'Two suns' spotted in China defy explanation

MSNBC ^ | March 5, 2011 | Natalie Wolchover (Space.com)

[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 ...

[Vaquero]

all that coal smoke caused the aberration.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I thought that was a possibility, all that pollution. Either that, or we’ve all woken up on Tatooine.

[icwhatudo]

Chinese military immediately responded in order to kill one of them before realising the people said 2 suns.

[MSF BU]

Art Bell call your office...

[massmike]

[Windflier]

"There must have been some blob of atmosphere somewhere that caused this truly spectacular phenomenon, which in a sense is a mirage."

Swamp gas. Definitely swamp gas. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Also:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2684243/posts

[mountainlion]

What happened to the super nova that was supposed to be as bright as the sun?

[cripplecreek]

'Two suns' spotted in China defy explanation

Well, unless you go to space.com where they give an explanation.

[GeronL]

That star might explode..... sometime in the next few million years

[He Rides A White Horse]

Either that, or we’ve all woken up on Tatooine.

ARG...You guys are too quick.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Photoshop or actual astronomical event?

[bigheadfred]

[omega4179]

A rare brief glimpse of planet x

/s

[PeaceBeWithYou]

[the invisib1e hand]

Whoa. There was just a thread yesterday about staring at breasts. It must have been in honor of that.

[FrogMom]

Thought this was called “sun dogs”. I saw two suns once. Was about 1700 hrs in Arizona. Sun was close to the horizon, would love to see the mechanics of the “echo”.

[NavyCanDo]

In China ‘Two Sons’ would defy explanation, two daughters a concentration camp.

[cripplecreek]

We're screwed.