{"id":12017,"date":"2022-03-17T07:10:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T07:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say"},"modified":"2022-03-17T07:33:37","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T07:33:37","slug":"earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say","title":{"rendered":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th century Space Age, adding that the orbiting space junk can be classified as a mini-moon to our planet.<\/p>\n

Near-Earth orbiting object 2020 SO, informally dubbed by astronomers \u201cthe planet\u2019s second moon\u201d, is expected to pass at a relatively close distance to our planet on 2 February prior to winging away into space, as our Earth\u2019s gravity will ultimately ease off its hold on the object, according to EarthSky.<\/p>\n

Some time in March 2021, the space trash will adopt instead a solar orbit. Astronomers first noticed 2020 SO in September 2020, taking note of the unusually low speed and trajectory indicated by orbit models.<\/p>\n

The models showed at the time that Earth would briefly grasp the object and hold it in orbit as if it were a new mini-moon. On 8 November, 2020 SO was indeed photographed by telescopes going around our planet.<\/p>\n

Follow-up analysis on its motion, along with a very close approach (just 30,000 miles, 50,000 km or 0.13 lunar-distances) on 1 December, 2020, led NASA to confirm that the object is a relic from the dawn of the Space Age; the remains of a 1960s Surveyor rocket booster used in American moon missions.<\/p>\n

The Virtual Telescope Project in Rome will provide an online farewell to the object on the night of 1 February, for all interested stargazers and lovers of astronomy.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th century Space Age, adding that the orbiting space junk can be classified as a mini-moon to our planet. Near-Earth orbiting object 2020 SO, informally dubbed by astronomers \u201cthe planet\u2019s second moon\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,245,845,241],"class_list":["post-12017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mauritius","tag-earth","tag-mauritius"],"yoast_head":"\nEarth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th cent ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th cent ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T07:10:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T07:33:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-17T07:10:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-17T07:33:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\"},\"wordCount\":254,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mauritius\",\"Earth\",\"Mauritius\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\",\"name\":\"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say - Mauritius\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-17T07:10:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-17T07:33:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th cent ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":406,\"caption\":\"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/\",\"name\":\"Mauritius\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say - Mauritius","description":"NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th cent ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say","og_description":"NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th cent ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say","og_site_name":"Mauritius","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-03-17T07:10:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-17T07:33:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":406,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say","datePublished":"2022-03-17T07:10:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-17T07:33:37+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say"},"wordCount":254,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Mauritius","Earth","Mauritius"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","miscellaneous","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say","name":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say - Mauritius","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg","datePublished":"2022-03-17T07:10:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-17T07:33:37+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"NASA has confirmed that the enigmatic object, 2020 SO, is the remains of a Centaur rocket booster from the mid 20th cent ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2022\/03\/img-6232e435bead6.jpg","width":720,"height":406,"caption":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/earth-will-soon-forever-lose-its-second-moon-astronomers-say#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Earth Will Soon Forever Lose Its \u2018Second Moon\u2019, Astronomers Say"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/","name":"Mauritius","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}