Real UFO - Sort of

Anyone venture a guess as to what this was?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050208.html

No record on heavens-above.com.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Anyone venture a guess as to what this was?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050208.html

No record on heavens-above.com.


Did you follow the discussion on the bulletin board suggested in the photo
caption? http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?t=291 is the
link. The participants there have it pretty well down to a rockets fuel
dump: "This would appear to be a fuel dump. The AMC-16 satellite was
launched at 12:07 UT. Spacecraft separation was scheduled to occur 1:49
later (13:56 UT). I don't have the times but what followed next was the
Contamination and Collision Avoidance Maneuver (CCAM). The first photo is at
14:19 UT. Twenty-three minutes seems like a reasonable time to wait before
the fuel dump..." There are a bunch of UFO and conspiracy theory cranks who
have inflated the thread, but the simple explanation seems to satisfy most.

Sounds good to me. It will be fun to see this turn up as evidence for
alien spacecraft and government conspiracy. I got the link off of
drudgereport.com, and the discussion had just begun. But, by
definition, it was/is a UFO.

JohnShap wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Anyone venture a guess as to what this was?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050208.html

No record on heavens-above.com.


Did you follow the discussion on the bulletin board suggested in the
photo
caption? http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?t=291 is
the
link. The participants there have it pretty well down to a rockets
fuel
dump: "This would appear to be a fuel dump. The AMC-16 satellite was
launched at 12:07 UT. Spacecraft separation was scheduled to occur
1:49
later (13:56 UT). I don't have the times but what followed next was
the
Contamination and Collision Avoidance Maneuver (CCAM). The first
photo is at
14:19 UT. Twenty-three minutes seems like a reasonable time to wait
before
the fuel dump..." There are a bunch of UFO and conspiracy theory
cranks who
have inflated the thread, but the simple explanation seems to satisfy
most.

On 8 Feb 2005 11:41:30 -0800
wrote:

Sounds good to me. It will be fun to see this turn up as
evidence for alien spacecraft and government conspiracy. I got
the link off of drudgereport.com, and the discussion had just
begun. But, by definition, it was/is a UFO.

The fact that one guy on the forum was on big island and managed
to point his scope at it, and saw the big streak, and also saw
a small dot, which doesn't show on the APOD pics, stationed
right next to the streak, is pretty good evidence for a fuel
dump (And the craft that dumped it) as well.

Still an interesting thread to read (If you read the technical
bits, not kook bits)

-Chris D