# Has anybody ever heard this Urban Legend? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794 "2016-12-15T18:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/1 "2016-12-15T18:19:39Z")
I saw a video on Youtube yesterday “10 mysterious things that have never been explained.” In the video they mentioned a mysterious satellite named “The Black Knight” According to the video: 1. The satellite has been around for over ten thousand years. 2. Tesla intercepted broadcasts from it. 3. The International Space Station took pictures of it. 4. How do they know it’s been around 10,000 years? 5. Tesla isn’t what I would call a credible witness. So is this an actual UL or something they made up for the video? Any credibility at all? ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/2 "2016-12-15T18:23:28Z")
Can’t be 10,000 years old. The earth is only 6000 years old. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/3 "2016-12-15T18:24:24Z")
So you’re asking whether this is something untrue that someone made up, as opposed to something someone made up that’s untrue? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/4 "2016-12-15T18:31:15Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > So you’re asking whether this is something untrue that someone made up, as opposed to something someone made up that’s untrue? I think the question is, is this an established Urban Legend, ala Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/5 "2016-12-15T18:34:35Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > So you’re asking whether this is something untrue that someone made up, as opposed to something someone made up that’s untrue? I _think_ they’re asking how fresh the invention is? As I recall, an urban legend is different from some bullshit somebody made up because a UL has been around for a while, getting passed around and generally changing over time (as in a game of telephone). Anyway, I’ve never heard of it before, not that that helps much. My guess is that if it’s not original to the video, it’s not very old. The ISS isn’t that old, and the “Tesla knew all the answers!!!” craze popped up late last decade IIRC. (My suspicion has always been that it was sparked by the movie “The Prestige.”) But who knows? Those details might’ve glommed on later in this legend’s evolution. (I wonder what kind of answer you’d get if you asked the guy who made/posted the video? “Hey man, I’m just curious - did you invent this yourself, or hear it somewhere?”) ---
**Author:** ![BeepKillBeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/6 "2016-12-15T18:35:56Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > Any credibility at all? I’ve heard of it. Like other UFO theories it is nonsense. The ISS photos, for example, have been confirmed to be a photo of a thermal blanket that was lost. So to answer your question, none at all. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/7 "2016-12-15T18:38:06Z")
[According to Wiki,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_satellite) it’s a bunch of urban legends mashed together, with a recent assist from Pepsi. > [@](#): > > In November 2015, Pepsi released a promotional video entitled “Black Knight Decoded” which “imagines a rich fictional narrative around what some people believe is a very real entity: the Black Knight satellite”. The video features appearances by David Oyelowo and Freida Pinto, production by James Frey, and music by Usher . ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/8 "2016-12-15T18:43:11Z")
Smacking my head for not checking Wikipedia before posting! This Skeptoid article has some more info - it looks like this is a legend, but not a very old one (although some of its components are old). > **[The Black Knight Satellite](https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4365)** > > An object claimed to be 13,000-year-old alien satellite orbiting the Earth is just a piece of an old space shuttle. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/9 "2016-12-15T18:54:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > [According to Wiki,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Knight_satellite) it’s a bunch of urban legends mashed together, with a recent assist from Pepsi. > . [Black Knight Decoded](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u094lS8lBME) by Pepsi. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/10 "2016-12-15T19:06:24Z")
I would say this urban legend and in this particular word-for-word form is recent … I’ve never heard it before … but it sure does sound the same as many other urban legends I have heard … perhaps we could say this is a very old urban legend, just that the names have been changed to protect the innocent … Unless, of course, we have a massive conspiracy involving everyone with a telescope six inches or larger … ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/11 "2016-12-15T19:57:49Z")
I’ve heard of it before—one theory (read ‘conspiracy theory’) being that it’s a Bracewell probe, intended to initiate communication with technological species once they reach a certain level. It’s been linked to so-called long-delay echoes, which are radio phenomena where a message is echoed back after a much longer time than one would expect from ionospheric reflection etc. In reality, it’s just a narrative constructed around a couple of phenomena that may appear puzzling at first sight, but for which there isn’t really any reason to link them, nor to think they’re anything more than perfectly natural. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/12 "2016-12-15T20:03:00Z")
There’s a photo that does the rounds, taken from a Space Shuttle (not ISS) mission, supposedly showing the “Black Knight”. It’s actually a thermal insulation blanket, IIRC. I believe the legend started when an unknown satellite was tracked in the very early days of satellites, presumably a Soviet one nobody knew about? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/13 "2016-12-15T22:03:33Z")
Did Nostradamus mention it? If not, I ain’t buying it! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/14 "2016-12-16T00:47:01Z")
Umm, obviously not true. Even technology from a couple hundred years ago couldn’t broadcast… ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/15 "2016-12-16T02:10:25Z")
Brain Dunning has a great history and explanation of Black Knight on Skeptoid: > **[The Black Knight Satellite](https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4365)** > > An object claimed to be 13,000-year-old alien satellite orbiting the Earth is just a piece of an old space shuttle. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/16 "2016-12-18T01:21:24Z")
Yes, I heard about that many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/17 "2016-12-18T01:42:36Z")
Has anyone determined if this “Black Knight” is missing both arms and both legs? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anybody-ever-heard-this-urban-legend/774794/18 "2016-12-18T22:48:41Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Has anyone determined if this “Black Knight” is missing both arms and both legs? Tis only a micrometeorite wound. Anyway … The idea that someone, anyone, would believe it would be possible to determine that some small object has been in orbit for 10-15k years is scary. Would other kind of garbage would someone like this buy? (Besides the Biblical missing day NASA found, etc., etc.)