Strange Object in Space: a Lost Tool Bag

You may be able to spot it with a good pair of binoculars, near the International Space Station
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 13, 2023 11:26 AM CST
You May Be Able to Spot Astronauts' Lost Tool Bag
The wayward tool bag.   (NASA/JSC)

It may not be as exciting as spotting a comet in space, but it's definitely ... weirder. With a good pair of binoculars, you might be able to spot a tool bag lost by astronauts, reports Space.com. It seems that astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara were doing some maintenance on the International Space Station earlier this month when the "tool bag was inadvertently lost," NASA explains diplomatically in a blog post. You can actually watch it slip away in this video.

The bag can't be retrieved and is now officially categorized as space debris. It will eventually disintegrate, but the bag will remain visible for a few months before then, reports CNN. The best way to see it is to go out at night and locate the International Space Station in the sky—NASA has an app for that, here. The "surprisingly bright" bag will be floating ahead of the space station and should be visible with decent binoculars, per EarthSky, which has more particulars. (More astronauts stories.)

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