Planets are spheres of fused materials collected by the gravitational wells created by large massive objects.
There are three classification of Planets, they are: Earth-size Planets, Dwarf Planets, and Jovian planets
The mass of spherical objects in the Solar System extends out to the Oort Cloud, and the gravity forces of un-detected planets are being recorded in the Kuiper Belt.
While there is no scientific consensus as to what mass an object is to separate its status as a Dwarf Planet to an almost Earth-sized Planet, the editor chooses to use Mars as a benchmark, with smaller planetary objects inside the rocky core of the Solar System being dwarf planets. Thus, the definition for dwarf planet would include Mercury, giving us a 7-Planet Solar System, and this is rather unconventional to the general consensus that Mercury, having its own orbit around the sun, is a planet, whereas, despite their larger size, the dwarf planets in the Saturn and Jupiter dwarf planetary systems are not planets. Makes sense.
* "How Big is Mercury?" (2016-08-31, space.com/18647-how-big-is-mercury.html) [archive.is/lbsEf] [begin excerpt]: Mercury's diameter is 3,030 miles (4,878 km), comparable to the size of the continental United States. This makes it about two-fifths the size of Earth. It is smaller than Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan. But it's not going to stay that size; the tiny planet is shrinking. [end excerpt]
So far, no Dwarf Planet as large as, or larger than, Mercury has been detected in the Kuiper Belt
Pluto binary-dwarf planetary system
* "Need for Speed: Star Trek Warp Drive is Within Our Grasp" (2015-08-21, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/m6Dcy] [begin excerpt]: In 1994, Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested a concept of a warp drive; however, later calculations showed such a space ship travelling 10 times the speed of light would require unreachable amounts of energy, a mass-energy equivalent to the planet Jupiter. Later, NASA researchers led by Harold White with the Johnson Space Center claimed that shape adjustment could reduce energy requirements to the equivalent of the Voyager 1 spacecraft, but the results of their experiments have been so far inconclusive. [end excerpt]
* "NASA seeks to spark electric deep-space propulsion" (2015-11-23, rt.com) [rt.com/usa/323188-nasa-contracts-electric-propulsion/] [archive.is/WCOwy] [peeep.us/79755237]
* "Evaluating NASA’s Futuristic EM Drive" (2015-04-29, nasaspaceflight.com) [nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-futuristic-em-drive/] [archive.is/qIhcM] [peeep.us/824711a1]
* "NASA’s ‘Impossible’ Warp Drive Engine Actually Seems to Work" (2015-11-07, sputniknews.com) [sputniknews.com/science/20151107/1029729541/nasa-em-drive-works.html] [archive.is/aj1GJ]
* "Breakthrough: NASA Confirms Electromagnetic Drive Produces Thrust in Vacuum; An electromagnetic drive being developed by NASA to operate without rocket fuel, in a vacuum, is seemingly defying the laws of physics, and raising hopes for the future of space travel" (2015-04-30, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/zG52b]
* "Did NASA Mistakenly Create a Warp Field? Space geeks are freaking out because NASA may have accidentally discovered a warp field, an avenue down which spaceships can travel faster than the speed of light – something that, to date, has only existed in science fiction" (2015-04-25, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Yxi08]
* "Need for Speed: Star Trek Warp Drive is Within Our Grasp; Warp drive from Star Trek has its explanation in Einstein’s theory of relativity, thus, it might be possible for humans to actually achieve it, an Australian astrophysicist said, adding that mankind may be able to colonize the universe this way" (2015-08-21, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/m6Dcy]
* "NASA confirms that the ‘impossible’ EMdrive thruster really works, after new tests" (2015-11-03, digitaltrends.com) [archive.is/aNr86]
* "Electric thruster propels China's interstellar ambitions" (2015-06-08, news.xinhuanet.com) [archive.is/9QAXa] [begin excerpt]:
An electric thruster, creating a thrust as gentle as a breath blowing out a candle, could send a spacecraft to Mars, so long as it keeps "blowing" and accelerating the craft over time. Electric propulsion is regarded as one of the top cutting-edge space technologies as it could make humans go into deep space at a lower cost than other forms of propulsion. The few countries mastering the technology have kept it confidential. Relying on its own efforts, China has developed the state-of-the-art technology, following the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan, and hopes to enter the international electric propulsion communication satellite market.Electric propulsion systems are mainly of the ion thruster or Hall thruster types. They are essentially similar, using electricity to ionize the propellant, usually xenon, and accelerating the ions to produce thrust. The biggest advantage of electric propulsion is that it uses a tenth of the amount of propellant required by traditional chemical propulsion systems. A typical 5-tonne chemical propulsion communication satellite contains three tonnes of fuel. With an electric propulsion system, it would only need 300 kg of propellant, Wang says. [end excerpt]
---
* "Dutch radio antenna to depart for the moon on Chinese mission" (2016-06-28, ru.nl) [archive.is/7ErMA]
---
* "NASA spacecraft reveals sounds made when crossing into ‘Jupiter’s home turf’ " (2016-07-01, rt.com) [archive.is/Z9cnN]
* "How much water is inside Jupiter? NASA's Juno spacecraft is about to find out" (2016-06-30, spaceflightinsider.com) [archive.is/XUSXQ]
* "Hubble captures vivid auroras in Jupiter’s atmosphere" (2016-06-30, spacetelescope.org) [archive.is/Yo2VJ]
Timelapse of Jupiter’s auroras [https://youtu.be/ihDFCs3o-gI]
---
* "SwRI’s Parker discovers moon over Makemake in the Kuiper Belt; Faint moon was previously obscured by the glare of the icy dwarf planet" (2016-06-27, swri.org) [archive.is/5dv2H] [begin excerpt]: A Southwest Research Institute-led team has discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the “big four” dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our solar system. The findings are detailed in the paper “Discovery of a Makemakean Moon,” published in the June 27 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“Makemake’s moon proves that there are still wild things waiting to be discovered, even in places people have already looked,” said Dr. Alex Parker, lead author of the paper and the SwRI astronomer credited with discovering the satellite. Parker spotted a faint point of light close to the dwarf planet using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. “Makemake’s moon — nicknamed MK2 — is very dark, 1,300 times fainter than the dwarf planet.” [end excerpt]
---
* "Rotating Ring of Complex Organic Molecules Discovered around Newborn Star: Chemical Diversity in Planet Forming Regions Unveiled" (2016-06-28, alma.mtk.nao.ac.jp) [archive.is/qABfN]
===*===*===
* " ‘Dancing’ with Earth: NASA discovers tiny asteroid companion" (2016-06-16, rt.com) [archive.is/O0PZD] [begin excerpt]: Move over, Moon – Earth has as new celestial companion. A tiny asteroid, named 2016 HO3, has been engaged in a steady orbital “dance” with our planet for almost a century, but was discovered only recently.
A telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii – funded by NASA’s planetary defense program – spotted the asteroid in April and designated it 2016 HO3. The actual size of the celestial body has not been firmly established, but astronomers have estimated that its diameter is larger than 120 feet (40 meters) and smaller than 300 feet (100 meters).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California released a video of the asteroid’s orbit on Wednesday, which is based on calculations that show 2016 HO3 has been Earth’s “stable quasi-satellite” for almost a century and will remain our planet’s companion for centuries to come. [end excerpt]
---
* " ‘Dark hydrogen’: Scientists recreate 3rd form of element likely found on Jupiter" (2016-06-25, rt.com) [archive.is/NN15f] [begin excerpt]: Scientists hope the ‘dark hydrogen’ discovery will lead to a greater understanding of how the extreme pressure and temperature inside the gas giants manages to squeeze molecular hydrogen until it becomes a liquid metal capable of conducting electricity. [end excerpt]
---
* "An ocean lies a few kilometers beneath Enceladus's icy surface" (2016-06-21, cnrs.fr) [archive.is/tAmk3]
---
* "Pluto’s Subsurface Ocean May Likely Exist Today" (2016-06-21, psi.edu) [is.gd/tFV0bg]
---
* "Where is the habitable zone for M-Dwarf stars?" (2016-06-20, astrobio.net) [archive.is/qJkUe]
---
* "Russian Moon Base to Hold Up to 12 People – Roscosmos; Russian engineers are working on a project of a Moon base that will eventually hold up to 12 people, the spokeswoman of a research institute with the Russian space agency Roscosmos told local media" (2016-06-21, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/NP8qd]
===*===*===
Space News
* " ‘Work the night shift on Mars’: NASA unveils retro recruitment posters" (2016-06-15, rt.com) [archive.is/vMTOk]
---
* "Through the wormhole: Spacecraft could survive black hole shortcut across the universe – study" (2016-06-10, rt.com) [archive.is/BNW2P]
---
* "8.8 billion habitable Earth-size planets exist in Milky Way alone" (2013-11-04, nbcnews.com) [archive.is/oj91c]
---
* "Life-forming molecule discovered in deep space may hold key to life on Earth" (2016-06-16, rt.com) [archive.is/mTw9a]
===*===*===
* "The Faint Young Star Paradox: Solar Storms May Have Been Key to Life on Earth" (2016-05-23, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) live link [svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11853], archive link [archive.is/r5l8I] [begin excerpt]:
Our sun's adolescence was stormy—and new evidence shows that these tempests may have been just the key to seeding life as we know it.
Some 4 billion years ago, the sun shone with only about three-quarters the brightness we see today, but its surface roiled with giant eruptions spewing enormous amounts of solar material and radiation out into space. These powerful solar explosions may have provided the crucial energy needed to warm Earth, despite the sun's faintness. The eruptions also may have furnished the energy needed to turn simple molecules into the complex molecules such as RNA and DNA that were necessary for life.
Understanding what conditions were necessary for life on our planet helps us both trace the origins of life on Earth and guide the search for life on other planets. Until now, however, fully mapping Earth's evolution has been hindered by the simple fact that the young sun wasn't luminous enough to warm Earth.
This newly discovered constant influx of solar particles to early Earth may have done more than just warm the atmosphere, it may also have provided the energy needed to make complex chemicals. In a planet scattered evenly with simple molecules, it takes a huge amount of incoming energy to create the complex molecules such as RNA and DNA that eventually seeded life.
While enough energy appears to be hugely important for a growing planet, too much would also be an issue -- a constant chain of solar eruptions producing showers of particle radiation can be quite detrimental. Such an onslaught of magnetic clouds can rip off a planet's atmosphere if the magnetosphere is too weak. Understanding these kinds of balances help scientists determine what kinds of stars and what kinds of planets could be hospitable for life. [end excerpt]
---
* "Space travel now in a parachute soon available" (2016-05-20, europe.chinadaily.com.cn) [archive.is/cZHIG], photo caption: Professional parachutists Wang Desong, He Yufeng and Qi Yao (from left to right) unveil China's first ever space parachuting suit on May 19, 2016 in Beijing.
---
* "Comet contains glycine, key part of recipe for life" (2016-05-27, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/mIJcF]
* "Rosetta spacecraft finds ‘vital ingredients’ of Earth life in comet dust" (2016-05-28, rt.com) [archive.is/5OzFo]
---
* "A planet 1,200 light-years away is a good prospect for a habitable world; UCLA, Washington researchers combine climate, orbit models to show that Kepler-62f might be able to sustain life" (2016-05-26, newsroom.ucla.edu) [archive.is/t1X9L]
---
* "Russia to Create New Powerful Plasma Rocket Engine - Roscosmos; A Russian rocket engine company, with the assistance of a major research and development institute, will work on a project to create a powerful electrodeless plasma rocket engine, Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation said Wednesday" (2016-05-26, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Ibpzf], photo caption: The forward section of the experimental rocket, right, showing several of the scentific instruments that will measure the dusty plasma.
===*===*===
A telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii – funded by NASA’s planetary defense program – spotted the asteroid in April and designated it 2016 HO3. The actual size of the celestial body has not been firmly established, but astronomers have estimated that its diameter is larger than 120 feet (40 meters) and smaller than 300 feet (100 meters).
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California released a video of the asteroid’s orbit on Wednesday, which is based on calculations that show 2016 HO3 has been Earth’s “stable quasi-satellite” for almost a century and will remain our planet’s companion for centuries to come. [end excerpt]
---
* " ‘Dark hydrogen’: Scientists recreate 3rd form of element likely found on Jupiter" (2016-06-25, rt.com) [archive.is/NN15f] [begin excerpt]: Scientists hope the ‘dark hydrogen’ discovery will lead to a greater understanding of how the extreme pressure and temperature inside the gas giants manages to squeeze molecular hydrogen until it becomes a liquid metal capable of conducting electricity. [end excerpt]
---
* "An ocean lies a few kilometers beneath Enceladus's icy surface" (2016-06-21, cnrs.fr) [archive.is/tAmk3]
---
* "Pluto’s Subsurface Ocean May Likely Exist Today" (2016-06-21, psi.edu) [is.gd/tFV0bg]
---
* "Where is the habitable zone for M-Dwarf stars?" (2016-06-20, astrobio.net) [archive.is/qJkUe]
---
* "Russian Moon Base to Hold Up to 12 People – Roscosmos; Russian engineers are working on a project of a Moon base that will eventually hold up to 12 people, the spokeswoman of a research institute with the Russian space agency Roscosmos told local media" (2016-06-21, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/NP8qd]
===*===*===
Space News
* " ‘Work the night shift on Mars’: NASA unveils retro recruitment posters" (2016-06-15, rt.com) [archive.is/vMTOk]
---
* "Through the wormhole: Spacecraft could survive black hole shortcut across the universe – study" (2016-06-10, rt.com) [archive.is/BNW2P]
---
* "8.8 billion habitable Earth-size planets exist in Milky Way alone" (2013-11-04, nbcnews.com) [archive.is/oj91c]
---
* "Life-forming molecule discovered in deep space may hold key to life on Earth" (2016-06-16, rt.com) [archive.is/mTw9a]
===*===*===
* "The Faint Young Star Paradox: Solar Storms May Have Been Key to Life on Earth" (2016-05-23, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) live link [svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11853], archive link [archive.is/r5l8I] [begin excerpt]:
Our sun's adolescence was stormy—and new evidence shows that these tempests may have been just the key to seeding life as we know it.
Some 4 billion years ago, the sun shone with only about three-quarters the brightness we see today, but its surface roiled with giant eruptions spewing enormous amounts of solar material and radiation out into space. These powerful solar explosions may have provided the crucial energy needed to warm Earth, despite the sun's faintness. The eruptions also may have furnished the energy needed to turn simple molecules into the complex molecules such as RNA and DNA that were necessary for life.
Understanding what conditions were necessary for life on our planet helps us both trace the origins of life on Earth and guide the search for life on other planets. Until now, however, fully mapping Earth's evolution has been hindered by the simple fact that the young sun wasn't luminous enough to warm Earth.
This newly discovered constant influx of solar particles to early Earth may have done more than just warm the atmosphere, it may also have provided the energy needed to make complex chemicals. In a planet scattered evenly with simple molecules, it takes a huge amount of incoming energy to create the complex molecules such as RNA and DNA that eventually seeded life.
While enough energy appears to be hugely important for a growing planet, too much would also be an issue -- a constant chain of solar eruptions producing showers of particle radiation can be quite detrimental. Such an onslaught of magnetic clouds can rip off a planet's atmosphere if the magnetosphere is too weak. Understanding these kinds of balances help scientists determine what kinds of stars and what kinds of planets could be hospitable for life. [end excerpt]
---
* "Space travel now in a parachute soon available" (2016-05-20, europe.chinadaily.com.cn) [archive.is/cZHIG], photo caption: Professional parachutists Wang Desong, He Yufeng and Qi Yao (from left to right) unveil China's first ever space parachuting suit on May 19, 2016 in Beijing.
---
* "Comet contains glycine, key part of recipe for life" (2016-05-27, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/mIJcF]
* "Rosetta spacecraft finds ‘vital ingredients’ of Earth life in comet dust" (2016-05-28, rt.com) [archive.is/5OzFo]
---
* "A planet 1,200 light-years away is a good prospect for a habitable world; UCLA, Washington researchers combine climate, orbit models to show that Kepler-62f might be able to sustain life" (2016-05-26, newsroom.ucla.edu) [archive.is/t1X9L]
---
* "Russia to Create New Powerful Plasma Rocket Engine - Roscosmos; A Russian rocket engine company, with the assistance of a major research and development institute, will work on a project to create a powerful electrodeless plasma rocket engine, Russia’s Roscosmos space corporation said Wednesday" (2016-05-26, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Ibpzf], photo caption: The forward section of the experimental rocket, right, showing several of the scentific instruments that will measure the dusty plasma.
===*===*===
* "Cop dashcam captures spectacular giant fireball flaring over Maine" (2016-05-17, rt.com) [archive.is/0Nc0F], original link [is.gd/or2yQY]
---
* "Life on Mars? Siberian scientists create ‘micro-Earth’ for humans to live in hostile environment" (2016-05-22, rt.com) [archive.is/3H3xC]
---
* "Astronomers discover potentially habitable planets just 40 light years from Earth; Best targets so far for search for extraterrestrial life" (2016-05-03, kurzweilai.net) [archive.is/9K2LS]
---
* "Hints of wandering planets in distant cometary belt" (2016-05-19, UPI) [archive.is/Pu2oh]
---
* "Europa's Ocean May Have An Earthlike Chemical Balance" (2016-05-17, jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/Q5y7Q]
---
* "Evolution: Where did building blocks of life come from? Biological evolution was preceded by a long phase of chemical evolution during which precursors of biopolymers accumulated. Chemists have discovered an efficient mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of a vital class of such compounds" (2016-05-17, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) [archive.is/R0Qr7]
---
* "Molecular 'midwives' helped give birth to RNA" (2016-05-16, astrobio.net) [archive.is/l6rRo]
===*===*===
* "Comet Craters - Literal Melting Pots for Life on Earth" (2016-05-04, tcd.ie) [archive.is/pC11X] [begin excerpt]: eochemists from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences may have found a solution to a long-debated problem as to where – and how – life first formed on Earth.
In a paper just published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, the team proposes that large meteorite and comet impacts into the sea created structures that provided conditions favourable for life. Water then interacted with impact-heated rock to enable synthesis of complex organic molecules, and the enclosed crater itself was a microhabitat within which life could flourish.
It has long been suggested that the meteoritic and cometary material that bombarded the early Earth delivered the raw materials - complex organic molecules, such as glycine, β-alanine, γ-amino-n-butyric acid, and water - and the energy that was required for synthesis. The Trinity group’s work has provided the new hypothesis that impact craters were ideal environments to facilitate the reactions that saw the first ‘seeds of life’ take root. [end excerpt]
* "Pluto’s ‘Snakeskin’ Terrain: Cradle of the Solar System?" (2016-03-11, blogs.nasa.gov) [archive.is/0UyZa]
* "Pluto’s Icy Moon Hydra" (2016-05-05, nasa.gov) [https://is.gd/51ThGa], photo caption: New compositional data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveal a distinct water-ice signature on the surface of Pluto’s outermost moon, Hydra. Pluto’s largest moon Charon measures 752 miles (1,210 kilometers across), while Hydra is approximately 31 miles (50 kilometers) long. Full image [archive.is/qpg90].
---
* "The Saturnian Sisters" (2016-03-07, saturn.jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/Dr9sy] [begin excerpt]:
Similar in many ways, Saturn's moons Tethys and Rhea (left and right, respectively) even share a discoverer: Giovanni Cassini, namesake of the NASA spacecraft that captured this view.
The moons are named for sisters -- two Titans of Greek mythology. Although somewhat different in size, Rhea (949 miles or 1,527 kilometers across) and Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) are medium-sized moons that are large enough to have pulled themselves into round shapes. They are both composed largely of ices and are generally thought to be geologically inactive today.
The view looks toward the anti-Saturn sides of Tethys and Rhea. North on both moons is up. The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2015.
The two moons appear close together here, but Tethys was about 220,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) farther away from Cassini when the image was captured -- nearly the distance from Earth to our moon. Thus, the view does not accurately reflect the bodies' relative sizes. [end excerpt]
---
* "Tilted Terminator" (2016-03-14, saturn.jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/yeQo5] [begin excerpt]: NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's moon Enceladus that shows wrinkled plains that are remarkably youthful in appearance, being generally free of large impact craters.
When viewed with north pointing up, as in this image, the day-night boundary line (or terminator) cuts diagonally across Enceladus, with Saturn approaching its northern summer solstice. The lit portion on all of Saturn's large, icy moons, including Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) and Saturn itself, is now centered on their northern hemispheres. This change of season, coupled with a new spacecraft trajectory, has progressively revealed new terrains compared to when Cassini arrived in 2004 (see Saturn's Snowball), when the southern hemisphere was more illuminated.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Enceladus. The image was taken in green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 14, 2016. [end excerpt]
---
* "Moon plasma field" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/ZM4CG] [begin excerpt]: In my opinion, what we are looking at in the 1st and 2nd Apollo 16 AS16-P-4095 image above is a flattened plasma field generated and outlined in the dark Moon terrain shadows. This evidence was brought to my attention by Stephn Hannard of the UK. He has since put up a very good video of this evidence on YouTube at the link here [youtube.com/watch?v=bmEw4kG-3FA].
The thing about it is that, although some will find a camera or film artifact explanation as more comfortable, this isn't that. Yet the Moon is supposed to be a dead body in space without ever having experienced living civilizations. It is suppose to be caught and held in orbit around the Earth mainly by Earth's gravity well and should not be generating such a plasma energy field.
Plasma is considered one of the fundamental states of matter with the others being solid, liquid, and gas. When one sees plasma in the open unconfined and a lot of it as appears here, one is looking at energy and POWER being displayed likely on level with nuclear fusion or greater. In fact, plasma physics is essential to the understanding and development of nuclear fusion.
In the above image note the many fingers of plasma energy that arc up to meet and terminate in some surface overhead that we cannot see the details of here. The question becomes is this being generated by some separate object like a UFO at the Moon's surface not native to the environment or by some structure as part of the surface or perhaps something exiting or entering the surface at this location?
Note how flattened the plasma field appears to be. Is it being generated by some sort of disc shaped object like a UFO? Is there a craft of some kind hidden within the plasma field taking off or landing at this point? Could this be generating an electromagnetic field that the Moon topography is responding to? Could this be a refueling station? Note that the underside of the plasma field suggests this with a solid dark flat rounded appearance as seen mostly on edge that does not exhibit any plasma discharges at all. [end excerpt]
Apollo Image AS16-P-4095 (wms.lroc.asu.edu) [archive.is/QJgv2] [peeep.us/3622cb09], close-up:
---
* "Moon & Mars truth when dust settles" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/TNm34] [begin excerpt]: The equipment we're looking at here is from the Apollo 17 mission which was the last manned mission to the Moon to date as far as anything publicly admitted to. The last three manned Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions all had rovers. Rovers are folded up and on a pallet that is stored against the side of the LM in one of the areas where you see the shiny foil. Upon landing on the Moon, the astronauts get out and drop down the pallet with the folded two person rover. They unfold it and assemble it. All of these missions used the same type of equipment both as to the LM and the rover. [...]
The above second image is of the Apollo 17 rover's right rear wheel/tire/fender area. This image is from one side edge of the original image to the other. One of the astronauts damaged the right rear fender and it was temporarily repaired with duct tape and that is why this image was taken and what it is suppose to be all about. However, note that the soil surface immediately in front of the tire and immediately behind it has not been disturbed by rover tracks.
Since lifting and carefully placing the rover in a spot on the Moon is impossible and since driving up to this position would leave tracks, then we have a problem with the evidence in this image. Okay, I thought to myself, I gotcha. However, as I expanded out my investigation of this, I found out that I was not the first to find this after all. To save me reporting time on this, you'll find some in depth interesting reporting on this at the following link (apolloanomalies.com) [archive.is/YkJCx]. [...]
What you are looking at in the above image is one of the Apollo 11 Mission LM footpads covered in foil that is suppose to be resting on the Moon's surface. As you can see, the round footpad has a turned up shape at the edges forming a depression system within the pads interior. Further, the inner surface of the shallow bowl shape consists of all this wrinkled foil forming many different angles that would serve as good dust traps.
The combination of shallow bowl shape and wrinkled foil forming a depression and its location at the lowest point right against the ground is the perfect catch system. Now consider the LM lowering down for landing on the Moon's surface with its decent thruster burn nozzle pointed straight down right at the ground coming to within inches of it and blowing up a cloud of Moon regolith dust to hang suspended in the air over the site for a while in the low Moon gravity. You know this would be so. It would be impossible for some of the disturbed settling dust to not settle back down into this large shallow bowl shape and the shiny foil with its many traps would show every bit of it.
However, as you can clearly see in the above 4th image, there is no sign of any dust or regolith in this footpad shallow bowl shape. Further, it is the same with other shots of this and other Apollo 11 LM pads at these links: AS11-40-5902 [archive.is/Ytdqa] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/zzOW9], AS11-40-5917 [archive.is/AVc2c] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/rYsNW], AS11-40-5918 [archive.is/qbRQU] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/6c3m0], AS11-40-5920 [archive.is/epREV] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/0G1fb], and AS11-40-5925 [archive.is/E5Q4Y] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/vxEH0]. When you use these confirmation links, be sure to access the "Hi-Res" official image because it is much larger than the "standard" image and offers a much closer view of the Apollo 11 LM footpads than you see here confirming not a sign of dust or regolith inside the footpad shallow bowl shape. Once again I thought to myself, yep I gotcha. I should have known better on such older Moon material. Again, as I expanded my investigation on this type of evidence, I found others had beaten me to the punch with some good reporting here at (aulis.com) [archive.is/sSD00].
Evidence like this is small but crucial and unequivocal. Once again you can perhaps see how others could have come to the conclusion that these Moon landings were not real and may have been fakes. [end excerpt]
* "More Moon Evidence - 4" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/oD0wT], using the following Apollo Surface Panoramas -
- AS17-147-22493 – AS17-147-22521 [archive.is/3whcU] (.jpg) [archive.is/hv5dU]
- AS17-147-22572 – AS17-147-22590 [archive.is/gkWpA] (.jpg) [archive.is/fqLcw]
- AS17-140-21488 – AS17-140-21507 [archive.is/FYgOW] (.jpg) [archive.is/VjsUZ]
- AS17-146-22339 – AS17-146-22359 [archive.is/ucgCX] (.jpg) [archive.is/0Pu2O]
- AS16-116-18594 – AS16-116-18613 [archive.is/iqgqY] (.jpg) [archive.is/mibpo]
[begin excerpt]
The above two panorama thumbnail images are from the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. The above first JSC2007e045384 image as labeled is suppose to be of the landing site with the landing module seen in color on the far right. The second JSC2004e52772 image below it as labeled is suppose to be of the ALSEP Station location on this mission. First note that the background horizon lines and hills are essentially identical as are the focal width of the scenes and the backgrounds they encompass. Even though these are small narrow thumbnail size, do you see anything wrong with these two scenes or perhaps I should say do you see a whole raft of things wrong with these two comparison scenes?
First note that the landing module visible on the right in the first image is not present in the second image of the same location and some other kind of equipment is there in its place. Remember, while the equipment in the second image can no doubt be disassembled and moved, the Lander in the first image can't. The Lander should be there in the second image and yet now you see the it and now you don't. Telling isn't it.
Now in the first image note the hill and its shape in the background behind and to the right of the Lander. Note also the shadow thrown on the ground to the right by the landing module. Note its direction and its shape. Now move your attention all the way over to the left side of this same first image. Note the shape of the hill there and the shadow in the foreground below the hill. Note that, even though the hill is only partially seen on the left, they are in fact the same as on the right side of the image as is the shadow. In other words, the scene of the right side of the image is replicated on the left side minus the Lander's presence even as the Lander shadow is present. Closer looks in the 3rd and 4th images below will demonstrate this more conclusively.
However, before we leave these above panorama thumbnail images, look on the left side of the second image and compare the background hill with the background hill on the right side of the image. Once again note that they are the same as on the right and as in the first image on both sides. Now on the left side of the second image just below the hill, note the presence of a group of large rocks there. Note that these rocks are not replicated on the right nor are they present in the first image of the same left location. Once again, telling isn't it.
These are just the most gross and most obvious flaws in these two panorama images created by incompetent image tampering. If you begin to look closer in the enlarged image there are many other smaller flaws involving geological terrain features that should not be changing in the scenes but are. [end excerpt]
---
* "Lunar Hues; Far from a black-and-white world, the moon has a surprising variety of color" (2010-09-27, lightsinthedark.com) [archive.is/O0jsu]: Look up at the moon on any clear night and you’ll see a cratered world shining down on you, in some phase of illumination or perhaps even full and round, with a few lighter or darker areas but for the most part all in cool, bright shades of whites and greys. The moon’s real colors are hidden from us here on Earth, blown out by the brilliance of harsh reflected sunlight. But, from its intimate location in lunar orbit, the LRO can use its wide-angle camera to capture image data in the red, green and blue spectral wavelengths that our eyes can most easily see. Combine these filtered images and you get what’s shown here: a true-color view of the lunar surface around the location of the Apollo 17 landing site (darkest cratered region at center) [archive.is/JCK8i].
The color variances are caused by different amounts of titanium and iron. Darker areas have higher amounts of iron oxide, and the darkest bluish regions are high in titanium oxide. The large dark area at the bottom of this image is Mare Tranquilatis – the “Sea of Tranquility” – and it is a large field of basaltic lava flows clearly much richer in titanium than the bordering Mare Sereniatis – “Sea of Serenity” – at the upper left, which is tinted a warm brown. Both these regions are visible from Earth on the moon’s northern hemisphere, just right of center, but to most of us the only variation in color is a slightly darker grey against the white of the surrounding area. We tend to see the moon in shades of grey but the reality is it’s quite a colorful place, if subtly so.
Read more on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter site (nasa.gov) [archive.is/9f5xE].
The original LROC image had a lot of missing areas [archive.is/yTpW0]…I filled them in by duplicating surrounding spots and blurring any obvious copied features or division lines. As a result the image here isn’t 100% accurate for landforms but shows the general colorations with less distraction. Full image [archive.is/sWaXc]. Image: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University. Edited by J. Major.
* "The Moon and it's color" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/MlbOc] [begin excerpt]:
The Earth's dense atmosphere influences in a major way how the Earth's colors are perceived from the Moon and the reverse is true of how the Moon is visually perceived from a distance through the Earth's atmosphere. For a good discussion of this, take a look at the video at the link below.
[youtube.com/watch?v=4PNjm9_Kzu8] [...]
Upon the previous Apollo 10's return to Earth, that crew went through a Photo Debriefing in June, 1969 by Bellcomm, Inc. Now Bellcomm was a subsidiary of AT&T established in 1963 to provide NASA with technical and management records and advise for the Manned Space Flight Program and ended in 1972 after the Apollo 17 mission. Below are some pertinent quotes having to do with Moon color from that old Apollo 10 debriefing at the link below.
Bellcomm Apollo 10 Photo Debriefing (.pdf) [http://is.gd/n1JHVN], text [archive.is/gLGMq] -
- "The lunar maria were described as brown at high sun angles, and grayish brown near the terminator..."
- "....They noted a color mottling of Mare Serenitatis, light brown and tan brown, as compared to the darker 'chocolate brown' color of Mare Tranquillitatis."
- "The color of the lunar highlands was described as tan .... Deviations from the tan color are caused by mare material (brown), fresh impact craters (chalky white) and a number of 'jet black' layers and blocks."
- "As expected, they were unable to see much before passing over the sunlight terminator, but as soon as this is done, the moon glows at us...this moon looks like a Christmas tree here in the dark side...it is highly illuminated from the earth."
Photos:
- True color photograph of the Moon [archive.is/HUZ5p], archived at (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) [archive.is/VMkiM]
* "True color of Earth's moon, saturation incrementally enhanced with CS3" [archive.is/dGCOi]
- from (yankeerobotics.com) [archive.is/Q2NDo], full-size image [archive.is/2nAXo]:
* Photo montage showing Earth in true color (left) and false color (right), from (pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu) [archive.is/B3asb]
* Callisto, part of the Jupiter dwarf-planetary system, photo from (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) [archive.is/w3Y9u]
* Ganymede [archive.is/x6Eab] [archive.is/o51rS], part of the Saturn dwarf-planetary system
* "How to reach Alpha Centauri in just 20 years" (2016-04-12, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/AsVvE]:
Billionaire Russian investor Yuri Milner and British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Tuesday announced an ambitious new space initiative for a mission to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth.
Milner and Hawking are spearheading the "Breakthrough Starshot" team of scientists working on the bold research program to create a fleet of super-compact, ultra-light space vehicles or "nanocraft."
The goal is to send the light-propelled mini space vehicles - each no bigger than a cell phone - to Alpha Centauri, which is 4.37 light years away, or 25 trillion miles, from Earth.
They estimate it could take about 20 years to reach the star system from the time of the launch - rather than the 30,000 years it would take with today's fastest spacecraft.
"Space travel as we know it is slow. How do we go faster and how do we go further? How do we make this great leap?" Milner, who is planning to initially commit $100 million to the project, told a press conference in Manhattan.
"For the first time in history, we can do more than just gaze at the stars. We can actually reach them," added the 54-year-old Russian philanthropist, whose fortune is estimated at $2.9 billion by Forbes.
"It is time to launch the next great leap in human history."
'Interstellar sailboat' -
Milner - one of the original investors in Facebook - said the team hoped to send a super light robotic spacecraft streaking through space at 60,000 kilometers (faster than 37,000 miles) per second - about 20 percent the speed of light.
The initiative will work by creating a giant laser array to propel the mini-probes - which would deploy micro-sails - toward a given star, creating what Milner likened to an "interstellar sailboat."
"The Breakthrough StarChip concept is based on technology either already available or likely to be available in the near future. But as with any moonshot, there are major engineering problems to solve," Milner cautioned.
Hawking noted: "I believe what makes us unique is transcending our limits."
Milner said that he will contribute $100 million from his own pocket for the project, which could cost as much as $10 billion before it is fully realized.
"It's very clear that it's a non-profit initiative," he joked, acknowledging that the chance for success and the final cost were unclear.
Milner, Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will sit on the project's board.
Search for life -
A team has already been working on the endeavor for a year, Milner said.
Initial research results indicate that the giant laser array - the "light beamer" - would require about 100 gigawatts, roughly the energy needed to launch a space shuttle, said Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard University and a project member.
"When there is a vision for a grand project like this one, just like the vision that JFK had in the 60s, it lifts many bolts," said Loeb in a nod to former US president John F. Kennedy, whose vision it was to land a man on the moon.
Milner and Hawking have teamed up previously.
Last July, Hawking launched a massive search for intelligent extraterrestrial life in a $100-million, 10-year project to scan the heavens funded by Milner.
Milner said at the time that the "Breakthrough Listen" initiative would be the most intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of alien civilization.
The project, they said, would use some of the biggest telescopes on Earth, searching far deeper into the universe than before for radio and laser signals.
One aim of the mission to Alpha Centauri is also to look for signs of extraterrestrial life, Loeb said.
And what might those living creatures be like?
"Judging by the election campaign, definitely not like us," joked Hawking - who is wheelchair-bound and uses a computerized voice system to communicate - in reference to the drama-filled race for the White House.
---
* "NASA Begins Testing of Revolutionary E-Sail Technology" (2016, nasa.gov) [archive.is/kJHVX]
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* "3 new Earth-sized planets offer best chance of finding life beyond Solar System" (2016-05-02, rt.com) [archive.is/GsQuj]
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* "Cluster of bright “halo” craters spotted on Pluto" (2016-04-22, rt.com) [archive.is/wBwdT]
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* "Spectacular image shows Jupiter’s magnificent auroras" (2016-04-08, rt.com) [archive.is/wrVPt]
===*===*===
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* "Life on Mars? Siberian scientists create ‘micro-Earth’ for humans to live in hostile environment" (2016-05-22, rt.com) [archive.is/3H3xC]
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* "Astronomers discover potentially habitable planets just 40 light years from Earth; Best targets so far for search for extraterrestrial life" (2016-05-03, kurzweilai.net) [archive.is/9K2LS]
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* "Hints of wandering planets in distant cometary belt" (2016-05-19, UPI) [archive.is/Pu2oh]
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* "Europa's Ocean May Have An Earthlike Chemical Balance" (2016-05-17, jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/Q5y7Q]
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* "Evolution: Where did building blocks of life come from? Biological evolution was preceded by a long phase of chemical evolution during which precursors of biopolymers accumulated. Chemists have discovered an efficient mechanism for the prebiotic synthesis of a vital class of such compounds" (2016-05-17, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) [archive.is/R0Qr7]
---
* "Molecular 'midwives' helped give birth to RNA" (2016-05-16, astrobio.net) [archive.is/l6rRo]
===*===*===
* "Comet Craters - Literal Melting Pots for Life on Earth" (2016-05-04, tcd.ie) [archive.is/pC11X] [begin excerpt]: eochemists from Trinity College Dublin’s School of Natural Sciences may have found a solution to a long-debated problem as to where – and how – life first formed on Earth.
In a paper just published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, the team proposes that large meteorite and comet impacts into the sea created structures that provided conditions favourable for life. Water then interacted with impact-heated rock to enable synthesis of complex organic molecules, and the enclosed crater itself was a microhabitat within which life could flourish.
It has long been suggested that the meteoritic and cometary material that bombarded the early Earth delivered the raw materials - complex organic molecules, such as glycine, β-alanine, γ-amino-n-butyric acid, and water - and the energy that was required for synthesis. The Trinity group’s work has provided the new hypothesis that impact craters were ideal environments to facilitate the reactions that saw the first ‘seeds of life’ take root. [end excerpt]
* "Pluto’s ‘Snakeskin’ Terrain: Cradle of the Solar System?" (2016-03-11, blogs.nasa.gov) [archive.is/0UyZa]
* "Pluto’s Icy Moon Hydra" (2016-05-05, nasa.gov) [https://is.gd/51ThGa], photo caption: New compositional data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveal a distinct water-ice signature on the surface of Pluto’s outermost moon, Hydra. Pluto’s largest moon Charon measures 752 miles (1,210 kilometers across), while Hydra is approximately 31 miles (50 kilometers) long. Full image [archive.is/qpg90].
---
* "The Saturnian Sisters" (2016-03-07, saturn.jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/Dr9sy] [begin excerpt]:
Similar in many ways, Saturn's moons Tethys and Rhea (left and right, respectively) even share a discoverer: Giovanni Cassini, namesake of the NASA spacecraft that captured this view.
The moons are named for sisters -- two Titans of Greek mythology. Although somewhat different in size, Rhea (949 miles or 1,527 kilometers across) and Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) are medium-sized moons that are large enough to have pulled themselves into round shapes. They are both composed largely of ices and are generally thought to be geologically inactive today.
The view looks toward the anti-Saturn sides of Tethys and Rhea. North on both moons is up. The image was taken in visible red light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2015.
The two moons appear close together here, but Tethys was about 220,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) farther away from Cassini when the image was captured -- nearly the distance from Earth to our moon. Thus, the view does not accurately reflect the bodies' relative sizes. [end excerpt]
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* "Tilted Terminator" (2016-03-14, saturn.jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/yeQo5] [begin excerpt]: NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's moon Enceladus that shows wrinkled plains that are remarkably youthful in appearance, being generally free of large impact craters.
When viewed with north pointing up, as in this image, the day-night boundary line (or terminator) cuts diagonally across Enceladus, with Saturn approaching its northern summer solstice. The lit portion on all of Saturn's large, icy moons, including Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) and Saturn itself, is now centered on their northern hemispheres. This change of season, coupled with a new spacecraft trajectory, has progressively revealed new terrains compared to when Cassini arrived in 2004 (see Saturn's Snowball), when the southern hemisphere was more illuminated.
This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Enceladus. The image was taken in green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 14, 2016. [end excerpt]
---
* "Moon plasma field" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/ZM4CG] [begin excerpt]: In my opinion, what we are looking at in the 1st and 2nd Apollo 16 AS16-P-4095 image above is a flattened plasma field generated and outlined in the dark Moon terrain shadows. This evidence was brought to my attention by Stephn Hannard of the UK. He has since put up a very good video of this evidence on YouTube at the link here [youtube.com/watch?v=bmEw4kG-3FA].
The thing about it is that, although some will find a camera or film artifact explanation as more comfortable, this isn't that. Yet the Moon is supposed to be a dead body in space without ever having experienced living civilizations. It is suppose to be caught and held in orbit around the Earth mainly by Earth's gravity well and should not be generating such a plasma energy field.
Plasma is considered one of the fundamental states of matter with the others being solid, liquid, and gas. When one sees plasma in the open unconfined and a lot of it as appears here, one is looking at energy and POWER being displayed likely on level with nuclear fusion or greater. In fact, plasma physics is essential to the understanding and development of nuclear fusion.
In the above image note the many fingers of plasma energy that arc up to meet and terminate in some surface overhead that we cannot see the details of here. The question becomes is this being generated by some separate object like a UFO at the Moon's surface not native to the environment or by some structure as part of the surface or perhaps something exiting or entering the surface at this location?
Note how flattened the plasma field appears to be. Is it being generated by some sort of disc shaped object like a UFO? Is there a craft of some kind hidden within the plasma field taking off or landing at this point? Could this be generating an electromagnetic field that the Moon topography is responding to? Could this be a refueling station? Note that the underside of the plasma field suggests this with a solid dark flat rounded appearance as seen mostly on edge that does not exhibit any plasma discharges at all. [end excerpt]
Apollo Image AS16-P-4095 (wms.lroc.asu.edu) [archive.is/QJgv2] [peeep.us/3622cb09], close-up:
---
* "Moon & Mars truth when dust settles" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/TNm34] [begin excerpt]: The equipment we're looking at here is from the Apollo 17 mission which was the last manned mission to the Moon to date as far as anything publicly admitted to. The last three manned Apollo 15, 16, and 17 missions all had rovers. Rovers are folded up and on a pallet that is stored against the side of the LM in one of the areas where you see the shiny foil. Upon landing on the Moon, the astronauts get out and drop down the pallet with the folded two person rover. They unfold it and assemble it. All of these missions used the same type of equipment both as to the LM and the rover. [...]
The above second image is of the Apollo 17 rover's right rear wheel/tire/fender area. This image is from one side edge of the original image to the other. One of the astronauts damaged the right rear fender and it was temporarily repaired with duct tape and that is why this image was taken and what it is suppose to be all about. However, note that the soil surface immediately in front of the tire and immediately behind it has not been disturbed by rover tracks.
Since lifting and carefully placing the rover in a spot on the Moon is impossible and since driving up to this position would leave tracks, then we have a problem with the evidence in this image. Okay, I thought to myself, I gotcha. However, as I expanded out my investigation of this, I found out that I was not the first to find this after all. To save me reporting time on this, you'll find some in depth interesting reporting on this at the following link (apolloanomalies.com) [archive.is/YkJCx]. [...]What you are looking at in the above image is one of the Apollo 11 Mission LM footpads covered in foil that is suppose to be resting on the Moon's surface. As you can see, the round footpad has a turned up shape at the edges forming a depression system within the pads interior. Further, the inner surface of the shallow bowl shape consists of all this wrinkled foil forming many different angles that would serve as good dust traps.
The combination of shallow bowl shape and wrinkled foil forming a depression and its location at the lowest point right against the ground is the perfect catch system. Now consider the LM lowering down for landing on the Moon's surface with its decent thruster burn nozzle pointed straight down right at the ground coming to within inches of it and blowing up a cloud of Moon regolith dust to hang suspended in the air over the site for a while in the low Moon gravity. You know this would be so. It would be impossible for some of the disturbed settling dust to not settle back down into this large shallow bowl shape and the shiny foil with its many traps would show every bit of it.
However, as you can clearly see in the above 4th image, there is no sign of any dust or regolith in this footpad shallow bowl shape. Further, it is the same with other shots of this and other Apollo 11 LM pads at these links: AS11-40-5902 [archive.is/Ytdqa] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/zzOW9], AS11-40-5917 [archive.is/AVc2c] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/rYsNW], AS11-40-5918 [archive.is/qbRQU] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/6c3m0], AS11-40-5920 [archive.is/epREV] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/0G1fb], and AS11-40-5925 [archive.is/E5Q4Y] (hi-res .jpg) [archive.is/vxEH0]. When you use these confirmation links, be sure to access the "Hi-Res" official image because it is much larger than the "standard" image and offers a much closer view of the Apollo 11 LM footpads than you see here confirming not a sign of dust or regolith inside the footpad shallow bowl shape. Once again I thought to myself, yep I gotcha. I should have known better on such older Moon material. Again, as I expanded my investigation on this type of evidence, I found others had beaten me to the punch with some good reporting here at (aulis.com) [archive.is/sSD00].
Evidence like this is small but crucial and unequivocal. Once again you can perhaps see how others could have come to the conclusion that these Moon landings were not real and may have been fakes. [end excerpt]
* "More Moon Evidence - 4" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/oD0wT], using the following Apollo Surface Panoramas -
- AS17-147-22493 – AS17-147-22521 [archive.is/3whcU] (.jpg) [archive.is/hv5dU]
- AS17-147-22572 – AS17-147-22590 [archive.is/gkWpA] (.jpg) [archive.is/fqLcw]
- AS17-140-21488 – AS17-140-21507 [archive.is/FYgOW] (.jpg) [archive.is/VjsUZ]
- AS17-146-22339 – AS17-146-22359 [archive.is/ucgCX] (.jpg) [archive.is/0Pu2O]
- AS16-116-18594 – AS16-116-18613 [archive.is/iqgqY] (.jpg) [archive.is/mibpo]
[begin excerpt]
The above two panorama thumbnail images are from the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. The above first JSC2007e045384 image as labeled is suppose to be of the landing site with the landing module seen in color on the far right. The second JSC2004e52772 image below it as labeled is suppose to be of the ALSEP Station location on this mission. First note that the background horizon lines and hills are essentially identical as are the focal width of the scenes and the backgrounds they encompass. Even though these are small narrow thumbnail size, do you see anything wrong with these two scenes or perhaps I should say do you see a whole raft of things wrong with these two comparison scenes?
First note that the landing module visible on the right in the first image is not present in the second image of the same location and some other kind of equipment is there in its place. Remember, while the equipment in the second image can no doubt be disassembled and moved, the Lander in the first image can't. The Lander should be there in the second image and yet now you see the it and now you don't. Telling isn't it.
Now in the first image note the hill and its shape in the background behind and to the right of the Lander. Note also the shadow thrown on the ground to the right by the landing module. Note its direction and its shape. Now move your attention all the way over to the left side of this same first image. Note the shape of the hill there and the shadow in the foreground below the hill. Note that, even though the hill is only partially seen on the left, they are in fact the same as on the right side of the image as is the shadow. In other words, the scene of the right side of the image is replicated on the left side minus the Lander's presence even as the Lander shadow is present. Closer looks in the 3rd and 4th images below will demonstrate this more conclusively.
However, before we leave these above panorama thumbnail images, look on the left side of the second image and compare the background hill with the background hill on the right side of the image. Once again note that they are the same as on the right and as in the first image on both sides. Now on the left side of the second image just below the hill, note the presence of a group of large rocks there. Note that these rocks are not replicated on the right nor are they present in the first image of the same left location. Once again, telling isn't it.
These are just the most gross and most obvious flaws in these two panorama images created by incompetent image tampering. If you begin to look closer in the enlarged image there are many other smaller flaws involving geological terrain features that should not be changing in the scenes but are. [end excerpt]
---
* "Lunar Hues; Far from a black-and-white world, the moon has a surprising variety of color" (2010-09-27, lightsinthedark.com) [archive.is/O0jsu]: Look up at the moon on any clear night and you’ll see a cratered world shining down on you, in some phase of illumination or perhaps even full and round, with a few lighter or darker areas but for the most part all in cool, bright shades of whites and greys. The moon’s real colors are hidden from us here on Earth, blown out by the brilliance of harsh reflected sunlight. But, from its intimate location in lunar orbit, the LRO can use its wide-angle camera to capture image data in the red, green and blue spectral wavelengths that our eyes can most easily see. Combine these filtered images and you get what’s shown here: a true-color view of the lunar surface around the location of the Apollo 17 landing site (darkest cratered region at center) [archive.is/JCK8i].
The color variances are caused by different amounts of titanium and iron. Darker areas have higher amounts of iron oxide, and the darkest bluish regions are high in titanium oxide. The large dark area at the bottom of this image is Mare Tranquilatis – the “Sea of Tranquility” – and it is a large field of basaltic lava flows clearly much richer in titanium than the bordering Mare Sereniatis – “Sea of Serenity” – at the upper left, which is tinted a warm brown. Both these regions are visible from Earth on the moon’s northern hemisphere, just right of center, but to most of us the only variation in color is a slightly darker grey against the white of the surrounding area. We tend to see the moon in shades of grey but the reality is it’s quite a colorful place, if subtly so.
Read more on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter site (nasa.gov) [archive.is/9f5xE].
The original LROC image had a lot of missing areas [archive.is/yTpW0]…I filled them in by duplicating surrounding spots and blurring any obvious copied features or division lines. As a result the image here isn’t 100% accurate for landforms but shows the general colorations with less distraction. Full image [archive.is/sWaXc]. Image: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University. Edited by J. Major.
* "The Moon and it's color" (marsanomalyresearch.com) [archive.is/MlbOc] [begin excerpt]:
The Earth's dense atmosphere influences in a major way how the Earth's colors are perceived from the Moon and the reverse is true of how the Moon is visually perceived from a distance through the Earth's atmosphere. For a good discussion of this, take a look at the video at the link below.
[youtube.com/watch?v=4PNjm9_Kzu8] [...]
Upon the previous Apollo 10's return to Earth, that crew went through a Photo Debriefing in June, 1969 by Bellcomm, Inc. Now Bellcomm was a subsidiary of AT&T established in 1963 to provide NASA with technical and management records and advise for the Manned Space Flight Program and ended in 1972 after the Apollo 17 mission. Below are some pertinent quotes having to do with Moon color from that old Apollo 10 debriefing at the link below.
Bellcomm Apollo 10 Photo Debriefing (.pdf) [http://is.gd/n1JHVN], text [archive.is/gLGMq] -
- "The lunar maria were described as brown at high sun angles, and grayish brown near the terminator..."
- "....They noted a color mottling of Mare Serenitatis, light brown and tan brown, as compared to the darker 'chocolate brown' color of Mare Tranquillitatis."
- "The color of the lunar highlands was described as tan .... Deviations from the tan color are caused by mare material (brown), fresh impact craters (chalky white) and a number of 'jet black' layers and blocks."
- "As expected, they were unable to see much before passing over the sunlight terminator, but as soon as this is done, the moon glows at us...this moon looks like a Christmas tree here in the dark side...it is highly illuminated from the earth."
Photos:
- True color photograph of the Moon [archive.is/HUZ5p], archived at (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) [archive.is/VMkiM]
* "True color of Earth's moon, saturation incrementally enhanced with CS3" [archive.is/dGCOi]
- from (yankeerobotics.com) [archive.is/Q2NDo], full-size image [archive.is/2nAXo]:
* Photo montage showing Earth in true color (left) and false color (right), from (pirlwww.lpl.arizona.edu) [archive.is/B3asb]
* Callisto, part of the Jupiter dwarf-planetary system, photo from (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) [archive.is/w3Y9u]
* Ganymede [archive.is/x6Eab] [archive.is/o51rS], part of the Saturn dwarf-planetary system
* "How to reach Alpha Centauri in just 20 years" (2016-04-12, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/AsVvE]:
Billionaire Russian investor Yuri Milner and British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Tuesday announced an ambitious new space initiative for a mission to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth.
Milner and Hawking are spearheading the "Breakthrough Starshot" team of scientists working on the bold research program to create a fleet of super-compact, ultra-light space vehicles or "nanocraft."
The goal is to send the light-propelled mini space vehicles - each no bigger than a cell phone - to Alpha Centauri, which is 4.37 light years away, or 25 trillion miles, from Earth.
They estimate it could take about 20 years to reach the star system from the time of the launch - rather than the 30,000 years it would take with today's fastest spacecraft.
"Space travel as we know it is slow. How do we go faster and how do we go further? How do we make this great leap?" Milner, who is planning to initially commit $100 million to the project, told a press conference in Manhattan.
"For the first time in history, we can do more than just gaze at the stars. We can actually reach them," added the 54-year-old Russian philanthropist, whose fortune is estimated at $2.9 billion by Forbes.
"It is time to launch the next great leap in human history."
'Interstellar sailboat' -
Milner - one of the original investors in Facebook - said the team hoped to send a super light robotic spacecraft streaking through space at 60,000 kilometers (faster than 37,000 miles) per second - about 20 percent the speed of light.
The initiative will work by creating a giant laser array to propel the mini-probes - which would deploy micro-sails - toward a given star, creating what Milner likened to an "interstellar sailboat."
"The Breakthrough StarChip concept is based on technology either already available or likely to be available in the near future. But as with any moonshot, there are major engineering problems to solve," Milner cautioned.
Hawking noted: "I believe what makes us unique is transcending our limits."
Milner said that he will contribute $100 million from his own pocket for the project, which could cost as much as $10 billion before it is fully realized.
"It's very clear that it's a non-profit initiative," he joked, acknowledging that the chance for success and the final cost were unclear.
Milner, Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will sit on the project's board.
Search for life -
A team has already been working on the endeavor for a year, Milner said.
Initial research results indicate that the giant laser array - the "light beamer" - would require about 100 gigawatts, roughly the energy needed to launch a space shuttle, said Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard University and a project member.
"When there is a vision for a grand project like this one, just like the vision that JFK had in the 60s, it lifts many bolts," said Loeb in a nod to former US president John F. Kennedy, whose vision it was to land a man on the moon.
Milner and Hawking have teamed up previously.
Last July, Hawking launched a massive search for intelligent extraterrestrial life in a $100-million, 10-year project to scan the heavens funded by Milner.
Milner said at the time that the "Breakthrough Listen" initiative would be the most intensive scientific search ever undertaken for signs of alien civilization.
The project, they said, would use some of the biggest telescopes on Earth, searching far deeper into the universe than before for radio and laser signals.
One aim of the mission to Alpha Centauri is also to look for signs of extraterrestrial life, Loeb said.
And what might those living creatures be like?
"Judging by the election campaign, definitely not like us," joked Hawking - who is wheelchair-bound and uses a computerized voice system to communicate - in reference to the drama-filled race for the White House.
---
* "NASA Begins Testing of Revolutionary E-Sail Technology" (2016, nasa.gov) [archive.is/kJHVX]
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* "3 new Earth-sized planets offer best chance of finding life beyond Solar System" (2016-05-02, rt.com) [archive.is/GsQuj]
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* "Cluster of bright “halo” craters spotted on Pluto" (2016-04-22, rt.com) [archive.is/wBwdT]
---
* "Spectacular image shows Jupiter’s magnificent auroras" (2016-04-08, rt.com) [archive.is/wrVPt]
===*===*===
* "1917 Astronomical Plate has first-ever evidence of exoplanetary System" (2016-04-12, carnegiescience.edu) [archive.is/qxvH2], photo caption: The 1917 photographic plate spectrum of van Maanen's star from the Carnegie Observatories’ archive. The pull-out box shows the strong lines of the element calcium, which are surprisingly easy to see in the century old spectrum. The spectrum is the thin, (mostly) dark line in the center of the image. The broad dark lanes above and below are from lamps used to calibrate wavelength, and are contrast-enhanced in the box to highlight the two “missing” absorption bands in the star. Available here as a standalone image. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science.
* "The darkness of dark matter and dark energy" (summarized by Stewart Brand, longnow.org, from a lecture by Priya Natarajan):
ALL THAT WE KNOW of the universe we get from observing photons, Natarajan pointed out. But dark matter, which makes up 90 percent of the total mass in the universe, is called dark because it neither emits nor reflects photons — and because of our ignorance of what it is. It is conjectured to be made up of still-unidentified exotic collisionless particles which might weigh about six times more than an electron.
Though some challenge whether dark matter even exists, Natarajan is persuaded that it does because of her research on “the heaviest objects in the universe“ — galaxy clusters of more than 1,000 galaxies. First of all, the rotation of stars within galaxies does not look Keplerian — the outermost stars move far too quickly, as discovered in the 1970s. Their rapid rate of motion only makes sense if there is a vast “halo” of dark matter enclosing each galaxy.
And galaxy clusters have so much mass (90 percent of it dark) that their gravitation bends light, “lenses” it. A galaxy perfectly aligned on the far side of a galaxy cluster appears to us — via the Hubble Space Telescope — as a set of multiple arc-shaped (distorted) galaxy images. Studying the precise geometry of those images can reveal some of the nature of dark matter, such as that it appears to be “clumpy.” With the next generation of space telescopes — the James Webb Space Telescope that comes online in 2018 and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope a few years afterward — much more will be learned. There are also instruments on Earth trying to detect dark-matter particles directly, so far without success.
As for dark energy — the accelerating expansion of the universe — its shocking discovery came from two independent teams in 1998–99. Dark energy is now understood to constitute 72 percent of the entire contents of the universe. (Of the remainder, dark matter is 23 percent, and atoms — the part that we know — makes up just 4.6 percent.) When the universe was 380,000 years old (13.7 billion years ago), there was no dark energy. But now “the universe is expanding at a pretty fast clip.” Natarajan hopes to use galaxy-cluster lensing as a tool “to trace the geometry of space-time which encodes dark energy.”
These days, she said, data is coming in from the universe faster than theory can keep up with it.” We are in a golden age of cosmology.”
* A linkable illustrated version of this summary is on Medium [http://is.gd/BBxWlQ].
* The audio--and soon video—of the talk is at the Long Now Seminars site [http://is.gd/H1xNf4].
* "Hawking & Milner to send interstellar craft to Alpha Centauri 'within a generation' " (2016-04-12, rt.com) [archive.is/9qYPf]
---
* "The 'R' in RNA is likely abundant in space, scientists say" (2016-04-08, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/k7865]
---
* "No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning" (2015-02-09, phys.org) [archive.is/VBQy4]
* "Quantum Equation Suggests the Big Bang Never Occurred and the Universe Has No Beginning" (2015-02-13, themindunleashed.org) [archive.is/6Vvfn]
* " ‘Space exploring species’: Returning NASA astronaut grew 2 inches in orbit" (2016-03-04, rt.com) [archive.is/7Zgiy]
---
* "Zoom to Mars in 6 weeks with new Russian nuclear-fission engine" (2016-03-03, rt.com) [archive.is/D7nCy]
* "Radiation makes Mars travel impossible today…let’s fly faster!" (2013-05-31, rt.com) [archive.is/WtylW]
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* "Propylene: Ingredient of Household Plastic Detected in Atmosphere of Saturn’s Moon Titan; Planetary scientists using the Composite InfRared Spectrometer aboard NASA/ESA’s Cassini spacecraft have detected propylene in the lower atmosphere of the Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. This is the first detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than Earth" (2013-10-02, sci-news.com) [archive.is/9wMW6], photo caption: This image is a composite of several images taken during two separate Titan flybys on October 9 and October 25, 2004. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.
---
* "Be Pluto’s Valentine! NASA colors dwarf planet’s ‘heart’ (to study terrain)" (2016-02-13, rt.com) [archive.is/vl4R5]
* "Stunning Pluto ice map reveals more frozen water than ever" (2016-01-30, rt.com) [archive.is/5oWQu]: A bright blue map highlighting H2O ice on Pluto reveals much more of the valuable liquid than previously thought.
The image, stitched together from snapshots and data sent from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, shows areas of frozen water covering a significant section of the dwarf planet.
Making up Pluto’s crustal bedrock, “the canvas on which its more volatile ices paint their seasonally changing patterns” according to NASA, the solid H2O can be seen in a “combined multispectral ‘data cube’ covering the full hemisphere” based on two LEISA scans taken fifteen minutes apart last June from a distance of 67,000 miles away, Astronomy magazine reports.
The left size of the image released by NASA this week compares LEISA spectra with a “pure water ice template spectrum.”
NASA says there are limitations to the technique, as water ice can be masked by methane ice.
The map was only able to show areas that were rich in water ice and without much methane ice.
The image on the right combines the contributions of Pluto’s different ices together. This only includes ices that are included in the model, but the team continues to add new data as it is discovered.
Little water ice was found on the western side of Pluto, Sputnik Planum, and the far north, Lowell Regio.
This suggests the icy bedrock of Pluto remains hidden under other methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide in those regions.
---
* "Apollo 10 declassified tapes to reveal puzzling ‘musical’ transmission from Moon’s dark side" (2016-02-21, rt.com) [archive.is/kbxAw], attached videos [https://youtu.be/bjLZBrQ-Oq4] [https://youtu.be/_QYRVCqwuYI]
* "Scientists Discover Solar System's Most Distant Object; The newly-found object, named V774101, is about 103 times farther away from the sun than our home planet and three times farther from the sun than Pluto" (2015-11-12, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/5Tqmb]
---
* "British Scientists Discover Exoplanet Where Wind Travels Faster Than Sound; Scientists have recorded wind speeds of over 2km per second on planet HD 189733b, which was discovered by astronomers in 2005" (2015-11-14, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/LL74E]
---
* "First British astronaut to visit ISS believes in alien life, ‘but not little green men’ " (2015-11-06, rt.com) [archive.is/PcUeZ]
---
* "Lunar test: All-female Russian crew complete 8-day Moon flight simulation" (2015-11-06, rt.com) [archive.is/w9avK]
* "NASA reveals images of ‘Spooky’ asteroid that zipped past Earth on Halloween" (2015-11-04, rt.com) [archive.is/Iebbj]
---
* "WTF to Careen Into Earth on Friday the 13th; A mysterious object from space will enter Earth's atmosphere in November -- on Friday the 13th, no less. Researchers are saying there’s no need to panic, but who really knows what might happen…" (2015-10-30, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/CQ0OM]
---
* NASA's EPIC: Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera [epic.gsfc.nasa.gov]
* "Hey look, it’s Earth! NASA unveils website posting daily images of our blue marble" (2015-10-20, rt.com): NASA has launched a new website offering at least a dozen color images of Earth’s sunlit side taken as recently as 12 hours earlier from a camera a million miles away on a daily basis. The images will show Earth as it rotates, covering the entire planet.
The website, which will include a searchable archive of daily images, will feature photos taken with the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). The pictures will show Earth as it rotates, featuring the entirety of the planet over a one-day period.
EPIC, a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope, takes a series of 10 three-megabyte images with various narrowband filters, such as ultraviolet or near infrared, to compile images used by scientists who study Earth’s vegetation, ozone, and cloud cover, among other variables.
"The color Earth images are created by combining three separate single-color images to create a photographic-quality image equivalent to a 12-megapixel camera,"NASA said.
EPIC has to take quick exposure images (20 to 100 milliseconds) to compensate for Earth’s brightness in the dark of space, according to NASA. The short exposure times do not allow EPIC to record fainter stars in the background.
The camera is affixed to the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which is operated by NASA, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Air Force, to maintain solar wind monitoring for space weather alerts and forecasts.
The website's images will be in the public domain, the agency said.
"NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records," NASA concluded. "The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing."
* "Earth Art: NASA ‘artist’ stuns Twitter with Sahara Desert pics taken from space" (2015-10-20, rt.com) [archive.is/fVnbX]
* "Free Booze, Delivery not Included: Astronomers Spot Alcohol-Spewing Comet; An international team of researchers has proved how rightfully comet C/2014 Q2 was nicknamed Lovejoy: while observing the atmosphere of the celestial body they found that it, among others, releases alcohol in crazy amounts: as much as 500 bottles of wine every second" (2015-10-24, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Hh690]
* " ‘WTF’: Mysterious artificial space object heading towards Earth" (2015-10-26, rt.com) [archive.is/nyuOg]
* " 'Alien civilizations' may be found on 'megastructures' near Milky Way star, scientists say" (2015-10-15, rt.com) [archive.is/gbviw]
* "NASA reveals first official findings of Pluto mission" (2015-10-16, rt.com) [archive.is/s0avc]
* "Much like Earth’s Moon’: NASA releases high-res pics of Pluto’s satellite Charon" (2015-10-18, rt.com) [archive.is/PiGpF]
* "Wave near equator: NASA's Hubble Telescope animation shows Jupiter in 4k Ultra HD video" (2015-10-14, rt.com) [archive.is/NrOC4]
* "Creepy shadows: Scientists puzzled over strange 'holes' on the Moon" (2015-10-06, rt.com) [archive.is/Q8fOz]
* "Russians to Get Rocket Fuel, Water, Oxygen from Ice on the Moon; Russian scientists are currently studying lunar ice, hoping to get hydrogen rocket fuel, water and oxygen from the moon, Igor Mitrofanov from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) told Radio Sputnik" (2015-09-26, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/QO11F]
---
* "Saturn’s moon Enceladus hosts a global ocean" (2015-09-15, seti.org) [archive.is/J73ay]. Image caption: Illustration of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus showing a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust. Thickness of layers shown here is not to scale.
---
* "New Horizons Probes the Mystery of Charon’s Red Pole" (2015-09-09, nasa.gov) [archive.is/NXA5L]. Photo caption: Details of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, are revealed in this image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken July 13, 2015, from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 kilometers), combined with color information obtained by New Horizons’ Ralph instrument on the same day. The marking in Charon’s north polar region appears to be a thin deposit of dark material over a distinct, sharply bounded, angular feature.
---
* "What is the mystery spike on Charon? Nasa teases strange feature on Pluto's moon; The image zeroes in on a strange spike on the moon's surface described as a 'mountain in a moat' " (2015-07-16, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/iPzFa]
* "Pluto Images From NASA Are Fake? Aliens Reportedly Discovered On The Surface" (2015-07-18, franchiseherald.com) [archive.is/o84Fw]
* "Alien Bases discovered on 'Pluto' " [youtube.com/watch?v=Nza1J-XRNWs], and "2 UFO Clusters Orbiting PLUTO & CHARON Captured In New Images" [youtube.com/watch?v=cks92-_6uO8]
* "Let the Pluto conspiracy theories begin! Internet erupts with claims that New Horizons visit is the 'biggest lie in history' " (2015-07-17, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/l05Dr]. One YouTube user calling himself Crow used the images above, with a picture using his backyard telescope of Jupiter and an early New Horizons' image of Pluto to suggest the mission has been faked. Watch his video here [youtube.com/watch?v=P2gB367GU2I]. If anything, he makes the case for an increase in funding for NASA. The creator of the video is listed as a disinformation addict by another fringe researcher, this time for the Flat Earth theory [archive.is/xNrQR]. There's this society of fringers who attack and join eachother, probably to cover-up the truth, but mostly because they're attention addicts.
---
* "Astronomers Find Evidence Of Two Undiscovered Planets In Our Solar System" (2014-11-16, iflscience.com) [archive.is/da0iT]
* "Mysterious Planet X May Really Lurk Undiscovered in Our Solar System" (2015-01-16, space.com) [archive.is/vnsEG]
* "The Niburu Planet X System and Its Potential Impacts on Our Solar System: A Scientific Case for Nibiru/Planet X System" (2015-05-06, by Joachim Hagopian) [archive.is/qpYhB] [begin excerpt]: The most controversial “undiscovered” planet operating within our solar system dubbed Nibiru or Planet X was made (in)famous in 1976 by noted researcher-author Zecharia Sitchin in his bestselling book The 12th Planet. As one of few scholars able to read and interpret Sumerian clay tablets, Sitchin utilized those ancient texts to make a highly plausible case for the existence of Planet X (also known as planet Nibiru the Destroyer in ancient scripts) coming closest to planet earth every 3600 years. The Sumerians lived over 6000 years ago in what is today Iraq. They are credited as the first known civilization on earth, inventing mathematics, writing, agriculture, law, schools, astronomy and astrology.
In 1990 researcher-author Zecharia Sitchin interviewed the supervising astronomer of the US Naval Observatory Robert S. Harrington to discuss Harrington’s recent discovery of the red Planet X [https://youtu.be/HpHU36uJnMc]. Harrington set up a special telescopic observatory in New Zealand to track Planet X. But the renowned head of the Naval Observatory suddenly died mysteriously at age 50 of a rare form of cancer under suspicious circumstances. His wife is convinced he was murdered for allegedly leaking too much information about Planet X.
Yet two years after the Sitchin-Harrington interview and just months prior to Harrington’s January 1993 death, a NASA press release was still publicly embracing Nibiru/Planet X as real: "Unexplained deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune point to a large outer solar system body of 4 to 8 Earth masses on a highly tilted orbit, beyond 7 billion miles from the Sun."
Rather than dig into ancient mythology or biblical prophecy as so much of the current speculation about Nibiru already covers, this presentation will limit its focus to reviewing the most tangible, credible pieces of scientific evidence supported by astronomers and astrophysicists who in recent years have risked destroying their careers, reputations and their very lives promoting their controversial findings and conclusions. This year more than ever the movement’s growing authenticity of the Planet X story is in fact gathering momentum, at least garnering lukewarm support from some rather high profile notables within the scientific community. This article will chronicle this growing body of empirical evidence validating not only Planet X’s existence but its eminent approach towards earth. [end excerpt]
There are researchers who cite a 1983 announcement by NASA of the "discovery" of a large planet in the Solar System beyond Pluto... but the truth remains to be seen, as shown in the skeptic's article here [archive.is/Cqx3w] concerning the 1983 announcement, which shows how the 1983 announcement (produced below) is used by those who push the "Zeta" mythology of extra-terrestrials to "prove" that NASA is covering up the fact of a Planet X larger than Jupiter...
* "Possibly as large as Jupiter; Mystery heavenly body discovered" (1983-12, by Thomas O'Toole, Washington Post newspaper) [archive.is/aeRcK]
* "Planet X and the Pole Shift: A look at the Science behind Planet X" [archive.is/cbLvs], and how hoaxers use Planet X mythology to trick people into buying their books [archive.is/wVVQW].
* "Tracking A Mysterious Group of Asteroid Outcasts" (2015-08-03, jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/A4xmq] [begin excerpt]: Distributed at the outer edge of the asteroid belt, the Euphrosynes have an unusual orbital path that juts well above the ecliptic, the equator of the solar system. The asteroid after which they are named, Euphrosyne -- for an ancient Greek goddess of mirth -- is about 156 miles (260 kilometers) across and is one of the 10 largest asteroids in the main belt. The 1,400 Euphrosyne asteroids studied by Masiero and his colleagues turned out to be large and dark, with highly inclined and elliptical orbits. There are over 700,000 asteroidal bodies currently known in the main belt that range in size from large boulders to about 60 percent of the diameter of Earth's moon, with many yet to be discovered. A better understanding of the origins and behaviors of these mysterious objects will give researchers a clearer picture of asteroids in general, and in particular the NEOs (Near-Earth Objects) that skirt our home planet's neighborhood. Such studies are important, and potentially critical, to the future of humanity, which is a primary reason JPL and its partners continue to relentlessly track these wanderers within our solar system. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known NEOs.
* Photo from the European Union's newest weather satellite [archive.is/9LHeo]
* "Philae the little lost lander finds organic molecules on comet" (2015-07-31, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/rCjqC]
* "Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon Mimas Is Weird Inside" (2014-10-16, space.com) [archive.is/4pmFD] [begin excerpt]: Mimas' rotation and its orbit around Saturn make the moon look like it's rocking and back forth and oscillating similar to the way a pendulum swings. The rocking motion is called libration, and it's commonly observed in moons that are influenced by the gravity from neighboring planets. However, using images of the moon captured by the Cassini spacecraft, Radwan Tajeddine, a research associate at Cornell University, discovered that the satellite's libration was much more exaggerated in one spot than predicted. He expects it must be caused by the moon's weird interior. One idea is that the moon has an elongated, oval-shaped core. This elongation might have happened as the moon formed under the push and pull of Saturn's rings. The teeter tottering could also come from a subsurface ocean, similar to the one on Jupiter's moon Europa. [end excerpt]
* "Flowing nitrogen ice glaciers seen on Pluto" (2015-07-24, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/oLqTj]]
* "New Horizons 'Captures' Two of Pluto's Smaller Moons" (2015-07-21, pluto.jhuapl.edu) [archive.is/9cqKN]
* "Earth-Size Planet Found In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star" (2014-04-17, nasa.gov) [archive.is/pD3fE] [begin excerpt]: Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting in the "habitable zone" of another star. The planet, named "Kepler-186f" orbits an M dwarf, or red dwarf, a class of stars that makes up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun. [end excerpt]
* "NASA just discovered 'Earth 2.0'" (2015-07-23, businessinsider.com) [archive.is/xlIWg] [begin excerpt]: We have discovered the very first Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star in the perfect sweet spot where liquid water could be sloshing on the planet's rocky surface, a team of scientists at NASA, SETI, and Cambridge University said Thursday. This is the Earth twin that planet hunters have been searching for 20 years. It's called Kepler 452b.
* Kepler-186 and the Solar System infographic (nasa.gov) [archive.is/XiT2D] [begin excerpt]: The diagram compares the planets of our inner solar system to Kepler-186, a five-planet star system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The five planets of Kepler-186 orbit an M dwarf, a star that is is half the size and mass of the sun.
The Kepler-186 system is home to Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet orbiting a distant star in the habitable zone—a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zones of other stars and signals a significant step toward finding a world similar to Earth. [end excerpt]
* "Found 20 light years away: the New Earth" (2007-04-26, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/92fEw]. Gliese 581 is among the closest stars to us, just 20.5 light years away (about 120 trillion miles) in the constellation Libra. It is so dim it can be seen only with a good telescope. Although the new planet is in itself very Earth-like, its solar system is about as alien as could be imagined. The star at the centre - Gliese 581 - is small and dim, only about a third the size of our Sun and about 50 times cooler. The two other planets are huge, Neptune-sized worlds called Gliese 581b and d (there is no "a", to avoid confusion with the star itself). The Earth-like planet orbits its sun at a distance of only six million miles or so (our Sun is 93 million miles away), travelling so fast that its "year" only lasts 13 of our days. The parent star would dominate the view from the surface - a huge red ball of fire that must be a spectacular sight.
* "NASA’s Kepler Marks 1,000th Exoplanet Discovery, Uncovers More Small Worlds in Habitable Zones" (2015-01-06, nasa.gov) [http://is.gd/ECcH2Z]
* "The Planetary Sweet Spot" (2015-07-20, news.ucsb.edu) [archive.is/1xeVc] [begin excerpt]:
Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone — a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet’s surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. An ideal distance from a home star — in Earth’s case, the sun – this habitable zone, as it is also known, creates optimal conditions that prevent water from freezing and generating a global icehouse or evaporating into space and creating a runaway greenhouse. However, a new theory by UC Santa Barbara geochemist Matthew Jackson posits that the bulk composition of a planet may also play a critical role in determining the planet’s tectonic and climatic regimes and therefore its habitability. Until a decade ago, Jackson noted, scientists based the Earth’s composition on a model tied to ancient stony meteorites called chondrites, which were considered the building blocks of the planet. Then studies analyzing the ratio of two neodymium isotopes — 142Nd and 144Nd — demonstrated that Earth’s composition may differ from that of chondrites — and differ enough to send scientists back to the drawing board.
In 2013, Jackson and Jellinek published a new compositional model of the Earth in which a large portion of the mantle was depleted to form the continental crust. The model also assumed a 30 percent reduction in the uranium, thorium and potassium content in the planet. The decay of these naturally occurring elements generates almost all of the planet’s radioactive heat. [end excerpt]
* "Planetary Resources’ First Spacecraft Successfully Deployed, Testing Asteroid Prospecting Technology on Orbit" (2015-07-16, planetaryresources.com) [archive.is/3qUkS]
* "NASA craft discovers heart shape on Pluto as flyby nears" (2015-07-12, phys.org) [archive.is/1Z6pF]
* "New Horizons' Last Portrait of Pluto's Puzzling Spots" (2015-07-12, pluto.jhuapl.edu) [archive.is/hHmlv]
* "Spectrum of life: Nonphotosynthetic pigments could be biosignatures of life on other worlds" (2015-06-22, washington.edu) [archive.is/PAdEN]
* "Moon engulfed in permanent, lopsided dust cloud" (2015-06-17, colorado.edu) [archive.is/oE8X9]
* "Titan’s atmosphere even more Earth-like than previously thought" (2015-06-18, ucl.ac.uk) [archive.is/XY9x6]
The Saturn planetary system, orbiting our star Sol, is surrounded by a dust ring larger than predicted, regulated by the orbit of the planet Iapetus which sweeps up the dust, keeping it clear of the inner ring of planets orbiting Saturn.
* "Biggest Ring Around Saturn Just Got Supersized" (2015-06-10, space.com) [archive.is/uyKgS]. Image caption: This NASA graphic shows the relationship between Saturn's giant Phoebe ring and the planet's moons Phoebe and Iapetus. Phoebe serves as the source of the ring's material while Iapetus is embedded in the ring.
This artist's conception shows how Saturn's giant Phoebe ring would appear as seen in infrared light. Here, the ring is set against a background of stars lit by faint nebulas. See full image at [archive.is/gSJHC]
---
* "NASA Lets You Experience "Pluto Time" with New Custom Tool" (2015-06-05, solarsystem.nasa.gov) [archive.is/CBUoB] [begin excerpt]:
Just how dim is the sunlight on Pluto, some three billion miles away? While sunlight is much weaker than it is here on Earth, it isn't as dark as you might expect. In fact, for just a moment during dawn and dusk each day, the illumination on Earth matches that of high noon on Pluto.
We call this "Pluto Time". If you go outside at this time on a clear day, the world around you will be as dim as the surface of Pluto.
It's always Pluto Time somewhere, and NASA wants to see your view, using a new interactive widget that provides the approximate time, based on your location. The tool also allows you to set reminders for upcoming Pluto Times.
Go out and see what Pluto Time looks like! Take a photo during your Pluto Time - preferably with a local landmark - and share it on social media with #PlutoTime. We'll highlight some of the most interesting shots from around the world and combine your photos into a mosaic image of Pluto and its moons to be unveiled in August.
Once you've experienced Pluto Time - yourself or with friends and family - join NASA in counting down the days to New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto and its moons.
Following a more than nine-year journey, New Horizons will pass approximately 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) above Pluto's surface, reaching its closest approach at 7:49 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 14.
The New Horizons mission is the first in NASA's New Frontiers program and the first mission to the Kuiper Belt, a gigantic zone of icy bodies and small planets orbiting beyond Neptune. The lightweight New Horizons spacecraft will zip through the Pluto system at more than 30,000 mph (about 50,000 km/h) with the most powerful suite of science instruments ever sent on a first reconnaissance mission.
For more information, sample photos, and to experience Pluto Time for yourself, go to:
[solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime]
* "NASA's Hubble Finds Pluto's Moons Tumbling in Absolute Chaos" (2015-06-03, solarsystem.nasa.gov) [archive.is/jnmk3], image [archive.is/vT22J]
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* "How spacetime is built by quantum entanglement: New insight into unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics" (2015-05-27, ipmu.jp) [archive.is/BDtOC]
A collaboration of physicists and a mathematician has made a significant step toward unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics by explaining how spacetime emerges from quantum entanglement in a more fundamental theory. The paper announcing the discovery by Hirosi Ooguri, a Principal Investigator at the University of Tokyo’s Kavli IPMU, with Caltech mathematician Matilde Marcolli and graduate students Jennifer Lin and Bogdan Stoica, will be published in Physical Review Letters as an Editors’ Suggestion “for the potential interest in the results presented and on the success of the paper in communicating its message, in particular to readers from other fields.”
Physicists and mathematicians have long sought a Theory of Everything (ToE) that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity explains gravity and large-scale phenomena such as the dynamics of stars and galaxies in the universe, while quantum mechanics explains microscopic phenomena from the subatomic to molecular scales.
The holographic principle is widely regarded as an essential feature of a successful Theory of Everything. The holographic principle states that gravity in a three-dimensional volume can be described by quantum mechanics on a two-dimensional surface surrounding the volume. In particular, the three dimensions of the volume should emerge from the two dimensions of the surface. However, understanding the precise mechanics for the emergence of the volume from the surface has been elusive.
(Image:) Holographic Mapping Discovered by Ooguri and Collaborators: The mathematical formula derived by Ooguri and his collaborators relates local data in the extra dimensions of the gravitational theory, depicted by the red point, are expressed in terms of quantum entanglements, depicted by the blue domes. (credit: Jennifer Lin et al.)
Now, Ooguri and his collaborators have found that quantum entanglement is the key to solving this question. Using a quantum theory (that does not include gravity), they showed how to compute energy density, which is a source of gravitational interactions in three dimensions, using quantum entanglement data on the surface. This is analogous to diagnosing conditions inside of your body by looking at X-ray images on two-dimensional sheets. This allowed them to interpret universal properties of quantum entanglement as conditions on the energy density that should be satisfied by any consistent quantum theory of gravity, without actually explicitly including gravity in the theory. The importance of quantum entanglement has been suggested before, but its precise role in emergence of spacetime was not clear until the new paper by Ooguri and collaborators.
Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon whereby quantum states such as spin or polarization of particles at different locations cannot be described independently. Measuring (and hence acting on) one particle must also act on the other, something that Einstein called “spooky action at distance.” The work of Ooguri and collaborators shows that this quantum entanglement generates the extra dimensions of the gravitational theory.
Comment from paper author Hirosi Ooguri:
"It was known that quantum entanglement is related to deep issues in the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, such as the black hole information paradox and the firewall paradox. Our paper sheds new light on the relation between quantum entanglement and the microscopic structure of spacetime by explicit calculations. The interface between quantum gravity and information science is becoming increasingly important for both fields. I myself am collaborating with information scientists to pursue this line of research further." All figures are found at [web.ipmu.jp/press/20150527-PRJentanglement]
* "The darkness of dark matter and dark energy" (summarized by Stewart Brand, longnow.org, from a lecture by Priya Natarajan):
ALL THAT WE KNOW of the universe we get from observing photons, Natarajan pointed out. But dark matter, which makes up 90 percent of the total mass in the universe, is called dark because it neither emits nor reflects photons — and because of our ignorance of what it is. It is conjectured to be made up of still-unidentified exotic collisionless particles which might weigh about six times more than an electron.
Though some challenge whether dark matter even exists, Natarajan is persuaded that it does because of her research on “the heaviest objects in the universe“ — galaxy clusters of more than 1,000 galaxies. First of all, the rotation of stars within galaxies does not look Keplerian — the outermost stars move far too quickly, as discovered in the 1970s. Their rapid rate of motion only makes sense if there is a vast “halo” of dark matter enclosing each galaxy.
And galaxy clusters have so much mass (90 percent of it dark) that their gravitation bends light, “lenses” it. A galaxy perfectly aligned on the far side of a galaxy cluster appears to us — via the Hubble Space Telescope — as a set of multiple arc-shaped (distorted) galaxy images. Studying the precise geometry of those images can reveal some of the nature of dark matter, such as that it appears to be “clumpy.” With the next generation of space telescopes — the James Webb Space Telescope that comes online in 2018 and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope a few years afterward — much more will be learned. There are also instruments on Earth trying to detect dark-matter particles directly, so far without success.
As for dark energy — the accelerating expansion of the universe — its shocking discovery came from two independent teams in 1998–99. Dark energy is now understood to constitute 72 percent of the entire contents of the universe. (Of the remainder, dark matter is 23 percent, and atoms — the part that we know — makes up just 4.6 percent.) When the universe was 380,000 years old (13.7 billion years ago), there was no dark energy. But now “the universe is expanding at a pretty fast clip.” Natarajan hopes to use galaxy-cluster lensing as a tool “to trace the geometry of space-time which encodes dark energy.”
These days, she said, data is coming in from the universe faster than theory can keep up with it.” We are in a golden age of cosmology.”
* A linkable illustrated version of this summary is on Medium [http://is.gd/BBxWlQ].
* The audio--and soon video—of the talk is at the Long Now Seminars site [http://is.gd/H1xNf4].
* "Hawking & Milner to send interstellar craft to Alpha Centauri 'within a generation' " (2016-04-12, rt.com) [archive.is/9qYPf]
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* "The 'R' in RNA is likely abundant in space, scientists say" (2016-04-08, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/k7865]
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* "No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning" (2015-02-09, phys.org) [archive.is/VBQy4]
* "Quantum Equation Suggests the Big Bang Never Occurred and the Universe Has No Beginning" (2015-02-13, themindunleashed.org) [archive.is/6Vvfn]
* " ‘Space exploring species’: Returning NASA astronaut grew 2 inches in orbit" (2016-03-04, rt.com) [archive.is/7Zgiy]
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* "Zoom to Mars in 6 weeks with new Russian nuclear-fission engine" (2016-03-03, rt.com) [archive.is/D7nCy]
* "Radiation makes Mars travel impossible today…let’s fly faster!" (2013-05-31, rt.com) [archive.is/WtylW]
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* "Propylene: Ingredient of Household Plastic Detected in Atmosphere of Saturn’s Moon Titan; Planetary scientists using the Composite InfRared Spectrometer aboard NASA/ESA’s Cassini spacecraft have detected propylene in the lower atmosphere of the Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. This is the first detection of the plastic ingredient on any moon or planet, other than Earth" (2013-10-02, sci-news.com) [archive.is/9wMW6], photo caption: This image is a composite of several images taken during two separate Titan flybys on October 9 and October 25, 2004. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.
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* "Be Pluto’s Valentine! NASA colors dwarf planet’s ‘heart’ (to study terrain)" (2016-02-13, rt.com) [archive.is/vl4R5]
* "Stunning Pluto ice map reveals more frozen water than ever" (2016-01-30, rt.com) [archive.is/5oWQu]: A bright blue map highlighting H2O ice on Pluto reveals much more of the valuable liquid than previously thought.
The image, stitched together from snapshots and data sent from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, shows areas of frozen water covering a significant section of the dwarf planet.Making up Pluto’s crustal bedrock, “the canvas on which its more volatile ices paint their seasonally changing patterns” according to NASA, the solid H2O can be seen in a “combined multispectral ‘data cube’ covering the full hemisphere” based on two LEISA scans taken fifteen minutes apart last June from a distance of 67,000 miles away, Astronomy magazine reports.
The left size of the image released by NASA this week compares LEISA spectra with a “pure water ice template spectrum.”
NASA says there are limitations to the technique, as water ice can be masked by methane ice.
The map was only able to show areas that were rich in water ice and without much methane ice.
The image on the right combines the contributions of Pluto’s different ices together. This only includes ices that are included in the model, but the team continues to add new data as it is discovered.
Little water ice was found on the western side of Pluto, Sputnik Planum, and the far north, Lowell Regio.
This suggests the icy bedrock of Pluto remains hidden under other methane, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide in those regions.
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* "Apollo 10 declassified tapes to reveal puzzling ‘musical’ transmission from Moon’s dark side" (2016-02-21, rt.com) [archive.is/kbxAw], attached videos [https://youtu.be/bjLZBrQ-Oq4] [https://youtu.be/_QYRVCqwuYI]
* "Scientists Discover Solar System's Most Distant Object; The newly-found object, named V774101, is about 103 times farther away from the sun than our home planet and three times farther from the sun than Pluto" (2015-11-12, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/5Tqmb]
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* "British Scientists Discover Exoplanet Where Wind Travels Faster Than Sound; Scientists have recorded wind speeds of over 2km per second on planet HD 189733b, which was discovered by astronomers in 2005" (2015-11-14, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/LL74E]
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* "First British astronaut to visit ISS believes in alien life, ‘but not little green men’ " (2015-11-06, rt.com) [archive.is/PcUeZ]
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* "Lunar test: All-female Russian crew complete 8-day Moon flight simulation" (2015-11-06, rt.com) [archive.is/w9avK]
* "NASA reveals images of ‘Spooky’ asteroid that zipped past Earth on Halloween" (2015-11-04, rt.com) [archive.is/Iebbj]
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* "WTF to Careen Into Earth on Friday the 13th; A mysterious object from space will enter Earth's atmosphere in November -- on Friday the 13th, no less. Researchers are saying there’s no need to panic, but who really knows what might happen…" (2015-10-30, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/CQ0OM]
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* NASA's EPIC: Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera [epic.gsfc.nasa.gov]
* "Hey look, it’s Earth! NASA unveils website posting daily images of our blue marble" (2015-10-20, rt.com): NASA has launched a new website offering at least a dozen color images of Earth’s sunlit side taken as recently as 12 hours earlier from a camera a million miles away on a daily basis. The images will show Earth as it rotates, covering the entire planet.
The website, which will include a searchable archive of daily images, will feature photos taken with the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). The pictures will show Earth as it rotates, featuring the entirety of the planet over a one-day period.
EPIC, a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope, takes a series of 10 three-megabyte images with various narrowband filters, such as ultraviolet or near infrared, to compile images used by scientists who study Earth’s vegetation, ozone, and cloud cover, among other variables.
"The color Earth images are created by combining three separate single-color images to create a photographic-quality image equivalent to a 12-megapixel camera,"NASA said.
EPIC has to take quick exposure images (20 to 100 milliseconds) to compensate for Earth’s brightness in the dark of space, according to NASA. The short exposure times do not allow EPIC to record fainter stars in the background.
The camera is affixed to the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which is operated by NASA, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Air Force, to maintain solar wind monitoring for space weather alerts and forecasts.
The website's images will be in the public domain, the agency said.
"NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records," NASA concluded. "The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing."
* "Earth Art: NASA ‘artist’ stuns Twitter with Sahara Desert pics taken from space" (2015-10-20, rt.com) [archive.is/fVnbX]
* "Free Booze, Delivery not Included: Astronomers Spot Alcohol-Spewing Comet; An international team of researchers has proved how rightfully comet C/2014 Q2 was nicknamed Lovejoy: while observing the atmosphere of the celestial body they found that it, among others, releases alcohol in crazy amounts: as much as 500 bottles of wine every second" (2015-10-24, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Hh690]
* " ‘WTF’: Mysterious artificial space object heading towards Earth" (2015-10-26, rt.com) [archive.is/nyuOg]
* " 'Alien civilizations' may be found on 'megastructures' near Milky Way star, scientists say" (2015-10-15, rt.com) [archive.is/gbviw]
* "NASA reveals first official findings of Pluto mission" (2015-10-16, rt.com) [archive.is/s0avc]
* "Much like Earth’s Moon’: NASA releases high-res pics of Pluto’s satellite Charon" (2015-10-18, rt.com) [archive.is/PiGpF]
* "Wave near equator: NASA's Hubble Telescope animation shows Jupiter in 4k Ultra HD video" (2015-10-14, rt.com) [archive.is/NrOC4]
* "Creepy shadows: Scientists puzzled over strange 'holes' on the Moon" (2015-10-06, rt.com) [archive.is/Q8fOz]
* "Russians to Get Rocket Fuel, Water, Oxygen from Ice on the Moon; Russian scientists are currently studying lunar ice, hoping to get hydrogen rocket fuel, water and oxygen from the moon, Igor Mitrofanov from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) told Radio Sputnik" (2015-09-26, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/QO11F]
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* "Saturn’s moon Enceladus hosts a global ocean" (2015-09-15, seti.org) [archive.is/J73ay]. Image caption: Illustration of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus showing a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust. Thickness of layers shown here is not to scale.
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* "New Horizons Probes the Mystery of Charon’s Red Pole" (2015-09-09, nasa.gov) [archive.is/NXA5L]. Photo caption: Details of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, are revealed in this image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken July 13, 2015, from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 kilometers), combined with color information obtained by New Horizons’ Ralph instrument on the same day. The marking in Charon’s north polar region appears to be a thin deposit of dark material over a distinct, sharply bounded, angular feature.
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* "What is the mystery spike on Charon? Nasa teases strange feature on Pluto's moon; The image zeroes in on a strange spike on the moon's surface described as a 'mountain in a moat' " (2015-07-16, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/iPzFa]
* "Pluto Images From NASA Are Fake? Aliens Reportedly Discovered On The Surface" (2015-07-18, franchiseherald.com) [archive.is/o84Fw]
* "Alien Bases discovered on 'Pluto' " [youtube.com/watch?v=Nza1J-XRNWs], and "2 UFO Clusters Orbiting PLUTO & CHARON Captured In New Images" [youtube.com/watch?v=cks92-_6uO8]
* "Let the Pluto conspiracy theories begin! Internet erupts with claims that New Horizons visit is the 'biggest lie in history' " (2015-07-17, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/l05Dr]. One YouTube user calling himself Crow used the images above, with a picture using his backyard telescope of Jupiter and an early New Horizons' image of Pluto to suggest the mission has been faked. Watch his video here [youtube.com/watch?v=P2gB367GU2I]. If anything, he makes the case for an increase in funding for NASA. The creator of the video is listed as a disinformation addict by another fringe researcher, this time for the Flat Earth theory [archive.is/xNrQR]. There's this society of fringers who attack and join eachother, probably to cover-up the truth, but mostly because they're attention addicts.
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* "Astronomers Find Evidence Of Two Undiscovered Planets In Our Solar System" (2014-11-16, iflscience.com) [archive.is/da0iT]
* "Mysterious Planet X May Really Lurk Undiscovered in Our Solar System" (2015-01-16, space.com) [archive.is/vnsEG]
* "The Niburu Planet X System and Its Potential Impacts on Our Solar System: A Scientific Case for Nibiru/Planet X System" (2015-05-06, by Joachim Hagopian) [archive.is/qpYhB] [begin excerpt]: The most controversial “undiscovered” planet operating within our solar system dubbed Nibiru or Planet X was made (in)famous in 1976 by noted researcher-author Zecharia Sitchin in his bestselling book The 12th Planet. As one of few scholars able to read and interpret Sumerian clay tablets, Sitchin utilized those ancient texts to make a highly plausible case for the existence of Planet X (also known as planet Nibiru the Destroyer in ancient scripts) coming closest to planet earth every 3600 years. The Sumerians lived over 6000 years ago in what is today Iraq. They are credited as the first known civilization on earth, inventing mathematics, writing, agriculture, law, schools, astronomy and astrology.
In 1990 researcher-author Zecharia Sitchin interviewed the supervising astronomer of the US Naval Observatory Robert S. Harrington to discuss Harrington’s recent discovery of the red Planet X [https://youtu.be/HpHU36uJnMc]. Harrington set up a special telescopic observatory in New Zealand to track Planet X. But the renowned head of the Naval Observatory suddenly died mysteriously at age 50 of a rare form of cancer under suspicious circumstances. His wife is convinced he was murdered for allegedly leaking too much information about Planet X.
Yet two years after the Sitchin-Harrington interview and just months prior to Harrington’s January 1993 death, a NASA press release was still publicly embracing Nibiru/Planet X as real: "Unexplained deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune point to a large outer solar system body of 4 to 8 Earth masses on a highly tilted orbit, beyond 7 billion miles from the Sun."
Rather than dig into ancient mythology or biblical prophecy as so much of the current speculation about Nibiru already covers, this presentation will limit its focus to reviewing the most tangible, credible pieces of scientific evidence supported by astronomers and astrophysicists who in recent years have risked destroying their careers, reputations and their very lives promoting their controversial findings and conclusions. This year more than ever the movement’s growing authenticity of the Planet X story is in fact gathering momentum, at least garnering lukewarm support from some rather high profile notables within the scientific community. This article will chronicle this growing body of empirical evidence validating not only Planet X’s existence but its eminent approach towards earth. [end excerpt]
There are researchers who cite a 1983 announcement by NASA of the "discovery" of a large planet in the Solar System beyond Pluto... but the truth remains to be seen, as shown in the skeptic's article here [archive.is/Cqx3w] concerning the 1983 announcement, which shows how the 1983 announcement (produced below) is used by those who push the "Zeta" mythology of extra-terrestrials to "prove" that NASA is covering up the fact of a Planet X larger than Jupiter...
* "Possibly as large as Jupiter; Mystery heavenly body discovered" (1983-12, by Thomas O'Toole, Washington Post newspaper) [archive.is/aeRcK]
* "Planet X and the Pole Shift: A look at the Science behind Planet X" [archive.is/cbLvs], and how hoaxers use Planet X mythology to trick people into buying their books [archive.is/wVVQW].
* "Tracking A Mysterious Group of Asteroid Outcasts" (2015-08-03, jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/A4xmq] [begin excerpt]: Distributed at the outer edge of the asteroid belt, the Euphrosynes have an unusual orbital path that juts well above the ecliptic, the equator of the solar system. The asteroid after which they are named, Euphrosyne -- for an ancient Greek goddess of mirth -- is about 156 miles (260 kilometers) across and is one of the 10 largest asteroids in the main belt. The 1,400 Euphrosyne asteroids studied by Masiero and his colleagues turned out to be large and dark, with highly inclined and elliptical orbits. There are over 700,000 asteroidal bodies currently known in the main belt that range in size from large boulders to about 60 percent of the diameter of Earth's moon, with many yet to be discovered. A better understanding of the origins and behaviors of these mysterious objects will give researchers a clearer picture of asteroids in general, and in particular the NEOs (Near-Earth Objects) that skirt our home planet's neighborhood. Such studies are important, and potentially critical, to the future of humanity, which is a primary reason JPL and its partners continue to relentlessly track these wanderers within our solar system. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known NEOs.
* Photo from the European Union's newest weather satellite [archive.is/9LHeo]
* "Philae the little lost lander finds organic molecules on comet" (2015-07-31, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/rCjqC]
* "Saturn's 'Death Star' Moon Mimas Is Weird Inside" (2014-10-16, space.com) [archive.is/4pmFD] [begin excerpt]: Mimas' rotation and its orbit around Saturn make the moon look like it's rocking and back forth and oscillating similar to the way a pendulum swings. The rocking motion is called libration, and it's commonly observed in moons that are influenced by the gravity from neighboring planets. However, using images of the moon captured by the Cassini spacecraft, Radwan Tajeddine, a research associate at Cornell University, discovered that the satellite's libration was much more exaggerated in one spot than predicted. He expects it must be caused by the moon's weird interior. One idea is that the moon has an elongated, oval-shaped core. This elongation might have happened as the moon formed under the push and pull of Saturn's rings. The teeter tottering could also come from a subsurface ocean, similar to the one on Jupiter's moon Europa. [end excerpt]
* "Flowing nitrogen ice glaciers seen on Pluto" (2015-07-24, AFP Newswire) [archive.is/oLqTj]]
* "New Horizons 'Captures' Two of Pluto's Smaller Moons" (2015-07-21, pluto.jhuapl.edu) [archive.is/9cqKN]
* "Earth-Size Planet Found In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star" (2014-04-17, nasa.gov) [archive.is/pD3fE] [begin excerpt]: Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting in the "habitable zone" of another star. The planet, named "Kepler-186f" orbits an M dwarf, or red dwarf, a class of stars that makes up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun. [end excerpt]
* "NASA just discovered 'Earth 2.0'" (2015-07-23, businessinsider.com) [archive.is/xlIWg] [begin excerpt]: We have discovered the very first Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star in the perfect sweet spot where liquid water could be sloshing on the planet's rocky surface, a team of scientists at NASA, SETI, and Cambridge University said Thursday. This is the Earth twin that planet hunters have been searching for 20 years. It's called Kepler 452b.
* Kepler-186 and the Solar System infographic (nasa.gov) [archive.is/XiT2D] [begin excerpt]: The diagram compares the planets of our inner solar system to Kepler-186, a five-planet star system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The five planets of Kepler-186 orbit an M dwarf, a star that is is half the size and mass of the sun.
The Kepler-186 system is home to Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet orbiting a distant star in the habitable zone—a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zones of other stars and signals a significant step toward finding a world similar to Earth. [end excerpt]
* "Found 20 light years away: the New Earth" (2007-04-26, dailymail.co.uk) [archive.is/92fEw]. Gliese 581 is among the closest stars to us, just 20.5 light years away (about 120 trillion miles) in the constellation Libra. It is so dim it can be seen only with a good telescope. Although the new planet is in itself very Earth-like, its solar system is about as alien as could be imagined. The star at the centre - Gliese 581 - is small and dim, only about a third the size of our Sun and about 50 times cooler. The two other planets are huge, Neptune-sized worlds called Gliese 581b and d (there is no "a", to avoid confusion with the star itself). The Earth-like planet orbits its sun at a distance of only six million miles or so (our Sun is 93 million miles away), travelling so fast that its "year" only lasts 13 of our days. The parent star would dominate the view from the surface - a huge red ball of fire that must be a spectacular sight.
* "NASA’s Kepler Marks 1,000th Exoplanet Discovery, Uncovers More Small Worlds in Habitable Zones" (2015-01-06, nasa.gov) [http://is.gd/ECcH2Z]
* "The Planetary Sweet Spot" (2015-07-20, news.ucsb.edu) [archive.is/1xeVc] [begin excerpt]:
Planet Earth is situated in what astronomers call the Goldilocks Zone — a sweet spot in a solar system where a planet’s surface temperature is neither too hot nor too cold. An ideal distance from a home star — in Earth’s case, the sun – this habitable zone, as it is also known, creates optimal conditions that prevent water from freezing and generating a global icehouse or evaporating into space and creating a runaway greenhouse. However, a new theory by UC Santa Barbara geochemist Matthew Jackson posits that the bulk composition of a planet may also play a critical role in determining the planet’s tectonic and climatic regimes and therefore its habitability. Until a decade ago, Jackson noted, scientists based the Earth’s composition on a model tied to ancient stony meteorites called chondrites, which were considered the building blocks of the planet. Then studies analyzing the ratio of two neodymium isotopes — 142Nd and 144Nd — demonstrated that Earth’s composition may differ from that of chondrites — and differ enough to send scientists back to the drawing board.
In 2013, Jackson and Jellinek published a new compositional model of the Earth in which a large portion of the mantle was depleted to form the continental crust. The model also assumed a 30 percent reduction in the uranium, thorium and potassium content in the planet. The decay of these naturally occurring elements generates almost all of the planet’s radioactive heat. [end excerpt]
* "Planetary Resources’ First Spacecraft Successfully Deployed, Testing Asteroid Prospecting Technology on Orbit" (2015-07-16, planetaryresources.com) [archive.is/3qUkS]
* "NASA craft discovers heart shape on Pluto as flyby nears" (2015-07-12, phys.org) [archive.is/1Z6pF]
* "New Horizons' Last Portrait of Pluto's Puzzling Spots" (2015-07-12, pluto.jhuapl.edu) [archive.is/hHmlv]
* "Spectrum of life: Nonphotosynthetic pigments could be biosignatures of life on other worlds" (2015-06-22, washington.edu) [archive.is/PAdEN]
* "Moon engulfed in permanent, lopsided dust cloud" (2015-06-17, colorado.edu) [archive.is/oE8X9]
* "Titan’s atmosphere even more Earth-like than previously thought" (2015-06-18, ucl.ac.uk) [archive.is/XY9x6]
The Saturn planetary system, orbiting our star Sol, is surrounded by a dust ring larger than predicted, regulated by the orbit of the planet Iapetus which sweeps up the dust, keeping it clear of the inner ring of planets orbiting Saturn.
* "Biggest Ring Around Saturn Just Got Supersized" (2015-06-10, space.com) [archive.is/uyKgS]. Image caption: This NASA graphic shows the relationship between Saturn's giant Phoebe ring and the planet's moons Phoebe and Iapetus. Phoebe serves as the source of the ring's material while Iapetus is embedded in the ring.
This artist's conception shows how Saturn's giant Phoebe ring would appear as seen in infrared light. Here, the ring is set against a background of stars lit by faint nebulas. See full image at [archive.is/gSJHC]
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* "NASA Lets You Experience "Pluto Time" with New Custom Tool" (2015-06-05, solarsystem.nasa.gov) [archive.is/CBUoB] [begin excerpt]:
Just how dim is the sunlight on Pluto, some three billion miles away? While sunlight is much weaker than it is here on Earth, it isn't as dark as you might expect. In fact, for just a moment during dawn and dusk each day, the illumination on Earth matches that of high noon on Pluto.It's always Pluto Time somewhere, and NASA wants to see your view, using a new interactive widget that provides the approximate time, based on your location. The tool also allows you to set reminders for upcoming Pluto Times.
Go out and see what Pluto Time looks like! Take a photo during your Pluto Time - preferably with a local landmark - and share it on social media with #PlutoTime. We'll highlight some of the most interesting shots from around the world and combine your photos into a mosaic image of Pluto and its moons to be unveiled in August.
Once you've experienced Pluto Time - yourself or with friends and family - join NASA in counting down the days to New Horizons' historic flyby of Pluto and its moons.
Following a more than nine-year journey, New Horizons will pass approximately 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) above Pluto's surface, reaching its closest approach at 7:49 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 14.
The New Horizons mission is the first in NASA's New Frontiers program and the first mission to the Kuiper Belt, a gigantic zone of icy bodies and small planets orbiting beyond Neptune. The lightweight New Horizons spacecraft will zip through the Pluto system at more than 30,000 mph (about 50,000 km/h) with the most powerful suite of science instruments ever sent on a first reconnaissance mission.
For more information, sample photos, and to experience Pluto Time for yourself, go to:
[solarsystem.nasa.gov/plutotime]
* "NASA's Hubble Finds Pluto's Moons Tumbling in Absolute Chaos" (2015-06-03, solarsystem.nasa.gov) [archive.is/jnmk3], image [archive.is/vT22J]
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* "How spacetime is built by quantum entanglement: New insight into unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics" (2015-05-27, ipmu.jp) [archive.is/BDtOC]
A collaboration of physicists and a mathematician has made a significant step toward unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics by explaining how spacetime emerges from quantum entanglement in a more fundamental theory. The paper announcing the discovery by Hirosi Ooguri, a Principal Investigator at the University of Tokyo’s Kavli IPMU, with Caltech mathematician Matilde Marcolli and graduate students Jennifer Lin and Bogdan Stoica, will be published in Physical Review Letters as an Editors’ Suggestion “for the potential interest in the results presented and on the success of the paper in communicating its message, in particular to readers from other fields.”
Physicists and mathematicians have long sought a Theory of Everything (ToE) that unifies general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity explains gravity and large-scale phenomena such as the dynamics of stars and galaxies in the universe, while quantum mechanics explains microscopic phenomena from the subatomic to molecular scales.The holographic principle is widely regarded as an essential feature of a successful Theory of Everything. The holographic principle states that gravity in a three-dimensional volume can be described by quantum mechanics on a two-dimensional surface surrounding the volume. In particular, the three dimensions of the volume should emerge from the two dimensions of the surface. However, understanding the precise mechanics for the emergence of the volume from the surface has been elusive.
(Image:) Holographic Mapping Discovered by Ooguri and Collaborators: The mathematical formula derived by Ooguri and his collaborators relates local data in the extra dimensions of the gravitational theory, depicted by the red point, are expressed in terms of quantum entanglements, depicted by the blue domes. (credit: Jennifer Lin et al.)
Now, Ooguri and his collaborators have found that quantum entanglement is the key to solving this question. Using a quantum theory (that does not include gravity), they showed how to compute energy density, which is a source of gravitational interactions in three dimensions, using quantum entanglement data on the surface. This is analogous to diagnosing conditions inside of your body by looking at X-ray images on two-dimensional sheets. This allowed them to interpret universal properties of quantum entanglement as conditions on the energy density that should be satisfied by any consistent quantum theory of gravity, without actually explicitly including gravity in the theory. The importance of quantum entanglement has been suggested before, but its precise role in emergence of spacetime was not clear until the new paper by Ooguri and collaborators.Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon whereby quantum states such as spin or polarization of particles at different locations cannot be described independently. Measuring (and hence acting on) one particle must also act on the other, something that Einstein called “spooky action at distance.” The work of Ooguri and collaborators shows that this quantum entanglement generates the extra dimensions of the gravitational theory.
Comment from paper author Hirosi Ooguri:"It was known that quantum entanglement is related to deep issues in the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, such as the black hole information paradox and the firewall paradox. Our paper sheds new light on the relation between quantum entanglement and the microscopic structure of spacetime by explicit calculations. The interface between quantum gravity and information science is becoming increasingly important for both fields. I myself am collaborating with information scientists to pursue this line of research further." All figures are found at [web.ipmu.jp/press/20150527-PRJentanglement]
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