Did Anyone in Grand Junction Pick ‘Space Junk’ for November?

Okay, Grand Junction, check the betting pool. Who has "Space Junk" for November? Put me down for five bucks.

I totally missed the boat when it came to Murder Hornets. This new development is right up my alley, though. Gambling isn't my thing, but this one is too good to pass up.

According to EarthSky, a "space object" is heading our way. To borrow a line from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, "Sir... it's on a precise heading for Earth." This object, labeled 2020 SO, is feeling the effects of Earth's gravity. Between its trajectory and its slow rate of travel, it seems Earth will "capture" it sometime in October, and then hold on to it for a while. Colorado's KOAA News 5 reports the object will enter Earth's orbit in November.

This is not your typical asteroid. It may be a lost rocket, launched from Earth back in 1966. Just last week astronomers spotted the object on its approach to Earth. According to NASA/JPL, the object is putting along at a relatively slow speed of 1,880 miles an hour. At that rate of travel, the object orbits the sun every 387 days.

Given its slow speed, along with its Earth-like orbit, scientists believe it could be a man-made object. According to EarthSky, Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object center at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, believes the object could be the rocket booster of Surveyor 2, launched to the moon on September 20, 1966.

Think about that for a minute. Parts of a spacecraft launch from Earth only 12 days after the premiere of the original Star Trek television series back in September 1966 is making its way back to earth 54 years later. Sounds exactly like the plot to Star Trek: The Motion Picture or even the original series episode "The Changeling."

It appears as though 2020 is intent on dealing us something every month. This is too good to pass up. The information from EarthSky suggests this piece of space junk poses no threat to any of us. With sports betting recently becoming legal in Colorado, I've stepped into the arena, so to speak, of betting. Being a bit of a geek, this one strikes me as fascinating. If anyone in Grand Junction has an office betting pool going on, please put me down for $5 for "Space Junk" in November 2020.