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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: watsisname on December 09, 2009, 01:44:47 pm

Title: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: watsisname on December 09, 2009, 01:44:47 pm
I just saw this on www.spaceweather.com (http://www.spaceweather.com) and instantly assumed it was a joke, the picture looks so fake.  But then I saw there's all these seemingly authentic news reports and videos and now I'm really wondering.  Basically it's this huge electric blue contrial that ends in a really weird spiral.

There's a good video of it here (http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nordland/1.6902336)

Any one else heard about or saw this?
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Thaeris on December 09, 2009, 01:47:15 pm
My mother actually brought this to my attention this morning. Yes, that is indeed very strange...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: watsisname on December 09, 2009, 01:56:06 pm
Hmm, apparently the Russians warned ships in the area of a missile test, and I guess I can see that the spiral is just exhaust from a missile that went out of control, but damn if it's not a weird effect it makes.  That and the aurora-ish contrail.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Thaeris on December 09, 2009, 01:58:54 pm
That settles it. The Russians are trying to take over Norway with MIND CONTROL!

 :p
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: blackhole on December 09, 2009, 02:31:54 pm
Is it just me or does that spiral look exactly like the freespace warp-in animation?

OH MY GOD

THE SHIVANS ARE HERE!

 :p
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: watsisname on December 09, 2009, 03:26:47 pm
Oh GOD I dug a little deeper and found out the Mayans totally saw this coming.  It's a sign of 2012!!!  The Spirals will kill us all!!!   :shaking:
(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8941/1260357466014.jpg)
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Thaeris on December 09, 2009, 03:30:03 pm
Blast-Damnit...

First Russian mind control, then Shivan, then Mayans, and now the friggin' Power of the Spiral is going out of control...

This sucks...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Demitri on December 09, 2009, 03:36:43 pm
Hypno-toad is Norwegian? :drevil:
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Rian on December 09, 2009, 03:37:07 pm
Hmm, apparently the Russians warned ships in the area of a missile test, and I guess I can see that the spiral is just exhaust from a missile that went out of control, but damn if it's not a weird effect it makes.  That and the aurora-ish contrail.

The Bad Astronomy (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/12/09/awesomely-bizarre-light-show-freaks-out-norway/) blog agrees with you.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Mongoose on December 09, 2009, 03:55:10 pm
I was willing to chalk both the video and the eyewitness accounts up to a Norwegian tabloid hoax when I stumbled across this last night, but I guess not.  If that one simulated spiraling missile model video is accurate, that's almost exactly what the phenomenon looked like, so I guess that seems like a likely explanation.  What amuses me most about the whole thing is that it looks almost exactly like a B-movie sci-fi effect...maybe physics has a sense of humor. :p
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Snail on December 09, 2009, 04:04:03 pm
AWESOME.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: redsniper on December 09, 2009, 04:32:23 pm
The Anti-Spirals will kill us all!!!
the friggin' Power of the Spiral is going out of control...
ROW ROW...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: blackhole on December 09, 2009, 05:35:20 pm
God was obviously testing out his new pixel shaders.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: ShadowWolf_IH on December 09, 2009, 08:03:15 pm
Maybe we should throw a virgin in a volcano.  Regular virgins are a terrible thing to waste.   Someone go get a terrorist.

edited to appease the masses.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Thaeris on December 09, 2009, 08:08:05 pm
I believe I mentioned something about Liberator becoming a major discussion item on GD threads before... I seem to be correct, as well...

The Infamous L-I-B strikes again, without even striking!

 :doubt:
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Turambar on December 09, 2009, 08:16:11 pm
come on, i disagree with pretty much everything he says and i havent gone that low, and i scrape the bottom of the barrel sometimes.  some things just arent cool to mess with.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: iamzack on December 09, 2009, 08:30:57 pm
don't go getting all self-righteous, fluffy. you've said meaner things to me than that.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Scotty on December 09, 2009, 08:43:03 pm
And in all likelihood, you've said the same or worse back.  However, that isn't really the point.  

Really guys, you don't need to insult him when he hasn't even said anything.

EDIT:  That was directed at anyone considering, not everyone posting here.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Thaeris on December 09, 2009, 08:45:01 pm
<Thaeris again gives Scotty mad props.  :yes: :yes: :yes: >

How many times must I give you mad props, man? Awesome must flow in your veins...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: iamzack on December 09, 2009, 08:46:43 pm
And in all likelihood, you've said the same or worse back.  However, that isn't really the point. 

No way. I am always nice and sweet and kind etc.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: ShadowWolf_IH on December 09, 2009, 09:16:06 pm
nobody can take a joke anymore.  Maybe when we learn to laugh at ourselves we can also laugh at others.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: iamzack on December 09, 2009, 09:27:25 pm
I thought it was funny. :P But then again, I don't see pointing out someone's virginity as an insult.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Androgeos Exeunt on December 10, 2009, 08:44:44 am
ROW ROW...

...ROW YOUR BOAT...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: NGTM-1R on December 10, 2009, 10:04:43 am
No way. I am always nice and sweet and kind etc.

That settles it, it was the invasion of the body-snatchers.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: mxlm on December 10, 2009, 05:08:42 pm
No way. I am always nice and sweet and kind etc.

To your bloodhounds, sure.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Bobboau on December 10, 2009, 07:10:57 pm
The Anti-Spirals will kill us all!!!
the friggin' Power of the Spiral is going out of control...
ROW ROW...

my thoughts exactly

FIGHT THE POWA!!!!
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 10, 2009, 08:32:16 pm
(http://www.cksinfo.com/clipart/art/famouspaintings/vangogh/VanGogh-starry-night.png)

Trippy...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Thaeris on December 10, 2009, 10:01:35 pm
I've got this sudden urge to shave... my ear off...

 :lol:
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Yuuz on December 11, 2009, 05:44:57 am
heh I came to post this.. subspace? spiral power?

Didnt the Large Hadron collider fire today?
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Yuuz on December 11, 2009, 05:48:39 am
After watching that video.. defiantly subspace.. it even opens up...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Pred the Penguin on December 11, 2009, 08:48:31 am
It it's the Shivans I think they're a tad bit early...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: esarai on December 11, 2009, 08:52:27 am
I don't get how a missile could cause a contrail and spiral that looked like that unless it was some new super-high-power plasma thruster rocket...  Unless my experience in rockets is totally wrong, there is no conventional propellant that leaves a blue contrail that lasts that long, or that dissipates like that.  That's the strangest part--I've never seen a rocket contrail dissipate like that.  Ever.  

So, three logical explanations:

1.  The Russians just fired off some new super-awesome engine technology and the world should be afraid.  
2.  Just a CG composite made to mess with people (though the level of motion matching and similar quality suggests either a lot of work went into it or it was actually real).
3.  Aliens frakking with our minds and someone actually capturing it on film because high-quality cameras are becoming more and more available.

Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Kosh on December 11, 2009, 09:30:51 am
Quote
1.  The Russians just fired off some new super-awesome engine technology and the world should be afraid.


We'll be afraid when it works. :p
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: SpardaSon21 on December 11, 2009, 11:05:52 am
Chances are is the Russians have it, the United States already has it.  Russia still hasn't recovered from communism.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: captain-custard on December 11, 2009, 12:26:46 pm
if you look hard into the spiral you can see another world , phillip pullmans books were right, but who has been cutting children away from there souls......... well besides MTV...
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: esarai on December 11, 2009, 06:58:06 pm
lol andicirk.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Fenrir on December 11, 2009, 07:21:23 pm
(http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/5031/ep21i.jpg)
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Mongoose on December 11, 2009, 07:25:01 pm
I don't get how a missile could cause a contrail and spiral that looked like that unless it was some new super-high-power plasma thruster rocket...  Unless my experience in rockets is totally wrong, there is no conventional propellant that leaves a blue contrail that lasts that long, or that dissipates like that.  That's the strangest part--I've never seen a rocket contrail dissipate like that.  Ever.
You have to take into account whatever sort of strange lighting conditions were present at the time.  Remember, it was at night, so incidental light from the moon or nearby population centers could have pulled off some interesting effects.  Contrails can last for quite some time; if you ever look at a jet contrail during the daytime, you'll notice that it sticks around for many minutes, and shuttle launches likewise leave a long-lasting plume.  As for the spiral, both computer simulations and actual tests I've seen over the past day or two have produced that exact same pattern when one is looking straight down the flight path of an unstable, careening rocket.

Or what Fenrir posted. :p *grabs crowbar*
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: esarai on December 11, 2009, 08:54:42 pm
Personal rocket flight experience and videos I've seen make most of that seem so unlikely and complex as to be dead by Occam's Razor.  I've never seen a rocket leave a contrail that smooth, that transparent, or with that kind of motion after leaving what could be the rocket.  Most exhaust plumes decelerate rapidly after leaving the vehicle.  This does not happen in that video.  The exhaust seems to keep moving.  And the blue.  I have a hard time coming up for a simple explanation why there was such a deep blue hue coming from the phenomenon's "beam" when light sources at that time of day are mostly low-energy (reds, oranges and yellows).  

I don't want to say I don't think it's possible that there is an 'earthly' explanation for it.  I just want to say that the complexity of such an explanation makes it seem improbable.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Mongoose on December 11, 2009, 09:05:21 pm
Well, when multiple actual rocket scientists around the world look at the same video and come to that conclusion, and when the phenomenon corresponds exactly with an admittedly-failed Russian conventional missile test, I would think that going with the consensus is the safe bet. :p
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: esarai on December 11, 2009, 09:59:47 pm
Safety is never any fun, nor does it lead to progress.   And just because multiple people are saying 'it happened this way' doesn't necessarily mean they're right.  They have to explain the smoothness of the contrail, the behavior of what is expected to be the exhaust and the colors of the contrails in a satisfactory manner before I'll get on board with it.

I find their explanation wanting in these regards.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Bobboau on December 12, 2009, 01:04:57 am
before I heard any of the explanations I thought failed rocked.
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: BengalTiger on December 12, 2009, 05:01:03 pm
Well, it's not even on the chart:

(http://9gag.com/photo/7913_full.jpg)
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: watsisname on December 12, 2009, 11:57:19 pm
Well, it's not even on the chart:
*snip*


Now it is. =P
(http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/5035/weatherballoon.jpg)
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: FreeSpaceFreak on December 13, 2009, 02:10:32 am
:lol:
Title: Re: Strange light over Norway... wtf is this?
Post by: Mongoose on December 14, 2009, 01:37:12 pm
Nice :lol: