WTF : Spiral Lights in Norway ?

[Evildead666]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html

Just watching Zero Punctation over on the Escapist and this was on the forum list on the right.

Its a link from the Daily Mail in the UK, so not godspeak, but interesting none the less.

edit : forgot to mention ZP.

[Dr Mordrid]

According to the space sites it's a failed Russian launch.

[VJ]

You have to admit it makes for fascinating photographs...

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2764647/Spiral-UFO-puts-Norway-in-a-spin.html

They look so fake...

A Russian missile seems most likely, but some sources claim the Russians deny it, and the Norwegians were not informed of a missile launch... Ah well, failed administration somewhere... I would love to know the physics behind it: they claim reflection/refraction of the sunlight in fuel traces... Must have been one hell of a coincidence (but should be reproducable in models...).

[Dr Mordrid]

Spectacular failed Russian launches etc. are not exactly rare in that area - it's near one of their Area 51's.

[VJ]

Yes, so I've read...
But still, to generate such a nice symmetrical effect, the conditions must have been perfect (which is what I mant with the coincidence). I'd bet you could do hunderds if not thousands of failed launches and not see something like this.

[Dr Mordrid]

Here's a theory -

the rocket went into or was planned to have a spin and there was a gas leak, probably O2, leaving a spiral trail that glowed in reflected light from a still-burning engine.

[KRSESQ]

Here's a theory -

the rocket went into or was planned to have a spin and there was a gas leak, probably O2, leaving a spiral trail that glowed in reflected light from a still-burning engine.

I would have expected more of a smoke contrail. But then I suppose you don't want an ICBM leaving a tell-tale contrail.

Kevin

[Dr Mordrid]

Here's a theory -

the rocket went into or was planned to have a spin and there was a gas leak, probably O2, leaving a spiral trail that glowed in reflected light from a still-burning engine.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/12/this-is-how-the-mysterious-giant-spiral-happened/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx8i5EfmYU4

This Is How The Mysterious Giant Spiral Happened

By Jesus Diaz on December 10, 2009 at 9:32 AM

It wasn’t the fury of Thor or an alien portal or the Second Coming of Hey-Zeus. Here you have the explanation of the mysterious giant spiral that happened yesternight in Norway, computer simulation included.

The video shows a rocket getting out of fuel and spiraling out of control, which looks exactly like the photos and videos online.

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 defence 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. And if that wasn’t enough to convince everyone, here are two images of the missile trails being blown away by the wind, at dawn:

Sorry people, no alien invasions. Yet. [Thanks Jon Trygve and everyone who wrote]

[MultimediaMan]

Odd... All of information on the Bulava says it uses Solid Rocket Booster stages. It could be the Warhead bus on the Bulava that did this (which is liquid fuelled), or a spectacular failure of a booster (similar to what happened to Challenger in 1985); all Russian SRBs have a weird interstage connection, which is discarded between booster stages which always seems to be jettisoned in the spiral pattern to the side of the booster... I've never seen one go that far, though.

The picture of the sky above my post is/was fairly common in Southern California whenever Vandenberg launched a MinuteMan or a Peacekeeper toward Kwajalein (usually late summer/ early fall).

[paulw]

Come on guys. We all know it's a wormhole to the Pegasus Galaxy. Sam told me..

[Brian Ellis]

When I saw the photos, my first reaction was someone with a laser system was having fun with some clouds.

[VJ]

The simulation Doc linked to shows the most obvious explanation.
It is strange that looking at the videos, you don't get an impression that the center is moving towards you.

[Dr Mordrid]

Russian language articles say it was a Bulava, a very troubled 3 stage submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that has been under development for some time - only 5 successful launches out of 11 so far.

It was launched from the ballistic missile sub Dmitry Donskoy and the first 2 stages worked fine, but the 3rd stage suffered a failure that threw it into a spiral. Since SLBM's use solid rockets one has to assume that the burning fuel eroded a hole in the side of the casing just above or in the nozzle, causing the rotation and the spiral plume - a similar (but not exactly the same - no "O" ring) failure to that suffered by Challenger's SRB.

[Elie]

One thing to know of Russian tech, they may try and fail a million times to get something right, but when they do... watch out

[Dr Mordrid]

An alternative view from Above Top Secret....

They think it was caused by EISCAT, often claimed to be Europe's version of HAARP.