Witnesses throughout Northern Norway reported seeing a bright object spinning through the sky this morning, forming a brilliant spiral. According to air traffic reports, the phenomenon lasted for two minutes, too long to be an astronomical event, and it doesn't resemble any previously reported aurora.

So what caused the mysterious spiral? No one is sure, but the prevailing theory is fairly mundane. Several astronomers are speculating that an errant, spiraling rocket is responsible. Since no rockets were fired from the local Andøya Rocket Range this morning, the hypothetical rocket may have come from Russia.

Or, as one poster on Reddit suggests, it could just be the Sliders breaking into our universe:

[VG Nett (Translated) via Reddit]

The theme of this year's Burning Man was "Evolution," inspiring a great deal of art, vehicular and otherwise, centered around the animal kingdom. On the more retrofuturistic side of things, this year's Burning Man also featured the "Raygun Gothic Rocket" as an installation, which, contrary to festival rumors, didn't actually take off.

[Burning Man]

Photo by dko1960
Photo by Jon Sarriugarte
Photo by Jon Sarriugarte
Photo by juuuulllliiiieeeeeee
Photo by gir sushi
Photo by TWITA2005
Photo by Anamorphosis

Between Chandrayaan-1 and NASA's forthcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we'll finally get decent maps of the Moon's surface. "We don't really have really good modern maps of the moon with modern instrument," said Georgetown space policy researcher Scott Pace. "The quality of the Martian maps, I would make a general argument, is superior to what we have of the Moon."

Images by AP. [AP and New York Times]

According to Yahoo! News:

They call their project Jupiter, and like Ares, it's a brainchild of workers at the Marshall Space Flight Center and other NASA facilities. The engineers involved are doing the work on their own time and mostly anonymously, with the help of retirees and other space enthusiasts. A key Ares project manager dismisses their design as little more than a sketch on a napkin that won't work.

A spokesman for the competing effort, Ross Tierney, said concerned engineers at NASA and some contractors want a review of the Ares plans but can't speak out for fear of being demoted, transferred or fired.

It's depressing to think that NASA engineers are so frustrated by their current projects that they have to strike out on their own. But looked at another way, it's fantastic that they're giving NASA a run for its money. I want to see more amateur and private moon rocket projects creating a competitive market for space travel. Image by Phillip Metschan for Horizons.

NASA Engineers Work on Alternative Moon Rocket [Yahoo! News]

Images courtesy of Sea Launch and AFP/Getty Images.

Satellite Launches from Equator [PhysOrg]

Artist Neville Page was one of the designers of the jetpack used by the precog cops in the movie Minority Report, but he wanted to take the design a bit further and created this pinup in the process. He meant it to be tongue-in-cheek, and he's his own biggest critic: "It is safe to say that with police officers like her, one might be inspired to commit crimes in the hopes of being arrested. So perhaps this is not such a good costume idea after all."

We'd have to disagree with him there as far as costumes go, but as far as the uniform for a civil servant, this one might be a tad too distracting. Plus there's no way you'd want to see the 300 lb. Sergant McGillicuddy in that thing. Especially since he got that nasty skin rash.