Sun's rest means Earth's cooling

NASA: Quiet Sun Means Dramatic Cooling Of Earth's Upper Atmosphere

Published on 12-18-2009 Email To Friend Print Version


New measurements from a NASA satellite show a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere that correlates with the declining phase of the current solar cycle. For the first time, researchers can show a timely link between the Sun and the climate of Earth's thermosphere, the region above 100 km, an essential step in making accurate predictions of climate change in the high atmosphere.

Scientists from NASA's Langley Research Center and Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., will present these results at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco from Dec. 14 to 18.

Earth's thermosphere and mesosphere have been the least explored regions of the atmosphere. The NASA Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission was developed to explore the Earth's atmosphere above 60 km altitude and was launched in December 2001. One of four instruments on the TIMED mission, the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument, was specifically designed to measure the energy budget of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. The SABER dataset now covers eight years of data and has already provided some basic insight into the heat budget of the thermosphere on a variety of timescales.

The extent of current solar minimum conditions has created a unique situation for recent SABER datasets. The end of solar cycle 23 has offered an opportunity to study the radiative cooling in the thermosphere under exceptionally quiescent conditions.

"The Sun is in a very unusual period," said Marty Mlynczak, SABER associate principal investigator and senior research scientist at NASA Langley. "The Earth's thermosphere is responding remarkably -- up to an order of magnitude decrease in infrared emission/radiative cooling by some molecules."

The TIMED measurements show a decrease in the amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Sun. In addition, the amount of infrared radiation emitted from the upper atmosphere by nitric oxide molecules has decreased by nearly a factor of 10 since early 2002. These observations imply that the upper atmosphere has cooled substantially since then. The research team expects the atmosphere to heat up again as solar activity starts to pick up in the next year.

While this warming has no implications for climate change in the troposphere, a fundamental prediction of climate change theory is that the upper atmosphere will cool in response to increasing carbon dioxide. As the atmosphere cools the density will increase, which ultimately may impact satellite operations through increased drag over time.

The SABER dataset is the first global, long-term, and continuous record of the Nitric oxide (NO) and Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the thermosphere.

"We suggest that the dataset of radiative cooling of the thermosphere by NO and CO2 constitutes a first climate data record for the thermosphere," says Mlynczak.

The TIMED data provide a fundamental climate data record for validation of upper atmosphere climate models which is an essential step in making accurate predictions of climate change in the high atmosphere. SABER provides the first long-term measurements of natural variability in key terms of the upper atmosphere climate. As the TIMED mission continues, these data derived from SABER will become important in assessing long term changes due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

TIMED is the first mission in the Solar Terrestrial Probes Program within the Heliophysics Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information:

http://stp.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions/timed/timed.htm

NASA Langley press releases are available automatically by sending an e-mail message to langley-news-request@lists.nasa.gov with the word Subscribe in the subject line. You will receive an e-mail asking you to visit a link to confirm the action. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to langley-news-request@lists.nasa.gov with the word Unsubscribe in the subject line.

"Thank God, the Earth is NOT moving !"

Heliocentric vs Geocentric view

This is still a very difficult thing for me to swallow. I've loved astronomy since I was a child and heliocentricity is "proven" to be just as factual as the sky being blue and grass being green. When I first looked into this it really disturbed me. I can understand why secular humanists are very militant when evolution is being debunked or argued against, it's not the science being argued against, it's their core belief system. If you dig deeper the root of it is pride, the fool doesn't appreciate being reproved. If I recall correctly, Chuck Missler believes in geocentricity.

If you want to see if something is true, it's best to first check with the Bible.



Here's some links you might find useful.

The Earth is Not Moving - Book
http://www.fixedearth.com/the_bible/coperniciansales.html

Static Earth
http://staticearth.net/index.html

Fixed Earth
http://www.fixedearth.com/

A Geocentricity Primer
http://www.geocentricity.com/geocentricity/primer.pdf

A 23-minute video by Dr. Malcolm Bowden
http://www.geocentricity.com/geocentricity/mbvideo/play.html

Geocentric Universe - Celestial Poles (the Earth is NOT moving)

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-26...pPllQfQr7GZDQ&q

Here's some more info about this ...

http://sites.google.com/site/earthdeception/

to this PDF from Jubilee Academy : http://www.thejubileeacademy.org/marketing...lar_system1.pdf

What's happening to the Sun ?

What's Happening to the Sun?

Could its unusual behavior herald a new ice age?

By Laurie J. Schmidt Posted 01.27.2009 at 10:26 am 12 Comments
http://www.popsci.com/node/31506


For about 50 years from roughly 1650 to 1700, the Sun took a break from its typical sunspot activity. That phase of solar rest coincided with what we now refer to as "The Little Ice Age" -- a period of cooling on the Earth that resulted in bitterly cold winters, particularly in Europe and North America. Scientists attribute the Little Ice Age to two main causes: increased volcanic activity and reduced solar activity.

Could it happen again? And are we headed there now?

The term "solar activity" refers collectively to sunspots, solar flares, and solar eruptions. Together, these phenomena make up the "space weather" that alters interactions between Earth and its atmosphere, causing potential disruptions to satellites, communications systems, and power grids. Varying levels of solar activity also cause significant changes in atmospheric circulation patterns, which can affect the weather and climate on Earth.

Solar cycles, which last an average of 11 years, are driven by the number, size, and placement of sunspots -- cooler, darker spots on the Sun's surface where intense magnetic activity occurs -- on the Sun's surface. Each cycle is marked by a solar minimum and a solar maximum, meaning the approximate time in the cycle when the least and greatest amounts of solar activity occurred. During the solar minimum, sunspot activity diminishes, and during the maximum greater numbers of sunspots appear. As one cycle winds down and another begins, sunspots from both cycles can be seen simultaneously.

By late 2007, Solar Cycle 23, which began in 1996, was decaying to low activity levels, and NOAA forecasters predicted that Solar Cycle 24 would begin in March 2008, plus or minus six months. Indeed, the new cycle's first sunspot appeared in January 2008 -- its high-latitude location a clear sign that it was part of the new solar cycle. But in the months that followed, there was a marked decrease in sunspot activity, spawning questions about whether we could be headed into another little ice age.

"Everything we're seeing now we've seen the Sun do before, and it still went on to produce a normal solar cycle," said Doug Biesecker, physicist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

After a nine-month lull in solar activity, a batch of five sunspots appeared beginning on October 31, 2008, four of which belonged to the new cycle. And according to Biesecker, so far this year, two sunspots appeared for a total of four days -- one was a Cycle 23 sunspot and one a Cycle 24. "You always get lots of days with no sunspots, and at solar minimum you almost always see sunspots from the new cycle at the same time you're still seeing sunspots from the old cycle. This overlap phase can be just a few months, but it can be as long as two years," he said.

Biesecker says that the longer Cycle 23 drags out, the more we will hear about how the Sun is going quiet. "If you go back to the early 1950s, that solar minimum was very similar to the one we're going through right now," he said. "But it was followed by the largest solar cycle on record. So just because the Sun is quieter than it's been in awhile doesn't really tell us where it's going to be in the future."

Tom Woods, Associate Director for Technical Divisions at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), concurs. "Typically during a solar minimum you will have one or two months with no sunspots, so what we saw in 2008 is typical of most solar cycles," he said.

But Woods points out that there are other indications, aside from sunspot activity, that Cycle 24 may be different. First, the magnetic field at the Sun's poles is about 40 percent lower than it normally is at solar minimum. "If you look at the last time the polar field was that weak, it goes back to the early 1800s during a time called the Dalton Minimum, when we had a low solar activity cycle," he said. The Dalton Minimum lasted from about 1790 to 1830 and coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures.

In addition, Woods says that the solar wind speed is currently lower than normal. But does this mean there will be a big change in the solar cycle? "We don't really know, but we're waiting and watching," he said. "This new cycle could be anomalously low or it could be normal."

Although Cycle 23's 12-year length (it began in 1996) isn't outside the normal range, it might help explain why Cycle 24's activity level is low. Biesecker points out that, based on the previous 22 solar cycles, researchers now know that the longer the previous cycle, the lower the next cycle will be in terms of activity. "So we're definitely edging into that territory now," he said.

According to Woods, even a smaller solar cycle could induce some cooling on Earth. "Not enough to offset the greenhouse gas global warming effect," he said, "but enough to potentially slow it down for a few years." The solar cycle's effect on global temperatures is only about 1/10 of a degree, whereas the greenhouse effect over the past 30 years has been about a full one degree change, Woods said.

Even so, Woods says it's unlikely that we're headed into a "Little Ice Age" scenario. "It's probably unlikely that we will go into a phase where we don't have any sunspot activity for 50 years. We can't eliminate the possibility, but I would say the probability is not high," he said.

"For that to happen, we would have to see no pickup in the Cycle 24 sunspots, but we're seeing a reasonable amount of new activity," said Biesecker. "There is no model we're aware of that can predict that we're going into an ice age -- it's an actual physical limitation of our current understanding."

Where did the sunspots go-an ice age cometh?

Where did all the sunspots go - an ice age cometh?

Lawrence Solomon
Financial Post
Sat, 31 May 2008 15:22 UTC
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/158601-W...-ice-age-cometh


The spotless Sun, as it appeared yesterday at 12:48 p.m. The Sun's spotlessness is giving rise to speculation of another Little Ice Age.

With the debate focused on a warming Earth, the icy consequences of a cooler future have not been considered

You probably haven't heard much of Solar Cycle 24, the current cycle that our sun has entered, and I hope you don't. If Solar Cycle 24 becomes a household term, your lifestyle could be taking a dramatic turn for the worse. That of your children and their children could fare worse still, say some scientists, because Solar Cycle 24 could mark a time of profound long-term change in the climate. As put by geophysicist Philip Chapman, a former NASA astronaut-scientist and former president of the National Space Society, "It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age." The sun, of late, is remarkably free of eruptions: It has lost its spots. By this point in the solar cycle, sunspots would ordinarily have been present in goodly numbers. Today's spotlessness - what alarms Dr. Chapman and others - may be an anomaly of some kind, and the sun may soon revert to form. But if it doesn't - and with each passing day, the speculation in the scientific community grows that it will not - we could be entering a new epoch that few would welcome.

Sunspots have been well documented throughout human history, starting in the fourth century BC, with written descriptions by Gan De, a Chinese astronomer. In 1128, an English monk, John of Worcester, was the first person known to have drawn sunspots, and after the telescope's arrival in the early 1600s, observations and drawings became commonplace, including by such luminaries as Galileo Galilei. Then, to the astonishment of astronomers, they saw the sunspots diminish and die out altogether.

This was the case during the Little Ice Age, a period starting in the 15th or 16th century and lasting centuries, says NASA's Goddard Space Centre, which links the absence of sunspots to the cold that then descended on Earth. During the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, a time known as the Maunder Minimum (named after English astronomer Edward Maunder), astronomers saw only about 50 sunspots over a 30-year period, less than one half of 1% of the sunspots that would normally have been expected. Other Minimums - times of low sunspot activity - also corresponded to times of unusual cold.

The consequences of the Little Ice Age, because they occurred in relatively recent times, have come down to us through literature and the arts as well as from historians and scientists, government and business records. When Shakespeare wrote of "lawn as white as driven snow," he had first-hand experience - Europe was bitterly cold in his day, a sharp contrast to the very warm weather that preceded his birth. During the Little Ice Age, the River Thames froze over, the Dutch developed the ice skate and the great artists of the day learned to love a new genre: the winter landscape.

In what had been a warm Europe , adaptations were not all happy: Growing seasons in England and Continental Europe generally became short and unreliable, which led to shortages and famine. These hardships were nothing compared to the more northerly countries: Glaciers advanced rapidly in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and North America, making vast tracts of land uninhabitable. The Arctic pack ice extended so far south that several reports describe Eskimos landing their kayaks in Scotland. Finland's population fell by one-third, Iceland's by half, the Viking colonies in Greenland were abandoned altogether, as were many Inuit communities. The cold in North America spread so far south that, in the winter of 1780, New York Harbor froze, enabling people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island.

In the same way that the Earth shivered when sunspots disappeared, the Earth warmed when sunspot activity became pronounced. The warm period about 1000 years ago known as the Medieval Warm Period - a time of bounty in which grapes grew in England and Greenland was colonized - also was a time of high sunspot activity, called the Medieval Maximum. Since 1900, Earth has experienced what astronomers call "the Modern Maximum" - the 20th century has again been a time of high sunspot activity.

But the 1900s are gone, along with the high temperatures that accompanied them. The last 10 years have seen no increase in temperatures - they reached a plateau and then remained there - and the last year saw a precipitous decline. How much lower and for how long the temperatures will fall, if at all, no one yet knows - the science is far from settled on what drives climate.

But many are watching the sun for answers, and for good reason. Several renowned scientists have been predicting for some time that the world could enter a period of cooling right around now, with consequences that could be dire. "The next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do," believes Dr. Chapman. "There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the U.S. and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it."

We are now at the beginning of Solar Cycle 24, so named because it is the 24th consecutive cycle that astronomers have listed, starting with the first cycle that began in March, 1755, and ended in June, 1766. Each cycle lasts an average of approximately 11 years; each is marked by sunspots that first erupt in the mid latitudes of the sun, and then, over the course of the 11 years, erupt progressively toward the sun's equator; each is marked by a change in the polarity of the sun's hemispheres; each changes the temperature on Earth in ways that humans don't fully understand, but cannot in all honesty deny.

Sunspots, earthquakes, life on earth

Sunspots: Second least active year since 1900 – Portends Cooling

31 Dec 08 – (Excerpts) “2008 Ends Spotless and with 266 Spotless Days, the #2 Least Active Year Since 1900, Portends Cooling, says meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo

http://www.iceagenow.com/Sunspots-Second_l...nds_Cooling.htm

“This will bring the total number of sunspotless days this month to 28 and for the year to 266, clearly enough to make 2008, the second least active solar year since 1900.

“The total number of spotless days this solar minimum is now at around 510 days since the last maximum. The earliest the minimum of the sunspot cycles can be is July 2008, which would make the cycle length 12 years 3 months, longest since cycle 9 in 1848. If the sun stays quiet for a few more months we will rival the early 1800s, the Dalton Minimum which fits with the 213 year cycle which begin with the solar minimum in the late 1790s.


“Looking ahead, put that together with the flip of the PDO in the Pacific to cold and you have alarming signals that this cooling of the last 7 years will continue and accelerate.”



See entire article: http://icecap.us/



Or see:

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editori...315533893763712

Thanks to Tom Weatherby for this link


30 Dec 08 - (Excerpts) Ask yourself this question: What makes our planet green?

If you guessed CO2, you're right. CO2 is to trees and foliage and all vegetation what oxygen is to humans — they can't survive without it. It's what makes them green and healthy.

The more CO2, the greener and healthy our planet. Yet the global warming fanatics are classifying CO2 as a pollutant and blaming it for dangerously warming our (fast cooling) planet.

How stupid do they think we are?

CO2 levels have skyrocketed since 2000, and guess what's happened?

It’s gotten colder, that's what happened.

Then there's the latest panic about the alleged plight of the polar bears. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) polar bears face extinction — but not quite yet.

According to the WWF, "With 20-25,000 polar bears living in the wild, the species is not currently endangered, but its future is far from certain."

They go on to assure us that, "If current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century."

To help stop that from happening, the WWF would like you to send it money.

Like all solemn pronouncements from the warmiacs, the predictions concerning polar bear extinction is based solely on computer models, not on what's happening now. Remember, the group said, “The species is not currently endangered.” And what's happening now is the swelling of the polar bear population, which grew from a low of 5,000 to 10,000 in the '50s and '60s, according to The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Moreover, a 2002 U.S. Geological Survey of wildlife in the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain noted that the polar bear populations “may now be near historic highs."

Asks botanist David Bellamy, a famed U.K. environmental campaigner, former lecturer at Durham University, and host of a popular U.K. TV series on wildlife: “Why scare the families of the world with tales that polar bears are heading for extinction when there is good evidence that there are now twice as many of these iconic animals, most doing well in the Arctic than there were 20 years ago?”

If you want something real to worry about, try an eruption of the Yellowstone caldera where scientists have discovered that the ground is over 70 centimeters higher than in was in 1923 — indicating a massive swelling underneath the park.

There was a swarm of 16 earthquakes in 24 hours this past weekend. The reservoir is filling with magma at a staggering rate. The volcano erupts with a calendar-like cycle of every 600,000-650,000 years.

The last eruption was more than 640,000 years ago.

Last time it erupted, 642,000 years ago, it ejected 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma into the air. If this happened in today’s world, it would kill millions and cover most of the United States in a layer of ash at least a centimeter thick. The lighter ash would rise up into the atmosphere, initiating a volcanic winter and ruining crops worldwide.

This is something genuine Al Gore could get really his teeth on. Instead of recommending carbon caps, he could suggest sacrificing a few virgins to the god Vulcan. It would be cheaper than cap and trade.

See entire article:
http://www.newsmax.com/brennan/Arctic_Warm.../30/166465.html

Thanks to Rick Fulton for this link

See more info on Yellowstone:
www.armageddononline.org/yellowstone_caldera.php

Earth on the brink of an ICE AGE

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

11.01.2009 Source: Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/106...earth_ice_age-0


The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.

Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.

Most of the long-term climate data collected from various sources also shows a strong correlation with the three astronomical cycles which are together known as the Milankovich cycles. The three Milankovich cycles include the tilt of the earth, which varies over a 41,000 year period; the shape of the earth’s orbit, which changes over a period of 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, also known as the earth’s ‘wobble’, which gradually rotates the direction of the earth’s axis over a period of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovich theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age maximums and warm interglacials.

Elements of the astronomical theory of Ice Age causation were first presented by the French mathematician Joseph Adhemar in 1842, it was developed further by the English prodigy Joseph Croll in 1875, and the theory was established in its present form by the Czech mathematician Milutin Milankovich in the 1920s and 30s. In 1976 the prestigious journal “Science” published a landmark paper by John Imbrie, James Hays, and Nicholas Shackleton entitled “Variations in the Earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages,” which described the correlation which the trio of scientist/authors had found between the climate data obtained from ocean sediment cores and the patterns of the astronomical Milankovich cycles. Since the late 1970s, the Milankovich theory has remained the predominant theory to account for Ice Age causation among climate scientists, and hence the Milankovich theory is always described in textbooks of climatology and in encyclopaedia articles about the Ice Ages.

In their 1976 paper Imbrie, Hays, and Shackleton wrote that their own climate forecasts, which were based on sea-sediment cores and the Milankovich cycles, "… must be qualified in two ways. First, they apply only to the natural component of future climatic trends - and not to anthropogenic effects such as those due to the burning of fossil fuels. Second, they describe only the long-term trends, because they are linked to orbital variations with periods of 20,000 years and longer. Climatic oscillations at higher frequencies are not predicted... the results indicate that the long-term trend over the next 20,000 years is towards extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation and cooler climate."

During the 1970s the famous American astronomer Carl Sagan and other scientists began promoting the theory that ‘greenhouse gasses’ such as carbon dioxide, or CO2, produced by human industries could lead to catastrophic global warming. Since the 1970s the theory of ‘anthropogenic global warming’ (AGW) has gradually become accepted as fact by most of the academic establishment, and their acceptance of AGW has inspired a global movement to encourage governments to make pivotal changes to prevent the worsening of AGW.

The central piece of evidence that is cited in support of the AGW theory is the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph which was presented by Al Gore in his 2006 film “An Inconvenient Truth.” The ‘hockey stick’ graph shows an acute upward spike in global temperatures which began during the 1970s and continued through the winter of 2006/07. However, this warming trend was interrupted when the winter of 2007/8 delivered the deepest snow cover to the Northern Hemisphere since 1966 and the coldest temperatures since 2001. It now appears that the current Northern Hemisphere winter of 2008/09 will probably equal or surpass the winter of 2007/08 for both snow depth and cold temperatures.

The main flaw in the AGW theory is that its proponents focus on evidence from only the past one thousand years at most, while ignoring the evidence from the past million years -- evidence which is essential for a true understanding of climatology. The data from paleoclimatology provides us with an alternative and more credible explanation for the recent global temperature spike, based on the natural cycle of Ice Age maximums and interglacials.

In 1999 the British journal “Nature” published the results of data derived from glacial ice cores collected at the Russia ’s Vostok station in Antarctica during the 1990s. The Vostok ice core data includes a record of global atmospheric temperatures, atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and airborne particulates starting from 420,000 years ago and continuing through history up to our present time.

The graph of the Vostok ice core data shows that the Ice Age maximums and the warm interglacials occur within a regular cyclic pattern, the graph-line of which is similar to the rhythm of a heartbeat on an electrocardiogram tracing. The Vostok data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. What that indicates is that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes, and not the reverse. In other words, increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.

The reason that global CO2 levels rise and fall in response to the global temperature is because cold water is capable of retaining more CO2 than warm water. That is why carbonated beverages loose their carbonation, or CO2, when stored in a warm environment. We store our carbonated soft drinks, wine, and beer in a cool place to prevent them from loosing their ‘fizz’, which is a feature of their carbonation, or CO2 content. The earth is currently warming as a result of the natural Ice Age cycle, and as the oceans get warmer, they release increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Because the release of CO2 by the warming oceans lags behind the changes in the earth’s temperature, we should expect to see global CO2 levels continue to rise for another eight hundred years after the end of the earth’s current Interglacial warm period. We should already be eight hundred years into the coming Ice Age before global CO2 levels begin to drop in response to the increased chilling of the world’s oceans.

The Vostok ice core data graph reveals that global CO2 levels regularly rose and fell in a direct response to the natural cycle of Ice Age minimums and maximums during the past four hundred and twenty thousand years. Within that natural cycle, about every 110,000 years global temperatures, followed by global CO2 levels, have peaked at approximately the same levels which they are at today.

About 325,000 years ago, at the peak of a warm interglacial, global temperature and CO2 levels were higher than they are today. Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it. The Ice Age will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the effects of AGW.

The AGW theory is based on data that is drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the ‘big picture’ of long-term climate change. The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change can occur within only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.

Solar situation

Final sunspot counts for the year 2008 are now available and the numbers are very low. The sun was utterly blank--that is, it had no sunspots whatsoever--on 266 days last year. That makes 2008 a century-class year in terms of low sunspot numbers. To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go all the way back to 1913, which had 311 spotless days.

A solar wind stream could reach Earth on Jan. 8th or 9th. Expect extreme cold and UV !

Saturn's Christmas !

Saturn's Crazy Christmas Tilt

12.22.2008
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/22dec_crazytilt.htm


Dec. 22, 2008: You look through the telescope. Blink. Shake your head and look again. The planet you expected to see in the eyepiece is not the one that's actually there. Too much eggnog?

No, it's just Saturn's crazy Christmas tilt.

All year long, the rings of Saturn have been tilting toward Earth and now they are almost perfectly edge-on. The opening angle is a paper-thin 0.8o. Viewed from the side, the normally wide and bright rings have become a shadowy line bisecting Saturn's two hemispheres--a scene of rare beauty.

Amateur astronomer Efrain Morales Rivera of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, has been monitoring Saturn and he created this composite image to show how the geometry has changed:



Astronomers call the phenomenon a "ring plane crossing." As Saturn goes around the sun, it periodically (once every 14 to 15 years) turns its rings edge-on to Earth. Because the rings are so thin, they can actually disappear when viewed through a backyard telescope. At the precise moment of crossing, Saturn undergoes a startling metamorphosis. The ringed planet becomes a lonely ball of gas, almost unrecognizable: Hubble photo.

(Historical note: Shortly after Galileo discovered Saturn's rings in 1610, they disappeared in precisely this fashion. Galileo didn't understand the nature of the rings and the vanishing act confused him mightily. Nevertheless, his physical intuition prevailed. "They'll be back," he predicted, and without ever knowing why, he was correct.)

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We're not quite there yet. The opening angle won't be precisely 0o until Sept. 4, 2009. Don't bother marking your calendar, though. Saturn will be so close to the sun, no one will be able to see the rings wink out.

The best time to look is now.

The 0.8o opening angle of Christmas 2008 is the minimum for some time to come. In January 2009 the rings begin to open up again, a temporary reversal caused by the orbital motions of Earth and Saturn. By the time narrowing resumes in summer 2009, Saturn will be approaching the sun; looking through a telescope then could actually be dangerous. The next ring plane crossing that's easy to watch won't come until 2038.

So wake up before sunrise on Dec. 25th, point your telescope at the golden "star" in Leo, and behold Saturn's crazy Christmas tilt: sky map.

Happy holidays from Science@NASA!

The rings of Saturn

The Rings of Saturn

http://www.varchive.org/itb/rings.htm


One instance of the Saturn myth can be verified with the help of a small telescope: Saturn is in chains. Instead of solving anything, this fact presents a new problem that demands a solution. How did the ancient Greeks and Romans know that Saturn is encircled by rings?(1) It is strange that this question was not asked before.(2) The existence of these rings around Saturn became known in modern times only in the seventeenth century, after the telescope was invented. They were first seen, but misunderstood, by Galileo(3) and understood by Huygens.(4)

If the myth did not by mere chance invent these rings, the Greeks must have seen them. The last case could be true if the Greeks or some other oriental people possessed lenses adapted for the observation of celestial bodies, or if the rings around Saturn were visible to the naked eye at some time in the past—today they are not visible without magnifying instruments. There are cases of exact observations by the Chaldeans which suggest the use of some accurate technical means.(5) These means could consist of a sort of astrolabe like that of Tyche de Brahe who made most accurate observations of celestial bodies without the help of a telescope; also Copernicus, prior to Tyche de Brahe, made all his calculations of the movements of the planets before the telescope was invented. But neither Tycho de Brahe nor Copernicus saw the rings.

The statue of Saturn on the Roman capitol had bands around its feet,(6) and Macrobius in the fifth century of our era, already ignorant of the meaning of these bands, asked: “But why is the god Saturn in chains?”

In the Egyptian legend Isis (Jupiter) swathes Osiris (Saturn). The Egyptian apellative for Osiris was “the swathed.” (7)

In the Zend-Avesta it is said that the star Tistrya (Jupiter, later Venus) keeps Pairiko in twofold bonds.(8) Saturn is encircled by two groups of rings—one larger and one smaller, with a space in between. To see this a better telescope than that used by Galilei or that used by Huygens is needed; the twofold structure of the girdle was first observed in 1675.(9)

The rings of Saturn were known also to the aboriginees of America before Columbus discovered the land; this means also before the telescope was invented at the beginning of the seventeenth century. An ancient engraved wooden panel from Mexico shows the family of the planets: one of them is Saturn, easily recognizable by its rings.(10)

Nor were the Maoris of New Zealand ignorant of them: “One of the great mysteries connected with Saturn is the still unanswered question of how the ancient Maoris of New Zealand knew about her rings—for there is evidence that they did have a Saturnian ring legend long before the days of Galileo.” (11)

In the myth it is said that Jupiter drove Saturn away and that on this occasion Saturn was put in chains. If these words mean what they say and are not a meaningless portion of the myth—in a dream, at least, there are no meaningless parts—then the knowledge of the ancients about the rings of Saturn could have been acquired because of better visibility: in other words, at some time in the past Saturn and Earth appear to have been closer to one another.

Originally I assumed that the rings of Saturn may consist of water in the form of ice, but since the ancient lore all around the world tells that it was Jupiter that put these rings around Saturn,(12) I considered that they might have some other components, too. Since the 1960’s spectroscopic study of the Saturnian rings has confirmed that they consist most probably of water in the form of ice.(13)

References


[The rings of Saturn are referred to by Aeschylus, Eumenides 641: “He [Zeus] himself cast into bonds his aged father Cronus” ; cf. Lucian, Astrology, 21: “Moreover, it is not true, neither, that Saturn is in chains.” Neoplatonists like Proclus In Timaeo, tr. by Festugiere, vol. III, p. 255 and n. 4; In Cratylo 209.3f) and Porphyry (De Antro Nympharum 67.21ff.) sought a philosophical or mystical meaning in the tradition. Cf. also Clemens Alexandrinus, Homilia, VI. xiii in Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca, J.-P. Migne ed., vol. II.207f; Dio Chrysostom, Fourteenth Discourse 21ff: “And yet the King of the Gods, the first and eldest one, is in bonds, they say, if we are to believe Hesiod and Homer and the other wise men who tell this tale about Cronus.” Cf. Hesiod, Works and Days, 169ff. Augustine, refuting those who asserted that the Jewish Sabbath was held in honor of Saturn, wrote: “ita patres nostri longe fuerunt a Saturniacis catenis, quamvis pro tempore propheatiae sabbati vacationem observaverint.” (Contra Faustum Manichaeum XX. 13. in Migne ed., Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Latina, Vol. XLII, p. 379). Cf. also Arnobius, Contra Gentes IV. 24 in ibid., vol. III: “Numquid paricidii causa vinctum esse Saturnum, et suis diebus tantum vinculorum ponderibus revelari?” and Minucius Felix, Octavius XXI, in ibid., vol. III, col. 304: “Quid formae ipsae et habitus? . . . Saturnus compeditis.” An epigram of Martial (III. 29) refers to the bonds of Saturn, comparing them to rings: “Has cum gemina compede dedicat catenas, Saturne, tibi Zoilus anulos priores.” “These chains with their double fetter Zoilus dedicates to you, Saturnus. They were formerly his rings."—transl. by W. Kerr (London, 1919). The shrines to Saturn in Roman Africa portrayed the god with his head surrounded “by a veil that falls on each of his shoulders,” in a way reminiscent of the planet’s rings. See J. Toutain, De Saturni Dei in Africa Romana Cultu (Paris, 1894), p. 42 and figs. 1 and 2.].


[But cf. Th. Taylor in The Classical Journal 40 (1819), pp. 324-326, and A. de Grazia, “Ancient Knowledge of Jupiter’s Bands and Saturn’s Rings,” KRONOS II.3 (1977), pp. 65ff.]

[When Galileo first saw the rings in July of 1610, he thought them to be two satellites on either side of Saturn, and this is what he also announced in his Sidereus Nuntius. Cf. A. Alexander, The Planet Saturn, (1962), pp. 84ff.]


[Chr. Huygens, Systema Saturnium (1659); Cf. Alexander, The Planet Saturn, loc. cit.]


P. Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier, p.


Macrobius, The Saturnalia, I.8.5, transl. by P. V. Davies (New York, 1969): “ Saturn, too, is represented with his feet bound together, and, although Verrius Flaccus says that he does not know the reason . . . Apollodorus says that throughout the year Saturn is bound with a bond of wool but is set free on the day of his festival.” Cf. ibid., I.8.1.


See below, section “Tammuz and Osiris” . Cf. A. S. Yahuda, “The Osiris Cult and the Designation of Osiris Idols in the Bible,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies III (1944), pp. 194-197.

The Zend-Avesta xvi, transl. by J. Darmesteter (1883), p. 107. [The text of the Zend-Avesta reads: “Tistrya, bright star, keeps Pairiko in twofold bonds, in threefold bonds.” A third ring around Saturn was observed in 1980. Velikovsky also thought that Mithraic representations of Kronos with his body encircled by a snake (cf. F. Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra [1903], figs 21-23) may attest to a memory of the rings of Saturn. Cf. the Hindu Sani (the planet Saturn) shown in an ancient woodcut reproduced in F. Maurice, Indian Antiquities (London, 1800), vol. VII, and described by the author as “encircled with a ring formed of serpents.” Tammuz, who represented the planet Saturn in Babylonia (E. Weidner, Handbuch der Babylonisches Astronomie [Leipzig, 1915], p. 61) was called “he who is bound.” See also Thorkild Jacobsen, Toward the Image of Tammuz (Harvard University Press, 1970), p. 85. and A. E. Thierens, Astrology in Mesopotamian Culture (Leiden, 1935). Ninib, who was also Saturn, was said to hold “the unbreakable bond” or “der maechtigen Schlange"—Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, ch. xvii, p. 463.].


The observation was made by G. D. Cassini.


Kingsborough, Antiquities of Mexico (London, 1830), vol. IV, the fourth plate from the end of the volume. See fig.


Guy Murchie, Music of the Spheres (Boston, 1961), p. 94. [A useful discussion of Maori astronomical ideas is provided in a monograph by E. Best, The Astronomical Knowledge of the Maori, Genuine and Empirical, New Zealand Dominium Museum Monograph no. 3 (Wellington, 1922), p. 35:


PAREARAU represents one of the planets. Stowell says that it is Saturn; that Parearau is a descriptive name for that planet, and describes its appearance, surrounded by a ring. The word pare denotes a fillet or headband; arau means “entangled"—or perhaps “surrounded” in this case, if the natives really can see the pare of Saturn with the naked eye. If so, then the name seems a suitable one. . . . Of the origin of this name one says, ‘Her band quite surrounds her, hence she is called Parearau.’” ].

[Regarding the process of formation of Saturn’s rings, Velikovsky thought that it might have been analogous to the formation of a disc-like ring of gaseous material around some stars in binary systems, as described by H. Friedman in Science 181, (Aug. 3, 1973), p. 396: “The gas enters into Keplerian orbits and accumulates in a disc somewhat resembling Saturn’s rings. . . .” ].


In August 1965 Tobias Owen, writing in Science, (p. 975) reported that “the reflection spectrum from the ice block gave best match to the absorption observed in Saturn’s ring"—but that “the most likely alternatives” would be “ices of methane and ammonia"—both known ingredients of the Jovian atmosphere, methane being also in the composition of the Saturnian cloud envelope. See also Appendix 26. [As early as 1947 Kuiper (The Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets [1949]), concluded on the basis of spectral measurements in the infrared that “the rings are covered by frost, if not composed of ice.” Cf. A. Cook et al., “Saturn’s Rings—A Survey,” Icarus 18 (1973), p. 317: “Although frozen H2O is a major constituent, the spectral reflectivity indicates the presence of other materials.”].

Astronomy, astrology(ezoteric) and the events on Earth- News alers!

If we look westward, just as the sun is setting, we can see three bright objects in the sky. These will be visible through the first half of September 2008. The objects, as previously mentioned, are Mercury, Venus, and Mars. These objects will form a perfect isosceles triangle on September 1st. Then, something very peculiar begins to happen. Mars and Venus begin to move closer and closer to each other. In the occult world, Mars means war, and Venus means erotic love or false peace. Then on September 11th, 2008, exactly seven years to the date after the World Trade Center was attacked, Mars will appear to slam into Venus. The two objects do not actually collide, but they appear to as a sign in the heavens. As I seek the Lord in watching unto prayer, I sense a great and deep foreboding that seems to come from everywhere. Those who have binoculars can watch this event at sunset in the western sky. What great event is the Lord warning us about? Soon we will know!

Venus is the Goddess of War, Death and Creation. So we shall expect something big to happen on this date, weather a proper war, false flag or economic problems.

September 11th 2008 is exacly on a Thursday, the same day as in 2001, when the Twin Towers collapsed !

Is is only a " co-incidence" ( I didn't make a mistake in spelling!)

News alert !

A solar wind stream should reach Earth on Sept. 3rd
Weather, people moods, economy,finances, the holistic overview of the Celstial events on Earth facts
Everything is in Harmony, in the Sky and on Earth( Universal law)

EMERGING MOON: Tonight, August 30th, at 11:13 p.m. EDT (8:13 pm PDT), Jupiter's moon Io will pop out of Jupiter's shadow a smidgen to the east of the giant planet. This is your chance to watch an alien world materialize in the darkness

The 13th zodiac sign

Astrological Attributes of Ophiuchus

The 13th Sign of the Zodiac



http://aquarianmysteries.com/ophiuchus2.html


The constellation, Ophiuchus, has been known since ancient times, and is better known as Serpentarius, the Serpent Holder. It is included in the list of 48 constellations described by Ptolemy. Ophiuchus is depicted as a man handling a serpent; his body dividing the large snake into two parts, giving way to the symbol used today as an Asclepius - the medical staff. Astrologers have not included Ophiuchus in the wheel of Astrological signs because the Sun spends only about nineteen days in this 13th sign of the Mazzaroth. Not that there wasn't a 13th sign in the Heavens, but as far as Astrologers were concerned, the Sun traveled from the constellation 'Scorpius' and then proceeded directly into the sign of Sagittarius. In reality, this was not the case. The Sun, for 19 days of the year, travels through the star constellation 'Ophiuchus' before entering Sagittarius from Scorpius - see chart below. thus The sign of Ophiuchus is patterned after the original 'Serpent Holder', Enki, a Sumerian god.

The signs of the Zodiac are for the most part, the highway, or path on which the Sun takes it's yearly journey across the heavens - as it would appear to Earthlings. These signs are actually star constellations occupying space in which the Sun appears to travels in an earth year. The original twelve signs/constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces are quite familiar to everyone, however, the thirteenth sign and constellation, [Ophiuchus], is in fact, not well known. To acknowledge a 13th sign now would seem awkward for astrologers, who like the tidiness of 12 signs that rule over the 12 houses of the Zodiac. The heavens are alive and they do change after a few thousand years and the astrologer who wants to maintain accuracy must change along with the signs in the heavens.

The constellation of Ophiuchus is the only sign of the Zodiac which is linked to a real man. This man lived in ancient Egypt around the 27th century BCE, and his name was Imhotep [again patterned after Enki]. Many of the same attributes of Imhotep can also be found in the Biblical Hebrew man Joseph, son of Jacob - [see comparison chart for these two men in separate article]. Imhotep is credited with many accomplishments including the knowledge and use of medicine. It is said of Imhotep that he brought the art of healing to mankind. The symbol of a serpent [or snake], which is still widely used today to represent the medical profession, was used to represent Imhotep. Imhotep was also known as 'Aesclepius' to the ancient Greeks, but by any name the attributes are still all the same. The attributes listed below describe the Serpent Holder, Imhotep, i.e. the Hebrew Joseph, and Aesclepius. The keyword descriptions seen below, originated with Betty Rhodes, and are the attributes for the 13th sign of the Zodiac - Ophiuchus:


LIST OF KEY WORDS DESCRIBING THE SIGN OF OPHIUCHUS

interpreter of dreams, vivid premonitions,
attracts good luck and fruitful blessings,
serpent holder, lofty ideals,
a seeker of peace and harmony,
doctor of medicine or science, natural-pathic,
adds, increases, joins, or gathers together
poetical, inventive nature, expanding qualities,
seeks higher education and wisdom,
overseer, supervisor of work,
fame - either grand, or completely misunderstood,
longevity, aspirations of healing the ills of man,
architect, builder, reaches for the stars, figuratively and literally,
tax assessor, or levys taxes,
astrological talents, intuitive,
large family indicated, but apt to be separated from them when young,
the number twelve holds great significance,
foresight and good fortune to benefit from hard times,
has secret enemies in family or close associations,
many jealous of this subject,
notable father, apple of father's eye when young,
high position in life expected [depending on aspects] highest fame and legend comes after death
feelings of granular, wise, genius mentality,
likes to wear clothing of vibrant colors, and plaids in particular,
receives the favor of those in authority.

ACTUAL TRUE ZODIAC

ARIES = APRIL 19 - MAY 13
TAURUS = MAY 14 - JUNE 19
GEMINI = JUNE 20 - JULY 20
CANCER = JULY 21 - AUG 9
LEO = AUGUST 10 - SEPTEMBER 15
VIRGO = SEPTEMBER 16 - OCTOBER 30
LIBRA = OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 22
SCORPIO = NOVEMBER 23 - NOVEMBER 29
OPHIUCHUS = NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 17
SAGITTARIUS = DECEMBER 18 - JANUARY 18
CAPRICORN = JANUARY 19 - FEBRUARY 15
AQUARIUS = FEBRUARY 16 - MARCH 11
PISCES = MARCH 12 - APRIL 18



Of the sign Ophiuchus:

"Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." GEN 41:40-44

Caduceus vs the Staff of Asclepius



The Caduceus [above] depicts two entwined snakes set upon a rod, and was the ancient symbol of Hermes, the Greek god of merchants. Today, it is a common and popular symbol of the medical and allied professions.

Asclepius (an ancient greek physician who was deified as the god of medicine) is traditionally depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe that leaves his chest uncovered and holding a staff with his sacred single serpent coiled around it symbolizing renewal of youth as the serpent casts off its skin. The single serpent staff also appears on a Sumerian vase of c. 2000 B.C. representing the healing god Ningishita, the prototype of the Greek Asklepios.

The probable medical origin of the single serpent around a rod: In ancient times infection by parasitic worms was common. The filarial worm Dracunculus medinensis aka "the fiery serpent", aka "the dragon of Medina" aka "the guinea worm" crawled around the victim's body, just under the skin. Physicians treated this infection by cutting a slit in the patient's skin, just in front of the worm's path. As the worm crawled out the cut, the physician carefully wound the pest around a stick until the entire animal had been removed. It is believed that because this type of infection was so common, physicians advertised their services by displaying a sign with the worm on a stick.



Ophiuchus, the Snake Charmer

http://www.eastbayastro.org/articles/lore/ophiuchus.htm

is the thirteenth of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac. It is the forgotten constellation, perhaps, for the Sun actually spends more time before the stars of Ophiuchus (19 days) than it does in neighboring Scorpius (6 days). Also, the stars in this area of the sky are less than magnificent. There are only four stars that exceed a rating of magnitude three. Alpha, Ras Alhague, is a magnitude 2.1 star somewhat less than midway on the line from Vega toward Antares. Eta Ophiuchi, Zeta, and Beta follow at 2.6, 2.7 and 2.9 magnitude. These stars can be found above Scorpius and below the stars of Hercules. Aquila is to the east. The center of the constellation crosses the meridian at about eleven p.m. in early July.

For binocular viewing there are six star clusters in this area of the sky, all with Messier numbers: 9, 10, 12, 14, 19 and 62. Another, M107, is dimmer and would require a telescope for study. Still other globular clusters exist in this region, making 22 in all.

A number of double stars are here, too, including Sabik (Eta-Ophiuchi), a pair of third-magnitude stars separated by one second. 70-Ophiuchi is another interesting multiple star, which José Olivarez has considered in his Observations column. The colors of the stars are said to be yellow and purple. This star system was discovered in 1779 by Sir William Herschel. It is part of an olden asterism made up with other stars in this region of Ophiuchus. The stars form the letter V that suggests the Hyades in Taurus, the Bull. In 1777, a Polish astronomer, Abbé Poczobut of Wilna, asked the French Academy to honor the last Polish king, King Stanislaus Poniatowski, with a constellation. The designation did not last, however, although “Poniatowski's Bull” may still be found on some star charts.

Æsculapius was an immortal man who had been schooled by the centaur Chiron in the arts of botany and medicine. So he was knowledgeable of the various herbs and plants and a student of nature. One day, it is said, he was in the house of a friend when he killed a snake. He watched in astonishment when another snake slithered into the room with a particular herb in its mouth and with it restored the slain reptile to life. Recognizing the plant, Æsculapius soon had learned to use its mystical powers to heal the sick and resurrect the dead. It is from this history and from the ability of a snake to cast off its skin and assume a new revitalization that serpents have become symbols for healing. The staff of Æsculapius, with a snake coiling about the rod, is well known in today's medicine. Unfortunately, this symbol is often confused with the caduceus of Mercury, which is a doubly-winged wand entwined by two snakes. Truly, however, the symbol of Mercury is the symbol of messengers.

Æsculapius, the first doctor, sailed on the famous voyage of the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. Following the journey, he continued to heal the sick and to advance the practice of medicine. On the death of Orion, he was about to attempt to restore the life of this great hero when Pluto, lord of the underworld, intervened. Pluto reasoned that his realm would decline if Æsculapius were allowed to revive the dead. He appealed to his brother Jupiter to agree that death should be the ultimate end of mortal man, not to be trifled with even by the most skilled of physicians. Jupiter, king of the gods, struck Æsculapius with a thunderbolt and ended his life on Earth. But in tribute to the accomplishments and skill of the great physician, Jupiter placed him among the stars, where today he is known as Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer.

Antiquated star maps show a larger constellation, depicting the physician clutching the serpent that wraps about his body or shoulders. Now, however, the serpent itself is represented and is given two identities. Stars to the west are those of the head, Serpens Caput, while the tail section, Serpens Cauda, writhes eastward toward Aquila, above the shield of Scutum.

One of the most interesting objects that you can't see in Ophiuchus is the Pipe nebula. On dark, clear nights you won't see it because this absorption nebula lies in front of the spectacular Milky Way. It is one of the largest dark-cloud formations that can (cannot?) be seen from the Northern Hemisphere.



From the crisp, clear skies of the “Legendary White Mountain Star Party,” Axel Mellinger photographed the Pipe Nebula south of Theta-Ophiuchi, above the tail of Scorpius. He used a 135-mm lens and Kodak Ektapress Multispeed PJM film.
Please find a remarkable collection of Axel's work at his site: http://moore4.cchem.berkeley.edu/~axel/.
Ophiuchus, not so well known as neighboring Scorpius or Sagittarius of the Zodiac constellations, has much to draw your attention during summer evenings.
Ophiuchus, The Burning Tower, and The Doppelgänger Universe



Approximately 13,000 years ago the Atlantean's were facing almost identical trials and tribulations as we are today. Their choice: Nuclear Holocaust or human utopia. They were aligning with Ophiuchus - the lost 13th sign of the zodiac - which symbolizes alignment with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, - and the choice of ascension for mankind. There are radioactive isotopes that look like cluster bombs in northern Scandinavia and the northeastern united states that date back to Atlantean times - and many have theorized that this was an ancient nuclear war between the Atlanteans and rival factions - which ultimately resulted in their annihilation.

Hopefully we decide to alter our Doppelgänger history - to rise above such a catastrophe and end the time loop once and for all.

When the book of time turns to blank pages - and the prophets are blocked from viewing the future - It is not written that this will be the end of all things - but a new beginning - A phoenix from the ashes - an opportunity for the human race to write a new book - and fill it's pages with all the beauty of the cosmos. Once and for all - we can claim our rightful position - on the throne of creation - as exploratory citizens of the universe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AlJYWO_g_w

Giant Particle Accelerator Discovered In The Sky

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/...80125224810.htm


ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2008) — ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory, Integral, has made the first unambiguous discovery of highly energetic X-rays coming from a galaxy cluster. The find has shown the cluster to be a giant particle accelerator.

The Ophiuchus galaxy cluster is one of brightest in the sky at X-ray wavelengths. The X-rays detected are too energetic to originate from quiescent hot gas inside the cluster and suggest instead that giant shockwaves must be rippling through the gas. This has turned the galaxy cluster into a giant particle accelerator.

Most of the X-rays come from hot gas in the cluster, which in the case of Ophiuchus is extremely hot, at 100 million degrees Kelvin. Four years ago, data from the Italian/ Dutch BeppoSAX satellite showed a possible extra component of high-energy X-rays in a different cluster, the Coma cluster.

“Two groups analysed the data. One group saw the component but the other did not,” says Dominique Eckert, Integral Science Data Centre (ISDC), University of Geneva, Switzerland. So Eckert and colleagues from ISDC launched an investigation into the mystery.

They turned to Integral and its five-year, all-sky survey and found that ESA’s orbiting gamma-ray observatory did show an unambiguous detection of highly energetic X-rays, coming from the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies. These X-rays can be produced in two ways, both of which involve high-energy electrons.

The first option is that the electrons are caught in the magnetic field threading through the cluster. In this case, the electrons would spiral around the magnetic field lines, releasing synchrotron radiation in the form of X-rays.

The electrons would be extremely energetic, carrying over 100 000 times the energy of the electrons in the alternative scenario, which is that the electrons are perhaps colliding with microwaves left over from the origin of the Universe and now bathe all of space. In such collisions, the electrons lose some energy, emitted as X-rays.

Determining which of these scenarios is correct is the next job for the team. They plan to use radio telescopes to measure the magnetic field of the galaxy cluster. They also plan to use the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) in Namibia. This giant telescope looks for the brief flash of light generated when highly energetic gamma rays collide with particles in Earth’s atmosphere. If HESS sees such flashes coming from Ophiuchus, then the astronomers will know that the synchrotron scenario is correct.

Either way, the electrons themselves are most likely to be accelerated to high energies by shockwaves travelling through the cluster gas. The shockwaves are set up when two clusters collide and merge. The question is how recently Ophiuchus swallowed its companion cluster.

In the synchrotron scenario, the highly energetic electrons cool very quickly. If the team find this to be the case, then the collision must still be in progress. In the case of microwave scattering, cooling takes a long time and the collision could have taken place at any time in the past.

Once the scientists know, they will be able to properly understand the history of the cluster. One thing is already certain; nature has transformed the galaxy cluster into a powerful particle accelerator, perhaps 20 times more powerful than CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which begins operation in Switzerland this summer.

“Of course the Ophiuchus cluster is somewhat bigger,” says Stéphane Paltani, a member of the ISDC team. While LHC is 27 km across, the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster is over two million light-years in diameter.”

Journal reference: 'Integral discovery of non-thermal hard X-ray emission from the Ophiuchus cluster' by D. Eckert, N. Produit, S. Paltani, A. Neronov and T. Courvoisier is to be published in a forthcoming issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Adapted from materials provided by European Space Agency

Global cooling-Australian astronomers study

Australian Researchers Warn of Global Cooling

Michael Asher (Blog) - July 1, 2008 11:09 AM
http://www.dailytech.com/Australian+Astron...rticle12250.htm


A 2005 prediction of solar activity. The sunspot number should now stand close to 100, instead it is zero."Spin-orbit coupling" to blame; effects could last decades.

A new paper published by the Astronomical Society of Australia is warning of upcoming global cooling due to lessened solar activity. The study, written by three Australian researchers, has identified what is known as a "spin-orbit coupling" affecting the rotation rate of the sun. That rotation, in turn, is linked to the intensity of the solar cycle and climate changes here on Earth.
The study's lead author, Ian Wilson, explains further, "[The paper] supports the contention that the level of activity on the Sun will significantly diminish sometime in the next decade and remain low for about 20 - 30 years."

According to Wilson, the result is a strong, rapid pulse of global cooling, "On each occasion that the Sun has done this in the past the World’s mean temperature has dropped by ~ 1 - 2 C."

A 2 C drop would be twice as large as all the warming the earth has experienced since the start of the industrial era, and would be significant enough to impact global agriculture output.

Earlier this year, astronomers from around the world noted solar activity was suspiciously low; some began predicting global cooling at that time. Since then, activity has remained far below average, with it now being over two months since a single sunspot has appeared on the surface of the sun.

In May, a team of German climatologists published research stating that, due to "natural effects", global warming would halt for up to 15 years.

The new paper appears in the June issue of PASA, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.