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Space Shuttle Columbia Crew Studies Sprites and Elves
AP ^
| January 20, 2003
Posted on 02/05/2003 12:38:04 PM PST by Shermy
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Sprites and elves dancing on thunder clouds have been captured by cameras on the space shuttle Columbia.
The sprites, which are red flashes of electricity shooting up from thunderclouds 13 miles (20 km) into the ionosphere, and elves, which are glowing red doughnut shapes radiating 190 miles (300 km), were photographed Sunday by astronaut Dave Brown on the sprite hunt's first orbit.
Columbia and a crew of seven astronauts are on a 16-day science mission that began Thursday. The study of sprites is part of an Israeli experiment known as MEIDEX that includes the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon.
"This is the first time (we've successfully taken) such images with a calibrated instrument from the shuttle and it's causing really great excitement with our colleagues around the world," said Yoav Yair, project coordinator for Israeli experiments on the shuttle science mission.
Yair said Brown did not see the luminosities or know that he had captured their images until scientists on the ground downloaded and analysed the pictures.
"One has to be extremely lucky to catch one because it lasts only 0.1 milliseconds -- less than a thousandth of a second," Yair said. "Luckily, God was on our side this time and we caught one."
The discovery of sprites in 1989 and elves in 1994 has opened up a new area of study in the field of upper atmospheric physics. Until now, images of them have been limited to those taken from the ground or aeroplanes.
The shuttle cameras that captured the flashes are onboard primarily to facilitate the Israeli's Mediterranean-Israeli dust experiment (MEIDEX) designed to study the impact of dust particles on global climate.
Zev Levin, of Tel Aviv University, who heads up the Israeli experiments, which were originally scheduled to fly in July 2001 but have been delayed by technical and scheduling problems, said that winter is the worst time to be searching for dust storms in the Mediterranean.
Levin said the team has not yet encountered any dust storms and is instead following plumes of pollutants from Europe wafting over the study area.
All in all, Yair said, Israeli scientists are "having a great time working with NASA (news - web sites) around the clock and getting good scientific data and already exceeding our, I would say, wildest expectations of getting science from this mission."
TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: columbia; elves; feb12003; lightning; sprites; sts107
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1
posted on
02/05/2003 12:38:04 PM PST
by
Shermy
To: Alberta's Child; glock rocks; blam; seamole; Boot Hill; Sabertooth; aristeides; jpthomas; okie01; ..
Lightning ping.
2
posted on
02/05/2003 12:41:25 PM PST
by
Shermy
To: Shermy
3
posted on
02/05/2003 12:52:17 PM PST
by
Shermy
To: Shermy
bumping for post-work/pre-beer reading. interesting stuff, this physics.
4
posted on
02/05/2003 12:54:05 PM PST
by
glock rocks
(zero one zero one...)
To: Shermy
It was for experiments like these that seven astronauts risked their lives?
Comment #6 Removed by Moderator
To: aristeides
Sheesh...throughout history, many advances in science were begun by "experiments like these". I'm just glad that our forbears didn't share your aversion to risk, otherwise we all might still be huddled in our caves, still trying to figure out how to appease the Thunder Spirits that we may eat tomorrow.
7
posted on
02/05/2003 1:08:49 PM PST
by
egarvue
(Martin Sheen is not my president...)
To: egarvue
The space program didn't bring us Beeno.
8
posted on
02/05/2003 1:11:31 PM PST
by
Mamzelle
To: aristeides
> It was for experiments like these that seven astronauts risked their lives?
There's a very remote chance that one of these struck the Columbia at exactly the time things started going seriously amiss.
If so, that's a previously unknown hazard to spaceflight.
9
posted on
02/05/2003 1:14:23 PM PST
by
Boundless
To: Boundless
Coulda been a metiorite. Or an elf. Or gremlins ripping at the wings. Apply the razor.
10
posted on
02/05/2003 1:22:54 PM PST
by
dasboot
To: Mamzelle
You are correct,
Beano (sometimes mispelled Beeno), the anti-fart enzyme supplement, was probably not derived from technology invented for the space program. But otherwise, the most cursory search of the web will show that yes indeed, many technologies we use in our daily life were either invented or further refined in our space program. Check out
Space Tech Hall of Fame for just a small listing. Educate yourself, and then come back here and say that the space program hasn't done anything to improve the quality of our lives.
11
posted on
02/05/2003 1:26:33 PM PST
by
egarvue
(Martin Sheen is not my president...)
To: Shermy
Thanks for the credit (although Sabertooth's post had far more info than mine).
It will be real interesting to see what NASA makes out of the photos that CA astronomer captured. Part of the problem for them will be the dearth of knowledge about sprites, jets and elves. All the speculation about damaged tiles might just turn out to be a blind alley.
--Boot Hill
To: egarvue
You were the one to bring up the Thunder Spirits.
13
posted on
02/05/2003 1:30:07 PM PST
by
Mamzelle
To: Mamzelle
14
posted on
02/05/2003 1:30:38 PM PST
by
egarvue
(Martin Sheen is not my president...)
To: Mamzelle
LOL! Sorry, I was slow on the uptake, I thought you were dissing the space program. I humbly apologize. Now, where's my bowl of chilli.......
15
posted on
02/05/2003 1:32:27 PM PST
by
egarvue
(Martin Sheen is not my president...)
To: Mamzelle
Oh no, just all kinds of tech that we use everyday. Teflon?
16
posted on
02/05/2003 1:32:46 PM PST
by
dljordan
To: dasboot
Or gremlins ripping at the wings.Ahhh - Another TZ Fan....I thought the remake was better than the original.
17
posted on
02/05/2003 1:34:58 PM PST
by
TomServo
To: dasboot
>
Coulda been a metiorite. Or an elf. Or gremlins ripping at the wings. Apply the razor.
Occam tells us to not ignore
this entirely. But until the guy releases the photos to the press, all is speculation.
As I said in another forum, just because there's a smoking gun (the foam FOD at launch) doesn't mean we have the answer and can stop looking.
To: aristeides
Don't forget the high school science projects.
To: dljordan
Teflon invented in the 1940's.
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