Published 19:08 IST, December 16th 2020
NASA Old space Junk from 1966 moon mission just passed by Earth
Scientists discovered the space Junk of nasaSurveyor 2 rocket as it passed by the earth on December 1, 2020, and caused some confusion among the scientists.
- Science News
- 3 min read
A space junk from the failed NASA moon mission in 1966 entered the Earth's atmosphere again. This unknown object, which was initially assumed to be an asteroid offered some interesting facts like the blind zones left untouched by surveillance telescopes and the growing number of space junks in our solar system.
Space Junk from failed NASA moon mission 1996 enters Earth
This space junk object was thought to be a natural space item like an asteroid. Marco Mitchell, an astronomy expert, working at the European Space Agency said in an official statement on 1st December 2020 that the team of researchers thought initially that this was an asteroid. But, the group continued to monitor the unknown object for weeks. They named it 2020 SO and followed it to study in detail. They finally realized that this space item is an artificial object. According to space.com, they added that the thing was changing its orbit fast, which is not possible for a natural item or an asteroid. This is because it was very light and asteroids are not that much lightweight. Since the solar wind was able to disrupt the orbit of this unidentified object, it was indeed artificial.
The team of scientists from NASA tried to find the artificial object by checking all the available data. They were finally able to find the nature of this unknown object. The unidentified object was a missing part of the NASA Surveyor 2 Lander which failed due to technical issues. It never landed on the moon as planned in 1966. Instead, it went out to orbiting the sun and gradually became a lost in space object from Earth.
Why did it re-enter the earth's atmosphere?
But, what baffled the statists was why it appeared near the Earth again. A theory says that it was somehow affected by the gravitational force from the planet and started to orbit our planet. Hence, it was also rediscovered after so many years. But, the scientist concludes that it will soon leave its present orbit, will fly away, and continue to travel in our solar system.
Tim Flohrer, who is the head of the ESA space Debris section, made an official statement. There he said that the space junk was in a separate Zone. It was probably hiding between the Near-Earth object and the Space debris range and was undetected for a long time.
This discovery offered some interesting points. It proves that somehow the Earth's satellites still have a bind Zone that is not checked regularly. But, it is not clear how this rocket reached this place after it could not land on the moon. Scientists are still researching, and they need to find when this space junk will again enter the Earth's atmosphere.
Updated 19:08 IST, December 16th 2020