The second month of Earth will approach the planet next week before leaving into space, never to be seen again.
“What about the second month,” you ask? Astronomers call it 2020 SO – a small object that fell into Earth’s orbit halfway between our planet and the moon in September 2020.
Temporary satellites like these are known as minimoons, although its moon designation is a bit misleading in this case; In December 2020, NASA researchers learned that the object was not a space rock at all, but rather the remains of a 1960s booster rocket involved in the American Surveyor’s monthly missions.
This non-monthly minimoon made the closest approach to Earth on December 1 (the day before NASA identified it as a long-lost booster), but is returning for another round of victory, according to EarthSky.org.
Minimoon 2020 SO will make a final approach close to Earth on Tuesday (February 2), about 220,000 kilometers from Earth, or 58% of the distance between Earth and the moon.
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The reporter will then move away, leaving the Earth’s orbit completely until March 2021, according to EarthSky. After that, the former minimoon will be just another object orbiting the sun. The project of the Virtual Telescope in Rome will host the object online on the night of February 1.
NASA has learned that the object has taken several close approaches to Earth over the decades, even approaching relatively in 1966 – the year the agency launched its monthly Surveyor 2 spacecraft on the back of a Centaur rocket.
This gave scientists their first big indication that SO 2020 was man-made; they confirmed it after comparing the chemical makeup of the object with that of another rocket, which has been in orbit since 1971.
Godspeed, minimum 2020 SO. I built you. I abandoned you. And now, you abandon us.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.