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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Nick Danger]

I have not been able to ascertain the type of camera, but if it is digital...

"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.

[Finny]

bookmark 16

[gitmo]

Digital film?

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Additional information

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd23sep98%5F1.htm

These weird flashes were first observed
from the ground, when, quite by accident,
they were captured on video on July 5, 1989
by University of Minnesota scientists John
Winckler, Robert Franz and Robert Nemzek.
The scientists were actually performing a
calibration test for a low light level
monochrome camera, and weren't
particularly looking at the thunderstorm to
the east of their observing site at all. The
next morning, while viewing the test video,
they saw giant twin pillars of light extending
upward more than 30 kilometers above the
thunderstorm.

The flashes were first recorded from space
by the Space Shuttle (STS-34), as it passed
over a highly active thunderstorm in
northern Australia on Oct. 21, 1989. The
shuttle's monochrome TV cameras filmed
what are now called sprites and jets. The
observations were being conducted as part
of the NASA/Marshall Mesoscale Lightning
Observation Experiment. Otha H. Vaughan, Jr.,
of NASA's Global Hydrology Center was the
principal investigator.

In 1994, while flying an extremely sensitive
color camera normally used for auroral
photography in a high altitude aircraft,
University of Alaska scientists confirmed that
the flashes have a generally reddish color
which often fades to purple or blue in the
downward extending tendrils. Dr. Davis
Sentman of UAF named these "sprites" after
the creatures in Shakespeare's "The
Tempest," in part because of their transient,
ephemeral nature. The UAF team also
discovered and named blue jets.

The sprites appear high above the
thunderstorm while the jets shoot out from
the top of the thunderstorm. Sprites appear
to cascade as high as 96 km (60 mi) above
the Earth. Sprites can look like giant red
blobs, picket fences, upward branching
carrots, or tentacled octopi, and can occur
singly or in clusters. The jets appear to be
ejected from the storm top with velocities as
high as 100 km per sec and move up as high
as 32 kilometers.

Stratospheric lightning events could
generate strong electric fields and
electromagnetic pulses which may interact
with the Earth's ionosphere and
magnetosphere. Strong fields at high
altitudes may generate runaway electrons
which could then produce high energy
x-rays and even gamma rays. Thus, it is
possible that lightning may generate a
broad spectrum of electromagnetic
radiation, ranging from extremely low
energy to extremely high-energy gamma
radiation. This theory is supported by the
Burst and Transient Source Experiment
(BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory which has detected gamma
rays coming up from the Earth - not deep
space - when the spacecraft was over
thunderstorms.

Researchers want to know what effect
upward lightning may have on future
commercial aviation operations and high
altitude balloon research flights in the
stratosphere.

[CMailBag]

Assuming these are the same photos that we have been hearing about for days, I think one of the earlier articles said that it was a Nikon 8. Is that a digital camera?

[fiftymegaton]

Even if the Chinese have laser weapons I doubt very much that they could hit a target traveling at 13000 mph with it. At least not for a couple decades(I would think).

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

This guy reportedly takes pics with his Nikon anytime the shuttle flight is within viewing distance of his location in the SF area. My question . . . What do his other photos of other flights show? Anything like the yet unseen photos reported here? Is this an anomoly for this particular flight with disastorous result, or is it an anomoly that might from time to time show up in his previous photographs, indicating perhaps that the anomoly has an origin in his camera, or in his technique for photoing the shuttle?

[Bogey78O]

Heh, I had hoped my tagline would help ease ping related issues.

[HP8753]

Are the anamolies said to be photographed in the mideast (an unidentified and mysterious arc of red light) seen when the crew was photographing lightening strikes

Red Sprites and Blue Jets>>> http://elf.gi.alaska.edu/
Or do a Google search on "Red Sprites and Blue Jets

[Bogey78O]

No. Next question.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Additional information on sprites. Follow link for additional photos.

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/essd23sep98%5F1.htm

These weird flashes were first observed
from the ground, when, quite by accident,
they were captured on video on July 5, 1989
by University of Minnesota scientists John
Winckler, Robert Franz and Robert Nemzek.
The scientists were actually performing a
calibration test for a low light level
monochrome camera, and weren't
particularly looking at the thunderstorm to
the east of their observing site at all. The
next morning, while viewing the test video,
they saw giant twin pillars of light extending
upward more than 30 kilometers above the
thunderstorm.

The flashes were first recorded from space
by the Space Shuttle (STS-34), as it passed
over a highly active thunderstorm in
northern Australia on Oct. 21, 1989. The
shuttle's monochrome TV cameras filmed
what are now called sprites and jets. The
observations were being conducted as part
of the NASA/Marshall Mesoscale Lightning
Observation Experiment. Otha H. Vaughan, Jr.,
of NASA's Global Hydrology Center was the
principal investigator.

In 1994, while flying an extremely sensitive
color camera normally used for auroral
photography in a high altitude aircraft,
University of Alaska scientists confirmed that
the flashes have a generally reddish color
which often fades to purple or blue in the
downward extending tendrils. Dr. Davis
Sentman of UAF named these "sprites" after
the creatures in Shakespeare's "The
Tempest," in part because of their transient,
ephemeral nature. The UAF team also
discovered and named blue jets.

The sprites appear high above the
thunderstorm while the jets shoot out from
the top of the thunderstorm. Sprites appear
to cascade as high as 96 km (60 mi) above
the Earth. Sprites can look like giant red
blobs, picket fences, upward branching
carrots, or tentacled octopi, and can occur
singly or in clusters. The jets appear to be
ejected from the storm top with velocities as
high as 100 km per sec and move up as high
as 32 kilometers.

Stratospheric lightning events could
generate strong electric fields and
electromagnetic pulses which may interact
with the Earth's ionosphere and
magnetosphere. Strong fields at high
altitudes may generate runaway electrons
which could then produce high energy
x-rays and even gamma rays. Thus, it is
possible that lightning may generate a
broad spectrum of electromagnetic
radiation, ranging from extremely low
energy to extremely high-energy gamma
radiation. This theory is supported by the
Burst and Transient Source Experiment
(BATSE) aboard the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory which has detected gamma
rays coming up from the Earth - not deep
space - when the spacecraft was over
thunderstorms.

Researchers want to know what effect
upward lightning may have on future
commercial aviation operations and high
altitude balloon research flights in the
stratosphere.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Doesn't this add credence to the Arab / Muslim notion that the shuttle was divinely destroyed, as a rebuke to the United States?

If evildoers are smitten, I'd sure hate to live in the Middle East.

[RugerM77]

I certainly am not alleging anything-But I just learned this week from reading "Reagan's War" that the Russians were able to laser hit the Challenger back in the early 80's. -Caused discomfort to the crew and screwed up some instruments-
Kind of throws cold water on the theory that NOTHING from the ground could hit it.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Oops! double post, same info. Sorry.

[Vermont Lt]

Well, there you have it. There really isn't digital film, at least we dont call it that...

[FreedomCalls]

See the bottom left paragraph on this page from Kodak.

February 1st. Cold. Excited photographer. Shuttle re-entry. Quick rewind.

Motorized cameras automatically rewind their exposed film. In dry, cold weather, this may cause static streaking, which looks like horizontal lightning, on your film. When you're finished shooting, remove the camera batteries and bring it all indoors. Once the camera and film reach room temperature—in about an hour—replace the batteries and rewind the film. With manual cameras, rewind the film very slowly.

[petuniasevan]

There used to be a thread on sprites and related phenomena, but it has been pulled. Why, I don't know.

The Balloon goes up over lightning! (Sprites and related phenomena)

[FreedomCalls]

Here is an example of static discharge on film taken at night.