Mystery Object Discovered in Earths Orbit

reply to post by fanthorpe


I see, well I'm sure at least one of the amateur astronomers here could pull it off, I just don't know for sure how many. I'd guess half a dozen at most, if only because active tracking is something so few amateurs try to do. It doesn't usually make for the kinds of "pretty pictures" that most amateur astronomers are out there for. I'm glad you find it exciting though, I would have thought something like this would be of little interest to most.

Well there certainly is a lot of crap up there. Check it out.
orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov...

And quite a bit in the geosynchronous zone as well. Yuk what a mess.
Can't just mess up the planet it's got extend wherever man goes, is nothing sacred?

Originally posted by Jalis
Well, with all the junk orbiting Earth, I don't see why this would be a surprise...

There are many different orbital classifications and it's the altitude that makes this observation odd. Most of our satellites and almost all of the "space junk" is in a low to medium Earth orbit.

From Wiki.

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) - Geocentric orbits ranging in altitude from 160–2,000 km (100–1,240 miles); one revolution takes 90 minutes, the speed is 8 kilometers per second.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) - Geocentric orbits ranging in altitude from 2,000 km to just below geosynchronous orbit at 35,786 km (22,240 miles). Also known as an intermediate circular orbit.

Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) - Geocentric orbit with an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 statute miles) above mean sea level. The period of the orbit coincides with the rotation period of the earth: 24 hours; the speed is 3 km/s.

High Earth Orbit (HEO) - Geocentric orbit higher than 35,786 km (22,236 statute miles)

Of coarse there are also the elliptical orbits of our GPS satellites.

For an object to make an orbit of 31 days is odd in its orbital distance and duration, in other words it can't be written off so easily as "space junk". It could be junk from one of the return mission from the Moon of which Apollo is the only candidate.

I can't think of any other missions in our history that had a return mission from anywhere other then Apollo and Stardust so the "space junk" theory is very limited. Objects just don't fly off out to that distance on their own and there would be no reason to send any satellites out there.

Also, guys, don't hold your breath regarding an alien spaceship. From what can be seen from UFO sightings, they don't need orbits, they would hover stationary or move around at will. Anti-gravity doesn't require orbits.

reply to post by squiz


that is just CRAZY .... someone wanna tell me why it hasn't burned up or spun off out into space....... I know we have a gravity, but isn't that for things with a lot of mass??

Originally posted by svpwizard
reply to post by squiz

 

that is just CRAZY .... someone wanna tell me why it hasn't burned up or spun off out into space....... I know we have a gravity, but isn't that for things with a lot of mass??

Gravity pulls on everything with an equal acceleration. Higher mass objects have more inertia, so they require more force to alter their orbits, but since this object has a periapsis of about 50,000km give or take, it doesn't get anywhere close enough to the atmosphere to burn up. A close pass with the moon could have diverted the orbit to burn up in the atmosphere, but that doesn't mean such an encounter is a guarantee, even after 40 years. Some additional suggestions for this object I've heard are that it's an Agena rocket from a Ranger probe or prototype Centaur stage.

Originally posted by svpwizard
reply to post by squiz

 

that is just CRAZY .... someone wanna tell me why it hasn't burned up or spun off out into space....... I know we have a gravity, but isn't that for things with a lot of mass??

It's not really that crazy.

It has a very wide and highly elongated orbit, so it is nowhere near Earth's atmosphere. The closest it gets is more than twice as far as the farthest Earth-orbiting geostationary satellite. This means there is no reason for it to burn up. Also, objects with relatively low mass would be not be more likely to escape Earth's gravity -- even at those distances.

A piece of Apollo equipment (or even something else man-made) left way out somewhere between the Earth and Moon could easily stay in that very wide orbit of Earth. It would be too far away for the atmosphere to have an effect on it, and it would be too close to escape Earth's gravity.

It would have nowhere else to go but around and around for many, many years.


EDIT TO ADD:
As usual, ngchunter beat me to the explanation.

[edit on 10/28/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

Cool stuff. So if I am reading some of the knowledgeable posts in this thread correctly, we are dealing with 85% debris from older space missions, 14% a rock that got pulled into orbit, and that last 1% for something "out there".

Well, we shall know tomorrow, eh?

It could be a fallout from bombing the moon. Either in terms of something they dragged back here but don't want to tell us about, or.....the ones there have sent in their death star.

This all strikes me as a little odd - I was surfing around last night and read that this object has been in orbit since 2003. Is that not just a little bit late for apollo.

Maybe it is a Navy Sub on its way home after a long mission.....

reply to post by druid1


Are you sure you're not confusing this with J002E3, which was Apollo 12's S-IVB? It left earth orbit in 2003. Some objects like J002E3 are in such loose earth orbits that they occasionally shift to a heliocentric orbit before coming back around to orbit the earth again many years later.

*I confirmed the information you found on it being in geocentric orbit since 2003. That would seem to indicate an orbit very similar to Apollo 12's S-IVB. Perhaps it's another missing S-IVB stage or even an Agena from the Ranger program?

[edit on 28-10-2009 by ngchunter]

Could it be?

Nah, it couldn't possibly be the Black Knight?

Or could it?




The Black Knight

Ancient Satellite orbiting the earth is it true or hoax ? i came across this article in my mail box so thought it would be very interesting to post here It is said that in 1957 black knight the blip discovered in 1960 a satellite detected shadowing the sputnik 1 craft It was in a polar orbit, something that neither the Americans or Soviets were capable of at the time. This object was dubbed “The Black Knight. It was several times larger and several times heavier than anything capable of being launched with 1960 rockets. It shouldn't have been there, but it was.

Ancient Satellite Orbiting Earth

The Black Knight
In Dead Men’s Secrets (page 1) we published a report of a mystery satellite (believed to be from earth’s former high technology), known as The Black Knight.

In 1953, four years before the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik I, it was sighted by Dr Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico.

As more reports of sightings trickled in from around the world, the U.S. Department of Defense appointed distinguished astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh to run a search for the mystery object. He had discovered Pluto in 1930.


The Pentagon never formally released the results of Dr Tombaugh’s study. And no more was heard about the object until December, 1957, when Dr Luis Corralos of the Communications Ministry in Venezuela photographed it. The first modern satellite, Sputnik I, had been launched two months earlier. Dr Corralos was taking pictures of Sputnik II as it passed over Caracas.

[edit on 28-10-2009 by SLAYER69]

Originally posted by SLAYER69
Could it be?

Nah, it couldn't possibly be the Black Knight?

Or could it?

Ancient Satellite orbiting the earth is it true or hoax ? i came across this article in my mail box so thought it would be very interesting to post here It is said that in 1957 black knight the blip discovered in 1960 a satellite detected shadowing the sputnik 1 craft It was in a polar orbit, something that neither the Americans or Soviets were capable of at the time.

I have to cry hoax based on the impossible description; a satellite in a polar orbit cannot shadow a satellite with the 65 degree inclination sputnik had. If it did it wouldn't be in a polar orbit; they're two totally different orbits.

This object was dubbed “The Black Knight. It was several times larger and several times heavier than anything capable of being launched with 1960 rockets. It shouldn't have been there, but it was.

I'd love to know how the mass and size were quantified.

In 1953, four years before the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik I, it was sighted by Dr Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico.

LaPaz denied any discovery of that nature, as did Clyde Tombaugh, though Tombaugh was searching for such an object BEFORE anything was reported. Your story has the timeline of events backwards. Tombaugh was not one to hold back when he thought he had seen something unusual, but his report stated they never found any satellites. The army was interested in their search because they needed to know if there was a risk of colliding with natural debris when they started launching satellites.

The Pentagon never formally released the results of Dr Tombaugh’s study.

Wrong.
TOMBAUGH, C. W., J. C. ROBINSON, B. A. SMITH, AND A. S. MURRELL (1959). The Search for Small Natural Earth Satellites: Final Technical Report. Physical Science Laboratory, New Mexico State University.

Where is this photo that Luis Corralos took? How do we know it's not just the rocket booster for Sputnik II?

[edit on 28-10-2009 by ngchunter]

Originally posted by ngchunter
Where is this photo that Luis Corralos took? How do we know it's not just the rocket booster for Sputnik II?

Well hopefully we will find out soon.

I wasn't making a post of FACTS just throwing something into the mix


[edit on 28-10-2009 by SLAYER69]

It will be very interesting to see what happens tomorrow the 29th when we will have a better look at it.

It doesn't sound right to me that this is an old rocket stage from the apollo missions. I would think that someone would have spotted it by now if that was the case.

reply to post by ngchunter


Thanks I checked again it was J002E3

Maybe it is the season - I would love it to be something else. Can't wait to see a few pictures if us poor mortals are allowed

reply to post by Erasurehead


will they be viewing it tomorrow or something?

Originally posted by Erasurehead
It will be very interesting to see what happens tomorrow the 29th when we will have a better look at it.

Unless it's the mothership /sarc it'll be a dot, even on the 29th.

It doesn't sound right to me that this is an old rocket stage from the apollo missions. I would think that someone would have spotted it by now if that was the case.

There are plenty of them that have yet to be spotted. In fact, Apollo 12's S-IVB is the only non-destroyed apollo S-IVB that we've spotted so far.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
A piece of Apollo equipment (or even something else man-made) left way out somewhere between the Earth and Moon could easily stay in that very wide orbit of Earth.

How much stuff could this possibly be?

I thought all of the stages were used to get the spacecraft into a low Earth orbit and then it's off to the Moon. After this point any debris left behind by a spacecraft would be due to an accident like Apollo 13. For this debris to orbit Earth it would need to be somewhere between high Earth orbit and the halfway point to the Moon.
Add: Gravitational halfway point.

Could debris from a mission make it around the Moon and back into Earth orbit on its own?

Originally posted by Unity_99
It could be a fallout from bombing the moon.

Either in terms of something they dragged back here but don't want to tell us about, or.....the ones there have sent in their death star.

Maybe NASA's LCROSS mission actually missed the Moon and this is what we are seeing.

[edit on 10/28/2009 by Devino]

reply to post by OpTiMuS_PrImE


It reaches perigee, or point closest to earth in its orbit, tomorrow. That also means it'll be moving faster through the sky making it harder to track using the little info we have at this point.