Image: nature.com
The Story
The Palomar nine are a real puzzle; plates from other observatories must show whether the sky or the film made them.
The Palomar marks are a striking archival observation, not yet a settled discovery. The cleanest next step is independent plate work: matching flashes on unrelated observatories’ plates would weaken explanations tied to one plate, scan, or copy chain. Until that comparison is completed, both a real transient and a photographic artifact remain possible.
- EvidenceA match on plates from other observatories would be stronger than repeated examination of the same Palomar material.
- LimitsThe existing record establishes unusual image marks, not their physical origin.
- The nine sources were absent from nearby comparison exposures and deeper modern surveys, but the study itself included possible contamination as an explanation.
- A 2024 analysis critically examined claims of above-atmosphere transients on Palomar glass-copy plates, keeping plate-related explanations central.
- The open challenge is designed to search independent pre-Sputnik plates rather than relying only on the original Palomar material.
Deeper Insight
Nine star-like points on a 1950 Palomar plate are gone from every image before and after. Hamburg's old plates may show the same flashes.
On a glass plate from 1950, before any satellite flew, Palomar Observatory caught nine star-like points that appear nowhere else: not earlier, not later, not today. The usual answer is a flaw in the emulsion. But a preliminary search of Hamburg Observatory plates reports similar quick transients. If other observatories caught them too, the 1950 sky held something nobody logged.
- What it could changeMatching flashes on independent plates would turn a darkroom mystery into a real event in the pre-satellite sky.
- How it touches todayOld observatory archives are now being searched like crime scenes for frames nobody checked.
- Our futureThe answers to some new mysteries may already be sitting in drawers of old glass.
- An independent preliminary search of Hamburg Observatory plates reports similar transients in rapid-sequence images and systematically narrow profiles, but says the analysis is ongoing.
- The Palomar authors argue that sharper, rounder profiles can be consistent with sub-second flashes on long-exposure plates; this remains an interpretation, not proof of origin.
- The open challenge seeks comparable detections on other observatories’ pre-Sputnik plates, which would make a one-plate defect explanation harder to sustain.
Sources · 6
Featured · Primary source · arxiv.org
Searching for Fast Astronomical Transients in Archival Photographic Plates
Searching for Fast Astronomical Transients in Archival Photographic Plates # Searching for Fast Astronomical Transients in Archival Photographic Plates Ivo Busko Email: [email protected] Independent Researcher, Retired Developer at NASA/AURA/STScI Revised June 20, 2026 ###### Abstract Fast astronom
Read sourceAnalysis · reddit.com
76 years after Palomar photographed nine “stars” that vanished, an open challenge wants to settle whether they were real
On April 12, 1950, a telescope at Palomar Observatory in California photographed a patch of sky on a glass plate. When astronomers re-examined it decades later, they found nine star-like points of light that aren’t on a photo of the same spot taken half an hour earlier and don’t show up in any modern survey. The [open challenge](https://www.researchhub.com/rfp/32931/project-lost-light) is to look
Read sourcePrimary source · nature.com
Figure 1 | Scientific Reports
Figure 1 | Scientific Reports # Figure 1 From: Exploring nine simultaneously occurring transients on April 12th 1950 The same 10 x 10 arcmin field shown in POSS-1 and POSS-2 red bands. In the POSS-1 image we see a number of objects that cannot be subsequently found, marked with green circles. Purple
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