STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 2, 1996

This is the middle frame of a three-photo sequence that astronauts on Space Shuttle Columbia took during the STS-80 mission, which flew from November 19 to December 7, 1996. NASA presents the series as pictures of something in low orbit that it cannot name. Of the three, this frame carries the only interpretive comment NASA offers.

What changed from the first frame

The object still sits close to the center of the picture, to the right of the Earth’s limb — the bright curved edge of the planet against black space. What is different is its orientation. NASA says the object looks as if it has turned or tumbled around its major axis, meaning its longest dimension, compared with the first image.

NASA adds that this tumbling is consistent with an object floating freely. That is a modest observation, not an identification: things drifting in orbit with no engine or attitude control tend to spin or tumble slowly, whereas a controlled spacecraft would usually hold a steady attitude.

What remains unknown

The release gives no times, camera settings or distances, so the object’s size cannot be worked out, and NASA names no candidate. In the third image the object has moved in front of the Earth, which helps establish that it passed between the shuttle and the planet. Read together, the frames document one drifting object, not three separate events.