This ‘Asteroid’ Was an Old Rocket Returning to Earth

In September 2020, the Pan-STARRS1 telescope spotted a small object near the Earth. It receives the designation 2020 SO, used for a new astronomical object. Yet its orbit is too much like that of our planet to be quite ordinary: researchers are considering an artificial origin.

By retracing his trajectory, Paul Chodas found a rapprochement with the Earth in 1966, compatible with the launch of Surveyor 2. Spectroscopic observations conducted by the team of Vishnu Reddy then allow to compare the light of the object to the properties of the steel of the Centaur stages. NASA announces in December 2020 the confirmation of its nature.

The object taken for a rocky visitor was therefore a rocket stage of the beginnings of space exploration, associated with this ancient lunar mission. The discovery tells of an unexpected return, without landing or recovery: the instruments had recognized a piece of our own history in what seemed to come from elsewhere.