Astronomers hunting for Near Earth Asteroids reported finding an object in an unusual orbit on October 26th. The object is in an orbit of the Earth, which it takes 31 days to complete. It was given the temporary designation 9U01FF6. The object reached perigee (its nearest approach to Earth) on October 29th, at a distance of approximately 50,000 miles. It has since receded to a distance of 240,000 miles, about the distance of the Moon. It will reach its apogee (its farthest distance from Earth) on November 13th at a distance of about 460,000 miles, and thereafter approach Earth again. It was suspected that this was a piece of 'space junk' left over from the Apollo program, but some sources reported that this had been questioned based on certain aspects of the orbit. Others suggested than one of the two old Ranger Moon probes which missed impacting the Moon might be this object. At least one astronomer attempted to discover if the object showed any variations in brightness, such as a spinning asteroid or tumbling space junk would show, but found none. The object had a brightness of 17th magnitude at perigee, which seemed to indicate an object of approximately 2 to 3 meters in diameter, apparently assuming an albedo (efficiency in reflecting back light) similar to white-painted rocket stages, like the Agena (Ranger program) or Saturn S IV B (Apollo program) Both of these rocket stages have average diameters of well over 2 to 3 meters. Link to article, which links to ephemeris for this object: http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=27&month=10&year=2009

some of the European high orbit satelite launches leave space junk in eccentric orbits. this sounds like one of them

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

some of the European high orbit satelite launches leave space junk in eccentric orbits. this sounds like one of them

Not with those distances however. If it was man made it was headed to the moon or farther out.

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(bump)

Have any of you heard anything more about this object? Seems like it should have made another close pass by now...did anyone determine if it's man-made?

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It appears that this topic has disappeared from the Internet last mention of it that I can find is early November it seems to have dropped off of even the conspiracy theorists radar.

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

The 'mystery object' 9U01FF6 did indeed pass near Earth again, on November 28th. Little new seems to have been learned about it at that opportunity. It was reported to have gotten as bright as 16th magnitude for a short time. The object will again pass near Earth on December 30th. One holds out the hope that someone with a large enough telescope to discern an object of 16th or 17th magnitude will try to settle the interesting question of just what the object actually is. A few years ago, an object suspected of being a small asteroid, temporarily in Earth orbit, was finally identified as the remnants of an Apollo program rocket stage, when somebody saw fit to get a spectrum of it. It revealed the presence of Titanium Oxide, the colorant in the white paint used on the rocket. Repeated photometric readings on 9U01FF6 have failed to show the variations in light intensity expected of either an asteroid or a disused rocket stage, due to their tumbling motion through space. Michael

9U01FF6 reached perigee at about 8 hours universal time, today, December 30th. Contrary to expectations, it was only about 38,000 miles from Earth, and brightened to 15th magnitude. In October it was about 50,000 miles out at perigee and 17th magnitude. No one seems able to account for this change in the object's orbit. Michael

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~gwilliams/DASO/000000/DASO_000321.txt
http://www.projectpluto.com/mpec.htm

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Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year To Everyone At SETI!!!

Rather than start a new thread posting this here. If a mod decides to move it that's ok..by me. I did do a search on this one.

Russia considering sending spacecraft to knock asteroid off path and prevent Earth collision

By Vladimir Isachenkov, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW - Russia's space agency chief says a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely.

Anatoly Perminov told Golos Rossii radio on Wednesday that the space agency would hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis. He said his agency might eventually invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project.

When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.

Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometres) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.

NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000.

NASA said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact.


Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, said better calculations of Apophis' path in several years "will almost certainly remove any possibility of an Earth collision" in 2036.

"While Apophis is almost certainly not a problem, I am encouraged that the Russian science community is willing to study the various deflection options that would be available in the event of a future Earth threatening encounter by an asteroid," Yeomans said in an email Wednesday.

Without mentioning NASA's conclusions, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said.

"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said.

Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or hitting it with nuclear weapons.

Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions.

Hollywood action films "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," have featured space missions scrambling to avoid catastrophic collisions. In both movies, space crews use nuclear bombs in an attempt to prevent collisions.

"Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted."

Boris Shustov, the director of the Institute of Astronomy under the Russian Academy of Sciences, hailed Perminov's statement as a signal that officials had come to recognize the danger posed by asteroids.

"Apophis is just a symbolic example, there are many other dangerous objects we know little about," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2009/12/30/doomsdayz.jpg
The head of Russia's space agency called on Wednesday for a massive planetary effort to deflect a massive asteroid as it skips by the Earth in 2029. (NASA)

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2009/12/30/12305576-ap.html

Bold, mine.

Posting a full article my be frowned on, but post crime news for a living and url's fade away.

Russia considering sending spacecraft to knock asteroid off path and prevent Earth collision

This is an excellent opportunity to test deflection strategies if nothing else. With several near passes in close order and a primary large enough that anything that works to deflect it could possibly work on a planet-busting rock also. Perfecto!

Martin

Happy New Year Everyone!

Referring to the Distant Artificial Satellite Observation Page, at Harvard University, Harvard College Observatory website, the following figures for the three known close approaches of the 'mystery object' 9U01FF6 were obtained: October 29--50,772 miles; November 28--46,910 miles; December 30-- 37,938 miles. We see that the distance is less at each pass, and that the amount of change is greater for November through December, than for October through November. The object has gone from 17th magnitude in the October perigee to 15th in the one just a few days ago. A little more brightening and this object will fall within the reach of a great many amateur astronomer's telescopes. It will be interesting to see what we have, both in brightness and distance from Earth at the next close approach, at the end of January. Michael

My guess for January 30, 2010 is that it will come within 17,095 miles of the planet. Plus/minus 10%.

For March 2, 2010 I hope its as far from my backyard as possible. Secondly, I hope its a condorite and not an iron asteroid. Condorites breakup and explode in the atmosphere while iron ones make big holes in the ground with a lot of nasty side effects like volcanoes, lava flows and earthquakes all over the planet.

I was planning to go sailing this summer. What a bummer!!!

Franz

Franz; Assuming the object continues to reduce its perigee distance at each pass, I would guess that the figure for late January will be between 22,000, and 38,000 miles. The average of these is 30,000, which is as close as I'll try to come to a specific distance. If this is an asteroid, chondrite or otherwise, it seems odd that no brightness variations have been seen from it. These variations are normally produced by an asteroid, due to its spinning motion. It also seems more than a little odd that an asteroid would approach Earth in a long spiral like this, even though it had been captured into Earth orbit. The perigee distance was put at ~ 51,000 miles in late October, and revised only very slightly, upward, a month later, still 51,000 in even thousands of miles. The changes to a ~47,000 mile perigee in November and then ~38,000 miles in December seem inexplicable. If the object has a normal asteroid's albedo, it should only be about 24 to 40 feet across; not exactly a major threat. Michael

Hi Michael:

My post was a bit tongue in cheek. Even so, the numbers you quoted indicate exponential decay with 17,095 miles being the next in the sequence. This pretty much jives with what the Russians calculated (18,300 mi.) in Coco's post on Dec 31/09. The next value for Mar. 2/10 would be -31,330 mi.

If you work out the polynomial for your 3 data points and project forward you get 24,470 mi for Jan. 30/10 and 6,300 mi for Mar. 2/10. This is pretty close to your minimum figure of 22,000 mi for Jan 30/10. Apr.2/10 works out to -16,570 mi.

Hopefully, the negative values mean a miss but who knows what effect earth's gravity will have on the asteroid's orbit not to mention the moon's gravity.

Coco's post also states that the asteroid has a diameter of 270 m and another website estimated 250 m. If this would impact the earth it would definitely mess up a lot of people's March Break or Easter vacation plans. Hopefully the Russian's will hire Bruce Willis and his team to save the earth once again. :-)

Franz

Franz; Thank you for making those mathematical projections. It will be interesting to see if the object behaves as predicted. At apogee, it exceeds that fraction of the Hill Sphere radius of the Earth, which make for stable prograde orbits. The question becomes: how unstable is it, over what period of time? No new ephemerides have been forthcoming from Harvard College Observatory since the end of 2009. I hope to see new ones soon. The figures for the December perigee indicate that the object picked up speed on its last pass by Earth, so the new apogee will presumably be found to be larger than the last one and thus the upcoming perigee smaller, due to the conservation of momentum. The object is presumably at apogee today, and is expected to return to Earth's vicinity in about two weeks time. Michael

As I suggested in a previous post, the 'mystery object' 9U01FF6 apparently *is* in an unstable orbit, due to its great distance from Earth at apogee. The NASA/JPL Horizons web interface has an ephemeris for the object, which predicts that the next perigee will fall on February 6th, not January 30th, and that the minimum distance will be 49,387 miles. Thereafter the perigee distance will continue to increase at each pass for some time.

It would be cool though if it turned out to be a natural object because if it hasn't been observed before then that means the Earth caught itself a new moon. Though 3m long ain't substantial enough for that status i guess.

James; The object could be a very small asteroid, captured by Earth's gravity. Officially that would make it a moon, regardless of its size. The JPL/ NASA Horizons web interface classes it as a spacecraft, but so far as I have been able to learn, it hasn't been positively linked to a specific space project or mission. The spacecraft assumption is made mainly on the basis of the object's orbit, which looks as if it could have evolved from the sort of orbit a spacecraft traveling from Earth to Moon would be in. Michael