The Alien Ship story was rather funny.The whole thing was sparked by one image, pictured at the bottom of this paragraph.The image shows Comet Elenin in the middle, and four bright dots on each side lined up in a peculiar configuration.These eight bright objects are the supposed Alien Fleet.In reality there are only two bright objects in the image, and they are stars.The image is a result of four long exposure images, stacked together to achieve a better, clearer image.Because they are taken over a period of time, the comet's position in relation to the stars has changed.Therefore, when the images are stacked you get a trailing effect.Here is the famed Comet Elenin image.
Well, they are at it again.The funniest attempt to make C/2012 S1 Comet Ison into a crazy doomsday event is equally ill informed.First the video shows images of eruptions on Europa, a moon of Jupiter.The video claims these eruptions happened on August 23rd as a result of Comet Ison passing Jupiter.The images are unfortunately from 2007, and can all be found on NASA websites, at this link.
Europa Eruptions
The other issue with this claim is the location of C/2012 S1 Comet Ison on August 23rd, 2013.I took this image from NASA's small body database but if you want to see for yourself here is the link as well.
Ison Orbit
As you can see in the image, NASA shows Comet Ison much closer to Mars on August 23rd, so that claim is easily debunked.But wait....there is more.The video then claims that Comet Ison is interacting with Mars.The first image he uses as evidence in this claim can be found here.
Comet Ison and Mars by Ari Koutsouradis
The guy even gets his dates wrong, citing September 10th, 2013, but the Photographer dated the image October 2nd, 2013.Many other image are pictured here, and all can be found in a simple google search for the words "comet ison mars".The claim here, and the title of this video is DID ISON Give MARS a COMA.Yes, this guy is actually claiming that Mars has been transformed into a huge comet, because of interactions with Comet Ison.He uses these images as evidence, due to the vibrant glow around Mars.The effect here is simply caused by the gathering of light during long exposure photography, which is required to capture an image of Comet Ison at this time.These claims are completely fabricated.I would have linked the video here, but I am not willing to drive up hit traffic for this individual.The title of the video is there if you are that curious.
It is not that I take that much offense to this particular person's video, or even conspiracy theories in general.I find them rather entertaining to tell you the truth.The issue I have is that many uninformed people become genuinely concerned, some even making doomsday preparations, as was the cause with Comet Elenin, which coincidentally did not even survive it's encounter with the Sun.I can't even tell you how many people asked me Mayan Calendar questions, and even after explaining the truth in all the stories, some people were still convinced something bad would happen on December 21st, 2012.But, nothing did happen.
Why are people so enthralled with these kinds of stories?Why do people with absolutely no knowledge of Astronomy, or Astrophotography insist on making crazy claims that they have no basis for?I am surprised that these individuals do not expect to be proven wrong, by the first legitimate Astronomer, or Photographer that happens to see their video.If you are going to make a video like this one, at least get the dates right, and give the Astrophotographer credit for the image that they no doubt spent hours working on, before you got your slimy conspiracy tentacles all over it.Thanks for reading.
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