Mystery flashes near
Columbia
CATASTROPHE IN THE SKY
Photos:
Mystery flashes spotted near shuttle
Astronomer
captures 'electrical phenomena' near Columbia's track
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Posted: February 2, 2003
8:05 p.m. Eastern
An astronomer who regularly
photographs space shuttles when they pass over the San Francisco Bay area has
captured five "strange and provocative images" of Columbia as it was re-entering
the atmosphere.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports
the images "appear to be bright electrical phenomena flashing around the track
of the shuttle's passage."
"They clearly record an electrical
discharge like a lightning bolt flashing past, and I was snapping the pictures
almost exactly ... when the Columbia may have begun breaking up during
re-entry,"
the photographer, who
asked not to be identified, told the Chronicle.
The
photos were snapped with a Nikon camera using a tripod.
Though the space scientist
is not making the pictures public immediately, he invited the
newspaper to view the images on his home computer this weekend.
David Perlman, science
editor for the Chronicle, calls the photos "indeed puzzling."
"They show a bright
scraggly flash of orange light, tinged with pale purple, and shaped
somewhat like a deformed L,"
Perlman writes.
"The flash appears to cross
the Columbia's dim [white trail formed in the wake of the craft], and
at that precise point, the [white trail] abruptly brightens and
appears thicker and somewhat twisted as if it were wobbling."
"I couldn't see the
discharge with my own eyes, but it showed up clear and bright on the
film when I developed it," the photographer said. "But I'm not going
to speculate about what it might be."
Printable version
SCIENTISTS ADMIT UNEXPLAINED LIGHTNING
source:Dan Vergano and Tim Friend,
2/7/03 USAToday
by JenT
"It seems like the tip of a lightning bolt would uniquely heat up isolated
heat instruments." [as Columbia
experienced].
I stand corrected. In USA TODAY, an atmospheric scientist, Walter Lyons of FMA
Research in Fort Collins came right out and admitted it may have been a lightning bolt.
After a long in-depth description of the middle sphere between our atmosphere
and space, Lyons says,
"Scientists are still discovering unexplained
phenomena...There is all sorts of electrical foolishness going on up there that
we still don't know anything about."
He states,
"Red sprites are electrical discharges in the upper atmosphere. They occur
over thunderclouds and have been considered to pose less than a 1-in-100 risk to
the shuttle."
Lyons continues:
"Blue jets are upward lightning strikes. In 1998, Lyons and a team of
scientists reported one that was sparked by a meteor. "The safety implications
are just a gaping hole in our knowledge," he says.
If they can explain its pattern, it seems less like God...but Who moves the
clouds into position in the first place...
"As the space shuttle streaks through the upper atmosphere, it leaves a wake
in the air just as a boat leaves a wake behind it in the water. The shuttle's
wake becomes electrified. Lyons says some scientists are speculating that its
electrified wake acted as an antenna and drew a blue jet to the Columbia."
There was
also a long discussion about how instruments were picking up unusual heat
patterns:
"A sensor in the fuselage above the left wing showed a 60-degree
temperature rise in five minutes. The sensor on the right side showed only a 15-degree rise. A sensor in a wheel well on the bottom of the left wing showed
an unusual rise of 30-40 degrees.
Another possibility is that the heat could have come from something inside
the shuttle. But engineers say they think that's unlikely. No other sensors on
the shuttle registered unusual heating."
It seems like the tip of a lightning bolt would uniquely heat up isolated
heat instruments.
This is so interesting, but ultimately it's so incredibly sad. When we do
these incredible feats, why do we always try to prove it's evidence that God
doesn't exist?
God does. And I hope Col. Husband had a chance to share
the Good News with
the other astronauts during the days that they were there. Rumor has it he did,
but no one has been able to confirm it. Our lives are but a
vapor. It's all about the decision we make in this lifetime... what do we
do with His Son?
A hundred years from now, we'll all be gone. Every single person you know.
This life is all about choosing, who is Jesus Christ, and what does He mean to
you? This is the year of acceptance, now is the time. You never know
when "electrical foolishness" will strike. Consider Christ.
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