Researchers expect a piece of space junk to plummet towards Earth in November, but they don’t have any idea of what is that exactly.
The space object called WTF1190F, is expected to land in the Indian Ocean, approximately 40 miles off the southern tip of Sri Lanka on November 13 at 6:20 UTC.
It could measure up to 7ft long. It comes from either a recent lunar mission or an Apollo program craft that has remained in space for over 40 years.
The object is expected to provide relatively small impact throughout its course until landing. Rather than threatening life on Earth, the object will offer scientists a once in a lifetime opportunity to observe the unknown object.
The trajectory of WTF1190F was first calculated in 2012. University of Arizona-based Catalina Sky Survey astronomers rediscovered the unknown object earlier this month.
Near Earth Object astronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are carefully monitoring the space junk’s path.
According to ESA, the object poses very little risk to people, but could greatly help scientists improve their understanding of how any object, be it natural or man-made, interacts with the atmosphere of Earth.
Independent astronomy software developer, Bill Gray, said that the space junk was moving in an elliptical orbit. Based on its movement, the object is likely hollow inside. The number of space junk that orbit the Earth and moon is unknown, but WT1190F is uncommon.
Gareth Williams, a Minor Planet Centre’s astronomer in Cambridge, said that the strange object was thought to be one of only around 20 man-made objects tracked in distant orbit. And the reason the object propelled on a collision course with Earth is still a mystery.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics based in Cambridge, Massachusetts said that WTF1190F is likely a piece of space history. While the junk is probably coming from recent missions, it can also be a piece from an Apollo Mission more than four decades ago.
If WTF1190F is a piece of man-made rocket, it will be first man-made junk to return Earth independently.
They’re just hiding the truth! It’s not a man made, that’s a cover up! Something extraterrestrial is coming!
I think there is a clue in it’s name…(W)hat (T)he (F)*ck 1190F….
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, worried about preserving his membership in the denial no matter what club, has no clue at all what it is, but if he want’s to keep his “credibility”, no matter what it is, even when it is in hand, it has to be “Apollo junk”. So as stupid and unscientific as it is to make a baseless declaration with absolutely no evidence to back it up, why not just declare it as such now, and be done with it?
hmm. there’s a name for it. we know it’s space junk. we know it’s coming. then it is NOT a ufo. it is identifiable.
This is weird. So the object is able to slow its descent enough to keep from burning up in the atmosphere? a piloted peace of space junk?
The space ship that is going to crash is really the lost server that hillary clinton tried to get rid of”
What is returning from deep space is the, Voyager Spacecraft being sent back to Earth, by an intelligence that read and played the record of earth sounds, music, people of all nationalities, and their language…………………NASA really doesn’t even know what it is, and Space junk from 40 years ago..seems to be a, extremely slow orbit of decay…. just thinking
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This statement is actually false. The US government (openly, by way of public record) tracks thousands of man made debris/junk from the various missions to space. The Chinese government did a rocket test some time ago to see if they could hit an old satellite (they succeeded) which created literally thousands of additional pieces of junk for us to monitor.