UFO Streaks Through Martian sky 440
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."
Good old BBC (Score:2, Insightful)
Fodder for future conspiracies (Score:2, Insightful)
You just KNOW this is going to go down in the books as PROOF of
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Misleading title (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Misleading title (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually yes! But then again I'd say this would exclude you!
Re:Meteor? (Score:5, Insightful)
-
Then again... (Score:3, Insightful)
Mars has about 0.5% of Earths atmosphere. I suspect that means that virtually every rock that would burn in our atmosphere to become a "shooting star", ends up instead hitting the ground and becomes a "crater".
Re:Atmospheric phenomenon? (Score:5, Insightful)
Huh? I thought the Northern Lights [wikipedia.org] were due to solar wind hitting out magnetosphere. Mars lacks a magnetosphere so I don't think it's the same event. Are you perhaps thinking of something different?
Re:Or perhaps... (Score:4, Insightful)
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&
i won't probe Google with safe=off while at work, thats for damn sure.
Re:Would you think up something new already? (Score:3, Insightful)
NASA could use it to gain public interest in Mars (Score:2, Insightful)
Velikovsky serves a purpose... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying that anyone should junk the work that we've been building on since the Greeks through Galileo, Kepler and the like up till today.
But when someone comes along like him I think that instead of outright dismissal, it's helpful and healthy to re-examine and re-articulate those assumptions.
When speculative and sensational shows like the Fox "alien autopsy" and "faked moon landing" appear, it's a perfect time to re-explain that there hasn't been a single verifiable piece of evidence that UFOs are actually alien spacecraft, and that we DID go to the moon, and went there after creating an amazing space launch infrastructure in a very short time.
Somewhat tangenitally, I sincerely believe we need heretics in any field to shake up orthodoxies and make people think a bit, even about how the basic assumptions came to be.
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:3, Insightful)
by Stile 65 (722451) on Thursday March 18, @11:29PM (#8603357)
(http://www.freestateproject.org/)
Remember your towel!
Only on slashdot
Re:Or perhaps... (Score:2, Insightful)
Several billions to one... (Score:2, Insightful)
So yes - while the chances of Spirit taking that photo are millions to one, the chances of something odd happening like this are probably pretty darn good.
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:4, Insightful) by Stile 65 (722451) on Thursday March 18, @11:29PM (#8603357) (http://www.freestateproject.org/) Remember your towel!
Only on slashdot :-)
.... would such a lame thread actually exist. You know, Douglas Adams was funny for a lot of reasons, but he was never predictable.
Re:Velikovsky serves a purpose... (Score:4, Insightful)
The only explanation is that they managed to con the entire Russian security/intelligence structure. It'd be easier to go to the moon, so I have to assume they did.
Also, I know people who worked on Apollo, and I tend to believe their word.
Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Velikovsky serves a purpose... (Score:3, Insightful)
Putting together a robotic mission that could emplace laser reflectors and return samples of lunar regolith would have been as technically challenging in the 60s as sending a manned mission. Automation and/or remote operation were very primitive back then.
The technical problems would have been different challenges of course, but still bloody awkward; plus the technology and engineering spin-offs from Apollo would have been very different.
Regards
Luke