This is basic non-flat earth high school physics!
Contrail Shadows
Here's the original cbsla picture showing the contrail shadow;
Posted on 11/23/2010 10:29:06 AM PST by JoeA
In today's broadcast, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said that the contrail spotted off the California coast by a KCBS news helicopter was a missile. "I've talked to experts" he said. "It was a missile." The comment puts him in line with many who doubt the administration’s characterization of the contrail seen off the California coast as that of an airplane.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Right off the bat, I was curious as to why a whole lot of airline passengers didn’t chime in with their observations of a missle from altitude. This doesn’t seem to have happened. I’ve been on a plane at dusk when a rocket went up from Vandenberg. Spectacular to say the least.
It was an Hawaiian Airlines flight. Flight 808 destination: Moon. It was not a missile.
I agree. But there are a few things that he discusses that he should not...among them are aviation/aerospace and the military. He is clueless in those realms.
The contrail shadow is shows up because the length of the contrail is in line with the curvature of the earth *and* the setting sun.
Think about it; imagine looking at it from the side. Imagine the contrail following the surface of the earth inline with a setting sun. Then imagine a vertical contrail from the side, the setting sun is not in line with the length of the contrail and will not produce the shadow seen in the photopraph.
I believe if someone did a spectral analysis of the bright spot, it would either show aircraft aluminum (for contrail - light reflecting off of aircraft skin) or engine exhaust (for missile). Either way, you’d have your answer.
I still think this is the most plausible explanation:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2631987/posts
Today's weather: Chance of rain. Possibility of appearance of children in the morning.
Hey, I can't really argue with the sentiments expressed in the bottom left picture...
From a tactical point of view what response would there be. Let’s assume it was a missile from a foreign power for a moment, not many countries have the technical ability to launch a SLBM. Take out the friendly nations to us and that leaves only a couple possibilities.
1: Russia
2: China
I don’t believe in coincidences so let’s look at when this ‘UFO’ appeared. Right during the whole QE2 debate was going on this object was sighted, also this was in advance of the G8 summit.
Now, assuming it was a missile I doubt it would be us. We wouldn’t have fired this in sight of LA if this was something we wanted to keep secret. If it wasn’t us and it was a missile all signs point to China. Russia has nothing strategic to gain from firing a missile off our coast and really doesn’t have the muscle to back up t hat threat. China has both a strategic gain and the muscle to back up the threat. China sees itself as pretty much the sole Superpower in the world now, if you consider military AND financial might. Right now our economy is so fragile that *if* China had the balls to call in the chips we would be screwed financially. Sure, so would they but in a long-term conflict their financial power and the influence through the rest of the world would be the deciding factor. Right now the Chinese Navy cannot go toe to toe with ours but that’s changing quickly and due to financial pressure we’ll have to severally cut our defense spending if we don’t dramatically change course. Give the Chinese another 15-20 yrs at current pace and we will have to write off the entire pacific.
It was us. Another message. To whom, that is the question.
“Why haven’t any witnesses come forward to tell the media what they saw?”
They’ve all been silenced. Come on, that is trivial stuff for a simple missile launch conspiracy.
Close enough for government work.
It’s got to be true then.
Limbaugh is being a fool.
He’s right... in that an airplane, like any flying object, is technically a missile.
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