just space junk left behind at the beginning of the space race.
Current theory says that the 2020 SO is the rocket body of the Atlas Centaur-D rocket, originally launched in 1966. The rocket was launched on September 20th, carrying the Surveyor 2 lunar lander to the moon. Size and orbit SO in 2020, Published by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, It seems to be neatly aligned with the Centaur body.
This object will be caught by Earth’s gravity in October and will reach its closest approach on December 1st, reaching within about 31,000 miles. Astronomers need to be able to see objects in detail by evaluating the shape of the object and the kind of light it emits.
If it’s the Centaur stage-if it’s trash-it’s still interesting trash. It has been wandering the solar system for over 50 years. We will be able to learn a little about the effects of the universe on old rocket bodies. And while that will not cause any problems for Earthlings, as far as we can tell, it plays a timely role. Reminders of the space debris problem.
Since the first launch of rockets and satellites into orbit, we have been polluting the space around the Earth. Not everything that goes up comes down immediately. Thousands of space debris, disappeared satellites, and tiny chunks of garbage are circling the Earth at high speed. Collisions with debris can be fatal and can puncture a rocket or satellite. More launches means more junk, and more junk poses a much greater risk to our appetite for space flight, satellites and space occupancy.
You don’t even have to look back for more than 24 hours to see potential problems with space junk. On Tuesday, The International Space Station had to “burn manipulators”. Prevents unknown pieces of space junk from approaching you.
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