Mysterious fast radio burst turns out to be from long-dead NASA satellite

# TLDR:

* Astronomers detected an unusually strong fast radio burst (FRB) on June 13, 2024. Initially, they presumed this powerful, short-lived pulse, which eclipsed other celestial signals, originated from a distant cosmic source, as is typical for most FRBs.
* Subsequent analysis, however, revealed the signal’s true origin: Relay 2, a NASA communications satellite launched in 1964. This satellite had been inactive since its transponders stopped working in 1967, making its sudden emission particularly puzzling.
* Researchers theorize the burst wasn’t a satellite “resurrection.” Instead, it was likely caused by an electrostatic charge building up and discharging on the craft, or possibly by a micrometeoroid impact creating a small plasma cloud.

Do you want V’ger NASA? Because that’s how you get V’ger!

Do we not have a good map or database of everything orbiting Earth, especially all the old, dead satellites? It seems kind of important to be able to track that information/locations (even if it’s not live updates because that’s a whole new layer of data management) if stuff like this can happen. How do we know what’s up there and where it’s going?

Now space junk is interfering with collecting real data? Hmmm.