{"id":40305,"date":"2014-01-06T16:20:12","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T23:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/06\/there-are-more-things-in-heaven-and-around-earth-horatio.html"},"modified":"2014-01-07T08:46:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-07T15:46:23","slug":"there-are-more-things-in-heaven-and-around-earth-horatio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/06\/there-are-more-things-in-heaven-and-around-earth-horatio.html","title":{"rendered":"There are more things in Heaven and around Earth, Horatio …""},"content":{"rendered":"
And always watch the skies.<\/p>\n

(h\/t +<\/span>Doyce Testerman<\/a><\/span>)<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +John Baez<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

What goes around, comes around<\/b><\/p>\n

On September 3, 2002, an amateur astronomer named Bill Yeung looked into his telescope and discovered a strange object near Earth.\u00a0 Experts were surprised to discover that it was orbiting Earth!\u00a0 The orbit was unstable, which meant this object hadn't been here long.\u00a0 But there was no recently launched spacecraft that matched the orbit of this thing!<\/p>\n

It got the name J002E3<\/b>.\u00a0 It's fun to watch this animated gif and see how J002E3 came in from the Lagrange point L1<\/b> between the Earth and Sun, went around the Earth a few times, and then got kicked out.<\/p>\n

But what was it?<\/p>\n

University of Arizona astronomers found that its electromagnetic spectrum was consistent with white titanium dioxide paint – the same paint used by NASA for the Saturn V rockets. Tracing back its orbit, they found that it had probably been orbiting the Sun for 31 years.\u00a0 The last time it was near Earth was1971.<\/p>\n

This seemed to suggest that it was a part of the Apollo 14 mission. But NASA knew the whereabouts of all hardware used for this mission!\u00a0 The third stage of that rocket, for example, was deliberately crashed into the Moon for seismic studies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, the most likely explanation seems to be that J002E3 is the third stage of the rocket for Apollo 12.\u00a0 NASA originally planned to shoot this into an orbit around the Sun.\u00a0 But they used more of the propellant than planned, and it seems that venting the rest didn't give this rocket stage enough energy to escape the Earth\u2013Moon system.\u00a0\u00a0 So, it ended up in a complicated orbit around the Earth after passing by the Moon on November 18, 1969.<\/p>\n

It may hit earth someday! \u00a0 It weighs 10 tonnes.\u00a0 But don't worry: a 10-tonne meteor hits the Earth every few years, and most of them don't cause much trouble.<\/p>\n

I saw this animated gif without much explanation last night on G+.\u00a0 Who should I thank?\u00a0\u00a0 The explanation here is adapted from Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/J002E3<\/a><\/p>\n

and the animated gif was made by Paul Chodas & Ron Baalke of NASA.<\/p>\n

#astronomy<\/a> \u00a0\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And always watch the skies. (h\/t +Doyce Testerman) Reshared post from +John Baez What goes around, comes around On September 3, 2002, an amateur astronomer named Bill Yeung looked into his telescope and discovered a strange object near Earth.\u00a0 Experts were surprised to discover that it was orbiting Earth!\u00a0 The orbit was unstable, which meant … Continue reading “There are more things in Heaven and around Earth, Horatio …"”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,82],"tags":[524],"class_list":["post-40305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-space","tag-astronomy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5119,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/30\/the_next_best_t.html","url_meta":{"origin":40305,"position":0},"title":"The next best thing to being there","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 30-Oct-03 6:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"The World Sunlight Map shows a realistic picture (well, two) of the Earth and which parts are light, which are dark. Very cool. It's like being in orbit, except for...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":127450,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/05\/earth-and-moon.html","url_meta":{"origin":40305,"position":1},"title":"Earth and Moon","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Aug-15 4:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, seeing the Earth and the Moon, together, from beyond the Moon's orbit is ... pretty darned remarkable, if you think about it. Very cool. Originally shared by +NASA: The far side of the moon, illuminated by the sun, is seen as it crosses between our 'EPIC' camera on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/earth_moon_animation1041.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/earth_moon_animation1041.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/earth_moon_animation1041.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7875,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/01\/the_ever_changi.html","url_meta":{"origin":40305,"position":2},"title":"The ever-changing heavens","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Aug-05 8:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So it was only yesterday -- literally -- when Katherine was commenting over breakfast about how Pluto is the planet furthest from the Sun. Aside from being impressed by that...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10140,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/25\/dont_touch_thos.html","url_meta":{"origin":40305,"position":3},"title":"Don’t touch those textbooks!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Aug-06 8:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pro-Pluto Planetary Party (well, not their real name) has begun a backlash against the IAU's decision to demote the Pluto to the odd-designated Dwarf Planet (which isn't really...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/planets-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132186,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/08\/rip-john-glenn.html","url_meta":{"origin":40305,"position":4},"title":"RIP, John Glenn","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Dec-16 1:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While his work as US Senator was tarnished by the Keating Five scandal, Glenn's career in politics was a reasonably good one. But he will be remembered more (and with reason) for his earlier work as a test pilot and then one of the original Mercury astronauts, and being the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12157,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/11\/02\/our_constant_moon.html","url_meta":{"origin":40305,"position":5},"title":"Our constant moon?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-Nov-07 7:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not if you take two years worth of moon pictures and put them into a two second film loop.\u00a0 Freaky. This video is a fantastic articulation of the fact...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40329,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40305\/revisions\/40329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}