EDITORS:

The following story has moved as this week’s Monday Spotlight, a feature showcasing the best off-the-news enterprise in the AP report:

ASTEROID IMPOSTOR?

The jig may be up for an “asteroid” that’s expected to get nabbed by Earth’s gravity and become a mini moon next month. Instead of a cosmic rock, the newly discovered object appears to be an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission 54 years ago that’s finally making its way back home, according to NASA’s leading asteroid expert. If observations continue to support his theory, Paul Chodas said this would be the first time that an object discovered as an asteroid in orbit around the sun, versus Earth, ends up strongly linked to an actual rocket launch. By Marcia Dunn. SENT: 950 words, photos.

—The AP