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'Two suns' spotted in China defy explanation
MSNBC ^ | March 5, 2011 | Natalie Wolchover (Space.com)

Posted on 03/06/2011 1:10:41 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Weeks after a story shot across the Web claiming that the imminent explosion of a nearby star would result in the appearance of a second sun in the sky — a story that was later debunked — two suns were caught on camera yesterday in China. The suns — one fuzzy and orange, the other a crisp yellow orb — appeared side-by-side, one slightly higher than the other.

What's going on? Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to Space.com, asked Jim Kaler, the University of Illinois astronomer who squelched the excitement over the aforementioned exploding Betelgeuse and who has written books on the day and night sky. The double sun image is an effect of optical refraction, Kaler said, but it's a "pretty darn rare" one, and one not fully explained by science.

"I doubt it's been computer modeled," he said. "There must have been some blob of atmosphere somewhere that caused this truly spectacular phenomenon, which in a sense is a mirage."

Mirages appear when particles in the atmosphere refract, or bend, light. This typically happens near the horizon, where air is thicker, though, and mirages are usually aligned vertically above or below the original source of the light — not beside it, like in the video. It's possible, Kaler said, that an unusually thick patch of atmosphere wandered in front of the sun to create the unusual effect.

Previous sightings of horizontally-aligned double images of the sun and moon are recorded in a book called "Light and Color in the Outdoors" (English edition: Springer 1993) by the famous Flemish astronomer Marcel Minnaert, which remains the most complete reference on double suns. "So many other instances have been reported that there is no longer any doubt about ...

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Outdoors; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: china; doubleimage; mocksun; phenomenon; southeastasia; superstition; taiwan; twosuns
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Photoshop or actual astronomical event?

Neither! Final scene from the movie "2010: The Year We Make Contact"

21 posted on 03/06/2011 1:56:38 PM PST by massmike (DADT repeal: the Boy Scouts now have tougher membership requirements than the Army!)
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To: FrogMom
I saw two suns once

teehee

22 posted on 03/06/2011 2:02:12 PM PST by bigheadfred (THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN)
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To: cripplecreek

Space.com is a hot mess. You can’t find anything on there.


23 posted on 03/06/2011 2:04:53 PM PST by SengirV
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To: SengirV
Space.com is a hot mess. You can’t find anything on there.

LOL Yeah I don't go to the site much anymore. Techies go overboard with the graphics.
24 posted on 03/06/2011 2:10:52 PM PST by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Spotted about the time John Titor became resurrected in Internet surfdom. Everett-Wheeler lives again!


25 posted on 03/06/2011 2:14:21 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: massmike

Google ‘sundog’. Tatooine this isn’t. We didn’t suddenly acquire a second G-2 type star. If so- where is it today? ANd a supernova wouldn’t be visible only in China.
Astronomical phenomenon, photoshop or too much opium.


26 posted on 03/06/2011 2:17:45 PM PST by ClearBlueSky (Whenever someone says it's not about Islam-it's about Islam. Jesus loves you, Allah wants you dead!)
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To: the invisib1e hand; cripplecreek
Whoa.


27 posted on 03/06/2011 2:19:49 PM PST by bigheadfred (THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN)
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To: bigheadfred

Now we’re talking.


28 posted on 03/06/2011 2:28:29 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (Every knife in my back pushes me forward.)
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To: bigheadfred

Now we’re talking.


29 posted on 03/06/2011 2:35:51 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (Every knife in my back pushes me forward.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Maybe it was a temporal anomaly.


30 posted on 03/06/2011 2:46:07 PM PST by Repeal 16-17 (Let me know when the Shooting starts.)
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To: the invisib1e hand

A double post over seven minutes apart.

No, I don’t want to know...


31 posted on 03/06/2011 2:54:14 PM PST by bigheadfred (THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN)
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To: GeronL
That star might explode..... sometime in the next few million years

Or has already exploded sometime within the past 640 years (or 180 or 1,300) and the light of that explosion has just not arrived.
32 posted on 03/06/2011 3:11:15 PM PST by aruanan
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To: bigheadfred

that was the other hand typing


33 posted on 03/06/2011 3:13:37 PM PST by kaboom
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To: massmike

wow...looks like a miracle to me...


34 posted on 03/06/2011 3:15:42 PM PST by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo in laughter")
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To: kaboom

OMG, they’re synchronizing parallel worlds! For God’s sakes, don’t touch anything,....it might be antimatter!


35 posted on 03/06/2011 3:17:16 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: bigheadfred

oh my gosh...what has gotten into you?


36 posted on 03/06/2011 3:18:02 PM PST by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo in laughter")
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To: aruanan

lol. Very true.


37 posted on 03/06/2011 3:24:12 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Happiness)
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To: fabian; cripplecreek; The Invisible Hand; kaboom
oh my gosh...what has gotten into you?--fabian

I’m going to pretend they’re boobs and live forever--Cripplecreek

Now we’re talking--the invisible hand

that was the other hand typing--kaboom

And you're worried about ME??? LOL

38 posted on 03/06/2011 3:38:25 PM PST by bigheadfred (THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE HAS BEGUN)
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To: massmike

DANG! I forgot about that!


39 posted on 03/06/2011 3:49:22 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (up)
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To: Repeal 16-17

Or Han Solo just jumped out of hyperspace.


40 posted on 03/06/2011 3:51:35 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (up)
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