A mini-moon is on track to enter Earth's orbit and come as close as 27,000 miles away. 一顆迷你月亮正按計(jì)劃進(jìn)入地球軌道,并將在2.7萬(wàn)英里以外的地方靠近地球。 However, rather than some asteroid that will orbit around the Earth, it may actually just be some old space junk that made its way back to our planet. 然而,它可能只是一些舊的太空垃圾,而不是一些將繞地球軌道運(yùn)行的小行星。 Dr. Paul Chodas, the director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, believes that the object, named Asteroid 2020 SO, is an old booster rocket from the 1960s. 美國(guó)宇航局近地天體研究中心主任保羅·喬達(dá)斯博士認(rèn)為,這顆名為“小行星2020 SO”的天體是上世紀(jì)60年代的一枚老式助推火箭殘片。 "I suspect this newly discovered object 2020 SO to be an old rocket booster because it is following an orbit about the Sun that is extremely similar to Earth's, nearly circular, in the same plane, and only slightly farther away the Sun at its farthest point," Chodas told us. 卓達(dá)斯告訴我們:“我懷疑這個(gè)新發(fā)現(xiàn)的物體可能是一個(gè)老式的火箭助推器,因?yàn)樗@太陽(yáng)運(yùn)行的軌道與地球極為相似,在同一平面上接近圓形,只是離太陽(yáng)最遠(yuǎn)的點(diǎn)稍微遠(yuǎn)一點(diǎn)。” "That's precisely the kind of orbit that a rocket stage separated from a lunar mission would follow, once it passes by the Moon and escapes into orbit about the Sun. It's unlikely that an asteroid could have evolved into an orbit like this, but not impossible." “這正是火箭從探月任務(wù)中分離出來(lái)的軌道,一旦它經(jīng)過(guò)月球并逃逸到圍繞太陽(yáng)的軌道上。一顆小行星不太可能進(jìn)化成這樣的軌道,但也不是完全不可能?!?/p> Chodas analyzed the motion of the asteroid backwards in time to try and link it with any known lunar mission launch and found that it was likely in the "vicinity of the Earth back in late 1966." 喬達(dá)斯分析了這顆小行星的運(yùn)動(dòng),試圖將其與任何已知的探月任務(wù)聯(lián)系起來(lái),并發(fā)現(xiàn)它可能在“1966年末就在地球附近”。 He said that correlates with the launch of Surveyor 2 on September 20, 1966. 他說(shuō),這與1966年9月20日“探測(cè)者2號(hào)”的發(fā)射有關(guān)。 That mission was designed to have a soft landing on the Moon, but a failure led to the spacecraft crashing, Chodas said. 卓達(dá)斯說(shuō),那次任務(wù)的目的是在月球上軟著陸,但一次失誤導(dǎo)致了飛船墜毀。 The Centaur rocket that was used to boost the spacecraft passed by the Moon and went into orbit near the Sun and has not been seen again, until now, Chodas suspects. 喬達(dá)斯懷疑,用于推進(jìn)航天器的半人馬火箭經(jīng)過(guò)月球后進(jìn)入了靠近太陽(yáng)的軌道,直到現(xiàn)在才再次被人發(fā)現(xiàn)。 The object is likely to enter into a distant orbit around Earth in late November, and if it's an asteroid it would be considered a mini-moon. 該物體可能在11月下旬進(jìn)入一個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的圍繞地球的軌道,如果它是一顆小行星,它將被認(rèn)為是一個(gè)迷你月亮。 However, if it is a booster rocket as Chodas suspects, it will just be another piece of space debris floating around space. 然而,如果它像卓達(dá)斯猜測(cè)的那樣是助推火箭,那么它將只是漂浮在太空中的另一塊太空碎片。 "In a month or so we will get an indication of whether or not 2020 SO really is a rocket body, since we should start being able to detect the effect of sunlight pressure has on the motion of this object: if it really is a rocket body, it will be much less dense than an asteroid and the slight pressure due to sunlight will produce enough change in its motion that we should be able to detect it in the tracking data," Chodas said. “再過(guò)一個(gè)月左右,我們就會(huì)知道2020年是否真的是一個(gè)火箭殘?bào)w,因?yàn)槲覀儜?yīng)該開(kāi)始能夠探測(cè)到陽(yáng)光壓力對(duì)這個(gè)物體運(yùn)動(dòng)的影響:如果它真的是一個(gè)火箭體,那么它的密度將比小行星小得多,而陽(yáng)光帶來(lái)的輕微壓力將在它的運(yùn)動(dòng)中產(chǎn)生足夠的變化,我們應(yīng)該能夠在跟蹤數(shù)據(jù)中檢測(cè)到它?!弊窟_(dá)斯說(shuō)道。 It is rare for long-lost rocket stages to be captured from orbit about the Sun and into orbit about the Earth, and this would only be the second instance of a rocket stage getting captured from orbit. 丟失已久的火箭殘片從繞太陽(yáng)的軌道上被捕獲并進(jìn)入繞地球的軌道是很罕見(jiàn)的,這是第二次在軌道上捕獲火箭殘片。 The only other time it happened was in 2002 from what may have been the Saturn V upper stage from Apollo 12, Chodas said. 卓達(dá)斯說(shuō),之前唯一一次發(fā)生這種情況是在2002年,當(dāng)時(shí)可能是阿波羅12號(hào)發(fā)射的土星5號(hào)上段。 文中提到的火箭殘片是哪一年發(fā)射的? 留言回復(fù)正確答案,前十名朋友可以獲得紅包獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)哦,趕快來(lái)試試吧!
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