Damn Satellites

[Ron Schmit]

Look at this Hubble image of gravitational lensing with all these damn satellite...
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Gravitational Lensing.png

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Wait... What? Those are from ASTEROIDS?

Hmmm...


Never mind.

[Deane Clark]

I’m confused.

[Ron Schmit]

You see the lines in the photograph that look like skinny arcs? At first glance you might think they look like satellites (Curse you Starlink!!!)

Those aren't satellites; they're asteroids!
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Asteroids.png

[Deane Clark]

Yeah, but I’m still confused. Since when do asteroids follow such paths? Isn’t there an article somewhere that explains what’s in that picture a little more? Are the asteroids being lensed?

[Ron Schmit]

No, the asteroids are not being lensed, the galaxies are. The asteroid path shows up in the foreground and its shape is due to parallax, the asteroid movement over time relative to the objects being targeted, the orbital path of the asteroid around the Sun, the path of the telescope around the Earth and the Sun, and the orientation of the instrument.

[Deane Clark]

Thanks.
Why is this the first time I’ve seen this? Did somebody remove those paths from previous images of lensed galaxies, or does this just happen to be in the right place that all those asteroids are in the way?

Now what are we gonna do about it? We need an asteroid cleanup project!

[DahnGee]

The ever helpful Phil Plait did a column on this image with the asteroids a few years ago

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/abell-370 ... of-the-sky

[Deane Clark]

Thanks Don! That’s exactly what I was looking for.
Spoiler alert - they do remove the asteroid trails usually.