SUBJECT: MYSTERY OBJECT HEADING THIS WAY FILE: UFO1496 Article 10507 of sci.astro:Xref: bilver alt.alien.visitors:3155 sci.astro:10507From: tom@kether.webo.dg.com (Tom Sullivan)Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,sci.astroSubject: Mystery Object of Thursday, 12/5Message-ID: Date: 11 Dec 91 18:00:40 GMTSender: usenet@webo.dg.com (Usenet Administration)Organization: NSDD, Data General Corp.Lines: 73I've seen nothing on the net regarding this, but I found this in theGlobe:Without permission from the Boston Globe, 12/7, page 13:Mystery object eludes astronomersBy David L. Chandler, Globe Staff The unidentified object that hurtled past Earth before dawn onThursday remains a mystery, astronomers said yesterday, and itapparently slipped by without them getting a good l ook. A week ago, astronomers had decided that the tiny object,which passed slightly farther away from Earth than the moon's distanceof 240,000 miles, was probably an asteroid -- a chunk ofinterplanetary rock probably less than 30 feet across [BUT, re ad on!]. But observations on Monday by European astronomers working inChile showed dramatic variations in brightness which suggest anirregularly shaped, tumbling object with great variations in itssurface reflectivity, much more so than expected for a natural objectlike an asteroid, said Brian Marsden, an astronomer. Marsden, director of the Cambridge-based InternationalAstronomical Union's Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams and MinorPlanet Center, said yesterday that the variation in brightness "meanswe are dealing with some very peculiar object. I would say man- made.I think it wold be hard to explain this kind of variation with anatural object, even a small one." But Marsden and others are still puzzling over what kind ofman-made object i t is. Marsden said two weeks ago that it was probably the leftoverCentaur rocket used in 1974 to launch a sun-observing satellite calledHelios. But more precise calculations of the object's orbit, based onthe latest observations, show that, traced b ackwards, it never quitemeets Earth, as it should if it had been launched from Earth. There is a possible explaination for that descrepancy, Marsdensaid: Centaur rockets sometimes contain leftover hydrogen fuel afterthey reach orbit, and this fuel c ould continue to leak out, perhapsfor years. This could propel the rocket in unpredictable directions,like air escaping from a balloon that send it careening aound a room. During its closest approach to Earth on Thursday, the objectwas too far south to be visible from anywhere in the northernhemisphere. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chiletried to get pictures of it shortly after its closest approach inorder to get more precise data on its exact path and to make furthermea surements of its brightness variations. But as of yesterday, they were unable to find any sign of theobject in their pictures. Because of the difficulty of the observation and the faintnessof the object, astronomers Richard West and Oliver Hainaut at theobservatory in the Chilean Andes continued to examine their imagescarefully yesterday. These observations are essential to guarantee the success of aplanned radar observation of the object when it returns to visibilityin the northern hemisphere n ext week. A successful radar observations"would clinch it" as to whether the object is natural or artificial,Marsden said. "I was hoping it would be natural," said Marsden, because thatwould make it a very unusual type of asteroid and the smallest e verdetected, and therefore interesting to astronomers. But because ofthe brightness changes seen this week, he is now "90 percent sure"that it is artificial. Because of the uncertain movements of a rocket leakingleftover fuel, however, it may never be possible to identify it as aspecific rocket. If it is artificial but not any known rocket, that mightexplain the astronomers' inability to locate it in their pictures,Marsden joked. "Maybe that's why they couldn't be found last night," he said."Ma ybe they landed."Tom ********************************************** * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo * **********************************************