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Old 21-02-2007, 04:21 PM
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fringe_dweller
on the highway to Hell

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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 2,623
ahh all is explained now?

from spaceweather

'MYSTERY SOLVED: Jon P. Boers of the USAF Space Surveillance System has tentatively identified the source of the mystery cloud, described below. It was a Briz-M rocket body (catalogue number 28944) exploding over Australia. "Later, on the other side of the world, our RADAR saw 500+ pieces in that orbit," he says.

The Briz-M was the upper stage of a Russian Proton rocket that left Earth in Feb. 2006 carrying an Arabsat-4A communications satellite. Shortly after launch, the Briz-M malfunctioned, leaving the satellite in the wrong orbit and the Briz-M looping around Earth partially full of fuel. On Feb. 19, 2007, for reasons unknown, the fuel ignited over Australia.'
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