“This density is in fact compatible with the object being a hollow shell, such as the spent upper stage of a rocket body or part of a stage”, comments Detlef Koschny, with near-Earth object (NEO) activities at the ESA’s Space Situational Awareness program office.
Advertisement
It seems appropriate that the official designation for the object is WT1190F, which has naturally been shortened to “WTF” by amateur sky-watchers.
Researchers at present are tracking around 20 manmade objects with distant orbits like that of WT1190F.
Most space scientists believe that WTF may be a part of a spacecraft from the Apollo programme craft which has been floating in space for more than 40 years.
The European Space Agency (ESA) predicts that small pieces of the object that don’t flame up on invading the atmosphere may harmlessly come on the surface about 62 miles off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
It is now orbiting Earth every three weeks in a “highly eccentric”, or non-circular, orbit, according to the ESA scientists. ESA says observations and data collected during the reentry will help improve orbital models and reentry prediction tools, and can be used by scientists studying near-Earth objects (NEOs), such as natural asteroids, or the orbital decay of artificial objects such as satellites.
The agency also has a good idea where the object will fall.
A few mysterious space trash, officially named WT1190F, unofficially called “WTF”, is moving towards Earth with a great speed and is expected to crash into the Indian Ocean on Friday the 13th next month.
Advertisement
The European Space Agency (ESP) has information on its Near Earth Objects Coordination Center website about the piece of space junk, but says it isn’t big enough to cause any sort of threat to the area.
