The Truth About the White Bag Floating in the Sky

The strange object discovered orbiting Earth is neither a spacecraft nor a satellite. What is it really?

On Twitter, observers recently shared images of a strange object , neither a spacecraft nor a satellite, shaped like a bag. It is located near the International Space Station ISS, and moves around the Earth in its own orbit.

This is actually a tool bag accidentally lost by NASA astronauts during their space mission.

Instrument bag drifting in the sky. (Photo: NASA/JSC).

According to NASA, while astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara were performing a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) on November 1, the tool bag caused them to slip and then get lost.

According to EarthSky , this white pocket is currently drifting across the sky, orbiting our planet, and can be seen with binoculars. "The pocket is surprisingly bright at a visual magnitude of 6, just a little brighter than Uranus when viewed from Earth ," EarthSky said.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics (CfA), said the bag even has an official name . The name indicates that it has been recognized as a man-made object in orbit , with the code name 58229/1998-067WC.

It is estimated that the lost tool bag will re-enter Earth's atmosphere in March 2024 and burn up during this period.

Nasa astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli (top) and Loral O'Hara (bottom) team up during their first spacewalk on November 2. (Photo: NASA TV).

This is not the first time an object accidentally dropped by humans has been lost in space.

In 2008, NASA astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper watched helplessly as her tool bag drifted away while trying to repair a damaged part on the ISS.

The loss of the bag forced mission crews to change plans for planned spacewalks during the Endeavour mission.

Previously in 2006, the late astronaut Piers Sellers lost his spoon in space while testing a heat shield repair technique.