Flay Me To the Sun
Talk about breaking the surly bonds of gravity and punching the face of god. This got 'im right in the eye. Go here for the explanation (third entry, entitled "SDO Destroys a Sundog"), and then watch this clip. The order is important, so read post first, then watch clip.
When I saw the still pic on the blog, I interpreted the photo such that the sundog was vertical, that it was parallel to the rocket's trajectory. This hypothesis would imply that the destruction of the sundog would begin in the lower left and proceed to the upper right. When it happened very differently I was confused, and remained so for the time it took me to make sense of what is shown.
My revised hypothesis is that the sundog is normal to the rocket's trajectory, part of a plane nearer parallel to the ground than to the rocket trajectory. Thus the rocket flies through a plane and its shock wave ripples out horizontally from the point of intersection, like the surface of water where something has been dropped in. Because of trigonometry we see the 'flat' plane of the sundog somewhat foreshortened (is that the right word?). And because of the lack of familiar references for scale and orientation the mind interpreted a foreshortened horizontal thing as a vertical one, until the ripples appear and provide a familiar reference for reinterpretation of the sundog's orientation.
I can't but suspect this has some connection to the optical illusion whereby the full moon appears freaking huge at the horizon but small when up in the sky. I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this about the lunar illusion, but that there may be some seems likely.
Update 19 Feb.: NASA has a post with the movie, too.
When I saw the still pic on the blog, I interpreted the photo such that the sundog was vertical, that it was parallel to the rocket's trajectory. This hypothesis would imply that the destruction of the sundog would begin in the lower left and proceed to the upper right. When it happened very differently I was confused, and remained so for the time it took me to make sense of what is shown.
My revised hypothesis is that the sundog is normal to the rocket's trajectory, part of a plane nearer parallel to the ground than to the rocket trajectory. Thus the rocket flies through a plane and its shock wave ripples out horizontally from the point of intersection, like the surface of water where something has been dropped in. Because of trigonometry we see the 'flat' plane of the sundog somewhat foreshortened (is that the right word?). And because of the lack of familiar references for scale and orientation the mind interpreted a foreshortened horizontal thing as a vertical one, until the ripples appear and provide a familiar reference for reinterpretation of the sundog's orientation.
I can't but suspect this has some connection to the optical illusion whereby the full moon appears freaking huge at the horizon but small when up in the sky. I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from this about the lunar illusion, but that there may be some seems likely.
Update 19 Feb.: NASA has a post with the movie, too.
Labels: Astronomy
posted by Dr. Bubbles at 12:22
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