One of my favorite astrophotographers, Alan Friedman, spied something odd on the Moon.
Flying reindeer I’ll buy. But an inertialess propulsion system? C’mon.
Happy holidays everyone!
Credit: Alan Friedman
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About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
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December 24th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Inertialess? Santa’s a Lensman?!?!
J/P=?
December 24th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
Probably shouldn’t have looked at that while inebriated. For about 1/3 of a second I thought that was real…
Happy Holidays Phil!
December 24th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Guess this proves that light rays are parallel. All that way and such a good proof of existence as well.
December 24th, 2011 at 6:11 pm
Ha! Forget the gravity tractor, I think we can just contract the services of Sanna’s asteroid tow-truck to park them anywhere we want them
Happy christmass all.
December 24th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
[...] Source: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/12/24/the-moon-sleighs-me/ [...]
December 24th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
I believe that Santa is real. But the “Moon”? Come on. Whoever heard of such a thing?
December 24th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
…And just who is Santa delivering to there on the moon, huh?
Somebody’s got some confessing to do, I think…
December 24th, 2011 at 9:21 pm
…And just who is Santa delivering to there on the moon, huh?
Well duh! The people from the historical documentary of Moonbase Alpha…
December 24th, 2011 at 10:08 pm
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
Or Felix Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, Happy Solstice, or whatever works for you on this day.
If I were to believe in something, it would be Santa. The world would be a better place with Santa.
December 24th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Inertialess?
Reindeer pass gas.
December 24th, 2011 at 11:42 pm
…I’m obviously dreaming, and am perceiving seasonal items within them. When I wake up, I’m getting a CAT scan.
($1000 for whoever got the reference!!
;))
December 25th, 2011 at 2:24 am
Asteroid 1288 hits the Moon.
December 25th, 2011 at 3:59 am
That can’t be real – why would Santa visit a deserted film set in New Mexico?
Happy holidays!
December 25th, 2011 at 7:30 am
Merry Christmas to everyone around the globe reading this!
Inertialess propulsion system? I guess reindeers have some sort of a back facing rocket. However, I don’t want to be Santa then. You may not hear the propulsion system in space. But what about smelling it?
December 25th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
He was delivering coal to Mr. Hoagland.
December 25th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
11. Sam H
Be sure to remind the CAT,,,you’re not a dog,,,
Gary 7
December 25th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Santa’s an alien!!! It all makes sense now. The hypersonic antigravity sleigh, the midnight visits… At some point, an alien scientist (or more likely several) was looking for a way to covertly surveill Earth’s inhabitants. Human technology was rapidly developing, and it was clear they’d develop atmospheric flight and simple space travel within a few generation. The legend of St. Nickolaus provided a perfect cover. They could travel around the world, leaving nano-sensors embedded in toys, and if anyone ever actually caught sight of them, everyone would chalk it up to overactive imagination.
December 25th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Awesome!
December 25th, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Seems to be the same phenomena that the Apollo 8 astronauts – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell & Bill Anders – saw back in December 1968 during the first ever human circumlunar journey!
Click on my name here for the audio record.
December 25th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
PS. Oh & Merry Christmas, Hannukkah, Sol Invictus or whatever you choose to celebrate to all here. Wishing y’all a great day – & remember the day is what we choose to make of it!
BTW. Boxing Day here already and Australia’s opening batsmen are already doing well against India in the Test – 0 / 45, Warner 36 & Cowan 7 at the crease. For any fellow Cricket tragics out there!
December 25th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
You can buy them BA? From where?* Genetic engineering of exotic animal combos must’ve come a long way since I last heard!
Inertia-less drive? Apparent “magical” powers over travelling across space in what appears to be a sleigh with a some sort of cloaking device and the ability to freeze time or at least to do far more than is theorically possible over the span of a single night? Santa must be an alien of apparently near-godlike technology level as (Arthur C.) Clarke’s Third Law** implies. Plus it explains what he’s doing out near our Moon – either arriving or departing to his home star. You know that makes sense!
———
* Incidentally if you’ll find a reindeer flying anywhere then our Moon with its lower gravity is a good place to start – how high could reindeer / caribou jump under lunar conditions I wonder? Of course, they’d do even better on an asteroid or comet and there is the unfortunate lack of breathable atmosphere issue.
** Y’all know where the link for that is, right? Same place as the last two.
December 25th, 2011 at 6:07 pm
John Paradox @1 : no, Santa is a form of flesh energized by an Arisian, much like Nels Bergenholm.
December 25th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
And you know, the sad thing is that someone will accept it as real…
December 25th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
And you know, the sad thing is that someone will accept it as real
Didn’t you know that Santa Claus is a universal constant?
December 25th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Am I mistaken in seeing the crater rim shadow as being cast from the left and that of Santa’s sleigh as coming from the right?
December 26th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
This reminds me of an e-mail that made the rounds during college, about how Santa would’ve burst into flames instantly and died from the G-forces due to the acceleration needed to deliver presents to all the children in the world in a single night (he’d be moving at supersonic, possibly relatavistic speeds).
My finest hour was debunking the math by pointing out that Santa only gives presents to GOOD children, reducing the workload by (ad hoc estimate) 99.9%.
December 26th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
@#24, Norbrook, no, Santa Claus is NOT a universal constant.
Pull my finger is.
And in THAT, I’m dead serious. I’ve been in places that never heard of Santa Claus, but knew what pull my finger meant and its mention was greeted with hilarity and commonality, where before little existed. Go figure, the lowest common denominator…
@#26, Dragonchild, you ignore two factors:
1: Santa has a ZPM that powers a uncertainty expander, thereby causing his and his sleigh’s virtual particles move to a distant location. Hence, it’s only APPARENT velocity, not TRUE velocity. Rather like certain neutrinos recently detected from CERN.
2: The workload was only reduced by 97.8%, a remaining 1.5% died before he could arrive, hence an avoided delivery, blasted poverty! The remainder had 0.69% still awake, hence avoided. That gave him only a few delivery opportunities. Totally feasible, considering point #1 and delivery would be completed within a minute total, globally. As midnight takes quite a bit of time to reach each point on the globe, Santa had PLENTY of downtime.