Russian Phobos-Grunt probe spotted in orbit ?

[sergio]

Hey all, today we saw a very slowly spinning and relatively slowly moving object up in the sky at about 50-70 degrees elevation looking east, for a period of about 2-3 minutes. Having read about that failed probe that got stuck in orbit few days ago, this looked like it could be it. Your thoughts?

figured it was spinning because it kept bouncing light back at regular intervals, also in a few different colours too according to my friend, but I didn't see it myself. unfortunately the image is poor as I didn't get the right focus in time, but here it is.

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/328/img2369mr.jpg

[Rob_K]

Hi Sergio - Heavens Above had four daylight passes for Phobos-Grunt for Melbourne on Saturday, 10:56, 12:29, 17:13 and 18:47, so it doesn't look like your object was the misbehaving satellite. The last three were at low altitude in the sky, while the brightest of the four was mag 3.8 and none were visible passes. :thumbsup:
http://www.heavens-above.com/

There's some pretty nasty stuff aboard and it looks like an uncontrolled re-entry will occur soon unless a miracle happens.
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/phobos_grunt_launch.html
http://news.discovery.com/space/russia-mars-phobos-grunt-lost.html
http://www.gizmag.com/phobos-grunt-trapped-in-orbit/20474/
"If the Russians are unable to regain control, the Phobos-Grunt is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, along with its 8.3 tons (7.5 tonnes) of highly toxic propellant and radioactive cobalt-57."

Cheers -

[sergio]

Oh, nice website (heavens above) - thanks Rob! This will be helpful :)
And yes, it looks like the probe is lost now... let's hope it doesn't crash in populated area.