Astro-porn of the day!
Jan. 9th, 2014 11:54 amOkay, THIS is awesome: an asteroid found in near-earth orbit in 2002, which is basically impossible.
Astronomers couldn't figure out how an asteroid could possibly be that close and moving that slowly relative to the earth and moon, until they got a good look at it with a spectrograph and the "What's that object made of?" came back "white titanium dioxide paint"
It's the third stage of Apollo 12's booster.
It was SUPPOSED to get thrown out to orbit the sun, but didn't have quite enough fuel, so it fell back into a near-earth orbit from 1969-1972 before getting thrown out by a slingshot..... and in 2002, it was pulled back in.
It was ejected again in 2003, and is expected back sometime in the 2040s.
Astronomers couldn't figure out how an asteroid could possibly be that close and moving that slowly relative to the earth and moon, until they got a good look at it with a spectrograph and the "What's that object made of?" came back "white titanium dioxide paint"
It's the third stage of Apollo 12's booster.
It was SUPPOSED to get thrown out to orbit the sun, but didn't have quite enough fuel, so it fell back into a near-earth orbit from 1969-1972 before getting thrown out by a slingshot..... and in 2002, it was pulled back in.
It was ejected again in 2003, and is expected back sometime in the 2040s.