Incredible Unknown Event, 09:24:57 U.T. August 16....Explosion?

[drclay]

Please examine the attached image carefully.  This is a single, unprocessed frame (CCD) from the morning of August 16, showing no less than 13 individual components of some type of catastrophic event recorded when a routine image of the new asteroid 2007 PP9 was being captured at Harvard MPC H45 (Petit Jean Mountain South) by P. Clay Sherrod.  Looking carefully, there are at least 13 components to this event, although the two parallel lines at the LEFT edge of the frame do not appear to be related to the major "breakup" recorded.

There appears to be a major trajectory of debris, followed by several "spin-off" components with short trails in differing trajectories than the main defined pathway as identified by the bright streak and other lesser light paths appearing parallel to it.

Details:
SOUTH IS UP
EAST to right
TIME (UT):  09:24:57 start of exposure, duration, 60 seconds
DATE:  August 16, U.T.
Right Ascension, center of image:  23h 11m 31.0s
Declination, center of image:  -05d 38' 17"
Total field of view:  18' x 12'
0.51m R.C. telescope at f/3.3, ST402 ME Class I CCD, dark subtracted, flat frame applied

Limiting magnitude (high clouds) 18.6

Note that my impression of at least part of these remarkable features is that some may be actually glare from a brighter component not in the frame but very nearby outside of the actual field of view.

I am encouraging comments and remarks as to the nature of what we are seeing here.  Never in tens of thousands of images have I seen anything quite like this one....

Good luck on your speculations and have fun.

Dr. Clay

[E2Pilot]

Dr. Clay,

My first guess would be some sort of space debis, possibly an old sat breaking up?  Would be really cool if it was the tank tossed off the space shuttle.  Seriously though, with that many bright fragments in one locatio, that would be my guess.

[divenuts]

Hi Dr Clay....nice catch!
Strange looking indeed. I took the image to Photoshop and couldn't bring much out. Toward the middle of the image above the double'flame' looks like a fighter jet or rocket exaust nozzle. Other than something breaking up (which I don't think it is because it seems intact). I would guess it iwas a fighter jet you caught in an odd maneuver.
Just a guess,
Chuck/divenuts

[Ron]

Doc,

This is going to take quite a bit of sleuthing.

Is the Asteroid shown in the image, and if so could you point to it.

Thanks,

Ron

[bobmoody]

Greetings, Dr. Clay!
 
What in the world did you capture here? Some of the other comments have the same questions I'm wondering about, i.e. 1) Is the asteroid in questiion in the field, and if so can you point it out? 2) Am I right in thinking that from the proximity of the "spin-off" components, this event has only just happened? And 3) Is there any chance someone else around the US (or WORLD for that matter) captured the same object in a slightly larger FOV?

I'll be checking back often over the next few days/weeks to see what the possible explanation might be. Really WILD!

[ben therrell]

Doc, et al.

     O they just keep getting weirder and weirderer.   This doesn't relate to anything I'm familiar
with so I'll just pass it off as space junk.  There does seem to be an explosive effect here as the
trails of the spinoffs don't quite line up.

      It seems also to be a multiple event - well, at least two since some satellites travel in pairs or
trios / quartets.

    Trivia:  Uranus was about 1 degree out of the frame.

Ben

[wr-astro]

Hi

For me it looks like:

- two straight sat (fragments) to the middle left
  These one might find by sat software.
  But not all orbital elements of sats are published (e.g. US military sats)

plus

- a low altitude airplane
  With some imagination one could see:
  - the bright, wide streak to be one of the continous wing lights
  - the bright dot to be the blinking center light
  - the two brighter, eleongated areas beside the bright dot to be maybe the landing/front lights
  - the large brighter area to be maybe the airplane engine.

Is there an airport in the area ?

Was it a filtered image ?
green or red ?

Clear skies
 Wolfgang

[ben therrell]

Wolfgang,

      Welcome aboard!  That's a very good analysis you've delivered and yes, the Little Rock airport
is about 40 mi (64km) to the Southeast.

     As you can see we have a lot of fun here trying to figure out Doctor Clay's images.

Ben
90.126 n 35.539

[Ron]

After seeing this image at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070825.html  and reading Woolfgang's reply about maybe an airplane being in the area, I'm wondering if it could possibly have been an airplane dropping some sort of debris

And that might explain the breakup of the object.

Ron

[drclay]

Thanks to everyone for your interest and speculation.....
At this point and reading many responses and seeing a wonderful comparison image taken several years ago that reveals a strikingly similar appearance, I am leaning far toward Wolfgang's (and several others') analysis of the aircraft, exactly as he has wonderfully detailed the specifics of each component.  There is no doubt that the parallel lines at far left are indeed a far distant satellite or pair of them.  There are still questions in my mind about some of the flared images in the main complex, but the bright streak and central concentration of light can very well be explained by a rapidly moving airplane.

For those who have asked, the asteroid that was under surveillance in this image is the tiny starlike image immediately to the left of the brightest star, just above the center of the frame.

Dr. Clay