NASA rocket may have been confused for an asteroid entering Earth's orbit; Details inside

It was speculated that an asteroid may soon get nabbed by Earth's gravity and get fixated here, becoming a mini-moon. However, the newly discovered flying object is actually appearing to be an older rocket from a failed moon mission dating over 55 years back. Paul Chodas, who is the director of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, was the first one to notice that the almost circular orbit of the claimed 'asteroid' was similar to Earth's which is unusual for a celestial body like the asteroids.  

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NASA director busts asteroid myth

Chodas spoke to The Associated Press saying that it has been a hobby for him to draw such a fascinating link and has been doing the same since decades. The formerly known asteroid was titled 2020 SO, however, as of now, Chodas speculates that it is actually the Centaur upper rocket stage which had propeller NASA's Surveyor 2 back in 1966 before getting discarded in the abyss of deep space. The lander back in 1966 had crashed on the moon when its thrusters did not ignite ut the rocket had made its way past the moon, joining Sun's orbit to become space junk, only to be seen decades later making a return journey to Earth's orbit, according to Paul Chodas.

Image courtesy - SpaceX on Unsplash

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The object has been deemed to be around 26 feet and 10 feet in diameter. One of the key reasons which gave away it actually being a rocket is that its almost circular orbit was similar to Earth's around the sun. Whereas, the object was also witnessed being in the same plane as the blue planet, which is unusual for an asteroid. The last hint at determining that the object is not really an asteroid was its speed approaching the Earth which is around 2,400 KMPH, being substantially slower than asteroids, according to Paul Chodas. As of now, it is not sure whether the object is actually the same rocket or even a rocket. As the object gets closer to Earth, explorers will be able to better determination of what the object actually is. As of now, even Chodas has agreed that he could be wrong on this time and that he does not want to sound overconfident. 

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