Astronomers found 54 Years Old A Upper Stage Rocket of Surveyor 2 Spacecraft

 

Scientists have captured a small object from the Earth orbit and it will come closer to the Earth soon and again  it will escape back to a solar orbit as it is now rounding the Sun. But scientists found it is probably the Centaur upper stage rocket booster that helped lift NASA's ill-fated Surveyor 2 spacecraft toward the Moon in 1966.

On September 20, 1966, The Surveyor 2 lunar lander was launched to the Moon on an Atlas-Centaur rocket. The purpose of the mission was to reconnoiter the lunar surface ahead of the Apollo missions that led to the first crewed lunar landing in 1969. Shortly after lifting off, the Surveyor 2 spacecraft from its Centaur upper-stage booster but the control was lost and the spacecraft crashed into the Moon just southeast of Copernicus crater on Sept. 23, 1966. After that the spent Centaur upper-stage rocket sailed past the Moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit about the Sun.

Scientists found this object through the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope on Maui in September. Astronomers at Pan-STARRS noticed that this object followed a slight but distinctly curved path in the sky, which is a sign of its proximity to Earth. The apparent curvature is caused by the rotation of the observer around Earth's axis as our planet spins. Minor Planet Center in Cambridge has designated this asteroid as Massachusetts: 2020 SO. 

Scientists found the orbit of this object is very similar to that of Earth. It was at about the same distance, nearly circular, and in an orbital plane that almost exactly matched that of our planet – highly unusual for a natural asteroid. And a spent rocket is essentially an empty tube and therefore is a low-density object with a large surface area , that is why, it will be pushed around by solar radiation pressure more than a solid, high-density clump of rock and also because the pressure exerted by sunlight is small but continuous, and it has a greater effect on a hollow object than a solid one.

According to the researchers, Solar radiation pressure is a non-gravitational force that is caused by light photons emitted by the Sun hitting a natural or artificial object and he resulting acceleration on the object depends on the so-called area-to-mass ratio, which is greater for small and light, low-density objects.

CNEOS Director Paul Chodas said, "It was like a eureka moment when a quick check of launch dates for lunar missions showed a match with the Surveyor 2 mission." 

The 2020 SO will stay in a region which is called Hill sphere that extends roughly 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth for a about four months and then it will escape back into a new orbit around the Sun in march 2021. 

On Dec 1, 2020, the object will come closer to the earth and it will make large loops around our planet. During this time period, astronomers will initiate various investigation and study its composition using spectroscopy to confirm if 2020 SO is indeed an artifact from the early Space Age.

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