April 15, 2012

Titanic possibilities

Did you see this image today at NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day site? It's a photograph of a Fata Morgana, an illusion that is sometimes seen on the sea. (That wall of water in the background is the illusion.)

According to NASA, a Fata Morgana can: 
"make strange shapes or a false wall of water appear above a watery horizon . . . [S]uch a Fata Morgana mirage might have obscured real icebergs from the clear view of crew onboard the Titanic."
This notion is supported by a report from a nearby vessel, the S.S. Californian, that said they saw just such a mirage. Even a hundred years later, the story of the Titanic's ill-fated voyage remains haunting. I will always be fascinated by the Titanic. It stands alone (if we can keep that damn Cameron fellow away from it).

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