Ironically, it could turn out to be a spent rocket booster that was supposed to visit our one, true Moon back in 1966, but instead got lost in space and is now making an unexpected return visit to Earth.
Here's everything you need to know about 2020 SO, what's going to happen to it, and how scientists will endeavour to find out exactly what it really is.
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2020 SO is orbiting the Sun. In fact, its orbit of the Sun is on the exact same plane as Earth's. It orbits the Sun in 387 days. That's all very rare for an asteroid. So too is its velocity, which is reckoned to be a pedestrian 1,500 mph/2,414 kmh.
This may worth something:
Lauren Fensterstock's Dazzling Comet Orbits Into The Smithsonian American Art Museum
Lauren Fensterstock 'The totality of time lusters the dusk' (detail) (2020) glass, Swarovski ... [+] crystal, quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite, paper, Plexiglas, wood, cement, lath, and mixed media, dimensions variable
Swarovski crystal, quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite, glittering glass, paper, plexiglass, wood, cement, and lath, converge in a transcendental, labyrinthine large-scale installation that conveys the prowess of the cosmos and contemplates the chaos of nature.
A Soyuz capsule just made a record-breaking 3-hour flight to the International Space Station |
Three new crewmembers arrived at the International Space Station today (Oct. 14) after a record-breaking speedy flight to the orbiting lab.
The Russian Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov docked with the space station at 4:48 a.m. EDT (0848 GMT), just 3 hours and 3 minutes after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket .
By coincidence, the rocket launched on Rubins' birthday (she turned 42), prompting congratulations from Russian flight controllers at the Roscosmos agency's Mission Control. "I would like to join in and say Happy Birthday to you. It's a beautiful day and you celebrated it wonderfully," one official said after the crew entered the station.
RTL Today - Moon-orbiting station: Russia shuns US lunar program, as space cooperation under
The US hopes to return astronauts to the Moon in 2024 -- for the first time since 1972 / © AFP
Russia is unlikely to participate in the Moon-orbiting station planned by the United States, a Russian official said Monday, marking the probable end of the type of close cooperation seen for two decades on the International Space Station (ISS).
The proposed new station, called the Gateway, "is too US-centric, so to speak," Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said, adding Russia was "likely to refrain from participating in it on a large scale."
While you're here, how about this:
Volume of space debris orbiting the Earth is "growing steadily" - Verdict
Mars will appear especially bright Tuesday night, at opposition with the sun - The Washington Post
Mars will be at its brightest and most visible on Tuesday night, with the Red Planet near its closest point to Earth and directly opposite the sun. The "opposition" of Mars means it will be visible all night long, starting in the east after sunset and climbing high overhead before setting in the west around sunrise.
Opposition describes the occasion marked by the sun, Earth and Mars all lining up perfectly. Earth is in the middle, so the sun is on one side while Mars is on the other. That means Mars will be at the opposite point in the sky, above the horizon after the sun has set.
A warm Jupiter orbiting a cool star - ScienceBlog.com
A planet observed crossing in front of, or transiting, a low-mass star has been determined to be about the size of Jupiter. While hundreds of Jupiter-sized planets have been discovered orbiting larger sun-like stars, it is rare to see these planets orbiting low-mass host stars and astronomers think this discovery could help them better understand how these giant planets form.
"This is only the fifth Jupiter-sized planet transiting a low-mass star that has been observed and the first with such a long orbital period, which makes this discovery really exciting," said Caleb Cañas, lead author of the paper and a doctoral student at Penn State and NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow.
Earth-Size "Pi Planet" Orbits Its Star In A Speedy Quick 3.14 Days! Kids News Article
Though it has been retired since 2018, the observations made by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope during its decade -long mission continue to allow researchers to identify new worlds in our galaxy. The latest to make headlines is an Earth-sized exoplanet that rotates around its dwarf star in just 3.14 days.
Officially known as K2-315b, Pi planet, which lies 186 light-years from Earth, is also the 315th exoplanet — just one exoplanet away from even more fortuitous symmetry — found during the Kepler Space Telescope's second observing mission. Called K2, the expedition began in early 2014 and monitored the sky's slivers as the spacecraft orbited around the Sun.
Happening on Twitter
Generation Grandma And Grandpa need to start talking right now! We DESERVE your support. You see what we're having… https://t.co/psWtJJ0chC SympLySimi Wed Oct 14 16:11:57 +0000 2020
We couldn't be fighting for change at a more important time. Right now, we must have confidence in our elections —… https://t.co/ynvRRcALbA CalforNC (from North Carolina) Thu Oct 15 01:13:09 +0000 2020
"We need a reset here in my mind, for the people at home, a bit of a reality check...this isn't normal right now.… https://t.co/6INXrnDSrV SenAmyKlobuchar Wed Oct 14 01:53:27 +0000 2020
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