Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

GN-z11-flash from a man-made satellite not a gamma-ray burst at redshift 11

Nature Astronomy volume 5, pages 995–997 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

The Original Article was published on 14 December 2020

arising from L. Jiang et al. Nature Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01266-z (2020)

Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), explosions of very massive stars, provide crucial information on stellar and galaxy evolution, even at redshifts z ≈ 8–9.5, when the Universe was only 500–600 million years old1,2,3. Recently, during observations4 of a galaxy at z ≈ 11 (400 Myr after the Big Bang)5,6, a bright signal named GN-z11-flash, shorter than 245 s, was detected and interpreted as an ultraviolet flash associated with a GRB in this galaxy7, or a shock-breakout in a Population III supernova8. Its resulting luminosity would be consistent with that of other GRBs9, but a discussion based on probability arguments began regarding whether this is instead a signal from a man-made satellite or a Solar System object10,11,12,13. Here we show a clear association of GNz11-flash with the Breeze-M upper stage of a Russian Proton rocket in a highly elliptical orbit. This rules out GN-z11-flash as the most distant GRB ever detected. This also highlights the importance of a complete database of Earth satellites and debris, which would allow proper interpretation of astronomical observations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Brightness of Breeze-M debris as a function of distance from the observer.
Fig. 2: Trajectory of Breeze-M debris in the field of view of MOSFIRE/Keck during the GN-z11-flash detection.

Data availability

The sources of all data used in this work are detailed in the Methods.

Code availability

The details of all code used in this work are provided in the Methods.

References

  1. Salvaterra, R. et al. GRB 090423 at a redshift of z ≈ 8.1. Nature 461, 1258–1260 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Tanvir, N. R. et al. A γ-ray burst at a redshift of z ≈ 8.2. Nature 461, 1254–1257 (2009).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cucchiara, A. et al. A photometric redshift of z~9.4 for GRB 090429B. Astrophys. J. 736, 7 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Jiang, L. et al. Evidence for GN-z11 as a luminous galaxy at redshift 10.957. Nat. Astron. 5, 256–261 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Oesch, P. A. et al. The most luminous z~9-10 galaxy candidates yet found: the luminosity function, cosmic star-formation rate, and the first mass density estimate at 500 Myr. Astrophys. J. 786, 108–126 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Oesch, P. A. et al. A remarkably luminous galaxy at z = 11.1 measured with Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy. Astrophys. J. 819, 129–139 (2016).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Jiang, L. et al. A possible bright ultraviolet flash from a galaxy at redshift z ≈ 11. Nat. Astron. 5, 262–267 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Padmanabhan, H. & Loeb, A. GN-z11-flash: a shock-breakout in a Population III supernova at Cosmic Dawn? Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.12222 (2021).

  9. Kann, D. A., Blazek, M., de Ugarte Postigo, A. & Thöne, C. C. GN-z11-flash in the context of gamma-ray burst afterglows. Res. Not. Am. Astron. Soc. 4, 247 (2020).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Steinhardt, C. L. et al. A more probable explanation for a continuum flash towards a redshift ≈ 11 galaxy. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01473-2 (2021).

  11. Jiang, L. et al. L. Jiang et al. reply. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01474-1 (2021).

  12. Nir, G., Ofek, E. O. & Gal-Yam, A. The GN-z11-flash event can be a satellite glint. Res. Not. Am. Astron. Soc. 5, 27 (2021).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Nir, G. et al. A high-rate foreground of sub-second flares from geosynchronous satellites. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 505, 2477–2484 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. McLean, I. S., Steidel, C. C., Matthews, K., Epps, H. & Adkins, S. M. MOSFIRE: a multiobject near-infrared spectrograph and imager for the Keck Observatory. SPIE Conf. Ser. 7014, 2–13 (2008).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Vallado, D., Crawford, P., Hujsak, R. & Kelso, T. Revisiting spacetrack report #3. In AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference and Exhibit https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2006-6753 (AIAA, 2006).

  16. Giorgini, J. D. et al. JPL’s on-line solar system data service. Bull. Am Astron. Soc. 28, 25.04 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Giorgini, J. D., Chodas, P. W. & Yeomans, D. K. Orbit uncertainty and close-approach analysis capabilities of the Horizons on-line Ephemeris System. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 33, 58.13 (2001).

    Google Scholar 

  18. Maisonobe, L., Pommier, V. & Parraud, P. Orekit: an open-source library for operational flight dynamics applications. In Proc. 4th Int. Conf. of Astrodynamics Tools and Techniques (ESA, 2010).

  19. Rhodes, B. Skyfield: high precision research-grade positions for planets and Earth satellites generator. Astrophysics Source Code Library ascl:1907.024 (2019)..

  20. Flohrer, T., Krag, H., Klinkrad, H., Bastida Virgili, B. & Fruh, C. Improving ESA’s collision risk estimates by an assessment of the TLE orbit errors of the US SSN catalouge. Proc. Fifth European Conference on Space Debris (Ed. Lacoste, H.) Vol. 672, 27 (ESA, 2009).

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank J. Baradziej, L. Jiang and C. Steinhardt for useful discussions. M.J.M. acknowledges support from the National Science Centre, Poland, through the SONATA BIS grant number 2018/30/E/ST9/00208. We acknowledge the use of the Space-Track database, JPL Horizons, OREKIT and SkyField packages. This research has made use of the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA), which is operated by the W. M. Keck Observatory and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI), under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Michał Jerzy Michałowski, Krzysztof Kamiński, Monika Katarzyna Kamińska & Edwin Wnuk

Authors
  1. Michał Jerzy Michałowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Krzysztof Kamiński
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Monika Katarzyna Kamińska
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Edwin Wnuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.J.M. designed this project and led the writing of the manuscript. K.K. and M.K.K. searched for the satellite, calculated its properties, planned and analysed the RBT observations, made the figures and contributed to the manuscript writing. E.W. also calculated the trajectory of the satellite.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Michał Jerzy Michałowski or Krzysztof Kamiński.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Bahram Mobasher and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Michałowski, M.J., Kamiński, K., Kamińska, M.K. et al. GN-z11-flash from a man-made satellite not a gamma-ray burst at redshift 11. Nat Astron 5, 995–997 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01472-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01472-3

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing