Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

UFO Streaks Through Martian sky

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the break-out-the-foil-hats dept.

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."

7 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Or was it the Vogon Constructor Fleet? by Stile+65 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember your towel!

    --
    I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
  2. Re:Meteor? by rjelks · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Considering Mars is about 86 million miles from earth today, that rock would have to be hurling at about 3.5 million mph to get near (26,000 miles) earth in a day.

    -

    --


    Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
  3. Re:Atmospheric phenomenon? by kippy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's an event similar to what we experience with the northern lights

    Huh? I thought the Northern Lights 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?

    --
    Blaze a trail to the New World
  4. Re:Or perhaps... by happyfrogcow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    are you telling me you would not probe one of these
    http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&i e=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=nice+ass&sa=N&tab =wi

    i won't probe Google with safe=off while at work, thats for damn sure.

  5. Velikovsky serves a purpose... by vudufixit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And that purpose is to challenge the basic assumptions we've made about the universe and how it behaves.
    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.

    1. Re:Velikovsky serves a purpose... by Kiryat+Malachi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is not a chance in hell the Russians would have let the US government get away with lying.

      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.

      --

      ---
      Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
      (I read with sigs off.)
    2. Re:Velikovsky serves a purpose... by Silburn_Luke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That would be point C in the grandparent post then.

      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

      --
      #include witty_one_liner.h