December 07, 2004

A strange streak was captured on film in Australia. I was all set to call it a film imperfection until I noticed the flash. What is it?
posted by waraw 19 years ago
  • It's Bigfoot.
  • I, for one, welcome our new... *blam!* *thud*
  • Ooh. That kind of streak. /disappointed
  • I don't see any streakers OR flashers...
  • It's Doctor Who.
  • looks like a faded contrail to me or something TERRIBLY EVIL FROM WHICH WE SHOULD FLEE IMMEDIATELY.
  • I've seen this pic elsewhere listed as showing a meteor or somesuch landing - you can see an impact on top of the lamppost at the end of the streak. I personally think is a sign and portent of our coming doom.
  • I think it looks like a meteor, too. I'd love to hear why the meteor experts think it is not a meteor, though. I thought it looked like a contrail until I saw the flash. If the flash is the sun reflecting off the water, then I could get behind the contrail theory.
  • If it were a contrail, wouldn't it show up in previous frames? The caption mentions that it is only visible in this particular frame. Personally, I think the sky is falling. or it's Doctor Who. Please, let it be Doctor Who.
  • It's an unladen swallow.
  • African, or European?
  • zanshin, it's a VERY VERY fast and tricky contrail.
  • The photographer insists that the streak and flash on the above image has not been created digitally. Well, that's good enough for me.
  • Space junk?
  • I don't know that!
  • Probably a hunk of 'blue ice' from one of those planes.
  • No, no... it is two halves of a coconut, you see, and... Ah, forget it.
  • It's a marsupial albatross
  • Do you get wafers with it?
  • I'd want to know the exposure time to be sure, but it looks like a flare or firework to me.
  • That meteor had incredible aim. "See that lampost in that blue planet?, Well, watch me.."
  • polychrome, I agree. Maybe a bottle rocket?
  • Check out the Online Discussion for more interesting answers! takes a sec to load.
  • ha! minda, my fave from there: My guess is that somebody was testing a relatively weak directed-energy weapon/beam and used the light post for target practice. but of course! it's ALWAYS the relatively weak directed-energy weapon/beam.
  • I have a similar streak in my underoos. Except it was slow, brown, and smelly....
  • Australia, eh? I, for one, blame it on rabid sabre-wielding wallabys from outer space.
  • The flash is to the right of the lamp. Looking at the full size image makes it easier to tell that the thing has passed the lampost (from our perspective). I doubt the lightbulb jumped out of the lamp a couple meters, exploded/got hit/burntout/whatever, and then returned to the lamp. The lamp was not involved, it's looks like it's a near the same plane when the image is shrunk down. What ever it is also has a light aura/barrier looking thing right in front of it's direction of travel. It's faint in the original, but it's easier to see in the color adjusted image someone from minda25's forum PS'd. I would venture a guess that birdlike shape is a slice from a cone of air disturbance. Sort of like this cone from a jet breaking the sound barrier. But our's isn't near as thick/white, and it's more of a nipple than a cone. (It's definitely not a cone from breaking the sound barrier, but maybe some similar looking effect from pushing the air from in front of it.) It could be far out over the water, or it could be ear, much closer to us than the lamp, or it could be somewhere in between. In between near and far is that ship; maybe it is about to hit/land on it.
  • I live in Australia & can assure you that the sabre-wielding wallabies are from Mars, not outer space. sheesh. The death-ray dealing Koalas, on the other hand, could well be from outer space. Definitely from beyond Neptune, anyway. Nobody knows for sure.
  • Note to self: In Australia, other planets are NOT in outer space.
  • Outer Space is outside the solar system. Sheesh. You people act like you've never been into space before.
  • I note that the observable universe is at least 20 billion light years across, whereas light travels the diameter of our planet in about 0.00043 seconds. Imagine the comparable volumes: Earth becomes a vanishingly small point. Yet we manage to describe the vast, overwhelming, terrifying bulk of existence with the bland euphemism, "outer space".