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NASA: Sun Shining on Ice May Be Making Earth Sparkle

posted by on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:55AM   
from the or-unicorn-poop dept.

butthurt writes:

Science Alert reports on the discovery, in images from NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft, of flashes of light from the Earth:

[...] NASA detected 866 bursts of light between June 2015 and August 2016, and they were all coming from the land.

A similar phenomenon had been seen before:

Back in 1993, astronomer Carl Sagan noticed strange flashes of light showing up in images of Earth taken by the Galileo spacecraft.

[...]

In Galileo's images, they found large glints of light, reflecting like mirrors - but he could only find them in regions of the planet covered in water.

Previously, specular reflections from water had been offered as the explanation. Now, the phenomenon is thought to be reflections from horizontal ice crystals.

Further information:
video with sound

Related stories:
Video: "One Year on Earth" from NASA's DISCOVR
NASA Releases Photos of Illuminated Dark Side of the Moon
Something Different - Space Photos of the Week from Wired
SpaceX DSCOVR Launch Postponed To Monday (18:07 ET)

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Original Submission

• It was me It was me (Score: 3, Funny) by lx on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:21AM (1 child)

  by lx (1915) on Wednesday May 17 2017, @10:21AM (#510988)

  I use a small mirror to flag passing spacecraft.
  Bastards keep flying by without stopping. I'll be stuck forever on this damned rock if my luck continues like this.

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• Re:It was me (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:33PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 17 2017, @04:33PM (#511197)

  Sorry to hear that Ford, but don't worry, the Vogons will be in this neighborhood shortly.

  Parent