Huge Triangle-shaped Spot Over the Sun 229
jojo_it writes "NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed a gigantic spot on the sun's corona, that takes the shape of a black triangle. The spot is visible on the AIA 193 channel [of NASA's solar dynamics observatory] since March 11th. 2012 doomsday-theorists should be delighted."
My god!!! (Score:5, Funny)
It's a Mayan pyramid!!!!
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Re:My god!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry about it. Sometimes a triangle is just a triangle. When you look up there and think you see a goatse, that's when I'd start getting worried.
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It isn't even a triangle, unless you consider a triangle drawn by someone with the shakes a "triangle".
I guess I shoudn't have RTFA but I had to see the triangle... and didn't.
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Yeah, assuming there's only one or I'm looking at the right one, it looked to me like a nearly perfect semicircle.
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Re:My god!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:My god!!! (Score:5, Funny)
That was thousands of years ago. The Mayans have had plenty of time to work on their anti-aliasing algorithms.
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Plus, it has taken them that long to render ONE triangle?
Re:My god!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Nah, Evil Council.
Hopefully we can find the Chosen One and Toungy in time.
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What happened with the classic "Its full of stars!"? A pyramid full of stars this year would have a lot more sense than a boxy monolith.
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Re:My god!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Except it is about the size of Jupiter. The Mayans were way to lazy to build something like that, hell they couldn't even finish their calendar.
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What a killjoy. My own suspicion is that previous version of this was flown by extra-terrestrials in to the World Trade Center just before they snuck down here and forced the FBI to load the building with hidden explosives, the body of Jimmy Hoffa, and the missing brain of John F. Kennedy. The odd part is they flew it into the WCT BEFORE the FBI laced it with explosives. Sneaky little buggers, those extraterrestrials. Some hold they also hit the Pentagon, but that is a conspiracy theory totally unfounded.
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It's a Mayan pyramid!!!!
Worse, its the Sabre Pyramid [gizmodo.com.au]
So Clarke got it wrong. (Score:2)
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Re:So Clarke got it wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
They better not have rounded corners.
Re:So Clarke got it wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
I saw the triangle - it was HUGE!
Then I clicked it, and it went away, and the sun started spinning.
So you're safe now.
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I knew it, the tri-lateral commission is behind this!!
what (Score:3, Insightful)
maybe I'm blind, but I don't see ****.
Re:what (Score:5, Funny)
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I saw it. I caught it by surprise out of the corner of my eye. The little bastard.
To see it, try this (Score:5, Informative)
Using the links in the parent post, I didn't see it either. But I think the image they're talking about can be found here:
1. Go to http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov]
2. You'll see an image of the sun in a box on the left.
3. There's a drop-down menu in the box. Select AIA-193.
4. View the apocalypse.
OR... just go here: http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest_aia_211.gif [nasa.gov]
There's a face visible in this image (Score:2)
Two eyes and a mouth (which appears to be eating a butterfly...).
The sun is smiling at us!
http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest_aia_171.gif [nasa.gov]
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I'm not sure but I think it's the huge dark area in the middle, its height is about a third of the diameter of the Sun itself.
Oh So That's Why NASA Has Little Funding (Score:5, Informative)
Everyone profits but NASA. Just like the History Channel, sacrifice your integrity for aliens and conspiracies to maximize profit.
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Indeed. Possibly the worst summary I've ever read here.
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Re:Oh So That's Why NASA Has Little Funding (Score:5, Funny)
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Not true. It's in a tie for last place with about half of the summaries I've read. The others are tied for second, with the first place award being withheld.
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Dunno there. Usually Slashdot doesn't screw up geometric primitives. Squares are squares. Rectangles, well, rectangles sometimes get mangled. But circle to triangle? WTF?
I spent a couple of minutes looking at the static picture trying to find the triangle. Like Where's Waldo for the adults after a really bad hangover.
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Then you have not read many summaries here.
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changes it from spherical to triangle (not sure where that came from)
Have you looked at the linked image? It's an outline of a triangle. Kinda looks like the Tri-Force put together.
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And the linked video on the Register article is some conspiracy theorist rambling about image filters and increasing the gain to see the "black spherical anomoly" (his spelling), and has nothing to do with triangles. The register article then goes off into wild theories about aliens, and gives misleading partial quotes from astronomers to make it seem as though they agree. The register article, which is linked in the summary as "takes the shape of a black triangle" has nothing to do with triangles.
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It's not an image, it's a video. The triangle is the "play" button.
Re:Oh So That's Why NASA Has Little Funding (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Oh So That's Why NASA Has Little Funding (Score:4, Informative)
I know it's not cool to RTFA, but the Register page basically says as much if you read on long enough.
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The Register, with complete disregard for knowledge, skips this part and goes straight to alien's fueling up on the sun, Death Star references, etc.
Did actually read all of the Register article, or just the tongue in cheek headline and intro?
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This guy?
http://www.tvgasm.com/wp-content/uploads/im-not-saying-it-was-aliens.jpg [tvgasm.com]
Worst article summary ever (Score:3, Informative)
Slashdot seems to think the following is news worthy: The sun does things scientists know about and understand; ignorant people don't and jump to conclusions. Your increasingly sensational headlines make me hate you more and more every day slashdot.
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Slashdot seems to think the following is news worthy: The sun does things scientists know about and understand; ignorant people don't and jump to conclusions. Your increasingly sensational headlines make me hate you more and more every day slashdot.
Then maybe you'll stop posting pointless comments anonymously. If the sun only did things scientists understand, they wouldn't bother studying it. Just read Science sometime. Scientists are barely beginning to underand the earth and they live on it.
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Im going to start a new slashdot!!! with blackjack!! and hookers!!!
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In fact, forget the slashdot!
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Not a Triangle. (Score:5, Informative)
If it's a triangle, why does the video show and discuss a circular object with a 'tether' to the sun?
Re:Not a Triangle. (Score:5, Funny)
well, it is a triangle that is curved into a ball, obviously
Re:Not a Triangle. (Score:5, Funny)
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A huge hot black triangle shaped spot sounds like a Freudian slip to me. Imagine if there were two circular objects tethered to the Sun...
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I think it's a wrong link.
Nonetheless, I found the mysterious dark circular object article far more interesting than the triangular sunspot one.
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No fucking clue why the first article is linked, myself... it has nothing to do with what the summary is talking about.
However, the second link [nasa.gov] actually shows what I think they're trying to talk about in the summary (you can kinda make it into a strange triangle sort of thing...).
Or you can go to http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov] and select AIA 193 (or AIA 211, AIA 335, or AIA Composite [all three of those, but one that it particularly stands out is 211, 193, 171]) on the drop down below the picture of the sun, and
My God! (Score:3)
Re:My God! (Score:4, Funny)
Nah... It's just a rubber Ningi burning up in the sun...
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Damn :( I already have 7. If I had that one too I could finally get a Triganic Pu!
Better video of the "triangle". (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Better video of the "triangle". (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, that video is much higher quality, especially when he zooms in on the anomaly. However the part at the end where he suggests the sun is "giving birth" to a new planet is just totally out there.
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Yes it does, look at the edge around 7:00 - not nearly as well defined, but it's there.
It, obviously, is a highly advanced Starship fueling up on hydrogen plasma. The circle is a force field around the ship which allows it to operate close the the star. The dark tube is the fueling conduit.
As the NASA video linked by eldavojohn shows, these are quite common. (You'll note the NASA scientist did NOT have an explanation for them, just said they were common. That IS NOT reassuring.)
We're doomed.
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So Rama is fueling up before it heads "southward" and out of the orbital plane?
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It, obviously, is a highly advanced Starship fueling up on hydrogen plasma.
And then it will dock on the ISS and sell us 10 tons of Minerals, since we are a Tech level 1 Agricultural planet. The astronauts will look puzzled on captain Jameson when he asks how far it is to Zaonce.
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THEY SHOULD HAVE SCANNED FOR LIFE FIRST!!! (Score:5, Funny)
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He has saved your life so many times and you never even knew he was there.
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The same could be said of characters/heroes in many SF universes. Your "42 minutes" suggests H2G2 universe, but your sense of outrage at the idea reminds me of the 10th Doctor[0]
Afraid you are going to have to be more specific, after all.
[0] I've not seen beyond him yet.
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TL;DR.
Actually, I'm kidding. I didn't read because I saw "7th episode of the third series" and I'm only just starting the third series.
At least Rose is gone.
Fourth Doctor is BEST Doctor! (Score:2)
There's some sort of Americanized action series with some funny-looking guys that yell " RUN " a lot and blowing things up with a magic wand that many people mistakenly think to be Dr Who.
Come on, guys... (Score:5, Funny)
It's just the "play" button...
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OMG!!! Google has taken over the sun!!!
How long before it will only be available for those who have a Google+ account?
Jumped the shark.... (Score:2)
So Slashdot is taking the History channel direction and posting all the crackpot UFO stories now? This "story" was debunked by NASA and others before it even spread.
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OMG! I see it! I see it!!! (Score:5, Funny)
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You know, I was taught at school to not use 'and' after a comma. Now, I don't like that rule as there are times when it just feels necessary. But every time I do it, I get a grating feeling inside due to what I was taught at school.
Now I am sure there is much debate as to whether it is allowable or not, but you used it so I feel it is only right to call you on it, given the nature of your post :)
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Oooh! another one was "Don't start a sentence with 'But'". DOH!
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You realize none of those are complete sentences, right? You also forgot the comma following "Of course", changing it from a declaration of your opinion or a witticism into a statement of fact, which it is not.
Is it.. (Score:3)
...a little bit bigger than yesterday?
It's a message from God (Score:4, Funny)
didn't see the triangle but did see a number (Score:3)
a giant upside down '5' or a backwards '2' ...
Go look at AIA211 at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov]
It's hard to miss. That number is 2/3 the siz of the sun...
I think my observation is a little more realistic/interesting than some weird triangle/sphere thing. I couldn't find it.
LAME.
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lol! Thanks...
I kinda thought it was the count down that used to precede movies.
Only the aliens must be watching it from within the sun.
KORGANO (Score:3)
It must be Korgano. [upup-downdown.com]
I wonder how many will even get that reference.. slashdot was my best chance of having even 1.
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Again? (Score:2)
Again? Tell the aliens that they can stay, but they have to move their ship out of the way of our view. ;-)
I know the answer. (Score:2)
http://imgur.com/bAIkb [imgur.com]
Triangle? It's clearly a pie slice. (Score:2)
Rooted! (Score:3)
Don't look.... (Score:2)
...or you will go blind
Explanation of the wiggy Sun thing (Score:2)
I saw a triangle! (Score:4, Funny)
Why doesn't /. go with the scientific summary. (Score:4, Insightful)
How about (Score:2)
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Yeah I wouldn't mind an explanation for this one. The thing looks like it was propelled without any momentum.
You do understand that we are looking at a picture of the surface of a star? Fusion power! Now that's momentum!
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Well according to Wiki, "Flares are powered by the sudden (timescales of minutes to tens of minutes) release of magnetic energy stored in the corona."
Interestingly though, it says the actual mechanism is not understood: "Although there is a general agreement on the flares' causes, the details are still not well known. It is not clear how the magnetic energy is transformed into the particle kinetic energy, nor it is known how the particles are accelerated to energies as high as 10 MeV (mega electron volt) an
Re:Aliens (Score:4, Funny)
(Red Dwarf, Season 2, "Kryten")
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God? What a preposterous thought! (Score:2)
You all are just making it way to easy w/ the setups for Red Dwarf references: