Giant Spiral over Norway

[General Zod]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... orway.html

It seems there's been this massive light-show going on featuring a giant spiral that's got people in a panic. So far I can't find any kind of official explanation for it, but sites are buzzing about with all these wild theories, so I thought I'd put it here and see if anyone has any ideas what it is or if they have a more credible source verifying it. My thought is someone's putting on a laser show and forgot to inform the public.

Direct link to Youtube video of the spiral

[Sky Captain]

I asked one exmilitary guy about this sighting and he told it`s probably a missile test gone haywire although the halo forming at the end is weird.

[Ted C]

Well, you can get halo effects by shining a light through moisture in the air. I guess if the light source were an object flying in a "corkscrew" path, you might get something like this.

The videos aren't nearly as impressive as the long-exposure still shots, though. Makes you wonder how someone knew to have a camera pointed in just the right place with just the right exposure settings to get those shots.

[Zixinus]

It's weird, but aside fantastical explanations, I can only think of some rather powerful missile gone haywire and exploding weirdly.

[Dooey Jo]

According to Norwegian news sources, it's probably a Russian long distance missile test, launched from a submarine, gone wrong. The light probably stems from the sun shining on leaked propellant (this actually occurred around 8 a.m., local time, rather than "last night". It's in northern Norway, where they don't get much sun now).

Says Aftenposten.

[General Zod]

I'm almost sorry if this turns out to be something mundane (well, as far as you can call a missile test 'mundane'); you've got to admit that this would a pretty cool way for the mothership to fly back to its home planet.

So far Russia's denied allegations of a missile test. Wouldn't that make a rather noticeable noise though? I didn't read anything like that in the article. I'd also think an explosion from a missile wouldn't last 10-12 minutes.

[Isolder74]

You've been watching stargete to much

On a serious note, I do have to wonder what it is. There has to be some simple yet cool explanation for this.

If it was a botched Russian missile test it will be interesting what spin they'll put on this.

[Dooey Jo]

So far Russia's denied allegations of a missile test. Wouldn't that make a rather noticeable noise though? I didn't read anything like that in the article. I'd also think an explosion from a missile wouldn't last 10-12 minutes.

It was way the fuck up in the atmosphere, and didn't explode, it just spun around in the same place at the end, until it presumably ran out of gas, or they aborted it, or it died.

The real explanations behind fantastic phenomena will always be more boring than we can possibly imagine


Edit: Also, the Russians apparently test missiles over Norway all the time.

[General Zod]

It was way the fuck up in the atmosphere, and didn't explode, it just spun around in the same place at the end, until it presumably ran out of gas, or they aborted it, or it died.

The real explanations behind fantastic phenomena will always be more boring than we can possibly imagine

That probably works then. My first thought was still along the lines of "Dethklok has summoned a Troll".

[Kamakazie Sith]

Is there any footage from professional sources and not private? I only ask because my bullshit meter is reading full, and those still pictures look like they're computer generated. Looks like the seed for some viral video is being planted...

[Sea Skimmer]

Is there any footage from professional sources and not private? I only ask because my bullshit meter is reading full, and those still pictures look like they're computer generated. Looks like the seed for some viral video is being planted...

So is mine, and any suggestion this is a failed Bulava test is very dubious as Bulava is SOLID fueled, not liquid so it can’t be spraying a halo of fuel into the air. It would just blow up, or be blown up by launch control on the ground if it even came close to going that erratic. Plus tests of that weapon have always been pretty well publicized like all other SLBM and ICBM tests, to avoid accidentally starting WW3.

[Dooey Jo]

There's a better video on NRK (Norway's national television). That article says that the Russians had issued a warning that they would be test firing rockets between 3 and 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. It also says that they can't know for sure that it was a Russian missile, but lots of people saw this thing, so it's not just a bunch of videos circulating on the internet.

[Big Phil]

That doesn't look like a missile test; there's no missile plume or evidence that the object is moving, and the light from the group is centered on the object or whatever it is.

It looks computer generated to me, but if it is real, and isn't a hoax or a missile, then I have no idea what it could be. The article says there were thousands of people who saw this, but I wonder if there really were thousands of witnesses, or if it's just a couple of people pulling off a hoax?

[Surlethe]

Don't fucking spam up my forum. Moved some posts to the Bottom of the Barrel thread.

[loomer]

As I recall from the thread on SA, the big ass spiral o' doom formed in front of a Norwegian rocket range, so it could be that something they were doing went wrong and they decided to blame it on the Russians. All the pictures are showing it at the same 'face on' approach despite differing angles on the trail, so it could just be an optical illusion up there rather than a gas spiral.

Either way, it looks amazing and possibly fake, and I can't wait to see what the conspiracy sites and radio say.

[Surlethe]

So far Russia's denied allegations of a missile test. Wouldn't that make a rather noticeable noise though? I didn't read anything like that in the article. I'd also think an explosion from a missile wouldn't last 10-12 minutes.

It was way the fuck up in the atmosphere, and didn't explode, it just spun around in the same place at the end, until it presumably ran out of gas, or they aborted it, or it died.

Would it even need to spin around in the same place? When it's far enough away, it will all look two-dimensional. I'm thinking that in this picture the blue is the rocket's actual exhaust stream behind the spiral, which is approaching the camera. But it's so far away still that it looks two-dimensional. When the fuel runs out, you get this. Those long-exposure shots are deceptive; it looks a lot less spectacular in real-time, and a lot more like what you'd expect from something spinning around in circles shooting out a stream of something. (Compare to a long-exposures of astronomical objects versus what they actually look like when you look through a telescope.)

[Sky Captain]

I just came across a video providing possible explanation of this weird thing


It`s possibly a failed missile that`s leaking propellant out of the back and out of the side forming the weird spiral pattern.

[Sarevok]

Anyone from Norway seen this ? Or know anyone who did ?

Untill "thousands of people" who saw this are verified to be real people first I am doubtful about authencity of images that look like promo pics for a generic sci fi movie.

[Dooey Jo]

Is the testimony of some anonymous person on the internet going to be more reliable than Norwegian national news? Or international news? It's hilarious. What "should" this thing look like in order not to automatically be considered fake or viral marketing?

Would it even need to spin around in the same place? When it's far enough away, it will all look two-dimensional.

Yes, especially when viewed from behind like that, but "same place" is relative anyway, so

Those long-exposure shots are deceptive; it looks a lot less spectacular in real-time, and a lot more like what you'd expect from something spinning around in circles shooting out a stream of something. (Compare to a long-exposures of astronomical objects versus what they actually look like when you look through a telescope.)

Well personally, I think the videos look cooler.

[salm]

Spiegel.de has an article that states that it was a SS-N-30 "Bulawa" intercontinental Missile launched from the submarine "Dmitrij Donskoj". The article claims that the Russian ministry of defense admitted fucking up a missile test because of an "instability" of the motor in the third stage of the rocket.

[Sea Skimmer]

Yeah the Russians have now formally admitted it. Still couldn’t really be a spray of fuel though, more likely its the normal engine exhaust, though potentially the warhead bus may use a liquid propellant.

[Shroom Man 777]

How significant would the Bulava warhead bus' use of liquid propellant be to Western intelligence? Is that something new or anything?

[salm]

The Spiegel article mentions a Russian military expert saying that this is another sign of the Russian arms industry being in the shitter. The Bulawa Missile might never work and until 2030 the Russians might lose their ability of being a global nuclear power. According to him the Russian arms industry has lost crap loads of know how.

Not sure how reliable the guy is. His name is Pavel Felgenhauer.

[Sea Skimmer]

How significant would the Bulava warhead bus' use of liquid propellant be to Western intelligence? Is that something new or anything?

No not new at all, I'm sure we already know what they are using anyway. You can use different kinds of liquid fuels, solid fuels or compressed gases with no actual burning involved, they all work and have different tradeoffs. Also it’s possible the Russians aren’t even bothering to equip the missiles with a fully functional bus (an absurdly expensive item) when they know they have such horrendous reliability problems with the booster stages. They could use a simpler object to demonstrate bus release should the missile manage to actually work long enough to reach the end of its flight when the bus would normally separate and use its little engines to go on its merry way to aim and release the MIRV warheads one by one.

The US has a couple special MASINT planes with giant cameras which are actually used to film Russian missiles in flight, with the main emphasis being on watching the warhead bus after its separates and see how it maneuvers. But that stage of flight would take place out over the Pacific, as ICBMs release the bus fairly late in flight, and MIRVs are released even closer to the target in turn. All the Russian ICBM and SLBM tests are shot east to west onto a big impact range off Kamchatka. So the missile blowing up near Norway won't tell us much. NATO has a nice big radar at Vardo in North Norway though that tracks launches like this, you can bet they also tracked the falling debris and sometime in the future USS Jimmy Carter (our special projects SSN) may pay the debris site a visit and try to scrap stuff off the ocean floor. We've done it plenty of times before.

[Intio]

NATO has a nice big radar at Vardo in North Norway though that tracks launches like this, you can bet they also tracked the falling debris and sometime in the future USS Jimmy Carter (our special projects SSN) may pay the debris site a visit and try to scrap stuff off the ocean floor. We've done it plenty of times before.

Now that interests me. Can you discuss details more? Are/were you in a position to know what kind of information could be gleaned from recovering the spent debris from such thing? Has any navy tried to do this to the United States or European navies, whose tests have gone awry?