BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Could Jupiter & Venus start a war?

The border region between India and China is a high-tension area. Made worse several months ago by the Indian army's documenting hundreds of sightings of unidentified objects and incursions into disputed territory, which they assumed were spy drones. Finally - and it should have been sooner - someone got the Indian Institute of Astrophysics to have a look. It seems that Venus and Jupiter were the culprits.

So if anyone wonders why people should know basic astronomy, it could help to avoid dangerous international incidents!

Army mistook planets for spy drones

The less time people spend looking at the sky, the more likely they are not to understand what they see if they happen to look up. If you don't know what's normal, you don't know when to be concerned. It's not usually a big deal that someone is convinced that they have spotted an alien mothership with a fleet of spacecraft, even though it's actually Jupiter and its Galilean moons.

However it becomes seriously worrying when people who are scanning the skies for earthly alien aircraft don't know when they're seeing astronomical objects. Especially in political hotspots. There are many ways of working it out. Here is some guidance: How to Tell a Planet from a UFO

Very interesting, Mona. It is quite scary how close to war India and China came over a mistake!

I know I don't look at the stars enough. I used to be fascinated by them when I was a kid, and could pick out several constellations. Now I'm lucky if I can find the Big Dipper.

I've always been close w/the skies - clouds, stars...I have one of those giant tube things that well I can't even explain it. It stands upright and you look through a lense on the side.

I don't know that much about Venus and Jupiter starting a war, but I feel fairly close that we can expect something close to it...

It's almost like the economy...it was never called a depression, but a recession.

This, whatever it is that it feels like coming, seems not so much like a war, but feels like something with ("explainable" - fictitious) "hits" here and there. Like "Deconstructing Harry..."

I think that was a movie...that's just how things come in my head, lol.

As lovely as the skies are at night, that's where I would look for inspirations as to what's to come. We get through it though and war is very much possible.

We're stronger than war...that's what's important

There are potential disasters short of war in mistaking planets for aircraft. An Air Canada pilot put the aircraft into a plunge in order to avoid a collision with another aircraft. The other aircraft turned out to be Venus and another officer brought the plane back up. However sixteen people were injured. Maybe a good reason for keeping your seatbelt fastened at all times, though a sudden drop is more likely to be caused by unexpected turbulence!

Pilot plunges to avoid collision with Venus