# Object heading toward Earth is mysteriously accelerating as scientist claims it is a long-lost spacecraft

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/object-heading-toward-earth-is-mysteriously-accelerating-as-scientist-claims-it-is-a-long-lost-spacecraft/
- Published: 2026-11-12T11:57:23+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-12T12:21:05+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/article-16285087/object-earth-accelerating-lost-spacecraft.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: Culture, Research, Science, Space, Technology, Travel, World

## Key points

- 1998 KY26 is accelerating beyond what gravity predicts.
- Researchers ruled out ice-driven gas release as the cause.
- Avi Loeb proposes it could be the lost Soviet probe Phobos 1.

## Summary

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say the near-Earth object 1998 KY26 is accelerating in a way that gravity alone cannot explain. Their study rules out ice releasing gas as the cause, but it does not establish what is driving the extra push. The unexplained motion matters because it has renewed speculation that the object may not be a natural asteroid.

Harvard professor Avi Loeb and co-authors propose that 1998 KY26 could be the Soviet spacecraft Phobos 1, lost while travelling to Mars in 1988. They argue that its size, reflectivity, rapid spin and orbit fit a spacecraft, with sunlight pushing on its metal surfaces and solar panels. The object is about 36 feet long, spins once every 5.35 minutes and is expected to pass within 32 million miles of Earth in 2028; the spacecraft claim remains a hypothesis.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.