{"paper":{"title":"BlueWalker 3 Satellite Brightness Characterized and Modeled","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"astro-ph.IM","authors_text":"Anthony Mallama, Cees Bassa, Richard E. Cole, Scott Harrington, Scott Tilley","submitted_at":"2023-05-01T13:59:32Z","abstract_excerpt":"The BlueWalker 3 (BW3) satellite was folded into a compact object when launched on 2022 September 11. The spacecraft's apparent visual magnitude initially ranged from about 4 to 8. Observations on November 11 revealed that the brightness increased by 4 magnitudes which indicated that the spacecraft had deployed into a large flat-panel shape. The satellite then faded by several magnitudes in December before returning to its full luminosity; this was followed by additional faint periods in 2023 February and March. We discuss the probable cause of the dimming phenomena and identify a geometrical "},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2305.00831","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2305.00831/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}