Space Analyst Explains Sky Spiral

Space analyst Bill Harwood spoke to Harry Smith about the mysterious spiral in Norway's sky. Harwood explains how a failed rocket could have caused the strange blue lights.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• cbsepisode
• spiral
• norway
• sky
• failed
• rocket
• motor
• strange
• blue
• lights
• space
• analyst
• bill
• harwood
• cbs
• early
• show
• harry
• smith

[trotskiii3]

WHAT A LOAD OF BULL

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation That one. The rocket could have been for one of 2 major things:

Training (Military exercises)

Testing (New rocket type

Those are the likely reasons. Remember though: one cannot say for certain what it was doing as the Russians decided to keep the details classified

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation The missile is quite small actually. The point is easy to confuse as the main body. But consider again our rotating cloud, like anything it tends to start out close and dense, it then expands and produces this vivid display. However, allow me to note though, that the cloud producer was not an SRB motor. More than likely (And we may never fully know since Russia does classify its missile systems) it was a liquid upper stage. Which means far more gas to go through.

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation Will not be quite as pronounced. However It WILL give you a decent analog of how gas behaves in a low density/vacuum environment.

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation This is a perfect real world example of the effects I am talking about. It is reproducible and observable. If I may lend an idea to the mix:

Get a weather balloon (100 bucks on Amazon) a video camera you won't miss, a gps tracking beacon (about 200 tops) and a CO2 canister. Set up a small rig so that when the balloon pops, a trigger is released, causing the gas to be released rapidly. You will get a similar reaction. Only thing is, you are still in atmo, so the effect >

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation Considering that they are not being stopped by the atmosphere and ejected at a high enough velocity that they scatter over a greater distance before being encumbered by gravity, then yes, it makes perfect, logical sense. consider this video: /watch?v=fCM5m45hjfs From 3:44 on is a perfect example. You will notice the gas being emitted from the small thrusters, spreading out in a VERY wide pattern and forming the large plate shapes which follow a spiral shape.

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation Furthermore, due to the height (Around 300 miles) anyone who is within the horizon will see that exact same thing only from different angles. (From what I have come to understand, the usual horizon level is around 500-800 miles in every direction. Though over water it was close to 1200 miles.

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation The problem with your comment is that you seem to misunderstand ballistic trajectory. When anything hits an apogee (As this one had done) it tends to be at a nuetral speed both in acceleration up and down. So, to the regular eye, it sits there for a few moments, then, it slowly begins to fall. Second, when it runs out of gas, naturally the gas keeps moving on the trajectory it was set on forming the hole. What you don't see (Due to poor lighting) is the missile slowly fall

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation There is that, however, the reasoning for the spiralling (And no it isn't perfect lol) is due to a leak. which caused the formation.

[danschaoticmind]

@PaintedTeleportation The answer is really mundane to some people. However, I consider the "Norway spiral" to be a very fascinating Orbital and space dynamics example. It shows quite well the scatter properties of particles in a zero atmosphere environment. An environment in which the laws of physics are the only things in control.