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ds15 t1_j1sp2uy wrote

An amateur radio astronomer also found LES1, which would be an absolute highlight of my life to pick up live but my gears not quite there yet.

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4tune8SonOfLiberty t1_j1tbqlg wrote

It's worth noting that of the half dozen listed zombie satellites, and of the three that have come back to life in the modern era, Scott Tilley is credited with having found two of them.

He keeps this up, he's gonna get a wikipedia page of his own!

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ds15 t1_j1ubmqa wrote

I guess we have work to do, who here is good at writing?

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PeterMillermark t1_j1ttg3z wrote

ELI5 what am I looking at?

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ds15 t1_j1ucg70 wrote

Zombie satellites are craft in orbit that stop functioning for many different reasons that can come back to minimal life for short or longer periods of time. LES1 launched in 1965 was lost and considered dead. It was found because some sort of short circuit was able to wake the beacon when it gets enough sun in it's tumbling orbit. Since it's not enough energy to fully function added to the abnormal orbit, it sends back a weak moaning signal. Sorry, this was my first ELI5. Edit: a word.

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kc2syk t1_j1uxyz8 wrote

Doppler shift on a beacon transmitter.

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