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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."

4 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. Let me get this straight... by Grip3n · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  2. Offtopic - Dyson sphere by StrawberryFrog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

  3. Re:Meteor? by FuzzyBad-Mofo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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)

  4. A way to check for repeated sighted by waynegoode · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.