---
title: "Earth Appears to Be Capturing a Tiny New Moon"
description: "Earth is capturing a new mini moon later this year. Find out why scientists are saying it's actually a piece of human-made space garbage."
date: "2020-09-22"
modified: "2020-09-30"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/earth-capturing-tiny-new-moon"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "Moon"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "minimoon"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Earth Appears to Be Capturing a Tiny New Moon

![Earth will likely capture a new minimoon in its orbit later this year. But signs suggest that it's actually a hunk of space garbage.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/earth-capturing-tiny-new-moon.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Tony873004\</em\>*

## Cuffing Season

There's a mysterious object in space heading our way — and while it poses no threat to the Earth, it will probably get trapped in our orbit and become a new minimoon.

If it does, then the object — dubbed 2020 SO by researchers — would become just the third [confirmed minimoon](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronomers-earth-new-moon-tiny>) to spend time in Earth's orbit, *[ScienceAlert ](<https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-might-be-about-to-get-a-temporary-minimoon-but-what-is-it>)*[reports](<https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-might-be-about-to-get-a-temporary-minimoon-but-what-is-it>). Like the other two, 2020 SO is officially [classified as an asteroid](<https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=2020%20SO>), but there's evidence that it may be something else: a long-lost piece of human-made space garbage that's finally re-entering our orbit.

## Trashellite

Scientists told *ScienceAlert* there's a decent chance 2020 SO is actually the discarded Centaur stage of a rocket that launched the [lunar lander Surveyor 2](<https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/surveyor-2/>) during a failed mission in 1966. The object is about the right size, they say, and it's traveling much slower than an asteroid would.

"The velocity seems to be a big one," Flinders University space archaeologist Alice Gorman told *ScienceAlert*. "What I'm seeing is that it's just moving too slowly, which reflects its initial velocity. That's essentially a big giveaway."

https://twitter.com/tony873004/status/1307729521869611008

## Binary System

It turns out it's hard to track all the [space junk](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/esa-robotic-space-junk-collector>) we've launched into orbit over the decades — experts told *ScienceAlert* it wouldn't be surprising to hear we'd lost track of one Centaur stage.

Whatever it is, our minimoon visitor wouldn't be around for too long. Current projections show that it would be trapped in orbit through May 2021, at which point it would once more whip off into space.

**READ MORE:** [Earth Is About to Capture a Minimoon, But There's Something Odd About This One](<https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-might-be-about-to-get-a-temporary-minimoon-but-what-is-it>) \[*ScienceAlert*\]

**More on minimoons:** *[Astronomers: Our Planet Might Have Another Moon, Except It's Tiny](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/astronomers-earth-new-moon-tiny>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)