Published: 26 November, 2008, 14:36
Edited: 26 November, 2008, 14:36
Amateur astronomers in the U.S. have managed to find a tool bag, which NASA astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost during a space walk last week.
The first sighting was made by Edward Light from New Jersey, using 10x50 binoculars, on the night of November 23. He noticed the bag traveling in space near the Pisces star constellation. Another amateur astronomer, Kevin Fetter, managed to film the object and later posted the video on the Internet. The 50cm X 30 cm bag, is now orbiting the Earth at a height of 400 kilometres.
The tool bag is estimated to be worth about $US 100.000. It was lost during repair works at the International Space Station on November 19, preformed by U.S. astronauts Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Stephen Bowen.
Various amateur astronomer communities are now trying to calculate the trajectory of the bag. According to their data, next time it will be seen from North America in the evening on November 26 and 28. Meanwhile, NASA says the bag will burn in the atmosphere in June 2009.
But the amateur astronomers did a great job finding such a small object in endless space. Maybe the U.S. government should now hire them to find some important stuff on Earth, for example, Osama Bin Laden, the way out of the Credit Crunch and the way to cope with Global Warming.