Asteroid 2020 SO

[PakledHostage]

An object (2020 SO) that is about to be captured by Earth via the L2 Lagrange point may be a Surveyor booster from 1966:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_SO

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/us/mini-moon-scn-trnd/index.html

Edited September 23, 2020 by PakledHostage

[Guest]

Nice, but the titanium dioxide part is wrong. Centaur stages of that sort were not painted, they launched inside an insulating shroud that was jettisoned on stage separation. Underneath, they were plain stainless steel. Spectroscopy could tell us something about it, but it might be hard to tell it apart from a hunk of ferrous rock.

[PakledHostage]

2 hours ago, Dragon01 said:

Spectroscopy could tell us something about it, but it might be hard to tell it apart from a hunk of ferrous rock.

In one of the articles, they also talk about the effect of light pressure on its trajectory. If it is just a hunk of rock, its trajectory won't be affected as much by light pressure as it would if it's a much less dense spent Centaur stage. 

Edited September 23, 2020 by PakledHostage
Grammar

[kerbiloid]

Should the Earth evade?

[Entropian]

4 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Should the Earth evade?

Starboard shields to maximum...

[StrandedonEarth]

2 hours ago, Entropian said:

Starboard shields to maximum...

Angle the deflector shields and charge up the turbolasers....

[Entropian]

Photon torpedoes ready on your mark...

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Angle the deflector shields and charge up the turbolasers....

Do the turbo lasers still lag a bit when you first fire them, or have they worked that out? 

[SOXBLOX]

4 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Angle the deflector shields and charge up the turbolasers....

Silly Star Wars tech. The Enterprise is clearly superior to a Star Destroyer. It uses real naval designations which actually fit its role.

Anyways, always nice to see our space junk flying back by.

[PakledHostage]

1 hour ago, SOXBLOX said:

Anyways, always nice to see our space junk flying back by.

One day, the charred remnants of a Tesla Roadster may crash through the roof of some feudal lord's keep, and puzzled, they'll treat it as a gift from the gods...