Hello all,
First, as I'm new to this list, a brief intro: I'm almost
entirely involved with tracking of natural objects (asteroids,
comets, planetary satellites) rather than of artificial objects.
But every now and then, the folks who find those objects find
something that moves in a vaguely asteroid-like manner (i.e.,
pretty slowly).
Such objects are usually things with really high orbits,
often with high eccentricity (so that they move slowly at
apogee). For example, IMP-8, an object about halfway out
to the moon with a twelve-day orbital period, routinely gets
observed and mistaken for a satellite. Most of these get
observed for a bit and then somebody figures out what they
are, and then we all go back to looking for asteroids.
But today, four observatories in New Mexico and Arizona
tracked a "mystery object" with an orbital period of about 31
days. Then some observers with a telescope in Spain got some
more data on it, so the orbit is firmed up a little. It has
received a temporary name of 9U01FF6. Here's the data on it:
http://www.projectpluto.com/mpec.htm
This is sort of a standard format for asteroid data: you
get the observations (times, RA/dec, magnitude, a
three-character observatory code) followed by orbital elements
and ephemerides. I've also included a set of TLEs. (Be warned
that some software will probably choke at the idea of a TLE
for an object with a 31-day period with e=.8.)
Anyway. I've signed up to this list and am making this
post because I've no clue as to what this thing might be.
Any suggestions?
Thanks! -- Bill
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