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Missile Test Creates Huge Expanding Halo of Light Over Hawaii

Posted by samzenpus on from the looks-like-progress dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "A Minuteman III missile launch from California early Wednesday morning created a weird, expanding halo of light seen from the CFHT observatory on Hawaii's Mauna Kea. The third stage of the missile has ports that open and dump fuel into the near-vacuum. This cloud expands rapidly as a spherical shell, shock-exciting the air molecules and causing them to glow, creating the bizarre effect."

13 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Is this how they are covering up airbursts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I thought they outlawed above ground nuclear testing decades ago. This is a pretty obvious cover up of a small nuke and I doubt this would fool anyone.

    1. Re:Is this how they are covering up airbursts? by Kreigaffe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can't cover up an atmospheric nuke, you can hardly even cover up an underground one. people will find out. we're good at spotting the radiation and fallout and unique shockwave if it's underground.

      the rest of the world wouldn't agree to stay quiet about things

      --
      ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
  2. Yet Another Alien Visit? by jarich · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've seen Stargate. I know this is just another lame government cover up of an alien visitation. Better check on your cows!!

    --
    Agile Artisans
    1. Re:Yet Another Alien Visit? by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 3, Funny

      I know this is just another lame government cover up

      Don't be silly. This was the testing of a 50 year old missile platform causing a previously unseen anomoly thousands of miles from the launch site of said missile.

  3. Launch Rescheduled from Before? by DaveAtFraud · · Score: 4, Informative

    Any bets that this is the same exercise as the launch we didn't do back in April? We wouldn't want to have North Korea have a hissy fit or anything.

    Cheers,
    Dave

    --
    They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
    Ben
  4. Anyone wanna bet? by Smerta · · Score: 5, Funny

    North Korea's about to follow. They've got their best Photoshop team on the job right now!

  5. Re:Test? by NouberNou · · Score: 5, Informative

    You answered your own question. These missiles have been active for 40 years. They need to be tested to make sure they work. They go out to the missile fields and they pick a missile at random, pull it out of the silo, remove the warheads, fly it over to Vandy, install instrumentation and dummy warheads, take the crew from the field it was in and fire it down range, making sure everything works right still.

    This is also one of the very few times that a crew actually gets to launch a live missile, so its an exciting exercise for them as well, so much so that the exercises are called "Glory Trip".

    Anyway, pretty much everyone tests their stockpile of ICBMs and SLBMs to make sure they are working, otherwise deterrence starts to lose some of its credibility.

    Furthermore, and a little dark, but think about how amazing it'd look to be in north central Canada if WW3 breaks out on a clear night and you have hundreds of these missiles going down range... The end of the world would be somewhat pretty.

  6. Cue conspiracies by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cue conspiracy theories about alien technology and/or chemtrails in 3... 2... 1...

    --
    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
  7. I saw one of these by rleamon · · Score: 5, Informative

    In LA in the late 80s. I thought aliens were invading. The sun had set but still illuminated the upper atmosphere, where a strangely large greenish globe of glowing gas gently expanded while a small bright object traveled remarkably slowly through its center. People had stopped and were watching as alertly as I was -- seriously, it was one of those slightly spine-tingling moments when you believe something impossible and possibly very bad might be happening... The next day the newspaper had a short piece about a launch from Vandenberg causing it. Or so they say...

    1. Re:I saw one of these by Solandri · · Score: 4, Informative

      Unlike Cape Canaveral which launches into an equatorial orbit to the east, Vandenberg launches into polar orbits to the south, and tests to the Marshall Islands to the west. That means the vapor trail is in prime position to be backlit by sunlight in the upper atmosphere just after sunset, making for very dramatic sights and photos as you describe. If the timing is right, on a clear day it's visible from most of Southern California. A friend of mine has a spectacular photo he took of such a launch from Joshua Tree, which is about 250 miles away.

  8. Re:Dump Fuel? by twisted_pare · · Score: 3, Informative

    RTFM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGM-30_Minuteman "Minuteman-III introduced in the post-boost stage (“bus”) an additional liquid-fuel propulsion system rocket engine (PSRE) that is used to slightly adjust the trajectory."

    --
    HTFU
  9. Directed by J.J. Abrams by Mr.+Chow · · Score: 4, Funny

    The lens flare does not lie!

  10. Not fuel, and not a Minuteman [CONSPIRACY!!!!] by EmagGeek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's chemtrails. It's your government putting mind control chemicals into the atmosphere, and rainbows in your sprinklers.

    Hah...