Or Fake Moon
by Bob Walsh
What
a bummer. It was thought for a while recently that the Earth might be
getting a new neighbor, a new mini-moon by way of an asteroid that
looked like it was likely to be 'captured" by the earth's gravity and go
into orbit next month.
The
"asteroid", known as 2020 SO at the moment, may in fact be an old
Centaur upper stage rocket from the Surveyor 2 moon lander from 1966.
The mission was a failure, one of the landers thrusters failed and the
rover crashed into the moons surface like an unlicensed illegal alien
driver, driving drunk on Friday night.
The
old booster is about 32 feet long and ten feet in diameter. That is
the apparent size of the object coming out way according to the
Astronomical Union Minor Planet Center, which tracks such things.
We will know for sure in a couple of weeks.
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