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105 Comments
- phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -6/+54No sharks, No digg.
- Dannychico, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21Evildoers. Duh. Don't you listen to our president?
- OmniMe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19On a foggy night, those things would make one hell of a Led Zeppelin show!
- Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12kriskroeker: Not entirely true. Some lasers can be seen in midair. This can happen in one of several ways:
- The molecules in the air scatters that light frequency (Rayleigh Scattering)
- The particles in the air scatters that light frequency (Mie Scattering)
- The molecules in the air scatter the laser light but shift it's wavelength in the process (Raman Scattering)
- The molecules in the air absorb and re-emit the light at the same or another frequency (fluorescence)
Those green handheld laser pointers you can buy are visible in normal air due to Rayleigh Scattering. - elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Finally a good use of tax dollars!
- instabil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10There are lasers with all kinds of wavelengths. If you look at the high-res picture, you clearly see that it has a very long exposure time - the stars are blurry but the buildings are sharp. This would make particles that travel through the beam to be lit for some time and thus be captured on film...
You also see the reflexion of the beam in the smaller dome... at least i think it's the beam.
I wouldn't say Photoshop.
High-res picture: http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/Images/Full/Domes.jpg - scthk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Inaccurate.
These lasers are used for Adaptive optics, not weapons. Ground based adaptive optics is not my specialty, (rather space based), but I believe they heat up sodium in the atmosphere with the laser. This creates a point source, and looks like a Dirac Delta function (for all you math and engineering gurus). Then, using the delta function, you get the transfer function of the optics, and you can correct your optics based on what you want the function to look like.
This is a very rich field, and can not fully be explained in a paragraph.
I know that SOR corrects at 8000 times a second, which is just amazing. - threepio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I can't really make out what they've written on the side....
TORCHWOOD?? - dsfunk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8holy ***** that's a big laser. I hope they don't accidentally chop off a wing of a 747 waving that thing around.
- Jibberish, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"All of the lasers seen in these pictures are used for OPTICAL ASSIST they are not meant for attacking or damaging anything. from the .mil "Three green lasers are seen emanating from facilities at the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Lasers and deformable optics are used here to eliminate or minimize optical distortions caused by the Earth%u2019s atmosphere." This is all meant to get better spy pics of stuff orbiting Earth. Oh and unless the .mil is in the habit of "Photoshopping" the pictures they post, these are all real."
Exactly. These lasers are used with adaptive optics to actuate deformable mirrors on earth based telescopes. That twinkling effect you see when you look up at a star is called atmospherics aberration, and it has a very detrimental effect on astronomical imagery. These lasers measure that negative effect, and correct for it many times a second. - TheWalkingDude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8The green lasers remind me of The Death Star: http://www.grudge-match.com/Images/deathstarfiring.gif
- vmerc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6All of the lasers seen in these pictures are used for OPTICAL ASSIST they are not meant for attacking or damaging anything. from the .mil "Three green lasers are seen emanating from facilities at the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Lasers and deformable optics are used here to eliminate or minimize optical distortions caused by the Earth%u2019s atmosphere." This is all meant to get better spy pics of stuff orbiting Earth. Oh and unless the .mil is in the habit of "Photoshopping" the pictures they post, these are all real.
- drawkbox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Just try to get your EU GPS system up muhahhahahaahh!
- Xinareiaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6They built a fortress for that thing...its on a gravel mountain....MOUNT DOOM!
- Settra, on 10/12/2007, -9/+14haha, can you say photoshop?
The "lasers" look so fake..in reality, the wavelengths they use are invisible to the naked eye.. - mediaphile, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5kp3469: "yeah, but *proving* that we fried a satellite w/ the death ray is another matter entirely ... no proof, no war."
it's not as if there would be a giant blazing lightbeam pointing to where it came from or anything. - tombomb, on 10/12/2007, -6/+11Anyone who opposes him. (I.E. Democrats, Terriosts. ETC.)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Can see the warning sign by the emitter?
"CAUTION - Laser Radiation - Do Not Stare Into Beam"
=D - wayjer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I was thinking the exact same thing!
- errer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It's a long exposure, you retards. Notice how the stars in the background of the pictures are, in fact, lines?
- computerdude33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I was hoping for some frickin' sharks with frickin' laser beams on their frickin' heads.
- vmerc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4From the .mil "A sodium laser fires spaceward from the Starfire Optical Range on Kirtland Air Force Base. Developed at the Directed Energy Directorate, the laser is used with deformable optics to help clear up atmospheric distortions when gathering images of objects in space." That's the red laser you see in the picture. It's at http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/index.aspx
The red laser at least is not used for attacking. It is an optical assist beam. - strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Destroy" may not be the best description. It wouldn't cause them to explode. A better term would be that they would render the satellites inoperable.
- SeenByMany, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"It wouldn't cause them to explode"
...darn...no explosion = no digg - JestaMcMerv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3death star.
- eyrieowl, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6This is the most completely inaccurate piece of speculation I've seen. I've been to the Starfire Optical Range and stood in the room with the telescope, and I can attest that there is absolutely no massively powerful laser present there. Starfire has NOTHING to do with shooting down satellites as such. It *DOES* have adaptive optics, as has been noted, and it DOES use the laser to create an "artificial star" to provide feedback for the optics. Why would the air force do this? You can note that the entire covering for the telescope retracts into the base, so that the telescope can be rotated at (relatively) high speed to TRACK satellites with a minimum of atmospheric turbulence caused by air flowing over the traditional dome-with-opening telescope housing. Shooting down satellites with a ground based laser is pretty laughable, anyway, for anyone who has done any work with lasers. At the power levels that would be required, the laser beam would interact VERY STRONGLY with the atmosphere and would not maintain the power levels required. Star Wars would have circumvented this by shooting down missiles *in flight*, when they were on a ballistic path that took them into the rarefied air at the fringes of the atmosphere. There was NEVER a serious plan to shoot lasers down to the ground to attack anything. Pure Science Fiction.
- jgtg32a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't know what you just said but I dug it anyway
- drawkbox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That is just Pink Floyd's summer pad.
- Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It does look like the death star:
http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/Gallery/Images/300W/SOR-3beam-300a.jpg - BlackSheepx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Suddenly my 60mW green wicked laser feels much less powerful..
- bryant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Ehh...it's no good without sharks...
- etx313, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3ZOMG! Laser beams!!! PEW PEW!!!
- TorontoTed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Why cant they just send navy seals to destroy these satellites?
- edysteve, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The cars in the first pic look like from the 70's up to 85's... mmm..
- puffarthur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Theyre terrorists because they give terrorist organizations millions of dollars in funding every year to attack Israel and Western nations. Plus they've broadcasted many times that they are waging 'holy war' on us and are planning on wiping Israel off the map. You are a freaking 'tard, go back to smoking your bong, hippy.
- dhughes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 Is it wise to have an "Advanced Testing Area" right next to a "Nuclear Weapons Storage" area? Call me crazy but I think not!
- dc7407, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2link not working. is it me or does anyone else think digg.com should have its own cache?
- teh_toaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://cryptome.org.nyud.net:8090/sor-eyeball.htm
- mailman-zero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The pictures look suspiciously like laser guide stars used at the Palomar Observatory on Palomar Mountain in southern California.
Site: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/outreach/aolgs/
Lo-res Image: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/outreach/aolgs/lgswide_med.jpg
Hi-res Image: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/outreach/aolgs/lgswide.JPG - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3i'm pretty sure that it can pick up on the dust in the air, much the same way you see a laser pointer in fog.
well, the site is down now, but i'm pretty sure those pictures were from a u.s. military server - boredzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://duggmirror.com/
http://duggmirror.com/technology/Frickin_Laser_Beams_%28w_pics%29 - Steve95613, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://cryptome.org.nyud.net:8080/sor-eyeball.htm
- cortez_a, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anyone know the coordinates for that satellite imagery? Never mind, found it in the article
- whisk3rs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Then I guess the military photoshopped this picture as well
http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/SOR/1_5m_telescope.htm
Looks like these lasers are used strictly for detecting objects in space and correcting atmospheric errors in astronomy, not for shooting things down. Or so the military claims (put your tinfoil hat on now)
Simply because it's a laser doesn't mean it can destroy things (think LIDAR), just like nuclear doesn't equal radioactive. - heavyness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2the empire just torched mars....
- sirket, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I dunno about 4 lasers but the ABL that is actually being tested has two lasers- one for tracking and the actual destructive laser.
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/
The name "Star Wars" was first used by then president Ronald Reagan in 1983. In 1984 the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was created to oversee the programs development.
As for your comment about this program having started in the 50's- I'm sorry but you must be mistaken. The first LASER was not created until 1960 (Masers were first created in the 1950's) and the first laser powerful enough to do any damage was an X-ray laser powered by a nuclear explosion and which led to Reagan's 1983 speech.
We are only now at the point where we have a powerful enough laser to shoot down a missile and that we can fit in an airplane. - Roguecop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Reminds of of this famous video shot from the Shuttle Discovery. In a beam of energy seems to shoot from surface of the Earth at UFO(s) coming out of the atmosphere and flying abrupt patterns...
http://www.iwasabducted.com/ufovideos/sts48-091591.mov - inajeep, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's under review but hey I like it cause the last pic shows a jeep parked outside.
- Tochi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The fact that most of the pictures are from an af.mil site proves it's accuracy more than defensetech.org does.
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