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Signs Supplement - Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and NEOs

November 2002 - May 2003


Nov 16, 2002

Astronomers find evidence of mysterious 'dark forces' -(The Independent) Astronomers have discovered a mysterious phenomenon that is making the Universe expand at an ever-faster rate. -"Unfortunately, we don't have the faintest idea what this dark energy is," said Ian Browne, a senior member of the research team at the University of Manchester. Cosmologists have known for some time that about 90 per cent of the mass of the Universe is missing because it cannot be seen by telescopes. They call it "dark matter" but its existence cannot explain the anti-gravity forces causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate. Comment: Can we say The Wave?

Nov 25, 2002

Space boulders big enough to wipe out a major city slam into the Earth (CNN) about once every 1,000 years, much less frequently than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday. The revised calculations come from an unprecedented examination of years of data from U.S. Defense Department satellites that scour the ground for nuclear explosions. - Some asteroid experts were hesitant to embrace the new prediction rates. "The new impact rate estimate is based on the assumption that the asteroidal and cometary flux remains more or less constant over time, (but) the data set used is fairly limited and the timespan rather short," said Benny Peiser, director of a U.K.-based group that monitors asteroid threats. Nevertheless, Peiser welcomed the wealth of additional data. "The new research substantiates that we are constantly bombarded by cosmic debris large enough to be misinterpreted as a nuclear attack. The findings are a compelling warning that we need to start scanning the skies for those small but potentially harmful intruders."

A large comet or asteroid is racing towards a collision with Earth. Could you survive this cataclysm? The goal of this website is to describe comets and asteroids and the danger they pose to the Earth, to provide an assessment of mitigation approaches, and to articulate a detailed systematic plan for surviving a major impact. - The real question is when will a comet or asteroid strike the Earth. Comets and asteroids have collided with Earth in the past and they will collide with the Earth in the future. - The Earth will probably have several weeks of advanced warning prior to a comet impact. We may have decades of warning on large (>1 km) asteroids and little or no warning for small and medium size asteroids.

November 29, 2002

A ball of fire streaking across the sky early Thursday (CNN) had people throughout the Northwest flooding radio and television stations with calls reporting a meteor shower. Turns out the burning light came from a Russian rocket body re-entering the Earth's atmosphere about 6:15 a.m. The U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Neb., and the North American Aerospace Defense Command confirmed a Russian rocket fell back to Earth, but did not immediately release further details.

Comment: It's so comforting to know that they can so easily identify whatever it was that was flying across North American skies... Seems that this ability to "identify" stuff is somewhat selective, however, as the following report will show:

NORAD investigates vapor trail reports -(CNN) Fighter jets scrambled in an unsuccessful attempt to investigate a contrail of unknown origin first seen over the Caribbean and later reported over the midwestern United States, the Department of Defense said Thursday. The North American Aerospace Defense Command scrambled the jets soon after unverified reports were received around 4 p.m. Wednesday that the contrail, seen near the Turks and Caicos Islands, was headed northwest toward the United States, said Lt. Cmdr. Curtis Jenkins, a spokesman for the Colorado Springs-based group. A contrail is a white trail of condensed water vapor that sometimes forms in the wake of an aircraft.

Comment: I'm tellin' ya - there's a schedule driving Bush and the Gang, and they are running scared. Something Wicked is Coming... especially when we consider the following:

UK opens its own 'X-file' - (CNN) In the report, entitled "Unexplained Lights," a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel told how he witnessed an object emitting a "red sun-like light" moving through the trees of Rendlesham forest. Two U.S. security patrolmen first spotted "unusual lights" outside the back gate of RAF Woodbridge, according to Lt. Col. Charles I. Halt's report. - A Ministry of Defence memo included in the file shows some scepticism about the sightings, although it said the department was "open-minded" about them. - "There were also suggestions that fireball activity might explain some of the lights. In the absence of any hard evidence, the MoD remains open-minded about these sightings."

Dec 8, 2002

Earth has two heavenly bodies sharing our orbit in addition to our moon --(canada.com) a pair of recent discoveries made by a Canadian, yet almost unknown in this country outside a tiny group of astronomers. Not quite a second and third moon, not quite like anything else in the solar system, these two chunks of space rock follow a path much like ours around the sun, their orbits taking almost exactly one year each, like ours. - But what are these two companions of ours? Astronomers are having a hard time coming to grips with what to call them. For now, a lot of discussion of what they are centres mostly on what they're not.

Dec 13, 2002

Meteor shower from the 'Twilight Zone' -(CNN) The Geminids, which will peak overnight between Friday and Saturday, do not come from cometary debris like most meteors. Rather, they originate from a mysterious object in the inner solar system that defies astronomical classification. ...

Dec 16, 2002

Earth's volcanism linked to meteorite impacts -(New Scientist) Large meteorite impacts may not just throw up huge dust clouds but also punch right through the Earth's crust, triggering gigantic volcanic eruptions. The idea is controversial, but evidence is mounting that the Earth's geology has largely been driven by such events. This would also explain why our planet has so few impact crater remnants. Counting the number of asteroids we see in the sky suggests that over the past 250 million years, Earth should have been hit around 440 times by asteroids larger than one kilometre across. But scientists have found only 38 large impact craters from this period.

Dec 20, 2002

Surprise Comet Streaks Into Solar System - The comet was discovered by a Japanese amateur astronomer, Tetuo Kudo, early on the morning of December 14, said Clay Sherrod, an astronomer with the Arkansas Sky laboratory. - "In mid- to late-January the comet will be favorably placed for early risers in the northern hemisphere and will probably be visible to the naked eye, at least toward the end of that month," Sherrod said. "Certainly binoculars will aid in spotting the comet and exposing any tail that it might show." Named Kudo-Fujikawa (and officially designated C/2002 X5), the comet is moving east-southeast through the constellation Hercules. "The comet is a swift-moving object and currently is easily visible in the northeastern skies during pre-dawn hours, showing a pretty distinct tail and large coma (head or halo, caused by the emanation of gases and other materials as the comet warms up on its approach to the sun). The tail appears to be slightly less than one-half degree and several spikes in this tail have been recorded (on December 15) by imagers in New Mexico," Sherrod said.

For more precise instructions of how to find the comet—and Sherrod's regular updates on its progress—please visit the Arkansas Sky Observatory.

January 7, 2003

One of the brightest and biggest stars in the heavens(Washington Post) is going through a series of eruptions and dimming that may lead eventually to a supernova explosion, astronomers say. The star, called Rho Cassiopeia, is a hypergiant with 20 to 40 times the mass of the sun. It puts out a half million times more light than the sun and can easily be seen from Earth even though it is 10,000 light years away. But Rho Cas, as it is called, is a seething, unstable ball of gas that expands and contracts over time and occasionally erupts with a violence that sends immense amounts of matter streaming through space. Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics captured images of such an explosion in 2000 and reported on their observations Tuesday at the national meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

"The star did an amazing thing," said Andrea Dupree, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "We were exceptionally lucky to witness a stunning explosion." Over a 200-day period, the star became brighter by 20 percent, a flare that made it one of the brightest stars in the universe, and then it dimmed, dropping in brightness by two magnitudes. "An atmospheric shell was shredded by the blast wave and sent into space at Mach 4 (four times the speed of sound)," said Alex J. R. Lobel, also of Harvard-Smithsonian. The astronomers estimated that Rho Cas blasted mass equal to 10,000 Earths into space. "This is a higher rate of loss than has been seen on any other star," said Lobel. Based on a spectral analysis of the light which can determine temperature, Lobel said the star cooled by more than 3,000 degrees within a short period of time. All of this activity suggests that Rho Cas is nearing the end.
Comment:
I guess it is saying "It's not nice to fool Mother Cassiopaea!

Killer Asteroid Approaching the Earth? -(Pravda) Robin Scagell, vice-president of the British Society for Popular Astronomy said: "Now we start realizing that we are living in the world that is a real shooting range in fact. Until now, the mankind was lucky." He added that only when the last generation of telescopes appeared, astronomers understood that the space was polluted with "tiny" meteorites and asteroids, each of them may wipe a large city off the face of the Earth. Not so much time ago, a meteorite called 2000YA passed by the planet, it was just 800 thousand kilometers from the Earth, which is a short distance judging by the astronomic standards. The meteorite moved at the speed of over 36 km/sec. Scagell says that the meteorite could turn the central part of London into a mess if it hit London. To tell the truth, there are even larger meteorites that pass the planet.

Recently, on December 27, 2002 Ukraine's newspaper Pravda Ukraini (Ukrainian Truth) published a sensation that attracted little attention in the fuss on the New Year's eve. The newspaper reported that a meteorite called Eight (it is called so by its shape) was approaching the Earth and would hit the planet on January 25, 2003. It was also reported that "leaders and scientists of the world largest countries started incredibly heated disputes on the problem. The world practice witnessed such situation for the first time. It was also for the first time that projects of astrophysicists were discussed at parliamentary sessions in Central Europe. The reason to it was a huge meteorite hundreds times larger than the famous Tunguska meteorite, which can drop on the Earth on January 25, 2003. The most optimistic forecasts say that if the meteorite falls, it may raze to the ground the territory of several thousands of square kilometers."

The newspaper cited President of the Boston Center for Space Research and Observation, Herbert Coliander who said that "no doubt that the meteorite discovered four years ago will fall on the Earth." The problem was discussed at a G7 session in Warsaw, where it was suggested that a special group for averting a catastrophe must be created. The newspaper reported at that: "However, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly declared such hasty actions were ungrounded." Baikal Lake is one of the possible spots of the meteorite's falling; if the catastrophe occurs, the lake will turn into one more ocean, not to mention the accompanying climate cataclysms.

It is strange that the information about the approaching cataclysm caused just slightest anxiety. Probably, the Ukrainian newspaper made a misprint, and the meteorite may hit the Earth not in 2003, but in 2013 or even in 2113. This doesn't change the situation radically, as the mankind is not yet ready for resistance to danger going from the sky and unlikely to be ready for it very soon. Indeed, the above mentioned 2000YA meteorite was detected when it already passed by the Earth. After that, a report of three scientists warning of a real meteorite danger was published in Great Britain. The report suggested that a system of anti-meteorite protection covering the whole of the planet must be created.

On June 14, 2002, asteroid 2002MN of about 100 meters in length passed by the Earth at a distance of 120 thousand kilometers (it is less than one third of the distance between the Earth and the Moon). And the asteroid was detected only in three days after it successfully passed the planet. The problem is that the "space guards" still have no equipment to detect such "small" objects.

A meteorite threat is not a myth, but reality. Let's remember the Tunguska meteorite which explosion in 1908 was equivalent to the explosion of 500 nuclear bombs. Fortunately, the meteorite blew up over the Siberian taiga. What would happen if it didn't? There is a hypothesis saying that dinosaurs were killed with an asteroid of 5 kilometers in diameter. About 40 meteorite craters with the diameter of more than 20 kilometers were discovered on the planet. It means that large celestial bodies collided with the Earth and will do in the future as well.

Western inaction, even indulgence, of North Korea - where Washington was overcome with eagerness to talk and to avoid force - proves not the risk, but the value of having weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs. Pyongyang has them, so the US leaves it alone; Baghdad does not yet have them, so it's set to get invaded. In other words, if you really do pose a threat, you're safe. If you don't, you're in danger. What better advert for the Bomb could there be! The lesson a second Gulf war will teach the dictators of the world is: buy weapons of mass destruction now. As Kim Jong Il has proved, a nuke a day keeps the Yanks away.

Comment from Reader: Reading the daily [news], it seems clear that there is such a massive opposition to war that practically the only people in favour of it are Bush and Blair. I personally don't know a single person who is in favour of war, and the general "feeling" I get from the population in general is the same. And yet, in one of the Signs updates today was the "BRITISH troops will seize control of Iraq's oilfields under a secret invasion plan" story, and various others like it.

The UK and US are supposed to be democracies and as far as I know, no outright decision by either country's governments has been made to go to war, BUT clearly the plans have already been made and the orders given! One Labour MP of the British parliament was quoted as saying, "I think this means war is inevitable now but that should not stop us doing everything, day and night, to oppose it."

I find that a somewhat unsettling comment from someone who is supposed to be a member of the ruling party of a supposedly democratic country. It seems to imply a feeling of powerlessness.

So this leaves me to wonder, just WHO is giving these orders? Is it the consortium? If so perhaps they are exposing themselves during this process. Or perhaps it is simply the direct orders of Bush and Blair respectively, and if that is the case then it is evidence that both counties are now essentially dictatorships.

Large meteorites drop on the Earth rather often. (Pravda) As is known, within ten years US’s nuclear detection system and spy satellites registered about 250 strong explosions caused by pieces of asteroids, comets and large meteorites that dropped on the Earth. When such objects from space drop in densely populated areas, they can entail lots of troubles there. For instance, if the famous Tunguska meteorite had lingered for some time more, it would have dropped in Russia’s European part, but not in Siberian taiga. It is not ruled out that the meteorite would have ruined the Russian capital completely. The latest object from space dropped on the Russian territory on September 25, 2002. When it dropped, a strong explosion sounded in Siberian taiga, near the city of Bodaibo in Russia’s Irkutsk region, at 3:00 a.m. A special expedition is to be organized next spring for investigation of the explosion’s consequences and for study of the object itself.

Jan 29, 2003

Meteorite hunters have found two Mars rocks in the western Sahara, bringing the total number of distinct Mars meteorites to 26. Some rocks in this total are actually broken into multiple pieces that arrived on Earth at the same time. The new findings come with the help of Seattle-based Adam and Greg Hupe, who purchased the rocks and worked with University of Washington scientists Anthony Irving and Scott Kuehner to confirm their origin. The meteorites were originally picked up by separate nomadic tribes. One rock, now designated NWA 998, was rumored to exist in Morocco as early as September 2001 -- a time when U.S. scientists were not inclined to travel to the Middle East. Tucson meteorite dealers Mike Farmer and Jim Strope eventually helped broker a deal. The other meteorite has been named NWA 1195. Scientists estimate a Mars rock lands on Earth about once a month. They were typically ejected long ago when asteroids struck Mars and kicked up debris, which left the planet's gravitational influence and wandered through space for thousands or millions of years.

Feb 1, 2003

Fireball stuns sky watchers - (Jan 22) A BRIGHT flash in the sky captivated scores of people across Western Australia last night, who witnessed what may have been dust shed by a comet thousands of years ago. Perth Observatory astronomer Jamie Biggs said the event was seen as far north as Dandaragan, 170 kilometres north of Perth, and as far south as Albany, 410 kilometres south of Perth. Dr Biggs said the specific incident was what's called a fireball - a bright shooting star. "We're not sure, but there is a meteor stream that the earth has just started passing through last night, and this is the dust and junk that has been shed by a comet, possibly thousands of years ago," Dr Biggs said. "We're ploughing through what's left of its orbit, and so we get hit by all this dust so we get an increase in meteor activity and it looks like it's from one point in the sky.

Feb 3, 2003

Large meteorites drop on the Earth rather often. As is known, within ten years US’s nuclear detection system and spy satellites registered about 250 strong explosions caused by pieces of asteroids, comets and large meteorites that dropped on the Earth. When such objects from space drop in densely populated areas, they can entail lots of troubles there. For instance, if the famous Tunguska meteorite had lingered for some time more, it would have dropped in Russia’s European part, but not in Siberian taiga. It is not ruled out that the meteorite would have ruined the Russian capital completely. The latest object from space dropped on the Russian territory on September 25, 2002. When it dropped, a strong explosion sounded in Siberian taiga, near the city of Bodaibo in Russia’s Irkutsk region, at 3:00 a.m. A special expedition is to be organized next spring for investigation of the explosion’s consequences and for study of the object itself.

Residents of the town of Bodaibo in the Irkutsk region witnessed the fall of a large celestial body. Scientists suggest that it might have been a meteorite. This was reported by the regional department of the Russian EMERCOM. They added that they received the information from the Institute of Solar and Earth Physics of the Siberian division of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Scientists said that Bodaibo residents could see the fall of a very large luminous body, which looked like a huge stone. The unidentified object fell in the woods. The site of the fall is situated very far from any settlements, but locals felt a strong shock, which could be comparable to an earthquake. In addition to that, the people also heard a thunder-like sound. Flashes of bright light could be seen above the site of the meteorite’s fall.

Fireball lights up sky over Spain and North Africa Wed Jan 29 - A meteor was likely the cause of a brilliant fireball that streaked across skies of southern Spain and North Africa this week, astronomers said. The flash Monday night was visible in much of Spain's Andalusia region and as far away as La Mancha, hundreds of kilometers to the north, as it arced over Algeria, said Jose Juan Lopez Moreno, a researcher at the Astrophysics Institute of Andalusia. "It was tremendously bright, much brighter than the moon," Lopez Moreno said. "I have never seen anything like it." He said the ball as mostly white with red and green fringes, and lasted just a couple seconds. A round-the-clock computerized camera run by the European Space Agency caught the flash on film.

Three Fireballs in Italy, January 2003

Fireball Streaks Across Alberta Skies On Jan 15, 2003!

In ancient days, people looked to the skies and saw signs and portents in comets, meteor showers, solar eclipses. Today, people are no longer as superstitious about natural phenomena, but man-made phenomena — including tragic accidents, such as the loss of the space shuttle Columbia Saturday — still set minds in motion. Rumor-mongering and conspiracy-theorizing might be inevitable, but such discussions will likely detract from the ultimate purpose of the space program, which is to carry human reason and rationality to higher levels of discovery and understanding. First, as a nation, we will have to get past the strangeness of Saturday’s sadness. Columbia broke up when it was flying over central Texas, where President George W. Bush’s ranch is located. The shuttle, symbol of American technological supremacy, failed on the eve of America’s likely war with Iraq, about which the world has been assured that American military precision will minimize loss of life on both sides.
Warning:
Debunkery in action....

How Asteroids Trigger Volcanos - Large asteroid impacts have nasty side effects, as any dinosaur could have told you were she not obliterated by one of these calamity combos 65 million years ago. The ground shakes. Fire arcs across the sky and beyond the horizon. Clouds of debris race around the planet and blot the Sun out for months. At least that's what theory tells us. Since the scenario has never played out in modern times, scientists don't really know exactly what will happen when the next space rock slams into Earth. One long-supposed incendiary side-effect is enhanced volcanic activity, which can make life pretty miserable for survivors who find themselves on or near the flanks of a newborn plume of molten rock. Some scientists suspect the Hawaiian Islands were born of an asteroid impact. [...]

Dallas Abbott of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Institute and Ann Isley from the State University of New York at Oswego examined existing impact data going back 4 billion years. They found 10 major peaks in activity -- stretches of time when asteroids and comets hit the planet in relative flurries. During nine of the 10 peaks, volcanic activity also peaked, as measured by evidence of magma from deep inside Earth, in the mantle, flowing to the surface. Further, two prominent lulls in impact activity also matched up with periods of decreased volcanism. The volcanic activity is most likely a tertiary effect, Abbott and Isley figure, resulting from the massive earthquakes triggered by the impact. Other studies have shown that the shaking would reverberate through the planet and even cause serious surface earthquakes on the other side of the globe, at a point called the antipode. "Large impacts generate large earthquakes," Abbott explains. "These earthquakes can trigger volcanic eruptions. If the earthquake is large enough it could do more, it could make the eruption more intense by allowing more magma to escape."

February 21, 2003

Comet Side-Effects May Hit Earth Soon COMET BOARD ZAPPED AFTER NASA CAUGHT FAKING IMAGES. 7 Photos Missing in NASA Web Imagery. Massive Solar Flare During Flyby. Comet now on Earth Trajectory? Solar Wind Data Confirm Event ! Ridge Issues Ominous "Get Food" Warning. Comet Discussion Board Zapped After Members caught NASA faking images

MASSIVE SOLAR ERUPTIONS have accompanied the close solar flyby of the comet NEAT Tuesday. One coronal mass ejection plume at 05:00 hours 18 Feb. --Tuesday morning, extended at least 5 million miles from the surface of the sun toward the comet, Other coronal discharges were observed extending in excess of 12 million miles.

In the early hours of Thursday morning around 6:30am the Godlikeproductions.com comet discussion board (linked to the absent Kent Steadmans' CyberspaceOrbit website) inexplicably went offline about
thirty minutes after participants discovered that NASA had been faking webimages of the comet's passage past the sun on the morning of the 18th February.

NASA FAKE A webimage posted by NASA [our copy] from a sequence of 7 missing hourly photos of the comet near the sun, had a telltale partial white comet image below the observed comet location. [ snapshot ] The photo thus shows two positions for the comet. This partial matched the exact position of the comet in later NASA images in the sequence posted from the SOHO satellite. A poster to the comet board placed a link to an animated composite [our copy] showing that NASA's earlier and later images were duplicates and suggesting that a photo editing error had caused the revelaing glitch. Both the discussion board and Godlikeproductions.com website went offline around thrity minutes later. Solar Wind Data from the Space Environment Center now confirm striking changes in speed, temperature and density of the solar wind around the time there was an interruption in the posted web images from the SOHO satellite. Similar changes in magnetic field data and low energy protons have been recorded.

BAD WEATHER EXCUSE - IN ADVANCE A total of 7 hours of data from early Tuesday had been missing from the hourly photographs released by the SOHO project monitoring the comet's passage. Live web imaging experienced interruptions of data by NASA --which in advance was already implausibly citing "weather problems" in the Wash. DC area as the reason. Also, the Goddard space facility displayed a Code RED -- stated to be as a result of weather problems, and which instructed non-emergency staff not to attend Tuesday 18th through Wednesday 19th February.

However the Rt 295, freeway which goes by the NSA and Goddard facilities was clear Wednesday. Indeed, locals informed GuluFuture.com that the freeway is invariably kept open because of the importance of the facilities it serves. In any event, it was 50F in the area Wednesday 19th, and snow had stopped. Also a US military website following the comet's flyby did not provide new images from 11:30pm EST Tuesday until late Wednesday afternoon. The images normally update several times an hour. At one point the website showed pictures from FEB 12th, 2003 in their 5 minute live update.

THE IMPLICATIONS. Given all this, the current image data has highly dubious credibility. The severity of the solar reactions could have torn the comet apart and even without this, the coronal mass ejection could cause significant weather, geomagnetic, and seismic effects on Earth.

One side-effect of the interaction with the sun may be that the orbit of the comet has been flattened. Orbit calculations had indicated it would be directly overhead [image] around Nov. 28, 2003, but if alternative theories about comet composition are correct, then the close flyby could have altered the trajectory disastrously. [ Try 3D orbit calcualtor ] Even if the comet were to miss (likely) then the possible debris field from the close approach to the sun could still pose serious dangers. But electromagnetic and solar wind effects could be felt much earlier. On Wednesday, an ominous statement by Homeland security chief Tom Ridge, recommended American citizens to have "3-days supply of food and water as well as flashlights" in preparation for an "attack."

The Homeland Security site advises:

The new campaign seeks to reduce fears and provide information by providing individuals specific actions they can take to protect themselves, their families and their communities in the wake of an attack, or another emergency situation. Emergency Supply Kit: Start with three days worth of nonperishable food and water. Remember, even if your community is not directly affected by an attack, your life and daily routine may be disrupted. You may need to shelter at home for a couple of days. Roads and stores may be closed - electricity may be turned off - your water supply might be interrupted.

Slightly excessive for a terror attack perhaps?

BEST KEPT SECRET Incredibly, there has been little media advance reporting of this most spectacular comet passage since Hale-Bopp and virtually no reporting of these current solar responses or the gaps in web imaging. However one of the most intriguing aspects of all this, is that only four days ago, Dr. Geoffrey Sommer, of the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, California said that secrecy might be the best option if scientists were ever to discover that a giant asteroid was on course to collide with Earth.

"Overreaction not just by the public but by policy-makers scurrying around before the thing actually hits because we can't do anything about it anyway ... to a large extent you are better off not adding to your social costs," said Dr Sommer, who is also an adviser on terrorism. That's right, Dr. Sommer works for the Rand Corporation and is also an adviser on terrorism.

BIZARRE NASA MESSAGE RE LIVE WEB IMAGING: "NOTE: The Washington DC metropolitan area is under a snow emergency. If the LASCO team has technical problems with the software that reformats telemetry into images for the web they may not be able to fix it until the emergency is lifted."

SUN DIAMETER EQUALS 870,000 MILES
NEAT DIAMETER EQUALS 348,000 MILES
LENGTH NEAT TAIL EQUALS 5,220,000 MILES
JUPITER DIAMETER EQUALS 88,782 MILES
TO SAY THIS BABY IS BIG IS A LITTLE BIT OF ANUNDERSTATEMENT AS IS ITS TOTAL INVISIBILITY.

Spectacular Comet Hit by Solar Flare? Spectacular images of the recently found NEAT comet show the cosmic voyager more than twice the size of planet Jupiter may have been struck by a massive solar eruption. Images from the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite, which sits partway between Earth and the Sun and is designed primarily to monitor space weather, have on Tuesday morning shown a massive solar plume extending over a 5 million miles above the sun -seemingly towards the comet. But though the photography is time-lapsed, there are 7 hourly photographs missing from the data released by the SOHO project -meaning it is impossible to determine if the plume later extended to strike the comet.

A coronal mass ejection (CME), already appears to have hit the comet Monday, according to SOHO deputy project director Paul Brekke. The SOHO imaging shows sunlight reflecting off gas and dust from the comet's nucleus and hydrogen solar wind from the sun. The comet has been in LASCO's imaging domain since Sunday. It will begin to move out of the field of view around 5 a.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 20.KASSANDRA'S COMMENT:
"In Twin Cities tonight, about 6:00 p.m., I saw our comet! To say it is big is putting it midly. To the west and north a bit, you couldn´t miss it low on the horizon. But was anybody but me looking at it in the grocery store parking lot? Nope, nada. Fucking phenomenal. I saw the comet that last passed us 37,000 years ago. To keep this a secret is a CRIME of unprecedented proportions." 2/20/2003 12:56 am EST

"A WEBSURFER'S COMMENT:
"Two days ago a press release comes out of NASA saying they would keep it a secret if an earth-threatening object came along. Now this NEAT comet is swapping spit with the sun and not a word in the media? Kids, there´s no coincidences. I never bought into any of that Zeta Talk crap, but this baby has my attention."

NEW ZEALAND WEBSURFER NZDOOODE COMMENT:"Yeah, I contacted my National newsroom on the 18th and they told me that I was the first to tell them about it *shocked* is the mainstream media asleep or are they liars!??! I saw this 2002V1 comet with my naked eyes on sunset the other night, the sun was obscured by some loud, it was the most amazing sight I have ever seen before, in the sky. A major astronomical event like this, to keep the truth from the public is pure EVIL!! I looked in the sun's direction today and was dazzled by an unusual "very white" saturated light - significantly brighter than usual!! We are getting very red skies at sunrise and at sunset, it's summer here and we just got a forecast for unusual thunder/snow/hail tomorrow.

February 24, 1996
(PZ) I understand that they are building the largest telescope ever on top of a mountain in Peru. Is this telescope going to have the ability to forewarn about the wave?
A: There is the ability to forewarn of the comet cluster, but not the wave, as it is not visible. Question is whether or not warnings will be given due to clandestine and political factors.
(L) Is this comet cluster that's coming, and you've indicated that it could arrive anywhere between 18 years, something like that, is that correct?
A: Maybe.
Q: (L) Now, is this something that can be seen from a great way off?
A: No.
Q: (L) Is this something that's going to impact our particular immediate location, and appear suddenly, as this comet that has flown overhead just did? Nobody saw it until a very short time ago, and all of a sudden everybody sees it?
A: The cluster is a symptom, not the focus.
Q: (V) What is the focus?
A: Wave, remember, is "realm border" crossing... what does this imply? Consult your knowledge base for Latin roots and proceed.
Q: (L) So, the Latin root of realm is regimen, which means a domain or ruler ship or a system for the improvement of health. Does this mean that, and as I assume we are now moving into the STO realm, now, out of the STS realm?
A: Partly.
Q: (L) And also, can I infer from this, that the comet cluster exists in the other realm?
A: Partly.
Q: (L)Well, previously, you had said that the comet cluster would
come before the realm border. Which indicated that the comet...
A: Yes.
Q: (L) Well, how can something so... you said it appears to be one
single large body, and that our government knows that it's on its
way, and that apparently somebody has spotted it. Which direction is it coming from?
A: Direction?
Q: (L) Well, the comet cluster. That comet cluster, is, I am assuming, a real body, in third density experience, right? A part of a real cluster of bodies in third density experience. Is that correct?
A: Cluster can approach from all directions.
Q: (L) So, can I infer from what has been said, that we are going to move into this comet cluster, as into a realm?
A: Border changes rules.

July 4, 1998: First there was the story of the sun's companion brown star which is apparently approaching the solar system, and I would like to know, if possible, details of its orbit; that is, how far it is, what is its speed, and when it will be first seen. Can we know it? Orbit: how close will it come?
A: Flat elliptical.
Q: (A) But how close will it come?
A: Distance depends upon other factors, such as intersecting orbit of
locator of witness.
Q: (L) What is the closest it could come to earth... (A) Solar system... (L) Yes, but which part of the solar system? We have nine planets...which one? (A) I understand that this brown star will enter the Oort cloud... (L) I think they said it just brushes against it and the gravity disturbs it...
A: Passes through Oort cloud on orbital journey. Already has done this on its way "in."
Q: (A) You mean it has already entered the Oort cloud?
A: Has passed through.
Q: (A) So, it will not approach...
A: Oort cloud is located on outer perimeter orbital plane at distance
of approximately averaged distance of 510,000,000,000 miles.
Q: (L) Well, 510 billion miles gives us some time! (A) Yes, but what I want to know...this Oort cloud is around the solar system, so this
brown star, once it has passed through... (L) It must already be in the solar system? (A) No, it could have passed through and may not come closer. Is it coming closer or not? Is it coming closer all the time?
A: Solar system, in concert with "mother star," is revolving around
companion star, a "brown" star.
Q: (A) So, that means that the mass of the companion star is much...
A: Less.
Q: (A) Less?
A: They are moving in tandem with one another along a flat, elliptical orbital plane. Outer reaches of solar system are breached by passage of brown companion, thus explaining anomalies recently discovered regarding outer planets and their moons.
Q: (A) But I understand that the distance between the sun and this brown star is changing with time. Elliptical orbit means there is perihelion and aphelion. I want to know what will be, or what was, or what is the closest distance between this brown star and the sun? What is perihelion? Can we know this, even approximately. Is it about one light year, or less or more?
A: Less, much less. Distance of closest passage roughly corresponds to the distance of the orbit of Pluto from Sun.

Q: (A) Okay. Now, this closest pass, is this something that is going to happen?
A: Yes.
Q: (A) And it is going to happen within the next 6 to 18 years?
A: 0 to 14

Q: (A) Okay, that's it. I have some idea about this. Now, I understand that, either by chance or by accident, two things are going to happen at essentially the same time. That is the passing of this brown star, and this comet cluster. These are two different things?
A: Yes. Different, but related.
Q: (L) Is there a comet cluster that was knocked into some kind of orbit of its own, that continues to orbit...
A: Yes.

Q: (L) And in addition to that comet cluster, there are also additional comets that are going to get whacked into the solar system by the passing of this brown star?
A: Yes.
Q: (A) I understand that the main disaster is going to come from this comet cluster...
A: Disasters involve cycles in the human experiential cycle which corresponds to the passage of comet cluster.
Q: (A) I understand that this comet cluster is cyclic and comes every 3600 years. I want to know something about the shape of this comet
cluster. I can hardly imagine...
A: Shape is variable. Effect depends on closeness of passage.
Q: (L) So, it could be spread out... (A) We were asking at some point where it will be coming from. The answer was that we were supposed to look at a spirograph.
A: Yes.
Q: (A) Now, spirograph suggests that these comets will not come from one direction, but from many directions at once. Is this correct?
A: Very good!!!
Q: (A) Okay, they will come from many directions...
A: But, initial visibility presents as single, solid body.

Q: (A) Do we know what is the distance to this body at present?
A: Suggest you keep your eyes open!
Q: (A) I am keeping my eyes open.
A: Did you catch the significance of the answer regarding time table of cluster and brown star? Human cycle mirrors cycle of catastrophe. Earth benefits in form of periodic cleansing. Time to start paying attention to the signs. They are escalating. They can even be "felt" by you and others, if you pay attention.
Q: (L) We have certainly been paying attention to the signs!
A: How so?
Q: (L) Well, the weather is completely bizarre. The fires, the heat...
A: All areas experience accelerating "freak weather patterns."
Q: (L) Okay, all of these freaky weather patterns and bizarre things going on the planet, how does it relate to the comet cluster and the brown star? Is it related?
A: Human experiential cycle intersects

July 11 1998
Q: (A) Where is the periodic comet cluster?
A: Not visible. It approaches in "scatter pattern," indicating that one or two of the members may have already made the circuit.
Q: (A) We have been told that it will look like one solid object at first.
A: Yes, but not necessarily only one grouping. Will show up first in the region of the Magellanic Clouds.

April 25, 2003

A whirlwind of "new moon" discoveries - A whirlwind of "new moon" discoveries this year have kept teachers, textbooks, and web sites scrambling to keep up.

March 6th - Seven new moons for Jupiter, 10th March five more moons for Jupiter, April 9th more Moons for Saturn & Jupiter - When Will It End?

Recovered Meteor Reveals Solar Secrets

AFP

May 8, 2003 — The extraordinary find of a meteorite that was photographed as it plummeted to Earth has helped resolve some of the mysteries about the solar system's rocky wanderers, but also created new ones...

The astronomers traced the trajectory of the path they saw and on July 14 they found a 1.75-kilo (3.85-pound) chunk of the debris near the turreted castle of Neuschwanstein, in Bavaria.

It was only the fourth time that meteorites have been recovered from detected meteors, despite the sky-scrutinizing efforts of the European Fireball Network and others around the world...

Neuschwanstein, the astronomers were startled to find, came from the same "meteor stream" as the first of the four historic space rocks — a 4.5-kilo (9.9-pound) chunk found in 1959 in Pribram, in what was then Czechoslovakia.

But the Neuschwanstein meteorite is much older than Pribram — it spent 48 million years in space, compared to 12 million years — and has a quite different chemical composition.

It has less iron oxide, magnesium, silicon and calcium among its key elements and is more granular.

If Neuschwanstein came from an asteroid, the evidence challenges assumptions that the solar system's building rubble is comprised of similar chemical masses.

"It seems the meteor stream in which these objects were flowing is more heterogeneous than is usually supposed," said Jack Drummond, of the Starfire Optical Range in New Mexico, in an accompanying article in Nature.

"Looking skyward, knowing where these rocks came from, we may begin to understand something of the early history of our solar system."

May 22, 2003

Recovered Meteor Reveals Solar Secrets

AFP

May 8, 2003 — The extraordinary find of a meteorite that was photographed as it plummeted to Earth has helped resolve some of the mysteries about the solar system's rocky wanderers, but also created new ones...

The astronomers traced the trajectory of the path they saw and on July 14 they found a 1.75-kilo (3.85-pound) chunk of the debris near the turreted castle of Neuschwanstein, in Bavaria.

It was only the fourth time that meteorites have been recovered from detected meteors, despite the sky-scrutinizing efforts of the European Fireball Network and others around the world...

Neuschwanstein, the astronomers were startled to find, came from the same "meteor stream" as the first of the four historic space rocks — a 4.5-kilo (9.9-pound) chunk found in 1959 in Pribram, in what was then Czechoslovakia.

But the Neuschwanstein meteorite is much older than Pribram — it spent 48 million years in space, compared to 12 million years — and has a quite different chemical composition.

It has less iron oxide, magnesium, silicon and calcium among its key elements and is more granular.

If Neuschwanstein came from an asteroid, the evidence challenges assumptions that the solar system's building rubble is comprised of similar chemical masses.

"It seems the meteor stream in which these objects were flowing is more heterogeneous than is usually supposed," said Jack Drummond, of the Starfire Optical Range in New Mexico, in an accompanying article in Nature.

"Looking skyward, knowing where these rocks came from, we may begin to understand something of the early history of our solar system."

May 22, 2003

Sars 'from the stars'

By Richard Black BBC science correspondent

The virus believed to cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) may have come to Earth from outer space, according to scientists writing in a leading British medical journal. In a letter to The Lancet, the scientists, led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of Britain's Cardiff University, say the Sars coronavirus is so unlike other viruses that an extra-terrestrial origin is logical...

The idea that Sars comes from the stars relates to a theory called panspermia. This says that life itself evolved somewhere out in the cosmos, and is carried from one planet to another on comets...

Professor Wickramasinghe admits there is no hard evidence for his theory; and researchers who have been working on Sars reacted with a mixture of disbelief and ridicule.

May 27, 2003

If You're Reading This, The World Didn't End Last Thursday

Next time someone suggests that the world will end due to a planetary alignment, point out the simple fact that Jupiter exerts less gravitational influence over a human body than does a newspaper held at arms length.

Space Daily
by Timothy Quinn
New York - May 26, 2003

There will be no refunds on disposable toilet bags or emergency dental kits, so if you purchased these or other "family preparedness" supplies from The Survival Center, in the expectation that a mysterious planet or rogue sister star of our own Sun would wipe out 90% of the Earth's population this month, you'll have to simply chalk it up to a moment's paranoia: the sun is shining, the planet is blissfully unmolested and Britney Spears has no plans for repopulating a post-apocalyptic Earth with you anytime soon.Planet X, or Nibiru as it's exotically known to believers in a cult of ancient Sumerian astrophysicists, remains a persistent myth based on an innocuous observational error now nearly a quarter-millennium old. [...]

Although this would seem an appropriate occasion to turn the page and move onto any number of as yet unresolved issues in planetary astronomy, it turns out there's something strangely appealing about anticlimactic mysteries such as these to a small but persistent reactionary fringe of armchair cosmologists, conspiracy theorists and doomsday profiteers.

Unmoved by equally dire (if slightly more plausible) threats of nuclear escalation, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, near-Earth asteroids or neighborhood supernovae, the doomsday fringe prefer stories of a more baroque touch: alien invasions, planetary alignments, super-storms, apocalyptic computer viruses, Nazi flying saucers and secret CIA mind control experiments.

Undeterred by the embarrassing survival of the human race following the publication of such blanching paperbacks as Richard W. Noone's "5/5/2000 Ice: The Ultimate Disaster" and David S. Montaigne's "Nostradamus World War III 2002," doomsday prophets like Mark Hazelwood ("Blindsided: Planet X Passes in 2003") and Nancy Lieder (founder of the ZetaTalk cult) have breathed new life into the mysterious perturbations of Uranus' orbit as a smoking gun for Planet X, the furtive tenth planet or sister sun which was destined to have re-entered our solar system this month with satisfyingly cataclysmic results. The evidence for a distant rogue planet, according to writer and fringe researcher Zecharia Sitchin ("The Twelfth Planet"), can be found in ancient Sumerian tablets which seem to depict eleven planets circling a sun.To make prophecy match modern interpretation, of course, revisionists like Sitchin have had to quietly count the Earth's moon as a "planet" and then, just for good measure, gone ahead and counted the sun as a planet too. [...]

The longevity of doomsday cults like ZetaTalk is, if nothing else, a strong indication that one of our fundamental assumptions about alternative science is wrong: as much as we might wish to believe that ignorance remains the firmament of exploitation, the twenty-first century's intellectual plague is a wealth of knowledge untempered by clear refutation.The hoaxed moon landing movement is a particularly interesting example of the sort of pseudoscientific fearmongering that should've gone out of vogue with forensic phrenology. [...]

It's a testament to how pervasive the Apollo hoax theory has become in recent years that the Fox network aired a mortifying 1991 pseudodocumentary called "Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?" (not dissimilar to their previous efforts at provocative science, "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction?" and "UFO's, The Best Evidence Ever Caught on Tape," both of which were revisited in dubiously self-serving fashion in "World's Greatest Hoaxes: Secrets Finally Revealed"); equally telling is the fact that a current Google search for "Apollo landings" is likely to result in at least one hoax-related website within the first cluster of ten results. [...]

So why doesn't NASA simply set the record straight? After all, to paraphrase a cliché, if we can put a man on the moon can't we clearly explain how we got him there - and why a foley artist behind a blue-screen is a pretty unlikely explanation for perceived anomalies in the mission record? Concerned astronomers like Phil Plait have already attempted as much, yet NASA has chosen to take the high road, aborting an attempt to produce a book on spaceflight-related hoaxes by historian Jim Oberg when the media caught the scent of a potential cockfight. [...]

As strategies go, the high road wasn't particularly effective with Roswell and doesn't seem to be working with Area 51 either. The Fox network's alien autopsy fiasco is a good indication that many people still think an alien spacecraft landed outside Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947 - rather than what was later identified as a military weather balloon, a mix-up which seems to have originated when William Brazel, the rancher who discovered the wreckage on his property, reported to the local sheriff that he had stumbled across what appeared to be "one of them flying saucers."Likewise, Area 51 - a top-secret Air Force proving ground for experimental aircraft in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada - has acquired a persistent following of UFOlogists who believe this remote site to be the flashpoint for a pending alien invasion of the heartland.[...]

The intelligence community is at least partially to blame for this kind of literalist paranoia: reluctant denials and blacked-out memoranda are obviously a poor substitute for clear and open refutation. [...]

Whether confronting doomsday prophesy or alternative science, the popular media generally contribute to hysterical misperception by attempting to negotiate an inherent conflict of interest between responsible journalism and salacious hard copy."The Day the World Shuts Down" was Newsweek's 1998 attempt to objectively analyze the new millennium's Y2K crisis. A year later, CNN was "Bracing for Guerrilla Warfare in Cyberspace." Time Magazine lunged at us from another direction with its 2001 cover story "Summer of the Shark," drifting back into deeper waters with a 2002 cover story on "The Bible and the Apocalypse."

Blaming the media, however, is perhaps a little like blaming one's reflection for being overweight: we're all responsible for the information we choose to consume and the degree of personal gullibility we're inclined to tolerate.

For the conspiratorial fringe, 9/11 was a goldmine of conflicting data, irretrievable evidence and easily exploited paranoia. Even after Islamic militants had been publicly identified on the flight rosters of hijacked planes, rumors abounded that it was the work of Zionists trying to polarize debate in the Israel-Palestine conflict, or wait, maybe the United States military did it to distract the American public from a struggling presidency.For its part, the Bush administration showed little hesitancy in exploiting public opinion to mobilize American forces against Iraq, calmly marginalizing as naïve any arguments that an Iraqi / bin Laden connection were tenuous at best with the same smug unflappability favored by Roswell believers confronting a skeptical scientific community. [...]

To date, the bulk of the scientific community has washed its hands of cult science, sufficing to roll back on its heels with an exasperated cry of, "Where does it end?" Surely there has to be a point past which it's simply not worth the effort of discrediting spurious claims or providing the deliberately uninformed and embarrassingly delusional with - in the words of one frustrated writer to Natural History magazine - "exactly what they desired: publicity in a mainstream scientific forum. These advocates should be ostracized by the scientific community, just as we would ostracize someone who claims to be researching the natural behavior of wood nymphs and faeries.

"As comfortable as most people may be drawing that line, it's clear that primetime network alien autopsies - or Time/CNN polls revealing that 65% of Americans believe clandestine alien contact was made in the forties - ought to suggest that the scientific community's boundaries of responsibility need to redrawn for the information age.

Comment: Arm Chair debunking... not even a good example of it, sadly. Read Laura's article Will the World End on Thursday? for another perspective and check out the Cosmic COINTELPRO Timeline

May 29, 2003

Massive Tsunami Sweeps Atlantic Coast In Asteroid Impact Scenario For March
16, 2880

University of California - Santa Cruz
May 28, 2003

SANTA CRUZ, CA -- If an asteroid crashes into the Earth, it is likely to splash down somewhere in the oceans that cover 70 percent of the planet's surface. Huge tsunami waves, spreading out from the impact site like the ripples from a rock tossed into a pond, would inundate heavily populated coastal areas. A computer simulation of an asteroid impact tsunami developed by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, shows
waves as high as 400 feet sweeping onto the Atlantic Coast of the United States.

The researchers based their simulation on a real asteroid known to be on course for a close encounter with Earth eight centuries from now. Steven Ward, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCSC, and Erik Asphaug, an associate professor of Earth sciences, report their findings in the June issue of the Geophysical Journal International.

March 16, 2880, is the day the asteroid known as 1950 DA, a huge rock two-thirds of a mile in diameter, is due to swing so close to Earth it could slam into the Atlantic Ocean at 38,000 miles per hour. The probability of a direct hit is pretty small, but over the long timescales of Earth's history, asteroids this size and larger have periodically hammered the planet, sometimes with calamitous effects. The so-called K/T impact, for example, ended the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. [...]


..."Until we detect all the big ones and can predict their orbits, we could be struck without warning," said Asphaug. "With the ongoing search campaigns, we'll probably be able to sound the 'all clear' by 2030 for 90 percent of the impacts that could trigger a global catastrophe."

Rogue comets visiting the inner solar system for the first time, however, may never be detected very long in advance. Smaller asteroids that can still cause major tsunami damage may also go undetected.

Comment: Notice the contradiction in the above. Just about every article we have ever read on this topic states that the probability of an impact is very small. Yet by their own admission they know little of what is out there.

May 31, 2003

Mars finder did find life

Claims have re-emerged that the US space agency (Nasa) did find signs of life on Mars during the historic Viking landings of 1976. Dr Gil Levin, a former mission scientist, says he now has the evidence to prove it, just days before the US and Europe send new expeditions to the Red Planet.The United States and Russia have spent billions since the 1960s on a handful of space craft designed to land on Mars. Only three have succeeded so far: the two Viking probes in the 1970s and Mars Pathfinder in 1997. In 1976, the world was gripped by excitement when a robotic spacecraft touched down on Mars for the first time in history. Biology experiments detected strange signs of activity in the Martian soil - akin to microbes giving off gas. Before announcing the news that life had been found on another planet, Nasa carried out more tests to look for evidence of organic matter. However, the Viking experiments failed to find this essential stuff of life and it was concluded that Mars was a dead planet. New evidence

Dr Levin, one of three scientists on the life detection experiments, has never given up on the idea that Viking did find living micro-organisms in the surface soil of Mars.

He continued to experiment and study all new evidence from Mars and Earth, and, in 1997, reached the conclusion and published that the so-called LR (labelled release) work had detected life. He says new evidence is emerging that could settle the debate, once and for all. He told BBC News Online: "The organic analysis instrument was shown to be very insensitive, requiring millions of micro-organisms to detect any organic matter versus the LR's demonstrated ability to detect as few as 50 micro-organisms." Dr Levin, now president and CEO of US biotechnology company Biospherix, has a new experiment that he says "could unambiguously settle the argument". But it was rejected by both Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa) to go on-board this summer's Mars missions.

The British-built Beagle 2, which will be deposited on the Martian surface by Esa's Mars Express space craft, is going with the main purpose to hunt for life. This is a risky strategy, claims Dr Levin. "Strangely, despite its billing, Beagle 2 carries no life detection experiment!" he said. "Neither its GCMS (organic detector) which is claimed to be more sensitive than Viking's, nor its isotopic analysis instrument can provide evidence for living organisms."

Nasa's mission to Mars is taking a more circumspect approach to the big life question. Its two identical rovers will roam the ancient plains of Mars acting as robot geologists. Mark Adler, deputy mission manager, said the main science objective was to understand the water environment of Mars not to search for life. He told BBC News Online: "What we learnt from Viking is that it is very difficult to come up with specific experiments to look for something you don't really know what to look for." Claims of life on Mars have always proved highly contentious. Twenty years after Viking, microbe-like structures discovered inside a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica led to more claims that were later rejected. As the astronomer Carl Sagan once said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And there is no reason to believe that anything found this time will be any different. "It's going to take a number of missions if we want to know whether there is life on Mars or not," said Dr Charles Cockell.

A QFS member comments: Only a few days before the ESA Mars Express launches and up pops this story. So we have three rovers due to touch down on Mars next year. Hmmm, seems someone is keen to make sure they get something down on Mars. Lets hope NASA has got those imperial to metric calculators working this time.

Which reminds us of a few comments by the Cs:

Q: (L) How long have they known that rocks from Mars are on the planet?
A: 12 years.

Q:(T) About the same length of time it took them to analyze the soil samples that they got from Mariner probes.
(L) OK, Why all of a sudden are they revealing, or releasing this information about this Mars Rock? In such a big and manipulative way? (T) You just said it!
A: You have already figured it out yourselves. [...]

Q: (L) Well, OK, but is this Mars Rock, and is this opening of the doors concept, is this leading up to some definite, overt interaction with aliens? (T) They told us, we know it, yes!
A: Gradually. [...] Notice how you heard nothing about the Mars Probes until the rock announcement?

Q: (T) This is the new stuff? (L) Is this right?
A: The excavation robot spacecraft. One Probe is already on its way, another to follow. No further explanation about "loss" of Mars Explorer.

Q: (L) What did happen to the Mars Explorer? A: Blacked out. You see, 'Too risky.' And too much too soon, due to pressure from Hoagland and others.
Q: (T) My own opinion is that they've already been there, and they know what's there.
A: No. Microbes are easier to swallow than humans in togas!

Q: (T) Cleopatra and Antony are not going to go over real big this week! Especially with the Bible scholars. [...] (T) OK, you just mentioned that somebody from this planet already launched a Mars Probe. A new Mars Probe, that no one in public knows about. Because it's never been talked about. So, it's a secret probe. Who does it belong to?
A: Was secret US government.

Q: (T) Was it something that one of the Shuttle missions put out? A: No.
Q: (J) When did it go up?
A: September of 1995.

Q: (T) Last September, a year ago. So, it's gone for a year. It takes it a year, two years to get there? Maybe not that long. So, it's over half-way there at this point.
A: Yes.

Q: (T) What's it going to do?
A: Next year.

Q: (T) Next year for the next probe?
A: Yes.

Q: (T) Is this going to be one of those public ones? A publicly announced one?
A: They both are.

Q: (T) What is the purpose of these probes?
A: Excavation to display living organisms.

Q: (T) Display? (L) Yes, for public consumption. In other words, not only do we have a rock now, that shows evidence that there was... (T) Oh, display, as when they find it and dig it up, they're going to show it on camera! (L) Yes! (T) Connie Kourek will interview it! (L) Right! (F) First they said they found no evidence, then they said it was inconclusive... Now, who the hell knows what they found! In revealing things, we'll start with fossilized life, and then move on... (L) So, they're going to display the discovery of living organisms on Mars to take the next step to acclimate...
A: Yes.

Q: (L) So, in other words, this process is going to be something of an on-going thing, and that all of these people who are cranking around about, you know, alien landings...
A: No faces, though.

Q: (L) There's not going to be any 'Faces On Mars?' They are not going to show us...
A: Won't be revealed, what do you think happened with Mars Explorer?

Q: (L) Well, what did happen with the Mars Explorer? (T) Now, now, now, let me...
A: Hoagland forced their hand.

Q: (T) What do we think happened to the Mars Explorer? I think they switched channels. They just moved it from one communication post to another, and it's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. And they did it in such a way, that the NASA people really didn't know what happened, so that when they were asked, they could say, 'We don’t know what happened to it!' Because they really don't know what happened! (L) When we're talking about attack, as we were before, as in plane crashes, the Olympics, all these different things - this dealing with these Mars Explorers - is all this stuff, or most of this stuff, coming from the 4th density manipulations of human minds, rather than...
A: Yes.

Q: (L)... rather than actual, physical entry and doing of deeds? Is that it?
A: Yes. [...]

Q: (T) I have a question. They're going to display live organisms, like, how did they put that 'Living organisms'? How big are these living organisms going to be? How advanced?
A: Teeny-tiny.

Q: (T) So, we're still talking about microscopic organisms here?
A: Yes.

Q: (J) So, they won't wave at us!
A: But these will be alive. Can't you see the progression here? "Don't want to scare Grandma Sally Bible Thumper/Stockmarket Investor!"

Is our planet really being bombarded with life from outer space?

Ian Sample
Thursday May 29, 2003
The Guardian

It most certainly is, says Chandra Wickramasinghe at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology. It most certainly isn't, say the overwhelming majority of other scientists.
In the 1970s, Wickramasinghe and the late astronomer Fred Hoyle proposed the theory that life was originally brought to the barren Earth by comets. The comets, they said, shed organic molecules and alien microbes as they passed by the Earth and some of those became established once they hit the ground. Last week, Wickramasinghe wrote in the Lancet that the Sars virus, still causing havoc in south east Asia, might have dropped to Earth in such a way.

Not likely, says William Grant at the University of Leicester who studies microbes in extreme environments. The very act of tolerating space would make alien microbes, should there be any nearby, hopeless human pathogens. Suppose a clump of alien microbes were hurtling through space on a comet. The bacteria would only survive if evolution resulted in their adapting to the intensely cold, radiation-rich vacuum of space. The process itself might take millions of years. If they did survive, they would be so well adapted to living in space, they could never thrive on Earth, let alone have the necessary molecular machinery to invade human cells and cause disease, says Grant.

On Earth, new human viruses tend first to linger in animals with at least similar physiology to humans. Then, as the virus evolves to dodge the animal's immune system, a chance mutation might just make it capable of jumping species into a human. That evolutionary process would not take place if the virus was flying through space on a lump of rock.

"In the case of Sars, the virus needs a specific protein to bind to human cells and enable it to enter them. It's extremely complicated. The idea that it could just have evolved without being in a very similar environment, an animal, is nonsense," says Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading. "The evolutionary pressure would never be there for the protein to form."

Scientists have long known that complex molecules can form in space, and meteorites discovered on Earth have been found to contain amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. But these are a far cry from living organisms, says Jack Cohen, a biologist at the University of Warwick and part-time 'alien creature designer' for science fiction writers. "Some scientists think that if you can get complex molecules, some of them might be diseases. They don't understand how complicated something has to be before it can be an effective disease," he says.

Wickramasinghe says his critics reject his theory because they are convinced life originated on Earth. If life came from elsewhere, then organisms on different planets would evolve together, he says, making the chance of alien microbes able to infect humans more likely. "The only way it works is that evolution is not restricted to Earth, but happens on a huge cosmic scale. Life on Earth is connected with life everywhere in the universe," he says.

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