This is what it feels like to live in a science fiction story:
NASA authorities report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid.
What? How did this only get one English-language mention on Google News?
The experts believe that the object must be a spacecraft, or part of one
Yes?!?!
- likely to be a booster stage from an interplanetary mission of the past, now drifting back in to Earth and out again.
Ah. That's why.
But that's exactly what the alien invasion will look like.
Here's more Rendezvous-with-Rama goodness:
Observations by astronomer S J Bus, using the NASA-sponsored Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, indicate that 2010 KQ's spectral characteristics do not match any of the known asteroid types, and the object's absolute magnitude (28.9) suggests it is only a few meters in size.
The mysterious artificial object has apparently made a close pass by the Earth, coming in almost to the distance of the Moon's orbit, and is now headed away again into the interplanetary void.
(via Ed Webb's Twittery)
According to the article, the object is probably part of an old spacecraft.
What it's like to live in a neighborhood cluttered with junk.
Posted by: Space Travel Sam | August 10, 2010 at 06:30
Quite true, Sam. I'm just enjoying the buzz the rest of the text provides. Been reading Rendezvous with Rama to my son...
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | August 11, 2010 at 13:36