Asteroid 2020 SO may get captured by Earth from Oct 2020 - May 2021. Current nominal trajectory shows shows capture through L2, and escape through L1. Highly-chaotic path, so be prepared for lots of revisions as new observations come in. @renerpho @nrco0e
http://orbitsimulator.com/gravitySimulatorCloud/simulations/1600619137026_2020SO.html …pic.twitter.com/RfUaeLtEWq
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Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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Great animation! What makes '2020 SO' more liable to capture vs something else, say '2020 SW'? Relatively similar sizes, '2020 SW' has closer flyby distance but greater relative velocity...pic.twitter.com/ERdC5dDfuu
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The encounter velocity. Its orbit is inherently similar to Earth's, with a period close to 1 year, low eccentricity and low inclination. This means it approaches Earth slowly. It does not take a large change to its velocity to enter orbit around Earth.pic.twitter.com/DwjGt9NYfd
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we should try landing on it
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we should try putting it in earth orbit...
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Flashed by too fast but what was the minimum distance to earth in LD?
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The first perigee distance is 0.13 LD while the second perigee is less certain around 0.57 LD (minimum 0.45 LD).
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Calculations by Sam Deen rule out most possibilities of artificial origin, indicating that it is most likely natural. Interestingly, the asteroid may have been briefly captured by Earth back in 1966, but clearly its geocentric orbit did not last very long. https://groups.io/g/mpml/topic/another_natural_satellite_of/76979066?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,76979066 …
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Alan Harris on MPML: Paul Chodas has tentatively id'ed it with Surveyor 2 Centaur rocket body, launched 20 Sep 1966. The very low Earth encounter velocity 0.6 km/s is even low for lunar ejecta, so it is unlikely it is a natural body, even lunar ejecta, more likely space junk
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“So” glad it’s only 6-14m in size. Otherwise such a neat hit...(and unknown future orbit) would be concerning!
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If it’s hollow—in other words, a rocket body—that’s all the better.
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