🚀 Whispers from the silent cosmos
2020 SO Asteroid Was Actually a 1966 Rocket Booster
- What: A 2020 near-Earth object called 2020 SO was initially mistaken for an asteroid, but orbital analysis showed it was actually the Centaur upper stage from NASA’s 1966 Surveyor 2 mission.
- Where: Near Earth and in orbit around the Sun.
- When: It was identified in 2020 and briefly recaptured by Earth in late 2020 into early 2021; the rocket stage dated to 1966.
In 2020, astronomers logged a small object near Earth and gave it the standard asteroid-style name 2020 SO. It looked at first like just another near-Earth object. Then the details began to disagree with that idea.
Why 2020 SO Looked Unusual
The object was moving too much like something that had once left Earth. Its path around the Sun was unusually similar to Earth’s orbit, and it approached our planet at a relatively low speed. That combination led researchers to consider a different possibility early on: this was not a natural asteroid at all, but space junk.
As observations improved, that explanation held up. Scientists linked 2020 SO to the Centaur upper stage used in the 1966 launch of NASA’s Surveyor 2 mission, part of the program that prepared for later Moon landings. Surveyor 2 itself failed after launch, but the Centaur booster had escaped into solar orbit. More than five decades later, it briefly returned to Earth’s neighborhood.
Surveyor 2 Centaur Booster
From late 2020 into early 2021, 2020 SO was temporarily captured by Earth’s gravity in a loose, short-lived loop before drifting away again. It did not enter the atmosphere, and it was never a threat to the planet. What made it notable was the identification: a supposed new asteroid turning out to be hardware from the 1960s.
The easy misconception is that anything discovered and given an asteroid-style designation must be a real asteroid. In practice, newly found objects are cataloged based on what they appear to be at first. Only later, after orbital analysis and other observations, can astronomers sort out whether an object is natural rock or a human-made relic.
How Objects Get Misidentified
That is what happened with 2020 SO. It was initially treated like a newly discovered near-Earth object because nobody knew for certain what it was on first sight. The evidence ultimately pointed to a returning Surveyor 2 Centaur rocket booster launched in 1966, not a newly arrived asteroid.
Did You Know?
2020 SO became a temporary “mini-moon” of Earth before drifting back into solar orbit.