Russian scientists working at the Institute Keldysh Applied Mathematics (IPM) RAS, reported their discovery – the Centaur upper stage, which disappeared from the field of view of astronomers after the American lunar landing module Peregrine was launched into orbit, was found during observations carried out by CrAO RAS researcher Vasily Rumyantsev on the night of 9 to 10 January. The object was discovered using the AT-64 telescope and turned out to be bright and rotating. This is not expected to impact the performance of Celestis customers aboard the booster.
The Centaur booster disappeared on January 8th from Cape Canaveral in Florida following the launch of a United Launch Alliance Vulcan launch vehicle and lander. Peregrine. After separation, the upper stage turned out to be faulty and could not take a stable position oriented towards the Sun. Astronomers were unable to detect the upper stage, but it later turned out that the Minor Planet Center identified this upper stage with the object gb00671, discovered by Crimean astronomer Gennady Borisov during a systematic search for near-Earth asteroids.
Additionally, on the website IPM named after M.V. Keldysh RAS reports the detection of an anomalous aurora in Crimea for the second time in a year.
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