Evidence That the `Dark Comet’ 1998 KY26 Might Be the Failed Soviet Spacecraft Phobos 1

A model of Phobos 1 looks very different from a comet, yet it accounts for the orbit, non-gravitational acceleration and light curve of the space object 1998 KY26, which was labeled a `dark comet’ by comet experts. This label was invented in the first place to explain away the anomalies of the interstellar object 1I/`Oumuamua. (Image credit: Wikimedia)The first recognized interstellar object 1I/`Oumuamua showed non-gravitational acceleration away from the Sun which scaled inversely with heliocentric distance squared (as inferred here). It also had a disk-like shape based on the periodic reflection of sunlight from its surface (as deduced here). This led me to propose that it may be a technologically-produced object, pushed by sunlight (as discussed here). Three years after the discovery of 1I/`Oumuamua, its discovery telescope Pan-STARRS in Hawaii detected another object, labeled 2020-SO, which was definitely pushed by reflecting sunlight. This one was later identified as the upper stage of the Surveyor 2 mission to the Moon, launched by NASA in 1966 (as reviewed here). In view of 2020-SO, my proposed interpretation of 1I/`Oumuamua appears completely reasonable. It appeared as a reasonable conjecture for me and my 160,615 followers here, but it was regarded as a heretic point of view by comet experts.Comet experts insist that 1I/`Oumuamua is a dark comet, namely an iceberg whose invisible outgassing pushes it like a rocket. The only problem with their interpretation is that no gas or dust was detected around 1I/`Oumuamua, even after deep observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope (as concluded here).This case is a remarkable display of how dogmatic scientists prefer to promote a speculative conjecture that violates some observational data while bluntly dismissing an alternative interpretation that is consistent with all available data. The comet experts explain the anomalies of 1I/`Oumuamua by appealing to invisible constituents. Of course, the great attraction of