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It's being tracked, but not by the "Minor Planet Center".
by lima 2y ago
It's being tracked, but not by the "Minor Planet Center".
- dmurray 2y agoHopefully it still is being tracked by them, otherwise when someone reports it tomorrow they'll have no idea what it is and will need to go through this song and dance again. It's just not being published on a certain curated list by the MPC.
- Thorrez 2y agoBy who? They say there doesn't exist a database tracking things like this: >“This incident, along with previous NEOCP postings of the WMAP spacecraft, highlights the deplorable state of availability of positional information on distant artificial objects,” the MPC fumed when it retracted 2007 VN84. “A single source for information on all distant artificial objects would be very desirable.”
- lima 2y agoThe ID they use is from a US government database: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=2018-017A https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id... I'm not sure if it was the lack of trajectories or the unusual orbit which caused the automation issue at MPC.