Amateur satellite enthusiast Scott Tilley was searching the sky for spy satellites to track when he discovered an unknown object. That object identified itself as the NASA IMAGE satellite, thought to have become non-operational in 2005. NASA has since confirmed that the satellite is indeed IMAGE, and is now planning on using it to observe the magnetosphere near the northern magnetic pole.
Another enthusiast, Cees Bassa, added his own detailed analysis of the error and how it recovered.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Thursday February 01 2018, @07:58AM
Only objects in an Low Earth Orbit will come down on their own within a reasonable time. Skylab, which was in a very low orbit (434x441) took about five years on it's own to come down from it's last visit, and I'm not sure how much the Apollo SMs boosted it on each visit. Anything high orbits or geostationary can stay up there for hundreds of years. It's why the FAA requires any craft heading to geostationary orbit reserve fuel to move to a graveyard orbit at it's planned end of service life.
IMAGE is considerably father out, and I'm not sure it experiences any appreciable atmospheric drag that it will come down within our lifetimes unaided.
Still always moving