Strange Object Captured moving slowly by the Soho Satellite... Star?

I have no idea what it could be, but IMO surely not a defect in the Soho devices as it seems to be hidden by the solar wind, somewhat blinking and moving slowly.

Visible from April 26th to May 3rd...



Meteor, comet, star, something else?

My second thought was aligned with one of the youtube commenters.. I think it will end up something something like this, but I'm not an expert.. I at first thought the fact it didn't move was evidence of it being an artiffact but it does "appear" to be moving slowly.. I personally find it unlikely something in space would be going that slow.

Here's the comment I referred to.

Can it be a planet or Star a certain distance away from our Sun but in movement towards it so it "seems" to move slow?

The "stealth-mode" appearance can be the brightness of the solar flares replacing the light reflecting of the object so it seems invisible.
Off-course the question remains, what is it?

Seems plausible that it's an object that is moving away or moving toward .. which would give the impression of moving very slowly.. so it "could" be a comet or a meteor but it also could just be a type of lens flare effect on the optics

One thing is wrong with that. A rock or asteroid flew right by it and nothing happened. No crash, no bang, no boom, and it didn't even move out of the way. Probably a speck of dust on the camera.

reply to post by miniatus


I'll watch again. But, I didn't see it move. Ok it did move. You just can't tell until you pixelate it.

Originally posted by Manhater
reply to post by miniatus

 

I'll watch again. But, I didn't see it move.

It appears to move.. it shows zoomed in tightly where you can see pixels go out and light up below.. so the movement is so fine that it's pixel by pixel .. it could still just be something like a lens flare.. and with the satellite moving slowly from a light source, it could cause that.

It does seem to have apparant movement that would not be the same as the starfield background movement, (although it is when in close-up, which might be a misleading effect) so not in the far background. Can you post the start and end dates/times for the L2 pictures shown.

That is some strange video. I have to admit, I've never seen an artifact like that.
In response to one poster...We can't really say that what ever went flying by almost hit it and it didn't even flinch. Its impossible to perceive the distances between those two objects or between the camera and said objects, for that matter.
What ever the almost stationary object is, I do see the movement. Depending on its actually direction of travel, it seems to be moving counter clock wise, as do alot of the objects orbiting the sun. Either that or its moving towards the sun or behind it. (didn't really narrow it down, did I? :duh Could it be an asteroid pretty close to the SOHO or even.....Nibiru ??J/K

Star and flag
Gotta keep my eye on this one so keep us updated.

TXML

Visible from April 26th to May 3rd...

And prior. It actually first appeared on April 11 at 22:33


By going to the SOHO website it can be seen that the spot does not move in the frame at all. It can also be seen that the "flashing" is the pixel going from white to black. Since it is absolutely stationary in the frame (despite movement of the spacecraft) it is reasonable to assume it has something to do with the imaging device rather than an external object. A hot pixel caused by a cosmic ray strike possibly. The "flashing" (going from white to black) is probably the result of the automatic image processing algorithm.


sohodata.nascom.nasa.gov...

reply to post by Phage

A hot pixel caused by a cosmic ray strike possibly.

My wife was taking some pictures of lightening and on the screen, where the lightening flash ended, one pixel would remain white, even through several other pictures. I know thats not the same as a cosmic ray strike but could that be the basic concept we are seeing play out in the SOHO images?

When I saw the white pixels after the lightening flashed, I thought it might have something to do with somekind of overload on that particular pixel. A 'hot pixel' makes sense.

TXML

I tried to get more sequences from 04/05/12 to date. It appears there aren't any from LC2. I don't know the reason as yet, I'll se if there is any testing or whatever going on.

reply to post by smurfy

SOHO is having problems. It's been down for a few days.

NOTE: LACK OF DATA UPDATES. SOHO went into "Emergency Sun Reacquisition" mode on Friday May 4, 2012, caused by a false trigger of the Coarse Sun Pointing Attitude Anomaly Dector. We are working on the recovery of the spacecraft to normal mode. Nominal science operations should be re-established in the next couple of days.

Here's an animation of the dot from two frames three weeks apart.


@txMEGAlithic: Yup. That's pretty much it.

Proton hits are a main cause of hot pixels or spikes in any space-based CCD.

projectavalon.net...

reply to post by Phage


Yes, I have a sequence right up to the 3rd, nothing at all for the 4th. I did notice that the 'flashing' of the spot seemed more random, or isolated, than a 'white out' out effect from changing light sources. BTW, what's a Dector? detector, defector, deflector or deactivator.

reply to post by Phage

Phage,

Since it is absolutely stationary in the frame (despite movement of the spacecraft)

OK, what if the "Object had the same trajectory as SOHO but coming in at a very slight angle?

It is reasonable to assume it has something to do with the imaging device rather than an external object.

Why can you assume that it is an imaging device error and not something inbound?

A hot pixel caused by a cosmic ray strike possibly.

Why would a HOT pixel last for seven days?

And strangely enough SOHO is now reported as down?
[Tried to link but would not let me]

And why are your posts are very pro-nouned?

actually absolutely despite reasonable assume something rather possibly probably .

RM

reply to post by RocketMan0266

OK, what if the "Object had the same trajectory as SOHO but coming in at a very slight angle?

Do you know what sort of orbit SOHO has?

Why can you assume that it is an imaging device error and not something inbound?

Because it remains in exactly the same location in every image. Because its brightness value switches between 0 and 255.

Why would a HOT pixel last for seven days?

Do you know what a hot pixel is?

And why are your posts are very pro-nouned?

Those are not pronouns.