Re: Google Sky anomalies: Shocking Deep Space Discovery
Thanks, Freak. Interesting little trip down the rabbit hole today based on your YouTube post.
See link below:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1292281#Post1292281This is a link to the known Sky Data Problems maintained by a user named Marco Polo.
See the quote below from Marco Polo explaining the "ships:"
Quote:
I'm not sure what "Ship 13" means in your placemark, these are not any sort of ship. The series of dashes are very regular, very linear, all blue, and comprise a total length of about 5 degrees.
I searched the Aladin image browser, and found the (one) image which contained the series of dashes. In the original, you can see that the dashes are actually connected with fainter light, brightening with a regular period to the blue marks which are visible in the GSky imagery. The original image I found is a SERC image taken with a "J" filter, which is in the blue part of the visible spectrum. There were no comparable dashed lines in any of about 20 other images from SERC, POSS1, 2MASS, or DENIS. There was no object matching the location in the SIMBAD database. I created an overlay containing the SERC image, plus placemarks for the beginning and end of the entire series of dashes. See the .kmz file at the bottom of this post.
My conclusion is that this is a satellite captured with a single exposure of the SERC observatory. As the satellite passed over the telescope making the image, it rotates with a regular period, which explains the regular sequence of dashes. The "J" filter explains the blue color. The 5 degree length of the entire series of dashes matches with the 5 degree size of the DSS image plates. The lack of any similar images in a collection of about 20 other images of the same location, taken using a variety of about 5 other observatories, explains the transient nature of the object. A satellite passing overhead most closely matches all of these criteria.
Link here:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1454344