Gigantic Spiral of Light Observed Over Norway; Rocket To Blame? 418
Ch_Omega writes "A mysterious light display appearing over Norway last night (more pictures) has left thousands of residents in the north of the country baffled. Witnesses from Trøndelag to Finnmark compared the amazing display to anything from a Russian rocket to a meteor to a shock wave — although no one appears to have mentioned UFOs yet. The phenomenon began when what appeared to be a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain. It stopped mid-air, then began to circulate. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its center — lasting for ten to twelve minutes before disappearing completely. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm — which astronomers have said did not appear to have been connected to the aurora, or Northern Lights, so common in that area of the world." The Bad Astronomer makes the case that a malfunctioning rocket spewing fuel is a parsimonious explanation, backed up by witnesses to similar events and a cool simulation (on video). An anonymous reader suggests that this Proton-M Carrier Rocket might be responsible for the display.
Other explanations (Score:2, Insightful)
Another possible explanation is that the original rocket was a target drone with rocket assisted take off. The light could have been a ground laser engaging the drone. If you've ever seen a test of a large scale laser, you can't really tell if the beam originates on the ground or from the target, if you can see it at all.
Although a 10 minute kill time challenges that theory. A laser anti-aircraft weapon for engaging targets that conveniently linger over the target area for an extended period of time. Not exactly a Death Star, is it?
Re:Oh, come on... (Score:1, Insightful)
Worst men in black reference ever.
Re:no ufos (Score:2, Insightful)
> UFOs tend to come from space, not the ground.
How do they take off to get back home then ?
Re:LCD Projector FTW (Score:3, Insightful)
I see no reason why the phenomenon couldn't be repeated 10+ years later with a more advanced tool.
Then you haven't seen the pictures of this thing, because there are no clouds on which to project an image.
My vote's on the rocket hypothesis. It's simpler than supposing somebody managed to project an image of spirals onto an invisible screen in the sky for no discernible reason.
Re:no ufos (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason nobody's mentioned UFOs yet is because whatever it was originated from the Earth.
No, the reason nobody's mentioned UFOs yet is because this phenomenon was spotted over Norway, not Arkansas.
Let's see (Score:1, Insightful)
Unidentified? Check
Flying? Check
Object? Check
It's a UFO alright. Of course after it's identified, it will no longer be a UFO.
Re:no ufos (Score:4, Insightful)
UFO's are unidentified. Everything about a UFO is unknown. Space is one, albeit very unlikely, UFO hypothesis.
Re:The Norse Were Right! (Score:1, Insightful)
He's right you know. After all, it is Wednesday (Odinsday), the 9th day of the 12th month of the 9th year of the 3rd millenium. That's pretty incontrovertible evidence, right there. Certainly more incontrovertible than the evidence for any other religion, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam or Obamaism.
Re:LCD Projector FTW (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone who has a deeper understanding of the subject can come up with a sufficiently detailed and plausible explanation of how exactly a rocket may have caused this, I'm all ears.
Bad Astronomer has a good write-up, and he certainly knows his stuff. It's corroborated by a comment on the blog there as well:
That reminds me of something we saw waaay back in the late 1980’s during a public night at our observatory. All of a sudden there was a gasp from the crowd, and we looked out the dome to see this bright glowing ball traveling south to north (mostly). When we moved the telescope over to it, we could see in the eyepiece a small object from which the stuff was jetting out from. Later we found out it was a booster stage venting unused propellant.
Re:UFOs (Score:2, Insightful)
That's because a UFO isn't an explanation -- a UFO is an "unidentified flying object". You could compare it to specific instances of unexplained aerial phenomena -- though that's unlikely to help explain it unless the conditions surrounding this occurrence help explain some whole class of previously-unexplained aerial phenomena -- but to compare it to UFOs in general is somewhat pointless since the only thing that that class shares in common is that they appear above the ground and are not explained.
pedantic
Re:LCD Projector FTW (Score:5, Insightful)
"While I consider myself a skeptic, the "it's a rocket" explanation sounds really dubious to m""
Because you are a skeptic is why you question it.
The linked photos are of a long exposure time. Actual videos of the event make it pretty clear it's a rocket spinning out of control and spews something out while it spins. Probably propellant. It's altitude is high enough to be in the Sun light.
Re:BA (Score:5, Insightful)
For the record, the Russians announced there would be a launch there, then this happened, then they deny ever doing a launch.
Anyone notice... (Score:4, Insightful)
The article about the Russian Proton-M Carrier Rocket is from Dec 7th of....2005?
Re:The Norse Were Right! (Score:5, Insightful)
That would explain a number of things.
Re:BA (Score:4, Insightful)
bah, it's unconfirmed [citation needed]. Russians aren't going to confirm or deny it yet...
Re:BA (Score:4, Insightful)
While I suspect this is actually the case, a link to a recently written paragraph with no citation on Wikipedia is hardly evidence.
Did you write that third paragraph yourself?
Re:no ufos (Score:5, Insightful)
I am sure someone can identify it, but won't.
Re:The Norse Were Right! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:LCD Projector FTW (Score:3, Insightful)
"While I consider myself a skeptic, the "it's a rocket" explanation sounds really dubious to m""
Because you are a skeptic is why you question it.
The linked photos are of a long exposure time. Actual videos of the event make it pretty clear it's a rocket spinning out of control and spews something out while it spins. Probably propellant. It's altitude is high enough to be in the Sun light.
Also, images 3 and 5 from the second linked site in the summary show a cloud near the horizon that seems highly reminiscent of what a rocket would leave as it leaves the launch pad and heads skyward, illuminated by the setting sun. The cloud does not obviously link up with the other phenomena, but it isn't much of a stretch to connect a line between the two.