Over the skies over Norway, a (then)strange spiral formation freaks out all who see it. We’re not meaning to put words in people’s mouths but it’d sure freak us out. Turns out the mysterious spiral isn’t an alien portal, Thor crossing over to Midgard, or Mighty Orbots returning from galactic patrolling. Those in the know, including our favorite Bad Astronomer Phil Plait , soon put all our worries, and imaginations, at ease.
Norwegian astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard says it’s 99.9% safe to say that it’s a rocket out of control, while some newspapers and TV channels are quoting Russian military sources, confirming that this is a failed Bulava missile launched from a nuclear submarine in the White Sea.
The Norwegian defense has confirmed that, even while they have not admitted the failure, the Russian Navy alerted them about the tests prior to the giant spiral appearing in the skies
You Tube is littered with on-the-scene videos like the one below.
Is it just us or are the Russians cornering the market on strange video happenings? Whether is a few grand in vodka being taken out in a warehouse or some drunk guy falling down a manhole or missiles going tits-up publicly in the Norwegian sky. We think Russia’s doing its damnedest to become a poor man’s Japan. All they need now are cute, drunken robots fighting.
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Categories: Science, Video, Weird, World Tags: bad astronomer, bada BOOM, clouds, norway, our strange sky, russian missiles, spinny clouds, wtf
…a spokesman from Moscow’s weather forecasting service said: “Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west – this is how the effect was produced.
“This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive,” he added.
“If you look closer, you can see sun rays coming through that cloud. Most likely, the sun was setting when the video was being made.
Last Wednesday an Independence Day-like cloud appeared over Moscow City and freaked the crap out of a lot of people. We don’t blame them. Anything making Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich science prophets scares the poo out of us, too.
Our strange sky:
Cell phone video of the event under the hop.
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Categories: Science, Weird, World Tags: clouds, halloween 2009, how's the weather, Independence Day, moscow city, our strange sky, the 31 posts of halloween 2009, wtf, you tube
ISS astronauts witnessed a display of noctilucent or “night-shining” clouds a month or so ago. Here’s a shot of then 320km above Mongolia.
Atmospheric scientist Gary Thomas of the University of Colorado has seen thousands of noctilucent cloud (NLC) photos, and he ranks this one among the best. “It’s lovely,” he says. “And it shows just how high these clouds really are–at the very edge of space.”
He estimates the electric-blue band was 83 km above Earth’s surface, higher than 99.999% of our planet’s atmosphere. The sky at that altitude is space-black. It is the realm of meteors, high-energy auroras and decaying satellites.
What are clouds doing up there? “That’s what we’re trying to find out,” says Thomas.
[...]
“It’s a puzzle,” says Thomas. “Noctilucent clouds have not only persisted, but also spread.” In the beginning, the clouds were confined to latitudes above 50 degrees; you had to go to places like Scandinavia, Siberia and Scotland to see them. In recent years, however, they have been sighted from mid-latitudes such as Washington, Oregon, Turkey and Iran
Science, you find so many beautiful things for me to ponder and write horror stories about.
(via science@nasa)
Mammatus (also known as mamma or mammatocumulus) is a meteorological term applied to a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. These pouches, typically measuring about half a kilometer in diameter, are often ragged, but may appear smooth. Their color is normally a bluish gray, the same as that of the host cloud, but direct illumination from the setting sun and other clouds may cause a gold or reddish cast. Mammatus can persist anywhere from minutes to hours, diffusing and disappearing over time.
The mechanism of their production is poorly understood and has been little studied. The presence of very dry air beneath the cloud base is known to be a factor.
I swear I’ve never heard of mammatus clouds before today. I’m still stuck in cirrocumulus world, I suppose.
Tons of Mammatus cloud photos here.
(via ponzu)
