My. God. It looks like a giant

hooray. dumber and dumber we get.

This is what happens when people who never ever bother to look at the sky and don't understand basic mathematics and perspective suddenly look up and inject whatever stupid pseudo-science they want into their faulty observations. Sorry, that looks nothing like a missile, unless it's a missile traveling at

No go back to looking at "Chemtrails" and "UFO's". The rest of US know what a plane looks like at 35,000 ft passing from a persistent to non-persistent contrail preserving layer.

No Brainer.

Perspective, Contrail, and Wind.

Move on.

"a passer-by saw what looked like the exhaust from a launched missile,"

This statement, no doubt, from someone who has never seen an actual missile launch, so has no idea what "looked like the exhaust from a launched missile" even means.

Here's a Javelin missile. Compare the exhaust to the picture above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-dOJG4kXMA

Too small a missile? OK, fair enough. And both of those pictures were taken near an ocean... so how about a submarine-launched Trident?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl37UZvFsz0

Note that what catches your eye isn't so much the exhaust trailing behind it, but the bright flare of light that a rocket engine creates -- but that a jet aircraft engine does not.

Now, since Gothamist doesn't allow more than two links in a comment, stand by for one more...

And now comes this: side by side looks at the same video, supposedly the "missile", and a second video from about the same location showing the contrail of a what's likely a plane on the exact same path to Phoenix. If they didn't tell you which was on the right and which was on the left, you couldn't tell the difference:

http://cnmnewsnetwork.com/130713/california-missile-launch-airplane-ends-missile-mystery-video/

... because they don't get bigger than this, a Peacekeeper ICBM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCSoN1tqmgU



The fact is, neither of those pictures -- or the video from California -- look much at all like a missile launch.

Those videos don't really have any bearing on the issue. You haven't said anything comparing the atmospheric conditions from the videos you posted to atmospheric conditions from the West Coast video. Furthermore, if something new were being tested (which is the likely scenario here, if it wasn't a plane), it wouldn't necessarily be an apples-to-apples comparison with what already exists.

I don't have an opinion on whether the West Coast thing was a missile or not; frankly I don't much care. What bothers me is how quick people are to form an opinion one way or the other, and how easily they convince themselves that they know what's up and that the other side doesn't. A bunch of pompous, ignorant, masturbation.

i don't think i like your negative portrayal of masturbation.

Once again, the Gothamist comment board is a bunch of uninformed people making very certain statements. Jaycjay, mcsoxerhoff, longacre, etc. And even Jen Carlson for the snarky presentation of the issue.

If you actually look at the video from the west coast, it's very strange. It doesn't resemble an airplane except in a very superficial manner. Yes, the contrails we see over New York every day look similar to the still image from the West Coast. But the video is where the differences come through. Have a look at it.

You know why this mountain has arisen where a molehill once stood? Because the Pentagon lies so often and so loosely that no one believes them. Boy who cried wolf situation. It took them a long time to even issue a formal response, giving plenty of time for people to develop their own opinions.

I saw the video. Missiles that size fly really, really fast. Even a low tech SCUD-B cruises at Mach 5. The object in the video is moving at about the speed of an airliner.

You people and your certain statements.

Plane + high altitude + clear day + sun setting = very noticeable contrails. I see these several times a month. People apparently never look up unless they hear something about the sky on the news.

"the usual contrails left by planes" from nearby JFK Airport.

The people who think these are missiles are about as intelligent as this woman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6HsiixFS8

2012, here we come

On the news last night:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/11/10/did-you-see-the-fire-in-the-nyc-sky/

The video in that story seems a little believable as far as the "con-trail" they are suggesting, although seems to be flying a little low at such a fast speed. However the pics above... I have never seen a plane that takes off straight up into the air and the line itself looks to this to be that of a commercial jet

I have never seen a plane that takes off straight up into the air and the line itself looks to this to be that of a commercial jet

That's because it's not taking off. The plane was flying level from beyond the horizon and continued past the horizon and continuing on. Because of the curvature of the Earth this makes it appear as if it is a curved line coming from the ground.

As for the width of the contrail at the bottom that is because the wind spreads it out over time.

I am really baffled as to why this is such a huge deal.

"I am really baffled as to why this is such a huge deal."

Same here. I read somewhere the other day someone debunking the California "sighting", and what he said makes some sense: that the mystery to him wasn't what it actually was, but why there's apparently no one in the military or at NORAD or wherever qualified to simply say "uh... that's an airplane."

^looks to THIN

^TOO thin