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arXiv · 1807.03037

Observations of Near-Earth Optical Transients with the Lomonosov Space Observatory

Abstract

The results of observations with the MASTER-SHOK robotic wide-field optical cameras onboard the Lomonosov Space Observatory carried out in 2016 are presented. In all, the automated transient detection system transmitted 22 181 images of moving objects with signal-to-noise ratios greater than 5 to the Earth. Approximately 84% of these images are identified with well-known artificial Earth satellites (including repeated images of the same satellite) and fragments of such satellites (space debris), according to databases of known satellites. The remaining 16% of the images are relate to uncatalogued objects. This first experience in optical space-based monitoring of near-Earth space demonstrates the high efficiency and great potential of using large-aperture cameras in space, based on the software and technology of the MASTER robotic optical complexes (the Mobile Astronomical System of TElescope-Robots (MASTER) global network of robotic telescopes of Lomonosov Moscow State University).

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V. M. Lipunov, E. S. Gorbovskoy, V. G. Kornilov, V. V. Chazov, M. I. Panasyuk, S. I. Svertilov, I. V. Yashin, V. L. Petrov, V. V. Kallegaev, A. A. Amelushkin, D. M. Vlasenko. 2018-07-09. Observations of Near-Earth Optical Transients with the Lomonosov Space Observatory. https://doi.org/10.1134/s1063772918070016

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