New planets discovered

Three new planets have been found orbiting a nearby star that is almost identical to the sun.The planets, forming a mini-solar system, circle the star 61 Virginis which is just 27.8 light years away and can be seen with the naked eye.They have masses ranging from 5.3 to 24.9 times that of the Earth.Astronomers hope to discover even smaller potentially habitable worlds within a few years.The same international team also found a fourth planet orbiting another sun-like star 84 light years away called 23 Librae.61 Virginis lies in the constellation of Virgo, visible from both hemispheres. It has 0.96 of the sun's mass and is only slightly less bright.The star's family of planets was discovered by British, Australian and US astronomers using the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, and the Keck telescope in Hawaii.The new worlds were identified by measuring the "wobble" effect of their gravity tugging on their parent star, a standard planet-finding technique.Professor Chris Tunney, one of the astronomers from the University of New South Wales, said: "These planets are particularly exciting. Neptune in our Solar System has a mass 17 times that of the Earth. It looks like there may be many sun-like stars nearby with planets of that mass or less. They point the way to even smaller planets that could be rocky and suitable for life."The findings on 61 Virginis are to appear in The Astrophysical Journal. The fourth planet is a Jupiter-sized "gas giant" orbiting 23 Librae in the constellation of Libra. Another planet was found orbiting this star in 2006. It takes 14 Earth-years to circle its star, only slightly more than Jupiter's 12-year orbit.

Spiral

well this is a great story one that needs to be recorded and kept for posterity.

Speculation was increasing today that the display was the result of an embarrassing failed test launch of a jinxed new Russian missile.
The Bulava missile was test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine in the White Sea early on Wednesday but failed at the third stage, say newspapers in Moscow today.

Strange spiral: Residents in northern Norway were left stunned after the lightshow, which almost looked computer-generated, appeared in the skies above them

Curious: A blue-green beam of light was reported to have come shooting out the centre of the spiral
This emerged despite earlier reports denying a missile launch yesterday. Even early today there was no formal confirmation from the Russian Defence Ministry.
The light appears to be unconnected with the aurora borealis, or northern lights, the natural magnetic phenomena that can often be viewed in that part of the world.
The mystery began when a blue light seemed to soar up from behind a mountain in the north of the country. It stopped mid-air, then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky.

Then a green-blue beam of light shot out from its centre - lasting for ten to 12 minutes before disappearing completely.
Onlookers describing it as 'like a big fireball that went around, with a great light around it' and 'a shooting star that spun around and around'.
Yesterday a Norwegian defence spokesman said the display was most likely from a failed Russian test launch.

Tromsō Geophysical Observatory researcher Truls Lynne Hansen agreed, saying the missile had likely veered out of control and exploded, and the spiral was light reflecting on the leaking fuel.
But last night Russia denied it had been conducting missile tests in the area.
A Moscow news outlet quoted the Russian Navy as denying any rocket launches from the White Sea area.
Norway should be informed of such launches under international agreements, it was stressed.
However this morning media reports claimed a missile had indeed been launched from the White Sea. Test firings are usually made from the White Sea, close to the Norwegian Arctic region.
Kommersant newspaper reported today that a test-firing before dawn on Wednesday coincided with the light show in the northern sky.
It also emerged today that Russia last week formally notified Norway of a window when a missile test might be carried out.

This included a seven hour period early on Wednesday at the time when the lights were seen.
The submarine Dmitry Donskoy went to sea on Monday, ahead of the test, and some reports suggest the vessel is now back in port.
A Russian military source said today that 'the third stage of the rocket did not work'.
The Russian Defence Ministry, with characteristic secrecy, has so far been unavailable for comment.

The Bulava, despite being crucial to Russia's plans to revamp its weaponry, is becoming an embarrassment after nine failed launches in 13 tests, prompting calls for it to be scrapped.
In theory, it has a range of 5,000 miles and could carry up to ten nuclear weapons bound for separate targets.
A previous failure in July forced the resignation of Yury Solomonov, the director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology which is responsible for developing the missile.
However, he is now working as chief designer on the jinxed project.
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute was flooded with telephone calls after the light storm yesterday morning.
Totto Eriksen, from Tromsø, told VG Nett: 'It spun and exploded in the sky,'
He spotted the lights as he walked his daughter Amalie to school.
He said: 'We saw it from the Inner Harbor in Tromsø. It was absolutely fantastic.
'It almost looked like a rocket that spun around and around and then went diagonally down the heavens.
'It looked like the moon was coming over the mountain, but then came something completely different.'
Celebrity astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard said he had never seen anything like the lights.
He said: 'My first thought was that it was a fireball meteor, but it has lasted far too long.
'It may have been a missile in Russia, but I can not guarantee that it is the answer.'
Air traffic control in Tromsō claimed the light show lasted 'far too long to be an astronomical phenomenon'.

here's the link to view the whole show
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1562587976?bctid=55946023001

article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1234430/Mystery-spiral-blue-light-display-hovers-Norway.html

Meteo-tsunami

Abnormal tides reported in northern Tasmania last week are being attributed to a rare atmospheric disturbance, known as a meteo-tsunami.
The Weather Bureau took several calls from people in Stanley, Port Sorell and Bridport who noticed particularly high and fast moving tides on November the 22nd.The bureau says they was caused by a rare rissaga, or meteo-tsunami, but spokesman Brendan McMahon says it is not known what triggered the event.
"Unlike the conventional tsunami which we've come to know which is produced by a seismic activity, so an undersea earthquake or some sort of earthquake...this is produced by an atmospheric phenomenon.""So a deep low pressure system, the passage of a front moving through quite vigorously."
Bridport shack owner Tony Power witnessed the event.He says in a matter of minutes the tide came up to his shack and then went back out dragging two trees with it.
"I reckon within 10 minutes it was up over the sand bar coming towards us," he said."Fairly forceful, you probably wouldn't have stood up in it.
"It was pretty strange and eerie because you sort of didn't know how far it was going to come."We didn't know whether to retreat to higher ground."

LHC, revving up again

A piece of cable was responsible last year for the world's most expensive short-circuit. More than £30m-worth of damage was done to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most advanced particle accelerator ever built, a few days after its ceremonial opening. It has taken Myers – and hundreds of other Cern scientists – more than a year to pinpoint the guilty piece of cable and repair the wreckage. "It was a very small piece, but it did immense damage," he said. It remains to be seen whether Myers can fix Cern's tattered technological reputation in the process – when his team restart their great machine in a few weeks. "I am not a nervous person," said the 63-year-old Belfast-born engineer. "And that is probably just as well."
The LHC had been inaugurated at 9.30am on 10 September 2008 to a barrage of global media attention. This was the God Machine that would unravel the secrets of the universe, it was claimed. Beams of protons, one of the key constituents of the atom's nucleus, were successfully fired round the machine's subterranean 18-mile circular tunnel under the Jura mountains outside Geneva.
Over the following weeks, it was predicted, scientists would recreate conditions that existed a trillionth of a second after the universe's birth and start making sensational discoveries as they smashed beams of protons into each other.
Discoveries would include the God Particle, a tiny entity also called the Higgs Boson, which is believed to give objects – including people – their mass. In addition, dark matter, a mysterious, invisible form of matter that permeates the universe, would be uncovered, along with a host of other revolutionary discoveries.
"It was all looking so good," said Myers. Then, at 11.45am on 19 September, things went spectacularly wrong. Faulty soldering in a small section of cable carrying power to the machine's huge magnets caused sparks to arc across its wiring and send temperatures soaring inside a sector of the LHC tunnel.
A hole was punched in the protective pipe that surrounds the cable and released helium, cooled to minus 271C, into a section of the collider tunnel. Pressure valves failed to vent the gas and a shock wave ran though the tunnel.
"The LHC uses as much energy as an aircraft carrier at full speed," said Myers. "When you release that energy suddenly, you do a lot of damage."
Firemen sent into the blackened, stricken collider found that dozens of the massive magnets that control its proton beams had been battered out of position. Soot and metal powder, vaporised by the explosion, coated much of the delicate machinery. "It took us a long time to find out just how serious the accident was," said Myers.
A 400-metre chunk of the £2.5bn device had been wrecked, it was discovered. Worse, when scientists traced the cause to a tiny piece of soldering, they realised that they would have to redesign major parts of the collider's entire safety systems to prevent a repeat event. That has taken more than a year to achieve.
Now Cern scientists have begun firing protons round one small section of the collider as they prepare for its re-opening. Over the next few weeks, more and more bunches of protons will be put into the machine until, by Christmas, beams will be in full flight and can be collided.
The LHC will then start producing results – 13 years after work on its construction began.
"There was so much expectation that we were about to make great discoveries last year and then the accident occurred," said Cern researcher Alison Lister. "Morale was very low when we found out just how bad it was. However, we should now be getting results by Christmas, and you couldn't get a better present than that."
When fully operational, the LHC will soak up 10 times more power than any other particle accelerator on Earth, consuming 120 megawatts of electricity – enough for an entire Swiss canton – to accelerate bunches of protons, kept in two beams, each less than a hair's breadth in diameter, to speeds that will come "within a gnat's whisker of the speed of light", according to Myers.
One beam will circulate clockwise, the other anti-clockwise. Then, at four points along the collider's tunnel, the beams will cross.
Bunches of protons – each containing 100bn particles – will slam into other oncoming bunches, triggering collisions that will fling barrages of sub-atomic detritus in all directions.
These explosive interactions will form the core of the great collider's operations and will generate new types of particle, including the Higgs, that will pop fleetingly into existence before disintegrating into a trail of other sub-atomic entities. New physics will be uncovered with Nobel prizes following in their wake. And that is not all, say sceptics. They argue that miniature black holes will be created and one of these could eventually grow to swallow up the Earth. The LHC would then not only be the world's biggest experiment – but its last. This fear has led protesters to make legal attempts to close down the LHC, one even making it to the European Court of Human Rights. All have failed, though one case – in Germany – has still to be resolved.
Even stranger is the claim by another group of physicists who say the production of Higgs bosons may be so abhorrent to nature that their creation would ripple backwards through time to stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveller trying to halt his own birth.
"All Higgs machines shall have bad luck," said Dr Holger Bech Nielsen of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. Thus the cable meltdown that afflicted the LHC was an inevitable effect of the laws of time, a notion that leaves most Cern scientists scratching their heads in bafflement.
In fact, the real problem facing the LHC is simple. It is a vast device the size of London's Circle Line but is engineered to a billionth of a metre accuracy. Ensuring that no flaws arise at scales and dimensions like these pushes engineering to its absolute limits.
Cern almost succeeded last year. Now it is convinced that it has got it right this time. "All I can say is that the LHC is a much safer, much better understood machine than it was a year ago," said Myers.
Most physicists believe he is right. "If it works, we will have built the most complex machine in history," said one. "If not, we will have assembled the world's most expensive piece of modern art."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/nov/01/cern-large-hadron-collider

October 1, 2009

Latest entry from Brians Dreams is:
"new crack runs straight through earth on opposite ends of world - look at epicenters? W Orbital tilt 23.44 to 5.27 in 779 days?"
that leads us to the date of December 2011.

Tectonic plate cracking is bigtime for all the planet If anything is to survive, there would be no seasons with a tilt of only 5.27 degrees. The summation would also be that climates would become far more stable, less extreme, bringing in an entirely new epoc.

The world quakes

The principal research interest of Prof Sieh is earthquake geology, which uses geological layers and landforms to understand the geometries of active faults, the earthquakes they generate, and the crustal structure their movements produce. His early work on the San Andreas fault led to the discovery of how often and how regularly it produces large earthquakes in southern California.
More recently, his students and colleagues along with himself investigated Taiwan's multitude of active faults and figured out how their earthquakes are creating that mountainous island. they are currently exploring the earthquake geology of Myanmar (Burma). their principal current research interest is the subduction megathrust that produced the devastating giant Sumatran earthquakes and Indian Ocean tsunamis of 2004 and 2005. That research suggests that the megathrust is poised to produce yet another giant earthquake in western Sumatra.
Prof. Kerry SiehDirector, Earth Observatory of SingaporeProfessor of Geology

South Australian cyclone

A tornado which tore across farming areas of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia has been filmed on a mobile phone. Local Billy Branson captured the footage, while another ABC listener Mark, at Cummins, also photographed the tornado on his mobile phone.Matt Collopy from the Bureau of Meteorology said it was an unusual weather event for South Australia ."To actually get a report of a tornado itself is very rare," he said. Senior forecaster Mark Anolak said storms were likely to continue throughout the state into Thursday."With the thunderstorms we are expecting generally five to 10 millimetres across eastern parts of the state, probably less than five millimetres over the western parts of the state, but in the far east with the thunderstorms, local heavy falls are possible, getting up to 20, 30 millimetres," he said.Local resident Darren Kelly said the wild weather came without warning."We just see a bit of cloud an lightning kicking around out west, or north-west from here, from Cummins and then it sort of just come in and dumped a fair amount of rain in a short amount of time," he said.

WA quakes

There's been a whole lot of shaking going on, of the earthquake variety, in a small West Australian wheatbelt town.Beacon, 320km north-west of Perth, has had roughly 100 earthquakes in the last month, Geoscience Australia seismologist Phil Cummins said on Sunday.
Between three and six earthquakes registering three and above on the Richter Scale had been detected in the area in the last month."A few of those have been in the mid to high fours," Mr Cummins said.The largest, which registered nearly five on the Richter Scale came within 24 hours of earthquakes in Melbourne and off the coast near Broome on Friday."That could be felt over a wide area, it could even cause damage if you were right on top of it, minor damage," Mr Cummins said."Certainly these were as big as the ones that shook all of Melbourne."I think for the people in the wheatbelt who are used to earthquakes, they probably don't get too upset about it but you take the same earthquake and put it in Melbourne where people haven't experienced it and people can be very upset."The earthquake clusters, known as swarms, were not unusual for the wheatbelt area but what was unusual was the migration of the swarms around the wheatbelt.Similar patterns were noted in Koorda in 2003 to 2005 and Burrakin between 2000 and 2002."These ones like the Beacon case where you seem to get several moderate earthquakes and then lots and lots of smaller quakes, it is a bit unusual," Mr Cummins said."It's called a swarm because it doesn't follow the typical foreshock, minishock, aftershock pattern or at least it doesn't seem to," he said."That's this migrating swarm, I'm not sure I've ever heard of that before."For that area it would seem that this behaviour is not typical."Seismologists were uncertain if the swarms were related to larger earthquake events such as the wheatbelt's Meckering earthquake in 1968, which registered 6.8 on the Richter scale.
The seismic activity could be relieving stresses and avoiding larger earthquakes or it could result in a big rupture."We just don't know ..." Mr Cummins said."The big question really is whether it has any relationship to larger earthquakes which occur."How long the seismic activity lasts for the residents of rural Beacon is anyone's guess, Mr Cummins said."They seem to die out gradually, we don't really know that much of what to expect, I mean Burrakin went on for a couple of years, Koorda sort of gradually started up and faded out," he said."It could continue for a while."

South western oz rock & roll

The earth tremor that rocked the centre of Melbourne was one of three quakes that hit Australia in the one day, a seismologist says.Melbourne residents reported buildings shaking across the metropolitan area when a tremor struck at 8.55pm (AEDT) on Friday.Geoscience Australia, which monitors earthquake activity, said the tremor measured magnitude 4.6 on the Richter scale , with the epicentre at Korumburra, about 90km southeast of Melbourne .The US Geological Survey reported on its website the tremor measured 4.7.Geoscience Australia's duty seismologist Phil Cummins said residents across a wide area felt the Melbourne tremor - one of three quakes to hit Australian that day."There were many reports from across a wide area - this was felt across a 100km radius," he told AAP on Friday."It was certainly a moderate earthquake that was likely to be felt across a wide area but is unlikely to have caused any damage, except possibly some minor damage near the epicentre."He said tremors were also felt near Broome in WA and near Beacon in WA's wheatbelt."Those were both close to magnitude five," he told ABC radio on Saturday."They occurred in remote areas so they were felt by far fewer people than this (the Melbourne ) one."But it is quite remarkable that we get three of roughly the same size in the one day."Victorian State Emergency Service (SES) spokesman Allen Briggs said the service was inundated with phone calls from the public after the Melbourne tremor but there had been no reports of any damage."It was certainly enough to rattle windows and we've had reports it was felt in metropolitan Melbourne and as far down as Warragul and Leongatha in Gippsland," Mr Briggs said on Friday.Ron Smith, who lives in Kew, in Melbourne's inner northeast, said he was relaxing at home when he felt the building shake."Jeez, it came as a bit of a surprise. We were just sitting around when all of a sudden the place starts vibrating," he said.Residents in Reservoir, in Melbourne's north, and householders in the Dandenong Ranges east of the city, reported feeling the tremor shortly before 9pm."It felt like a large truck driving past the house," Charisse Ede, of Monbulk, said, adding she felt a second, smaller tremor a few minutes later.A spokeswoman for Victoria Police said the incident had also been reported to the police but she advised members of the public to only dial triple-0 in an emergency situation.

comments from people who experienced the quake were:rumbling shook my house, the wooden floors were what made the most noise, squeaking nails and creaking wood; I heard a deep rumbling sound; We live in a two-storey home with a concrete slab in Ringwood North. Upstairs I was laying in bed and felt the tremor. Sliding doors were knocking together, bed shaking, lasting at least a minute. Interestingly enough I came down stairs to see what was going on and those downstairs on the slab felt nothing; as the rumbling reached its peak, everything started to shake back and forth and slightly up and down; we heard a wind-like sound; it felt like a wave passing through the house

HQJOC opens officially

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has officially opened the new Australian Defence Force (ADF) headquarters near Canberra, today.

Up to 750 ADF staff will work at the $300 million centre in Bungendore, NSW.

"This is a great and good day for the Australian defence community," Mr Rudd told the crowd at the opening ceremony on Saturday.

Gamma ray burst from Eta Carina

The US Fermi telescope has detected a massive explosion in space which scientists say is the biggest gamma-ray burst ever detected, a report published on Thursday in Science Express said.The spectacular blast, which occurred in the Carina constellation, produced energy ranging from 3,000 to more than five billion times that of visible light, astrophysicists said."Visible light has an energy range of between two and three electron volts and these were in the millions to billions of electron volts," astrophysicist Frank Reddy of US space agency NASA told AFP."If you think about it in terms of energy, X-rays are more energetic because they penetrate matter. These things don't stop for anything - they just bore through and that's why we can see them from enormous distances," Reddy said.Gamma-ray bursts are the universe's most luminous explosions, which astronomers believe occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel.As a star's core collapses into a black hole, jets of material powered by processes not yet fully understood blast outward.The jets bore through the collapsing star and continue into space, where they interact with gas previously shed by the star, generating bright afterglows that fade with time.Using the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND) on a telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, a team led by Jochen Greiner of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics determined that the huge gamma-ray burst occurred 12.2 billion light years away.The sun, by comparison, is eight light minutes from earth.With the extraordinary distance taken into account, scientists worked out that the blast exceeded the power of nearly 9,000 ordinary supernovae, some of the most energetic explosions known, which occur at the end of a star's life time.The gas jets emitting the initial gamma rays moved at one-ten-thousandth of a percentage point less than the speed of light, the scientists said."This burst's tremendous power and speed make it the most extreme recorded to date," a statement issued by the US Department of Energy said.

Google Earth's find

No, the lost city of Atlantis has not been found.according to Google.Google Earth images showing what appeared to be a grid of streets on the ocean floor off the coast of Africa were actually tracks left by boat sonar.Britain's Daily Telegraph caused the brief flurry of excitement among Atlantis hunters by publishing Google Earth pictures on Friday of an unexplained grid on the seabed 1000km off the northwestern coast of Africa.An Atlantis expert told the paper that the grid was located at one of the possible sites of Atlantis, the legendary city described by Greek philosopher Plato.Google, however, had another explanation."It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth — a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species, a fringing coral reef off the coast of Australia, and the remains of an Ancient Roman villa, to name just a few," Google said in a statement."In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process."Bathymetric (or seafloor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the seafloor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data," Google said. Truth or coverup?

British and French nuclear subs collide oops!

A costly and most embarrassing mistake.

A collision between French and British nuclear submarines was a hugely improbable one-off, but it was no surprise that they did not detect each other, experts said on Monday.For one nuclear-powered, nuclear arms submarine to collide with another one in the middle of an ocean was unprecedented and sheer bad luck, they said.Experts played down the chances of a nuclear disaster, saying the subs were designed to be robust and a collision was unlikely to trigger a nuclear reaction.(lets hope they are correct)Stephen Saunders, the editor of Jane's Fighting Ships and a retired commodore, nonetheless called it a "very serious incident"."As far as I am aware, it is the first time that the submarines of two friendly nations have been involved in such an accident," he said."No doubt there are a number of technical issues to be investigated, but the root of the problem appears to be procedural. These submarines should not have been in the same place at the same time."Even if two submarines do find themselves in the same area, it is still bad luck to have run into each other - ie to be in the same place at the same depth."Lee Willett, head of the maritime studies program at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defence and security think-tank, said the incident was a complete one-off."These are the strategic crown jewels of a nation. The whole purpose of a sea-based nuclear deterrent is to hide somewhere far out of sight and out of mind," he told AFP."Given that there are a very, very small number of SSBNs (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear) in the world, the chances of two SSBNs being in the same bit of water at the same time is unprecedented."The fact that they couldn't hear each other is actually less surprising."Saunders explained: "The modus operandi of most submarines, particularly ballistic missile submarines, is to operate stealthily and to proceed undetected."This means operating passively (ie not transmitting on sonar) and making as little noise as possible."While in parallel much effort has gone into improving the capability of sonars to detect other submarines, detection was clearly made too late or not at all in this case."Willett added: "Submarines don't go around advertising their position by pinging away with their sonar. It's very hard to hear stuff under water because of all the ambient noise."SSBNs listen passively using their sensing equipment but if you're listening for something that's making no noise, you can't hear it."The RUSI expert said despite the close NATO and European Union ties between Britain and France, the two countries would be very reticent to share information on what their nuclear submarines were up to."Despite how close these relations are, they are the ultimate tools of national survival in the event of war. Therefore it's the very last thing you would share with anybody."However, he added: "This may raise the question of agreeing on water space management issues: you go there, we go there. Those agreements may exist already."Both nations have now lost a big part of their SSBN capability for a period of time."Clearly it's not something they would be keen to repeat."

WEEKEND FIREBALLS

A daylight fireball over Texas on Sunday, Feb. 15th, triggered widespread reports that debris from a recent satellite collision was falling to Earth. Those reports were premature. Researchers have studied video of the event and concluded that the object was more likely a natural meteoroid about one meter wide traveling more than 20 km/s--much faster than orbital debris. Meteoroids hit Earth every day, and the Texas fireball was apparently one of them. There's more: On Friday, Feb. 13th, people in central Kentucky heard loud booms, felt their houses shake, and saw a fireball streaking through the sky. This occurred scant hours after another fireball at least 10 times brighter than a full Moon lit up the sky over Italy. Although it is tempting to attribute these events to debris from the Feb. 10th collision of the Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 satellites, the Kentucky and Italy fireballs also seem to be meteoroids, not manmade objects. Italian scientists are studying the ground track of their fireball, which was recorded by multiple cameras, and they will soon begin to hunt for meteorites. (time will tell whether this information or the original "satellite debris" is correct or perhaps a bit of both)

Firestorm

The bushfires that claimed at least 180 lives (currently standing at 189) in Australia were fanned by sudden wind changes, drought-like conditions and native trees which can explode in towering fireballs under extreme heat.Survivors told again and again how they were taken by surprise by the speed of the blaze as it leapt carefully constructed firebreaks and engulfed buildings before people could gather their senses to flee.Many of the victims were found charred in their cars on country roads short distances from their homes, having left their dash too late."I've never seen anything like this. It was like a mushroom cloud, an orange ball of fire above us, and when the southerly winds came up it just took off and roared up the gullies," Rob Langston, a volunteer firefighter for 30 years, told The Australian newspaper Tuesday.The fires affected an area of 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 square miles) -- territory larger than Luxembourg or nearly three times the size of Hong Kong -- and wiped entire towns off the map within about 24 hours on the weekend.They were fanned by a heatwave that sent temperatures soaring to 46 C (115 F) around the southern city of Melbourne, combined with hot northerly winds which switched and changed at critical moments.
Witnesses saw native flora such as eucalypt hardwoods and smaller, fragrant tea-trees explode as the flames ignited their natural oils.Used in everything from shampoos and cold treatments to insect repellents, such oils vaporise in intense heat and hang in the air waiting to ignite when the flames arrive, sending embers flying into the air."In five seconds it went right down the creek and up and over the houses there," 76-year-old Alf Gonnella told The Australian, describing how the clumps of tea-trees "went whoomp" around his property.Victoria's Country Fire Authority warned Tuesday the town of Healesville, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of Melbourne, was still in danger from "heavy ember attack," a phenomenon survivors describe as a storm of hot coals.Victoria Harvey, a resident of Kinglake which was destroyed on Saturday, told reporters of a businessman who lost two of his children as they waited in the car while he dashed inside to collect something from his house."He apparently went to put his kids in the car, put them in, turned around to go grab something from the house, then his car was on fire with his kids in it and they burnt," she said.
Australia's native forests need fire to regenerate and survive; it is part of a cycle that the indigenous Aborigines encouraged and harnessed but which European settlers have never managed to control.

Comet

COMET TAIL: Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) is approaching Earth and putting on a good
show for amateur astronomers. On Feb. 4th, observers witnessed a
"disconnection event." A gust of solar wind tore off part of the comet's tail in
plain view of backyard telescopes. Photos of the event are featured on today's
edition of http://spaceweather.com. Activity in the comet's tail and atmosphere
will become even easier to see in the weeks ahead as Lulin nears closest
approach on Feb. 24th. At that time the comet will lie only 38 million miles
from Earth and it should be visible to the naked eye. In the meantime, please
note that Feb. 5th-7th, is an especially good time to find Comet Lulin in the
pre-dawn sky. The comet is gliding beautifully close to the naked-eye double
star Zubenelgenubi. Just point your binoculars at the double star and the comet
will materialize right beside it.

Asteroid flyby

Newly-discovered asteroid 2009 BD is slowly passing by Earth today only 400,000 miles away. The approximately 10 meter-wide space rock poses no significant threat, but it merits attention anyway: The orbit of 2009 BD appears to be almost identical to the orbit of Earth. 2009 BD may be a rare "co-orbital asteroid," circling the sun in near-tandem with our planet. If current measurements of the asteroid's orbit are correct, 2009 BD will remain in Earth's neighborhood for many months and possibly years to come.

Fire preparation

Fire authorities in Victoria are preparing for the state's first sustained heatwave of the summer.The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and the Country Fire Authority (CFA) said on Monday Victoria was very dry and there was a higher risk of lightning-caused fires later in the week.DSE and CFA say they are ready for this week's heat wave - the first sustained conditions of this type for the season - but those living in bushfire regions should finalise preparations."Most importantly, people need to decide if they are going to stay and defend or leave, if they have not already done so," CFA operation manager Tony Bearzatto said.The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast maximum temperatures of between 29 and 36 degrees celsius for Melbourne until Saturday before a cool change hits.Higher temperatures are expected in the north of the state

2009~International Year of Astronomy

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.
Be prepared to read much information on astronomy and related topics, as this is an interest of mine.

Stargazers around the world are busy being part of the International Year of Astronomy. A staggering 135 nations are collaborating to bring the Universe closer to Earth. Events and activities will take place over the coming 365 days and beyond, in a spectacle of cosmic proportions.IYA2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first astronomical observation through a telescope. It is nothing short of a worldwide celebration, promoting astronomy and its contribution to society and culture, with events at regional, national, and global levels.The International Year of Astronomy has been launched by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) under the theme, "The Universe, yours to discover". Thousands of IYA2009 events are described on the national websites, as well as on astronomy2009.org, and a few of the global projects are listed here. Many nations are showing their dedication to the Year. Don't be surprised to see telescopes on the streets in your local town or city.

One project, 100 Hours of Astronomy is a worldwide event taking place from 2-5 April 2009, with a wide range of public outreach activities including live webcasts, observing events and more. One of the key goals of 100 Hours of Astronomy is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope, just as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago.The World at Night is an IYA2009 Special Project that is producing and bringing to the public a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world's landmarks with the sky in the background. The World at Night is preparing more than 30 exhibitions and educational events around the world.One of IYA2009's aims is to raise awareness of light pollution, and how the beauty of the night sky is progressively being drowned out, particularly over urban areas. The project Dark Skies Awareness is tackling these issues head-on in a practical, inclusive manner. One way in which it is doing this is by holding star-counting events, where the public are encouraged to see how many stars in a particular area of the sky are actually visible from their location. When compared with data from truly dark sites, the results are often very surprising! The "How Many Stars" event will run from January 2009.A list of event highlights is available on the official IYA2009 website, www.astronomy2009.org/highlights.

During 2009, the sky will provide some exciting events, including the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, occurring on 22 July 2009 and lasting 6 minutes 39 seconds over a narrow corridor through countries including India, Bangladesh and China. A strong shower of Leonid meteors is also expected in mid-November 2009, with forecasters predicting upwards of an incredible 500 shooting stars per hour. Jupiter will show the public its moons. These are an impressive sight through even a small amateur telescope.IYA2009 seeks to involve the public at large in its activities. 135 countries have committed themselves to the Year, all pulling together toward the common aim of making astronomy accessible to the public. IYA2009 will reinforce the links between science education and science careers, stimulating a long-term increase in student enrolment in the fields of science and technology and an appreciation for lifelong learning."With such a range of activities planned, now is the ideal time to learn more about the cosmos and our place within it. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 promises to make the Universe yours to discover, beginning on 1 January 2009.

A special welcome video for IYA2009 is available. For download from www.astronomy2009.org. Hosted by Catherine Cesarsky, President of the International Astronomical Union, it is approximately five minutes in length and available in English, French and Spanish.

The times we live in

What did our ancestors tell us about these Times?. Some of the prophecies that the Mayan elders have been recently allowed to reveal and predictions have already taken place while others lie just ahead. When we investigage recent scientific findings more closely, we find startling resemblances to what the Elders from around the world have foretold in documents, petroglyphs, hieroglyphs, scrolls, storytelling, mythology, and rituals. The Maya tell us of the end of one world, and the beginning of another. The Hopi tell us the end of the 4th World and the beginning of a 5th. The Bible tells us the Heavens will open, and one day there will be 'Heaven on Earth'. Stone monuments like the Egyptian pyramids, Newgrange, Stonehenge, Chaco Canyon reveal cultures that built elaborate structures to facilitate the passing into another dimension or existence.

Solar Cycle 24 has begun - and it has been predicted by NASA, NOAA and ESA to be up to 50% stronger than its 'record breaking' predecessor Cycle 23 which produced the largest solar flare ever recorded. The Sun will reach its 'apex' (maximum) in late 2011 into 2012.

Scientific research along with ancient text documents suggests the Mayan Calendar ending on December 21st 2012 may very well be connected to solar activity. Mitch Battros' research shows that charged particles emitted by the Sun in the way of solar flares, CME's and coronal holes are the cause of extreme earth changes such as earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. His research also indicates the very same magnetic flux which effects the Earth, will also affect humans. The magnetic field which surrounds the Earth is similar to the magnetic field which surrounds every living thing."I believe it will be the magnetic influence produced by the Sun which will usher in what is described by our ancient ancestors as "the transition" bringing us to a new state-of-being". (Mitch Battros)

Where to live in Oz

Worried about climate change? Move to Darwin.New research shows the top half of Australia will be little affected by climate change, while from Brisbane south the effects will get stronger and stronger.Dr Tim Barrows, from the Australian National University, has prepared a hit-list of the cities which will be most affected as the climate warms up.Canberra tops the list because it doesn't have the ocean to moderate temperatures.Next come Melbourne , Hobart, Adelaide and Perth.Sydney and Brisbane will fare a little better, although their climates will still change significantly.And the north will escape the worst of climate change, although it will get wetter.Dr Burrows predicted people - and farmers - would move northwards as the climate changed in the south. But he cautioned against an immediate move to Darwin."It'll still be hot," he said.Dr Burrows' findings are presented in an article in the journal Nature Geoscience, issued on Monday.As a palaeoclimatologist he studies how the climate has changed over tens of thousands of years. He bases his conclusions on how Australia's climate changed during the last ice age, which he measured by studying plankton fossils and sediment from the sea floor.He found tropical areas like Australia's north were less affected by climate change because they had plenty of clouds, which acted as a buffer by keeping out the sun."The tropical areas tend to be remarkably insensitive to climate change."Dr Burrows draws a distinction between naturally-occurring climate change and human-induced change.Climates do change over time - there were glaciers and icebergs around Australia during the last ice age 10,000 years ago. Temperatures rose by as much as ten degrees when the ice age ended, Dr Burrows said, and that was not caused by humans.Recent debate has focussed on whether humans are now causing the world to warm by releasing lots of carbon dioxide.Dr Burrows said this was not his area of expertise, but there was more research to be done on how much of the recent warming was caused by humans."I'm not a climate change denier but we need to be cautious about what does change our climate," he said.Dr Burrows said the climate should be cooling as the world headed for another ice age in 20,000 years time. So if temperatures were rising, that was alarming."If we put enough CO2 in the atmosphere we'll prevent an ice age happening."

Drinking heavy atoms and youthfulness

In a back room of New Scientist's offices in London, I sit down at a table with the Russian biochemist Mikhail Shchepinov. In front of us are two teaspoons and a brown glass bottle. Shchepinov opens the bottle, pours out a teaspoon of clear liquid and drinks it down. He smiles. It's my turn.I put a spoonful of the liquid in my mouth and swallow. It tastes slightly sweet, which is a surprise. I was expecting it to be exactly like water since that, in fact, is what it is - heavy water to be precise, chemical formula D₂O. The D stands for deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with an atomic mass of 2 instead of 1. Deuterium is what puts the heavy in heavy water. An ice cube made out of it would sink in normal water.My sip of heavy water is the culmination of a long journey trying to get to the bottom of a remarkable claim that Shchepinov first made around 18 months ago. He believes he has discovered an elixir of youth, a way to drink (or more likely eat) your way to a longer life.Many anti-aging medications are based on supplementing your body's own defenses with antioxidant compounds such as vitamin C and beta-carotene, though there is scant evidence that this does any good.Shchepinov realized there was another way to defeat free radicals. While he was familiarizing himself with research on aging, his day job involved a well-established - if slightly obscure - bit of chemistry called the isotope effect. On Christmas day 2006, it dawned on him that putting the two together could lead to a new way of postponing the ravages of time.The basic concept of the isotope effect is that the presence of heavy isotopes in a molecule can slow down its chemical reactions.All of this is conventional chemistry: the isotope effect was discovered back in the 1930s and its mechanism explained in the 1940s. The effect has a long pedigree as a research tool in basic chemistry for probing the mechanisms of complex reactions.Shchepinov, however, is the first researcher to link the effect with aging. It dawned on him that if aging is caused by free radicals trashing covalent bonds, and if those same bonds can be strengthened using the isotope effect, why not use it to make vulnerable biomolecules more resistant to attack? All you would have to do is judiciously place deuterium or carbon-13 in the bonds that are most vulnerable to attack, and chemistry should take care of the rest.

Source:New Scientist November 27, 2008

damaged wind turbine

LONDON (Reuters) - Green energy company Ecotricity is investigating what mangled a wind turbine in England over the weekend, a spokeswoman for the company said.Press cited locals reporting a bright light at the time of the incident, in which one of the blades snapped off, and speculation that unidentified flying objects may have been responsible.
After inspecting the site, however, the Health and Safety Executive said on Thursday that the turbine at the Fen Farm wind farm in Lincolnshire had not been hit by an object. "It wasn't a collision," an HSE spokesman said, adding that investigations were continuing.The farm's operator, Ecotricity, was ruling nothing out."We are carrying out investigations at the site and until those have been concluded we don't want to speculate what the cause is but we can't rule anything out," the Ecotricity spokeswoman said."It happened early Sunday morning or late Saturday night," she said. "It's a completely unique incident ... it's just this single turbine."A spokesman for the manufacturer of the turbine, Germany's Enercon, said investigations were continuing.
The blades on Enercon's E-48 wind turbine are each more than 20 metres (65 ft) long, made of fibreglass and designed to withstand lightening strikes.Enercon is one of the world's largest wind turbine manufacturers with a 14 percent global market share in 2007.
"It's a good machine," said Jefferies analyst Michael McNamara of the Enercon product.
"All turbine manufacturers suffer breaks. It's what causes the break that's the issue," he said.Indian turbine maker Suzlon Energy had to recall blades in the United States when some cracked and broke, McNamara said.(Reporting by Daniel Fineren and Gerard Wynn

RUSSIA-UKRAINE 'COLD WAR' GRIPS EUROPE

KIEV - Schools closed, heating shut down and nearly a dozen European nations reported a cutoff of natural-gas supplies in one of the coldest winters in recent memory. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other in a dispute as bitter as the temperature with a cold front blanketing Europe. Thermometers fell to minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit in some capitals. "We can´t transit anything if there is nothing to transit," said Ihor Didenko, assistant chairman of Ukraine's Naftogaz, which operates pipelines that deliver 80 percent of Russia's natural gas to the rest of Europe. On a day when Orthodox Christians celebrated Christmas, Romania declared a state of emergency. Thousands of households in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, went without heat and Bulgaria turned off heating on buses and trains in Sofia. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the state-owned energy giant Gazprom to cut all deliveries to Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials said the pipelines ran dry shortly after 7 a.m.Mr. Putin said gas would be turned on if international observers were in place to prevent Ukraine from stealing gas destined for the rest of Europe.
Russia supplies about 40 percent of Europe's natural gas. The U.S. sided with Ukraine. "Cutting off these supplies during winter to a vulnerable population is just something that is unacceptable to us," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley warned Russia that using gas for leverage over its neighbors could backfire. "A Russia that continues to threaten its neighbors and manipulate their access to energy will compromise any aspirations for greater global influence," he said. Supply disruptions were reported as far west as France. European leaders called on Moscow and Kiev to resolve the conflict, while energy ministers planned to meet in Brussels on Thursday. "Russia will resume its deliveries when the observer groups are in place," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told reporters in Prague. The Czech Republic holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko called on Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to end the energy embargo, which began Jan. 1 over a commercial dispute between the two nations over the price of gas.
In a letter to the Kremlin, Mr. Yushchenko said Russia must "immediately renew the operative daily transit [of gas] to European countries." He also said he was "deeply concerned" by the worsening conflict between the two nations. "Without prior warning to the Ukrainian side, the Russian side closed the last crossing of Russian gas to Ukraine ... and in that way stopped the export of Russian gas to Europe," Oleh Dubina, head of Naftogaz, told reporters. Alexei Miller, head of Russia´s Gazprom, said the move was necessary because, he said, Ukraine was siphoning gas meant for European customers. "Unfortunately, there has been an open stealing of gas," he told journalists during a news conference in Brussels. "Russia has become a prisoner of Ukraine´s blame game." This is not the first time Kiev and Moscow have been at loggerheads over gas prices. Russia cut supplies to Ukraine in January 2006, causing similar supply disruptions throughout much of Europe. But that suspension only lasted a day, and since then both countries have tried to present themselves as reliable partners to the West - Russia as a gas supplier and Ukraine as a transporter. The current crisis has gone further than both sides anticipated. Neither has been able to agree on the price Kiev should pay Moscow for gas, or what Russia should pay Ukraine in transit fees. Natalia A. Feduschak in Kiev, The Washington Times, Thu, Jan 8, 2009

LINK: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/08/russia-ukraine-cold-war-grips-europe/

Gulf conditions ripe for cyclone says WB

The prospect of a cyclone developing over the next few days has firmed as flooding increases across parts of western and northern Queensland.The weather bureau says a strong monsoon low is expected to form in the northern Gulf of Carpentaria today and will intensify over the coming days, bringing more rain to the region.Meteorologist Peter Otto says a cyclone could develop over the next few days."There is a low pressure system over land at the moment, but the monsoon flow to its north into the northern Gulf is looking like increasing during Friday and even further on Saturday," he said.Higher than normal tides and coastal flooding are expected along western Cape York."We are looking at heights that people may have experienced in several strong monsoons over the last few years," Mr Otto said."It is definitely just the western Cape at the moment - so between Torres Strait and Pormpuraam."The possibility that that low on the southern Gulf coast may linger into the Gulf of Carpentaria waters over the weekend and could develop into a cyclone is a possibility."

The State Government has activated a disaster coordination centre to manage relief assistance to 12 disaster declared areas in the state's north-west.The damage bill has risen to more than $21 million.The State Government has sent a helicopter from Townsville to Mount Isa to help deliver emergency supplies.It is also on standby to carry out any evacuations.Transport to the region remains limited after a maintenance train derailed near Cloncurry yesterday, while many roads remain cut by floodwaters.A number of rivers have broken their banks and rain continues today.The flooding rains in Queensland's central west could be worth millions of dollars to the state's agricultural industry.Winton Mayor Ed Warren says the region was facing extremely dry conditions as little as two weeks ago, with cattle having to be moved out of the shire."To have the shire sort of extinguished of the ravages of drought is something that we always look forward to and it appears, at this stage, that we've got a good season in front of us," he said.

P&G tidal wave

Thousands of people living in coastal areas and in floating houses in Manokwari, West Papua province, fled to hills or other elevated places as a tidal wave hit the area at 12 am local time on Monday January 5 2009.The tidal wave which reached heights of up to five meters swept through the coastal villages of Borasi, Pasar Borobudur, Wirsi, Sanggeng, Wosi, Rendani, Kampung Ambon, Pasir Putih and also reached the city center.Earlier in the day, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale shook the Manokwari and Sorong areas but the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) said the temblor did not have the potential of triggering a tsunami.The earthquake caused cracks in the walls of a number of urban buildings, including Hadi Mall, Bank Mandiri, Bank Papua and Sanggeng Department Store. But there were no immediate reports of casualties. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at 1.17 degrees southern latitude and 131.94 degrees eastern longitude at a depth of 50 km below sea level, 78 km southeast of Sorong, 199 km southwest of Manokwari and 144 km northwest of Kaimana, West Papua province.Water from the tidal wave also reached streets at the Manokwari city center causing thousands of people to rush out of buildings to find safer places. They took refuge in the hills of Reremi, Wosi, Rendani, Gunung Meja, Manggopai and at the University of Papua (Unipa) campus which is located in an area about 500 meters above sea level.)

http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng