# Meet Steve, the purple streak of light **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 23, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087 "2018-08-23T01:18:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/1 "2018-08-23T01:18:04Z")
Meet [Steve](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-aurora-chasers-scientists-steve-1.4084625). He is a purple aurora or some kind of luminescence, drawn across Canada’s night skies like a bold stroke of the crayon. The strange part is, he’s not going anywhere. No shimmering, no dancing. He’s very static, and very purple, which is apparently the wrong color for a regular aurora. I am thinking maybe this is a noctilucent cloud. Or a really sinister government contrail experiment. Or maybe the Russians did it. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/2 "2018-08-23T01:37:07Z")
Steve is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/3 "2018-08-23T03:08:36Z")
Steve is just pointing out where the next rave is being held. Only those in the know know to follow Steve. Bring a coat. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/4 "2018-08-23T03:38:51Z")
Thank you for sharing that. Now I want to go and see Steve in person. ---
**Author:** ![BobBitchin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@BobBitchin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobBitchin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/5 "2018-08-23T04:35:48Z")
OK, listen. You guys are freakin Steve right out. We chilled earlier, he said we’d do Denny’s later. If your cool, I’ll introduce you. Somebody stop for wraps, I’ll get ya back. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/6 "2018-08-23T05:03:47Z")
Whatever it is, turns out Steve is [not an aurora](http://earthsky.org/earth/researchers-say-steve-isnt-an-aurora)—as in, it’s not caused by solar wind interacting with Earth’s atmosphere. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/7 "2018-08-23T05:07:10Z")
The article says it’s “a ribbon of very hot and fast moving gas . . . moving at a speed of about six kilometres per second in a westward direction.” What exactly is that supposed to mean? Where is this gas exactly? What is its origin? What gas is it? If it’s moving six km a second, why is it “static”? What a useless article. ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/8 "2018-08-23T05:31:15Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > The article says it’s “a ribbon of very hot and fast moving gas . . . moving at a speed of about six kilometres per second in a westward direction.” > > What exactly is that supposed to mean? Where is this gas exactly? What is its origin? What gas is it? If it’s moving six km a second, why is it “static”? > > What a useless article. Steve is elongated in the E-W direction, so perhaps the article is saying it is moving along that axis, lengthwise, while stationary breadthwise. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/9 "2018-08-23T10:01:31Z")
Maybe we’re being visited by Hooloovoo, and the atmosphere is just doing some weird color shift. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/10 "2018-08-23T19:38:56Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > The article says it’s “a ribbon of very hot and fast moving gas . . . moving at a speed of about six kilometres per second in a westward direction.” > > What exactly is that supposed to mean? Where is this gas exactly? What is its origin? What gas is it? If it’s moving six km a second, why is it “static”? > > What a useless article. Um, the article says: > [@](#): > > Steve is a ribbon of very hot and fast moving gas, Donovan said, moving at a speed of about six kilometres per second in a westward direction. > > “Now what we’re doing is trying to figure out what is exactly causing this, why the gas is moving so fast, why it’s so narrow, why it’s so long in the east-west direction and why it’s so common,” he said. Neither article answers those questions precisely because the answers are not known. It has nothing to do with the usefulness of the article(s). ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/11 "2018-08-24T13:09:11Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Um, the article says: > > Neither article answers those questions precisely because the answers are not known. It has nothing to do with the usefulness of the article(s). Yeah I see that–my comment was more a result of the way the article fixated on the “cute” name so much, as if that were supposed to be interesting or amusing. It’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/12 "2018-08-24T22:00:11Z")
_“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”_ –Steve ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/13 "2018-08-26T13:00:53Z")
Has the Pharaoh of Canada released any nomadic tribes from captivity lately? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/14 "2018-08-26T13:39:13Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Yeah I see that–my comment was more a result of the way the article fixated on the “cute” name so much, as if that were supposed to be interesting or amusing. It’s not. It is so cute! Are you not reading this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meet-steve-the-purple-streak-of-light/820087/15 "2018-09-02T03:32:16Z")
[Steve makes an appearance on one of my favorite YouTube channels.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8V38j1JCAE) Also, I love Caitlin’s underbite and awesome baloney curls. I mean, who does baloney curls anymore?