Asteroid Zoo Talk

parallel FMO in opposite directions

  • JKD by JKD

    does anyone have an idea what’s the origin of this observation?

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  • CTidwell3 by CTidwell3

    Think both are satellites as they both display slight variations in brightness which could be due to different reflective surfaces as the satellite spins. Frame 4 would have been taken about 21 minutes after frame 1, so plenty of time for another satellite to have shown up.

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  • mhammergren by mhammergren scientist

    This field is a few degrees south of the equator, and the length of the complete track shows that this satellite is moving across the sky at about 15 arcseconds per second. Both pieces of information are consistent with it being a geosynchronous satellite! Nice catch. The other partial track is likely due to another geosynchronous satellite, just given the similar location and direction of motion.

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  • dudrea by dudrea

    I don't really understand : a geosynchronous satellite is.....Synchronous 😉 How could it move so much ?

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  • CTidwell3 by CTidwell3

    From Wikipedia: A geosynchronous satellite is a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, with an orbital period the same as the Earth's rotation period. Such a satellite returns to the same position in the sky after each sidereal day.

    The synchronous part is with the earths orbital period plus location at a particular time, not just the location in the sky. It takes the special case of a geostationary orbit for a satellite to be in the same place of the sky. That's why they can be moving. It's also why you hear about networks of satellites for things like GPS -- enough so that a set number will be known to be in the sky for any particular time period. For example, these 1 from 7am-10am, 1 from 8-11, one from 9-12, one from 10-1, etc, so that at any particular time 3-4 can be seen with their geosynchronous orbit returning them to the same locations at a known time each day.

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  • dudrea by dudrea

    Thank's I'd confused geosynchronous with geostationnary

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