A mysterious object is heading towards us , and although it does not pose a threat to Earth, it will probably be trapped in our orbit and will become a new mini moon , like the one we had until a few months ago (the previous two have been 2006 RH120, which visited Earth in 2006 and 2007, and 2020 CD3, in Earth orbit from 2018 to 2020).
The object, named 2020 SO, would be the third confirmed mini-moon. Like the other two, 2020 SO is initially classified as an asteroid, but there is sufficient evidence that it could be a long-lost chunk of human-made space junk that would eventually re-enter our orbit. A NASA scientist has speculated that it could be a discarded part of the Surveyor 2 Centaur rocket that launched in 1966.
This mini moon is ready to be trapped in the gravity of our planet from October and will remain until May 2021, according to astronomers.
The object’s trajectory suggests that it will enter and exit through two of Earth’s Lagrange points, gravitationally stable points created by Earth’s gravitational interaction with the Sun.
The database from NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies shows that the object is between 3.6 and 14 meters long, which also matches the properties of a 1966 Centaur stage measuring 12.68 meters. Also, the object is moving too slow, much less than even an Apollo asteroid.
“The low speed of encounter with the Earth (0.6 km / s is even low for the lunar ejection, so it is unlikely that it is a natural body ,” wrote the NASA experts.
If it is an asteroid, it means that we have a really strange rock in our hands that shows that asteroids can also move in unusual ways.
