[Neocp_artsats] A11cbVV = A11c8HQ = A11aDOM = ETBO
Bill Gray
pluto at projectpluto.com
Wed Oct 2 10:29:17 EDT 2024
A11aDOM was found on September 4 and posted to NEOCP. It looked
like junk (clear geocentric solutions with a low-inclination orbit,
high eccentricity, and orbital period suspiciously close to one day).
But we only had three observations over 22 minutes, and heliocentric
solutions could fit the data with a moderate degree of ugliness in the
residuals. I added it to the list of "suspects" (objects where I think
something with similar inclination and ascending node might appear days
or months later).
A11c8HQ was posted to NEOCP yesterday, and seemed likely to be
artificial with an inclination, ascending node, and argument of
perigee resembling those for A11aDOM. With 27 days in between, though,
you could fit 25 to 29 orbits during that time, for five very
different solutions. I tried them, thinking there might be other
tracklets that would fit with and confirm the "correct" solution. There
weren't.
A11cbVV was posted to NEOCP this morning, and very clearly linked
to A11c8HQ and removed the ambiguity, resulting in a solid linkage.
These still appear to be the only three tracklets we have for this object.
I've taken the usual steps for a newly linked piece of junk (posted
TLEs to GitHub, sent an ID to MPC, and updated the list of 'artsats
previously on NEOCP' on my Sat_ID2 page.)
-- Bill
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