NASA probes 'electric zap' mystery photo:Former astronaut wowed by photo

World Net Daily ^ | February 5, 2003 | Joe Kovacs

[gitmo]

"Wow."

That was astronaut Tammy Jernigan's stunned reaction last night when she viewed a photo of what appears to be space shuttle Columbia getting zapped by a purplish electrical bolt shortly before it disintegrated Saturday morning.


Former astronaut Tammy Jernigan

"It certainly appears very anomalous," Jernigan told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We sure will be very interested in taking a very hard look at this."

The photo was one of five captured by an amateur astronomer in San Francisco who routinely snaps pictures of shuttles when they pass over the Bay area.

The pictures were taken just seven minutes before Columbia's fatal demise.

The Chronicle reports that top investigators of the disaster are now analyzing the startling photograph to try to solve the mystery.

The photographer continues to request his name be withheld, adding he would not release the image publicly until NASA has a chance to study it.

"[The photos] clearly record an electrical discharge like a lightning bolt flashing past, and I was snapping the pictures almost exactly ... when the Columbia may have begun breaking up during re-entry," the photographer originally told the paper Saturday night.

Late yesterday, the space agency sent Jernigan – a former shuttle flyer and now manager at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories – to the astronomer's home to view the image, and have the Nikon camera brought to Houston today.

It was slated to be flown to the Johnson Space Center by a NASA T-38 jet this morning.

Jernigan reportedly asked the astronomer about the f-stop setting on his lens, and how long he kept the shutter open – apparently some four to six seconds. A tripod was used to steady the camera, and the shutter was triggered manually.

"In the critical shot," states the Chronicle, "a glowing purple rope of light corkscrews down toward the plasma trail, appears to pass behind it, then cuts sharply toward it from below. As it merges with the plasma trail, the streak itself brightens for a distance, then fades."

"I couldn't see the discharge with my own eyes, but it showed up clear and bright on the film when I developed it," the photographer previously said. "But I'm not going to speculate about what it might be."

David Perlman, science editor for the Chronicle, called the photos "indeed puzzling."

"They show a bright scraggly flash of orange light, tinged with pale purple, and shaped somewhat like a deformed L," he wrote.

Space shuttle Columbia's rollout to the launchpad (NASA photo)

Jernigan no longer works for NASA, though she's a veteran of five shuttle missions in the 1990s. Ironically, on her final flight, the orbiter's pilot was Rick Husband, who was at the helm at 9 a.m. EST Saturday when Columbia broke apart during re-entry into the atmosphere.

"He was one of the finest people I could ever hope to know," Jernigan said.

According to her NASA biography, Jernigan graduated from Stanford in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in physics. She went on to earn master's degrees in engineering science and astronomy from Stanford and UC-Berkeley respectively. She also holds a doctorate in space physics and astronomy from Rice University.

She's spent over 63 days above the Earth, completing 1,000 orbits, and having walked in space for nearly eight hours during her final mission aboard shuttle Discovery in 1999.

Before flying on shuttles, she was a research scientist in the theoretical studies branch of NASA Ames Research Center, working on the study of bipolar outflows in the region of star formations, gamma ray bursters and shock-wave phenomena in the interstellar medium.

Regarding the Columbia disaster, the space agency is additionally investigating reports of possible remnants found in the West, including California and Arizona.

"Debris early in the flight path would be critical because that material would obviously be near the start of the events," said Michael Kostelnik, a NASA spaceflight office deputy.

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[Richard Kimball]

Please tell me no one actually thought that was the photo. This could be very series.

[berkeleybeej]

Unfortunately - YES - It is on the CoasttocoastAM website. Sent to them via email, probably by one of our humorous FReepers.

I've emailed the webmaster and Noory about this, but I could still access the page a few minutes ago. This could really screw FR credibility if it isn't cleared up.

[berkeleybeej]

Please FReep the webmaster to correct this:

webmaster@coasttocoastam.com

[Richard Kimball]

Oh man. Tell me you're joking. PLEASE tell me you're joking. You didn't believe that was the actual photo, did you? If you're new here, you've got to understand, there is very wry sense of humor on this forum.

Oh, btw, here's a picture of the photograher

;o>

[TigersEye]

A tesla weapon would have severe electrochemical impact on the flux density of the surrounding atmosphere creating the illusion of "clouds" when in fact it is the vapor trail from a Chinese Tesla weapon.

True! But the digital vs. film controversy still remains. Would a digital camera be capable of capturing the discharge of a Tesla weapon in light of the theory that the flux density would cause an electromagnetic microwave burst that would fry the transistors in it?

Or was the photographer just too far away?

[Richard Kimball]

Oh, great. Now I feel bad about post #165.

[Richard Kimball]

Sorry, meant post 164.

[ididntdoit2]

Clearly the Chinese must be working with some higher life form that has EMP coating technology far superior to Nikon. A kind of bipolar junction coated emp reducing transistor. This would also explain the timing of the attack and the photographer being ready.

[TigersEye]

Wow, nice snake! I wouldn't give him a chance to bite me but a few minutes of handling and he'd be completely docile. Very nice pics!

It's just that if I come home and my wife isn't there, I suspect she's at the store before I suspect she was abducted by aliens.

Well you know her better than I do. (I don't know her at all.) If you want to ignore the obvious that's up to you! ;^)

[TigersEye]

The photographer may not even know what happened. If nano-technology from Beijing was covertly routed through Taiwan to Japan an agent of the PRC may be embedded in the Nikon directing the photog's every move through Soviet/Sino mind control techniques.

[redheadtoo]

...we were invading Iraq to capture the reverse engineered UFO that crashed there.

Now why would we bother to do that? Don't we have our own captured UFO from the Roswell crash?

[TigersEye]

I don't want to encourage promiscuous FReeping (you can see what it's done to us) but if you are going to jump right into threads like this you really ought to wear protection.

Welcome to Free Republic. FReegards, TigersEye

[ConservativeLawyer]

Bump for later read.

[6ppc]

Not sure what the title of the earlier thread is and I didn't bump it...so I can't find it. In any case, here is a post that pretty much summarizes the situation:

Camera catching shuttle 'zap' had own glitch

[AstroJernigan]

I feel pretty bad about posts #1-174

[CCWoody]

"I couldn't see the discharge with my own eyes, but it showed up clear and bright on the film when I developed it," the photographer previously said. "But I'm not going to speculate about what it might be." ~ Article

Film media anomaly? Light leak?

Woody.

[js1138]

I lost track of Nikon film camer numbers a while back. I still use my black F2 body purchased new in 1964. I don't do much film shooting anymore, but I'd be surprised if an astronomer was using a consumer digital camera. I'll place my bet on the N80. Next question would be, what film?

[sixmil]

Farker sends Geroge Noory (Art Bell's replacement) picture from Caddyshack. George posts it as unreleased NASA photo in shuttle investigation

[Richard Kimball]

I have to admit, you got me. At first, I couldn't believe that you were as stupid as your posts indicated, but you played it very well, and I finally thought you were really stupid enough to think that was the photo. Nice to know you have an IQ above room temperature, in January, and welcome to FR.

[Richard Kimball]

He's a troll. Just saw his ID on another forum, and he states he's going to come over to FR and see how long he can keep this going.