Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SOHO Strikes Back

Posted by michael on from the luke-i-am-your-father dept.

Nick Lightfoot writes "As seen on /. several days ago, Euroseti is holding a conference to show off it's collection of pictures of 'UFOs' taken by SOHO cameras. SOHO has released a response page to show how a cosmic ray or other similar ccd artifact could be mistaken for a UFO, especially after the image has been enhanced. After watching Euroseti's video featuring some of the images, I was able to identify one of the 'UFO' images as a comet, and several others looked like they were just planets. Hopefully they will release some images on the web soon so I taking take a closer look at them without having to buy their £15 cd."

2 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. I want to believe by fermion · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This was a brilliant tag line for the 'X-Files'. The viewer was simultaneously shown the venerability and Achilles heel of the Mulder character. We appreciate his ability to accept implausible explanations, but know his desire to believe will deliver him to repeated failures, without regard to the nobility or validity of his search.

    Anyone who has seriously massaged data knows the dangers of 'wanting to believe' It is very hard to limit oneself to error correction and legitimate pattern enhancement. This is especially true when one is using off the shelf, not fully understood, tools. It is so easy to introduce artifacts that can be mistaken for reality.

    This is exactly what happened to these images, the Man on the Moon image, Man on Mars image, and will continue to happen. People want to believe. They consider themselves cosmopolitan for their ability to accept improbable explanations, but forget the first step was to extinguish all possible conventional explanations, the first of which is systematic error.

    The universe does not lie, but it is vague enough so we can easily lie to ourselves. It is as easy to create UFOs out of fuzzy images as it is to create animals out of passing clouds. We can not use either to prove or disprove the existence of anything.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  2. The proliferation of video cameras. by duckpoopy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The proliferation of video cameras along with the lack of recent corraborated sightings seems to show that UFOs are not visiting us now. How many people independently videotaped the WTC collapse? Yet there are no current, credible UFO videos. Did 'they' stop visiting in the 1950's? The only way to keep these hoaxes alive is to push them just beyond the sight of the masses. If everybody had a CCD telescope then the hoaxsters would have to resort to doctoring Hubble images to 'prove' their point.

    --
    word.