<p>I'm going to guess that these are reflection artifacts of one or two nearby bright stars. The fact that they have about the same length as the stellar streaks, suggests they are smeared by the telescope's tracking of the comet. The fact that they are oriented with a slightly different angle than the star streaks may be due to the reflection shifting slightly as the telescope is moved.</p>

<p>In fact, Figure 6.9 on <a href="https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/display/WFC3IHB/6.5+UVIS+Spectral+Elements#id-6.5UVISSpectralElements-6.5.3" rel="noreferrer">this page</a> from the WFC3 Handbook (the instrument used for the comet images) shows a clear examples of "figure-eight shaped ghosts" due to bright stars in the lower-right quadrant, described thus:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>When a point source is positioned in the lower right quadrant of the
  UVIS detector, out-of-focus reflections between the CCD and windows
  appear along a diagonal from the source towards the upper left, well
  removed from the source. These figure-eight shaped ghosts gradually
  move outside the field of view as the target moves out of the lower
  right corner. They contain a few percent of the flux of the target.
  The ghosts of several bright stars are visible in the exposure of 47
  Tuc shown in Figure 6.9.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/AAv0y.jpg" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/AAv0y.jpg" alt="Figure 6.9 from HST WFC3 Instrument Handbook"></a>
Figure 6.9 -- note the clear example paired elliptical rings ("figure-of-eight shaped ghosts") on the left part of the upper half of the image.</p>

<p>(Note that the comet images were taken with a sub-array of the WFC3 UVIS detector, which is probably why you don't see the star that produced the ghosts.)</p>

<p>You see ring-like ghost images in ground-based images, too; I've been examining an image taken by some collaborators with a telescope in the Bavarian Alps, and it's got several examples (fortunately not on top of the galaxy we're interested in!).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T22:17:34.897Z
Oh! Since this image tracked stars rather than the comet, the artifacts have not moved as the ones shown in the question did, and so their [donut-ness](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/33544/7982) (annular aperture out-of-focus) is more obvious, and now I can notice the central obstruction in the question's image's artifacts as well. Thanks!
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T19:37:11.170Z
2019-10-17T19:37:11.170Z
Peter Erwin
<p>I suspect they are brightish extended galaxies being smeared by the motion as HST tracks on the comet - you can see the star streaks e.g. in the bottom center of the image. Given the time of the image, it should be possible to identify which galaxies they were. Pretty much everything else in the image (apart from the comet) are cosmic rays - being above the atmosphere hugely increases the cosmic ray flux in the CCD detectors compared to ground-based observations. The <a href="https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/display/WFC3IHB/5.4+WFC3+CCD+Characteristics+and+Performance#id-5.4WFC3CCDCharacteristicsandPerformance-5.4.105.4.10CosmicRays" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cosmic rays</a> section of the WFC3 Instrument handbook says:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>between 5 and 9% of WFC3 CCD pixels will be affected in a 1800s exposure in SAA-free orbits </p>
</blockquote>

<p>(SAA is the South Atlantic Anomaly which normally prevents observations)</p>

<p>Observations with HST are normally split into pairs (e.g. <a href="https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/display/WFC3IHB/6.7+UVIS+Exposure+and+Readout" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Exposure Time section</a> of the WFC3 Instrument Handbook) to help deal with by allowing e.g. median combining of the images to remove the cosmic rays. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T19:02:58.143Z
If you look at the star streaks, they point in a slightly different direction; you can see a star streak just to the left of the two features. So that's not it.
Peter Erwin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T20:25:22.483Z
The star streaks could well be in slightly different directions due to distortion in the WFC3 optics
astrosnapper
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T20:45:24.860Z
There is a star streak in the upper right of the image, *right next to* -- partly overlapping with -- the leftmost of the two features uhoh is asking about. That's nothing to do with WFC3 distortions (which change gradually across the field of view). And you can see the star streak at the bottom image has the same orientation as the brighter one.
Peter Erwin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T20:54:37.817Z
Also, there's the fact this is an image made by *undoing* the distortions. (That's why it has that funny parallelogram shape.)
Peter Erwin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T17:18:22.043Z
2019-10-17T17:18:22.043Z
astrosnapper
<p>The image below is <a href="https://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/mastpreview?mission=hst&amp;dataid=IE6K02UFQ" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this one</a>, found in <a href="https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&amp;id=16009" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this group</a> of Hubble space telescope images of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov (C/2019 Q4).</p>

<p>Can anyone recognize this pair of artifacts in the upper right corner of this HST diagnostic image? </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/3oQPv.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3oQPv.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T14:37:23.507Z
related: [Which are stars and which are noise in this comet photo?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/33681/7982) as well as [Questions about Hubble's brand new view of an interstellar comet (video)](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/33699/7982)
uhoh
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-10-17T19:05:36.737Z
My off-the-cuff guess would be that they're some kind of internal reflection artifacts from bright stars just outside the field of view.
Peter Erwin
<photography><hubble-telescope><identify-this-object>
Did Hubble see a pair of UFOs? (Identify this artifact)
uhoh
# Did Hubble see a pair of UFOs? (Identify this artifact)

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-10-17)

The image below is [this one](https://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/mastpreview?mission=hst&dataid=IE6K02UFQ), found in [this group](https://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=16009) of Hubble space telescope images of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov (C/2019 Q4).

Can anyone recognize this pair of artifacts in the upper right corner of this HST diagnostic image?

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/3oQPv.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/3oQPv.jpg)

**Tags:** photography, hubble-telescope, identify-this-object

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: related: [Which are stars and which are noise in this comet photo?](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/33681/7982) as well as [Questions about Hubble's brand new view of an interstellar comet (video)](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/33699/7982)  
> **username_1**: My off-the-cuff guess would be that they're some kind of internal reflection artifacts from bright stars just outside the field of view.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-10-17. Score: 5 | Accepted answer

I'm going to guess that these are reflection artifacts of one or two nearby bright stars. The fact that they have about the same length as the stellar streaks, suggests they are smeared by the telescope's tracking of the comet. The fact that they are oriented with a slightly different angle than the star streaks may be due to the reflection shifting slightly as the telescope is moved.

In fact, Figure 6.9 on [this page](https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/display/WFC3IHB/6.5+UVIS+Spectral+Elements#id-6.5UVISSpectralElements-6.5.3) from the WFC3 Handbook (the instrument used for the comet images) shows a clear examples of "figure-eight shaped ghosts" due to bright stars in the lower-right quadrant, described thus:

> When a point source is positioned in the lower right quadrant of the
> UVIS detector, out-of-focus reflections between the CCD and windows
> appear along a diagonal from the source towards the upper left, well
> removed from the source. These figure-eight shaped ghosts gradually
> move outside the field of view as the target moves out of the lower
> right corner. They contain a few percent of the flux of the target.
> The ghosts of several bright stars are visible in the exposure of 47
> Tuc shown in Figure 6.9.

[![Figure 6.9 from HST WFC3 Instrument Handbook](https://i.sstatic.net/AAv0y.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/AAv0y.jpg)
Figure 6.9 -- note the clear example paired elliptical rings ("figure-of-eight shaped ghosts") on the left part of the upper half of the image.

(Note that the comet images were taken with a sub-array of the WFC3 UVIS detector, which is probably why you don't see the star that produced the ghosts.)

You see ring-like ghost images in ground-based images, too; I've been examining an image taken by some collaborators with a telescope in the Bavarian Alps, and it's got several examples (fortunately not on top of the galaxy we're interested in!).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Oh! Since this image tracked stars rather than the comet, the artifacts have not moved as the ones shown in the question did, and so their [donut-ness](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/33544/7982) (annular aperture out-of-focus) is more obvious, and now I can notice the central obstruction in the question's image's artifacts as well. Thanks!  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-10-17. Score: 1

I suspect they are brightish extended galaxies being smeared by the motion as HST tracks on the comet - you can see the star streaks e.g. in the bottom center of the image. Given the time of the image, it should be possible to identify which galaxies they were. Pretty much everything else in the image (apart from the comet) are cosmic rays - being above the atmosphere hugely increases the cosmic ray flux in the CCD detectors compared to ground-based observations. The [cosmic rays](https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/display/WFC3IHB/5.4+WFC3+CCD+Characteristics+and+Performance#id-5.4WFC3CCDCharacteristicsandPerformance-5.4.105.4.10CosmicRays) section of the WFC3 Instrument handbook says:

> between 5 and 9% of WFC3 CCD pixels will be affected in a 1800s exposure in SAA-free orbits

(SAA is the South Atlantic Anomaly which normally prevents observations)

Observations with HST are normally split into pairs (e.g. [Exposure Time section](https://hst-docs.stsci.edu/display/WFC3IHB/6.7+UVIS+Exposure+and+Readout) of the WFC3 Instrument Handbook) to help deal with by allowing e.g. median combining of the images to remove the cosmic rays.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If you look at the star streaks, they point in a slightly different direction; you can see a star streak just to the left of the two features. So that's not it.  
> **username_2**: The star streaks could well be in slightly different directions due to distortion in the WFC3 optics  
> **username_1**: There is a star streak in the upper right of the image, *right next to* -- partly overlapping with -- the leftmost of the two features username_0 is asking about. That's nothing to do with WFC3 distortions (which change gradually across the field of view). And you can see the star streak at the bottom image has the same orientation as the brighter one.  
> **username_1**: Also, there's the fact this is an image made by *undoing* the distortions. (That's why it has that funny parallelogram shape.)  

---

