Description

in the previous post, I presented to you an image taken by the astronauts of the STS-100 mission showing a strange anomaly resembling several UFOs flying in formation over Egypt. Today I am going to show some new findings on this subject, as well as replying to some skeptic comments about the image.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/u5w71k/sts100_mission_sts10070…

Thanks to the comments of several redditors, we found other anomalies in the image. Three main possibilities were presented by redditors as an attempt to explain the identity of the UFOs :

https://preview.redd.it/6y147irs2su81.jpg?width=4127&format=pjpg&auto…

1) The picture is a composite of several images and the UFOs in question are just one object/satellite moving along its orbit :

* False, this is not a composite, it's a single image. If you look at the URL of the image, it says it's a "frame".

https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS100&roll=70…

* If it was a composite, it should affect the other anomalies in the image, and we would've got something like this :

https://preview.redd.it/vxlwsnke3su81.png?width=332&format=png&auto=w…

Here's a website full of images from different STS missions. They're all frames and not composites. https://picryl.com/search?original_format_type=photos&q=STS%20100

* STS images have an ID that looks like this "STS100-708A-48 , STS100-363-036 , S132E008611 etc..." while composites have different ID/names.

=> Some important notes i need to mention :

* Composites show wide fields of view.
* Sometimes the makers of composites do not pay attention to some details regarding shadows, lights angles etc... so when you analyze the image, you will find several errors such as incorrect positioning of certain parts of a landscape, a difference in pixel density, or the mismatch of shadows and lighting.

Here is an example :

STS-135 composite view (https://preview.redd.it/z89crd7g3su81.png?width=3405&format=png&auto=…)

I used \\"Forensically\\", a cool website that allows you to use a of set tools for digital image forensics. (https://preview.redd.it/ee7boahg5su81.png?width=3405&format=png&auto=…)

2) The phenomenon is a photographic effect caused by long exposure :

This is not true, here's why :

* The result should be a long trail of light instead of what appears to be several objects separated from each other.
* If the anomaly was indeed an effect of long exposure, we would have observed the same thing happening with the other anomalies in the image, which is not the case.
* The five anomalies look different from each other; the one on the left looks bigger than the other 4, and they all seem to have different levels of brightness.

https://preview.redd.it/tbeactdx4su81.png?width=960&format=png&auto=w…

3) The UFOs are Starlink satellites :

This is completely false, simply because the first Starlink satellites were launched on May 23rd 2019, while the image in question was taken 18 years earlier, in April 2001.

Initial Explanations :

I first thought of two logical explanations for this phenomenon :

* the first was the possibility that the UFOs are a group of small cube-shaped satellites (CubeSats) that were launched during another space mission. CubeSats are miniaturized satellites that are characterized by their small size and weight, low prices, short development time etc... This is how they look like :

https://preview.redd.it/ll02lxp95su81.jpg?width=1487&format=pjpg&auto…

CubeSats launched during the 33rd Expedition to the ISS (https://preview.redd.it/khr04wsa5su81.jpg?width=4288&format=pjpg&auto…)

The problem i faced with this theory is that after doing some research i found that the first CubeSats were launched in 2003, two years after the photo was taken.

* The second explanation, which was also pointed out by some redditors in my previous post, is that the UFOs are just a weird image artifact, caused by cosmic radiation affecting the camera. As to the other anomalies, they're most likely dust or ice particles either on the window or the camera lens.

=> I wasn't satisfied with these explanations because i was very intrigued by strangeness of the anomaly. So I decided to carry out more research, hoping to come across the mysterious objects again. I spent last night examining all the frames of STS100-708A (from frame 1 to frame 97). This is what i found :

1) - half of the images showed this object in the upper right. Other frames showed what looked like thin strings. I concluded that it's the hair of the astronauts.

https://preview.redd.it/k9z6q7f56su81.png?width=641&format=png&auto=w…

https://preview.redd.it/9qtb6x566su81.png?width=1282&format=png&auto=…

2) - The majority of images contained these two blue streaks of light. They're most likely dead pixels.

https://preview.redd.it/l5w7cpv86su81.png?width=1624&format=png&auto=…

3) - This image (frame 49) was taken a few seconds after the one showing the UFOs. It disappeared in the 50th frame. The anomaly seems to be in the same vertical position as the other UFOs.

https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/DatabaseImages/ISD/highres/STS100/STS100-708…

https://preview.redd.it/oufghcog6su81.png?width=4127&format=png&auto=…

4) - Things will get more and more interesting : in the 56th frame i found the five UFOs again !! they are in the same formation and seem closer than before. We can discern some details of the large UFO on the left. Also, notice the presence of a new object on the right. By doing a comparison between frame 49 and this one, I found some similarities which led me to believe that we are dealing with the same UFO.

https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/DatabaseImages/ISD/highres/STS100/STS100-708…

https://preview.redd.it/glyrrkedfsu81.png?width=4127&format=png&auto=…

https://preview.redd.it/ute7pn07hsu81.png?width=1892&format=png&auto=…

5) - I never found the UFOs again but i came across another weird anomaly in the 94th frame. I still don't know what it is and I will probably make another post about it in the future.

https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/DatabaseImages/ISD/highres/STS100/STS100-708…

https://preview.redd.it/4dh8565chsu81.png?width=4127&format=png&auto=…

6) - in order to determine the duration of the observation of the UFOs from frame 48 to frame 56, I did the following steps :

1. I downloaded the Google Earth KML files of both images, which you can find in the "Download Options" section. These files contain geographic data allowing me to know the exact position of the ISS when the images were taken.
2. I mesured the distance between both marks and found it equal to about 301km.
3. Then I divided the distance by the speed of the ISS which is 7,66 km/s. The sighting lasted approximately 40 seconds.

https://preview.redd.it/s4nir7kcjsu81.png?width=1291&format=png&auto=…

Speculation and Conclusion :

=> Here's a short video I made in which I speculate on what might have happened.

https://reddit.com/link/u8eo39/video/gdxyt6ppysu81/player

* The UFOs are not an image artifact, they're physically there. As to the other anomalies they're just hair, dust particles and dead pixels. I still need to investigate what the blue lights in frame 94 are.
* Even though i keep using the term "UFOs" I still don't know if it's a fleet of UFOs or a single craft consisting of several sections.
* The UFOs were flying at low orbit and slightly slower than the speed of the ISS, which explains why they appeared much closer in frame 56.
* I don't think they're space debris. The alignment of the objects, their symmetry and how out-of-place they look is just too perfect for me.
* We need experts in image analysis to figure out the size of the objects and their distance from the ISS.
* I'm currently examining frames of STS100-709 to see if I find the UFOs again. I'll keep you guys updated.