WT1190F
Sign in to saveAlso known as 9U01FF6, UDA34A3, UW8551D, UWAIS
WT1190F (9U01FF6, UDA34A3, or UW8551D) was a small temporary satellite of Earth that impacted Earth on 13 November 2015 at 06:18:21.7 (± 0.1 seconds) UTC. It is thought to have been space debris from the trans-lunar injection stage of the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission. It was first discovered on 18 February 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey. It was then lost, and reacquired on 29 November 2013. It was again discovered on 3 October 2015 by astronomer Rose Garcia with the Catalina Sky Survey 60-inch telescope, and the object was soon identified to be the same as the two objects previously sig
Key facts
- Planet.image
- WT-reentry-fireball-tight.jpg
- Planet.caption
- WT1190F entering the atmosphere over Sri Lanka, viewed by the airborne observation team
- Planet.name
- WT1190F
- Planet.mp_category
- Distant artificial satellite (before Jun 2009 to 13 November 2015)
- Planet.epoch
- 3 October 2015 (JD 2457298.5)
- Planet.periapsis
- (0.055 LD; 3.33 ER)
- Planet.apoapsis
- (1.704 LD, 102.75 ER)
- Planet.semimajor
- (0.880 LD, 53.04 ER)
- Planet.eccentricity
- 0.937269
- Planet.period
- 22.66 days
- Planet.mean_anomaly
- 6.191°
- Planet.inclination
- 3.197°
- Planet.asc_node
- 311.556°
- Planet.time_periastron
- 2 October 2015 14:39:00 UT
- Planet.arg_peri
- 314.044°
- Planet.avg_speed
- 1.1 km/s @ 0.00226 AU
- Planet.satellite_of
- Earth
- Planet.density
- ~
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- WT-reentry-fireball-tight.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- WT1190F
- time of discovery or invention
- 2013-02-18
- provisional designation
- UW8551D
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.9372685
- mean anomaly
- 6.19095
- argument of periapsis
- 314.04406
- longitude of ascending node
- 311.55613
- orbital inclination
- 3.19670
- time of object orbit decay
- 2015-11-13
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~7 min read
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Observations
- Impact
- Airborne observations
- See also
- Impacts by known objects
- Previous temporary satellites
- Notes
- References
- External links
WT1190F (9U01FF6, UDA34A3, or UW8551D) was a small temporary satellite of Earth that impacted Earth on 13 November 2015 at 06:18:21.7 (± 0.1 seconds) UTC. It is thought to have been space debris from the trans-lunar injection stage of the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission. It was first discovered on 18 February 2013 by the Catalina Sky Survey. It was then lost, and reacquired on 29 November 2013. It was again discovered on 3 October 2015 by astronomer Rose Garcia with the Catalina Sky Survey 60-inch telescope, and the object was soon identified to be the same as the two objects previously sighted by the team, who have been sharing their data through the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC). An early orbit calculation showed that it was orbiting Earth in an extremely elliptical orbit, taking it from within the geosynchronous satellite ring to nearly twice the distance of the Moon. It was also probably the same object as 9U01FF6, another object on a similar orbit discovered on 26 October 2009.
WT1190F had been orbiting Earth as a temporary satellite (named UWAIS) since mid-2009, if not longer. While it has not been positively identified with any known artificial satellites, its estimated density of 0.1 g/cm3 was much lower than would be expected of a natural object as even water has a density of 1 g/cm3. Hence, European Space Agency astronomers have concluded that the object was likely a fuel tank of some sort.