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Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket

Space Asteroid Impostor
Space Asteroid Impostor
Space Asteroid Impostor
Space Asteroid Impostor
Posted at 7:24 AM, Oct 11, 2020
and last updated 2020-10-11 09:25:31-04

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — What looks like an asteroid may just be an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission more than 50 years ago.

The newly spotted object is expected to get nabbed by Earth's gravity and become a mini moon next month.

NASA's leading asteroid expert thinks it is the upper rocket stage from a 1966 mission.

Observations as the object draws closer should help nail its identity. He speculates the object is the Centaur stage from NASA's Surveyor 2 mission, dating back to 1966.

It's expected to shoot back out into its own orbit around the sun next March.