- #1
ACG
- 46
- 0
Hi! I just saw something very unusual in the Boston sky today at 4:00 PM. Yes, in the middle of daylight.
It looked a lot like a star and it was almost straight up. It then slowly moved roughly from west to east and went maybe 45 degrees in 5-6 minutes. That would give whatever it is an orbital period of maybe 50 minutes or so if it was orbiting the earth. It then started to fade away and I lost it.
The question is: WHAT IS IT? I know a lot of astronomy, and I even asked someone who's getting a Ph.D in astronomy about it, but neither of us could figure it out.
1: It's not a planet -- it moves. And straight up from Boston is dec +42 so we're way out of the ecliptic.
2: It's not a satellite: it's too bright (brighter than Venus) and the orbital period is too short.
3: It's probably not an airplane: it's too high. And it doesn't have contrails. A plane had just gone through the area (that's why I managed to see the "star") and it had contrails.
4: Not a comet -- moved too quickly.
5: Not a meteor -- would have burned up much more quickly.
6: Not a supernova -- it moved. And we'd have heard about supernovae before they became visible!
What could it have possibly been? There are only a few things I can think of:
1. Iridium flare (do those still exist? Maybe what saw was consistent with a 90 minute orbit -- but does a flare last that long)
2. Near-earth asteroid (in which case someone must be notified but unfortunately I do not have enough information to determine an orbit)
3. VERY high-flying aircraft (but aircraft never get high enough to look like points and it was quite bright)
4. ISS (but does the ISS get up to declinations in the 40's?)
I'm baffled by this. Can you give me a hand?
Thanks in advance,
ACG
It looked a lot like a star and it was almost straight up. It then slowly moved roughly from west to east and went maybe 45 degrees in 5-6 minutes. That would give whatever it is an orbital period of maybe 50 minutes or so if it was orbiting the earth. It then started to fade away and I lost it.
The question is: WHAT IS IT? I know a lot of astronomy, and I even asked someone who's getting a Ph.D in astronomy about it, but neither of us could figure it out.
1: It's not a planet -- it moves. And straight up from Boston is dec +42 so we're way out of the ecliptic.
2: It's not a satellite: it's too bright (brighter than Venus) and the orbital period is too short.
3: It's probably not an airplane: it's too high. And it doesn't have contrails. A plane had just gone through the area (that's why I managed to see the "star") and it had contrails.
4: Not a comet -- moved too quickly.
5: Not a meteor -- would have burned up much more quickly.
6: Not a supernova -- it moved. And we'd have heard about supernovae before they became visible!
What could it have possibly been? There are only a few things I can think of:
1. Iridium flare (do those still exist? Maybe what saw was consistent with a 90 minute orbit -- but does a flare last that long)
2. Near-earth asteroid (in which case someone must be notified but unfortunately I do not have enough information to determine an orbit)
3. VERY high-flying aircraft (but aircraft never get high enough to look like points and it was quite bright)
4. ISS (but does the ISS get up to declinations in the 40's?)
I'm baffled by this. Can you give me a hand?
Thanks in advance,
ACG