Slashdot Mirror
UFO Streaks Through Martian sky
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."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
If they don't know what it is, then it is a UFO, by definition. Why should we avoid using the correct terminology, just because some people jump to conclusions?
Ok, if it was an alien vehicle, but we're aliens on that planet, is it alien? Or do we just call it a vehicle because we're actually the aliens? Then are we being called the aliens by the people in the vehicle? Do we call our vehicle up there the alien vehicle?
I'm so confused!...
To make a pun demonstrates the highest understanding of a language
Freeman Dyson (Freeman Dyson!) had no trouble believing in the Ringworld
believing in what sense? That one had been observed? I don't think so.
That it could be built? You'll need nearly Jupiter's mass of a substance with the same tensile strength as an atomic nucleus. In sort, not known to our physical theories (I'll stop just short of saying it's impossible). And then to spin the thing up to 1 gravity, you'll need the amount of energy that our sun puts out in 1000 years. In short, extremely difficult. Even then it's unstable.
His concept of the "Dyson Sphere" was very different from the SF concept of "a solid shell around the sun". He merely observed that the end-point of putting stuff in space to soak up the sunlight, is that all the sunlight is soaked up by millions upon millions of things, and all that gets out is the waste heat.
More info here
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
joke? immanuel velikovsky has made himself quite a reputation positing such events. calling himself a "scientist" he's claimed that venus was "ejected" from jupiter 3500 or so years ago whereupon it cruised around the solar system with a whole bunch of near misses of larger bodies before settling into its current orbit.
the majority of his "proof" for all this are biblical stories about astrological events. for instance, velikovsky posits that the friction of venus passing closeby earth raised the surface temperature of this planet " sufficient to make the vermin of the earth propagate at a very feverish rate" thus resulting in the plagues in exodus. that's just a sample.
wildly improbable to say the least - but velikovsky has managed to sell millions of books to the heroically undereducated public flogging this theory. a nutbar... but a rich nutbar.
right. sensical talk about velikovsky can be had here.
2 1337 4 u!
Since the speed of light is approximately 670,616,629 mph, a mere 3,500,000 mph seems quite stately in comparison. (although still a nice percentage of c)
Although orbital mechanics is not my specialty, I think NASA should be able to calculate an approximate orbit and take more images to see if it might be Viking 2.
The height of the streak in the image, the distance away and the orientation of camera will give the position. Put this with velocity to get the orbit. So, we just need to know distance away and velocity. The length of the streak plus the exposure time can give them a equation of velocity vs. distance away. Orbital mechanics gives another equation for velocity vs. height. Use these 2 equations to solve for the orbit, assuming the object is in orbit and not just passing by. NASA knows the orbital elements of Viking 2 when it was in use and can use these to see if the calculated orbit is reasonable.
Then using the orbit, calculate times the object would be visible to either rover and make some long exposures at the predicted times to look for it again. The only problem I can see is that the measurement error might be too much to make accurate predictions about future approaches.
This assumes NASA cares whether it's Viking 2.
Does anyone else find this bizzarre? What are the odds that the rover happened taking a picture of that part of the sky at that exact instant? Isn't it even more mind boggling that the streak is roughly dead-center in the picture Has anyone ever attempted to snap a picture of a meteor, even when you're expecting a meteor shower that night? It's damned hard... the only way to really do it is to use a long exposure and just wait.
The odds against this kind of coincidence must be staggering. Any math geniuses want to take a stab at it? We could estimate how often the half-dozen (?) satellites around mars would pass through that particular section of the sky, and we know roughly how many photos the rovers take in a given day... The odds must be something like one in a billion, or worse. I can't help but think of the slashdot sig I see once in a while... something like "The face of the moon is covered with the results of astronomical odds."