Water Geysers on Europa Moon

SAN FRANCISCO — The apparent discovery of water geysers on Jupiter's moon Europa makes the icy body an even more attractive target for a life-hunting mission, researchers say.

Scientists announced Thursday (Dec. 12) that they had detected transient plumes of water vaporerupting from Europa's south poleand extending about 125 miles (200 kilometers) into space. The ice-covered moon is thought to contain a subsurface ocean of liquid water, and the geysers represent a way to sample this potentially life-supporting environment, NASA officials said.

"Indeed, the plumes are incredibly exciting, if they are there," Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said here Thursday at the at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. "They're bringing up material from within the ocean; perhaps there's organic material that will be laying on the surface of the south pole." 

An artist's illustration of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, with a water geyser erupting in the foreground while Jupiter appears as a backdrop. Images from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest Europa may have water plumes like Saturn's moon Enceladus.

The new find, made using observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, could build some momentum for a mission concept the space agency is developing called the Europa Clipper.

The Europa Clipper probewould orbit Jupiter but make multiple flybys of the 1,900-mile-wide (3,000 kilometers) moon, using a number of different science instruments to study Europa's ice shell and subsurface ocean. The strategy would be similar to that employed by NASA's Cassini mission, which has made flybys of many Saturn moons since entering into orbit around the ringed planet in 2004.

"What we have been doing is studying several approaches to really understand Europa from a spacecraft in that environment, and it looks like the Clipper concept is our best one," Green said.

"Based on these [new] observations, we're going to redouble our efforts to take a good look at Clipper — its orbital trajectories, the plans for the mission architecture — to ensure that we have the right instrumentation and that we can cover this area very well and really, really understand it," he added.

Artist's concept of the Europa Clipper mission investigating Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

The Clipper could conceivably fly directly through Europa's plumes, taking samples as it goes, researchers said.

The Europa Clipper is not formally on NASA's books; it remains a concept at the moment, and some rethinking may be required to make the mission a reality. For example, its price tag — estimated last year to be $2 billion — is too high to be approved in these tough fiscal times, Green said.

The Clipper mission "is what we would call a flagship, and right now the budget horizon is such that we're deferring that kind of mission until later in the decade," he said.

The European Space Agency, meanwhile, has its own plans to study Europa. ESA plans to launch a mission called the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, or JUICE, in 2022, with arrival in the Jovian system slated for 2030.

JUICE will focus on three of Jupiter's moons: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. However, the spacecraft will likely make just two flybys of Europa over the course of its mission, researchers said.

Crab Nebula

Humans who keep pretending there is no other life out there in the Universe, should consider the vast space this occupies all on it's own.

Across the Universe, every ending is a new beginning. When a massive star dies, exploding as a spectacular supernova, huge amounts of matter and energy are ejected into surrounding space, and the remnant of the explosion itself remains a hub of fierce activity for thousands of years.

One of the most iconic supernova remnants is the Crab Nebula. A wispy and filamentary cloud of gas and dust, it originated with a supernova explosion that was seen by Chinese astronomers in the year 1054. A spinning neutron star – or pulsar – remains at its centre, releasing streams of highly energetic particles into the nebula.

This composite image combines a new infrared view of the Crab Nebula, obtained with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, with an optical image from the archives of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Herschel’s observations are shown in red and reveal the glow from cosmic dust present in the nebula. Hubble’s view, in blue, traces oxygen and sulphur gas in the nebula.

A team of astronomers studying the nebula with Herschel has revealed that this supernova remnant contains much more dust than they had expected – about a quarter of the mass of the Sun.

The new observations also revealed the presence of molecules containing argon, the first time a noble gas-based molecule has been found in space.

Argon is produced in the nuclear reactions that take place during supernova explosions, and astronomers had already detected this element in the Crab Nebula. However, it is surprising that argon bonded with other elements, forming molecules that survived in the hostile environment of a supernova remnant, with hot gas still expanding at high speeds after the explosion.

Mysterious Giant Stone Boxes found near Pyramids 70 Tons each and Ancient

UFO's spotted over Denver during game

This video has been sped up, but even at normal speed it is interesting.
Witnesses claim that these lights did not behave like planes or helicopters.
Quite a few sightings turn out to be lanterns with led lights or candles in them,
but these seem to be moving too fast for that, the only way that could happen is in
high wind, there does seem to be wind blowing if you look at the flag on top
of the building, but you would have to match the direction and speed of the wind
blowing the flag with the moving lights, does not seem to match, which makes this
a very interesting bit of footage.

Buzz Aldren punches a non-believer

While I understand how some might think the Moon landing is a hoax, I myself lived in Houston and visited NASA many times and it was what inspired me to study the UFO subject in the first place, so I happen to be a fan of NASA and the Moon landing did happen as far as I am concerned.
Also, after seeing this, Buzz Aldren is my hero. :)

Was there intelligent life here 300 Million years ago?

Most scientist today agree with the theory of evolution and that there are a few holes in the theory like "the missing link" and an exact date or ever estimated date as to when man first appeared on the Earth. To make things even more complicated, here are a few examples of things found on our planet that cannot be expalined and completely debunk all current ideas as to when we actually got here or evolved here. Disclaimer: We cannot confirm or deny any of these stories.

 A statement by Ed Conrad: "Physical evidence currently exists that proves man inhabited the earth while coal was being formed, shaking the very foundations of who we really are and how we really got here. An assortment of human bones and soft organs, transformed to rock-like hardness, has been discovered between anthracite veins in Pennsylvania. Since one of the golden rules of geology is that coal was formed during the Carboniferous -- a minimum of 280 million years ago -- it means that man has existed multi-millions of years before the ... insectivore from whom the evolutionists claim we eventually evolved. However, the scientific establishment has wielded its powerful disdainful influence -- deceit, dishonesty, collusion and conspiracy -- to prevent evidence of the most important discovery of the 20th century to be documented as fact and, therefore, keep us from learning a monumental truth about ourselves.

 Example #1 S.W. Culp found a gold chain in a piece of coal, but the coal was raw and the age of it has to be millions of years old. Here is the original story from the 1800's: A curious find was brought to light by Mrs. S. W. Culp last Tuesday morning. As she was breaking a lump of coal preparatory to putting it in the scuttle, she discovered, as the lump fell apart, embedded in a circular shape, a small gold chain about ten inches in length of antique and quaint workmanship. At first Mrs. Culp thought the chain had been dropped accidentally in the coal, but as she undertook to lift the chain up, the idea of its having been recently dropped was at once fallacious, for as the lump of coal broke...the middle of the chain became loosened while each end remained fastened to the coal. This is a study for the students of archaeology who love to puzzle their brains over the geological construction of the earth from whose ancient depth the curious is always dropping out. The lump of coal from which this chain was taken is supposed to come from the Taylorville or Pana mines (in southern Illinois) and almost hushes one's breath with mystery when it is thought for how many long ages the earth has been forming strata after strata which hid the golden links from view. The chain was an eight-carat gold and weighed eight penny-weights.

 Example #2 Epoch Times told of a Colorado rancher who in the 1800s broke open a lump of coal, dug from a vein some 300 feet in the earth, and found a "strange-looking iron thimble." The item was dubbed the "Thimble of Eve" by the media. Since its discovery, however, and due to mishandling by its owners, the iron corroded and disintegrated.

 Example #3 In 1944, when he was a boy of 10, Newton Anderson dropped a lump of coal in the basement of his home in Upshur County West Virginia. The coal, which had been mined near his home, broke open and out fell a brass bell with a long artistic handle with what is described as a "demon-like" figure at the end. An iron clapper was still attached within the bell. The bell has been featured in a 1992 CBS documentary titled "Ancient Secrets of the Bible." The bell now belongs to a Genesis Park collection, which we believe may be in New Hampshire.

 Example #4 In 1912 an electric company employee in Arkansas broke open a large lump of coal, revealing a man-made iron pot. The original coal bed was reportedly mid Pennsylvanian age--about 300 million years old by conventional geology.

 Example #5 A large ceramic spoon or ladle was found in the ashes of a coal stove by a woman in Pannsylvania in 1937. The item was sent to The Smithsonian Institute for examination, and remained buried in the volumes of artifacts stored there until its existence was made public in 1976.

 Example #6 1851 In the June 1851 issue of Scientific American, a report was reprinted from the Boston Transcript about a metallic vase dynamited out of solid rock in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The bell-shaped vase was 4 1/2 inches high, 6 1/2 inches at the base, 2 1/2 inches at the top and an eighth of an inch thick. The metal of the vase was composed of an alloy of zinc and a considerable portion of silver. On the sides were six figures of a flower in bouquet arrangements, inlaid with pure silver, and around the lower part a vine, or wreath, also inlaid with silver. The chasing, carving, and inlaying are exquisitely done by the art of some unknown craftsman. This vase was blown out of solid pudding stone from 15 feet below the surface.

 Example #7 The London Times in 1851 reported that Hiram DeWitt, of Springfield, Mass, brought a piece of quartz home from a trip to California. When the stone was accidentally dropped it split open and inside was a cut-iron six-penny nail. The nail was described as perfectly straight and with its head still intact.

 Example #8 1852 Scientific American, June 1852. During blasting work at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1851, the broken halves of a bell - shaped vessel were thrown by the force of an explosion from the vessel's resting place within a bed of formerly solid rock. The vase, about 4 1/2 inches high, was made of an unknown metal and embellished with floral inlays of silver - the art of some cunning craftsman.

Example #9 1867 It is reported that James Parsons, and his two sons, exhumed a slate wall in a coal mine at Hammondville, Ohio, in 1868. It was a large smooth wall, disclosed when a great mass of coal fell away from it, and on its surface, carved in bold relief, were several lines of hieroglyphics. 

Example #10 A man in Russia has discovered a piece of coal in the Chernogorodskiy mines that contains what appears to be the remains of a machine that is 300 million years old. Could it be an ancient space ship or evidence of an intelligent species that once shared the planet with Dimetrodon? According to The Voice of Russia, the coal was formed 300 million years ago, which is why scientists believe the item inside dates back to that era.

 Example #11 In 1930 geologists discovered a total of twelve 9 1/2-inch human tracks and portions of others, and confirmed that they had indeed been impressed upon gray Pottsville sandstone dating from the Upper Pennsylvanian period dating them at over 300 million years old. One track had a distance from heel to heel of 18 inches, a giant by anyones estimations.

 Example #12 1885 A well driller discovered a little clay doll that had come from below a 15-foot layer of lava rock, 100 feet of sand, 6 inches of clay, 40 feet of more sand, then 165 feet composed of clay, sand, clay nodules mixed with sand, and coarse sand layers for a total of 320 feet. The small "doll" is composed of half clay and half quartz, and though badly battered by time, the doll's appearance is still distinct. It had a bulbous head, with barely discernible mouth and eyes; broad shoulders; short, thick arms, and long legs, the right leg broken off. There are also faint geometric markings on the figure, which represent either clothing patterns or jewelry.

 Example #13 1891 Near Cleveland, Tennessee a length of wall was discovered which was traced for a thousand feet, on the average 2 feet thick and 8 feet high, with numerous projections spaced along the top every 25 to 30 feet. The wall ran roughly at an angle of 15 to 20 degrees east. The structure continues on beyond the section exposed, in both directions, following the crest of a ridge that extends from the Hiawassee River north of Chattanooga southward, where it dips beneath the Tennessee river. Its position dates it geologically to near the beginning of the Quaternary Period, well over a million years old. The wall is composed of red sandstone blocks constructed in three courses, cemented together with dark red clay mixed with salt, and in numerous places is plastered over with red, slate and yellow clays. Along one stretch of wall, near the northern end a distance of 16 feet, a number of the sandstone block surfaces were covered with the hieroglyphs of a lost language. The letters were arranged in wavy, parallel and diagonal lines, interspersed with small pictures of strange animals, many unidentifiable. There were other symbols, of the sun and crescent moon, which appear to have some astronomical significance. All together, 872 individual characters were discovered.

 Example #14 1896 From the American Anthropologist, 1896 comes the finding of a perfect human imprint in stone near Parkersburg, on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River. The track was 14 1/2 inches long, and was found embedded in stone dated at 150 million years old. There have been numerous pieces of human remains found in coal. This is significant, since coal formed during the Carboniferous period- 280 to 345 million years ago. If so, man must be older than the 1 million year old date given by scientists. Here are a few items: A fossilized human skull was found in coal that was sold in Germany (mid-1800s). A jawbone of a child was found in coal in Tuscany (1958). Two giant human molars were found in Montana (1926). A human leg was found by a West Virginia coal miner. It had changed into coal. A fossilized human skeleton excavated from a mine in Italy in 1959 was surrounded by strata whose age was calculated in millions of years.

 Images: An assortment of human bones and soft organs, transformed to rock-like hardness, has been discovered between anthracite veins in the Carboniferous-dated coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania.

Fingers

Human Bone

So many feel that if enough time has past, an ancient civilization or civilizations

 might have been covered up

by millions of years of weather and the changes in our planets surface.

There are also those who suggest that our planet has been experiencing

other worldly visitors for some time now, and that might explain some of

these strange findings.

Without more evidence, one can only imagine.....

History Channel Caught on Tape delves into the subject of UFO's

TALK of aliens and UFOs might attract pitiful stares. Such is the stigma sometimes. But with so much discussion about it, including ufologists conducting on-going research with famous “alien abductee” and the USA’s Travis Walton talking about his experience, it’s no longer a subject that can be brushed under the rug, so to speak.

Interestingly, UK-based Happy Mondays and Black Grape lead singer Shaun Ryder, who also attracted a fair amount of attention as the runner-up in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, has always been fascinated with extraterrestrial subject matter.

As such, he couldn’t pass up the chance to explore that interest in the History Channel’s four-part series: Caught on Tape, Seeing is Believing, Worship and Abduction and Sightings and Strange Cases.

He adds, “After doing I’m a Celebrity… I got offered a host of different TV shows, mainly reality stuff. I loved I’m a Celebrity but I wasn’t keen to do more of it. I decided that I’d really like to do a documentary and that’s when we hit upon my love of UFOs, aliens and all things like that. So that’s where the idea was born.”

Further explaining what initially sparked his passion, Ryder offers, “Well, this is an interesting one because it came when I was a 15-year-old boy.

“I had just started work as a messenger boy at the post office and I was going to work early one morning to get the bus at 8am to Manchester and it was still dark out. I was walking to the bus stop and I saw this thing zooming about in the sky. It was doing things that weren’t really aerodynamically possible or what the laws of physics allowed – just impossible stuff! The only way to describe it was like something zip-zapping around in the sky.”

In the series, Ryder travels rather extensively from the mountains of Chile to the Atacama Desert to the forests and back gardens of the UK. His inquisitiveness leads to him gauging the expert opinions of Chile’s official government UFO investigation agency, ufologists Antonio Huneeus and Nick Pope, as well as famous abductee Walton.

During the shoot, he shares that he was blown away by Walton’s experience.

“When we were filming, we looked at footage of these things that came out of an invisible craft that looked like starships or Star Wars troopers on pogo sticks. That was great and really had the wow factor. But the big thing that got me was meeting Travis Walton because I’d seen the movie based on Travis’s life. The thing that made the experience for me was meeting Travis, talking to him, hearing his story and hanging around with him.”

Ryder continues, “I believe Travis was abducted, absolutely. But you see other people who have claimed that they’ve been abducted and it looks just like they are coming back from a day walking around the Trafford shopping centre, all jolly! Travis looked like he had post-traumatic stress or had just walked out of a Vietnam battlefield. He looked grey and it really affected him; you could see that from his interviews.”

While Ryder, whose ears bear an uncanny resemblance to those of Spock from Star Trek, hopes to debunk what is an alien subject, let’s hope it doesn’t elicit more questions than explanations.

Fireball over Texas

While many say these are meteorites, others feel it is something else. No one will say with 100% certainty what this is. Logic says it is a meteor, but then again who knows for certain?


Also on this webpage

Still think there is no other life in outer space?

When someone tells you it's nonsense to think there might be other life or alien life out there in space, show them this:

The Shapley SuperCluster was discovered back in the 1930's.
Boasting more than 8000 galaxies and with a total mass more than ten million billion times the mass of the Sun, it is the most massive structure within a distance of about a billion light-years from our Milky Way Galaxy. But of course, there is no way any "life" can exist there....right?

GOCE end of mission

After nearly tripling its planned lifetime, the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer – GOCE – has completed its mission and will soon reenter our atmosphere.

UFO Researchers and Travis Walton

Well known UFO abducte Travis Walton has passed 16 lie detector tests over the years. He was a logger and had no training in passing such tests. This is a well put together video with some interesting suggestions. Rather than making fun of the subject, we invite you to have an open mind and treat the UFO subject as research in the same way NASA and the European Space Agency are researching Mars and other planets looking for signs of life or past life.

Earth’s protective shield is weakening.

16 October 2013

With launch just a month away, ESA’s Swarm constellation has been fuelled. Engineers will soon be focusing on the careful task of attaching the three identical satellites to the upper stage of the rocket for simultaneous release into orbit around Earth.

The Swarm satellites and all the equipment needed to prepare them for liftoff arrived at the Plesetsk launch complex in Russia just over three weeks ago. The cargo plane made three round trips to transport the whole shipment amounting to about 60 tonnes from Munich, Germany.

Since their safe arrival, the three satellites have been unpacked, have undergone various tests to make sure their components work as they should, and have been fuelled with Freon 14 and tested for leaks.

The valves in the propulsion system have also been tested – which, interestingly, included listening to them with a stethoscope.

All this has not only been a technical undertaking, but also a logistical challenge because the three satellites have had to be moved one by one in and out of the fuelling hall.

The completion of fuelling marks a significant milestone in the campaign to prepare the Swarm mission for launch on 14 November at 12:02 GMT (13:02 CET).

Now that the task of fuelling has finished, the focus will turn to fixing multilayer insulation to the satellites and carrying out a set of mechanical tests.

The satellites will then be attached to the ‘Breeze’ upper stage of the Rockot launcher. Breeze and the fairing arrived from Moscow a few days ago and are being cleaned in preparation.

Swarm is ESA’s first constellation of satellites for Earth observation.

The design of the satellites is not only a result of the instrument package they carry, but also because they have to be compact enough to all fit into the launcher fairing. 

A tailor-made dispenser will ensure that the three separate simultaneously from the upper stage.

Next in ESA’s series of Earth Explorers, Swarm follows GOCE, SMOS and CryoSat.

Each satellite in this ongoing series is developed to fill gaps in our knowledge of how the planet functions and demonstrate new technologies for observing Earth from space.

Swarm is dedicated to delivering information to help us understand Earth’s magnetic field.

Equipped with magnetic sensors and flying in carefully selected orbits, the three Swarm satellites will identify and measure, very precisely, the different magnetic signals that stem from Earth’s core, mantle, crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere – which together form our magnetic field.

Although invisible, the magnetic field and electric currents in and around Earth generate complex forces that have immeasurable impact on everyday life.

The field can be thought of as a huge bubble, protecting us from cosmic radiation and charged particles that bombard Earth in solar wind.

Swarm will provide a window into different natural processes, from those occurring deep inside the planet driving Earth’s ‘dynamo’ to weather in space resulting from solar activity. This, in turn, will yield a deeper understanding of why Earth’s protective shield is weakening.

Comet-Chasing Rosetta Spacecraft To Awaken From Deep-Space Hibernation (VIDEO)

Europe's comet-chasing space probe Rosetta has been hibernating for more than two years, but in January, the spacecraft will be jolted awake to prepare for the climax of its mission.

Rosetta launched in March 2004 and has been racing after the distant comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ever since. To reach the comet, the spacecraft has performed an intricate series of gravitational slingshots around Earth and Mars, which this video animation of the Rosetta flight shows

In August 2014, Rosetta will finally catch up to its comet target as it sails just inside the orbit of Jupiter, about 373 million miles (600 million km) from the sun.. [Best Close Encounters of the Comet Kind]

Scientists hope the comet images and data collected by the $1.4 billion Rosetta probe will help them piece together the early history of our solar system since comets are among the most primitive objects in our cosmic neighborhood. By searching for organic molecules on the comet's surface, Rosetta also could help scientists examine the possibility that space rocks planted the seeds of life on Earth, researchers said.

The 6,600-pound (3,000 kg) spacecraft was put in a deep sleep in July 2011 for the final and longest leg of its journey. During its hibernation, Rosetta was tilted so that its solar wings faced the sun to receive as much sunlight as possible, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

Now mission officials are counting down to the spacecraft's wakeup call, scheduled for 1000 GMT, Jan. 20, 2014.

"We are very excited to have this important milestone in sight, but we will be anxious to assess the health of the spacecraft after Rosetta has spent nearly 10 years in space," Fred Jansen, ESA's Rosetta mission manager, said in a statement.

Once awake, the probe will still have another 5.5 million mles (9 million km) to travel before it reaches itscomet destination, according to ESA. Mission managers will use that time to activate Rosetta's instruments and perform a series of health checks.

In late May, at less than 1.2 million miles (2 million km) from its target, Rosetta is due to execute a major maneuver to prepare for its rendezvous with 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. From that relatively short distance, the probe will also start snapping more detailed images of the comet to glean better information on its topography, rotation speed and orientation.

An artist's illustration of the European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft. Rosetta will explore Comet 67-P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko when it arrives at the object in August 2014.

Then, in August, Rosetta will arrive at the comet. Then in November 2014, it will deploy a lander named Philae to take an up-close look at the icy body, which measures about 2.4 miles (4 kilometers) across.

In its decade in space, Rosetta has already provided scientists with an up-close view of asteroids. It flew by a space rock named Steins in September 2008 and snapped close-up photos of the asteroid Lutetia in during a July 2010 flyby.

3D Printing in outer space

A metal 3D-printing revolution is entering space. AMAZE is a recently announced project that aims to perfect the printing of space-quality metal components on Earth and beyond within five years.
3D printing builds a solid object from a series of layers, each one printed on top of the last. This ‘additive manufacturing’ technique produces very complex structures with minimal waste and maximum flexibility.
Never before have titanium structures been so flexible. Leaving traditional casting techniques aside, the AMAZE team printed its logo in titanium as an intricate net shaped to millimetre precision. The project is working with materials that can withstand temperatures up to 3500°C.
Pieces like the example in this photo were shown in the London Science Museum, UK, on 15 October, where international experts presented the world’s largest metal 3D-printing project, lead by ESA and the EU.
AMAZE – Additive Manufacturing Aiming Towards Zero Waste & Efficient Production of High-Tech Metal Products – involves 28 industrial partners across Europe.
Most of the work to tune this novel technology for industrial applications on Earth is being done on the ground in laboratories. ‘Factories of the future’ are being set up in Germany, Italy, Norway and the UK. Little-to-no material is wasted and cutting the number of steps in the manufacturing chain offers enormous cost benefits.
Before taking a 3D printer to the International Space Station, ESA will test the technology on parabolic aircraft flights and suborbital rockets to see how weightlessness affects the behaviour of the liquid metals.

UFO video

Interesting UFO video, impressive shots. Some originated with NASA.

UFO's Hover over Burning Ship

Interesting video. Speculation as to what these are ranges from flares to military aircraft.

Energy Storage

DLR energy, transport and materials research on German Aerospace Day

We all want energy to be available when we need it. During German Aerospace Day, energy researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will demonstrate how innovative storage devices can be used to efficiently harness energy. DLR solar researchers will show the public how much power is available from the Sun, and how they can put this energy to use in solar power plants. When people move from A to B, they want to do so quickly and easily; DLR transport researchers will show how this could be achieved in future, perhaps with fewer traffic jams. DLR materials scientists have their sights set on using 22 September to demonstrate how a 15-ton truck can remain suspended in the air for over an hour, bonded by an adhesive surface no larger than credit card. Visitors can also get to know ultra-lightweight and extremely stable materials at the Institute of Materials Research.

See full story here

Signs of Change in our Atmosphere and Climate

The American Southwest is broiling in triple-digit temperatures for the fourth consecutive day as a result of a record-breaking heat wave that is smothering the region.

In Death Valley, California, the temperature reached 128° Fahrenheit (53° Celsius) on Sunday—just a few degrees shy of the July 10, 1913, record of 134° Fahrenheit (57° Celsius).

The heat wave has also been partly blamed for a wildfire that killed 19 firefighterson Sunday in Yarnell Hill, Arizona.

So what's behind the heat wave? Is global warming a factor? And how does it compare with past events? We talked to Martin Tingley, a climatologist at Harvard University, to find out.

In April, Tingley and his colleague Peter Huybers published a study in the journalNature that concluded that the years 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011 were warmer than any year going back 600 years, to 1400.

Do scientists know what's behind the current heat wave?

Looking at the meteorological charts, it looks to be a blocking event. That happens when there's a particular configuration of the jet stream that's quite stable. So there's a big high-pressure ridge on the West Coast and a low-pressure trough in the East Coast. That's why it's quite rainy here [in Cambridge, Massachusetts] and very hot on the West Coast.

Have you or other scientists had a chance to analyze this current heat wave and determine how it compares to past years?

No ... because 2013 is not over yet. One very hot week will have some signature on the seasonal average, but how large that signature will be depends on what happens for the rest of the summer.

Also, the study that Peter [Huybers] and I did made use of paleoclimate records—things like tree rings and ice cores. One of the limitations of that study is we can't really think of week-long heat waves like what's going on. We were limited to seasonal averages—hot summers versus cool summers—and we found that recent warm extremes in terms of summer average conditions at the high northern latitudes are unprecedented in the last 600 years.

You reached those conclusions after performing a statistical analysis on the paleoclimate data. Do you have an analogy that helps explain how that analysis works?

One imperfect analogy: Even though you and I have never met, I would bet that I'm taller than you because I'm 6-foot-4-inches (1.9 meters), and that puts me in a high percentile of the distribution of heights. But if I were to walk into a room of 1,000 people, I probably wouldn't be the tallest.

It's the same when we're addressing the question of was 2011 the hottest year in the last 600 years. It's a different statistical question to ask was it warmer than one particular year in the past—that's like me saying I'm taller than you—and it's a much different question to ask whether 2011 was the hottest year amongst all of the past 600 years.

To deal with this, what we do is instead of coming up with a single best estimate ... we use a simple statistical model to simulate 4,000 equally likely realizations of the climate [based on the paleoclimate data]. Then we can ask in how many of these 4,000 possible climate histories was 2011 the warmest year? So instead of having a single best estimate, we have 4,000 possible realizations.

Climate scientists often compare the effects of global warming to loaded dice: Not every roll of a loaded die will come up six—but sixes will occur more often than if the die had not been tampered with. Is that still the thinking?

Can we attribute this particular heat wave to an anthropogenic impact on the climate? The only safe answer is, well, probably not. It's like if I flip one coin and it comes up heads, that doesn't mean the coin is loaded.

But what we're seeing now, there seems to be a trend toward more hot extremes and fewer cold extremes. That's a pattern that's consistent with an anthropogenically-forced increase in temperatures.

What can people expect from future extreme heat waves that are affected by global warming? Will they be anything like the current heat wave affecting the West Coast?

I think that's a really big open question right now: Given rising mean temperatures, how will the extremes change, in both magnitude and frequency? It's actually one of the research projects we are tackling at the moment: How are extremes in temperature on daily timescales changing with respect to the mean temperature?

If the mean temperature goes up by half a degree, do the extremes simply track that half-degree increase? Or are the extremes being amplified in some sense so that they are becoming hotter with respect to the mean?

As a climate scientist, are you doing anything personally to prepare for the hotter summers that will result from global warming?

Well, I like to ski a lot in the winter, and I'm concerned that ski conditions are becoming more variable, especially on the East Coast.

That's not really something that I've done in my life to prepare, but it's something that's given me a lot of pause. Will the slopes have consistent snow cover for the next generation of skiers, and will the tradition of East Coast skiing survive a warming climate?

Ceres classified as Dwarf planet, has icy surface

Dwarf Planet Ceres May Have Underground Ice, Scientists Say

In March of 2015, NASA's Dawn mission will arrive at the dwarf planet Ceres, the first of the smaller class of planets to be discovered and the closest to Earth.

The dwarf planet Ceres, which orbits the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is a unique body in the solar system, bearing many similarities to Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus, both considered to be potential sources for harboring life.

On Thursday, August 15, Britney Schmidt, science team liaison for the Dawn Mission, and Julie Castillo-Rogez, planetary scientist from JPL, spoke in an Google Plus Hangout titled 'Ceres: Icy World Revealed?' about the growing excitement related to the innermost icy body. [Dwarf Planets of Our Solar System (Infographic)]

"I think of Ceres actually as a game changer in the solar system," Schmidt said.

"Ceres is arguably the only one of its kind."

The dwarf planet Ceres as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The innermost icy body

When Ceres was discovered in 1801, astronomers first classified it as a planet. The massive body traveled between Mars and Jupiter, where scientists had mathematically predicted a planet should lie. Further observations revealed that a number of small bodies littered the region, and Ceres was downgraded to just another asteroid within the asteroid belt. It wasn't until Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006 that Ceres was upgraded to the same level.

Ceres is the most massive body in the asteroid belt, and larger than some of the icy moons scientists consider ideal for hosting life. It is twice the size of Enceladus, Saturn's geyser-spouting moon that may hide liquid water beneath its surface.

Unlike other asteroids, the Texas-sized Ceres has a perfectly rounded shape that hints toward its origins.

"The fact that Ceres is so round tells us that it almost certainly had to form in the early solar system," Schmidt said. She explained that a later formation would have created a less rounded shape.

The shape of the dwarf planet, combined with its size and total mass, reveal a body of incredibly low density.

"Underneath this dusty, dirty, clay-type surface, we think that Ceres might be icy," Schmidt said. "It could potentially have had an ocean at one point in its history."

"The difference between Ceres and other icy bodies [in the solar system] is that it's the closest to the sun," Castillo-Rogez said.

Less than three times as far as Earth from the sun, Ceres is close enough to feel the warmth of the star, allowing ice to melt and reform.

Investigating the interior of the dwarf planet could provide insight into the early solar system, especially locations where water and other volatiles might have existed.

"Ceres is like the gatekeeper to the history of water in the middle solar system," Schmidt said.

NASA Footage with unusual objects streaking by

While most of the objects streaking by are probably space junk or shooting stars, it
is interesting that there is so much movement near our planet. :)

Moon Launch images, impressive.

NASA's latest mission to the moon is notable not only for what it will accomplish, but also for how widely its start was seen. The fact that the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, was launched from Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport after dark on Friday meant that the mission's Minotaur 5 rocket blast had a potential audience of millions of people.

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JWST'S NEAR INFRARED SPECTROGRAPH (NIRSPEC)

The Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) is one of four instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NIRSpec is a multi-object spectrograph capable of observing more than 100 astronomical objects simultaneously in a large field of view of ~ 3 arcminutes × 3 arcminutes. It will support JWST's four main science themes by providing low (R~100), medium (R~1000), and high-resolution (R~2700) spectroscopic observations.

NIRSpec measures 1.9m × 1.3m × 0.7 m and weighs approximately 200 kg. It is an all-reflective system with a total of 14 mirrors, seven interchangeable dispersive elements and eight interchangeable filters.

The black dome and horn-shaped assembly in the centre foreground is the calibration assembly. This will be used for on-orbit calibration and monitoring the performance of the instrument.

To the left, with one silver- and three gold-coloured squares arranged around a cylinder, is the grating wheel.

The filter wheel can just be seen at the centre, towards the back of the shot, with two of the eight interchangeable filters showing.

The camera, which focuses the light beam onto the focal plane assembly (not visible), is in the large silver box at the back left of the shot.

NIRSpec is developed by ESA with EADS Astrium Germany GmbH as the prime contractor.

Close up Video of International Space Station

Impressive video, although there is quite a bit of lint? or something on the camera outer cover.

WAIT FOR THE CLOSEUP, IT'S IMPRESSIVE. :)

Object Floating by ISS International Space Station

An object was witnessed floating by the space station, it has been referred to

as a satellite of Russian origin. 

Gaia SpaceCraft to photograph hundreds of millions of stars

Gaia is a global space astrometry mission. It will make the largest, most precise three-dimensional map of our Galaxy by surveying more than a thousand million stars.

UFO Documentary produced by Disney?

This has the feel of a TV Commercial, but the dialogue is similar to many current
shows about the subject. Interesting to say the least.

Area 51 exists, says CIA

After years of government denials, the CIA is officially acknowledging in newly declassified documents the existence of Area 51, the mysterious site in central Nevada that has spawned top-secret tools, weapons and not a few UFO conspiracies.

George Washington University's National Security Archive obtained a CIA history of the U-2 spy plane program through a public records request and released it Thursday.

National Security Archive senior fellow Jeffrey Richelson reviewed the history in 2002, but all mentions of Area 51 had been redacted.

READ: The newly declassified CIA documents

Richelson says he requested the history again in 2005 and received a version a few weeks ago with mentions of Area 51 restored.

Officials have already acknowledged in passing the existence of the facility in central Nevada where the government is believed to test intelligence tools and weapons.

Richelson believes the new document shows the CIA is becoming less secretive about Area 51's existence, if not about what goes at the location 90 miles north of Las Vegas.

He said that releasing information on the site "is clearly a conscious decision to acknowledge the name, the location rather than play pretend about the secrecy," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports .

The references are found in a CIA history of the U-2 reconnaissance program written in 1992.

The history even recalls the first time CIA project director Richard Bissell and Air Force officer Col. Osmund Ritlandt spotted the site, which was then an old airstrip by the salt flat named Groom Lake.

They viewed it from aboard a small Beechcraft plane piloted by Tony LeVier, Lockheed's chief test pilot.

Excerpt:

They spotted what appeared to be an airstrip by a salt flat known as Groom Lake, near the northeast corner of the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Nevada Proving Ground.

After debating about landing on the old airstrip, LeVier set the plane down on the lakebed, and all four walked over to examine the strip. The facility had been used during World War II as an aerial gunnery range for Army Air Corps pilots. From the air the strip appeared to be paved, but on closer inspection it turned out to have originally been fashioned from compacted earth that had turned into ankle-deep dust after more than a decade of disuse.

If LeVier had attempted to land on the airstrip, the plane would probably have nosed over when the wheels sank into the loose soil, killing or injuring all of the key figures in the U-2 project.

The document says the group agreed that the location "would make an ideal site for testing the U-2 and training its pilots," according to the history.

The lightweight U-2 spy plane was being built by Lockheed at its top-secret "Skunk Works" plant in Burbank, Calif.

The document says that the CIA then called on the Atomic Energy Commission to add the Groom Lake area to its real estate holdings in Nevada.

"AEC chairman Adm. Lewis Strauss readily agreed and President Eisenhower also approved the addition of this strip of wasteland, known by its map designation as Area 51,to the Nevada Test site," according to the document.

"To make the facility in the middle of nowhere sound more attractive to his workers, (Skunk Works founder) Kelly Johnson called it the Paradise Ranch, which was soon shortened to the Ranch," according to the document.

Several books and articles in recent years had already begun to penetrate the mystery of Area 51.

In 2010, James Noce, who said he did contract security work at the site in the 1960s and 1970s, told The Seattle Times that he used to get paid in cash, signing a phony name to the receipt.

Noce, then 72, told the newspaper that he had attended the first-ever public reunion in 2009 of former Area 51 workers.

"I was doing something for the country," Noce says about those three years in the 1960s. "They told me, 'If anything should ever come up, anyone asks, 'Did you work for the CIA?' Say, 'Never heard of them.' But [my buddies] know."

Contributing: Associated Press