Tumbling satellite or debris gets my vote... which is different to an iridium flare.
I have no official capacity on this nor experience, only observations and reading other reports. These pin point flashes can be seen night in night
out, from past reports clearly observable wherever you are in the world, sometimes you'll only see one and get no idea of a path, sometimes you'll see
two flashes but it's still hard to determine, some times they have so much tumble they flash regularly and it's clear they're on a path/orbit. On
occasion, there is more than one tumbling / pinpoint flashing object in the sky at the same time which can make it that little bit more confusing/hard
to work out.
I'm not sure you'd want an operational satellite to be tumbling so erratically, so perhaps its worth considering also space junk, debris and
satellites that are dead - that simply aren't being told to stay upright because they're no longer operational, but at the same time remaining in
orbit for some years.
the Union of Concerned Scientists listed 902 operational satellites[25] from a known population of 19,000 large objects and about 30,000
objects launched.
en.wikipedia.org...
I used to think this was some kind of alien phenomena when I first encountered it, but as it became easier to spot and regular "encounters", my view
has long since moved onto space debris and tumbling satellites. A bit like when you see litter on the street, these pinpoint flashes are a reminder of
the litter we've created in space
For example, in February 2015, the USAF Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Flight 13 (DMSP-F13) exploded on orbit, creating at least 149
debris objects, which are expected to remain in orbit for decades.
149 un-co-ordinated objects (some probably shiny metal) orbiting us with who-knows-what kind of tumbling motion. It's also such a short-lived and
common sight that I don't think it relates to the realm of extraterrestrial or such, even if it is perhaps occurring in the same "regions" of space
that some alien phenomena does*.
There may not be any official conclusion but there is certainly a common sense one. I'm not saying this covers every single pin point flash in the
night sky but I think it (debris) explains a big portion. I get the impression there is also very little official information on space debris, it's
certainly not an issue/policy we'll ever see covered on MSM or in politics, unless of course a specific event like a satellite crashing somewhere on
Earth - where space industry & gov's really have to cover their backsides
My point is, there's debris, and there's secret debris, and we seem to still be in an age of 'learning' about debris in orbit - no public hearings,
court cases or anything yet to really show what the implications are or what the current "signs" or pointers of the problem may be.
So that harmless little pin point flash today could be what crashes into your house in 50 years time when its orbit has decayed
It's probably worth worrying about it being that more than aliens or anything... but it's just my opinion, each to their own
* There are still plenty of questions that need answering though, to completely rule this out. The erratic movements of "fast walkers" (not seen by
naked eye) could be connected to pin point flashes (seen by naked eye). That would be quite hard to determine but not impossible. That said, in a lot
of fast walker videos, there is no noticeable flaring, which into the visible spectrum, would show up quite brightly on IR videos. So I'm still going
with debris
edit on 13-8-2015 by markymint because: (no reason given)