Mystery Object Orbits Earth

December 13th, 2005 · No Comments

Something odd is circling our planet. It’s small, perhaps only 60-ft long, and rotates once every minute or so.
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Another possibility is that J002E3 is an S-IVB from Apollo 12. Unlike Apollo 14, Apollo 12’s S-IVB did not crash into the Moon. The crew jettisoned it on Nov. 15, 1969, when it was nearly out of fuel.
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Eventually, the Apollo 12 S-IVB vanished–no one knows when. Perhaps gravitational tugs from the Sun and Moon accumulated until they nudged the engine away from Earth in 1971. In this scenario, it would have circled the Sun for 31 years until it was re-captured by Earth’s gravity in 2002.

“It’s plausible,” says Chodas, “but still speculative.”