Amateur
astronomers have been monitoring a shiny tool bag that has been orbiting Earth
ever since it was dropped last week by an astronaut during a spacewalk outside
the International Space Station.
The bag is reportedly
about magnitude 6.4, which under most sky conditions is too faint to see with
the naked eye.
Veteran
spacewalker and Endeavor astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost
her grip on the backpack-sized bag on Nov. 18 while cleaning up a mess from
a leaking grease gun she was carrying to help mop up metal grit from inside a
massive gear that turns the space station's starboard solar wings.
The tool
bag cost $100,000 and its loss meant astronauts had to share the remaining tool
bag for subsequent spacewalks. The tool bag weighs about 30 pounds (14 kg) and
is 20 inches (51 cm) wide, about a foot (30 cm) tall and a hand's-width deep,
according to John Ray, STS-126 lead spacewalk officer for the flight. The bag
contained two grease guns, a scraper tool, a large trash bag and a small debris
bag.
Once the tool
bag floated away, some thought they'd seen the end of it. Not quite. A
satellite tracker at Spaceweather.com
now is monitoring both the space
station and the tool bag.
After
sunset on Nov. 22, Edward Light, using 10 x 50 binoculars, spotted the bag in
space while he scanned the sky from his backyard in Lakewood, N.J.,
Spaceweather.com reported. On the same night, Keven Fetter of Brockville, Ontario, video-recorded the bag as it passed by the star Eta Pisces in the constellation
Pisces.
More
bag-viewing opportunities are expected.
The tool
bag can be seen through binoculars, a few minutes ahead of the space station's
orbit. The satellite tracker predicts that the bag will be visible through
binoculars from Europe and western North America during a series of passes this
week. By late next week, the tool bag should appear in the evening skies over
most of North America.
Like other
space debris, the tool bag's show will have a fiery end. "We currently
predict that the errant tool bag will fall back to Earth in June of next year,"
said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The date is dependent upon solar activity, so an earlier
or later date is possible. As the reentry date draws nearer, a more accurate
prediction can be made."
And he
expects the entire tool bag will burn up upon reentry. "Although we have
not yet conducted a detailed reentry survivability analysis for the tool bag
and its contents, it is highly likely that no components will reach the surface
of the Earth," Johnson told SPACE.com.
The tool bag
is not the only piece of space
trash from the station. Other junk includes an unmanned Russian cargo ship
and a massive ammonia coolant tank the size of a refrigerator. The coolant tank
was intentionally tossed from the space station in 2007, and it burned up in
Earth's atmosphere earlier this month. The cargo ship undocked on Nov. 14, but
will loiter in orbit for engineering tests before its planned disposal in
Earth's atmosphere in early December.
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