Mystery Object in the Sky

[Harley_Davidson_Man]

I recieved this in an email from my son earlier today :

From : Joey Gowdy
To : Terry Gowdy

Date : 09/13/2002 - 11:11

Subject : Mystery Object in High Earth Orbit ??

Could these two new orbital "moons" in fact be the objects falling from the sky as mentioned in Revelations ?? 

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Mystery Object In High Earth Orbit?
From James Oberg



9-10-2

Roger W. Sinnott Senior Editor Sky & Telescope

This Is SKY & TELESCOPE's AstroAlert for Minor Planets

MYSTERY OBJECT

Since September 5th, the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML) has been abuzz with speculation about an unidentified 16th- magnitude object. During the next 10 days the object will be moving rapidly across Aries and then Taurus, passing between the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters.

Bill Yeung discovered the object September 3rd in CCD images taken with an 0.45-meter telescope in Benson, Arizona. The fast- mover was "auto detected" when he analyzed his images with DC-3 Dreams' PinPoint software. Yeung e-mailed the positions to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts

http://www.harvard.edu/iau/mpc.html

which quickly posted the object on its Near-Earth Object Confirmation Page under the temporary designation J002E3. But within a few days the MPC removed the object from that listing; preliminary orbit calculations suggested it was traveling in a large, 50-day orbit around the Earth, not the Sun. It had all the earmarks of being a spent rocket casing or other piece of "space junk" instead of a true minor planet.

But what exactly is it? Efforts by Tony Beresford in Australia and other satellite experts have failed to match this object with any known artificial satellite. Photometric measurements by Peter Kusnirak in the Czech Republic failed to show much variation in brightness, as would be expected of a small metallic object, especially if cylindrical. But the big question is, if it is really in Earth orbit, why has it not been detected before? In Yeung's words, 16th magnitude should have made it "a piece of cake" for survey telescopes like LINEAR and NEAT, or for CCD-equipped amateur instruments, to locate long ago.

Finally, late on September 9th, Paul Chodas (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) weighed in with this posting to the MPML:

"The unusual object J002E3, formerly on the Minor Planet Center NEO confirmation page, has been loaded into our Horizons system so that interested observers can generate ephemerides.... Further observations of the object are highly desirable to help characterize the nature of the object: we will update our orbit solution as they become available.

"Telnet and email users of Horizons can access this object by typing 'J002E3'. Web users of Horizons can access the object by going to the Major Body Menu, selecting the Spacecraft list, and choosing the entry 'J002E3 Spacecraft (UNCONFIRMED)'. The available time span is currently August 1 through December 1, 2002. The telnet address of Horizons is
telnet://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov:6775/

and the web

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eph

For the full text, or to subscribe to the Minor Planet Mailing List, please visit these URLs:

MPML Home Page:
http://www.bitnik.com/mp

 
MPML FAQ:
http://www.bitnik.com/mp/MPML-FAQ


html MPML's Yahoogroups page:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/mpml

Amateurs who are experienced in astrometry should have no trouble recording this mystery object with CCD-equipped 8-inch and larger telescopes. Measurements should be sent both to Chodas and to the Minor Planet Center  using the standard reporting format.

We don't provide an ephemeris in this AstroAlert because, like 2002 NY40 a few weeks ago, J002E3 has a very large topocentric parallax. You'll need to enter your own observatory code, or a latitude and longitude, into HORIZONS to obtain accurate predictions for your location.

Roger W. Sinnott Senior Editor Sky & Telescope 

  
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2251386.stm

An amateur astronomer may have found another moon of the Earth. Experts say it may have only just arrived.
Much uncertainty surrounds the mysterious object, designated J002E2. It could be a passing chunk of rock captured by the Earth's gravity, or it could be a discarded rocket casing coming back to our region of space.

It was discovered by Bill Yeung from his observatory in Arizona and reported as a passing Near-Earth Object. It was soon realised however that far from passing us it was in a 50-day orbit around the Earth.

Paul Chodas of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California says it must have just arrived or it would have been easily detected long ago. Calculations suggest it may have been captured earlier this year.

Moon or junk?

When he detected the object Bill Yeung contacted the Minor Planet Centre in Massachusetts, the clearing house for such discoveries, which gave it the designation J002E2 and posted it on their Near-Earth Object Confirmation webpage.

Soon however, its motion suggested it was in an orbit around the Earth. Its movements had all the hallmarks of being a spent rocket casing or other piece of space junk.

But experts are not completely sure what exactly the object is.

Observations made by Tony Beresford in Australia indicate that the object's position does not match any known piece of space junk. Observations made in Europe have failed to see any variations in brightness that might be expected from a slowly spinning metallic object.

Nasa's Paul Chodas says the object must have arrived quite recently or else it would have been easily detected by any of several automated sky surveys that astronomers are conducting.

Its trajectory suggests that it may have been captured in April or May of this year, but there is still some uncertainty about this.

If it is determined that J002E2 is natural it will become Earth's third natural satellite.

Earth's second one is called Cruithne. It was discovered in 1986 and it takes a convoluted horseshoe path around our planet as it is tossed about by the Earth's and the Moon's gravity.

Astronomers, professional and amateur, are carrying out further observations to determine if J002E2 is really another moon of the Earth, or just a piece of space junk

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/56886.htm



WEIRD BUT TRUE


September 12, 2002 -- An amateur astronomer from Arizona may have found another moon of the Earth.
It's been designated J002E2, and experts say it may have only just arrived.

The new moon was discovered by Bill Yeung, who reported it as a passing "near-Earth object." He later found, though, that it wasn't passing, but rather was in a 50-day orbit around the Earth.

EDITED: To remove e-mail addresses.

 

[Sky]

This report is not credible. The earth only has one mon.

 

[Caffeine Socialism]

It's probably the third stage of a Saturn V rocket, the ones that took us to the real moon. It's on cnn.com, if you want to know what I just read.

 

[foolsparade]

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

[Morat]

Sky: Earth has two moons. This third object is, most likely, the discarded third stage of the Saturn V from Apollo 12.

   Cruithne is locked into 1:1 resonance with Earth. It's considered a moon, even though it was originally though an asteroid. The phrase "funky orbit" helps, though.

 

 

 

[FordPrefect]

Morat, if I didn't have such a low opinion of "ratings", or "blessings" I would rate ya and bless ya for that url. I have now learned something today... thanks

 

[Sky]

The earth only has one mon, asteroids don't count. If the earth had two mons then wouldn't we have discovered that by now?

 

[ashibaka]

Originally posted by Sky
This report is not credible. The earth only has one mon.

From the Bad Astronomy newsletter (yes, I am a subscriber ):

2) Earth's Third Moon?

I have been getting a bit of email about news reports of an object
recently spotted in near-Earth space. They have been
claiming this object may be a new moon of Earth! Subsequent
observations and analysis have shown that the object is consistent
with being the spent booster from a Saturn 5 rocket, possibly
from the Apollo 12 mission. After being used to loft the astronauts to
the Moon, it took on a wide orbit, and has just recently been
recovered by astronomers. It may also hit the Moon next year!
Information on this fascinating story is still coming in. Your
best bet is to keep checking these websites for updates:

http://www.space.com

http://www.msnbc.com/news/spacenews_front.asp?0si=-
(specifically, here: http://www.msnbc.com/news/807219.asp)

The obvious question is, why is this our third Moon? Well,
it isn't really. The second moon to which people are referring
is the asteroid Cruithne. It was discovered a few years back, and is
in an orbit which lets it interact with the Earth gravitationally,
performing a bizarre dance. It isn't really a moon of Earth,
but it isn't an independent object either. I wrote a description
of it in my Bitesize pages at

http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/3753.html

and you can find out more here:

http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~wiegert/3753/3753.html

Summary for people in a hurry: A second moon was discovered a while ago. It's not quite a moon, but "moon" sounds cooler than "natural satellite".

 

[Sky]

Is it possible to see this "mon" in the night sky?

 

[FordPrefect]

Apparently, or how would they know it was there? If you mean by the naked eye, I couldn't tell ya.

 

[Morat]

Is it possible to see this "mon" in the night sky?

  With the naked eye? No, but "moon" isn't defined as "Things Sky can see with his eyes".

   It's an object, locked in a 1:1 orbit with the Earth. It's considered a moon, for lack of a better term. Specifically, it's more moon than asteroid.

 

 

[Warrior4Jah]

Thats a good one.... earth has two moons. I wonder how any thousands of ways I can prove how much bologna that is.

 

[LewisWildermuth]

"Moon" is a rather arbitrary definition, just like planet, brown dwarf and star.

One could argue that Earth has no natural moons.

What we call the Moon does not orbit the core of our planet, but in many ways could be called a secondary planet.

Our second moon is a captured asteroid and also does not orbit quite right.

We do however have hundreds of man-made moons.

One can define away either of the natural moons, but one cannot deny their existance any more than we can deny the existance of dogs.

 

[Morat]

  Why thank you, Warrior, for that almost violently non-informative post. For your encore, will you enter another thread, not bother to read any of the posts or supporting links, bleat your opinion, then leave?

 

 

[MizDoulos]

Please Note: Do keep personal offensive remarks off the pages of your posts and strive to treat each other's opinion with respect. If the thread continues to deteriorate any further, it will be closed.

Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[Morat]

  My apologies. That sort of thing does set me off, but I shall attempt to keep it under better control.