Photos show odd images near shuttle
A San Francisco amateur astronomer who photographs the space shuttles
whenever their orbits carry them over the Bay Area has captured five strange
and provocative images of the shuttle Columbia just as it was re-entering the
Earth's atmosphere before dawn Saturday. They show a bright scraggly flash of
orange light, tinged with pale purple, and shaped somewhat like a deformed L.
The flash appears to cross the Columbia's dim contrail, and at that precise
point, the contrail abruptly brightens and appears thicker and somewhat twisted
as if it were wobbling. Full story