The second moon of the Earth will make a close approach to the planet next week before drifting into space, never to see it again.
“What a second moon,” you ask? Astronomers call it 2020 SW: a small object that fell into Earth’s orbit about halfway between our planet and the moon in September 2020.
Temporal satellites like these are known as minimoons, although calling it a moon is a bit misleading in this case; in December 2020, NASA researchers learned that the object is not at all a space rock, but the remains of a 1960s reinforcing rocket involved in the American Surveyor’s lunar missions.
This non-lunar minimaon came closer to Earth on December 1 (the day before NASA identified it as the long-lost reinforcement), but will make another round of victory, according to EarthSky.org .
Minimoon 2020 SW will make a final approach to Earth on Tuesday (February 2) at approximately 220,000 kilometers from Earth, which is 58% of the path between Earth and the Moon.
Related: The 15 strangest galaxies in our universe
The reinforcement will move away after that, leaving Earth’s orbit completely in March 2021, according to EarthSky. After that, the old lemon will be one more object around the sun. The Rome Virtual Telescope Project will host an online farewell to the object on the night of February 1st.
NASA learned that the object has approached Earth over the decades, even relatively close to 1966, the year the agency launched the lunar spacecraft Surveyor 2 at the back of ‘a Centaur rocket.
This gave scientists their first big idea that SO 2020 was created by man; they confirmed this after comparing the chemical composition of the object with that of another rocket, which has been in orbit since 1971.
Godspeed, minimum 2020 SO. We have built you. We have abandoned you. And now, leave us.
Related content:
The 12 strangest objects in the universe
9 ideas about black holes that will make your mind fly
9 strange excuses why we haven’t met aliens yet
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.