An Unidentified Moving Object over the Moon

There are a couple of mysteries in this Clementine image. If you blow it up to 10 to 1 you will see a star like object below and under the "line of flight" of the streak and a fainter one behind. These star like objects do not appear in the following image 6 seconds later. So there are 3 anomolous objects in that image. UFOs don't travel in odd sized packs. Do they?


 
 

            The Original Image                                                                  A 10 X enlargment

Download gif.                                                                Download gif.

The streak is 8 pixels long counting the gray leading and trailing pixels. Assuming the white pixels are the "main Body" they are contigious 2 down, left 1, down 3. A total of 5 down 1 left. Are the gray pixels significant? Why the different shades of gray? 6 by my count. This could not be an imaging  artifact because of the discontinuity between the "objects" and the various shades of gray. The objects should be in a lower orbit that Clem. If the objects were headed toward the top or the left edge, at long range then there might be time for them to exit the frame before the next image. Is this orbiting debris from some earlier lunar excursion? I presently refer to these as Unidentified Moving Objects (UMOs) 1, 2, and 3. Here is the evidence that something else was in lunar orbit with Clementine.

The Clementine orbiter was in orbit 140 and took a series of Star Track B shots of the moon in Earth shine. The above image, LBA0040v.140 was different because of the objects. This image was exposed for 199.9 milliseconds, which makes the image quite dark. Here is the support data that came with the image.

The significance of the accidental imaging of these artifacts is that there are wonderful mysteries yet to be solved, over and on the moon. The Moons microgravity variations is very hard on orbiting objects. In fact, there was a report that indicated that even under the best of circumstances objects tend to "deorbit" rather quickly, but in any case they last no more than a year. That fact alone makes them anomalous. The current conventional premise is that Clem caught a comet in the act of a near miss or a impact. This would be the conventional explanation of the objects, more unconventional explanations will be left to the readers imagination.

The Support Data

START_TIME = 1994-03-21T06:06:51.154Z

STOP_TIME = "N/A"

UNCORRECTED_START_TIME = 1994-03-21T06:06:51.141Z

SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_START_COUNT = "N/A"

SPACECRAFT_CLOCK_STOP_COUNT = "N/A"

PRODUCT_CREATION_TIME = 1994-10-30T15:33:21

/*** CAMERA RELATED PARAMETERS ***/

INSTRUMENT_NAME = "B STAR TRACKER CAMERA"

INSTRUMENT_ID = "B-STAR"

FILTER_NAME = "N/A"

CENTER_FILTER_WAVELENGTH = "N/A"

BANDWIDTH = "N/A"

GAIN_MODE_ID = "4"

MCP_GAIN_MODE_ID = "N/A"

OFFSET_MODE_ID = "15"

EXPOSURE_DURATION = 199.9392 <ms>

LENS_TEMPERATURE = 272.14 <K>

FOCAL_PLANE_TEMPERATURE = 265.798 <K>

CRYOCOOLER_TEMPERATURE = "N/A"

CRYOCOOLER_DURATION = "N/A"

/*** OBSERVATIONAL GEOMETRY DATA. ***/

/*** LINE-OF-SITE ON CELESTIAL SPHERE: Angles in <deg> ***/

RIGHT_ASCENSION = 253.28 <deg>

DECLINATION = 40.80 <deg>

TWIST_ANGLE = 168.62 <deg>

RETICLE_POINT_RA = ( 283.87, 233.50, 234.83, 262.79)

RETICLE_POINT_DECLINATION = ( 54.73, 62.28, 21.86, 17.67)

/*** OBSERVATIONAL SEQUENCE INFORMATION ***/

SEQUENCE_TABLE_ID = "IEQ_30"

/*** TARGET PARAMETERS: Position <km>, Velocity <km/s> ***/

SC_TARGET_POSITION_VECTOR = ( 992.6, -999.4, 2423.7)

SC_TARGET_VELOCITY_VECTOR = ( -1.4330, -0.0901, 0.0133)

TARGET_CENTER_DISTANCE = 2803.3 <km>

/*** TARGET WITHIN SENSOR FOV: Angles in <deg> ***/

SLANT_DISTANCE = "N/A"

CENTER_LATITUDE = "N/A"

CENTER_LONGITUDE = "N/A"

HORIZONTAL_PIXEL_SCALE = "N/A"

VERTICAL_PIXEL_SCALE = "N/A"

SMEAR_MAGNITUDE = "N/A"

SMEAR_AZIMUTH = "N/A"

NORTH_AZIMUTH = 96.40 <deg>

RETICLE_POINT_LATITUDE = ( -60.75, -32.19,"N/A","N/A")

RETICLE_POINT_LONGITUDE = ( 273.13, 255.05,"N/A","N/A")

/*** SPACECRAFT POSITION WITH RESPECT TO CENTRAL BODY ***/

SUB_SPACECRAFT_LATITUDE = -70.49 <deg>

SUB_SPACECRAFT_LONGITUDE = 258.58 <deg>

SPACECRAFT_ALTITUDE = 1065.9 <km>

SUB_SPACECRAFT_AZIMUTH = 120.19 <deg>

/*** SPACECRAFT LOCATION: Position <km>, Velocity <km/s> ***/

SPACECRAFT_SOLAR_DISTANCE = 149082177.1

SC_SUN_POSITION_VECTOR = (-149079645.7, -786177.7, -369729.8)

SC_SUN_VELOCITY_VECTOR = ( 0.2339,-27.5224,-12.0504)

/*** VIEWING AND LIGHTING GEOMETRY (SUN ON TARGET) ***/

SOLAR_DISTANCE = 149081186.4 <km>

SUB_SOLAR_AZIMUTH = 137.78 <deg>

SUB_SOLAR_LATITUDE = 1.32 <deg>

SUB_SOLAR_LONGITUDE = 73.66 <deg>

INCIDENCE_ANGLE = "N/A"

PHASE_ANGLE = "N/A"

EMISSION_ANGLE = "N/A"

LOCAL_HOUR_ANGLE = 2.69 <deg>

/*** LIGHTING GEOMETRY FROM SECONDARY SOURCE ***/

LIGHT_SOURCE_NAME = "EARTH"

LIGHT_SOURCE_DISTANCE = 389900.5 <km>

SUB_LIGHT_SOURCE_AZIMUTH = 168.71 <deg>

SUB_LIGHT_SOURCE_LATITUDE = 4.58 <deg>

SUB_LIGHT_SOURCE_LONGITUDE = 352.35 <deg>

LIGHT_SOURCE_INCIDENCE_ANGLE = "N/A"

LIGHT_SOURCE_PHASE_ANGLE = "N/A"

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