Fire in the SkyS


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?

Image
© 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

Image
© 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."

Meteor

Best of the Web: Cosmic Propaganda Alert! Comet Elenin: Just Passing By - With SOTT Commentary

Earth Elenin
© J. Major
It starts out innocently enough: a small speck against a field of background stars, barely noticeable in the image data. But... it's a speck that wasn't there before. Subsequent images confirm its existence - there's something out there. Something bright, something large, and it's moving through our solar system very quickly. The faint blur indicates that it's a comet, an icy visitor from the outermost reaches of the solar system. And it's headed straight toward Earth.

Exhaustive calculations are run and re-run. Computer simulations are executed. All possibilities are taken into consideration, and yet there's no alternative to be found; our world will face a close encounter with a comet in mere months' time. Phone calls are made, a flurry of electronic messages fly between computer terminals across the world, consultations are held with top experts in the field. We are unprepared... what can we do? What does this mean for civilization as we know it? What will this speeding icy bullet from outer space do to our planet?

Comment: By all means read what NASA has to say about it. Then consider this...

NASA warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation
UK Daily Telegraph
Tuesday, 15 June 2010

Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation "space storm", Nasa has warned...

Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes "from a deep slumber" sometime around 2013.

In a new warning, Nasa said the super storm would hit like "a bolt of lightning" and could cause catastrophic consequences for the world's health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken. [...]
...and what McCanney wrote in Planet X, Comets and Earth Changes:
NASA is hiding data that would prove that there is another massive object inbound into the solar system with potential for devastating events for planet Earth. There is clear evidence that they fully intend to set the world's population up to be blindsided by this object. (McCanney, p.101)

The truth is that NASA, the NSA and other government agencies are prohibited by law from disclosing anything to the public that would cause a national panic. So too they will try to prevent dissemination of my theories about comets because it might cause a public to redirect its allegiance as a new and potentially dangerous comet comes into the solar system. While the government officials are using tax dollars to build safety caves for their "shadow government" in case of "major disaster", they are leaving the public out to dry with no forewarning or protection.
...before getting the real lowdown on Comet Elenin from these:

Comet Elenin is Coming!

Pole Shift in March? Not Likely!

Comet Elenin: Harbinger of What?

Comet Elenin Update!


Sun

Unusual solar storm could disrupt Earth communications

An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellites, communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said.

An eruption of similar magnitude on the Sun has not been witnessed since 2006, according to the National Weather Service.
Image
© SOHOThis 2006 Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) image shows a flare on the Sun. An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on Tuesday could cause some disruptions to satellites, communications and power on Earth over the next day or so, officials said. An eruption of similar magnitude has not been witnessed since 2006.

"The Sun unleashed an M-2 (medium-sized) solar flare with a substantial coronal mass ejection (CME) on June 7 that is visually spectacular," NASA's solar dynamics observatory said in a statement.

"The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface."

The flare peaked at a 1:41 am Eastern time in the United States, or 0541 GMT.

Sun

Monster Prominence Erupts from Sun


Early this morning (June 7, 2011) an amazingly massive and spectacular event took place on the Sun; a huge prominence eruption, marked by a solar flare and release of energetic particles. Daniel Pendick from the Geeked on Goddard blog described it as a "fountain of plasma that blasts out of the solar surface, spreads outward, and collapses to splat back down."

"I've never seen material released like this before, such a huge amount that falls back down in such a spectacular way," says Dr. C. Alex Young in the video. "It looks like someone just kicked a giant clod of dirt into the air and it fell back down." Young added that this event will probably not cause any problems as far as space weather affecting Earth.

This video is courtesy NASA Goddard's Helioviewer.org with narration by folks from The Sun Today.

Below are some still images of the event from the Solar Dynamics Observatory and (just added at 1755 UTC) a video from SDO showing the event in several different wavelengths.

Sun

Massive solar flare somersaults

The "Behind" member of NASA's STEREO spacecraft studying the sun has captured spectacular imagery of a rare somersaulting coronal mass ejection.

The movie of the event combines images captured with the spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUVI) and Inner Coronograph (COR1) telescopes.

The prominence is first seen erupting in the EUVI images and then in white light with COR1. In the white light images, the prominence pauses. Some of the material then drains back down, but most of it is defected to the north and ends up raining down on a different part of the sun.