incarnation oracle,List incarnation of database

DATABASE VERSION = 10.2.0.3

PLATFORM = AIX 3

Could some one please let me know the meaning of ORPHAN, which is visible when ever i give list incarnation command.

RMAN> list incarnation of database merlinp;

List of Database Incarnations

DB Key Inc Key DB Name DB ID STATUS Reset SCN Reset Time

------- ------- -------- ---------------- --- ---------- ----------

1142887 1142888 MERLINP 3538586174 ORPHAN 1 06-APR-07.

every time my rman backup is failing with the errors as

RMAN-06004: ORACLE error from recovery catalog database: RMAN-20011: target database incarnation is not current in recovery catalog

Target database was not opened with resetlogs. See below

From TARGET DATABASE

SQL> select RESETLOGS_CHANGE#, RESETLOGS_TIME from v$database;

RESETLOGS_CHANGE# RESETLOGS

----------------- ---------

1 06-APR-07

From this we can see that Incarnation is already been registered in the catalog database.

Plz let me know why my backup's are failing by looking at the above information.

kumareshan