Spirals in Norwegian morning sky

[foilman8805]

Article Link:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...in-a-spin.html

Originally Posted by The Sun

A MYSTERIOUS giant spiral of light that dominated the sky over Norway this morning has stunned experts — who believe the space spectacle is an entirely new astral phenomenon.

Thousands of awe-struck Norwegians bombarded the Meteorological Institute to ask what the incredible light — that could be seen in the pre-dawn sky for hundreds of miles — could possibly be.

The phenomenon has been dubbed 'Star-Gate' — as the world's top scientists and the military lined up to admit they were baffled.

Theories ranging from a misfired Russian missile, meteor fireball, never-before-seen type of northern light, 'black hole' and even alien activity were all proposed.

Witnesses across Norway, who first glimpsed the space show at 8.45am, all described seeing a spinning 'Catherine wheel-style' spiral of white light, centred around a bright moon-like star.

A blue "streaming tail" appeared to anchor the spiral to earth, before the light "exploded" into a rotating ring of white fire.

The spiral spectacle — which lasted for two minutes — was seen by vast swathes of the Scandinavian country's almost five million population, with sightings as far north as Finnmark to Trondelag in the south.

There are more pictures available at the actual posting, so check them out. There's even a video.

Here's another video source just to corroborate stories:

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/12...norway-spiral/

Anyways, there's a ton of possible theories out there for what this could've been:

-Russian missile test
-HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research) demonstration
-NASA conspiracy (Blue Beam Project)
-Fuel ejection from a deorbiting spacecraft
-ET Activity
-Natural Phenomenon

I've looked through them all and I'm not sure where to place my finger as of yet. I've seen this news posted in a few places now with it appearing on more news sites as the minutes pass, each with different sources for videos and pictures. It appears to have been a real event seen by many people, but simply put, what the hell was it?

The pictures are rather breathtaking, imo. What do you guys make of this? Scam? Joke? Perhaps a visit from otherwordly entities? I'll include a poll to gauge the results. Discuss at your leisure.

[foilman8805]

Poll added.

[HazelleReturns]

It's too unreal to be...real. xD
But if it gets an explantion, then okay it could be real.
It's just sad that there's so many things photoshopped that no one can tell what's real these days.
I know Mythix lives in Norway, so maybe he'll know more about this?

[MrGiggles]

Missile test seems most likely, as there were a bunch scheduled, but what the **** kind of missile makes spirals?

It's just sad that there's so many things photoshopped that no one can tell what's real these days.

In other news average reading comprehension on this site is rofl there's a video bro

[foilman8805]

Originally Posted by HazelleReturns

It's too unreal to be...real. xD
But if it gets an explantion, then okay it could be real.
It's just sad that there's so many things photoshopped that no one can tell what's real these days.
I know Mythix lives in Norway, so maybe he'll know more about this?

Well, that's why I offered a video as support. There's also a separate video included in the article on The Sun.

Originally Posted by MrGiggles

Missile test seems most likely, as there were a bunch scheduled, but what the **** kind of missile makes spirals?
In other news average reading comprehension on this site is rofl there's a video bro

If it's a missile, it's an out of control one. Missiles aren't supposed to spiral, haha.

[HazelleReturns]

hey, vids can be fixed too ya know.

[MrGiggles]

okay but like

There's a lot of videos, photos, eyewitness accounts, scientific debate, etc.

It's real.

[cixOclock]

Mythix did it... blame him.

[HazelleReturns]

So? So was there about crop circles and other stuff.
I just don't believe it that's all.

[foilman8805]

Originally Posted by HazelleReturns

hey, vids can be fixed too ya know.

Yeah, be a skeptic, sure. But like Giggs just said, this **** is suddenly popping up everywhere and there are many sources posting this now.

Here's another source, with ANOTHER video:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540...53245#34353245

Article to boot:
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archi...9/2147455.aspx

[MrGiggles]

Originally Posted by HazelleReturns

So? So was there about crop circles and other stuff.
I just don't believe it that's all.

okay

but crop circles are real

I didn't say it wasn't some dumb teenagers with planks, I said the footage and other assorted media was real.

EDIT: not to be mean, though. I feel like we're miscommunicating. Do you think the photos and footage are fake or do you think they're real but someone intentionally created the spectacle, not rockets/aliens/outlandish theories?

[eastsideman09]

Looks to me like a wormhole after watching the video...
Pretty ****in awesome, I wonder what we'll get from this...

[foilman8805]

I went ahead and picked the poll option that reflects my truest inner feelings.

I think we got some ET **** on our hands bros. Get out your plasma guns.

[MrGiggles]

Throwing a vote out for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

[foilman8805]

Damn, wish I could edit the poll, haha.

[Cenright]

I would expect this to be some group's idea of a joke. I would expect the videos to be real, just because of the amount of people who witnessed it. There are so many things to can artificially make these days, and too many people with enough time to sit down and say, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we..." and thus starts something really crazy.

I wouldn't know for sure, but that sounds like what would be the case 95% of the time.

[HazelleReturns]

okay

but crop circles are real

I didn't say it wasn't some dumb teenagers with planks, I said the footage and other assorted media was real.

EDIT: not to be mean, though. I feel like we're miscommunicating. Do you think the photos and footage are fake or do you think they're real but someone intentionally created the spectacle, not rockets/aliens/outlandish theories?

The 'how' part, that they're real of course, but it was intentionally made. It's not some alien crap that was spread.

[MrGiggles]

Definitely a rocket gone awry. This link shows multiple photos of the phenomenon. The third photo from the left shows a clear trail beginning at Earth's surface (or at least down to a location beyond the horizon, which makes sense since the article talks about a White Sea missile launch from a Russian missile sub). Interestingly, there was a failed launch of a Bulava missile from a Russian sub in the White Sea just over a month ago. I would guess this is another test-fire from the Dmitry Donskoi; the new generation of Russian nuclear submarines.

The spiraling trajectory could only come from something under propulsion (not a meteor and not aurora as the spiral is way to tight from those that I've seen), though I suspect the point at which the vapor trail is blue, then white is the result of venting (the blue part), followed by venting and I would guess ignition (white part) of the propellant.

The blue vapor trail seen is probably from Rayleigh scattering; blue because the material being vented is smaller than the wavelength of light being scattered. The white spiral is caused by non-selective scattering of material much larger than the visible wavelengths of light incident upon it, unless it is the result of ignition/burning.
So, my theory to the rocket launch goes like this:
1) nominal launch into the atmosphere.
2) error occurs in propulsion system, perhaps during first stage separation
3) for some reason, failsafe is not engaged (i.e. they didn't blow it up)
4) propellant begins to leak. This seems strange since the Bulava is a variant of the Topol-M/SS-27, which uses a solid propellant. My only further guess is a) the venting material was not propellant or perhaps was attitude control gases? or b) it was solid propellant, but not exiting from the rocket nozzle.
5) a secondary leak occurs farther upstage (perhaps from some internal malfunction/minor explosion) expelling a much larger particle sized vapor (water droplet size?) causing the bright spiral. The material in this spiral plume could perhaps be of the same material as the blue plume if it was ignited and burned in the 'white' color range...a spectral analysis of the plume could have deciphered the material components, but not from the eye-witness photography.
6) Eventually either a) all the propellant was expended or b) was no longer ignited and the plume disappeared. It would be interesting to know where that missile landed (hopefully over the ocean/sea).
Anyways, that's how I interpreted it.

EDIT: minor grammar/spelling corrections

EDIT2: razorhack had an earlier comment/interpretation that is less detailed, but essentially the same as mine.

EDIT3: ****buddy commented below and provided a link to the Bad Astronomy blog that discusses his interpretation of the phenomenon that is uncannily similar to mine (I swear I didn't see it till after I posted! His was a little over an hour earlier than mine).

Apparently this was immediately pre-dawn and the yet-to-rise sun backlit the fuel high up in the atmosphere.

[Mythix]

Why to you even BOTHER trying to convince yourself and the likes of you that this might even be remotely connected to something unexplainable. It was determined it was UFOs from a submarine just minutes after it hit the news.


The end.

EDIT: And it happened days ago, gl hf The Sun.

[foilman8805]

It's simply fun to speculate, okay?

So yeah, of all the different theories proposed, the out of control rocket makes the most sense in my head. I still want to use my god damn plasma gun though.