Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket
India TV NewsThe jig may be up for an “asteroid” that’s expected to get nabbed by Earth’s gravity and become a mini moon next month. “It’s been a hobby of mine to find one of these and draw such a link, and I’ve been doing it for decades now.” Chodas speculates that asteroid 2020 SO, as it is formally known, is actually the Centaur upper rocket stage that successfully propelled NASA’s Surveyor 2 lander to the moon in 1966 before it was discarded. “Flag number one,” said Chodas, who is director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. A mystery object in 1991, for example, was determined by Chodas and others to be a regular asteroid rather than debris, even though its orbit around the sun resembled Earth’s. Asteroid hunter Carrie Nugent of Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, said Chodas’ conclusion is “a good one” based on solid evidence.
History of this topic
NASA: Mystery object is 54-year-old rocket, not asteroid
India TV News
Fake Asteroid? Mystery Object Seen by NASA is a Piece of Rocket From an Old Failed Moon Mission
News 18
Earth to get a mini-moon in November: NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket
Firstpost
Extraterrestrial object coming home? ‘Asteroid’ nearing Earth may be old NASA rocket
LA Times
New ‘asteroid’ identified last month is now believed to be junk from failed moon landing
The Independent
Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket
India TV News
A new mini-moon about to join Earth’s orbit. It could be a booster rocket from the 60s
CNN
‘Mystery object’ in orbit around Earth shown in new images
The IndependentDiscover Related