Fire in the SkyS


Telescope

Revealing the Secrets of Falling to Earth

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© ESA/NASAThe return of Jules Verne in 2008 was subjected to a detailed observation campaign
Late on Tuesday (GMT), a huge fireball will streak across the skies over the Pacific Ocean.

Not many will get to see it; it will be over an uninhabited part of the world, and ships and planes have been warned to steer clear of the area.

The event is the return from orbit of Europe's space freighter, ATV Johannes Kepler.

It has completed its mission at the International Space Station (ISS) and it's now time to come home.

The freighter took up more than seven tonnes of fuel and other supplies to the orbiting outpost, but for its return it has been packed with the platform's rubbish.

Little of the ship or this waste is actually expected to make it all the way to the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Most will simply vaporise in the intense heat generated during the descent through the atmosphere.

Meteor

You'll be able to see comet just discovered by University of Hawaii astronomers

Astronomers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have discovered a new comet that they expect will be visible to the naked eye in early 2013.

Originally found by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala, Maui, on the night of June 5-6, it was confirmed to be a comet by UH astronomer Richard Wainscoat and graduate student Marco Micheli the following night using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea.
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© University of Hawaii C/2011 L4

A preliminary orbit computed by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., shows that the comet will come within about 30 million miles of the sun in early 2013, about the same distance as Mercury. The comet will pose no danger to Earth.

Wainscoat said, "The comet has an orbit that is close to parabolic, meaning that this may be the first time it will ever come close to the sun, and that it may never return."

The comet is now about 700 million miles from the sun, placing it beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It is currently too faint to be seen without a telescope with a sensitive electronic detector.

Blackbox

U.S And United Kingdom To Cut Power In Preparation of 'Massive Solar Storm'?

In a stunning announcement, The United States and United Kingdom are likely set to begin "controlled" power cuts in preparation of a giant solar storm.

The announcement by Thomas Bogdan, the director of the US Space Weather Prediction Centre, comes a week after a large scale solar flare released a massive amount of radiation and threatened to cause moderate disruption.

The solar flare on June 7th, 2011 was luckily pointed away from Earth but caused many to wonder if another solar flare is imminent, this one aimed directly at earth.

Now, due to the possibility of a large scale solar flare, officials in Europe and the United Kingdom are preparing what they call, "controlled" power cuts. What this actually means remains to be seen.

In an interview with The Independent, Bogdam was quoted as saying, "controlled power "outages" will protect the National Electricity Grids against damage which could take months or even years to repair should a large solar storm collide with the Earth without any precautions being taken."

Interestingly enough, this information also comes just days after NASA sent out a preparedness warning to all employees and their families.


Comment: Perhaps the "massive solar storm" isn't truly their concern?

Cosmic Propaganda Alert! Comet Elenin: Just Passing By - With SOTT Commentary

The Hazard to Civilization from Fireballs and Comets

Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls

Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth?

Just a note that the NASA 'Family Preparedness' video making the rounds in the last few days was actually released by NASA on September 13 last year (click 'most popular' and scroll down).


Meteor

US: Meteorite found in Colorado front yard

The front yard doubles as a play area for Carlos Martinez and his 7-year-old son. They play football and kickball together. Now they can add meteorite exploration to their list of front yard activities.


On Memorial Day, Martinez and his son were playing kickball when the ball rolled near some bushes. Martinez went over to retrieve it because he had seen a bull snake in that area the day before.

This time he didn't see a snake, but he saw a rock that got his attention.

Meteor

Australia: Supposedly, "sonic boom" cause of Oakey shake, crazy animal activity

A "sonic boom" is most likely the cause of the seemingly unexplainable going-ons in Oakey yesterday.

Residents reported rattling windows, creaking ceilings, shaking walls and crazy animal activity just before noon.

Hamlyn Rd resident Annette Frizzell thought the incident, which lasted for a few seconds, was caused by an earthquake.

"We did have one (an earthquake) here many years ago.

Question

UK: Meteorite Strikes in Harleston?

Meteorite Hit
© Disc Express

A removal man from Long Stratton believes that a meteorite tore a gaping three to four inch hole in the roof of his 18-ton lorry.

James Barber, 34, had parked his lorry at the Harleston base of international removal firm Hamiltons in Speedwell Way, and believes he heard the incident which caused the rupture happen as he made his way back to the vehicle last Saturday afternoon.

The hole, big enough to comfortably slip a mobile phone through, was done to one of the sturdy, metal-thick corner joints on the green non-articulated Mercedes Benz Axor lorry.

Mr Barber said: "After walking back out in the yard to the lorry, I heard an almighty bang.

"At first I thought a tyre on my vehicle must have exploded, but after giving the outside a once over, it looked like nothing had happened.

"But after going into the loading bay, I noticed just what a great big whopping hole had been made in the roof."

A meteorite is a meteoroid, a small particle from an asteroid or comet, that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and impacts the Earth's surface.

Around 10,000 hit the earth every year.

Meteor

Flashback Bad Science on Cosmic Steroids: Is the Sky Falling?

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© Unknown


A scientific consensus agrees that cosmic impacts have played a major role in Earth history and that they continue to pose a significant threat today. But there is a tremendous difference in the estimated dangers, stretching up to, or even over, the line that separates legitimate science from pseudoscience. Ten recent trade books are reviewed that span a broad range in interpretations.


Comment: We decided to keep the following article in our archives as a good example of what passes for "official scientific consensus" nowadays regarding cosmic impacts threat. SOTT agrees with David Morrison's assessment that there are abysmal discrepancies in awareness and understanding of the cosmic threat, while some of them come very close to be considered criminal and even unscientific. The crucial difference is, that based on our research, we see NASA and its highly regarded scientists like David Morrison as perpetrators of bad science based on criminal negligence or ignorance so prevalent in the scientific community.

Consider the following from Connecting the Dots: Earth Changes Are Upon Us:
The confusion surrounding the phenomenon of cosmic debris piercing our atmosphere ultimately lies in the misguided trust we tend to place in those to whom we give authority for tackling problems of global proportions. Admittedly, such responsibility cannot be easy to handle. However, there is a difference between honest error as a result of reaching the limits of knowledge and understanding available in a specific field, and a science corrupted from sacrificing truth to further political agendas or certain preconceptions, in the name of maintaining an illusion and a lie for which we are all about to pay with our very lives.

A case in point:
NASA's senior scientist, David Morrison, stated that 80 percent of the near Earth asteroids that are 1 kilometer or larger have been identified and that he could assure those gathered at the conference that "We are not going the way of the dinosaurs." He also says the Spaceguard Survey has not turned up any near Earth asteroids as large as the one that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs.
Morrison pointed out that asteroid strikes are the only natural hazard that in principle can be completely eliminated. Thanks to the Spaceguard Survey, humanity will likely have decades of warning before an impending collision. Once alerted, missiles could be used to nudge a threatening asteroid so that it misses the earth.
The definition of criminal negligence is recklessly acting without reasonable caution and putting another person at risk of injury or death (or failing to do something with the same consequences).

We have this nagging suspicion that David Morrison's assurances that we have nothing to worry about when it comes to threats from space, and that we can peacefully go on with our daily lives, filled with quiet desperation on a planet where human tragedy and horrendous atrocities have become as common as fruit flies, amount to a disturbingly clear example of criminal negligence.

Perhaps this is why:
The experts are not remotely agreed on how worried we should be. Telescopes and satellites are now in a position to detect potential "planet-killers" - asteroids or comets over one kilometre in diameter - many years or even decades before they might collide with the Earth.

The problem, according to Jay Tate, director of the public information resource Spaceguard UK, is that no measures are in place to avert them, and smaller objects could still "whistle through" to strike us at any time. "Do you want to know how much warning we would have of a country or city-killing asteroid?" asks Tate. "About four seconds. A major impact is just as likely to happen before the end of this conversation as 10,000 years from now."

A retired British Army officer and guided-weapons specialist, Tate became curious about government plans to defend against meteorites after the SL9 comet bombarded Jupiter in 1994, and was furious to find that they didn't have a single one. He and several eminent scientists formed a task force on Near Earth Objects (NEOs), presenting parliament with a series of recommendations for action in 2000.[...]

"Very little has been done since," says Tate, from the Spaceguard Centre at the former Powys Observatory in Wales. "The official British line seems to be that we don't need to bother, because the Americans are taking care of it. But if that's the rationale, then what the bloody hell are we doing in Iraq?"
Bloody hell, indeed, is what they created in Iraq.

And since we can't rely on the "brightest and best" at NASA to present us with an accurate assessment of cosmic threats, without muddying the water or intentionally concealing crucial data (dare we call it a conspiracy of cosmic proportions?), we will take a shot at the job (once again), reminding you that from a historical point of view,
the only reality is that of conspiracy. Secrecy, wealth and independence add up to power. Deception is the key element of warfare, (the tool of power elites), and when winning is all that matters, the conventional morality held by ordinary people becomes an impediment. Secrecy stems from a pervasive and fundamental element of life in our world, that those who are at the top of the heap will always take whatever steps are necessary to maintain the status quo. [Dolan, UFOs and the National Security State, Vol. I]
And maintaining the "status quo" in science has to be one of the main objectives of the Power Elite.

As the millennium approaches, the media are playing up asteroid and comet impacts. Ten popular-level books were published in 1995 and 1996 dealing with the dangers of cosmic impacts, and now we are seeing a spate of television and movie productions, both factual and fictional, that describe the impact threat. It is easy to dismiss all this as media hype and millennial madness, but it would be a mistake to do so. While some books and films may be motivated by a desire to milk public credulity for a quick buck, most are serious efforts to inform the public about a real danger that is recognized by the scientific community. In this article, I summarize the background for the recent interest in impact catastrophes and then provide a comparative review of the current trade books that deal with this topic.

Magnify

Timelapse video: Asteroid discovery from 1980 - 2010

This is a view of the solar system showing the locations of all the asteroids starting in 1980, as asteroids are discovered they are added to the map and highlighted white so you can pick out the new ones.
The final colour of an asteroids indicates how closely it comes to the inner solar system.
Earth Crossers are Red
Earth Approachers (Perihelion less than 1.3AU) are Yellow
All Others are Green
Notice now the pattern of discovery follows the Earth around its orbit, most discoveries are made in the region directly opposite the Sun. You'll also notice some clusters of discoveries on the line between Earth and Jupiter, these are the result of surveys looking for Jovian moons. Similar clusters of discoveries can be tied to the other outer planets, but those are not visible in this video.

As the video moves into the mid 1990's we see much higher discovery rates as automated sky scanning systems come online. Most of the surveys are imaging the sky directly opposite the sun and you'll see a region of high discovery rates aligned in this manner.

At the beginning of 2010 a new discovery pattern becomes evident, with discovery zones in a line perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. These new observations are the result of the WISE (Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer) which is a space mission that's tasked with imaging the entire sky in infrared wavelengths.


Sun

Huge sun explosion rocks astronomers' world

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© NASA / GSFC, LMSAL and SDO / AIAA satellite view of the massive solar storm that erupted on the sun on Tuesday.
Analysis, research ramped up: 'We're seeing things we've never seen before'

A huge storm on the sun this week unleashed what some have called the most massive eruption of solar plasma ever seen. While that's up for review, the solar storm has revealed a tantalizing glimpse at the inner workings of our nearest star, scientists say.

NASA astronomers said the huge June 7 solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, probably wasn't the biggest ever, but it is notable both for its size and its perplexing behavior. Huge waves of plasma roared off the sun only to rain back down on the solar surface.

"We're seeing things we've never seen before," said Phillip Chamberlin, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and a deputy project scientist on the agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. "It's a really exciting event. There are a lot of exceptions to it."

Sun

Massive Plasma Waves Sweep the Sun -- NASA: "We're Seeing Things We've Never Seen Before"

Plasma Waves
© NASA

A huge storm on the sun this past week unleashed what some have called the most massive eruption of solar plasma ever seen. NASA astronomers said the huge June 7 solar eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, probably wasn't the biggest ever, but it is notable both for its size and its odd behavior, as massive waves of plasma roared off the sun only to rain back down on the solar surface.

"We're seeing things we've never seen before," said Phillip Chamberlin, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center and a deputy project scientist on the agency's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite. "It's a really exciting event. There are a lot of exceptions to it."

Since scientists know how these waves initiated by a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability they can use this information to help solve an enduring mystery of why the corona is thousands of times hotter than originally expected.

"One of the biggest questions about the solar corona is the heating mechanism," says solar physicist Leon Ofman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Catholic University. "The corona is a thousand times hotter than the sun's visible surface, but what heats it up is not well-understood. People have suggested that waves like this might cause turbulence which cause heating, but now we have direct evidence of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves."