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Zoom In Iapetus, a moon of Saturn, has many odd features, including an immense ridge of material going around its equator. As of yet it’s still unexplained. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute A paper has come out adding to this idea: Not long after Iapetus formed it was hit by a very large asteroid or small moon. This blasted material into space that coalesced into a moon close to Iapetus. Over time it got closer, broke apart, formed a ring, and then that material rained down onto the surface, building up the ridge. Wow. It sounds like a Wile E. Coyote plan, but in this case it would...

As it did, it got caught in Earth's orbit, giving our planet a new 'mini-moon'. Analysis from NASA revealed the 'asteroid' in question was actually a rocket booster from the launch of Surveyor 2 in 1966. The object was a Centaur rocket booster, which was used to launch Surveyor 2 in what was NASA's second time landing an uncrewed machine on the Moon. NASA collected data from the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and orbit analysis from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to determine the orbit of 2020 SO. Asteroid 2020 SO: Watch live as spac...

A space age relic will safely miss Earth by just 139,500 miles during its farewell flyby.