Aurion Mission

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Scientists' Hole In Time Could Doom Universe


Tuesday, August 30, 2011 00:30:44

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1023/985/Scientists_Hole_In_Time_Could_Doom_Universe.html
Mad scientists do exist and some may just be outright insane.

Whether a research team at the esteemed Cornell University fall into the insane category remains to be seen, but they may be skating along the edge of sanity—and perhaps playing a deadly form of quantum Russian roulette with the entire universe at stake.
What has created this disconcerting state of affairs?

Dr. Moti Fridman

Certifiably brilliant scientist, Mordechay (Moti) Fridman, and his tenacious team of "time bandits" have succeeded in punching a hole in the fabric of time by compressing and decompressing it.

The Cornell Time-Lens

The amazing "Time-Lens"

The Cornell team constructed what they call a "Time-Lens" that takes advantage of a peculiar duality that exists between the physical properties of space and time. In essence they have succeeded in punching a hole in the fragile fabric of time through the clever manipulation of diffraction and dispersion via an incredible propagation of light.

"This 'Time-Lens' can, for example, magnify or compress in time," Fridman explained.

Irwin Allen's old Time Tunnel team had nothing on this group.

Incredible electro-optic modulators (EOMs) were employed to manipulate time. One remarkable EOM compresses a light beam passing through it in time; the second EOM decompresses it again. The result artificially changes time creating a hole in reality.

Tear in continuum as depicted in SF Dr. Who

Time holes might deflate bubble universe

Astrophysicists have theorized for decades that the time space continuum is an infinite bubble amidst an infinite space of infinite bubbles. Rips, tears or holes in such a bubble may allow other universes to "leak" into our universe or conversely permit our universe to spring a leak.

Such breaches in our universe might upset space time, the nature of reality...even threaten our very existence.

Representation of hole destroying universe

Limited ability for now

Thankfully, time-lenses and punched holes are currently limited in their ability to affect the underlying nature of space time. Fridman says the time effect can last only about 110 nanoseconds. The scientist believes that time lenses will not be able to manipulate time more than 120 microseconds.

Yet breakthroughs tend to lead to more breakthroughs and greater achievements.

While some see the Time-Lens as a small step towards the ultimate dreams of time travel and invisibility, others think it may lead to an irreperable tear in the fabric of time itself. Such a tear will have no way of mending and may inexorably lead to the horrifying result of time itself unravelling like the frayed threads of an old, used up sweater.

Time storms could be precipitated by such holes in the fabric of reality and whole worlds—perhaps whole galaxies—might be swallowed up by whirlpools of non-time sucking matter and energy into a featureless limbo of non-existence.


Dangerous toys?

Time-Lenses punching holes in time are brand new toys in the quantum physics lab...yet they may also ultimately be the undoing of literally everything we know.

CONFIRMED: Libya War is CIA Op 30 Years in the Making

Tony Cartalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Alternative media activist David Icke, who has been warning about the false nature of the "Arab Spring" since it began over six months ago, has pointed out an astounding "flashback" regarding an August 3, 1981 Newsweek article titled, "A Plan to Overthrow Kaddafi."
The details of the plan were sketchy, but it seemed to be a classic CIA destabilization campaign. One element was a 'disinformation' program designed to embarrass Kaddafi and his government. Another was the creation of a 'counter government' to challenge his claim to national leadership. A third — potentially the most risky — was an escalating paramilitary campaign, probably by disaffected Libyan nationals, to blow up bridges, conduct small-scale guerrilla operations and demonstrate that Kaddafi was opposed by an indigenous political force.
Quite obviously this plan has been executed verbatim with the necessary addition of a NATO intervention to rescue the above stated "paramilitary" campaign from Libyan security forces - a contigency plan explicitly spelled out in another Wall Street-London subsidized, signed confession, Brookings Institution's "Which Path to Persia?"
"Consequently, if the United States ever succeeds in sparking a revolt against the clerical regime, Washington may have to consider whether to provide it with some form of military support to prevent Tehran from crushing it." "This requirement means that a popular revolution in Iran does not seem to fit the model of the “velvet revolutions” that occurred elsewhere. The point is that the Iranian regime may not be willing to go gently into that good night; instead, and unlike so many Eastern European regimes, it may choose to fight to the death. In those circumstances, if there is not external military assistance to the revolutionaries, they might not just fail but be massacred. 
 
Consequently, if the United States is to pursue this policy, Washington must take this possibility into consideration. It adds some very important requirements to the list: either the policy must include ways to weaken the Iranian military or weaken the willingness of the regime’s leaders to call on the military, or else the United States must be ready to intervene to defeat it."
....

The disinformation campaign began in February as overt, now verified lies were told to the public regarding both the nature of the uprising and the Libyan government's reaction to it. As tank driving, jet flying battle hardened LIFG Al Qaeda mercenaries waged war against the Libyan army, the corporate media in tandem with NATO member states preparing to intervene, portrayed the uprising as peaceful placard waving activists being mowed down by machine gun fire and strafed by Libyan warplanes. Evidence now confirms no such atrocties took place, however the UN citing this intentional disinformation authroized NATO intervention.

The very nature of the Benghazi rebels has been deceptively presented to the public. In fact, they are a collection of extremists and mercenaries, many of whom had been fighting recently in Iraq and Afghanistan against US forces. These mercenaries, who have been backed by the CIA and MI6 for the last 30 years (see time line), are being portrayed as an "an indigenous political force" opposing Libya's government. It has just been recently revealed that the rebel commander attempting to seize Tripoli is none other than Abdelhakim Belhadj, an Al Qaeda asset who was previously captured by in Malaysia, tortured by the CIA in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003, before being release back in Libya where he is now fighting on behalf of NATO.
Additional disinformation comes in the form of media attempts to portray Qaddafi as a rambling madman who despite the disparagement, has turned out to be one of the few heads of state speaking any truth at all regarding the conflict besieging his nation. From his earlier claims that the uprising was foreign backed Al Qaeda, to now verified claims that the rebellion was nothing more than a means to usher in a foreign occupation and the despoiling of Libya's resources, he has been spot on.

As rebels loot his home and his compound in central Tripoli, he is now being disingenuously portrayed as an opulent tyrant who hoarded state resources at the cost of his population. Betraying the duplicity of this lie is the UN's own Human Development Index which lists Libya as one of the most developed nations in Africa and is ranked higher than many other nations including Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia. Quite obviously Libya's oil wealth was put to good use, and as Libya has ensured the West's nefarious corporate-funded NGOs were excluded from Libyan society, no other explanation for Libya's development exists beyond the government's own initiatives.

What we are witnessing in Libya is a concerted, admitted war of aggression by corporate-financier interests who have openly conspired to carry out a campaign of military and economic conquest throughout the Middle East (and beyond), including Northern Africa and specifically including Libya.

From Wesley Clark's 2007 speech, to Newsweeks' 1981 article, we have been handed a signed confession that "our" governments are the true enemies of free humanity, masking their agenda with the thinnest veneer of moral justification, almost as if to insult the intelligence of so many who eagerly continue to empower them as they maliciously move forward. Once again, we must commit ourselves to identifying the corporate-financier interests truly driving this agenda, lurking behind the military and political leaders paraded before us as the executors of "international policy." We must also commit to boycotting and replacing these corporate-financier interests as well as ending the recognition of any of the legitimacy they endlessly heap upon themselves.
Tony Cartalucci's articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at  Land Destroyer Report.

6 Strange Anomalies With The Virginia Earthquake


http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1019/023/6_Strange_Anomalies_With_The_Virginia_Earthquake.html
Sunday, August 28, 2011 18:49:44
USGS Shakemap Image
Eric Blair
Activist Post

My first thought upon hearing the news of the rare 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Virginia this week was that it was not a natural occurrence. After all, no one has ever felt or even heard of such a powerful temblor happening in this area in a lifetime. As is usual for my cynical instincts, I hoped that I was wrong. However, several anomalies indicate that something is not normal with the Virginia quake.

First, I spend a lot of time in the "Ring of Fire" zone and have experienced numerous earthquakes.  By no means does this make me an expert, nor scientifically qualified to analyze earthquakes.  But, as enthusiasts, we looked up every quake we felt over a five-year period -- the size, epicenter location, depth, and so on, to get a general sense of placing how it "felt" relative to the official data.


I can categorically state that, of the dozen or so earthquakes that I've experienced, including a powerful 6.2, all of them started gently, none of them were over 50 miles away, all of them had depths of several kilometers, and the big ones seemed to have multiple aftershocks reported. Again, I say this as an observer, not as a scientist, and I'm only providing this background simply to qualify my immediate skepticism.

Furthermore, curiously, the "Great Virginia Quake of 2011," unprecedented in size and scope, should have grabbed the media headlines and discussion for weeks, but Hurricane Irene has all but wiped the earthquake off the weather map.  Even as all the storm measurements for Irene show that it will likely be a minor nuisance, maybe some flooding and power outages, multiple states of emergency have been declared, mandatory mass evacuations ordered, and the media is all too eager to spread the panic.  You'd think the east coast of the United States was being invaded.  It feels like a distraction, or perhaps a large but manageable live drill of some kind to make heroes out of our politicians, and FEMA look like a successful agency.

If this manic and surreal coverage of Irene is a deliberate distraction, the anomalies regarding the recent earthquake may have provided sufficient motivation for doing so.  Not to discount other establishment catastrophes that they may want to distract from at this critical time -- like the crumbling economy, record political disapproval, and the bungled invasion of Tripoli -- but, if any discussion about the unusual nature of the earthquake was allowed one must ponder if some sort of manipulation was involved.  The establishment will not permit such talk, apparently; hence the rapid about-face on earthquake coverage.

Below are six abnormalities about the Virginia earthquake that should warrant further investigation:

Location: The location is the most obvious anomaly for such a powerful quake. Although the area of the U.S. where the earthquake initiated sits on the edge of an ancient tectonic plate called the Craton Plate, it is considered a relatively dormant or settled area.  In other words, it's not a very active earthquake zone.  Therefore, any noticeable earthquake is unusual, let alone a 5.9 monster that was reportedly felt 500 miles away. Furthermore, if one is inclined to believe that earthquakes can be manipulated, the epicenter occurring close to Washington D.C. (with all its sensitive military and government infrastructure) raises some suspicions. Admittedly, that's conjecture, but considering the following oddities it might be more believable by the end of the article.

Unusually Shallow Depth:  The initial hypocenter (depth) of the quake reported by the establishment media was, wait for it, wait for it, only 0.1 miles or about 528 feet (161 meters) deep. That's right, AFP announced the depth with certainty, "The Pentagon, the US Capitol and monuments in the nation's capital were all evacuated after the 5.9-magnitude quake, which was shallow with its epicenter only 0.1 miles underground."  The depth was later adjusted to a more believable 3.7 miles (5.95 kilometers) beneath the surface. Still, shallow-focus quakes usually only occur in areas abundant in seismic activity, like the ring of fire. And the depths of those shallow-focus earthquakes are usually in the tens of kilometers deep.  The Earth's crust in the Eastern U.S. where "the fault lines are more healed" is described by CBS News as "older and colder" than out West. Which, according to Wikipedia, means it should have been a deep-focus earthquake with a depth ranging from 300 to 700 kilometers.  Certainly not one barely below the Earth's surface.

Odd Seismograph Reading:  A reporter from Press Core received an anonymous email from someone claiming to be in the U.S. Air Force that stated the Virginia earthquake “wasn’t a natural earthquake and not a HAARP earthquake."  The reporter was instructed to find a seismograph of the Washington DC area earthquake and compare it to a past earthquakes and seismic readings of the alleged underground nuclear test by North Korea that resulted in a 4.7 magnitude tremor at a depth of zero.

Seismograph of Virginia quake in green -- Washington and Lee University (85 miles from epicenter)
Press Core writes, the green lines indicate the blunt tremor that was felt in Washington D.C. and the black lines are a transparent overlay of a seismograph from a pdf file from Virginia Division Mineral Resources on Earthquakes. That file describes a typical natural occurring earthquake as:
When a fault ruptures, energy is released in the form of seismic waves. The first waves to reach the earth’s surface are primary or 'P' waves (Figure 2). P waves are compressional waves that travel at a speed of about four miles per second near the surface – faster as depth increases. The next waves to reach the earth’s surface are secondary or 'S' waves. S waves are shear waves that move at a speed of about 1.5 miles per second. P and S waves are body waves that travel through the earth much like sonar waves travel through water. Surface waves, which are slower than S waves, travel along the surface of the earth much like waves at the surface of the ocean. S waves and surface waves cause the most destruction at the earth’s surface.
The article concludes; "What is missing from the seismograph for the Washington DC area 5.8 magnitude earthquake are the primary or 'P' waves. All earthquakes that are the direct result of fault rupture have these primary or 'P' waves. Nuclear detonations do not."

Distance Felt: As my introduction stated, I've never "felt" an earthquake whose epicenter was farther than 50 miles away.  Of course, this doesn't mean that it's not possible, as clearly this was felt upwards of 500 miles from the epicenter.  The CBS article quoted above that referred to the crust as "older and colder" also uses that argument to explain why tremors were felt so far away: "The East is far less seismically active -- but when earthquakes do hit, that hard ground is far more effective at conducting the seismic waves. When you hit it, it rings like a bell," said Christopher Scholz a professor of geophysics at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University."  This seems a bit contradictory given the shallow depth of the quake, but there may be some validity to the "bell" theory.  The fact remains, earthquakes whose effects travel long distances are uncommon, hence the reason for the CBS article about why the quake was so "widely felt."

'Remarkably Low' Number of Aftershocks:  Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the USGS Earthquake Information Center in Colorado told CBS News that "For the size earthquake that occurred, I think the number of aftershocks so far has been remarkably low." Don Blakeman, another geophysicist at the Earthquake Information Center, added "Typically, the larger the quake, the longer and the greater extent of aftershocks. Shallow earthquakes like the one in Virginia also tend to generate numerous aftershocks."  The lack of aftershocks led the USGS to report that the Virginia quake may be just a foreshock of something larger to come. A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic event (the mainshock) and is related to it in both time and space.  I'm not sure what this means other than it's just another abnormality about this quake.

Image source - Enterprise Mission
Instantaneously Knocked Irene Off Course: Kevin Hayden and Glenn Kreisberg reported "Coincidentally, the time frame leading up to Virginia/DC/New York area experiencing freak seismic activity, Hurricane Irene begins to weaken and move off course, avoiding its initial path of Havanna, inland Florida, the Carolinas, and eventually, the Washington, DC area. The newly projected paths show that it may barely clip the eastern coast, if at all. Just as Ophelia did when it threatened the same region."  Irene stalled and changed directions similar to Ophelia seen in the graphic provided.  Clearly, these types of drastic changes are not a natural path for hurricanes.

A few articles have speculated that HAARP earthquake weapons were to blame, in conjunction with manipulating hurricane Irene. Indeed, when one knows even the basic capabilities of HAARP, this does not seem too far-fetched.  Press Core seems to think the seismic data proves it was more similar to an underground nuclear detonation.  One thing is for sure, the mysterious characteristics of the Virginia quake seem to indicate that it was not a typical earthquake.

Comment on what you think about these strange anomalies, or please provide solid evidence to explain this unusual evidence.

Vatican Joins NASA And Govt For The Big Event Soon To Be Announced To The World!


Monday, August 29, 2011 14:57:24
The VATICAN is now preparing us for the BIG MESSAGE the GOVERNMENT and NASA are planning to announce soon. This is in anticipation to more ' DISCLOSURE and SHOCKING ' NEWS soon to be released little by little.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1021/802/VATICAN_JOINS_NASA_and_GOVT_FOR_THE_BIG_EVENT_SOON_TO_BE_ANNOUNCED_to_the_WORLD.html


It seems that in light of things like this, especially the recent media coverage claiming that we'll be invaded and killed by aliens because of global warming, that we have a problem. Werner Von Braun said before he died that first it would be rogue nations that would threaten the world after the Cold War, then it would be Terrorism, and then an extra terrestrial threat, mainly so that they can weaponize space. Scary thought I know.

UFO Sighting as International Space Station Passes Over Hurricane Irene - August 25, 2011


Monday, August 29, 2011 14:40:37

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1021/764/UFO_Sighting_as_International_Space_Station_Passes_Over_Hurricane_Irene_-_August_25,_2011.html


Date of sighting: August 25, 2011
Location of sighting: ISS in orbit.

While watching this video of the ISS over Hurricane Irene (who makes those name?) I noticed several UFOs flying past, but this one long black object was most intersting. I drew a line with red arrows so you can see its path that it takes. It actually goes around part of the space station to avoid hitting it. The UFO will come from the bottom of the screen at 1:01 into the video so you may want to jump there to see it. Scott C. Waring

Hurricane Irene knocked a nuclear reactor offline at Calvert Cliffs

http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/region/eastern_shore/hurricane-irene-knocked-a-nuclear-reactor-offline-at-calvert-cliffs#ixzz1WJ1yzHJZ


Posted: 08/28/2011
The Constellation Energy Nuclear Group nuclear power fleet is safe, secure and stable, including the Calvert Cliffs facility.
Late last night, a large gust of wind sent a piece of aluminum siding, which dislodged from a nearby building, into contact with the main transformer at our Calvert Cliffs nuclear power facility in Lusby, Maryland.
The Unit 1 reactor automatically and safely went off-line, as designed. Because of the situation, an Unusual Event was declared Saturday night. UE is the lowest of four emergency classifications by the NRC. That UE has since been exited.
All employees are safe and the Calvert Cliffs facility is safe and there was no other significant damage and the site is accessible.
Throughout the storm, Calvert Cliff's Unit 2 remained at 100 percent power. Two Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives remain on-site.
There was never a threat to the public; the site remains stable and secure.
A note from Constellation: Our thoughts and prayers are with all those in the path of Hurricane Irene, especially our employees, contractors and those in the communities in which we operate our facilities.
Special thanks to those CENG employees who worked to keep the site safe and operational throughout the night.
In the nuclear energy industry and at CENG, safety is more than a priority or goal; it is our highest value.
Stay safe.
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Idea of particle colliders is here to stay


R. Ramachandran
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Director-general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research Rolf Heuer addresses a news conference at the Tata Institute of Fundamental
NEW DELHI: External Affairs Research in Mumbai on Thursday.
AFP Director-general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research Rolf Heuer addresses a news conference at the Tata Institute of Fundamental NEW DELHI: External Affairs Research in Mumbai on Thursday.

It won't end with LHC, whose results "will guide us into the new energy frontier," says CERN director-general
Declaring emphatically that the idea of particle colliders would not “wither” away after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Rolf Heuer, director-general of CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, said here on Thursday that there were exciting physics prospects with colliders in the energy frontier beyond the LHC's reach. The question, he said, was not ‘Wither Colliders?' but rather ‘Whiter Colliders?' meaning which type of colliders?
Dr. Heuer was speaking on ‘Whither Colliders After LHC?' at the ongoing XXV International Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). “We are just beginning to explore 95 per cent of the universe, and the LHC had delivered exciting results. But it is the results from the LHC that will guide us into the new energy frontier.”
Today, he said, the LHC, operating at a combined energy of 7 teraelectronvolts (TeV) delivered by two colliding beams of protons at 3.5 TeV each, had brought the world into unexplored energy territory and made excellent progress in the accelerator performance, in its various experiments and in the worldwide computational grid established to analyse the data coming out from it. “In the last eight months, the researchers had demonstrated an unprecedented efficiency in data taking of over 90 per cent.”
Talking specifically of the endgame that one now witnesses in the ongoing search for the Higgs particle (The Hindu, August 23), the crucial missing piece of the Standard Model (SM), the highly successful theory of fundamental particles and forces of nature, he said: “Finding Higgs is certainly a discovery, but excluding Standard Model's Higgs is an equally significant discovery.”
This was one of the five key messages he gave in his talk.
But either way, Dr. Heuer said, the LHC was poised to clarify the mechanism of the origin of the masses of fundamental particles, which Higgs was hypothesised to do. Answers to most outstanding questions of particle physics today would be through the new particles on the TeV energy scale, which lay in the LHC territory.
The new energy frontier that colliders of future would explore was at least two decades away till when the LHC and its upgrades were expected to continue generating new data, leading perhaps to new physics. The CERN had drawn up a 20-year programme for the LHC, the immediate target being to reach its design luminosity (a measure of proton-proton collisions in the machine) at the designed combined peak energy of 14 TeV by the end of 2012.
The next step is to increase its luminosity, but at 14 TeV, of which configuration he called the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC).
The goal, according to Frederick Bordry, Head of Technology at CERN, is to attain 20-30 quadrillion proton-proton collisions per year from the current 100-200 trillion collisions per year, for which advanced magnet designs (with 13-15 tesla magnetic field from the current 9 tesla) are under way.
The energy frontier beyond the LHC scale, Dr. Heuer said, would have to be reached through a synergy of hadron-hadron colliders like a high-energy LHC (HE-LHC), lepton-hadron colliders such as an electron-proton collider, which he called LHeC, and lepton-lepton colliders such as the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC), which is already at an advanced stage of research and development, and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) at the CERN, which is in its early stage.
(Unlike circulating beams in LHC-like machines, linear colliders have beams travelling straight and colliding head-on. The earlier electron-positron machine at the CERN, called LEP, was a circulating one, in whose 27-km tunnel the LHC is now located.)
The preliminary specs for the HE-LHC were proposed in October 2010. Planned for launch during 2030-33, the machine is proposed to be a 33 TeV proton-proton collider with peak luminosity being twice what was planned for HL-LHC. This, of course, would require aggressive R&D on high field (20 tesla) magnet design, including high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets, Dr. Heuer said.
As for LHeC, Dr. Heuer said that since the LHC tunnel already existed, there were two options available: a ring-ring option that involved overlaying an electron ring in the same tunnel over the proton ring, and a linac-ring option involving an electron linear accelerator (linac) and a proton ring.
As regards ‘Multi-TeV electron-positron colliders' a la ILC and CLIC, he said that given the close R&D collaboration between the ILC and CLIC projects, it would be prudent to merge the two into a single Linear Collider (LC) project, and made a pitch for locating the LC at the CERN so as to minimise cost, power consumption and enhanced “value engineering.” The location for the ILC is yet to be decided.
The fourth option, he said, was the muon-muon collider, where muon is a heavier cousin of the electron. Though muons coupled with the Higgs particle more strongly, the technological challenges for muon-muon colliders were far greater.
Reiterating that the results from the LHC would determine the energies of these machines, Dr. Heuer said all projects needed continuing accelerator and detector R&D and close collaboration between theory and experiments, and it was important to make a convincing case for the future accelerator options so that the right decision could be made at the appropriate time.
“The earliest window of opportunity for enabling a decision on the next energy frontier target will be 2012,” he said. Calling for increased global collaboration, he said: “All these have to be built as global machines.”

Exploding star to be visible from Earth within a fortnight

The most visible exploding star in a generation will be visible in skies above Britain within a fortnight, Oxford University astronomers have announced.

The most visible exploding star in a generation will be visible in skies above Britain within a fortnight, Oxford University astronomers have announced.
The supernova will burn with the brightness of more than a billion Suns Photo: AP
The supernova, triggered by the collapse of a star 21 million light years away from Earth, began on Tuesday and could soon be bright enough to see through a pair of binoculars.
The cosmic event, observed by Oxford scientists and American colleagues, is one of the closest stellar explosions to Earth since 1987, and is the nearest example of its type to be seen from Earth in 40 years.
The rare "type 1a" supernova – an event where a star explodes, then sucks up the energy from another nearby star and is reborn – happened in the Pinwheel Galaxy, located in the Great Bear constellation.
It is of particular interest to scientists because type 1a supernovae can be used to measure the size and age of the universe.
The supernova, dubbed PTF11kly, is close enough that astronomers will be able to study it in unprecedented detail, and Nasa announced it would tear up the Hubble telescope's work schedule to study the phenomenon from Saturday.
For the first three weeks after the explosion, the supernova will burn with the brightness of more than a billion Suns, but experts warned that it would still be difficult for the general public to locate in the night sky.
Dr Mark Sullivan, who led the Oxford team, said: "The best time to see this exploding star will be just after evening twilight in the Northern hemisphere in a week or so's time ... You'll need dark skies and a good pair of binoculars, although a small telescope would be even better."
Tom Boles, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Association, added: "Most amateur astronomers detect supernovas using electronic sensors, so to be able to see one at all is tremendous and to be able to see it using binoculars is pretty much unprecedented.
"To find it will be relatively easy if you know where to look, but someone who has not done it before will probably fail because you really need to know where the Pinwheel Galaxy is, and even then it will not appear that bright."
The discovery of the giant explosion just hours after it took place means astronomers will also get a rare chance to study the outer layers of the blast, which contain unburnt sections of the star.
Prof Andy Howell of the University of California Santa Barbara, one of the team who made the find, said: "We caught this supernova earlier than we’ve ever discovered a supernova of this type.
"On Tuesday, it wasn’t there. Then, on Wednesday, boom! There it was -caught within hours of the explosion. As soon as I saw the discovery image I knew we were onto something big.
“We are finding new clues to solving the mystery of the origin of these supernovae that has perplexed us for 70 years. Despite looking at thousands of supernovae, I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

From the X-Files Dept: "Galactic Flashes May Signal Transmissions By Other Civilizations"

August 26, 2011

Firststars

"We'll be looking for the occasional celestial flash," said Joseph Lazio, a radio astronomer at JPL. "These flashes can be anything from explosions on surfaces of nearby stars, deaths of distant stars, exploding black holes, or even perhaps transmissions by other civilizations." JPL scientists are working with multi-institutional teams to explore this new area of astronomy.

An innovative new radio telescope array under construction in central New Mexico will eventually harness the power of more than 13,000 antennas and provide a fresh eye to the sky. The antennas, which resemble droopy ceiling fans, form the Long Wavelength Array, designed to survey the sky from horizon to horizon over a wide range of frequencies.

The University of New Mexico leads the project, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides the advanced digital electronic systems, which represent a major component of the observatory.

The first station in the Long Wavelength Array, with 256 antennas, is scheduled to start surveying the sky by this summer. When complete, the Long Wavelength Array will consist of 53 stations, with a total of 13,000 antennas strategically placed in an area nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles) in diameter. The antennas will provide sensitive, high-resolution images of a region of the sky hundreds of times larger than the full moon. These images could reveal radio waves coming from planets outside our solar system, and thus would turn out to be a new way to detect these worlds. In addition to planets, the telescope will pick up a host of other cosmic phenomena.

The new Long Wavelength Array will operate in the radio-frequency range of 20 to 80 megahertz, corresponding to wavelengths of 15 meters to 3.8 meters (49.2 feet to 12.5 feet). These frequencies represent one of the last and most poorly explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In recent years, a few factors have triggered revived interest in radio astronomy at these frequencies. The cost and technology required to build these low-frequency antennas has improved significantly. Also, advances in computing have made the demands of image processing more attainable. The combination of cost-effective hardware and technology gives scientists the ability to return to these wavelengths and obtain a much better view of the universe.

The predecessor Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array was also in New Mexico. It was successful in identifying radio flashes, but all of them came from non-astronomy targets -- either the sun, or meteors reflecting TV signals high in Earth's atmosphere. Nonetheless, its findings indicate how future searches using the Long Wavelength Array technology might lead to new discoveries.

"Because nature is more clever than we are, it's quite possible that we will discover something we haven't thought of," said Lazio.


The Daily Galaxy via http://lwa.unm.edu .

Orbiting gyroscopes detect slight sag and even slighter twist in space-time

05.05.2011 | Source:

Pravda.Ru

 

In a tour de force of technology and just plain stubbornness spanning half a century and costing more than $750 million, a team of experimenters from Stanford University reported on Wednesday that a set of orbiting gyroscopes had detected a slight sag and an even slighter twist in space-time.
The finding confirms some of the weirdest of the many strange predictions - like black holes and the expanding universe - of Albert Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity.
"We have completed this landmark experiment of testing Einstein's universe," Francis Everitt, leader of the project, known as Gravity Probe B, said at a news conference at NASA headquarters in Washington. "And Einstein survives," according to New York Times.
"Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey," Stanford physicist Francis Everitt, who led the project funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said in a statement. "As the planet rotates, the honey around it would swirl, and it's the same with space and time."
The project was one of the longest-running efforts in the U.S. space agency's history, beginning in 1963, and cost about $750 million, NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto said today in a telephone interview. The findings were the culmination of 49 years of work by Everitt, who came to Stanford in 1962 to help build the most precise gyroscope ever designed and produced, according to NASA, Bloomberg reports.

Gravity: Space-Time Warp



http://www.space.com/11594-gravity-space-time-warp.html

NASA’S GRAVITY PROBE B, TORSION, AND A DISTURBING HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Consider carefully the second article following, in the light of the first:
Spacetime and Spin
NASA Announces Results of Epic Spacetime Experiment
Note that in the first article, the author gets the history of relativity right: Einstein did not incorporate the idea of torsion – a spiraling and folding and pleating of spacetime in the presence of a rotating mass – into his equations. The reason? The effect of torsion, mathematically, and as indicated by the article itself, was so small, that to simplify calculations, Einstein simply dispensed with it.
Not so his colleagues Lense and Thirring, who recognized something significant was being thrown out, namely, the rotational structure of spacetime itself.  As the bulk of the article indicates, there were scientists interested in the possibilities of coupling effects of gravity and magnetism, and gravity and electricity, and with their frame-dragging extension of General Relativity, Lense and Thirring could certainly be argued to fall into that category. The effects of torsion were small, indeed, almost negligible, but nonetheless significant. In fact, we depend on calculations of the Lense-Thirring effect for one simple reason: satellites and the global positioning network. In this age of precise positioning, a variation of a few centimeters, if not calculated on a regular basis, will lead eventually to satellites being “out of position” over a period of time, due to this effect, and that in turn would affect calculations for the entire network.
The first article is interesting for quite a different reason, and that is the short statement to the effect of spin on the idea of dynamic kontrabary(contrabary), or to give it its more popular name, antigravity. Why -  if one lets ones arms hang freely and then spins – do the arms want to rise, as if losing weight relative to the axis of spin?
Someone back in the 1920s and 1930s was certainly interested in the connection of all these ideas. And guess who it was? It was Dr. Walther Gerlach, internationally-renowned physicist (for his part in the celebrated Stern-Gerlach experiment), and eventual project head for the Nazi Bell project.  But what few people know is that Gerlach conducted a correspondence with Thirring and Lense, precisely over their frame-dragging predictions. All indicators are that Gerlach regarded this as the key to the mystery of gravity…and to its control.
Let us also remember someone else – also not mentioned in the article – who realized that spinning gyroscopes and ultra-fine measurement equipment, might detect small variations of mass over time and dependent upon when and where tests were conducted: Russian astrophysicist Dr. Nikolai Kozyrev.
So what’s the bottom line? My suspicion – and it is only a suspicion – is that these types of measurements and experiments have been running, quietly and secretly, for quite some time. Kozyrev is, for one thing, proof of that. Accurate measurements are required for the mathematical adjustments of the theory.
Even Einstein, having jettisoned torsion in his version of General relativity, reintroduced the notion in some versions of his later unified field theories, a significant step, for it was recognition that there were mysterious coupling effects between gravity and electromagnetism, coupling effects that were, moreover, related to the concept of spin, and the “rotation moment” of local spacetime.
Neil Armstrong urges return to the Moon

by Staff WritersSydney (AFP) Aug 25, 2011

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Neil_Armstrong_urges_return_to_the_Moon_999.html


The first human to step onto the moon's surface, Neil Armstrong. Credit: NASA.

Neil Armstrong has urged a return to the Moon to train for missions to Mars as the United States contemplates the future of its space programme following the end of the shuttle era.
The first man to walk on the Moon is due to address the US Congress on new directions for NASA in coming weeks.
He has previously criticised US President Barack Obama for being "poorly advised" on space matters and said it was "well known to all that the American space programme is in some chaos at the present time, some disarray".
"There are multiple opinions on which goals should be the most important and the most pressing," he told a function in Sydney late Wednesday.
The US shuttle programme came to an end last month with the Atlantis cruising home for a final time, 42 years after Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.
Critics have assailed NASA for lacking focus, with no next-generation human space flight mission to replace the shuttle programme.
Now 81, Armstrong said the agency had become a "shuttlecock" for the "war of words" between the executive, legislative and congressional arms of US government.
"Its my belief given time and careful thought and reasoning we will eventually reach the right goal, I just hope we do it fairly quickly," he said.
The normally private and reserved space veteran said Mars should be the next frontier for exploration but urged more missions to the Moon as the vital next step.
"I do favour going to Mars but I believe it is both too difficult and too expensive with the technology we have available at the current time," he said.
"I favour returning to the Moon. We made six landings there and explored areas as small as a city lot and perhaps as large as a small town. That leaves us some 14 million square miles that we have not explored."
Armstrong said working on the Moon would allow scientists to practise "a lot of the things that you need to do when you are going further out in the solar system" while maintaining relatively close contact with Mission Control.
Communication is the major problem for trips to Mars, he added, with the relay of a message between Earth and the Red Planet delayed by about 20 minutes, compared with 1.5 seconds between here and the Moon.
"Before you get an answer to your question almost an hours gone by, so its hard for Mission Control to be involved in a meaningful way helping you with that situation," he said.
"That's going to make a very difficult challenge for the early Mars missions to solve these kinds of delay sort of problems.
"I do believe that we will solve them in time, well contrive a way to do that safely but we can't do it right now."
Travel time is also a major concern, with the quickest journey of two months only possible when Mars is closest to Earth -- when it also happens to be spinning most rapidly, meaning massive amounts of fuel are required to land.
"The best time to go to Mars is when its on the opposite side of the Sun to you, as far away as it can get, and that takes the least fuel, but it also takes about seven months one way, which is packing a lot of sandwiches," he said.
"And by the time you get there Earth has moved and it's no longer in a proper position to come back, so you have to wait around for a couple of years until Earth gets in the right position."
Armstrong said Mars was a "worthy challenge" but it was expensive, time-consuming and carried substantial risks not faced in the lunar programme, predominantly to do with radiation.

NASA spots chilled-out stars cooler than the human body


Infrared satellite spies dim brown dwarf stars right in our galactic backyard

When you think of stars, you probably imagine massive, burning balls of fire much like our sun, but there are stars out there in space which you could actually stand on and not be burnt to a crisp. NASA has known of these celestial bodies — called brown Y dwarf stars — for a great long time. But now, a satellite has spotted a particularly chill Y dwarf that holds the new record for the coolest star at just 80 degree Fahrenheit.
Prior to the discovery, the coolest Y dwarfs on record wouldn't instantly incinerate a human explorer, but that unlucky individual would be uncomfortably warm. The new cold star record holder put out just enough infrared light to be spotted by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, and is an order of magnitude cooler than any before it. WISE also spotted roughly 100 other brown dwarfs — a handful of which are considerably closer than NASA had thought.
Brown dwarf stars of sometimes referred to as "failed stars" because their comparatively low mass keeps them from being able to fuse atoms like our own sun. The lack of bright visible light makes these cool stars difficult to spot, even with the assistance of telescopes, and infrared sensors are sometimes the only way to learn of their existence. Researchers were surprised to learn that several were within 40 light years of our own solar system, just a stone's throw in terms of our galaxy.
NASA via Wired

Astronomers discover planet made of diamond

  • An exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard in an undated image courtesy of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. REUTERS/Handout An exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our …
LONDON (Reuters) - Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.
The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond.
"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon -- i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun," said Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.
Lying 4,000 light years away, or around an eighth of the way toward the center of the Milky Way from the Earth, the planet is probably the remnant of a once-massive star that has lost its outer layers to the so-called pulsar star it orbits.
Pulsars are tiny, dead neutron stars that are only around 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) in diameter and spin hundreds of times a second, emitting beams of radiation.
In the case of pulsar J1719-1438, the beams regularly sweep the Earth and have been monitored by telescopes in Australia, Britain and Hawaii, allowing astronomers to detect modulations due to the gravitational pull of its unseen companion planet.
The measurements suggest the planet, which orbits its star every two hours and 10 minutes, has slightly more mass than Jupiter but is 20 times as dense, Bailes and colleagues reported in the journal Science on Thursday.
In addition to carbon, the new planet is also likely to contain oxygen, which may be more prevalent at the surface and is probably increasingly rare toward the carbon-rich center.
Its high density suggests the lighter elements of hydrogen and helium, which are the main constituents of gas giants like Jupiter, are not present.
Just what this weird diamond world is actually like close up, however, is a mystery.
"In terms of what it would look like, I don't know I could even speculate," said Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester. "I don't imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we're looking at here."
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Sophie Hares)
Starnge spun-up spot shifts its shape.
Sunspot 1271 has been changing form over the past 72 hours, possibly a pre-cursor to a M-Class solar flare that could pose a threat to Earth. Includes Solar Dynamic Observatory imagery time-lapsed from August 22-24, 2011.

http://www.space.com/video/
New Video: DARPA hypersonic failed test flight
This video, captured with a handheld camera, shows the Aug. 11 test flight of DARPA's super-fast HTV-2 prototype vehicle that disappeared from tracking.

http://www.space.com/video/

Massive diamond planet orbits a neutron star


Using the giant Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, astrophysicists have found an incredibly dense planet comprised of crystalized carbon – the stuff of diamonds – in orbit about a pulsar.

http://www.space.com/12738-massive-diamond-planet-orbits-neutron-star-astronomers-find.html

Saturday, August 27, 2011

LHC results put supersymmetry theory 'on the spot'



Supersymmetry Supersymmetry predicts the existence of mysterious super particles.

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Results from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have all but killed the simplest version of an enticing theory of sub-atomic physics.
Researchers failed to find evidence of so-called "supersymmetric" particles, which many physicists had hoped would plug holes in the current theory.
Theorists working in the field have told BBC News that they may have to come up with a completely new idea.
Data were presented at the Lepton Photon science meeting in Mumbai.
They come from the LHC Beauty (LHCb) experiment, one of the four main detectors situated around the collider ring at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) on the Swiss-French border.
According to Dr Tara Shears of Liverpool Liverpool University, a spokesman for the LHCb experiment: "It does rather put supersymmetry on the spot".

“Start Quote

There's a certain amount of worry that's creeping into our discussions”
End Quote Dr Joseph Lykken Fermilab
The experiment looked at the decay of particles called "B-mesons" in hitherto unprecedented detail.
If supersymmetric particles exist, B-mesons ought to decay far more often than if they do not exist.
There also ought to be a greater difference in the way matter and antimatter versions of these particles decay.
The results had been eagerly awaited following hints from earlier results, most notably from the Tevatron particle accelerator in the US, that the decay of B-mesons was influenced by supersymmetric particles.
LHCb's more detailed analysis however has failed to find this effect.
Bitten the dust
This failure to find indirect evidence of supersymmetry, coupled with the fact that two of the collider's other main experiments have not yet detected supersymmetic particles, means that the simplest version of the theory has in effect bitten the dust.
Lead ion collisions Collisions inside the LHC should have found some evidence of Supersymmetry by now
The theory of supersymmetry in its simplest form is that as well as the subatomic particles we know about, there are "super-particles" that are similar, but have slightly different characteristics.
The theory, which was developed 20 years ago, can help to explain why there is more material in the Universe than we can detect - so-called "dark matter".
According to Professor Jordan Nash of Imperial College London, who is working on one of the LHC's experiments, researchers could have seen some evidence of supersymmetry by now.
"The fact that we haven't seen any evidence of it tells us that either our understanding of it is incomplete, or it's a little different to what we thought - or maybe it doesn't exist at all," he said.
Disappointed
The timing of the announcement could not be worse for advocates of supersymmetry, who begin their annual international meeting at Fermilab, near Chicago, this weekend.

“Start Quote

Supersymmetry... has got symmetry and its super - but there's no experimental data to say it is correct”
End Quote Professor George Smoot Nobel Laureate
Dr Joseph Lykken of Fermilab, who is among the conference organisers, says he and others working in the field are "disappointed" by the results - or rather, the lack of them.
"There's a certain amount of worry that's creeping into our discussions," he told BBC News.
The worry is that the basic idea of supersymmetry might be wrong.
"It's a beautiful idea. It explains dark matter, it explains the Higgs boson, it explains some aspects of cosmology; but that doesn't mean it's right.
"It could be that this whole framework has some fundamental flaws and we have to start over again and figure out a new direction," he said.
Down the drain
Experimental physicists working at the LHC, such as Professor Nash, say the results are forcing their theoretical colleagues to think again.
"For the last 20 years or so, theorists have been a step ahead in that they've had ideas and said 'now you need to go and look for it'.
"Now we've done that, and they need to go scratch their heads," he said.
That is not to say that it is all over for supersymmetry. There are many other, albeit more complex, versions of the theory that have not been ruled out by the LHC results.
These more complex versions suggest that super-particles might be harder to find and could take years to detect.
Some old ideas that emerged around the same time as supersymmetry are being resurrected now there is a prospect that supersymmetry may be on the wane.
One has the whimsical name of "Technicolor".
According to Dr Lykken, some younger theoretical physicists are beginning to develop completely novel ideas because they believe supersymmetry to be "old hat" .
"Young theorists especially would love to see supersymmetry go down the drain, because it means that the real thing is something they could invent - not something that was invented by the older generation," he said.
And the new generation has the backing of an old hand - Professor George Smoot, Nobel prizewinner for his work on the cosmic microwave background and one of the world's most respected physicists.
"Supersymmetry is an extremely beautiful model," he said.
"It's got symmetry, its super and its been taught in Europe for decades as the correct model because it is so beautiful; but there's no experimental data to say that it is correct."
Millions in US urged to flee path of Hurricane Irene


More than two million people on the US east coast have been told to evacuate their homes as Hurricane Irene nears, packing winds of 90mph (150km/h).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14690942

The mayor of New York has ordered an unprecedented evacuation of a quarter of a million people living in low-lying parts of the city.
Seven states from North Carolina to Connecticut have declared emergencies ahead of Irene's arrival.
US President Barack Obama has warned Irene could be "a historic hurricane".
He has urged people in the projected path of Hurricane Irene - the first hurricane of the Atlantic season - to take precautions.
"Don't wait, don't delay. We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst. All of us have to take this storm seriously," he said on Friday, before cutting short his holiday in Martha's Vineyard, an island on the Massachusetts coast, a day early to head back to Washington.
The National Hurricane Center has downgraded Irene from a category two to a category one hurricane but says it is still packing hurricane-force winds of 90mph (150km/h) that extend outwards some 90 miles (150km). Tropical-force winds extend as far as 290m (465km).
The NHC says Irene is expected to weaken in strength after it hits the coast of North Carolina later on Saturday morning, but is forecast to remain a hurricane as it moves north along the mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday.

Click to play
President Obama: "If you're in the way of this hurricane you should be preparing now"
More than 200,000 people have already evacuated coastal parts of North Carolina as high waves and strong winds began to lash islands just off the mainland. Residents hoping to ride out the storm have stocked up on food, water and fuel.
Forecasters have warned of "extremely dangerous" storm surges in parts of North Carolina that could raise water levels by as much as 11 ft (3.35m).
"Stores are busy, petrol stations are running dry but thankfully I prepared myself last night with supplies," said Alex Schlesinger of Virginia Beach in the neighbouring state of Virginia, also in the hurricane's path.
Grounded flights

Tens of thousands of people were also on the move in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York City after mandatory evacuations were ordered for people living in low-lying areas.
Continue reading the main story
#Irene Twitter updates
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: @JustinNOAA
Federal Emergency Management Agency: @CraigatFEMA
National Hurricane Center: @NHC_Atlantic
Weather Underground: @wunderground
Breaking News Irene: @breakingirene
NY Governor Cuomo: @NYGovCuomo
NC Governor Perdue: @ncgovoffice
Wilmington Star News, NC: @StarNewsOnline
Parts of New York City affected include the financial district around Wall Street in Manhattan. Hospitals in affected areas of the city had begun evacuating patients.
"We've never done a mandatory evacuation before and we wouldn't be doing it now if we didn't think this storm had the potential to be very serious," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state's transport network, including the New York City subway, would close from midday (16:00 GMT) on Saturday.
Airports operating by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey - including JFK, La Guardia and Newark - will close to arriving flights at the same time.
However, the airports will remain open for departing flights until further notice.
In Washington DC, Sunday's dedication of the new memorial for Martin Luther King Jr - which President Obama had been expected to attend - has been postponed until at least September.

Manhattan, like other parts of the east coast, braces itself for Hurricane Irene The power company serving the Washington area advised of "potential widespread power outages" at the weekend.
Amtrak, the US rail network, announced it was cancelling services between Washington and Boston from Saturday, having already suspended operations south to Virginia and beyond.
The Pentagon has loaded 200 trucks with emergency supplies, and 100,000 National Guard troops are on standby, the BBC's Steve Kingstone in New York reports.
The American Red Cross said it was preparing dozens of emergency shelters along the east coast.
The eastern seaboard is the most densely populated corridor in the US, with more than 65 million people living in major cities along the coast from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.
States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
"We're going to have damages, we just don't know how bad," Craig Fugate, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press news agency.
"This is one of the largest populations that will be impacted by one storm at one time."
If Irene hits New York and New England at category two, it will be the region's strongest storm since Hurricane Bob glanced off Massachusetts in 1991, and Hurricane Gloria, which caused extensive damage to New York City in 1985.

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