I know the universe can be a weird place sometimes, but... let's follow Carl Sagan's dictum of looking for a normal and natural explanation for things before jumping to a paranormal or supernatural one, mmmkay?
The reason this comes up is because of a discussion I saw online about the strange phenomenon of a "double Sun" -- when there appears to be a split view of the Sun (or, sometimes, a smaller "second Sun" near the main one). The first clue that this is a completely natural (albeit odd-looking) occurrence is that it always happens when (1) the sky is hazy, and (2) when the Sun is near the horizon. It turns out to be caused by the Sun's light refracting off particles of ice or smoke in the upper atmosphere, creating an ephemeral double image.
It is, in fact, simply an optical illusion.
One of the commenters, evidently a science type, gave a measured and reasonable response explaining light refraction, and that resulted in everyone basically going, "Oh, that's cool! An interesting atmospheric phenomenon! Thank you for the scientific explanation!"
Ha! I'm lying. Of course that's not how people responded. He was immediately shouted down by about a hundred other folks, who had "explanations" like the following. Spelling and grammar are exactly as written, because you can only add [sic] so many times:
- It’s just more proof that the Earth is flat. We’ve been viewing a computer CGI simulation since the late 1800s, and it has just been a matter of time before we start seeing glitches in the man’s software.
- Is it nibiru? I've read planet x? Is it a sun like star or what? I'm so confused.
- It has been photographed before, from Seattle to Wisconsin. NASA has known about the approach of Nibiru, the Destroyer, Planet X or the countless other names it is known by, including Wormwoof, which it is known by in the bible. It is an entire star system travelling on an elliptical orbit towards our earth. It has its own Sun (which you are seeing) and several planets that travel with it. All the people want to know why can’t you see it. The answer is because it’s a dead brown star that can only be seen in the infra red spectrum. The only 2 places that have a black light telescope is in Antarctica and the Vatican. Go figure.
- If you don’t mind, I will actually give you a serious reply, depending on what you believe in depending on what you think is possible and aside from that, depending on what frequency you operate at you’re able to see in those things, I’ve heard a lot from people who are a lot smarter than me that by 2027 the two suns will be completely visible as well as open contact. I don’t care if I’m labeled crazy I don’t channel.
- Idk what any of this can or will mean for us here, but boys and girls I don't think the comet in our orbit, that they say should remain visible to the naked eye, but only while facing due West, and get this....only during, or immediately after the sunset will it appear near the Sun, I don't think that's what they are telling us it is. Is this the reason all these billionaires have been building massive underground bunkers suddenly this past year?
- Trump the Antichrist is here and two suns is the beginning of the end. In many apocalyptic and religious interpretations, the imagery of “two suns crossing in the sky” is often associated with the arrival of the Antichrist, signifying a significant and ominous event that marks the beginning of the end times, often interpreted as a sign of a false messiah or a powerful evil force emerging into the world, e.g. Trump and Musk.
- There is a second sun behind our sun but we can never see it because it stays behind the sun. It’s gravitational balanced by the tiny black hole on the other side of our moon that we can’t see either. Every 276 years in June the moon’s black hole and the second son have a tilting wobble and the second sun becomes visible for a few minutes in a small viewing zone across the northern hemisphere. Behind the second sun there are a few more things that we can’t see, like second Jupiter.
A few thoughts about all that.
- What the actual fuck?
- Okay, I can see Trump as the Antichrist, given that he embodies all Seven Deadly Sins in one individual. But somehow I don't think even his level of evil can make two Suns appear in the sky.
- If it's only visible for a few minutes every 276 years, it was pretty lucky the dude got a snapshot of it, wasn't it?
- So, Nibiru is en vogue again, eh? Last I heard of Nibiru was about ten years ago, and I figured it had become passé, replaced by far more believable claims like targeted weather modification and 5G mind control and Jewish space lasers.
- If I've never seen a "second Sun," it's because I'm "operating on the wrong frequency?" I didn't know humans were like radios, and came equipped with a frequency dial. That's pretty awesome. Maybe if mine is set right I can tune into the BBC.
- Only Antarctica and the Vatican have "black light telescopes"? I'm trying to come up with some kind of clever response to this, but... nope, I got nothin'.
- If I ever get another pit bull, I'm gonna name him "Wormwoof."
- At the risk of repeating myself, what the actual fuck?
What astounds me about all of this is how many people seem to gravitate toward this sort of nonsense instead of looking first for a rational explanation. It's not like the science in this case is hard to understand, or even hard to find; the website of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory posted a perfectly good explanation that shows up on the first page of a Google search for "double Sun."
But loony claims like Nibiru and dead brown stars and second Jupiters and simulation glitches are, apparently, more attractive. Is it because it makes the universe seem weirder and cooler? Or is it the appeal of "seeing through a coverup" by scientists or the government or whatnot?
It's always seemed to me that the scientific explanations of what we observe are plenty cool enough, and some of them -- like quantum physics -- plenty weird enough. Why do so many people need to add extra layers of wackiness onto things?
I'll end with another quote from Carl Sagan, which I think sums things up nicely: "For me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
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