Uranus and the Autocrats
Before Uranus was discovered in 1781 the world was very much an autocratic or feudal type of society where only the rich and powerful ruled with an iron grip. There was the Sun(the ruling elite), the Moon(the general populace), the merchants and educators(Mercury), the growers and artisans(Venus), the military(Mars), the clergy(Jupiter), and the wise men or elderly(Saturn). Uranus' discovery unleashed the scientific and rebellious nature of man which sought truth and freedom and no better is this exemplified than in the colonial movements from Europe to the Americas beginning around 1500 AD. Tired of the oppressive and autocratic rule under which they lived, a brave group of souls rebelled and ventured across the great Atlantic in search o…
Midheaven/Planet X and the Kuiper Cliff
The Kuiper belt terminates suddenly at a distance of 48 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (by comparison, Neptune lies 30 AU from the Sun), and there has been some speculation that this sudden drop-off, known as the "Kuiper cliff", may be attributed to the presence of an object with a mass between that of Mars and Earth located beyond 48 AU. The presence of a Mars-like planet in a circular orbit at 60 AU leads to a TNO population incompatible with observations. For instance, it would severely deplete the plutino population. Astronomers have not excluded the possibility of a more massive Earth-like planet located further than 100 AU with an eccentric and inclined orbit. Computer simulations by Patryk Lykawka of Kobe University have sugge…
Comet ISON Declared Dead: VIDEO
While scientists had expressed hope that once-in-a-lifetime Comet ISON had survived after a close pass by the sun on Thanksgiving day, those hopes have faded and a team of scientists dedicated to observing the comet have declared it dead.
They wrote a cute and geeky obituary:
Born in a dusty and turbulent environment, comet ISON spent its early years being jostled and struck by siblings both large and small. Surviving a particularly violent first few million years, ISON retreated to the Oort Cloud, where it maintained a largely reclusive existence for nearly four billion years. But around 3-million B.C., a chance encounter with a passing star coerced ISON into undertaking a pioneering career as a Sungrazer. On September 21, 2012, ISON made itse…
Did Comet ISON survive? Scientists see tiny hope
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A comet that gained an earthly following because of its bright tail visible from space was initially declared dead after essentially grazing the sun. Now, there is a sliver of hope that Comet ISON may have survived.
New images, basically faint smudges on a screen, being analyzed Friday showed a streak of light moving away from the sun that some said could indicate it wasn't game over just yet.
VIDEO: A snippet of hope
"It certainly appears as if there is an object there that is emitting material," said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Basically a dirty snowball from the fringes of the solar system, scientists had pronounced Comet ISON dead when it came within 1 million miles of…
New Nemesis problem
The Nemesis theory postulates that every 26 to 30 million years, life on Earth is severely jeopardized by the arrival of a small companion star to the sun. Dubbed “Nemesis” (after the Greek goddess of retribution), the companion star”through its gravitational pull”unleashes a furious storm of comets into the inner solar system that lasts anywhere from 100,000 years to two million years. Of the billions of comets sent swarming toward the sun, several strike the Earth, triggering a nightmarish sequence of ecological catastrophes. This theory has been abandoned since 2011, and a fairly recent study shows that Nemesis himself would destabilize the 3 last planets-Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Nemesis would make our solar system a binary star sys…