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Credit & Copyright: SpaceX
Explanation:
Last week, a car orbited the Earth.
The car, created by humans and robots on the Earth, was
launched by the
SpaceX Company to demonstrate the ability of
its
Falcon Heavy Rocket
to place spacecraft out in the
Solar System.
Purposely fashioned to be
whimsical, the
iconic car
was thought a better demonstration object than concrete blocks.
A mannequin clad in a spacesuit -- dubbed the
Starman --
sits in the driver's seat.
The featured image is a frame from a
video
taken by one of three cameras mounted on
the car.
These cameras, connected to the car's battery, are now out of power.
The car, attached to a second stage booster,
soon left Earth
orbit and will
orbit the Sun between
Earth and the
asteroid belt
indefinitely -- perhaps until billions of years from now when our
Sun expands into a
Red Giant.
If ever recovered,
what's left of the car may become a unique window into technologies developed
on Earth in the
20th and early
21st centuries.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: orbit
Publications with words: orbit
See also: