Category Archives: Mystery object

A Cautious Perspective on the Mystery Missile

You may be aware of the mini-controversy  around what was initially thought to be a ‘mystery missile’ launch earlier this week off the California coast.  This clip sums it up:

The official line now seems to be that it wasn’t  a missile at all, but the vapour contrail from a passenger jet, the sunset and viewing angle making the event look like something it wasn’t. Last time I looked, NASA were reported to be supporting that view based on satellite imagery, and a specific aircraft has been correlated with the event.

The incident reminded me that things are indeed not always as they seem, especially  in the sky around sunrise and sunset.  And to illustrate, I’ve dug out a few pictures – all taken in the last three months.

One thing that really struck me in the mystery missile film was the ‘solidity’ and volume of the plume.  Aircraft contrails are more wispy aren’t they?   But then I looked at this picture I took just before sunrise, which includes a contrail every bit as bushy as the one in the film:

Contrails over Surry, UK (Photo: Tim Jones)
Contrails over Surry, UK (Photo: Tim Jones)

Perspective too is a funny thing.  Take a look at this picture I took of a passenger jet near Heathrow Airport in London just as the sun was setting.

Passenger Jet (Photo: Tim Jones)
Passenger Jet (Photo: Tim Jones)

It’s not immediately obvious, to me at least, whether this plane is coming at me or flying away.  There’s a Gestalt Switch moment when the eyes confuse the rear of the fuselage for the nose end.  Things don’t get much clearer when we zoom in:

Passenger Jet (Photo: Tim Jones)
Passenger Jet (Photo: Tim Jones)

A few seconds later and the setting sun catches the plane’s tail, making the direction of flight more obvious.  At a distance, could such a bright reflection isolated to one part of an aircraft be confused with a rocket nozzle – especially if you’d already got the idea in mind?

Sun reflecting off aircraft tail-fin (Photo: Tim Jones)
Sun reflecting off aircraft tail-fin (Photo: Tim Jones)

It’s easy to be fooled by bright objects catching the sun.  Helium filled toy balloons are favourite UFO candidates.  I’ve more than once rushed into the house for camera and binoculars when something fast and bright has appeared in the sky.  The motion of a rising balloon is very smooth, and viewed from the right angle the mystery object can appear to travel horizontally across the sky faster than it really is.  The last one I saw reminded me of an International Space Station (ISS) pass, only in daylight.  Again, one of the issues I have with the mystery missile film is that I can’t tell how fast the missile / aircraft is moving – vertically or horizontally.

Shiny balloons make for great UFOs (Photo: Tim Jones)
Shiny balloons make for great UFOs (Photo: Tim Jones)

Here’s another example of skyward things not being all they at first seem.  To the naked eye, we see a typical multi-engine passenger jet flying at high altitude.

Aircraft contrail illusion (Photo: Tim Jones)
Aircraft contrail illusion (Photo: Tim Jones)

But with the benefit of a telephoto lens, it turns out to be three (presumably military) jets flying in formation:

Three jets in formation, showing contrails (Photo: Tim Jones)
Three jets in formation, showing contrails (Photo: Tim Jones)

Something else that isn’t clear from the mystery missile footage is the absolute and relative position of the helicopter that took the pictures.  Again, perspective can be confusing.  Take a look at this shot I took looking down on a plane in the clouds.  Obviously I took this from the air, right?

Jet plane against clouds (Photo: Tim Jones)
Jet plane against clouds (Photo: Tim Jones)

Wrong.  I was standing in the local park (and it’s not a hilly region) when I took this.  A bird flying into the frame puts some limits on the likely altitude, but it’s still ambiguous if you don’t see the full context:

Jet plane against clouds (Photo: Tim Jones)
Jet plane against clouds (Photo: Tim Jones)

To finish off, here’s a picture I took only a couple of weeks ago from mountains over-looking Los Angeles and the bay area.  It was twilight, and that lump above LA Downtown is Catalina Island.  Perfect missile-spotting conditions.  Maybe I’ll catch the next one.

View over Los Angeles and out to sea (Photo: Tim Jones)
View over Los Angeles and out to sea (Photo: Tim Jones)

UPDATE 13/11/2010

Comprehensive analysis of this event and discussion of previous missile/aircraft contrail confusions here at Contrailscience.com.

Mystery Object No.1

SPOILER ALERT ! – ANSWER IS NOW UP, THIRD PHOTO DOWN

Here is the first, and very possibly last, mystery object on Zoonomian.

It is science-related, and I just found it lying around the house – which looking at the other weird stuff around here isn’t even a clue.  Ideas on a postcard, twitter, or you could even leave a comment with your happy memories of this object below.

Update 27/3/10: OK – Joerg Heber, via Twitter, reckons it’s a Dalek.  Wrong.   Here is the whole thing then.  Easy now, right?

Update 28/3/10: Responses via Twitter and e-mail: It’s not a Galilean telescope, musical instrument, gas relief valve, or navigational tool.

(If comment box doesn’t appear below, click ‘comments’ under the title)

THE ANSWER

All very confusing isn’t it.  But not, in the words of  S.R.Hadden, “if you think like a Vegan”…..a Vegan laboratory technician that is.

Because the mystery object, in its full unraveled glory, is a set of mid-twentieth century laboratory cork borers.

Cork borers (Photo:Tim Jones)

To better understand the lost art of laboratory cork boring, we can usefully turn to our copy of ‘How to make common things, for boys’ – by John A Bower:

The borer is a brass tube with sharp cutting edges, as shown in [the figure], which should be carefully kept, so that the cutting part does not get turned up by coming into rough contact with your file, or by falling on a hard floor,, for the edge is soft, and only adapted to cut such soft substances as cork. Cork-borers are sold in sets (see figure). To bore the cork, put a stout wire through the hole at the upper end of the barrel of the borer; hold the cork firmly in the left hand, pressing it down on a board, or hold it flush with the edge of the board. Begin with the smaller end of the cork. Hold the borer at right angles to the top of the cork ; then with a slight pressure turn it into the cork, till you find it through the other end. Draw out the borer, and with the wire posh out the core from inside of the tube and pat it away – the borer may then be smeared over with a little petroleum to keep it bright

Set of cork borers (From John A Bower's 'How to make common things for boys')

I ‘acquired’ my set from Birmingham University in the mid-eighties, and have used them in anger on cork and rubber no less.   You can still buy similar sets, but they tend to come with handles built in – which kind of gives the game away from a mystery object perspective.

So, sorry if you were expecting a ‘flux capacitor’, or something out of the LHC.  I guess the true answer is relatively boring.

Thanks to all those who had a crack at it though.