I was lookind at APOD today and wondered if anyone here had any input on todays image. I am sure the woo woo-s are salivating.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...ystery_nsl.gif

Asteroid?

Iridium flare perhaps? (granted, it appears to be a pretty long lasting one, but I think if you're in the right spot, they can last several seconds. . .).

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They ARE salivating! You should see a couple posts in the forums the APOD tell the people to discuss into! :wink:

Either way, what else than a very close missed asteroid could this be? I never saw an iridium flare lasting several minutes like that!

Still, it's so bright...

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Well, if it's an Earth orbiter, Iridium or whatever, it should be possible to calculate its orbital inclination from that path at that latitude. (The west-east motion is actually consistent with a regular prograde orbit). Then perhaps candidates might pop up by comparison with databases. After that, the angular velocity should help to finger the correct one.

But if no candidates fit, then who knows? There have been cases (detected on radar) of meteors skipping off the top of the atmosphere. Maybe we've got a 'flat stone on a pond' phenomenon here :wink:

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Fin
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Edited as bellow

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Yes, it actually looks like something that´s been launched from Cape Canaveral.

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An unidentified satellite-like object could well be a spy satellite, I suppose.

8-[
:-$

We don't know what the streak was on December 17, 2004. Two different Hawaiian continuously updating web cameras recorded it, one at Haleakala and the other at Mauna Kea. It's not a satellite either because there's no record of it at http://www.heavens-above.com/

The woo-woos are out in force. This particular APOD is overloading the NASA server.

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This "object" was recorded back in December.
Did it hit us? Were we invaded? Were we zapped?
No? Then I am ging back to bed.
Wake me when the E.T. gets here.

Do I read that right, the notes in the corner, that it lasted for twenty minutes at least? If so, Iridiums don't last that long. Asteroids neither.
As Weird Dave said, it could be a spy satellite. I don't think there are any records of those at Heavens Above. It would have to be fairly high to have such a slow orbit--and bright.

If its an intelligence bird, there are people at the NRO doing alkaseltzer cocktails. Especially if the information posted from those two observatories is enough to work out a basic orbital track.

they'd just put it somewhere else

still, it seems pretty bright. I bet it turns out to be a helicopter

Whatever it is, I'm sure The History Channel is working on an investigative program to air any day now.

Were any cows found mutilated in Hawaii after the streak was seen?

I've been reading through the APOD bulletin board and I thought the most convincing story seemed to be that it was fuel dumping from the Centaur stage of the Atlas booster that launched the AMC-16 comsat to GTO (Cape Canaveral, 17 Dec, 12:07 UT).

One observer reports that he personally observed the phenomenon and that stars were faintly visible through it, which is consistent with it being a series of dissipating gas clouds. But, as I said, it should be possible to pin this down with a bit of maths - for those who are better at it than me, of course

[Edited to add...]

Reinforced by a quick Google:

Centaur fuel dump

Check some of the images - looks convincing to me.

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Fin
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The sequence spans almost 20 minutes. A copter should go faster, shouldn´t it?

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True, but that's not something they like to do unless there's a mission critical reason for it. Whats worse, if whomever wants to know where it is works out enough to keep a long eye on it, you really can't hide it, the changes can be tracked.

Anyway, hopefully it wasn't, the NRO goes through enough heck just putting the things up in some semblance of silence that I empathize with them when these things are compromised, even accidentally.

Yes, the APOD board discussion suggests it was a fuel dump of some sort. The speed of the object (very slow) and the height (roughly derived by triangulation to be about 1000 km) suggest is was not a solid object, rather a spherical cloud of gas emitted from a rocket going to geosynchronous orbit.

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They can hover.

That's why I mentioned copters, but I see that the mystery has probably been solved, as a fuel dump.

Wow. The discussion going on on the BB linked from APOD is a great example of why allowing anonymous posting on a BB is a bad idea...

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Tue 02.08
"First Hour: Planetary scientist David Grinspoon and astronomer Seth Shostak of SETI will discuss the strange streak seen over Hawaii..."