Anubis17_76 OP t1_j2dl3ex wrote
Reply to comment by GoGaslightYerself in TIL: in 2002 amateur astronomer Bill Yeung accidentally rediscovered the 3rd stage of Apollo 12s Rocket, after NASA misscalculated its discarding burn, causing it to enter a 40 year cycle switching between sun and earth orbits. by Anubis17_76
no its just in an unstable orbit, so it flies around the earth a bit, until it dips over the L1 point(where the Suns gravity outweighs the earths, so it leaves for a sun orbit) and then it returns back to earth orbit after a few laps round the sun. heres an animation: https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/images/j002e3/j002e3.gif
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