http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1fd_1216911065&p=1
Moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell Claims Alien Contact Cover-up.
Aliens
Moderator: RLG MGMT Team
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Tach Deneva
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- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
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Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
U.S. pilot was ordered to shoot down UFO
He was told to never talk about Cold War incident; files now are public
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27279684/?gt1=43001
He was told to never talk about Cold War incident; files now are public
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27279684/?gt1=43001
"Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Oh God, he's got a monkey." -- Ms Purple
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PanzerMeyer
- Posts: 4795
- Joined: 10 Feb 2004, 08:54
- Location: Miami, Florida
Well I'm currently dating Gillian Anderson so I'll let her know about it when we have dinner tonight.VEGETA wrote:quick someone call the x files or at least someone who knows how to get hold of them like PanzerMeyer
I have learned from experience that a modicum of snuff can be most efficacious - Baron Munchausen
j/k
Code: Select all
Moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell Claims Alien Contact Cover-up. But of course.. I still like Techs encounter with aliens the best. You said you were driving along a winding road at night and saw lights moving around in a field up ahead and thought they were helicopters flying low. Then you got closer and realized that they were not of this world. Lol , we all had a big gag about that one. Lancer said most of the 151st were aliens.
We're in the pipe , five by five.
Google Lunar X Prize
Competition summary:
The challenge calls for teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and operating a rover on the lunar surface. The prize awards US30 million to the first team to land a rover on the moon that successfully roves more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video. There is a $5 million second prize, as well as $5 million in potential bonus prizes for extra features such as roving long distances (greater than 5,000 meters), capturing images of man made objects on the moon, detecting ice on one of the Moon's craters, discovering the remains of Apollo program hardware, or surviving a lunar night. The X Prize offers the first prize until December 31, 2012, thereafter it offers $15 million until December 31, 2014.[4]
Video Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K4zosGUMBw
Virgin Galactic: Let The Journey Begin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg_IkXwnH3U
We're in the pipe , five by five.
[glow=red]Astronomy Picture of the Day[/glow]
Explanation: By starlight this eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression the witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel. Spanning over 50 light-years, the dusty cosmic cloud strongly reflects nearby Rigel's blue light, giving it the characteristic color of a reflection nebula. Cataloged as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula is about 1,000 light-years away. Of course, you might see a witch this scary tonight, but don't panic. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!
Explanation: By starlight this eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression the witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel. Spanning over 50 light-years, the dusty cosmic cloud strongly reflects nearby Rigel's blue light, giving it the characteristic color of a reflection nebula. Cataloged as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula is about 1,000 light-years away. Of course, you might see a witch this scary tonight, but don't panic. Have a safe and Happy Halloween!
We're in the pipe , five by five.
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Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
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Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
[font=Andalus][fade]Astronomy Picture of the Day [/fade][/font]
Explanation: Where's the astronaut? Somewhere in this impressive array of International Space Station (ISS) hardware, astronaut Steve Bowen can be found upgrading and cleaning key parts of Earth's most prominent orbital outpost. Astronaut Bowen and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (not pictured), part of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's recently ended STS-126 mission to the ISS, spent nearly three hours on this spacewalk hovering high above planet Earth. Bowen progressed toward achieving a key goal of the mission -- servicing of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints to better allow some solar arrays to track the Sun. In the lower foreground of the above image is the cylindrical Columbus Laboratory, protruding from the right is an impressively large space station truss, while in the background are some of the expansive solar arrays that collect sunlight to power the ISS. Far in the distance, a blue arc of Earth's thin atmosphere is visible on the horizon. The next space shuttle flight is scheduled for 2009 February, when Discovery will deliver elements to further expand the ISS.
Note:
I finally see him. At first I was thinking more along the line of Capital Ships , such as Dreadnought or Space Battle Cruiser. But this space station isn’t quite that big yet. So after close examination , I think he’s up near the end of truss.
Explanation: Where's the astronaut? Somewhere in this impressive array of International Space Station (ISS) hardware, astronaut Steve Bowen can be found upgrading and cleaning key parts of Earth's most prominent orbital outpost. Astronaut Bowen and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (not pictured), part of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's recently ended STS-126 mission to the ISS, spent nearly three hours on this spacewalk hovering high above planet Earth. Bowen progressed toward achieving a key goal of the mission -- servicing of the Solar Alpha Rotary Joints to better allow some solar arrays to track the Sun. In the lower foreground of the above image is the cylindrical Columbus Laboratory, protruding from the right is an impressively large space station truss, while in the background are some of the expansive solar arrays that collect sunlight to power the ISS. Far in the distance, a blue arc of Earth's thin atmosphere is visible on the horizon. The next space shuttle flight is scheduled for 2009 February, when Discovery will deliver elements to further expand the ISS.
Note:
I finally see him. At first I was thinking more along the line of Capital Ships , such as Dreadnought or Space Battle Cruiser. But this space station isn’t quite that big yet. So after close examination , I think he’s up near the end of truss.
We're in the pipe , five by five.
War of the Worlds Into
What if you're driving down the street and an object from space shoots across the sky right in front of you? Such was the case last week for many people in south central Canada. Specifically, an extremely bright fireball, presumably a desk-sized meteor from deep space, flashed across the sky just after sunset on 2008 November 20. The bright fireball was recorded on many images and movies, including the spectacular video shown above that was captured by a dashboard camera of a police cruiser in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Because at least two streaks appear to be visible, the falling object likely broke up into pieces as it fell deep into Earth's atmosphere. By triangulating fireball images from several simultaneously recorded sources, astronomers hope to find an approximate orbit from whence the object came, as well as the likely place(s) on Earth where large pieces would have impacted, were they to have survived entry. In the best case scenario, pieces would be recovered from a known deep space comet or asteroid, giving humanity an unprecedented look at an ancient object that likely holds clues to the early years of our Earth and the Solar System.
What if you're driving down the street and an object from space shoots across the sky right in front of you? Such was the case last week for many people in south central Canada. Specifically, an extremely bright fireball, presumably a desk-sized meteor from deep space, flashed across the sky just after sunset on 2008 November 20. The bright fireball was recorded on many images and movies, including the spectacular video shown above that was captured by a dashboard camera of a police cruiser in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Because at least two streaks appear to be visible, the falling object likely broke up into pieces as it fell deep into Earth's atmosphere. By triangulating fireball images from several simultaneously recorded sources, astronomers hope to find an approximate orbit from whence the object came, as well as the likely place(s) on Earth where large pieces would have impacted, were they to have survived entry. In the best case scenario, pieces would be recovered from a known deep space comet or asteroid, giving humanity an unprecedented look at an ancient object that likely holds clues to the early years of our Earth and the Solar System.
We're in the pipe , five by five.
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Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
Smile in the Sky:
2008 December 5
Explanation: At sunset, Monday's western sky showed off stunning colors and dramatic clouds reflected in Brisbane Water on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It also featured the remarkable conjunction of the crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter forming a twilight smiley face. While the gathering of the two bright planets and Moon awed skygazers around planet Earth, astronomer Mike Salway reports taking special pains to record this gorgeous view, braving mosquitos and rain squalls along a soggy shore. His southern hemisphere perspective finds brilliant Venus at the highest point in the celestial grouping. For now, a bright pairing of Venus and Jupiter continues to dominate the western horizon after sunset but the Moon has moved on and tonight is near its first quarter phase.
2008 December 5
Explanation: At sunset, Monday's western sky showed off stunning colors and dramatic clouds reflected in Brisbane Water on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It also featured the remarkable conjunction of the crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter forming a twilight smiley face. While the gathering of the two bright planets and Moon awed skygazers around planet Earth, astronomer Mike Salway reports taking special pains to record this gorgeous view, braving mosquitos and rain squalls along a soggy shore. His southern hemisphere perspective finds brilliant Venus at the highest point in the celestial grouping. For now, a bright pairing of Venus and Jupiter continues to dominate the western horizon after sunset but the Moon has moved on and tonight is near its first quarter phase.
We're in the pipe , five by five.
Space elevator trips could be agonisingly slow
This is awesome. I’ve read about it in a few Science Fiction books. (Mostly Warstrider.) It’s about high time it’s found it’s way into this forum. I’m so glad it’s on the drawing board.
The simple act of climbing could throw space elevators off track and potentially into harm's way, a new study suggests. Fixing the problem could require agonisingly slow trips lasting nearly a month or the careful choreography of multiple climbers.
Space elevators have been proposed as a cheap alternative to expensive rocket launches to send cargo, and perhaps even humans, into space.
The elevators would be made of a cable (also called a tether or ribbon) that would be anchored to the Earth's surface and balanced by a counter-weight in space. Lasers on Earth would beam power to "climbers" that would crawl up the tether with their cargo.
But the concept has been stuck on the ground floor for decades, not least because current materials are not strong enough to handle the strain on the tether. Carbon nanotubes may work, but they need to be longer and purer than those manufactured today.
Even with adequate materials, space elevators might be highly unstable. Gravitational tugs from the Moon and Sun, as well as pressure from gusts of solar wind, could shake the tether, potentially causing the elevator to crash into nearby satellites or space junk. Thrusters might be needed to keep the tether in line.
Now, it seems that the act of climbing itself could also cause the tether to wobble.
Earth's spin
The culprit is the Coriolis force, which deflects objects that are moving in a rotating system. On Earth, the planet's rotation sets up a Coriolis force that deflects air currents and water.
In this study, the space elevator would stand vertically from a point on Earth's equator. As the climber ascended, its motion would cause the Coriolis force to pull the climber, and thus the cable, in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation.
This would pull the elevator away from its vertical resting position, causing it to oscillate back and forth like a pendulum, say mechanical engineers Arun Misra of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Stephen Cohen, now at MDA Space.
Wrong orbits
The motion of cargo up the elevator might only cause the cable to wobble back and forth by a fraction of a degree, says Misra.
But the tether's swing could either boost or reduce the velocity of any spacecraft exiting the elevator. That could send them into orbits that are tens of kilometres too high or too low, Misra says, adding that significant amounts of fuel might be needed to correct the problem.
"Because it's a huge structure, this small deviation can make large errors in the orbit that will be reached by the payload," Misra told New Scientist.
The wobbles induced by climbing cargo might also help send the elevator into harm's way.
Slow crawl
The faster a climber goes, the larger the effect, Misra told New Scientist, so the simplest way to minimise a climber's effect on the cable is to slow its ascent.
Slowing the climb would allow the space elevator to be drawn back to its stable point, perfectly vertical above the Earth's equator. But this could also make trips into orbit agonisingly slow, adding nine days or more to a climb that – at several hundred kilometres per hour – might already take about 15 days.
Alternatively, the speed of climbs might be fine-tuned as the trip progresses, Misra says. Multiple climbers could also be sent up the tether at the same time, in a carefully orchestrated ballet.
"I think we are finding that building a space elevator is a lot more complicated than simply stringing up a ribbon and whizzing up and down it," says Anders Jorgensen of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, US, who has studied space elevator stability.
Speed limit
"Needing to impose a particular climber schedule and speed could have implications for the economical viability of a space elevator, so it is a very important question to answer," Jorgensen says.
"Traffic-phasing will likely play a role," agrees David Lang, a consultant based in Seattle, Washington, who has also studied the effects of climbers.
But other methods, involving coupled space elevators arranged side by side or one-way traffic that occasionally reverses direction, might also help. "I would say that it is too early to establish the best way to do this," Lang told New Scientist.
This is awesome. I’ve read about it in a few Science Fiction books. (Mostly Warstrider.) It’s about high time it’s found it’s way into this forum. I’m so glad it’s on the drawing board.
The simple act of climbing could throw space elevators off track and potentially into harm's way, a new study suggests. Fixing the problem could require agonisingly slow trips lasting nearly a month or the careful choreography of multiple climbers.
Space elevators have been proposed as a cheap alternative to expensive rocket launches to send cargo, and perhaps even humans, into space.
The elevators would be made of a cable (also called a tether or ribbon) that would be anchored to the Earth's surface and balanced by a counter-weight in space. Lasers on Earth would beam power to "climbers" that would crawl up the tether with their cargo.
But the concept has been stuck on the ground floor for decades, not least because current materials are not strong enough to handle the strain on the tether. Carbon nanotubes may work, but they need to be longer and purer than those manufactured today.
Even with adequate materials, space elevators might be highly unstable. Gravitational tugs from the Moon and Sun, as well as pressure from gusts of solar wind, could shake the tether, potentially causing the elevator to crash into nearby satellites or space junk. Thrusters might be needed to keep the tether in line.
Now, it seems that the act of climbing itself could also cause the tether to wobble.
Earth's spin
The culprit is the Coriolis force, which deflects objects that are moving in a rotating system. On Earth, the planet's rotation sets up a Coriolis force that deflects air currents and water.
In this study, the space elevator would stand vertically from a point on Earth's equator. As the climber ascended, its motion would cause the Coriolis force to pull the climber, and thus the cable, in the opposite direction of Earth's rotation.
This would pull the elevator away from its vertical resting position, causing it to oscillate back and forth like a pendulum, say mechanical engineers Arun Misra of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Stephen Cohen, now at MDA Space.
Wrong orbits
The motion of cargo up the elevator might only cause the cable to wobble back and forth by a fraction of a degree, says Misra.
But the tether's swing could either boost or reduce the velocity of any spacecraft exiting the elevator. That could send them into orbits that are tens of kilometres too high or too low, Misra says, adding that significant amounts of fuel might be needed to correct the problem.
"Because it's a huge structure, this small deviation can make large errors in the orbit that will be reached by the payload," Misra told New Scientist.
The wobbles induced by climbing cargo might also help send the elevator into harm's way.
Slow crawl
The faster a climber goes, the larger the effect, Misra told New Scientist, so the simplest way to minimise a climber's effect on the cable is to slow its ascent.
Slowing the climb would allow the space elevator to be drawn back to its stable point, perfectly vertical above the Earth's equator. But this could also make trips into orbit agonisingly slow, adding nine days or more to a climb that – at several hundred kilometres per hour – might already take about 15 days.
Alternatively, the speed of climbs might be fine-tuned as the trip progresses, Misra says. Multiple climbers could also be sent up the tether at the same time, in a carefully orchestrated ballet.
"I think we are finding that building a space elevator is a lot more complicated than simply stringing up a ribbon and whizzing up and down it," says Anders Jorgensen of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, US, who has studied space elevator stability.
Speed limit
"Needing to impose a particular climber schedule and speed could have implications for the economical viability of a space elevator, so it is a very important question to answer," Jorgensen says.
"Traffic-phasing will likely play a role," agrees David Lang, a consultant based in Seattle, Washington, who has also studied the effects of climbers.
But other methods, involving coupled space elevators arranged side by side or one-way traffic that occasionally reverses direction, might also help. "I would say that it is too early to establish the best way to do this," Lang told New Scientist.
We're in the pipe , five by five.
[shadow=gray]Astronomers Aim to Grasp Mysterious Dark Matter [/shadow]
posted: 29 December 2008
9:02 am ET
For the past quarter century, dark matter has been a mystery we've just had to live with. But the time may be getting close when science can finally unveil what this befuddling stuff is that makes up most of the matter in the universe.
Dark matter can't be seen. Nobody even knows what it is. But it must be there, because without it galaxies would fly apart.
Upcoming experiments on Earth such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator in Switzerland, and a new spacecraft called Gaia set to launch in 2011, could be the key to closing the case on one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in science.
A disturbing truth is accepted by most astronomers: There is a lot more stuff in the universe than what we can see. Scientists now think visible matter — all the planets, stars, and galaxies that shine down on us — represents only about 4 percent of the mass-energy budget of the universe, while dark matter and its even more esoteric cousin, dark energy, make up the rest.
"There is no consensus actually at all as to what dark matter is," said Gerard Gilmore, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge who wrote a recent essay for the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Science about the search for dark matter.
A leading hypothesis posits that dark matter is composed of some kind of exotic particle, yet to be detected, that doesn't interact with light, so we can't see it. One such theorized class of particles is called WIMPs (Weakly interacting massive particles), which are thought to be neutral in charge and weigh more than 100 times the mass of a proton.
Atom smasher
The newly-opened LHC, a 17-mile-long (27 kilometer-long) underground ring in which sprays of protons speed around and crash into each other, could be the first experiment to detect WIMPS. The particle accelerator officially went online in September 2008, but was halted shortly after due to a fault with its construction — it's due to go back online in the summer of 2009. Since the LHC is the largest and most powerful atom smasher ever built, its collisions could produce the extremely high energies needed to create the elusive particles.
In fact, the LHC will likely create a host of never-before-seen particles, opening up a realm of the universe that physicists have been eager to explore.
"The assumption is, there will be whole families of new types of particles," Gilmore said in a podcast interview with a reporter from Science. "The challenge then is to say, well OK, we now then have a new set of ingredients in our recipe for how nature is put together, but what is the recipe that uses this set of ingredients? I.e., what mix of these particles does nature actually use to create the universe, and how?"
Weighing the universe
That's where Gaia comes in. The European Space Agency satellite is designed to measure positions and speeds of about 1 billion nearby stars with unprecedented precision. Its vision is so sharp it should be able to discern the equivalent of a shirt button on the surface of the moon as seen from Earth, Gilmore said.
By establishing where things are in our galaxy, the spacecraft will help scientists measure the weight and distribution of mass in the Milky Way in much greater detail than ever before. These measurements are vital for models that attempt to describe how the pull of dark matter has shaped our galaxy.
"What Gaia will do is measure the distances of stuff and measure how they're moving in three dimensions around space to much better precision than we've had before, which will allow us to weigh things on all sorts of scales down to the smallest scales we can find," Gilmore said. "They will tell us to exquisite precision how the dark matter is distributed in space, which is the recipe we need to determine its properties."
We're in the pipe , five by five.
If I gather this right , this technology may be used to alert us of any incoming object several days before it hits the planets atmosphere. With that kind of heads up people should be able go outside at night and look in the right direction to see a car sized asteroid falling from space. Wouldn’t that be something. Get you cameras ready.
[shadow=gray]Asteroid Hunt [/shadow]
posted: 17 December 2008
A new telescope system featuring the world's largest digital camera will significantly increase the ability to find space rocks as it begins operation in Hawaii this month, scientists say.The telescope system will have a wide view of the sky and features a camera that reduces blur in images so that scientists can examine them for signs of asteroids that have moved from one image to the next. The telescope is part of a years-long survey of the sky for asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to our planet.
Since our planet formed 4.5 billion years ago, it has been hit many times by comets and asteroids. While most asteroids are found in our solar system's asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) and don't pose a threat to us, some have orbits that bring them in close proximity to Earth.
[shadow=gray]The threat[/shadow]
Each year several asteroids ranging in size from basketballs to small cars crash into Earth's atmosphere, typically burning up on the way in or breaking up and raining down in pieces over uninhabited land or the oceans (Earth is two-thirds ocean). In October, an asteroid about the size of a kitchen table exploded in Earth's atmosphere.
Several larger and potentially destructive space rocks have been spotted in recent years as they came a little too close for comfort. A binary asteroid passed within 1.4 million miles (2 million kilometers), or six times as far as the moon, in July. In January, an asteroid as big as several football fields made an even closer pass, coming within about 334,000 miles (537,500 kilometers) of the Earth (the moon is an average of 239,228 miles (385,000 kilometers) away).
Comets strike less frequently but are just as worrisome in the long run. They originate either from the Kuiper Belt (just beyond the orbit of Neptune) or the Oort cloud (far beyond the orbit of Pluto). Many of these icy-rock objects pose no threat to Earth, but astronomers are all but certain the planet has been struck by them in the past and that others will eventually cross our path.
Collectively, asteroids and comets that come close to Earth are known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA has a Congressional mandate to catalog all NEOs that are at least 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) wide. Several asteroid tracking programs have found thousands of NEOs, but there are still more lurking out there, and the smaller they are, the less likely they are to be spotted. A rock just a quarter mile wide, however, would cause extensive regional destruction if it struck.
[shadow=gray]First of four[/shadow]
To complete the survey for NEOs, a system of four telescopes called Pan-STARRS (for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) is being developed at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. The first prototype telescope, installed on Haleakala Mountain, Maui, will begin operations this month.
Pan-STARRS's cameras cover an area of sky six times the width of the full moon and can detect objects 10 million times fainter than those visible to the naked eye and has the unique ability to find moving objects.
"This is a truly giant instrument," said the leader of the team that developed the camera, astronomer John Tonry of the University of Hawaii. "We get an image that is 38,000 by 38,000 pixels in size, or about 200 times larger than you get in a high-end consumer digital camera."
When all four telescopes are in place, the entire sky visible from Hawaii (about three-quarters of the total sky) will be photographed at least once a week. Scientists will analyze the resulting images for changes that could reveal a previously unknown asteroid. They will also combine data from several images to calculate the orbits of asteroids, looking for indications that those orbits might bring them on a collision course with Earth.
[shadow=gray]Reducing blur[/shadow]
One of the key pieces of technology behind the telescope is a charged-coupled device developed by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. In the mid-1990s, researchers Barry Burke, Dick Savoye and Tonry developed a charge-coupled device (CCD), an electronic light sensor used in telescope cameras, that can shift its pixels to cancel the effects of random image motion. Many consumer digital cameras have systems to reduce blur from camera motion, but they don't work at the pixel level and are only effective at much slower speeds.
Pan-STARRS has an added challenge from its wide field of view. For wide fields, movement can vary across the image, so a single shift pattern isn't completely effective. To solve this problem, the researchers made an array of CCDs that can track the variations in motion across the full field of view.
The telescope, funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, will also be used to catalog stars and look for planets around other stars.
[shadow=gray]Asteroid Hunt [/shadow]
posted: 17 December 2008
A new telescope system featuring the world's largest digital camera will significantly increase the ability to find space rocks as it begins operation in Hawaii this month, scientists say.The telescope system will have a wide view of the sky and features a camera that reduces blur in images so that scientists can examine them for signs of asteroids that have moved from one image to the next. The telescope is part of a years-long survey of the sky for asteroids and comets that could pose a threat to our planet.
Since our planet formed 4.5 billion years ago, it has been hit many times by comets and asteroids. While most asteroids are found in our solar system's asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) and don't pose a threat to us, some have orbits that bring them in close proximity to Earth.
[shadow=gray]The threat[/shadow]
Each year several asteroids ranging in size from basketballs to small cars crash into Earth's atmosphere, typically burning up on the way in or breaking up and raining down in pieces over uninhabited land or the oceans (Earth is two-thirds ocean). In October, an asteroid about the size of a kitchen table exploded in Earth's atmosphere.
Several larger and potentially destructive space rocks have been spotted in recent years as they came a little too close for comfort. A binary asteroid passed within 1.4 million miles (2 million kilometers), or six times as far as the moon, in July. In January, an asteroid as big as several football fields made an even closer pass, coming within about 334,000 miles (537,500 kilometers) of the Earth (the moon is an average of 239,228 miles (385,000 kilometers) away).
Comets strike less frequently but are just as worrisome in the long run. They originate either from the Kuiper Belt (just beyond the orbit of Neptune) or the Oort cloud (far beyond the orbit of Pluto). Many of these icy-rock objects pose no threat to Earth, but astronomers are all but certain the planet has been struck by them in the past and that others will eventually cross our path.
Collectively, asteroids and comets that come close to Earth are known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA has a Congressional mandate to catalog all NEOs that are at least 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) wide. Several asteroid tracking programs have found thousands of NEOs, but there are still more lurking out there, and the smaller they are, the less likely they are to be spotted. A rock just a quarter mile wide, however, would cause extensive regional destruction if it struck.
[shadow=gray]First of four[/shadow]
To complete the survey for NEOs, a system of four telescopes called Pan-STARRS (for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) is being developed at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. The first prototype telescope, installed on Haleakala Mountain, Maui, will begin operations this month.
Pan-STARRS's cameras cover an area of sky six times the width of the full moon and can detect objects 10 million times fainter than those visible to the naked eye and has the unique ability to find moving objects.
"This is a truly giant instrument," said the leader of the team that developed the camera, astronomer John Tonry of the University of Hawaii. "We get an image that is 38,000 by 38,000 pixels in size, or about 200 times larger than you get in a high-end consumer digital camera."
When all four telescopes are in place, the entire sky visible from Hawaii (about three-quarters of the total sky) will be photographed at least once a week. Scientists will analyze the resulting images for changes that could reveal a previously unknown asteroid. They will also combine data from several images to calculate the orbits of asteroids, looking for indications that those orbits might bring them on a collision course with Earth.
[shadow=gray]Reducing blur[/shadow]
One of the key pieces of technology behind the telescope is a charged-coupled device developed by MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. In the mid-1990s, researchers Barry Burke, Dick Savoye and Tonry developed a charge-coupled device (CCD), an electronic light sensor used in telescope cameras, that can shift its pixels to cancel the effects of random image motion. Many consumer digital cameras have systems to reduce blur from camera motion, but they don't work at the pixel level and are only effective at much slower speeds.
Pan-STARRS has an added challenge from its wide field of view. For wide fields, movement can vary across the image, so a single shift pattern isn't completely effective. To solve this problem, the researchers made an array of CCDs that can track the variations in motion across the full field of view.
The telescope, funded by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, will also be used to catalog stars and look for planets around other stars.
We're in the pipe , five by five.
-
Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
"Britain's tabloid Sun newspaper Thursday proclaimed from its front page that a wind turbine was ruined after a UFO hit one of its 20 meter-long blades in Conisholme, Lincolnshire."
CLICKIES
CLICKIES
"Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Oh God, he's got a monkey." -- Ms Purple
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Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY
"Space is typically thought of as a very quiet place. But one team of astronomers has found a strange cosmic noise that booms six times louder than expected."
BOOMIES
BOOMIES
"Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Oh God, he's got a monkey." -- Ms Purple
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Tach Deneva
- Posts: 1546
- Joined: 18 Dec 2002, 18:51
- Location: KY