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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[G Larry]

Perhaps, but I've never experienced "dry" anything in S.F.

[theFIRMbss]

>...but if you are going to jump right into threads like this you really ought to wear protection.

Tin foil is like so
yesterday, man. I post from
a faraday cage

with active jamming
in the surrounding air space.
My computer links

to the 'net via
an Apple AirPort hotwired
to drive a laser.

[blu]

The reporter speaks:

"M880. we corrected earlier mistake. there is a chromatic problem w/ the 880, but that might only affect the color, not the structure of the "bolt." There's a good chance it was camera jiggle, but we'll see."

so it was digital.

[ShadowDancer]

One more thing - you may wanna hang around and "learn" the place a little before pronouncing this forum as "dumb" or "silly".

Have I been here long enough to pronounce it dumb or silly cause I'm kinda feeling like doing it.

[TomServo]

Have I been here long enough to pronounce it dumb or silly cause I'm kinda feeling like doing it.

Absolutely sweetie!!

[TXnMA]

"...A misquote concerning an early statement by the man led to some confusion about digital versus traditional analog images.

"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 astronomer was originally published as saying. But the Chronicle has clarified that the device is indeed a Nikon 880 digital camera which has no need of film to be developed."

------

SFO Chron: "clarified" -- as in, "We reported it wrong the first time -- actually the guy didn't say anything about 'film' at all...

So...we were working with bum data -- courtesy of sloppy reporting that tried to sensationalize a probable camera glitch.

At least I now understand why NASA thought it necessary to fly the guy's camera back to Houston on a T-38.

I do appreciate that WND went to the trouble to re-post it with a picture of the (supposedly) correct camera. Wonder if that means that someone at WND watches our threads here on FR -- or is even an active FReeper?

And thanks to all of you for sticking with this thing until we were able to arrive at a single, rational, probable explanation!

[theFIRMbss]

...a probable camera glitch. ... And thanks to all of you for sticking with this thing until we were able to arrive at a single, rational, probable explanation!

Let's not be hasty...
This was no cheap camera.
And astronomers

are used to sorting
artifacts from images.
We can probably

hand wave and tap dance
at least through tomorrow night.
Let's not give up yet!

[KneelBeforeZod]

it's a joke. as others have told you sucka.

go back to fark.

[chimera]

Worst. Necklace. Ever.

Yeah, but Dr. Tammy is still very easy on the eyes:

Hubba hubba…

It just isn't fair for one person to be that smart and that cute. Can someone have her come over and help me align the optics in my scope? I'll make sure the wife and kids are out for the evening...

[AstroJernigan]

The problem with the Scaler Cannon theory (and HAARP technology in general), is that the measurement values are in both metric or imperial, and you can use both decimal or fractional inches (to 1/128). Since the emission belt loop is difficult to measure (even satellites can’t pick it up), and the visual results can give decimal AND fractional measurements –its hard to tell which is which unless you have an adapter unit of some kind when it’s actually happening – find for controlled tests, but otherwise it’s hard to determine exactly when and where an emission has taken place. This is both the advantage of using it – and why the PRC has been so interested in developing HAARP technology into weaponry. But the drawback of course is that’s it’s so hard to tell when it’s being used – so the real risk is that rogue elements PRC may be using it already it, and those at the top may not even know [or maybe it’s just a convenient way to deny responsibility]. In any case, I’d be really surprised is they’ve developed anything this quickly to use on such a major target like Columbia. It would require quite a cover-up afterwards, too. The real question is – what would their incentive be?