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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."
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It's the Earthlings and they've come to give the Martians anal probes! (or whatever organ is worth probing on a martian)
Blogzine.net
This could be a flying cup from Earth!!!!
I'd better charge up the batteries in my Subetha signalling device and hope the Dentressi are feeling like a bit of company for the voyage back!
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Um, UFO = Unidentified Flying Object?
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
Obviously can't blame the martians for this one....
If it was Viking 2, let's hope those martian conspiracy theorists only got a blurry picture. We wouldn't want to let them know that there's extramartian intelligence just yet. First we have to set up the slave camps.
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?
this is proof that Al-Quaeda is using Mars as a base of operations in their development of WMD, requiring a 50-fold expansion of funding for the Mars liberation effort.
Or Steven Spielbergs special effects team working on his next SciFi movie
I predict the wackos at Enterprise Mission will have some far fetched explanation for it by the end of the day.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Headed for yet another undisclosed location.
Its those damn Earthlians trying to take over Mars! Run for your life!
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
The Infinium Phantom Gaming console. Finally a prototype is seen
It was only the Enterprise going back to the 23rd century with a whale from Earth. Anyone screaming "UFO!" tells me that some idiots will believe anything...
Trolling is a art,
How indecent, call the FCC.
Nah, its the little green men shooting at one another in an epic battle of water rights. You thought that water rights in the American West were a hot button topic, well on Mars.....
Seriously though, at the very least, the cool thing is that we have seen a "shooting star" from the surface of another planet for the first time. The timing of NASA and JPL on both Spirit and Opportunity so far has been impeccable. Let's hope their luck continues.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
[tinfoil hat] Perhaps it wasn't unidentified, and even further- Mars could be where Saddam has been hiding those weapons of mass destruction all this time. We're just witnessing it making its loop around before aiming straight for my house. [/tinfoil hat]
ok.. so heads you lose tails I win. right?
There has been an unexplainable surge in the price of Aluminum foil. Representative of the Aluminum manufactures of America are at a loss to explain the sudden demand.
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
Hmmm.. what took them so long? That picture was out a week ago.
5. Laryonov's Space Advertising
4. John Kerry on Campaigning on Mars
3. North Koreans Test-firing missiles
2. Superman coming back from vacation
1. Martians getting ready to invade earth
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
You just KNOW this is going to go down in the books as PROOF of
There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
So it's unidentified, on a distant planet ...
We have trouble identifying everything flying our own skies but now we have to worry about aliens invading our "yet to be conquered" planet.
That should bolster the arguments for building that interplanetary cannon so shoot down asteroids and other mean things coming our way. Wait, it could be a terrorist plot to take over Mars, better establish a base there, pronto.
Fourty-two!
URL, of cource, being a TLA for U niversal R etard L ocator...
I'm surprised nobody yet did a joke about this flying object being Beagle2 that is just still bouncing on the Mars surface...
Iraq: war to save the U
As detailed in the initial NASA article the streaking was actually the result of a 15 second exposure of the sensor. It is likely that the actual object appeared as a bright moving dot against a dark sky. The length of the streak and exposure time gives NASA an estimate of speed for various theories based on the angle covered across the sensor in that 15 seconds. The data doesn't rule out a Viking orbiter but does rule out all other orbiters.
Likely origin of the "UFO" - Earth. Cool, there's finally real evidence that the UFO sighted is actually from another planet. Unfortunately if it's true then it would really be an identified flying object, not an unidentified one.
Thank you.
"Honey, I feel a certain distance between us..." "Really? A 31ms ping ain't that bad..."
did it look like a giant vacuum cleaner?
It's all the UFO/Area 51 hype that has made the term UFO synonymous with alien space ships. It's kind of like RAID 0 - which is not a RAID per its own definition.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Isn't that the asteroid that's headed towards Earth?
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
It was my Illudium Q-35 Explosive Space Modulator. I was wondering where it got to.
-Marvin
P.S. Where was the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
"The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government." - George Washington
... just another weather balloon.
But there are alien vessels on Mars. Well, ones that are alien to Mars.
I've had a 1989 Yugo in orbit around Mars for about 10 years now! I miss that car.
Future Mars rovers will come equipped with special space-age tinfoil hats.
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
Yeesh, just because our faith-based edumactional system ("we believe you've got a chance to graduate...") doesn't teach important critical reasoning skills, like reading comprehension, that doesn't mean that slashdot should play down to that level. Doing so makes life to easier for the trolls.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It's just SpaceShipOne in an X-Prize test flight gone horribly wrong.
Only outlaws will streak.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
make it Dejah Thoris.
It would be different on Mars because there is hardly any atmosphere for the meteorites to burn in.
Mars has about 0.5% of Earths atmosphere. I suspect that means that virtually every rock that would burn in our atmosphere to become a "shooting star", ends up instead hitting the ground and becomes a "crater".
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
I really hope none of the Martian life caught it on home video... Or they're gonna have an hour long mini-series based on the event with the title "We're Not Alone"...
**cue X-Files Theme**
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
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
Sure it is, you are just using the redundant channels for performance.
---
"Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets"
But UFO means unidentified flying object. If it's falling out of the sky, it's not really flying. Maybe we should call it an unidentified falling object. Now we just need to figure out the acronym for it.
For every post, there is an equal and opposite re-post.
Satellites in low and medium orbits around earth are slowed by the earth's thick atmosphere. The relatively thin atmosphere of Mars would allow a spacecraft to orbit for MUCH longer at lower orbits due to reduced drag.
Crushing my karma one post at a time.
That's kind of cool--it's almost the 21st century of a 'ghost ship' if it's actually Viking. I expect we'll see more of this type of stuff in the future. Furthermore, I think it may be prudent to initiate a self-destruct capability on future probes, because you certainly don't want some extant hunk of metal slamming into your manned Mars lander some day.
The thing about real ghost ships, and abandoned cars, etc., is that they either sink or rust or are towed away in the end. Interplanetary space probes generally do not.
... which achieved Mars orbit after reaching escape velocity during nuclear bomb tests in the 1950's.
The jokes won't be old until at least a month after Bush confesses that he was wrong about the WMD. Until then, it's fair game.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
NASA is lucky that the UFO's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator wasn't charged up!
ripped from Jokedump
When NASA was preparing for the Apollo Project, it took the astronauts to a Navajo reservation in Arizona for training. One day, a Navajo elder and his son came across the space crew walking among the rocks. The elder, who spoke only Navajo, asked a question. His son translated for the NASA people:
"What are these guys in the big suits doing?" One of the astronauts said
that they were practicing for a trip to the moon. When his son relayed this comment the Navajo elder got all excited and asked if it would be possible to give to the astronauts a message to deliver to the moon.
Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, a NASA official accompanying the astronauts said, "Why certainly!" and told an underling to get a tape recorder. The Navajo elder's comments into the microphone were brief. The NASA official asked the son if he would translate what his father had said. The son listened to the recording and laughed uproariously. But he refused to translate.
So the NASA people took the tape to a nearby Navajo village and played it for other members of the tribe. They too laughed long and loudly but also refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.
Finally, an official government translator was summoned. After he finally stopped laughing the translator relayed the message: "Watch out for these assholes - they have come to steal your land."
to what is is happening when Opportunitites' back is turned, looking at the ground.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
Unidentified Not On The Ground Object (UNOTGO)
Even has a pronounable acronym. You not go!
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
When the Viking satellite took a picture of the famous "Face On Mars," scientists figured it was just a rock formation. But NASA revealed pictures of it to the public in an attempt to spark in interest in the space program. And the response was incredible. Books, conspiracy theories and other things were devoted to it. The people wanted the truth about the Face on Mars and NASA delivered it. The so-called Face On Mars was really just a Mesa. I'm sure that many people will think that the UFO really is extraterrestial in nature, even though it most likely is not. But if it gets the public more interested in Mars, it might be worth some publicity.
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.
Sales of Aluminium were up.
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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."
And now you're beginning to discover what the rest of us did.
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
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.
I for one welcome our new Earthling Overlords
War was beginning...
Martian Captain: What Happened?
Martian Soldier: Somebody set us up the bomb!
Martian Soldier: We get signal!
Martian Captain: Main Screen Turn On!
Martian Captain: It's you!
Viking: How are you gentlemen!!
Viking: All your rover are belong to us
Viking: You are on the way to destruction
Martian Captain:What you say!!
Viking: You have no chance to survive make your time
Viking: HA HA HA HA...
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
Its not all that unlikely. Simply think about it like this. Things with odds that are millions to one happen on a day to day basis. We simply don't notice them because they don't seem out of the ordinary. (to quote Dead Poet's Society).
So yes - while the chances of Spirit taking that photo are millions to one, the chances of something odd happening like this are probably pretty darn good.
There is always a frontier where there is an open and willing mind
Assuming that Venusians exist then I think you are being insensitive to them.
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Yeah! And it didn't even include the standard goatse link to make the newbies toss their cookies either.
How ya like dat?