Meteors, Lightning and Bugs, Oh My!
An interesting photo has appeared on the NASA Dec. 7, 2004 Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
It shows what appears to be a meteor crashing into the water near a dock in Darwin, Australia:
The photographer claims that the photograph is real: part of a series of photos taken automatically every 15 seconds as part of an atmospheric cloud study. Scientists who have inspected the digital photograph do not think it is a meteor or lightning and the light pole near the flash in the image does not appear to show any damage. No one in the vicinity at the time of the photo have reported any strange events. So, assuming it's not a hoax, what created this image?
The interesting part to me is that an INTENSE online discussion has been going on for the past three days to attempt to explain the above photograph. See the discussion online here. Needless to say I have participated a little in helping to solve this mystery.
So far the theory best supported by the evidence created from intense image analysis by a surprising number of online detectives is that a bug crossed in front of the camera during the exposure. The shutter was open for 1/20th of a second during which time a fly/bug crossed in front of the camera. The bug's body (but not its translucent wings) blocked some of the light from the sky from reaching the camera. Near the end/beginning of the exposure, a flash was fired (as evidenced from digital data stored in image) which illuminated the bug and it wings creating the apparent flash in the image. Bugs have been known to create strange images in photographs as evidenced from the Roswell Rods.
Hopefully sometime soon APOD will update their page to agree with this conclusion. But don't let me sway you with my opinion! Read the online discussion yourself above and better yet, participate in the mystery! Until, look at this image generated by someone online showing the difference between the strange image and others taken in the photographic sequence:
Good Night!
It shows what appears to be a meteor crashing into the water near a dock in Darwin, Australia:
The photographer claims that the photograph is real: part of a series of photos taken automatically every 15 seconds as part of an atmospheric cloud study. Scientists who have inspected the digital photograph do not think it is a meteor or lightning and the light pole near the flash in the image does not appear to show any damage. No one in the vicinity at the time of the photo have reported any strange events. So, assuming it's not a hoax, what created this image?
The interesting part to me is that an INTENSE online discussion has been going on for the past three days to attempt to explain the above photograph. See the discussion online here. Needless to say I have participated a little in helping to solve this mystery.
So far the theory best supported by the evidence created from intense image analysis by a surprising number of online detectives is that a bug crossed in front of the camera during the exposure. The shutter was open for 1/20th of a second during which time a fly/bug crossed in front of the camera. The bug's body (but not its translucent wings) blocked some of the light from the sky from reaching the camera. Near the end/beginning of the exposure, a flash was fired (as evidenced from digital data stored in image) which illuminated the bug and it wings creating the apparent flash in the image. Bugs have been known to create strange images in photographs as evidenced from the Roswell Rods.
Hopefully sometime soon APOD will update their page to agree with this conclusion. But don't let me sway you with my opinion! Read the online discussion yourself above and better yet, participate in the mystery! Until, look at this image generated by someone online showing the difference between the strange image and others taken in the photographic sequence:
Good Night!
posted by Dan at 8:56 PM
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