The Swarm Around the Broken Tether
After a 20-kilometre cable snapped away from a space shuttle, video of it showed dozens of notched discs drifting around it.
What was reported
In February 1996, Space Shuttle Columbia unreeled a satellite on a tether nearly 20 km long, to test generating electricity in orbit. The tether snapped and drifted away. Days later, a shuttle camera filmed the distant tether, and the footage showed dozens of glowing, disc-shaped objects drifting across the frame, some with a notch cut out of them.
The video was widely shared as a swarm of craft gathering around the tether.
Explanations offered
Camera experts explain that the 'discs' are tiny particles of ice and debris close to the camera, far out of focus, so each became a blurred disc of light. The notch is the shape of the camera's iris, which appears in out-of-focus points of light, a common effect in photography.
- When
- February–March 1996
- Where
- In orbit, filmed from Space Shuttle Columbia
- Witnesses
- Cameras on Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-75)
- Status
- Explained
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