Mysterious object in space: Could it be a Soviet probe missing for 40 years?

A mysterious object speeding through the Solar System has shown unusual acceleration, raising speculation that it could be a spacecraft from the former Soviet Union that went missing nearly 40 years ago.Known as 1998 KY26, the object is an 11-metre-wide body passing near Earth. Scientists have noticed that its trajectory cannot be fully explained by the gravitational pull of the Sun or Earth.This unusual behaviour is known as "non-gravitational acceleration", meaning that forces other than gravity are influencing the object's path and speed.NASA chief Jared Isaacman said on Thursday that the agency is monitoring KY26 but stressed there is no reason for concern. He reassured the public that the object poses no known threat to Earth and that there is no evidence it could collide with our planet.Has Phobos 1 been found?A group of researchers has put forward an unusual explanation. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb and two colleagues, Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl, believe KY26 could be Phobos 1, an unmanned Soviet spacecraft launched on 7 July 1988. The probe lost contact with Earth while on its way to Mars.The researchers built a simplified model of Phobos 1 and compared how it would reflect sunlight as it rotated with observations of KY26. They found that the model closely matched eight separate sets of observations of the object.KY26 reflects almost 52%…