Did you know that right now there are 2 moons in the sky? Believe me, it’s true right now there are two moons in the sky one is our good old moon and there is also this new mini-moon but it’s not made out of stellar rocks it’s just a piece of junk which will leave earth’s orbit in match 2021 for forever.
This piece of junk was discovered in September 2020 by scientists it was found between the earth and the moon after that we are watching it revolving around the earth. At first, when scientists discovered it they thought it is a small asteroid but later after observing its chemical makeup, they found out that this new minimoon is an old rocket booster or better say remains of it. These remains are of American surveyor moon missions launched in the 1960s. Yes, this minimoon also has a name its name is 2020 SO.
This minimoon made its closest approach to earth on 1st Dec 2020 when it was coming closer to earth scientists discovered that it’s not a stellar rock it’s just a booster lost in space almost 6 decades ago. They also did cross-checking on it by verifying all the data they have. They said this our man-made minimoon also did come close to earth in 1966 too. Now on Tuesday, (Feb. 2) 2020 SO will close to the earth approximately 140,000 miles close then it will drift away from the earth towards the sun and will start revolving around the sun. Scientists from The Virtual Telescope Project will be hosting an online farewell for 2020 SO.
It’s beautiful that what was lost 6 decades ago came to us like this. Space is a vast and dangerous thing I think we should be careful about what we put up there. We already are making progress look at all the programs SpaceX is running. Their reusable rockets are amazing and are very effective. Surely, we have learned a lot from the past we are doing great.
Now as they said: Godspeed to 2020 SO it was amazing to be him as our minimoon for a while but now it’s time.
