UFO Streaks Through Martian sky

lkatz writes "The BBC is reporting that the Spirit rover has observed an object streaking across the Martian sky. They believe it was either a meteor or possibly the Viking 2 probe which still orbits Mars."

Re:Misleading title

[Venner]

Um, UFO = Unidentified Flying Object?

Re:Delusional kooks.

[hopemafia]

It couldn't be Enterprise, since it was a stolen Klingon Bird of Prey that they used to get the whales....and that was in the 80's.

Streaking was actually due to long exposure

[Performer Guy]

As detailed in the initial NASA article the streaking was actually the result of a 15 second exposure of the sensor. It is likely that the actual object appeared as a bright moving dot against a dark sky. The length of the streak and exposure time gives NASA an estimate of speed for various theories based on the angle covered across the sensor in that 15 seconds. The data doesn't rule out a Viking orbiter but does rule out all other orbiters.

Likely origin of the "UFO" - Earth. Cool, there's finally real evidence that the UFO sighted is actually from another planet. Unfortunately if it's true then it would really be an identified flying object, not an unidentified one.

Uhm...

[l0wland]

...didn't I post this a couple of days ago [slashdot.org], when a snapshot of earth was taken from Mars [slashdot.org]?

Thank you.

reduced drag

[EaterOfDog]

Satellites in low and medium orbits around earth are slowed by the earth's thick atmosphere. The relatively thin atmosphere of Mars would allow a spacecraft to orbit for MUCH longer at lower orbits due to reduced drag.

Re:Marvin

[bludstone]

Noone _EVER_ gets this right.

"The Illudium Pew 36 Explosive Space Modulator"

http://looneytunes.warnerbros.com/stars_of_the_s ho w/marvin_the_martian/marvin_story.html

Unless the WB site has it wrong, which wouldnt suprise me either.

Re:Offtopic - Dyson sphere

[StrawberryFrog]

You build it spinning ... maintain the discrete components in orbit around the sun from the git-go

There's info at the end of the link given. Sorry it's long, but the gist re that idea is that in order to provide 1g gravity on the innder surface, a ringworld rotates a lot faster than earth orbits the sun. A point on Niven's ringworld goes right around the sun every 9.3 days. This is one of the reasons why it has to be so strong. Orbital speed is a small fraction of what you need

If it breaks, the fragments have escape velocity from thier solar system.

It doesn't matter at what phase of the construction you spin it up, you still need to put in heaps of energy.

I had to have this explained to me too, but the ringworld is not actually in orbit. That's why it's in constant danger of falling into its star. For more info, follow the link or read The Ringworld Engineers

Re:Would you think up something new already?

[ArsSineArtificio]

Will you stop? I swear to God, the childishness and lack of social development evident in the antiwar movement is pushing me further and further to the right every day.

And now you're beginning to discover what the rest of us did.

Re:Marvin

[Jaywalk]

Well, you're kind of both right:

• 1948; Haredevil Hare - It's a "Uranium Pew-36 Explosive Space Modulator."
• 1953; Duck Dodger's in the 24 1/2 Century - Duck Dodgers (a.k.a. Daffy) and Marvin both try to obtain the only known quantity of "Illudium Phosdex", the shaving cream atom and our first exposure to Illudium.
• 1958; Hare-way to the Stars - Now we finally have the "Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator."

I think the third one is the one you want since it contains the the line, "Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!"

Re:Streaking was actually due to long exposure

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, there are tons of artificial satellites orbiting our planet, far more than Mars, but they are usually hard to see with the naked eye, which is roughly the resolution of the Mars rovers.

The difference is the atmosphere. The Earth's atmosphere is a /lot/ thicker than that of Mars, so there's a lot more refraction - leading to small objects like satellites being much harder to see.

Also, due to Mars being smaller than the Earth, satellites tend to orbit it at a significantly closer distance. The radius of Mars is about half of that of the Earth.

Re:Astronomical odds?

[BTWR]

actually, yes.

It is VERY easy (relatively) to photohgraph a meteor, especially, as you asked "when you're expecting a meteor shower that night." Go to any local amateur astronomy "star party" next time there's a meteor shower. You should see at least half a dozen cameras attached to the scopes, which will take plenty of pics that night. Quite lovely pics too.

Re:If you are going to probe anything on Mars...

[bfg9000]

A helpful Google [google.ca] lands a couple dandy [195.241.101.14] images [ocn.ne.jp] for the uninformed (like myself).

Re:Astronomical odds?

[BiggerBoat]

I don't find it bizarre at all, if it is the Viking orbiter. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the exposure was a full 15 seconds, during which time the object appears to have moved four degrees of an arc - hence the streak. So, we're not talking about an "instant" at all.

Re:Velikovsky serves a purpose...

[Anonymous Coward]

Problem: The Laser Reflectors left behind by the Apollo missions.

Scientists have been bouncing lasers off of them since the lunar landings, scientists all around the world. So either:

A. The USA did manage to send men to the moon.

B. The USA has a vast conspiracy organized encompassing a significant percentage of the international scientific community.

C. The USA engaged in a huge cover-up; filming fake lunar missions somewhere, while sending a half dozen robots to moon, to plant the reflectors. All (almost, except for 13) of which worked flawlessly, and has maintained a significant cover-up of the filming.

Regardless, I think it's clear that NASA at the very least sent significant amounts of stuff to the moon. This plus the HUGE amount of internally consistent data from the missions, some of which can/has been verified independently contributes to a high probability that the moon missions really happened.