Was mysterious jellyfish in sky caused by space satellite reflecting Northern Lights?

[Paroxysm]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...rn-Lights.html

A strange jellyfish-shaped object spotted hanging in the sky over Norway, may have been caused by light from the aurora being bounced off a space satellite, experts say.

If proven it will be the first known case of a satellite reflecting the Northern Lights. The mysterious phenomenon was photographed last week by amateur photographer Per-Arne Milkalsen over Andenesm, Norway.




The photographer became fascinated with aurorae after working at a rocket launch site in the far north of Norway for 25 years. The northern lights are often visible here because it is so close to the North Pole.

Aurorae are caused by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth's magnetic field and so are particularly prevalent at the poles where the magnetic forces are strongest.

Mr Mikalsen told the Mail Online: 'I have never seen an object like this before, and I am eager to find an explanation to the phenomenon. The photographer first assumed the odd optical effect was a spot on his camera lens. But after he posted his photographs on Spaceweather.com he was inundated with emails from interested experts from around the world.

Lead scientist Truls Lynn Hansen from Tromsø Geophysical Observatory said he doubted the picture, taken on January 20, was due to a simple camera fault. He told the Mail Online: 'The "phenomenon" has the same greenish colour as the Northern Lights. That means the Northern Lights is the source of light causing the strange phenomenon.'

However, Mr Hansen said it was unlikely the Northern Lights could create the optical effect on its own. Instead the aurora might be bouncing off an external source like a satellite or an airplane.
In this way it would act like an 'iridium flare.' The flares are created by sunlight reflecting off iridium satellites. They appear as bright white flashes in the sky.

One problem with Mr Hansen's theory is that the light intensity from the Northern Lights is 100,000 times weaker than the sunlight. But Mr Hansen said this did not exclude the satellite reflection hypothesis.
'The intensity of an intense aurora is not far from the intensity of moonlight,' he said.' And the (jellyfish) phenomenon is also quite weak. Apparently many orders of magnitude down compared to the solar iridium flares.'

Pal Brekke, senior adviser, at the Norwegian Space Centre, told the Mail Online: 'A reflection from streetlight would be the most straightforward explanation.' But why is it green? One should think it would be white or yellow if it was a reflection from the streetlight.' So while I am not yet fully convinced it was a satellite - one cannot rule this out.'

a satellite reflecting the Northern Lights or a UFO? you decide.

[Timstuff]

I always suspected that the northern lights were caused by giant alien jellyfish... Finally, there's photographic proof that I'm not crazy!

[:eek:]

The metroids are coming

[Bad Supe's Girl]

Oooo that is so awesome looking.
I become more convinced of alien life everyday

I just don't know how a space satellite could reflect the lights in that particular shape.

[Nivek]

Swamp Gas? A foil covered Dirigible? Weather Balloon? Seeds of the Ancient Tree?

[chamber-music]

cthulhu?

[Hotwire]

It's that damn kid and his weather balloon!

[[A]]

50% off-topic: I've never seen such a good picture of the northern lights

[Paroxysm]

Originally Posted by Nivek

Seeds of the Ancient Tree?

nice.

[Nivek]

Originally Posted by Paroxysm

nice.

It does look like one of those woodsprites, doesn't it?

[Kane52630]

i say its the giant squid from Watchmen

Were DOOMED!!!!!

[Aesop Rocks]

*Wait's for UperErret to come in here to call us all dumb for not knowing all the facts about Northern Lights*

[Majic Walrus]

****ing space entities. Probably wants to eat our planet until someone can establish communication and show it that we're sentient..

Someone hail the Enterprise.

[Metamorpho1977]

Didn't that guy in colorado learn the last time he put his kid in a balloon? now sending him in orbit? What a bad dad.

[JustABill]

Yeah. I'm not buying this is reflected light. Why would it reflect in that shape?

[The Battousai]

Looks like light refraction to me. One dead giveaway is the way the light is angled.




If you follow the straight lines along each side of the top, you'll see they continue downward past the central dot of light. They're also nearly perpendicular.

Furthermore, the circular top also visibly continues to the left clearly drawing the outline of a circle.

Basically, the pattern drawn out completely visible looks like this:

[SuperFerret]

Originally Posted by Aesop Rocks

*Wait's for UperErret to come in here to call us all dumb for not knowing all the facts about Northern Lights*

Dammit Aesop, I'm a Vet Tech, not an Astronomer! What makes you think I know anything about the Northern Lights?

[Aesop Rocks]

Because the geneses general migrating patterns are effected by them!

DUH.

[SuperFerret]

The what?

[Aesop Rocks]

tehee~

[[A]]

Originally Posted by The Battousai

Basically, the pattern drawn out completely visible looks like this:

Yes, this is what I saw

[[A]]

[Kane52630]

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Originally Posted by The Battousai

Looks like light refraction to me. One dead giveaway is the way the light is angled.




If you follow the straight lines along each side of the top, you'll see they continue downward past the central dot of light. They're also nearly perpendicular.

Furthermore, the circular top also visibly continues to the left clearly drawing the outline of a circle.

Basically, the pattern drawn out completely visible looks like this:

So you're saying the aliens are radioactive then?

[darkseid26]

, at [A]