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Subscribe to RSSA video posted to YouTube on Thursday shows the kind of space spiral usually associated with a missile launch.
A swirling spiral of light seen in the skies over Israel, Syria and other Middle East countries on Thursday night has been linked to a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile test.
Hundreds of Israelis jammed police hotlines with reports of the unidentified flying object, according to Ynetnews. Sighting reports came from Lebanon and even Armenia and Turkey. Versions of the video, captioned in Arabic, began appearing on YouTube.
Some of the reports that popped up on Twitter suggested that the lights in the sky were seen as a good omen for Syria's revolution. Others worried that it was a bad omen for Syria, potentially signaling the use of chemical weapons.
The actual explanation is almost certainly more mundane: The Voice of Russia reported that the country's Strategic Missile Forces conducted a test of the Topol ICBM from the Kapustin Yar firing range near Astrakhan in southern Russia on Thursday. Such a launch could theoretically be seen from areas of the Middle East and the Caucasus.
Citing a report from RIA Novosti, the radio service said the missile "accurately hit its target" in a Kazakh firing range. However, Ynetnews quoted Yigal Pat-El, chairman of the Israel Astronomical Association, as saying the missile "most likely spun out of control, and its remnants and the fuel was what people saw."
The video was reminiscent of other "space spirals" that occur when rocket stages release burning fuel as they spin. One such spiral was sighted over Norway in 2009, and turned out to be caused by a failed ballistic missile test. In that case, the missile that went awry was a Bulava ICBM, launched from a submarine in the White Sea.
Another spiral was sighted in Russia the following night and captured on video. That one was caused by a Topol missile test, but the test was reported as a success. At the time, NBC News space analyst James Oberg said he had indications that the Topol's "third-stage spin is a 'feature,' not a malfunction, and may be associated with guidance, or decoy deploy, or enhancing hardness against U.S. boost-phase antimissile weapons."
Update for 3 p.m. ET June 8: In an email, Oberg says the video appears to show the normal ascent of a Russian ICBM. Here's his explanation:
"The 'spiral' does not look to me to be a sign of a 'failed missile test' — it has been a common visual feature of Russian missile launches for more than 30 years and seems associated with a roll maneuver to 'dump' unwanted surplus thrust for short-range test flights. Since you can't shut down a solid fuel rocket early, you need to find a way to dump thrust so you don't overshoot a target.
"One way is to open portals on the sides of the rocket as it burns — sending much of the thrust out to the sides. Two opposite facing portals are usually installed, to counterbalance the thrust and not knock it off course.
"A careful analysis of the infamous 'Norway spiral' several years ago shows twin plumes emerging from the central object, in opposite directions. An alternate method is just to pitch the rocket off 'straight ahead' and then corkscrew, so as to spray some of the thrust off to the sides and keep your speed down to what you really need. Otherwise you'll overshoot your intended target.
"This launch was from the Volga River Kapustin Yar test range, active since 1947, but ICBM tests are infrequent. Direction was east, headed for the Sary Shagan impact zone in Kazakhstan, normally used only for testing anti-missile radars and interceptor missiles. That's hardly more than 2,000 kilometers away, so the test clearly wasn't of the missile itself but of its warhead's 'penaids' — penetration aids to frustrate tracking and targeting by U.S. anti-missile systems. This would result in a very unusual trajectory to get up to full ICBM speed without overshooting the target zone — probably lofted a lot higher than normal and then headed back down towards the target zone while still thrusting.
"The range from Kazakhstan to Israel isn't that great — the missile got 'above the horizon' from Israel pretty quickly, even with Earth's curvature.
"Another contributing factor: It's June — near the time of the 'midnight sun' in northern latitudes. That means sunlight is streaming over the pole, throughout the night. Something in the northern sky above the atmosphere over Kazakhstan would be backlit by that sunlight.
"These 'accidental' factors combined to make this show possible. And the widespread availability of pocket camcorders made recording it much more common than in the past."
Other rocket-related UFO sightings:
- December 2009: Another 'UFO' from Russia
- January 2010: Did missile test spark Chinese UFO sightings?
- June 2010: 'UFO' over Australia was likely caused by SpaceX rocket
Tip o' the Log to Huffington Post's Craig Kanalley. Twitter updates on the sighting are using the hashtag #MideastUFO.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Leave it the media to highlight this story all day and all of the night, instead of exposing the lies in Romney's first three TV ads since entering the Presidential campaign. What is more important to our newshounds? The integrity of our next election or making us look to read a story about a ufo that was a missile trail from Russia?
No wonder Romney may win in the fall. Reporters have no responsibility to publish the truth, but instead get paid to copy other news by foreign news providers, thus releasing them from even being knowledgible about our own nation. No wonder lies win out. Our citizens are never exposed to the truth in news, our last great bastion against the evil empire. Nice going! Our citizens are stupid because the news would rather inform them about a rocket trail that looks cute! D'oh!
Take four deep breaths....through you nose....chill...I too am wooried about Romney's lies....but hey he's a corporate guy...and their a corporate media....they both lie...by the way some of us ARE capapble of multi tasking...and handling a couple of news story's at the same time!
Leave it to such as you to spoil a funny, lighthearted blog with your political drivel. There is a time and a place for everything. Don't you know this?
So what is Russia testing rockets for anyway. Thought they had their @!$%# together already?
What really needs to be explained about the unexplained UFO's is that they are all over you tube and are the ones which might have a potential origin on earth. But to pin down when these craft in particular were first being observed and recorded might also indicate human origin. Those are the craft with the brilliantly lighted square power source with four overlapping dark edges or in some instances also have the shape of an octagon around the energy source.
These craft fly at will over any countries airspace both military and civilian, they buzz around comercial aircraft demonstrating their superior manuverability. We do have the technology for this kind of flight and propulsion and those methods of propulsion have been identified.
1 Electrothermal Propulsion
II Electrostatic Propulsion
III Electromagnetic Propulsion
Wether they can scoop up nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it directly or not to thrust or electro magnetic fusion with hydrazine as a catalyst and even grade 8 jet fuel would be interesting to know from an engineering perspective.
There are clearly entire fleets of these craft and they have obviously been manufactured somewhere. They may be remote controlled by computer and can be programmed to carry out complex manuevers in formations with several craft performing the manuvers. Almost as though by a macro. They display in their formations what one could consider to be constellations of star systems, they demonstrate a method of communication with rapidly flashing light or laser communications, and they apparently have the ability to dock to each other and become a larger craft...balancing their fuel or energy supplies, as well as possibly load balancing any data they may be gathering. They also exhibit various methods of cloaking abilities possibly by burning or vaporizing the atmosphere or moisture content of the atmosphere around them and/or their hull structure is made of advanced materials capable of modifying how light interacts with its surfaces. They also exhibit a higher energy output when they are hovering but when they begin to mover either as a group or individually the energy source or plasma appears to dim when at a cruising speed. They can appear as stars in the night sky. It is not known if they can leave the earth's atmosphere or not, but they do have an ability to suddenly appear or become visible. They clearly can outfly in both speed and out manuever any known aircraft. The behaviors exhibited by these craft could be considered alien. But it does appear there have been some changes that have been made to this technology that is visibly recognizable as what one could call a newer model or version of the craft.
So what are they? Either they are human manufactured with the latest technology and there is an entire network of them, an extremely secret organization operating these craft as surveillance drones which have complete global coverage of the earth. But it is unknown how long their fuel supply lasts, or where they return to for fuel.
Or is it remotely possible that they are alien in origin and possibly inhabited craft under intelligent alien control? It is a difficult answer given the capabilities and behavior observed the world over. Even the best Air Force pilots have accidents on the order of every other public demonstration or air show. It would take a considerable level of programming and technology to conduct the manuevers these craft are capable of executing in formations of ten or more, and even swarming fleets of hundreds to avoid collisions.
After having seen a craft through an 18" telescope apparently traversing our solar system with the resolving power of such a telescope I must conclude it was travelling through the solar system and was not in orbit.
Now this is the post we've all awaited. Now all that is missing from this forum are two History Channel guys. One is that Bill fellow with the black hat that says "UFO". The other is that wild-haired wild-eyed Giorgio, the guy who only owns the one shirt, brown now, white when bought.
While those three propulsion methods are currently used in satellite technology there may have been advances in other applications of those propulsion technologies, but the technology and observations of these craft are truly amazing.
Perhaps Russia is sending a signal to Israel to not touch Iran ? Though I doubt Russia would come down on Israel it could prove to be a very good deterrent.
Putin is a pooten with his pop rockets.
Yeah, because the Russians really need to test ICBM's and for some reason everyone is just all, 'La dee da' about their day not worried at all...which means that this isn't an ICBM. It does look like a missile when it's flying but the whole pinwheel thing has been happening for quite a while. Five bucks says this whole article is a lie.
Can any anyone tell me which Country killed the most people since Archie Bunker's War (WW2)? The Fifth
Commandment States "Thou Shall Not Kill"What happens to people who Kill in the next World?
When they Die.How about Hell.
The swirling spiral of light that was seen in the skies over Israel, Syria and other Middle East countries linked to a Russsian intercontinental ballistic missle test...This strikes the fantasy of such discovery research. View vid for this remarkable mystery of explorations and updates...Thank you.
Russia is trying very hard to be the world power lol
yep, that is expected, another coverup? Look if aliens landed and handed up a business card, our government will cover it up , there is no way our government will let extraterestrial proof come through. Its the only way they can keep civil rest.................... without god and hell, people will go rampant.
Truly Spoken...I think it may be a wormhole generator
Missiles don't do that...That was alien tech...And before you start calling me crazy and saying that Extraterrestrials do not exist, think about it...how big is our universe? We don't even know yet...and it would be such a close-minded thing to believe that we are alone...this is not the 1st sighting of it's kind...explain why it was in other parts of the world?
Since the breakup of the USSR I suspect it came as a result of Georgia Tech, neither Russian Tech nor alien tech.
Whoever gets the economy going again will be the world power. Missles are just fluff. Show me the money.
It jumped to hyperspace.
The Norway Spiral of 2009 doesn't look anything like this. Isn't that obvious? People need to learn to really see things and think for themselves.
Why does MSNBC only report on UFOs that can be explained? What about ones that can't be explained?
Do your bit for peace. Buy Lukoil!
Wanna restart the economy? Do away with all these 'Green' societies that want no oil, no power lines, no tunnels, no bridges, no nuclear power plants, no airports, no highways, no railroads, no progress and no quads in the woods.
From the article:
I don't know what's more ridiculous, the fact that so many assume something like this has some ulterior purpose (super secret space weapon [non-nuclear], aliens, etc.) or that so many can really believe that an event like this is somehow divine in nature. We're just a stones throw away from being back in the stone age (pardon the pun). Amazing.
These explanations about Russian missiles are so glib.
Actually this spiral in the sky as well as the one in Norway and Moscow are UFOs . The display is deliberately being made to bring the attention of humanity to their presence. The aliens are hoping that our governments will disclose the existence of UFOs as soon as possible. It is the US military/intelligence apparatus (CIA/NSA/ONI/AFI etc etc) that is preventing the disclosure, since that would undermine US military and economic dominance of the world.. Only when that community is willing, will the secrets be revealed. See ufocoverup.org for more info
You can launch a camel but you can't make him fly.