Another Mystery Object Recorded in Constellation of Orion !!

[drclay]

Are you ready for another celestial challenge?  Here is an image taken this morning (January 28 UT) from ASO Petit Jean Mountain South; it is a very unusual group of 10 particles traveling East toward West in the constellation of Orion.  Examining the at least 10 components suggests that they are travelling in unison, rather than fragmenting from one single body since none appear to have gaseous or trailing trains of light or debris other than the main trail.

This image was obtained during the first of a series of five astrometric measurements of the asteroid 2007 AT2.

Unusual group of 10 objects in Orion; suspected to NOT be meteoric due to lack of trains by fragmenting components.  Object end of trail marked at:

RA 05 20 52.77;
DEC +09 14 18.5;

top of image is NORTH, EAST to left, field = 12 x 7 arc minutes, brightest star in image is 2UCAC34967817, mag. 13.0;
total length of exposure is 45 sec. via CCD. 
Copyright P. Clay Sherrod, ASO MPC-H45, Petit Jean Mountain, Arkansas.

I remind you of the recent image (see Astro News and Events, preceding article!) of another curious and as yet unidentified object similarly captured in the constellation of Andromeda only weeks ago.

Your input and suggestions are valued as always.

Thanks and have fun with this one!

Dr. Clay

[Ron]

What accounts for the difference in magnitude of the objects?

I can count about 5 or 6 that look the same but the other 4 look brighter.

That area has been known to have a lot of Satellites traveling through it according to people imaging around Orion.

Just as a wild guess I would say they are Satellites.   I'm having a hard time with the exact numbers though.

Ron

[drclay]

Very likely we are seeing ONE object with multiple "events" of reflectivity, perhaps something irregularly shaped spinning as it is crossing the sky.  I have had some correspondence indicating that a common satellite with a projection that might be only one meter in diameter, highly reflective, could cause the light outbursts while the satellite itself is represented by the very faint continuous line between the outbursts.....makes some sense to me.

[gnhuftalen]

Dr. Clay, et al--

I found the initial report of 10 objects to be rather overwhelming. But I wondered what could cause the "effect" of seeing 10 objects if there were not actually 10 objects...

I agree that it could be one object with multiple instances of reflectivity. Or what about multiple objects with multiple instances of reflectivity? I wonder, with the straight line reported and imaged, whether this object or these objects, however many, could be space debris?

I will research Space Track and see if I can find likely candidates...

[ben therrell]

DOC,

     I'm partial to the one object scenario.  What I'm having trouble modeling is the irregular pulse
of the reflections.  It could be a small object in the initial stages of a reentry burn.  ( or not )

     I love it - keep em' coming.

Ben

PS, Welcome to the group George!

[gnhuftalen]

Thanks, Ben!

I've been here over a year, but just never posted before...too many smart folks here... they've got things figured, before I can chime in! But I have developed a passion for satellites and imaging, tracking and observing them in recent months, so I figured it was time! Thanks for the welcome of my voice!

[lindendave]

George,

Let me also add a hearty Welcome, and it's great to have you on board.

One thing you should know about a good many of us is that we don't have things figured out. If we did we wouldn't need to be here bugging Doc and everyone else asking questions!  I think most of us, me anyway, believe in the addage that the only dump question is the one never asked and boy do we ask questions! 

It's great to know that we now have someone with an interest in observing satellites, we'll be asking questions!

Welcome aboard George!

[gnhuftalen]

Thanks, Dave!

Good to hear from you!

We have spoken in the distant past on one of the Yahoo groups! I agree wholeheartedly with that philosophy...I just came in from 17 degree F temps, but the windchill was around 7 degree F earlier and has died down... had three generations of a family son, dad and grandad looking at the moon and Saturn for the first time through a telescope...the kid, age 10, was full of great questions and bservations as was the grandad...the son played the referree and thought they were imposing on me...half the night was trying to make him relax... But there were no dimb questions...

[ben therrell]

TROOPS,

     Nobody here has much of anything figured out - that's why we're here.  That's why Doc posted this
peculiar image. 
     
     I'm wondering about the time frames in both images.  If you spend any time around the North
Celestial pole you will see satellites rip thru th FOV in less than a second.  The Andromeda anomaly seems
to have been in the frame when Doc shut it down.  In this one there seems to be a bit of faint signal to
the right of the final flash indicating that it made it all the way across the field.  Can you see what I'm
referring to?

    You see it's hard to tell how long it was in field, 45 sec.? 0.45 sec?  If we could determine that we
would know something about its altitude.  Its velocity would be about 24,000 mph.

Steady skies,
Ben

[drclay]

Okay...finally an update after I have had a chance to review hundreds of responses via several discussion groups and much private mail.

Many thanks to all who have posted suggestions.  Like the "Andromeda Object" (that would make a good movie title.....), there are some good ideas, but nothing at all definitive.  I am still more intrigued by that Andromeda Object than the Orion object of early this week.

As for the Orion object:  Bill Gray of Project Pluto (Guide8 and astrometric Charon fame), has suggested a very likely candidate(s) for the Orion feature discussed here:

"Hi Clay,

    A search with sat_id reveals three satellites within two degrees of
that location (NORAD 08808 = international 1976-035A;  10855 =
1978-044A;  and 14195 = 1981-102F),  all moving at about .253 arcminutes
a second at position angles of about 87 degrees.  Assuming your image is
truly aligned with celestial north,  that looks to be a good match to
the motion of that trail.  (Note to all reporting satellite trails:  if
you can measure the position angle of the motion,  it's a big help.)

    All three satellites are in geosynch orbits with modest inclination,
  the sort of thing one sees with geosats that run out of fuel
(solar/lunar perturbations drag them into the plane of the ecliptic).
You may have run across something other than these three,  but if so,
I'd bet it was some other abandoned geosynch.

-- Bill  "  END

Note that the image, as all ASO astrometric images, is indeed aligned precisely (within less than one degree) of true north at top, this verified on each image via CHARON.  The object in question I believe is only ONE object, very likely irregularly shaped with several extensions of varying reflectivity.

The altitude of the object, according to several respondents who are "satellite experts" is suggested to be on the order of 1,000 km, and a velocity has been suggested for this object at an "apparent" 24,000 km per hour or thereabouts.

In the meantime, it might appear that the ASO NEO program seems to be in a direct flight path for unusual objects; many of us are witness to these fascinating space items both telescopically and naked eye as they pass through our vision, but they are rare to catch in any detail.

In the past two weeks ASO Petit Jean Mtn. has been fortunate to have recorded two such oddities.  Please continue to speculate......this is what makes us "one" with the cosmos.

Thanks again to all.....

Dr. Clay

[ben therrell]

Hmmm,

     Do you suppose Hubble was programmed to eject the Advanced Camera for Surveys if the thing
went haywire? (Ha)

     Anyway that time frame is about right.

Ben Therrell
NSA/NASA, (clearance)
1969 - 1971