CNN 2010-11-14

All right. About that mysterious trail of smoke or vapor 1 off the California coast. It's today's "Talker" because people are still talking about it two days later.Sure wish the Pentagon would talk more about it. We're not getting solid answers from there either. The whole thing is taking on sort of an Area 51, Bermuda Triangle, Loch Ness monster kind of vibe. Dr. Michio Kaku is hot on the trail, though. He's a theoretical physicist 2. My old job, of course. Professor, author and guy who makes very complex scientific stuff easy to understand. Good to see you, Dr. Kaku.

Glad to be on the show.

All right. So, OK. We've heard missile launch. We've heard rocket. We've heard optical illusion. We've heard airplane. What are you sticking with at this point?

Well, it's not Superman. I think that there are two basic reasons for believing that it's an airplane contrail. First of all, the smoking gun is radar 3 sightings and if you analyze 4 the radar images you find no object that is moving like a missile. All you see are just airplanes in the area. But second of all, if you go to a frame by frame analysis of the trail itself, you realize that it's really an airplane. First of all, the object is not accelerating. Booster rockets accelerate up to 15,000 miles per hour. This thing is traveling at a constant velocity 5. And second of all, it's deviating 6 in its trajectory 7 slightly. Rockets can't do that.

So it's changing direction.

Rockets move in a straight line.

Right.

So rockets move in a straight line while airplanes, of course, can change maneuver 8. Also if you're looking at the trajectory head on, edge on, something that looks like it's going vertically 9 up could actually be going horizontally with a very small slope. And, so, it plays tricks on you.And then, contrails expand very rapidly, so the base of the contrail looks like it's very close to you artificially. Actually, that object could be moving toward you rather than away from you, and that would put it in line with other airplanes that were in the area.

Interesting because you bring up an interesting point. From the way we would see it versus 10 the way a pilot would see it, it would be completely different, right?

That's right. In fact, pilots who were interviewed said they saw nothing strange in the area. How can that be? Because that trail is staring you in the face. However, looking at it from above, looking down, they would see an ordinary airplane flying horizontally, while we on the ground think that it's a missile flying vertically. So, all of the dots fit. If you assume that it's an airplane, rather than a missile.

OK. Now, we're getting a number of other -- obviously, there's a lot of professionals weighing in on this, OK? You are sticking to the airplane thought. Another expert that has been on a number of networks is saying it looks like possibly a test firing from a submarine.

Well, you have to realize that ICBM launches from Vanderberg usually go east to west. Now, there are polar orbits, but for the most part, we fire east to west with ballistic missiles.

OK.

The trajectory of this object is different. The trajectory here seems to be coming toward you. It seems to be going east, which is opposite the direction of polar launches and also launches to Kwajalein in the Pacific Ocean that we fire our missiles at.

So, Dr. Kaku, if it was an airplane, though, wouldn't there be some sort of record of the fact that it's airborne? It had to launch from somewhere. It had to show up on some sort of a screen.

Yes. If you look at the blogs, people have been looking at different flights that go over LA from west to east. Opposite the direction that it seems to be flying, because an optical illusion. And there is an airplane that's flying from Hawaii to Phoenix 11 traveling over Los Angeles in the correct direction. So, there are candidates, there are prime candidates for that missing airplane that is causing this trail. And remember, the passengers on that airplane don't even know that it's creating this contrail, and so, we have now, I think, the smoking gun.

OK. We're going to pin it on you, Dr. Kaku. We're going to see how this holds out. We're going to have to get some answers at some point. Dr. Micho Kaku, so great to see you. It's always fun watching your show, as well. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you.

All right. Time for you to weigh in. You don't have to be a theoretical physicist like Dr. Kaku to really have an opinion here. Tell me what you think at cnn.com/kyra. What's your theory?

All right. Let's travel cross country, shall we? First stop, Boston, Ohio. That's where a deer crashed and then trashed a neighborhood bar and grill 12. The chaotic 13 scene was caught on tape and is quickly becoming quite the hit online. The nervous buck 14 actually slipped and slid across the barroom door before making its way out the kitchen door left open by a fleeing worker, by the way. Lucky nobody was hurt.

Next stop, Plymouth Township, Michigan. Surveillance cameras rolling when a packet of red dye exploded as two robbers made their getaway. That pair held up a bank on Friday and are still on the run. Investigators 15 say that even if they ditched their clothes, you can still recognize them.

Finally, Portland, Oregon, talk about life in a fish bowl. Cristin Norine is spending the entire month of November inside this glass encased store front. Her only contact with the outside world is through social networking. Cristin's stay is part of an art and social media experiment called the "Public Isolation 16 Project."