minimoon

This happens at about nine months for the typical minimoon, but some of them may orbit Earth for decades, researchers said.

The studio, Minimoon, is staffed by him and recording engineer Jeff Fernandez.

"A minimoon could someday be brought back to Earth, giving us a low-cost way to examine a sample of material that has not changed much since the beginning of our solar system over 4.6 billion years ago."

Yet scientists say that is most likely what witnesses saw that night - not a manmade Sputnik but a tiny, natural satellite of the Earth, a "minimoon" in the throes of a fiery demise.

The findings, published this month in Sky and Telescope magazine, extend the track of the procession south of the equator and lend weight to the theory that the 1913 event was the breakup of a minimoon.

Dr. Brown operates an automated meteor observing system that could, in principle, spot a minimoon passing overhead, but he says a space-based system is required to reveal the retinue of objects coming and going in near-Earth space.