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 ...
Neither! Final scene from the movie "2010: The Year We Make Contact"
teehee
Space.com is a hot mess. You can’t find anything on there.
Spotted about the time John Titor became resurrected in Internet surfdom. Everett-Wheeler lives again!
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.
Now we’re talking.
Now we’re talking.
Maybe it was a temporal anomaly.
A double post over seven minutes apart.
No, I don’t want to know...
that was the other hand typing
wow...looks like a miracle to me...
OMG, they’re synchronizing parallel worlds! For God’s sakes, don’t touch anything,....it might be antimatter!
oh my gosh...what has gotten into you?
lol. Very true.
Im going to pretend theyre boobs and live forever--Cripplecreek
Now were talking--the invisible hand
that was the other hand typing--kaboom
And you're worried about ME??? LOL
DANG! I forgot about that!
Or Han Solo just jumped out of hyperspace.
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