NASA expert suspects 'mini-moon' about to enter Earth's orbit is old space junk from 1960s

A ‘mini-moon’ that according to NASA will soon enter Earth’s orbit might t necessarily be an asteroid but a part of old junk. While talking to CNN about tiny object named Asteroid 2020 SO, director of NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, Dr Paul Chodas said that it is his belief that it might be an old booster rocket way back from 1960s.

so-called ‘mini-moon’ is currently on track to come as close as 27,000 miles away into Earth’s orbit. ting that it is only his ‘suspicion’, Chodas said that Asteroid 2020 SO is following an orbit about Sun which is “extremely similar” to that of Earth. 

Talking furr about orbit that asteroid is following, he told media outlet that it is precisely same kind that a rocket st which was separated from a lunar mission would embark upon after passing by Earth’s natural satellite and escaping into orbit about Sun. Chodas even said that it is “unlikely” for an asteroid to evolve into such orbit but added that it is t “impossible”. 

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Tracing asteroid’s movement backward

According to report, he traced movements of asteroid backward in a bid to find its link with any kwn lunar mission from past. By doing so, he found that it was likely in ‘vicinity of Earth back in late 1966’. Correlating ‘mini-moon’ with launch of Surveyor 2 on September 20, 1966, Chodas informed that mission, that turned out to be a failure as craft crashed, was designated to make a soft landing on Moon. He has suspected that rocket which was used to boost craft was t seen after it passed by Moon and entered ar orbit ‘until w’. 

Meanwhile, NASA on September 21 revealed an overview of its $28 million mission for 2024 including $16 million for a lunar landing module. plan which has been set up by United States President Donald Trump will need major financing as massive amount of $28 billion would cover budgetary years of 2021-25. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine, during a phone briefing, said that NASA has all prerequisites to make sure that y meet president's ambitious goal of landing first woman on moon by end of 2024.

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