6 ms·

U.S. Navy Laser Creates Plasma ‘UFOs’

58 points by egfx 5y ago

zapdrive 5y ago
Would definitely explain the sightings of rapidly moving objects with no propulsion. Also the "object was mirroring my movements" thing.
- db48x 5y ago
  Also the stories of strange lights above Area 51 that became so popular. Although that was probably a charged particle beam; high power particle beams have been around longer than high power lasers.
- abystander 5y ago
  Aren’t some of the reports along the lines of: sea level to upper range of radar, maybe some 10s of thousands of ft in seconds? Also there’s been the reports that things submerge in water too (so-called trans-medium phenomenon).
nceqs3 5y ago
Laser's hopefully will bring in a new century of world peace. They could essentially make ICBMs and even short range missiles obsolete.
- riku_iki 5y ago
  Or one of superpowers will build it faster than others, and will start many new wars by using this advantage.
- jdonaldson 5y ago
  Pretty soon we'll have drones and who know what else delivering agile high speed unstoppable explosive payloads. Sounds like fun!
- voidfunc 5y ago
  Except nuclear weapons have already brought world peace between relevant actors. What you are hoping for is a return to WW1/2 levels of violence. No thanks.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    I'm not sure I'd call a global Mexican standoff "world peace." More like "world anxiety."
    - xwolfi 5y ago
      Si vis pacem, para bellum
    - PicassoCTs 5y ago
      Which honestly works too. If you are not sure, what the opponent has, you better not test them.
- trixie_ 5y ago
  Probably not given that a single nuclear sub has the ability to nuke over 100 cities in a single volley.
jcun4128 5y ago
I remember finding that 3D projection using same tech in 2012 it was cool but loud (popping).
- KirillPanov 5y ago
  What controls the distance? You shine a laser beam in some direction in order to create an image/flashbang/whatever twenty meters away. Why does it ionize the air twenty meters away but not ten meters away (along the same ray from the laser to the projection)?
  - thechao 5y ago
    There are two ways off the top of my head (assuredly there are more): (1) use two lasers; or, (2) the geometry of a laser is hour-glassed shaped, so only the “neck” may have sufficient energy density.
  - maxden 5y ago
    This page linked earlier [0] relates one possibility to the 'Bethe formula', where depending on the energy of the beam (proton in their example) you can control where the burst appears. [0] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange-places/bluefire-main/bluefire/particle-beams-and-saucer-dreams/ https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strang...
    - KirillPanov 5y ago
      Maybe. But that article is talking about beams of massive particles -- not beams of massless photons, which is what lasers are. The fact that the particles have mass and decelerate is what produces the sharp drop in velocity: the slower it goes the more it slows down per unit of time or of distance traveled. Like a bullet travelling through water. So you get that nice sharp asymptote in the position-vs-time graph. I don't think that webpage is applicable to light or other photon beams. Photons can't slow down unless they encounter a change of medium -- but that's basically projecting onto a physical "screen"... the laser operator can't influence the depth position of the screen. But thanks for the link, it's the first time I've seen a "3D projection technology" that had a coherent answer to the depth-control question. Maybe the Navy is using massive-particle beams instead of lasers and the Forbes journalist just doesn't know the difference. Or maybe it's deliberate disinformation, like how fusion weapons were named "hydrogen" bombs.
0xF57A 5y ago
People need to wake up and face the fact that we are being monitored by an alien race. A trained observer and fighter pilot doing exercises off the coast of Santa Barbara has gone on record saying that he saw an alien moving at thousands of miles per hour. The craft actively jammed his radar which is an act of war. The New York Times and other major news outlets have reported on this. Except the fact that lots of things can move that quickly, like an atmospheric plasma phenomenon. When they say “actively jammed his radar,” all they are saying is that the object emitted a scattered signal of radar light which lots of things could do, including things that don’t have anything to do with sentient life.
- thefounder 5y ago
  I call it B.S. We heard this story before so it's nothing new. Looks like the aliens monitor the U.S only.... The fact that "major news outlets have reported on this" makes even more "credible". When we gonna see people kidnapped by aliens on TV?
  - secfirstmd 5y ago
    Watch "Phenomenon". Many countries have experienced similar issues. Soviet Union was very worried about UFO reports near its nuclear sites. Also the NYT story about the F18s didn't really go into much detail but Mexico also had similar experiences.
- ta988 5y ago
  A plasma can produce a lot of noise on the RF spectrum. Something of that size and that distance from the surface can clearly jam quite a lot of equipment. I wonder if radio amateurs caught interferences on those days.
  - abystander 5y ago
    You’d expect the military to have found this considering they’ve got all sorts of sensors specifically for RF. They’d have been able to positively explain much of the reported stuff in the recent congressional release relatively easy in that case.
Treblemaker 5y ago
Tom Mahood wrote some interesting well-researched posts about the possibility that alleged "UFOs" seen over area 51 may have been the result of proton beam testing. This is a good starting point [0]. The page also links to several later updates. [0] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange-places/bluefire-main/bluefire/particle-beams-and-saucer-dreams/ https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strang...
mikewarot 5y ago
A nitrogen laser can ionize a channel in the air, which lowers its conductivity. You can build a laser such as this yourself. http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasercn2.htm http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasercn2.htm
74687277617761 5y ago
This looks familiar. The Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens (LDAL): BAE Systems futurist Professor Nick Colosimo explains https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlBX3lDIlvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlBX3lDIlvw BAE Systems future technologies: The Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWBAFAGwzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWBAFAGwzE
PicassoCTs 5y ago
Now send some lightning through it, and you have the ability to print magnetic coils in midair aka force fields. Make a whole array of that and you have a launch loop without ever having to erect an arc. Or reduce it in size and print it on demand into the outer layers of a traditional fusion reactor plasma-donut, to dampen minor fluctuations, without constantly modifying the underlying superconducting coils. So cool this actually works.

58 points by egfx 5y ago

Would definitely explain the sightings of rapidly moving objects with no propulsion. Also the "object was mirroring my movements" thing.

db48x 5y ago
Also the stories of strange lights above Area 51 that became so popular. Although that was probably a charged particle beam; high power particle beams have been around longer than high power lasers.
abystander 5y ago
Aren’t some of the reports along the lines of: sea level to upper range of radar, maybe some 10s of thousands of ft in seconds? Also there’s been the reports that things submerge in water too (so-called trans-medium phenomenon).

nceqs3 5y ago

Laser's hopefully will bring in a new century of world peace. They could essentially make ICBMs and even short range missiles obsolete.

riku_iki 5y ago
Or one of superpowers will build it faster than others, and will start many new wars by using this advantage.
jdonaldson 5y ago
Pretty soon we'll have drones and who know what else delivering agile high speed unstoppable explosive payloads. Sounds like fun!
voidfunc 5y ago
Except nuclear weapons have already brought world peace between relevant actors. What you are hoping for is a return to WW1/2 levels of violence. No thanks.
- pengaru 5y ago
  I'm not sure I'd call a global Mexican standoff "world peace." More like "world anxiety."
  - xwolfi 5y ago
    Si vis pacem, para bellum
  - PicassoCTs 5y ago
    Which honestly works too. If you are not sure, what the opponent has, you better not test them.
trixie_ 5y ago
Probably not given that a single nuclear sub has the ability to nuke over 100 cities in a single volley.

jcun4128 5y ago

I remember finding that 3D projection using same tech in 2012 it was cool but loud (popping).

KirillPanov 5y ago
What controls the distance? You shine a laser beam in some direction in order to create an image/flashbang/whatever twenty meters away. Why does it ionize the air twenty meters away but not ten meters away (along the same ray from the laser to the projection)?
- thechao 5y ago
  There are two ways off the top of my head (assuredly there are more): (1) use two lasers; or, (2) the geometry of a laser is hour-glassed shaped, so only the “neck” may have sufficient energy density.
- maxden 5y ago
  This page linked earlier [0] relates one possibility to the 'Bethe formula', where depending on the energy of the beam (proton in their example) you can control where the burst appears. [0] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange-places/bluefire-main/bluefire/particle-beams-and-saucer-dreams/ https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strang...
  - KirillPanov 5y ago
    Maybe. But that article is talking about beams of massive particles -- not beams of massless photons, which is what lasers are. The fact that the particles have mass and decelerate is what produces the sharp drop in velocity: the slower it goes the more it slows down per unit of time or of distance traveled. Like a bullet travelling through water. So you get that nice sharp asymptote in the position-vs-time graph. I don't think that webpage is applicable to light or other photon beams. Photons can't slow down unless they encounter a change of medium -- but that's basically projecting onto a physical "screen"... the laser operator can't influence the depth position of the screen. But thanks for the link, it's the first time I've seen a "3D projection technology" that had a coherent answer to the depth-control question. Maybe the Navy is using massive-particle beams instead of lasers and the Forbes journalist just doesn't know the difference. Or maybe it's deliberate disinformation, like how fusion weapons were named "hydrogen" bombs.

0xF57A 5y ago

People need to wake up and face the fact that we are being monitored by an alien race. A trained observer and fighter pilot doing exercises off the coast of Santa Barbara has gone on record saying that he saw an alien moving at thousands of miles per hour. The craft actively jammed his radar which is an act of war. The New York Times and other major news outlets have reported on this. Except the fact that lots of things can move that quickly, like an atmospheric plasma phenomenon. When they say “actively jammed his radar,” all they are saying is that the object emitted a scattered signal of radar light which lots of things could do, including things that don’t have anything to do with sentient life.

thefounder 5y ago
I call it B.S. We heard this story before so it's nothing new. Looks like the aliens monitor the U.S only.... The fact that "major news outlets have reported on this" makes even more "credible". When we gonna see people kidnapped by aliens on TV?
- secfirstmd 5y ago
  Watch "Phenomenon". Many countries have experienced similar issues. Soviet Union was very worried about UFO reports near its nuclear sites. Also the NYT story about the F18s didn't really go into much detail but Mexico also had similar experiences.
ta988 5y ago
A plasma can produce a lot of noise on the RF spectrum. Something of that size and that distance from the surface can clearly jam quite a lot of equipment. I wonder if radio amateurs caught interferences on those days.
- abystander 5y ago
  You’d expect the military to have found this considering they’ve got all sorts of sensors specifically for RF. They’d have been able to positively explain much of the reported stuff in the recent congressional release relatively easy in that case.

Treblemaker 5y ago

Tom Mahood wrote some interesting well-researched posts about the possibility that alleged "UFOs" seen over area 51 may have been the result of proton beam testing. This is a good starting point [0]. The page also links to several later updates. [0] https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strange-places/bluefire-main/bluefire/particle-beams-and-saucer-dreams/ https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/area-51-and-other-strang...

mikewarot 5y ago

A nitrogen laser can ionize a channel in the air, which lowers its conductivity. You can build a laser such as this yourself. http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasercn2.htm http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasercn2.htm

74687277617761 5y ago

This looks familiar. The Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens (LDAL): BAE Systems futurist Professor Nick Colosimo explains https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlBX3lDIlvw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlBX3lDIlvw BAE Systems future technologies: The Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWBAFAGwzE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhWBAFAGwzE

PicassoCTs 5y ago

Now send some lightning through it, and you have the ability to print magnetic coils in midair aka force fields. Make a whole array of that and you have a launch loop without ever having to erect an arc. Or reduce it in size and print it on demand into the outer layers of a traditional fusion reactor plasma-donut, to dampen minor fluctuations, without constantly modifying the underlying superconducting coils. So cool this actually works.