Discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey in 2013, WT1190F has been observed several times since then by the same team, who have been sharing their data via the US-based Minor Planet Centre (MPC), the worldwide Astronomical Union’s official repository for such observations.
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Researchers at present are tracking around 20 manmade objects with distant orbits like that of WT1190F.
Scientists said a baffling object is going to collide with the Earth next month. In one such effort scientists spotted a space junk which is on its collision course with earth. Still, technically, since the mysterious object is not as yet identified and they do not know for certain what it is – it’s a UFO. Tim Flohrer, from ESA’s Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, said that since the size of the object is so small equal to couple of meters in diameter, it is expected that a significant fraction of the object gets burned up in the atmosphere.
Currently, the item is circling the Earth in an egg shaped orbit stretching a distance of twice the way to the Earth’s moon. Detlef Koschny, director of Near-Earth Object activities at ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program me office, explains: “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”.
The agency also has a good idea where the object will fall. There are campaigns in place to see how well they are able to track the item as it heads towards its expected ending in the Indian Ocean.
Gray has calculated that “WT1190F” will hit the ocean about 65km off the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
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Millions of pieces of space junk hover just beyond Earth’s atmosphere, vestiges of past space missions over the last century.
