SETA and 1991 VG

Every so often I try to revive interest in odd papers. Here’s one… SETA and 1991 VG …plus its ADS Entry.

Basically Duncan Steel, NEO astronomer and expert, asks the not-too-crazy question that if a small, highly reflective object on a near Earth orbit isn’t a (known) man-made vehicle, nor dull like a meteoroid, then what is it? SETA – the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Artefacts – is exactly what its name implies, looking for products of intelligent behaviour on Earth and in space. And 1991 VG might be an example.

Question is: alien space-junk or a working probe?

And if it is a probe, then why is it suddenly becoming visible? Based on our primitive attempts at invisibility cloaks using meta-materials I suspect any advanced technological species will be able to remain unseen by primitive eyes… yet here we have a probe making itself blatant. Hmmm…