Chris Brown saw our recent story about a mysterious photograph that seemed to show a fiery explosion in the sky over Wales
Chris Brown saw our recent story about a mysterious
photograph that seemed to show a fiery
explosion in the sky over Wales. Scientists at first thought it was a meteor,
but later said it might be sunlight preferentially illuminating a portion of
a contrail, the streak of exhaust, left by a jet or rocket, when water in the
atmosphere condenses around the exhaust particles.
The infamous Welsh
"fireball." |
Many SPACE.com readers wrote to say they could not believe the picture
was of a jet contrail. Brown dug up an old photo of his own, above, that shows
how the Sun can create interesting illuminations on portions of an exhaust plume.
In this case, the picture is of the trail left by the launch of the Space Shuttle
Atlantis around dawn on May 19, 2000, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Brown's photo does not provide any real evidence to help in the ongoing investigation
into the event over Wales. But it is interesting to see how the Sun can play
tricks of light under certain conditions, especially near sunrise and sunset.
"You can see how the Sun (and wind) plays games with the contrail at different
altitudes," said Brown, a Pinckney, Michigan resident who was at Cape Canaveral
on business when he took the picture about 5 minutes after launch.
Meanwhile, the Welsh
fireball remains a mystery to experts in both meteors and jet contrails.
-- Robert
Roy Britt
Credit: Chris Brown
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