Indian Army Mistook Planets For Spy Drones 143
hackingbear writes "BBC reports that India's army spent six months watching 'Chinese spy drones' violating its air space, only to find out they were actually Jupiter and Venus. Between last August and February, Indian troops had already documented 329 sightings of unidentified objects over a lake in the border region next to China. India accused the objects being Chinese spy drones. The incident even escalated to a military build-up and a stand-off at border between the two countries. Residents of the solar system are glad that India does not possess the capability to shoot down such high altitude objects."
Incorrect sensationalist summary (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Walk before you run (Score:4, Informative)
This is what happens when your society tries to leapfrog technological advancements without understanding the stuff that preceded them.
Yeah...I guess they just lucked into developing perfectly functional nuclear weapons and long range ballistic missiles. Obviously those third world idiots don't actually understand science. /sarcasm
WTF slashdot moderators. How the hell does such an idiotic comment get a +5 for being Insightful. Are all of you so goddamn ignorant of other countries / cultures?
Re:Walk before you run (Score:5, Informative)
People in the society (e.g., India) understand, but of course some people (e.g., messr Singh) was a bit less informed... From the original article...
Army lance naik [wikipedia.org] Sheminderpal Singh — a regular observer at Point 4715 — told the astronomers that he had noticed a delay of four minutes in the appearance of one of the objects each consecutive day. Singh also told them that the object seemed to be the brightest light in the sky and always appeared to move with respect to the stars.
The IIAP team told the Indian Army to use an instrument called a theodolite [wikipedia.org] to record the horizontal angle and vertical elevation of the two objects. Army personnel performed these observations between February 17 and 22 and submitted the data to the IIAP.
The astronomers have concluded that the object observed from Point 4715 is Jupiter as the observations coincide with the planet’s diurnal motion [wikipedia.org] and the apparent motion of the object due to the rotation of the Earth.
The description of the second unidentified object that appeared early in the morning suggests that it is Venus, which is currently moving behind the Sun and will in the coming months appear as an evening object.
The IIAP team said stars and planets over the horizon in Ladakh appear very bright because of increased atmospheric transparency at the high altitude and both Jupiter and Venus at the time were the brightest planets in the sky.
The astronomers also clarified that objects that rise in the east may appear to be moving across the LAC [wikipedia.org] and approaching the Indian side.
Of course venus and jupiter get mistaken for UFOs by many folks [wikipedia.org] from time to time, but inflating the mistakes of an individual, to the group to which they are a member makes for a better tagline...
What would have happened.. (Score:5, Informative)
I am an Indian - so let me try to fill in the possible missing pieces in the story and the cultural perspective.
First of all the China-India border, especially in Ladakh is very tense with China occupying a border region called Aksai Chin for many decades. The Indian Army soldiers, who are most likely from the plains and who have never seen the sky in all its high altitude glory (we are talking about 15,000 - 20,000 ft altitude here) were likely tasked with looking out at the night sky and see anything 'interesting' - the officer who issued the order must have meant Chinese drones, but by the time the order got to the lookout guy from the officer via the JCO through the sergeant, it must have read look out for something 'bright'. The soldiers were seeing the brightest planets in their lives and obviously had plenty to write in their reports.
Then the sighting reports started pouring in and the officer in charge probably got suspicious and looked out and concluded that the objects were likely celestial. But just to make sure that he is right, he must have ringed up the battalion HQ to get some astronomy duded flown in to get a confirmation. That is probably why the request went straight to Indian Institute of Astrophysics. The astro-dudes flew in, confirmed that they are looking at planets and on their way back talked to a journalist about the incident and how stuuuuuuupid the army guys were.
That, I guess what would have happened.
Re:Just FYI (Score:4, Informative)
When you spend $300 for a "hexiform rotational compression device" (AKA 'nut') spending more than everybody else isn't that difficult.