NASA says the mysterious 'Mini-Moon' is actually a 1960s rocket booster

This 1964 image depicts a Centaur Upper Stage rocket. Space Object 2020 SO is one of them.

NASA

Welcome back, Surveyor 2 Center Rocket Booster. We’ve just found a new chapter in a bittersweet space saga that includes a firefighting start, a doomed lunar mission and decades of space wandering.

A rocket booster used by NASA to launch Surveyor 2 Lunar Lander in 1966 has returned to us for a temporary spin as a mini-moon in a bit of orbit around the Earth. When scientists spotted it in September, they named it 2020 SO. On Wednesday, NASA made a strange announcement The object is positively identified as a ’60’s booster.

While Booster did his work as a fan back in 1966, the lander could not avoid a crash landing on the lunar surface.

The special cycle of the booster is around the sun He told astronomers that it was not a planet, One of the many space rocks that lost our universe. Zips around. Some fall 1966 tracked the booster back closer to Earth.

Telescopic inspections have now revealed the steel composition of the 2020 SO. This cosmic spy task involved comparing the spectrum data of a secret object with data collected on a secret centaur rocker booster that had been floating around in space since 1971. It was a match.

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Due to the mystery around it and the fact that it is caught in the circle of the earth it gives it a tiny mini-moon. The Virtual Telescope Project 2020 S.O. When it came close to Earth on November 30.

The Centaur Booster will continue to orbit us for a few months, but is expected to continue its space adventures by orbiting the Sun sometime in March 2021. At which point we can all say, “Good night, Center. Good night, Mini-Moon.”