New planet discovered in Trinary star system
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A planet 6 times the mass of Earth orbits around the star Gliese 667 C, another member of a triple star system. Credit: ESO
Until recently, astronomers were highly skeptical of whether or not planets should be possible in multiple star systems. It was expected that the constantly varying gravitational force would eventually tug the planet out of orbit. But despite doubts, astronomers have found several planets in just such star systems. Recently, astronomers announced another, this time in the trinary star HD 132563.
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The detection of the new planet came as part of a larger study on the trinary star system spanning 10 years. The two main stars that comprise the system are both similar to the Sun in mass, although somewhat less prevalent in metals, and orbit each other at a distance of around 400 AU. The main star, HD 132563A is also itself, a binary. This fact was not previously recognized and also reported by the team, led by Silvano Desidera from the Astronomical Observatory in Padova, Italy.
The newly discovered planet orbits the secondary star in the system, HD 132563B. As with the binary component of the main star, the new planet was discovered spectroscopically. The planet is at least 1.3 times the mass of Jupiter, with an average distance from its parent star of 2.6 AU, and an moderately high eccentricity of 0.22.
The team also attempted to image the planet directly using adaptive optics from the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. While there was a hint in the glare of the star that may have been the planet in question, the team could not rule out that the detection was not an instrumental effect.
With the discovery of this new planet, the total number of discovered planets in multiple star systems lies at eight. while this is rather small numbers from which to draw firm conclusions, it appears that planets can be commonly found orbiting the more remote members of trinary star systems for good periods of time. On the shorter end, the stellar system is anticipated to be 1-3 billion years in aged, based on the amount of stellar activity and amount of lithium present in the star’s atmosphere (which decreases with time). However, fitting of the mass and luminosity onto isochrones suggest the stars may be as much as 5 billion years in age. In either situation, the planetary system is dynamically stable.
Also based on these eight systems, the team also suggests that planets existing around such far removed members of a multiple star system may be as common as planets around wide binaries, or even single stars.
Source: Universe Today
10.09.2010
Does ET live on Goldilocks planet? How scientists spotted 'mysterious pulse of light' from direction of newly-discovered '2nd Earth' two years ago
An astronomer picked up a mysterious pulse of light coming from the direction of the newly discovered Earth-like planet almost two years ago, it has emerged.
Dr Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, picked up the odd signal in December 2008, long before it was announced that the star Gliese 581 has habitable planets in orbit around it.
A member of the Australian chapter of SETI, the organisation that looks for communication from distant planets, Dr Bhathal had been sweeping the skies when he discovered a 'suspicious' signal from an area of the galaxy that holds the newly-discovered Gliese 581g.
The remarkable coincidence adds another layer of mystery to the announcement last night that scientists had discovered another planet in the system: Gliese 581g - the most Earth-like planet ever found.
Dr Bhathal's discovery had come just months before astronomers announced that they had found a similar, slightly less habitable planet around the same star 20 light years away. This planet was called Gliese 581e.
When asked about his discovery at the time Dr Bhathal admitted he had been really excited about what he had possibly stumbled across.
He said: 'Whenever there’s a clear night, I go up to the observatory and do a run on some of the celestial objects. Looking at one of these objects, we found this signal.
'And you know, I got really excited with it. So next I had to analyse it. We have special software to analyse these signals, because when you look at celestial objects through the equipment we have, you also pick up a lot of noise.'
He went on: 'We found this very sharp signal, sort of a laser lookalike thing which is the sort of thing we’re looking for - a very sharp spike. And that is what we found. So that was the excitement about the whole thing.'
For months after his discovery Dr Bhathal scanned the skies for a second signal to see whether it was just a glitch in his instrumentation but his search came to nothing.
But the discovery of Earth-like planets around Gliese 581 - both 581e and 581d, which was in the habitable zone - has also caught the public imagination.
Documentary-maker RDF and social-networking site Bebo used a radio telescope in Ukraine to send a powerful focused beam of information - 500 messages from the public in the form of radiowaves - to Gliese 581.
And the Australian science minister at the time organised 20,000 users of Twitter to send messages towards the distant solar system in the wake of the discoveries.
This artist's conception shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away from Earth
This artist's conception shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away from Earth. The four tiny planets in the background are the planets that have already been discovered. The closer, blue and green planet is 581G, the most Earth-like planet ever discovered
And Dr Steven Vogt who led the study at the University of California, Santa Cruz, today said that he was '100 per cent sure ' that there was life on the planet.
The planet lies in the star's 'Goldilocks zone' - the region in space where conditions are neither too hot or too cold for liquid water to form oceans, lakes and rivers.
The planet also appears to have an atmosphere, a gravity like our own and could well be capable of life. Researchers say the findings suggest the universe is teeming with world like our own.
'If these are rare, we shouldn't have found one so quickly and so nearby,'
'The number of systems with potentially habitable planets is probably on the order of 10 or 20 per cent, and when you multiply that by the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, that's a large number. There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy.'
GLIESE 581g FACT FILE
* Diameter - 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth
* Mass - 3.1 and 4.3 times that of the Earth
* Average surface temperature - between -24F and 10F (-31C and -12C)
* Distance from the Earth - 20 light years or 118,000,000,000,000 miles
* Time needed to travel to Gliese 581g in a rocket travelling one tenth the speed of light, or 19,000 miles per second - 200 years
* One of six planets to orbit the star Gliese 581
* Length of year - 37 Earth days
* Gravity - similar or slightly higher than Earth
* Distance from its sun - around six million miles
* The planet orbits a red dwarf which is 50 times cooler and a third the size of our Sun
* Composition - rocky with liquid water and atmosphere.
He told Discovery News: 'Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say that the chances for life on this planet are 100 percent. I have almost no doubt about it'.
The planet is so far away, spaceships travelling close to the speed of light would take 20 years to make the journey. If a rocket was one day able to travel at a tenth of the speed of light, it would take 200 years to make the journey.
Planets orbiting distant stars are too small to be seen by telescopes. Instead, astronomers look for tell-tale gravitational wobbles in the stars that show a planet is in orbit.
The findings come from 11 years of observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
The planet orbits a small red star called Gliese 581 in the constellation of Libra. The planet, named Glieseg, is 118,000,000,000,000 miles away - so far away that light from its start takes 20 years to reach the Earth.
It takes just 37 days to orbit its sun which means its seasons last for just a few days. One side of the planet always faces its star and basks in perpetual daylight, while the other is in perpetual darkness.
The most suitable place for life or future human colonists would be in the 'grey' zone - the band between darkness and light that circles the planet.
'Any emerging life forms would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude,' said Dr Vogt who reports the find in the Astrophysical Journal.
If Gliese 581g has a rocky composition similar to the Earth's, its diameter would be about 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth. It's gravity is likely to be similar - allowing a human astronaut to walk on the surface upright without difficulty.
More...
* Why T-Rex was even scarier than we thought: Experts say museum exhibits are too SMALL
'This planet doesn't have days and nights. Wherever you are on this planet, the sun is in the same position all the time. You have very stable zones where the ecosystem stays the same temperature... basically forever,' Vogt said.
Gliese 581, the brightest object in this Nasa image from 2007, is only 20 light years from Earth and is one of our nearest neighbours
Gliese 581, the brightest object in this Nasa image from 2007, is only 20 light years from Earth and is one of our nearest neighbours
'If life can evolve, it's going to have billions and billions of years to adapt to the surface. Given the ubiquity of water, it seems probable that this thing actually has liquid water. On the surface of the Earth, everywhere you have liquid water you have life,' Vogt added.
Astronomers have now found six planets in orbit around Gliese 581 - the most discovered in a planetary system other than our own solar system.
Like the solar system, the planets orbiting Gliese 581 have mostly circular orbits.
Two of its detected planets have previously been proposed as habitable planets. However they lie at the extremes of the Goldilocks Zone - one on the hot side, the other on the cold side.
Gliese 581g, in contrast, lies right in the middle.
The star has not been given a proper name. It appears in a catalogue of stars compiled by the German astronomer William Gliese where it has been given the reference number 581.
Astronomers name planets found orbiting stars with a letter.
The previous five planets found around Gliese 581 were named b to f, making the latest discovery Gliese 581g.
Its star is a red giant - a massive star near the end of its life. It is too dim to see in the night sky from Earth without a telescope.
Astronomers have found nearly 500 exoplanets - or planets outside our own solar system.
However, almost all are too big, made of gas instead of rock, too hot or too cold for life as we know it.
The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system
The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system. The Gliese 581 star has about 30% the mass of our sun, and the outermost planet is closer to its star than we are to the sun. The 4th planet, G, is a planet that could sustain life.
story from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1316538/Gliese-581g-mystery-Scientist-spotted-mysterious-pulse-light-direction-newEarth-planet-year.html
Dr Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, picked up the odd signal in December 2008, long before it was announced that the star Gliese 581 has habitable planets in orbit around it.
A member of the Australian chapter of SETI, the organisation that looks for communication from distant planets, Dr Bhathal had been sweeping the skies when he discovered a 'suspicious' signal from an area of the galaxy that holds the newly-discovered Gliese 581g.
The remarkable coincidence adds another layer of mystery to the announcement last night that scientists had discovered another planet in the system: Gliese 581g - the most Earth-like planet ever found.
Dr Bhathal's discovery had come just months before astronomers announced that they had found a similar, slightly less habitable planet around the same star 20 light years away. This planet was called Gliese 581e.
When asked about his discovery at the time Dr Bhathal admitted he had been really excited about what he had possibly stumbled across.
He said: 'Whenever there’s a clear night, I go up to the observatory and do a run on some of the celestial objects. Looking at one of these objects, we found this signal.
'And you know, I got really excited with it. So next I had to analyse it. We have special software to analyse these signals, because when you look at celestial objects through the equipment we have, you also pick up a lot of noise.'
He went on: 'We found this very sharp signal, sort of a laser lookalike thing which is the sort of thing we’re looking for - a very sharp spike. And that is what we found. So that was the excitement about the whole thing.'
For months after his discovery Dr Bhathal scanned the skies for a second signal to see whether it was just a glitch in his instrumentation but his search came to nothing.
But the discovery of Earth-like planets around Gliese 581 - both 581e and 581d, which was in the habitable zone - has also caught the public imagination.
Documentary-maker RDF and social-networking site Bebo used a radio telescope in Ukraine to send a powerful focused beam of information - 500 messages from the public in the form of radiowaves - to Gliese 581.
And the Australian science minister at the time organised 20,000 users of Twitter to send messages towards the distant solar system in the wake of the discoveries.
This artist's conception shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away from Earth
This artist's conception shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away from Earth. The four tiny planets in the background are the planets that have already been discovered. The closer, blue and green planet is 581G, the most Earth-like planet ever discovered
And Dr Steven Vogt who led the study at the University of California, Santa Cruz, today said that he was '100 per cent sure ' that there was life on the planet.
The planet lies in the star's 'Goldilocks zone' - the region in space where conditions are neither too hot or too cold for liquid water to form oceans, lakes and rivers.
The planet also appears to have an atmosphere, a gravity like our own and could well be capable of life. Researchers say the findings suggest the universe is teeming with world like our own.
'If these are rare, we shouldn't have found one so quickly and so nearby,'
'The number of systems with potentially habitable planets is probably on the order of 10 or 20 per cent, and when you multiply that by the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, that's a large number. There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy.'
GLIESE 581g FACT FILE
* Diameter - 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth
* Mass - 3.1 and 4.3 times that of the Earth
* Average surface temperature - between -24F and 10F (-31C and -12C)
* Distance from the Earth - 20 light years or 118,000,000,000,000 miles
* Time needed to travel to Gliese 581g in a rocket travelling one tenth the speed of light, or 19,000 miles per second - 200 years
* One of six planets to orbit the star Gliese 581
* Length of year - 37 Earth days
* Gravity - similar or slightly higher than Earth
* Distance from its sun - around six million miles
* The planet orbits a red dwarf which is 50 times cooler and a third the size of our Sun
* Composition - rocky with liquid water and atmosphere.
He told Discovery News: 'Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say that the chances for life on this planet are 100 percent. I have almost no doubt about it'.
The planet is so far away, spaceships travelling close to the speed of light would take 20 years to make the journey. If a rocket was one day able to travel at a tenth of the speed of light, it would take 200 years to make the journey.
Planets orbiting distant stars are too small to be seen by telescopes. Instead, astronomers look for tell-tale gravitational wobbles in the stars that show a planet is in orbit.
The findings come from 11 years of observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
The planet orbits a small red star called Gliese 581 in the constellation of Libra. The planet, named Glieseg, is 118,000,000,000,000 miles away - so far away that light from its start takes 20 years to reach the Earth.
It takes just 37 days to orbit its sun which means its seasons last for just a few days. One side of the planet always faces its star and basks in perpetual daylight, while the other is in perpetual darkness.
The most suitable place for life or future human colonists would be in the 'grey' zone - the band between darkness and light that circles the planet.
'Any emerging life forms would have a wide range of stable climates to choose from and to evolve around, depending on their longitude,' said Dr Vogt who reports the find in the Astrophysical Journal.
If Gliese 581g has a rocky composition similar to the Earth's, its diameter would be about 1.2 to 1.4 times that of the Earth. It's gravity is likely to be similar - allowing a human astronaut to walk on the surface upright without difficulty.
More...
* Why T-Rex was even scarier than we thought: Experts say museum exhibits are too SMALL
'This planet doesn't have days and nights. Wherever you are on this planet, the sun is in the same position all the time. You have very stable zones where the ecosystem stays the same temperature... basically forever,' Vogt said.
Gliese 581, the brightest object in this Nasa image from 2007, is only 20 light years from Earth and is one of our nearest neighbours
Gliese 581, the brightest object in this Nasa image from 2007, is only 20 light years from Earth and is one of our nearest neighbours
'If life can evolve, it's going to have billions and billions of years to adapt to the surface. Given the ubiquity of water, it seems probable that this thing actually has liquid water. On the surface of the Earth, everywhere you have liquid water you have life,' Vogt added.
Astronomers have now found six planets in orbit around Gliese 581 - the most discovered in a planetary system other than our own solar system.
Like the solar system, the planets orbiting Gliese 581 have mostly circular orbits.
Two of its detected planets have previously been proposed as habitable planets. However they lie at the extremes of the Goldilocks Zone - one on the hot side, the other on the cold side.
Gliese 581g, in contrast, lies right in the middle.
The star has not been given a proper name. It appears in a catalogue of stars compiled by the German astronomer William Gliese where it has been given the reference number 581.
Astronomers name planets found orbiting stars with a letter.
The previous five planets found around Gliese 581 were named b to f, making the latest discovery Gliese 581g.
Its star is a red giant - a massive star near the end of its life. It is too dim to see in the night sky from Earth without a telescope.
Astronomers have found nearly 500 exoplanets - or planets outside our own solar system.
However, almost all are too big, made of gas instead of rock, too hot or too cold for life as we know it.
The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system
The orbits of planets in the Gliese 581 system are compared to those of our own solar system. The Gliese 581 star has about 30% the mass of our sun, and the outermost planet is closer to its star than we are to the sun. The 4th planet, G, is a planet that could sustain life.
story from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1316538/Gliese-581g-mystery-Scientist-spotted-mysterious-pulse-light-direction-newEarth-planet-year.html
4.17.2010
Earth-sized UFOs Using our Sun as Star Gate
These huge spherical UFO's started appearing around January 18, 2010. They are on both the forward and rear images taken by NASA's Stereo Spacecraft in space. They appear to be moving as they are in different positions on many photos. Remember these are huge possibly at least the size of Earth. Further, if they were planets or some type of huge asteroid comets, they would already have been pulled into the sun by the strong gravity the sun produces as in the case of the recent comet.
Notice also that they are reflecting the suns light just like a metal constructed ship would do.
Our best guess is that these are huge planet sized spacecrafts either observing the sun, or could it be that official UFO disclosure is now happening through these NASA released videos and images. Either way, We await NASA's official explanation. Please help to share this with the world. This could finally be the evidence that NASA can't cover-up or ignore.
Could the recent comets heading into the Sun and now these huge UFO's be the signs spoken of in the bible? Luke Chapter 21 vs 5 - And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.
Dr. Joseph B. Gurman, STEREO Project Scientist's Statement ... : What you're seeing is the difference between "beacon mode" (near realtime, heavily compressed, binned [I believe 512 x 512 or smaller]) images and normal playback telemetry images (2048 x 2048 native mode, less heavily but still lossily compressed).
Normally, we get most of each day covered by the near realtime, beacon mode data through the help of a variety of ground stations around the world (including some operated by radio amateurs).
So we have prompt information when space weather events have originated at the Sun. The full-resolution playback telemetry comes from dedicated periods of downlink ("station contacts") through NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). A single playback can last hours, and covers data from a day or more stored on one of the two spacecrafts' solid state recorders. Those data are then played back over the Internet to the mission operations center and the STEREO science center, and thence to the instrument teams' home institutions, where they are processed over the course of a day or so. Thus, in normal operations, the full-resolution images will be ~ three days behind real time. Newer images will be the lower-res, more highly compressed beacon mode images, and older images will have been replaced by the full-res, playback data.
On January 18, at ~ 21:47 UT, the "central data recorder" at DSN, that stores all the playback data from all the missions DSN supports, failed. A backup CDR took over, but apparently started working on data from January 10, instead of just the four previous hours, as designed. (The last I heard, the DSN engineers don't understand why, but it certainly sounds like a software issue.) For some reason, DSN is unable to reset a pointer and say, please start processing from this time instead of that time. So we, and all the other missions supported by DSN, are waiting for our playback data from January 18 and all following days. As soon as we get it, and the instrument teams have reformatted the telemetry into scientifically useful formats (that allow, for instance, making SECCHI EUVI data into images), we will post the images and other STEREO browse data in the normal places.
And no, I don't know why DSN designed such an inflexible CDR system. I suspect they may modify it after this experience.
Best,
Joe Gurman
(Dr.) Joseph B. Gurman
STEREO Project Scientist
References :
" This is quite simply brilliant evidence for all those who are still looking for some kind of evidential reassurance that we are not the only intelligent ones here on this Planet leave alone the possibilities of life on other planets in other worlds ... :)
We can now expect to see more of UFO Disclosure files and public media information being released on the subject of UFOs and Extraterrestrials shedding new light and understanding of the roots of creation itself, knowing our true spiritual unity with the divine !
Namaste Dear Ones ! "
Latest Update ... the spheres are still there ... Thank You Dave ... :)
2.23.2010
Space Junk Mess Getting Messier in Orbit
By Leonard David
SPACE.com’s Space Insider Columnist
posted: 23 February 2010
09:20 am ET
SPACE.com’s Space Insider Columnist
posted: 23 February 2010
09:20 am ET
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The already untidy mass of orbital debris that litters low Earth orbit nearly got nastier last month.
A head-on collision was averted between a spent upper stage from a Chinese rocket and the European Space Agency's (ESA) huge Envisat Earth remote-sensing spacecraft.
Space junk tracking information supplied by the U.S. military, as well as confirming German radar data, showed that the two space objects would speed by each other at a nail-biting distance of roughly 160 feet (50 meters).
ESA's Envisat tips the scales at 8 tons, with China's discarded rocket body weighing some 3.8 tons. A couple of tweaks of maneuvering propellant were used to nudge the large ESA spacecraft to a more comfortable miss distance.
But what if the two objects had tangled?
Such a space collision would have caused mayhem in the heavens, adding clutter to an orbit altitude where there are big problems already, said Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany.
It turns out, Klinkrad told SPACE.com, that 50 percent of all the close conjunctions that Envisat faces are due to the lethal leftovers from China's January 2007 anti-satellite test, as well as chunks of junk resulting from last year's smashup between an active U.S. Iridium satellite and a defunct Russian Cosmos spacecraft.
Klinkrad joined several orbital debris experts that took part in the 33rd Annual Guidance and Control Conference organized by the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Astronautical Society. The five-day meeting began Feb. 5.
Avoidance maneuvers
Significant progress has been made by the U.S. and the international aerospace communities in recognizing the hazards of orbital debris, reported Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Johnson added that steps are being taken to reduce or eliminate the potential for the creation of new debris. However, "the future environment is expected to worsen without additional corrective measures," he noted.
During 2009, Johnson reported, five different NASA robotic spacecraft carried out collision avoidance maneuvers: a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-3), Cloudsat, Earth Observing Mission 1, Aqua, and Landsat 7. Also, the space shuttle and the International Space Station took collision avoidance actions, he said.
The worst thing that could happen, according to ESA's Klinkrad, is the International Space Station (ISS) receiving a fatal hit. The space station is currently home to five astronauts representing the U.S., Russia and Japan.
"A penetrating object hitting the ISS, and possibly causing a casualty onboard . . . I think that would be the most dramatic case we could have," Klinkrad suggested. Such an incident might turn public opinion against human spaceflight, he said.
Collaboration on the increase
One bit of good news in all this orbital riff-raff.
Due to last year's satellite crash between the Iridium and Cosmos spacecraft, Johnson explained that the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) of the U.S. Strategic Command now conducts conjunction assessments for all operational spacecraft in Earth orbit, regardless of ownership nationality.
"To be honest, a year ago, we couldn't even have hoped to have done this," Johnson told SPACE.com.
"It's really a consequence of the collision last year. People have been talking about this for years. But now we've made the commitment . . . that this is something that needs to be done and can be done relatively easily," Johnson said.
Klinkrad concurred. "The collaboration is getting even closer now," he said.
Duck or pluck?
Playing dodge ball with high-speed space debris is one tactic. But there is also a growing interest in removing the most troublesome objects — perhaps an annual quota of some sort.
Targeted would be specific inclination bands and altitude regimes, Klinkrad said. But prior to implementing debris remediation measures on a global scale, technical, operational, legal and economic problems must be overcome.
Klinkrad and NASA's Johnson provided a wearisome appraisal of the future.
Even with an immediate halt of launch activities, spacefaring nations will be dealing with an unstable low-Earth orbit environment in some altitude and inclination bands. This would be a consequence of about 20 catastrophic collisions within the next 200 years, the two orbital debris experts explained.
Some orbit altitudes already have critical mass concentrations that will trigger "collisional cascading" within a few decades, unless debris environment remediation measures are introduced.
The Kessler Syndrome
The idea of debris creating debris was put in motion by Donald Kessler, along with fellow NASA researcher, Burton Cour-Palais, back in 1978.
Their research suggested that, as the number of artificial satellites in Earth orbit increases, the probability of collisions between satellites also increases. Satellite collisions would produce orbiting fragments, each of which would increase the probability of further collisions, leading to the growth of a belt of debris around the Earth.
Now, decades later, that prophecy has been dubbed the Kessler Syndrome.
Kessler told SPACE.com that the disorder fits into much more complex natural laws that include the evolution of the solar system, as well as meteoroids, meteorites, and climate-changing asteroids.
Kessler is now an orbital debris and meteoroid consultant in Asheville, North Carolina.
"There is nothing complex about what is called the 'Kessler Syndrome' . . . it is just the way nature may have converted a disorderly group of orbiting rocks into an orderly solar system . . . although nature reminds us with a large asteroid or comet collision every few million years that it isn't quite finished yet.
"In the case of orbital debris, this collision process is just starting," Kessler explained.
Consequently, nobody should be surprised that as orbital debris models became more complex — and as more data is obtained — the same conclusion holds, Kessler said.
"The future debris environment will be dominated by fragments resulting from random collisions between objects in orbit, and that environment will continue to increase, even if we do not launch any new objects into orbit," Kessler concluded.
- Some of the Worst Space Debris Moments in History
- India Developing Anti-Satellite Spacecraft
- Video — The Expanding Danger of Space Junk
Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is past editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999
Original Story: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/space-debris-getting-messier-100223.html
11.17.2009
Most distant object in the universe spotted, GRB Smashes Record for Most Distant Known Object
A really, really long time ago in a galaxy far away, a massive star exploded. On April 23, 2009, the Swift satellite detected that explosion. This spectacular gamma ray burst was seen 13 billion light years away, with a redshift of 8.2, the highest ever measured. As we hinted yesterday, this object is now the most distant known object, and the burst occurred when the Universe was only 630 million years old, a mere one-twentieth of its current age. This event, called GRB 090423, can tell us much about the early Universe. "We completely smashed the record with this one," said Edo Berger, a professor at Harvard University and a member of the team that first measured the burst’s origin. "This demonstrates for the first time that massive stars existed in the early Universe."
At 3:55 a.m. EDT on April 23, Swift detected a ten-second-long gamma-ray burst of modest brightness, and quickly slewed around to use its Ultraviolet/Optical and X-Ray telescopes on the burst location. Swift saw a fading X-ray afterglow but nothing in visible light. A number of ground based telescopes were alerted to the event and within three hours began to observe the distant GRB.
"This was a pretty amazing event," Berger told Universe Today. "Swift detected this gamma ray burst on April 23 and we immediately followed it up with the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, after it was demonstrated it did not have a visible light counterpart. That was the initial hint that this might be a distant object. We observed it in infrared and we found in the different infrared bands that there was a sharp break at a wavelength of about 1.1 microns."
The drop-out corresponds to a redshift of 8.2 and burst distance of about 13 billion light-years.
Other telescopes that made observations were the Very Large Telescope, STFC’s United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), The Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, the Fermi Space Telescope and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer.
Subsequent observations the following night from other telescopes confirmed and refined the measurement. Previously, the most distant known object was a galaxy with a redshift of 6.96 discovered in 2006. The most distant GRB found September of 2008 had a redshift of 6.7. "We completely smashed the record with this one,"said Berger. "I think people were thinking it would happen step by step, but we kind of jumped things."
Berger said the burst itself was not unusual; it was a basic a run-of-the–mill GRB. But even that can convey a lot of information. "That might mean that even these early generations of stars are very similar to stars in the local universe, that when they die they seem to produce similar types of gamma ray bursts, but it might be a little early to speculate."
So what does this distant GRB tell us about the early Universe? "This happened a little more than 13 billion years ago," said Berger. "We've essentially been able to find gamma ray bursts throughout the Universe. The nearest ones are only about 100 million light years away, and this most distant one is 13 billion light years away, so it seems that they populate the entire universe. This most distant one demonstrates for the first time that massive stars exist at those very high red shifts. This is something people have suspected for a long time, but there was no direct observational proof. So that is one of the cool results from this observation."
Berger said this event also tells us that perhaps GRBs are the best objects to study which show how the early Universe evolved. "They are extremely bright and very easy to find, comparatively speaking, so they give us hope that this is the right approach. Over the years people have found high redshift quasars and galaxies, but my suspicion is that until the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope the middle of the next decade, this object will remain as the record holder. No other telescope, including the Hubble Space Telescope is capable of finding more distant objects."
Finding this distant object also demonstrates how telescopes around the world can work together. "It’s the combination of Swift pinpointing where these objects are located and the ground-based telescopes immediately responding to these positions and then demonstrating the distance," said Berger. "It's really a great synergy. We've been doing this for a long time now, and I think part of what has been driving this is the desire to find such distant objects.
Berger said astronomers have been speculating about such distant gamma rays bursts for quite some time and there are two missions being proposed to NASA as the next generation gamma ray telescopes. So, now, the fact that we've now found one at such a high distance makes those satellites more attractive for funding because this has now gone from being an idea or gut feeling to real observational proof."
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/28/grb-smashes-record-for-most-distant-known-object/11.02.2009
Space hotel says it's on schedule to open in 2012 The cost of a three-night stay at ‘Galactic’ resort estimated at $4.4 million
An artist's conception shows Galactic Suite's hotel pod structure in orbit.
By Stuart McDill
updated 10:20 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2009
BARCELONA, Spain - A company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics questioning the investment and time frame for the multi-billion dollar project.
The Barcelona-based architects of The Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost $4.4 million for a three-night stay at the hotel, with this price including an eight-week training course on a tropical island.
During their stay, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear Velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.
Galactic Suite Ltd's CEO Xavier Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, said the project will puthis company at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it, and forecast space travel will become common in the future.
Galactic Suite Ltd's CEO Xavier Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, said the project will puthis company at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it, and forecast space travel will become common in the future.
"It's very normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could spend a weekend in space," he told Reuters Television.
A nascent space tourism industry is beginning to take shape with construction underway in New Mexico of Spaceport America, the world's first facility built specifically for space-bound commercial customers and fee-paying passengers.
British tycoon Richard Branson's space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to propel tourists into suborbital space at a cost of $200,000 a ride.
Galactic Suite Ltd, set up in 2007, hopes to start its project with a single pod in orbit 280 miles above the earth, with the capacity to hold four guests and two astronaut-pilots.
It will take a day and a half to reach the pod — which Claramunt compared to a mountain retreat, with no staff to greet the traveler.
"When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for three days, rocket and capsule. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he hasn't been abandoned. After three days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth," he said.
More than 200 people have expressed an interest in traveling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already reserved.
The numbers are similar for Virgin Galactic with 300 people already paid or signed up for the trip but unlike Branson, Galactic Suite say they will use Russian rockets to transport their guests into space from a spaceport to be build on an island in the Caribbean.
But critics have questioned the project, saying the time frame is unreasonable and also where the money is coming from to finance the project.
Claramunt said an anonymous billionaire space enthusiast has granted $3 billion to finance the project.
10.11.2009
US - Alien Exchange Program
According to serpo.org, In 1965, there was a government exchange program with aliens which was called the Zeta Reticuli Exchange program. 12 military personnel were carefully selected. They were trained, vetted and carefully removed from the military system. The 12 were skilled in various
specialties. The Zeta Recticular star system is approximately 37 light years from earth. It took the team, in an Eben craft, nine months to travel the distance.
By referencing serpo.org, Planet Serpo, where the Eben alien race lives, is located within a solar system of the Zeta Recticular Star System. The planet has two suns but their angles were small and allowed some darkness on the planet depending on one's location. The planet was tilted which allowed the northern part of the planet to be cooler. The planet was a little less than Earth's size. The Eben alien civilization was estimated to be about 10,000 years old. They evolved from another planet, not on Serpo. The original home planet of the Ebens was threatened with extreme volcanic activity.
The Ebens had to relocate to Serpo in order to protect their civilization. This occurred some 5,000 years ago. The Ebens had a great interplanetary battle with another race about 3,000 years ago. The Ebens lost many thousands in their battle. The Ebens completely eliminated all of their enemies. The Ebens have never fought another war since. The Ebens have been space travelers for the past 2,000 years. They first visited Earth about 2,000 years ago.
There is a lot to consider here but we must first open our eyes to see what is really going on in this world and imagine that the possibilities are endless to achieve in our progression as human beings. A very interesting notion and good to know that they released this information according to the policy of declassified information over a period of time.
More information on this can be found on: www.serpo.org
The following statistics on the Eben planet was collected by the team, according to http://www.serpo.org/release3.php.
Diameter: 7,218 miles
Mass: 5.06 x 10 24
Distance from Sun #1: 96.5 million miles
Sun #2: 91.4 million miles
Moons: 2
Surface gravity: 9.60m/s 2
Rotation Periods: 43 hours
Orbit: 865 days
Tilt: 43 degrees
Temperature: Min: 43° / Max: 126°
Distance from Earth: 38.43 light years
Planet named by Team: SERPO
Nearest planet to SERPO: Named: OTTO
Distance:
88 million miles (colonized by Ebens with research base, but no natural inhabitants on planet)
Number of planets in Eben Solar System: Six
Nearest inhabited planet to SERPO:
Named: SILUS (SILUS is made up of creatures of various types, but no intelligent life forms. Ebens use the planet to mine minerals.)
Distance: 434 million miles
LIST OF SUPPLIES TAKEN BY "Project CRYSTAL KNIGHT" Team Members [which was later renamed "Project SERPO" once the seven (7) Team Members
returned in 1978 and the report was finalized in 1980]:
1) MUSIC – The Team Members took the following types of music:
Elvis Presley
Buddy Holly
Ricky Nelson
The Kingston Trio
Brenda Lee
The Beach Boys
Bob Dylan
Peter Paul & Mary
The Beatles
Loretta Lynn
Simon & Garfunkel
The Hollies
Chubby Checker
Bing Crosby
Dinah Shore
Vera Lynn
Tommy Dorsey
Ted Lewis
Ethel Merman
Everly Brothers
Lesley Gore
Marline Dietrich
The Patters
Doris Day
Connie Francis
Shirelles Lyrics
Frank Sinatra
Dean Martin
Perry Como
Guy Lombardo
Glenn Miller
Rosemary Clooney
Al Jolson;
Christmas Music
U.S. Patriotic Music;
Classical Music:
Mozart
Hansel
Bach
Schubert
Mendelssohn
Rossini
Strauss
Beethoven
Brahms
Chopin
Tchaikovsky
Vivaldi
Indian Chanting Music
Tibetan Chants
African Chants [these last three (3) for the intended benefit of the Eben hosts].
2) CLOTHING – The Team Members took the following clothing:
24 pairs of specialized flight suits
112 pairs of underwear (pants/shirts)
220 pairs of socks
18 hats including jungle style and regular ball caps
50 different types of footwear
military clothing, load bearing belts and harnesses
military backpacks
30 pairs of civilian casual pants
shorts
sleeveless shirts
15 pairs of athletic shoes
100 pairs of athletic socks
eight (8) athletic supports
24 pairs of thermal underwear
24 pairs of thermal socks
six (6) pairs of cold weather boots
military-style hot weather clothing
60 pairs of gloves military work-style
10 containers of military-style sanitary gloves
six (6) pairs of cold weather gloves
10 laundry bags
disposal surgical gloves
military-style warm weather jackets
military-style cold weather jackets
civilian-style warm and cold weather jackets
10 pairs of warm weather sandals
24 military safety helmets
24 military-style flight helmets
1,000 yards of fabric for the repair and making of clothes.
3) MEDICAL EQUIPMENT – The Team Members took the following medical equipment:
Portable X-ray machine
100 pre-packed medical kits for advance trauma care (military-style battle field medical kits)
examination scopes for the stomach bladder and rectum
eye examination equipment
120 pre-packed surgical kits (military style)
120 pre-packed military field medicine kits (containing various medicines)
30 military-style field medical sanitation kits
75 water testing kits (military style)
50 water testing kits (civilian)
75 FAST kits
1,200 food testing kits (military style)
500 pieces of miscellaneous surgical tools
5,000 packages of insect repellant (military style)
250 medical intravenous kits/with fluids
16 pre-packed medical testing kits (military style)
50 pre-packed medical testing kits (civilian)
five (5) military Medical Portable Hospital Tents with base
two (2) Military Medical Portable Deployment Kits
18 Military Medical Blood testing kits
three (3) portable military chemistry testing stations
two (2) Advanced Biological Testing Kits (civilian version)
15 Military Radiation Treatment Kits
1,000 pounds of miscellaneous medical equipment.
4) TESTING EQUIPMENT – The Team Members took the following testing equipment:
100 pieces of geological testing items
2 military soil testing stations
two (2) chemistry testing stations (civilian)
six (6) radiation testing meters
two (2) military radiation testing stations
two (2) biological testing stations (civilian)
two (2) 100cc tractors
four (4) 100cc digging tool tractors
10 pre-packed military Soil Testing Kits
16 astronomical telescopes
two (2) Military Star Stations
four (4) military power generators (1-10,000 watts)
four (4) civilian power generators
experimental solar collecting equipment (military)
50 portable two-way radios with FM frequencies
six (6) military combat radio platform kits
50 pre-packed military radio repair kits
1,000 different frequency tubes
30 pre-packed military electrical testing and repair kits
three (3) solar testing stations (military)
one (1) experimental solar testing station
10 solar collection panels with collector containers
10 air sample collection kits (military)
five (5) air sample collection kits (civilian)
six (6) diamond drills
10 military special access kits
1,000 pounds of C-4 explosives with 500 blasting caps
detonating cord
time fuse
Military shape charges
one (1) Nuclear Detonating Kit.
5) MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT and ITEMS – The Team Members took the following miscellaneous equipment/items:
100 military blankets
100 military sheets
24 pre-packed military combat deployment kits
80 pre-packed military combat tent kits
four (4) military mobile kitchen deployable kits
six (6) military survival stations –warm weather
six (6) military survival stations –cold weather
2 military weather stations – combat style
50 military weather balloons
24 military handguns
24 military rifles (M-16s)
six (6) M-66 weapons
two (2) M-40 grenade launchers
two (2) military 60mm motor tube (30 rounds)
100 military air burst flares
5,000 rounds of .223 ammunition [M-16 assault rifles]
500 rounds of .45 ammunition
60 M-40 rounds
15 Freon dispersal containers
15 compressed air dispersal containers
20 tanks of oxygen gas
20 tanks of nitrogen gas
20 tanks of miscellaneous gases for cutting equipment and testing
75 military-style sleeping bags
60 military-style pillows
55 military-style sleeping platforms
six (6) pre-packed military deployment combat field living platforms
250 different style padlocks
6,000 feet of different types of rope
24 repelling kits
10 seismic deep hole drills
1,000 gallons of fuel
four (4) military-style phonographs
10 Military cassette players
10 reel-to-reel tape players
60 belts
10 military sound collection equipment kits
25 military Intelligence Collection Kits
1,000 other miscellaneous items.
6) VEHICLES – The Team Members took the following vehicles:
10 military-style combat motorcycles
three (3) military M-151 Jeeps
three (3) military trailers
10 Military repair kits for jeeps
10 Military repair kits for the motorcycles
one (1) Military lawn mower
1,500 gallons of fuel for all of the above items.
7) FOOD – The Team Members took the following food items:
C-Rations
25 pre-packed containers
100 pre-packed containers of freeze-dried food items
100 cases of various canned food items
seven (7) years worth of vitamins
100 containers of energy bars/snack items
1,000 gallons of water
150 military survival food kits
16 boxes of various alcoholic wines
150 cases of drinking fluids
chewing gum, lifesaver candy and various other miscellaneous food items.
8) MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS – The Team Members took 2,000 pounds of various other items.
specialties. The Zeta Recticular star system is approximately 37 light years from earth. It took the team, in an Eben craft, nine months to travel the distance.
By referencing serpo.org, Planet Serpo, where the Eben alien race lives, is located within a solar system of the Zeta Recticular Star System. The planet has two suns but their angles were small and allowed some darkness on the planet depending on one's location. The planet was tilted which allowed the northern part of the planet to be cooler. The planet was a little less than Earth's size. The Eben alien civilization was estimated to be about 10,000 years old. They evolved from another planet, not on Serpo. The original home planet of the Ebens was threatened with extreme volcanic activity.
The Ebens had to relocate to Serpo in order to protect their civilization. This occurred some 5,000 years ago. The Ebens had a great interplanetary battle with another race about 3,000 years ago. The Ebens lost many thousands in their battle. The Ebens completely eliminated all of their enemies. The Ebens have never fought another war since. The Ebens have been space travelers for the past 2,000 years. They first visited Earth about 2,000 years ago.
There is a lot to consider here but we must first open our eyes to see what is really going on in this world and imagine that the possibilities are endless to achieve in our progression as human beings. A very interesting notion and good to know that they released this information according to the policy of declassified information over a period of time.
More information on this can be found on: www.serpo.org
The following statistics on the Eben planet was collected by the team, according to http://www.serpo.org/release3.php.
Diameter: 7,218 miles
Mass: 5.06 x 10 24
Distance from Sun #1: 96.5 million miles
Sun #2: 91.4 million miles
Moons: 2
Surface gravity: 9.60m/s 2
Rotation Periods: 43 hours
Orbit: 865 days
Tilt: 43 degrees
Temperature: Min: 43° / Max: 126°
Distance from Earth: 38.43 light years
Planet named by Team: SERPO
Nearest planet to SERPO: Named: OTTO
Distance:
88 million miles (colonized by Ebens with research base, but no natural inhabitants on planet)
Number of planets in Eben Solar System: Six
Nearest inhabited planet to SERPO:
Named: SILUS (SILUS is made up of creatures of various types, but no intelligent life forms. Ebens use the planet to mine minerals.)
Distance: 434 million miles
LIST OF SUPPLIES TAKEN BY "Project CRYSTAL KNIGHT" Team Members [which was later renamed "Project SERPO" once the seven (7) Team Members
returned in 1978 and the report was finalized in 1980]:
1) MUSIC – The Team Members took the following types of music:
Elvis Presley
Buddy Holly
Ricky Nelson
The Kingston Trio
Brenda Lee
The Beach Boys
Bob Dylan
Peter Paul & Mary
The Beatles
Loretta Lynn
Simon & Garfunkel
The Hollies
Chubby Checker
Bing Crosby
Dinah Shore
Vera Lynn
Tommy Dorsey
Ted Lewis
Ethel Merman
Everly Brothers
Lesley Gore
Marline Dietrich
The Patters
Doris Day
Connie Francis
Shirelles Lyrics
Frank Sinatra
Dean Martin
Perry Como
Guy Lombardo
Glenn Miller
Rosemary Clooney
Al Jolson;
Christmas Music
U.S. Patriotic Music;
Classical Music:
Mozart
Hansel
Bach
Schubert
Mendelssohn
Rossini
Strauss
Beethoven
Brahms
Chopin
Tchaikovsky
Vivaldi
Indian Chanting Music
Tibetan Chants
African Chants [these last three (3) for the intended benefit of the Eben hosts].
2) CLOTHING – The Team Members took the following clothing:
24 pairs of specialized flight suits
112 pairs of underwear (pants/shirts)
220 pairs of socks
18 hats including jungle style and regular ball caps
50 different types of footwear
military clothing, load bearing belts and harnesses
military backpacks
30 pairs of civilian casual pants
shorts
sleeveless shirts
15 pairs of athletic shoes
100 pairs of athletic socks
eight (8) athletic supports
24 pairs of thermal underwear
24 pairs of thermal socks
six (6) pairs of cold weather boots
military-style hot weather clothing
60 pairs of gloves military work-style
10 containers of military-style sanitary gloves
six (6) pairs of cold weather gloves
10 laundry bags
disposal surgical gloves
military-style warm weather jackets
military-style cold weather jackets
civilian-style warm and cold weather jackets
10 pairs of warm weather sandals
24 military safety helmets
24 military-style flight helmets
1,000 yards of fabric for the repair and making of clothes.
3) MEDICAL EQUIPMENT – The Team Members took the following medical equipment:
Portable X-ray machine
100 pre-packed medical kits for advance trauma care (military-style battle field medical kits)
examination scopes for the stomach bladder and rectum
eye examination equipment
120 pre-packed surgical kits (military style)
120 pre-packed military field medicine kits (containing various medicines)
30 military-style field medical sanitation kits
75 water testing kits (military style)
50 water testing kits (civilian)
75 FAST kits
1,200 food testing kits (military style)
500 pieces of miscellaneous surgical tools
5,000 packages of insect repellant (military style)
250 medical intravenous kits/with fluids
16 pre-packed medical testing kits (military style)
50 pre-packed medical testing kits (civilian)
five (5) military Medical Portable Hospital Tents with base
two (2) Military Medical Portable Deployment Kits
18 Military Medical Blood testing kits
three (3) portable military chemistry testing stations
two (2) Advanced Biological Testing Kits (civilian version)
15 Military Radiation Treatment Kits
1,000 pounds of miscellaneous medical equipment.
4) TESTING EQUIPMENT – The Team Members took the following testing equipment:
100 pieces of geological testing items
2 military soil testing stations
two (2) chemistry testing stations (civilian)
six (6) radiation testing meters
two (2) military radiation testing stations
two (2) biological testing stations (civilian)
two (2) 100cc tractors
four (4) 100cc digging tool tractors
10 pre-packed military Soil Testing Kits
16 astronomical telescopes
two (2) Military Star Stations
four (4) military power generators (1-10,000 watts)
four (4) civilian power generators
experimental solar collecting equipment (military)
50 portable two-way radios with FM frequencies
six (6) military combat radio platform kits
50 pre-packed military radio repair kits
1,000 different frequency tubes
30 pre-packed military electrical testing and repair kits
three (3) solar testing stations (military)
one (1) experimental solar testing station
10 solar collection panels with collector containers
10 air sample collection kits (military)
five (5) air sample collection kits (civilian)
six (6) diamond drills
10 military special access kits
1,000 pounds of C-4 explosives with 500 blasting caps
detonating cord
time fuse
Military shape charges
one (1) Nuclear Detonating Kit.
5) MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT and ITEMS – The Team Members took the following miscellaneous equipment/items:
100 military blankets
100 military sheets
24 pre-packed military combat deployment kits
80 pre-packed military combat tent kits
four (4) military mobile kitchen deployable kits
six (6) military survival stations –warm weather
six (6) military survival stations –cold weather
2 military weather stations – combat style
50 military weather balloons
24 military handguns
24 military rifles (M-16s)
six (6) M-66 weapons
two (2) M-40 grenade launchers
two (2) military 60mm motor tube (30 rounds)
100 military air burst flares
5,000 rounds of .223 ammunition [M-16 assault rifles]
500 rounds of .45 ammunition
60 M-40 rounds
15 Freon dispersal containers
15 compressed air dispersal containers
20 tanks of oxygen gas
20 tanks of nitrogen gas
20 tanks of miscellaneous gases for cutting equipment and testing
75 military-style sleeping bags
60 military-style pillows
55 military-style sleeping platforms
six (6) pre-packed military deployment combat field living platforms
250 different style padlocks
6,000 feet of different types of rope
24 repelling kits
10 seismic deep hole drills
1,000 gallons of fuel
four (4) military-style phonographs
10 Military cassette players
10 reel-to-reel tape players
60 belts
10 military sound collection equipment kits
25 military Intelligence Collection Kits
1,000 other miscellaneous items.
6) VEHICLES – The Team Members took the following vehicles:
10 military-style combat motorcycles
three (3) military M-151 Jeeps
three (3) military trailers
10 Military repair kits for jeeps
10 Military repair kits for the motorcycles
one (1) Military lawn mower
1,500 gallons of fuel for all of the above items.
7) FOOD – The Team Members took the following food items:
C-Rations
25 pre-packed containers
100 pre-packed containers of freeze-dried food items
100 cases of various canned food items
seven (7) years worth of vitamins
100 containers of energy bars/snack items
1,000 gallons of water
150 military survival food kits
16 boxes of various alcoholic wines
150 cases of drinking fluids
chewing gum, lifesaver candy and various other miscellaneous food items.
8) MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS – The Team Members took 2,000 pounds of various other items.
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