Mysterious object that flew by Earth has finally been identified

[Mike Wehner]

• The object originally dubbed Asteroid 2020 SO appears to be a long-lost rocket booster that left Earth in 1966 and finally came back.
• The booster was part of a failed NASA mission to the Moon, and it has apparently been orbiting the Sun ever since.
• Space junk is becoming an increasingly serious problem, and manmade trash in space could pose a threat to future missions.

Back in September news began to circulate that an object was headed for Earth. That alone wouldn't be particularly big news, but what made this revelation so interesting is that nobody knew what the object actually was. Was it an asteroid? Perhaps it was, but some scientists offered a different explanation, and now that the object has safely passed by Earth it appears they were probably correct.

The strange near-Earth object originally dubbed Asteroid 2020 SO turned out to be likely manmade. It is now believed to be the remains of a very old rocket that was launched way back in the 1960s. As the mysterious visitor passed by Earth, images of it helped to potentially reveal its true identity, and remind us yet again that humans have a habit of leaving trash wherever they go.

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Mysterious object that flew by Earth has finally been identified originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 2 Dec 2020 at 20:10:29 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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