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Beatriz Villarroel announces VASCO altitude and hotspot preprints

Beatriz Villarroel announces VASCO altitude and hotspot preprints

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Dear everyone,
Some new and very exciting news from the VASCO team! First, our machine-learning paper has been accepted for publication following peer review and is now in press. In this paper, we used machine learning to address some of the criticism concerning plate defects and remove contaminants from the sample. We demonstrate that all the intriguing correlations become even stronger as the sample becomes cleaner. More on this once the final version is published.

Second, we have two new preprints. In the first, we use Earth-shadow statistics to infer the altitudes of the objects producing the transients. The results suggest that the objects are located approximately 20,000–35,786 km above the Earth’s surface, with the upper limit corresponding to geosynchronous altitude. They are clustering near the equator.

We model their properties. The objects have highly reflective surfaces that are small, flat and ranging from a few centimetres to about 3 metres. Their small sizes may partly reflect the transient-search methodology, in which brighter objects were filtered out. We also discuss various toy models that could explain their observed properties, including sudden changes in attitude (direction of the nose).

Third, we use the projected locations of the pre-Sputnik transients to identify geographic hotspots of transients. Intriguingly, Sedona, White Sands/El Paso, Tampico and several other locations emerge. And we find further associations with nuclear weapons tests.

Enjoy these three pieces of news! Read the two new preprints here:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.05105

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.09461

Attached images

  • Image 1: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR2vARaW4AAtiqV.jpg?name=orig (3,000 × 1,800)
  • Image 2: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HR2vF0nXQAY8cRK.jpg?name=orig (2,256 × 2,133)
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