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Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: UNCONTAINED. EFFORTS ONGOING.
Description: An object is theorized to be in orbit around Earth at an altitude of approximately 120 km as of ████-██-██). No direct observations have been made, but circumstantial evidence of its effects has become nearly incontrovertible. SCP-XXXX is believed to be composed of a form of matter which does not interact with the electromagnetic field, similar to the "dark matter" theorized to be responsible for the apparent mass present in astrophysical observations of the universe. This makes the object difficult both to find and to contain; however, since its evolution is governed purely by gravitational interactions, the trajectory of SCP-XXXX has been relatively easy to track once the difficult task of establishing orbital parameters was accomplished.
The current understanding of the Foundation is that SCP-XXXX increases the rate of occurrence of events which are "antagonistic towards life and human endeavors," herein abbreviated as "misfortune." The degree of the effect is correlated to proximity, so that relatively unlikely events appear to occur more frequently when the object is overhead. While the effects of SCP-XXXX on the general population are currently negligible, the Foundation is gravely concerned with recent observations that SCP-XXXX appears to be undergoing orbital decay, gradually bringing it in closer proximity to the surface of Earth. If this process continues, the orbit of SCP-XXXX is estimated to reach the surface in ███████████ years, where it may inflict severe and lasting damage to society.
The high cost and risk involved in containment proposals put forward thus far, as well as the lack of immediate consequences, has thus far stalled efforts by the Foundation to take action on this issue.
This report is broken into the following sections:
- Discovery: An account of the initial discovery of SCP-XXXX by Dr. ██████.
- Characterization: Summary of experiments conducted to characterize the effects and nature of SCP-XXXX
- Orbital Evolution: Best estimates for current trajectory and a model for the orbit's evolution due to tidal effects.
- Proposals for Containment: Current proposals put forward to contain or mitigate SCP-XXXX, and estimated impact of various courses of action.
The effects of SCP-XXXX were first observed in the Spring of ████. Dr. Julia Hoffman was conducting a statistical analysis of traffic accidents by geographical location and time of year in the United States. For no apparent reason, Dr. Hoffman was looking at the data from individual days. She noticed that over short time periods the accidents tended to form “streaks” across the map, pointing in generally the same direction. To her surprise, after normalizing the data for variables such as traffic, road conditions, and time of day, the effect became more pronounced.
She ultimately did not pursue the matter further, attributing the patterns to coincidence, but she did make a footnote1 in her publication to the Journal of ████████████████. This footnote caught the attention of Dr. ██████ from the Foundation, who decided to investigate the matter further. The full dataset used by Dr. Hoffman was retrieved and the analysis was reproduced. The Foundation then acquired traffic incident data from other governments. Where the necessary data was available to the precision required, the "streaks" were found to be transnational with reasonable continuity.
Figure 1. Example of geographical "streak" in traffic accident data originally observed by Dr. Hoffman. In this case the satellite appears to have passed directly over Milwaukee, narrowly missing Chicago, Columbus and Cincinnatti. It caused an especially abnormal number of accidents in the sparsely populated national forests of West Virginia before passing over Greensboro, NC and finally reaching the Atlantic ocean.
By this point researchers assigned to the case had noted the resemblance of the streaks to satellite orbits, but none of the orbits of known manmade satellites, public or classified, matched the time and location of the streaks exactly. However, while searching satellite data, one researcher noticed a tendency for reported malfunctions in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites which crossed the path of the traffic streaks.
This marked a turning point in the investigation. The scope widened dramatically and the team began collecting a variety of time- and location-resolved data such as hospital admissions, coroner reports, and insurance claims. Vague correlations abounded, but none of it was concrete enough to do more than speculate. At this point a new branch of the team was added to conduct new experiments, whose findings are summarized in the Characterization section.
