Omnimancy

[LordArt]

Ok. How does a missle launch create this? I could understand to a degree that a swirl is from a still firing but in a wild spin rocket, but not on the scale it seems to be. It looks like a bad sci-fi movie (but cool effect).

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/12/10/norway.ufo.light/index.html

[Psychokinetic Wannabe]

I'm inclined to feel that it is (was) a missile. It looks like it's spinning slowly, but it was probably ridiculously far away, so that the plume looks like it's rotating slowly because of how long it takes for it to turn in comparison to how small it is in the field of vision we have of the object, but it was probably a decently massive plume of gas, that spread out from the missile decently quickly...

I think what made me think it was the missile though was the video of how it dissipates*, it just stops and then a black shock-wave-like emptiness spreads out from where the spiral's center was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmu0r0j19uE

Seems consistent with the idea that it was a missile, since if it self destructed it wouldn't have been (I think... not an expert by any means) noticeable at the range implied by the smallness of the spiral, and since the gas would be propelled out rather fast, it would continue to move out from where the rocket had been, but without more exhaust being put out by the rocket, it would stop looking like a neat spiral and presumably do something similar to the visible shock-wave effect.

But could it be magic? I suppose so given my limited experience, and I am sure you know enough about magic to know something like this could be done (or maybe you could even make something like this happen, though your previous comments about the difficulty of making specific physical stuff happen make me think that this wouldn't be under the currently doable stuff because it seems more like a direct effect rather than the stuff you say magic is best at making happen).

EDIT:

Better video (I have it set to HQ, but if you just delete the &NR=1 from the end if you're on a slower computer, you don't have to wait for it to start loading to unclick the HQ button - honestly this one looks about the same either way, if there's a difference):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec8iquvSUNE&NR=1

Of course, when I say better video, I mean just video. I am not referring to the "Holy teh shitcakes it's t3h aliens wormhole" sentiment the poster seems to have... I happen to be decently into the aliens/UFO thing, but this... no. (Maybe the poster didn't have access to the claims by the Russians that they test fired a missile and it spun out, but I doubt that made/will make him change his interpretation when he did/does find out...)

- EDIT 2 -

About the "not on the scale implied" statement by LordArt - I know it looks ridiculously large given that the missile would be extremely small in comparison to the spiral, but I think the fact that it's night-time, combined with how far missile/rocket exhaust tends to stretch out behind the rocket, makes it a rather reasonable possibility. I don't think they have as much light pollution in Norwegian skies as they do in most urban American areas, so it would add to the visibility of the glow.

I wouldn't know how big the missile was or what fuel they used, nor would I be able to figure out from that how far the light should have been able to spread through the exhaust gasses, and how much of the gas was actually emitting light at any one time, but I've seen US shuttle launches, and I've seen footage of missile launches, and one of the things that it impressed upon me was how ridiculously long the gas trail was. Now usually it doesn't look as bright, but of course, most filmed launches (at any rate most launches that I've seen footage of) happen during the day... Of course, footage doesn't usually tell you much about scale because footage of launches, unless made by civilians with their own cameras, tends to be very zoomed in on the missile/rocket for, presumably, observation/record purposes.

*Shrug* I can't really say I have any authority on the matter, so I return to the fact that yes, it could be magical in nature. I think it's not and I've presented my reasons, but I welcome any information or counter-arguments that suggest I'm wrong.

Wouldn't it be possible to observe the event magically?
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