lights in Norwegian Sky
Out of context: Reply #18
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- GeorgesII0
stolen from msg board
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Definitely a rocket gone awry. This link shows multiple photos of the phenomenon. The third photo from the left shows a clear trail beginning at Earth's surface (or at least down to a location beyond the horizon, which makes sense since the article talks about a White Sea missile launch from a Russian missile sub). Interestingly, there was a failed launch of a Bulava missile from a Russian sub in the White Sea just over a month ago. I would guess this is another test-fire from the Dmitry Donskoi; the new generation of Russian nuclear submarines.The spiraling trajectory could only come from something under propulsion (not a meteor and not aurora as the spiral is way to tight from those that I've seen), though I suspect the point at which the vapor trail is blue, then white is the result of venting (the blue part), followed by venting and I would guess ignition (white part) of the propellant.
The blue vapor trail seen is probably from Rayleigh scattering; blue because the material being vented is smaller than the wavelength of light being scattered. The white spiral is caused by non-selective scattering of material much larger than the visible wavelengths of light incident upon it, unless it is the result of ignition/burning.
So, my theory to the rocket launch goes like this:
1) nominal launch into the atmosphere.
2) error occurs in propulsion system, perhaps during first stage separation
3) for some reason, failsafe is not engaged (i.e. they didn't blow it up)
4) propellant begins to leak. This seems strange since the Bulava is a variant of the Topol-M/SS-27, which uses a solid propellant. My only further guess is a) the venting material was not propellant or perhaps was attitude control gases? or b) it was solid propellant, but not exiting from the rocket nozzle.
5) a secondary leak occurs farther upstage (perhaps from some internal malfunction/minor explosion) expelling a much larger particle sized vapor (water droplet size?) causing the bright spiral. The material in this spiral plume could perhaps be of the same material as the blue plume if it was ignited and burned in the 'white' color range...a spectral analysis of the plume could have deciphered the material components, but not from the eye-witness photography.
6) Eventually either a) all the propellant was expended or b) was no longer ignited and the plume disappeared. It would be interesting to know where that missile landed (hopefully over the ocean/sea).
Anyways, that's how I interpreted it.