Amazing photo: Frog photobombs NASA moon launch

[Coyotl]

Amazing photo: Frog photobombs NASA moon launch
http://earthsky.org/space/amazing-photo-frog-photobombs-nasa-moon-launch

NASA says the frog probably didn’t make it. But its legend will live on.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Screw those birds, I can fly! Poor frog. nt

[NYC_SKP]

6. The frog won't necessarily expire as a result of this.

The launch pad is somewhat surrounded by grasses and softer-than-concrete areas.

I would like to thing we have a bruised but not dead frog with stories to tell.

[hibbing]

7. hope so!

We can only hope, but I have a feeling his/her hearing would be damaged.

Peace

[Iliyah]

22. I hope you are right!

That is an amazing pic tho.

[NYC_SKP]

24. Amazing, yes. I posted it to my Facebook, people are loving it! nt

[Coyotl]

55. This is totally viral on FB, spreading explosively.

People are really having a heyday with this one. Seems we should name that frog, at the very least. How about "Fly"?

[pinboy3niner]

28. 'The Frog that Didn't Croak'

Has a nice ring to it.

[NYC_SKP]

32. Can somebody PLEASE photoshop Jerry the Tapir over that same photo?

[pinboy3niner]

33. Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

[DCBob]

36. I dont think so..

I suspect he was on the ground near the launch site and the engine blast shot him into the air and also probably frying him at the same time... but what a way to go!!

[Xithras]

66. He was probably in the water baffles. Pretty much 0% chance he made it.

Launchpads have tunnels beneath them to channel the exhaust away from the tower. These tunnels are filled with water to reduce shock, noise, and vibration a bit.

When the engines lit, the flame would have instantly flashed the closest part of that water to steam, The Minotaur V rocket also produces 360,000lbs of thrust, which slammed into that water under full power and shot it out of the tunnels like a cannon.

Between the steam explosion, the horrific acceleration, and the huge amount of pressure exerted on it as the thrust attempted to compress the water, I'm pretty surprised that the frog was even in one piece. Tack onto that the potential damage the frog would have taken after its long flight ended in an impact, and the odds of its survival are pretty much zero.

That's a froggie snuff photo

[Mnemosyne]

37. I really hope he made it, so many disappearing these days.

[boston bean]

2. love it!

[FSogol]

3. Top of the World, Mom!

[Baclava]

4. one small hop for frog...one giant leap for frogkind

ribbet

[Coyotl]

5. Or, vice-versa. LOL

You can always count on DU to have incredibly creative responses.

[Solly Mack]

8. Poor froggy.

Neat shot.

[petronius]

9. Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand*, and touched the face of God.

-- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.


* Do frogs have hands? Or is it paws? Feet? Flippers?

[X_Digger]

10. We've got the battletoads, now where's double dragon? n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

11. It looks like it's doing the Kermit flail.

[krispos42]

12. Kermit's attempt to compete with Super Grover? n/t

[packman]

13. Games

Just an updated version of FROGGER with rockets instead of cars.

[Berlin Expat]

14. Heh.

<http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3vrfco/>

[Diclotican]

15. Coyotl

Coyotl

Hm, Kermit the frog?

Diclotican

[Supersedeas]

16. better to burn out than to fade away

[mockmonkey]

17. Reminds me of the time....

when I was a kid and my parents took me out west through Wyoming and it was desolate and

we drove through a really small town and my Mom read the Population sign, "POP: 27" just

then a frog jumped into our path and my Mom without missing a beat says,

"and one frog and we just ran it over."

Ok, probably not funny to the frog or anyone else but it was to a ten year old kid. I'm a well

adjusted person to this day and would never harm a frog. (except for fetish reasons)

[tkmorris]

18. would never harm a frog. (except for fetish reasons)

I don't know whether to be intrigued or frightened.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

44. Think "duct tape".

[beerandjesus]

26. Jesus! Not when I have a mouthful of coffee!

[UtahLib]

19. Poor little frog.

I'm sure he never aspired to be Super Frog.

[AnneD]

20. Reminds me of....

The James Thurber story (I think) about the moth that aimed for the moon instead of the porch light. Twain would have fun with this too. Your toad may be cool , but is he THIS cool.

[Javaman]

21. If you listen to the recording of the lift off...

you will now understand the once unexplained
"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" in the background

[backwoodsbob]

23. Ground Control to Major Tom

you really made the grade

[suffragette]

64. "And I'm floating in a most peculiar way"

[Octafish]

25. That's no frog! That's Ryan Seacrest!

Ex-stowaway.

[Cryptoad]

31. Or it may be Newt

trying to catch a ride to his new moonstation!

[Tanuki]

68. Newt looks just like John Wayne Gacy in that pic!

[img][/img]

[Sheldon Cooper]

27. I know the article says that NASA confirmed the picture, but honestly,

is that Frogzilla or something? It seems weirdly huge in proportion to the rocket I would assume an actual frog would be a mere spec in the smoke. Seems unlikely to me.

[Cryptoad]

29. As a toad , I have to say

that is one big ass Frog......

[iamthebandfanman]

30. probably just perspective..

id imagine the frog is a lot closer to the camera than the rocket

[nolabear]

42. Two dimensional illusion. Frogs in mirror may be closer than they appear.

[RandiFan1290]

34. RIP but he's no Space Bat!

[Enrique]

35. the frog is winning

[pinboy3niner]

43. Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket frog...

Rocket frog, burning out his fuse up here alone

And I think it's gonna be a long, long time ‘til touch down brings me round again to find I'm not the frog they think I am at home
Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket frog
Rocket frog, burning out his fuse up here alone...

[Enrique]

45. i love that song!

actually i love the whole album, "Goodbye yellow brick toad"

[pinboy3niner]

46. And 'Saturday Night's Alright for Froggy'

That song is hoppin'!

[Catherine Vincent]

38. Doesn't look like a frog to me

Photoshop?

[bpositive]

39. Looks like he is having a blast

Bada boom

[lastlib]

40. If frog legs show up on the Lounge lunch menu, I'm gonna be suspicious.......

(ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh---sh1t............!!)

[Gary 50]

41. Pluck...

Pluck your magic twanger Froggie...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

47. A very local reference....

The Ghoul was at his height in the 70s.

[pinboy3niner]

48. A novelty song about Chula Vista, CA uses that for its opening

From San Diego's first 'Home Grown' album:

&feature=player_embedded

[Are_grits_groceries]

49. The Rocket Frog made it:

[pinboy3niner]

50. *snort*

[VanillaRhapsody]

51. frog says to his buddies...

"Hey Y'all...watch this"!

[Coyotl]

52. It's Felix! What fun to return and read all the comments!

Felix The Flying Frog
http://baetzler.de/humor/flying_frog.html

[angel823]

53. NASA may be guilty of

involuntary frogslaughter......

But I hope the frog made it somehow!

Angel in Texas

[Scurrilous]

54. Boink.

[Coyotl]

56. All you doubting Thomases, NASA has posted a photo on their domain here:

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Spacecraft&IM_ID=17966

[Bolo Boffin]

58. I'm alive!!!!!!!! n/t

[pinboy3niner]

61. Don't forget Peter, who said, "I don't know that frog."

Three times!

[Uncle Joe]

57. How do we know that's a frog

and not Rush Limbaugh?

Is he still on the air?

Thanks for the thread, Coyotl.

[Coyotl]

60. Listen to the audio. There's a really loud CROAK.

[Uncle Joe]

65. Isn't that the noise

Limbaugh usually makes followed by a fart and then a major inhale?

[Rex]

59. Obviously NASA does not want us to know about their super secret

amphibious assault on the Moon!

[sufrommich]

62. Froggie: "Dude,hold my beer and watch this".

[DirkGently]

63. Hope he made it. What a story he'll have for the tadpoles!

[suffragette]

67. Lol

Long jump record, for sure!

[Coyotl]

69. They are already calling 'Flyboy' the legendary Neal Armstrong of Herpatology

Who knew a flying frog could get this many laughs

[Wolf Frankula]

70. Kermit Wait!

That's not the Swinetrek! Miss Piggy is not on that ship!

Oh well, too late.

Wolf

[LongTomH]

71. Froggy is only the latest in a long line of critters disturbed by rocket launches

From Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/a-brief-history-of-animals-and-rocket-launches-not-gett-1301141640

A flock of cormorants:


Then there was the giant spider invasion:

[muriel_volestrangler]

72. There's hope yet for the frog:

The photo reminded me immediately of a famous biogeographic experiment performed by Thomas Barbour (1884-1946) and Philip Darlington (1904-1983), who differed over the importance of land bridges (favored by Barbour) versus overwater dispersal (favored by Darlington) in the distribution of animals on islands. The experiment and its results are handed down from one generation of graduate students to the next by a well-known oral tradition at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, but the only published account I know of is by Bob O’Hara (1988):

A how-possibly experiment performed by Philip Darlington and Thomas Barbour at the Museum of Comparative Zoology has become legendary. Darlington and Barbour were disputing the possibility of frogs being dispersed in the West Indies by hurricanes. Darlington, who believed such dispersal was possible, took a bucket of live frogs up to the roof of the Museum, and, with Barbour standing on the lawn below, proceeded to throw the frogs to the ground, one by one. As each one hit the ground, Barbour examined it and called up “That one’s dead,” “So’s that one,” and so on. But after a few minutes, much to Barbour’s disappointment, the frogs all revived and started to hop away. Darlington had thus shown that hurricane dispersal was possible, or at least had removed one of Barbour’s objections to it, namely that it would be too rough on the frogs.

To Bob’s account I would add that the MCZ is 5 stories tall, which gives you some idea how far the frogs fell in their journey to the courtyard below. Bob used the experiment to illustrate his notion of a “how possibly” experiment, which demonstrates the possibility, though not the actual occurrence, of a phenomenon.

I thought of the experiment because I wondered about the “uncertain” fate of the frog. The frog appears to be outside the plume of hot gas escaping form the rocket engine. If so, and if the clear air around it has not been super-heated, the frog could well survive the fall. Many tree frogs are adept at jumping long distances, bodies flattened and limbs spread, so that they reach a terminal velocity more dependent on aerial friction than gravity. The so-called “flying frogs” are ones that have gotten very good at this, usually with both morphological and behavioral specialiazations (see Wallace’s flying frog, an apt example for Wallace Year).

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/nasa-launches-a-frog-and-experimental-biogeograhy/

[Coyotl]

73. The image in post 52 is Wallace's flying frog.

On edit, you get the Erudite Response Award, but very low points on humor