Cassini's continued mission

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is now a nearly a year into its extended mission, called Cassini Equinox (after its initial 4-year mission ended in June, 2008). The spacecraft continues to operate in good health, returning amazing images of Saturn, its ring system and moons, and providing new information and science on a regular basis. The mission's name, "Equinox" comes from the upcoming Saturnian equinox in August, 2009, when its equator (and rings) will point directly toward the Sun. The Equinox mission runs through September of 2010, with the possibility of further extensions beyond that. Collected here are 24 more intriguing images from our ringed neighbor. (previously: 1, 2) (24 photos total)

Saturn's northern hemisphere is seen here against its nested rings. The rings have been brightened relative to the planet to enhance visibility. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 24, 2009 at a distance of approximately 866,000 km (538,000 mi) from Saturn. Image scale is 38 km (24 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Gray Mimas appears to hover above the colorful rings. The large crater seen on the right side of the moon is named for William Herschel, who discovered Mimas in 1789. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired on Sept. 9, 2007 at a distance of approximately 3.151 million km (1.958 million mi) from Mimas. Image scale is 19 km (12 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Cassini peers through the fine, smoke-sized ice particles of Saturn's F ring toward the cratered face of Mimas (396 km/246 mi wide). The F ring's core is dense enough to completely block the light from Mimas. The image was taken on Nov. 18, 2007 at a distance of approximately 772,000 km (480,000 mi) from Mimas. Image scale is 5 km (3 mi) per pixel on the moon. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Cassini looks toward Rhea's cratered, icy landscape with the dark line of Saturn's ringplane and the planet's murky atmosphere as a background. Rhea is Saturn's second-largest moon, at 1,528 km (949 mi) across. Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view. The images were acquired on July 17, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.2 million km (770,000 mi) from Rhea. Image scale is 7 km (5 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Small, battered Epimetheus before Saturn's A and F rings, and and smog-enshrouded Titan (5,150 km/3,200 mi wide) beyond. The color information in the colorized view is artificial: it is derived from red, green and blue images taken at nearly the same time and phase angle as the clear filter image. This color information was overlaid onto a previously released clear filter view in order to approximate the scene as it might appear to human eyes. The view was acquired on April 28, 2006, at a distance of approximately 667,000 km (415,000 mi) from Epimetheus and 1.8 million km (1.1 million mi) from Titan. The image scale is 4 km (2 mi) per pixel on Epimetheus and 11 km (7 mi) per pixel on Titan. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Against a background of muted atmospheric bands in Saturn's northern hemisphere, Mimas forges onward in its orbit around the Ringed Planet. Aside from the large crater Herschel, all features on Mimas are named after people and places in Arthurian legend or the legends of the Titans. In fact, the largest crater near the terminator in this view is named Arthur (64 km, 40 mi across). The image was taken on Nov. 26, 2008 at a distance of approximately 915,000 km (569,000 mi) from Mimas. Image scale is 5 km (3 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

The terminator engulfs Penelope (foreground), one of the largest craters on Saturn's moon, Tethys. The image was taken on Nov. 24, 2008 at a distance of approximately 62,000 km (38,000 mi) from Tethys. Image scale is 366 meters (1,202 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Numerous stars provide a serene background in this view of Enceladus captured by the Cassini spacecraft while the moon was in eclipse, within Saturn's shadow. The view looks up at Enceladus' south pole. The image was taken on Oct. 9, 2008 at a distance of approximately 83,000 km (52,000 mi) from Enceladus. Image scale is 5 km (3 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

This image was taken during Cassini's close approach to the moon Iapetus in Sept. 2007. The image was taken on Sept. 10, 2007 with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera at a distance of approximately 3,870 km (2,400 mi) from Iapetus. Image scale is 230 meters (755 feet) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Rhea passes in front of Saturn's larger, hazy moon Titan (which is lit from behind by the sun) in June of 2006. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #

Rhea (1,528 km/949 mi wide) drifts in front of Saturn. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 576,000 km (358,000 mi) from Rhea. Image scale is 3 km (2 mi) per pixel. (NASA/JPL/SSI) #


This natural color mosaic was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared 39 degrees above the unilluminated side of Saturn's rings. Little light makes its way through the rings to be scattered in Cassini's direction in this viewing geometry, making the rings appear somewhat dark compared to the reflective surface of Saturn (120,536 km/74,898 mi across). The view combines 45 images taken over the course of about two hours, as Cassini scanned across the entire main ring system. The images in this view were obtained on May 9, 2007 at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. (NASA/JPL/SSI)

More here

Another cropcircle warning of solar storm?

UPDATE 22/06/09
SOLAR ACTIVITY: Late on June 21st, something behind the sun's eastern limb exploded and hurled a coronal mass ejection into space: movie. The expanding cloud is not directed at Earth. The explosion could herald the emergence of a farside active region. Readers with solar telescopes should be alert for further activity.
spaceweather.com

solar storm may impact Earth on July 7, 2009,


NASA are also showing concern, here is a report from APOD I posted on the Wobble this morning! The Big Wobble earlier today

Earth’s magnetosphere changes into the shape of a “jellyfish” whenever it is impacted by a severe solar storm

Whenever a severe solar storm impacts directly on Earth, then our planetary magnetic field or “magnetosphere” changes into the general shape of a “jellyfish”: see watch or watch.

That seems to be what those crop artists were telling us at Wayland’s Smithy on May 29, 2009:


Read story at Cropcircleconnector

Earlier warnings this month!

Must read, possible solar flare and caronal mass ejection early July!
Report here Earthfiles
May 12, 2009 - Astronomical Information
in U.K. 2009 Crop Formations?
“In these 2009 progressions of crop patterns so far,
it seems like the circlemakers are describing a combined ‘solar flare
and coronal mass ejection’ on the apogee full Moon
of July 7, 2009.” - Australian scientist


Comparison of May 10, 2009, Roundway Hill, Wiltshire, England,
“solar flares and coronal mass ejections” compared to Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
(SOHO) image of coronal mass ejection (CME) in previous years. Aerial image
© 2009 by Lucy Pringle; CME by SOHO. Images and information by: Cropcircleconnector.
See the cropcircles here

Solar storm explained





A Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field
Dec. 16, 2008: NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms. But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.

"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."

The magnetosphere is a bubble of magnetism that surrounds Earth and protects us from solar wind. Exploring the bubble is a key goal of the THEMIS mission, launched in February 2007. The big discovery came on June 3, 2007, when the five probes serendipitously flew through the breach just as it was opening. Onboard sensors recorded a torrent of solar wind particles streaming into the magnetosphere, signaling an event of unexpected size and importance.

More NASA

MPs' expenses in depth

MPs' expenses: The Telegraph's investigation, The Expenses Files, into how politicians - from Gordon Brown's Cabinet to backbenchers of all parties - exploit the system of parliamentary allowances to subsidise their lifestyles and multiple homes.



It's all here

A Solar Prominence from SOHO

Click on image to enlarge
A Solar Prominence from SOHO
Credit: SOHO-EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA
Explanation: How can gas float above the Sun? Twisted magnetic fields arching from the solar surface can trap ionized gas, suspending it in huge looping structures. These majestic plasma arches are seen as prominences above the solar limb. In 1999 September, this dramatic and detailed image was recorded by the EIT experiment on board the space-based SOHO observatory in the light emitted by ionized Helium. It shows hot plasma escaping into space as a fiery prominence breaks free from magnetic confinement a hundred thousand kilometers above the Sun. These awesome events bear watching as they can affect communications and power systems over 100 million kilometers away on Planet Earth. Recently, our Sun has been unusually quiet.

APOD

May 29, 2009: An international panel of experts led by NOAA and sponsored by NASA has released a new prediction for the next solar cycle. Solar Cycle 24 will peak, they say, in May 2013 with a below-average number of sunspots.

"If our prediction is correct, Solar Cycle 24 will have a peak sunspot number of 90, the lowest of any cycle since 1928 when Solar Cycle 16 peaked at 78," says panel chairman Doug Biesecker of the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center.

It is tempting to describe such a cycle as "weak" or "mild," but that could give the wrong impression.

"Even a below-average cycle is capable of producing severe space weather," points out Biesecker. "The great geomagnetic storm of 1859, for instance, occurred during a solar cycle of about the same size we’re predicting for 2013."

The 1859 storm--known as the "Carrington Event" after astronomer Richard Carrington who witnessed the instigating solar flare--electrified transmission cables, set fires in telegraph offices, and produced Northern Lights so bright that people could read newspapers by their red and green glow. A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause $1 to 2 trillion in damages to society's high-tech infrastructure and require four to ten years for complete recovery. For comparison, Hurricane Katrina caused "only" $80 to 125 billion in damage.

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inflation to reach Zimbabwe level?

... all this for some bread


3 eggs for $1B

which explains this...
Jackie Duncan)
Source

More Senior Military Sources Confirm Rape and Sodomy At Abu Ghraib

Fresh confirmations have emerged from senior military sources that suppressed photographs of the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison show scenes of rape, sexually explicit acts, sodomy and forced masturbation.

Harper’s Magazine writer Scott Horton, who also writes for The Daily Beast website, writes that he “has obtained specific corroboration” from a “highly credible senior military officer with firsthand knowledge,” who he says has provided even more detail about images being withheld from the public by the Obama administration.

Horton writes that the photographs “depict sexually explicit acts, including a uniformed soldier receiving oral sex from a female prisoner, a government contractor engaged in an act of sodomy with a male prisoner and scenes of forced masturbation, forced exhibition and penetration involving phosphorous sticks and brooms.”

Horton’s sources revealed that in addition to other sexual acts, some of the photographs show a uniformed soldier receiving oral sex from a female prisoner, a government contractor engaged in an act of sodomy with a male prisoner, and a female prisoner being forced to expose her breasts.

“Other suppressed photographs show a female prisoner assuming sexually suggestive poses in a chair, while a prison guard appears behind her in some frames. In another series, prisoners are shown hooded in a transport with open copies of pornographic magazines in their laps.” Horton writes.

The military source also described an image in which Specialist Charles A. Graner, who was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 2005, is shown suturing the face of a prisoner, effectively stitching the skin, as if closing open wounds, despite the fact that the prisoner required no such medical procedure.

The account directly contradicts yesterday’s denials by both the White House and the Pentagon that the withheld photographs contain evidence of sexual abuse.


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UFO Caught On Out-Door Surveillance Cam.

22nd May : An apparent UFO caught on cam in Russia and seemingly taking its time so it could be filmed for proof..:)

Comes in from the top left off the screen at 00:11.

ROSWELL DEBRIS CONFIRMED AS EXTRATERRESTRIAL

Zenbuoy

Newly discovered documents reveal that in the months immediately following the purported 1947 UFO crash at Roswell, secret government studies began on a material that was previously unknown to science. The "memory metal" that was studied precisely matches some of the debris material reported by several witnesses to the crash. Evidence shows that -under military direction- these unique metal studies were undertaken by a contracted laboratory that possessed advanced technical capabilities that the U.S. government itself did not have at the time. A former high-level scientist employed by the involved laboratory has offered a confession that he was tasked to study the crashed 1947 UFO crash at Roswell. Information provided by two U.S. Air Force Generals also offers direct support for this discovery.

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Space storm caught slamming into Earth's atmosphere

A space storm has been observed exploding from a central point in Earth's upper atmosphere for the first time. The result could one day lead to better predictions of the storms, which can harm satellites and power grids on the ground.

The energy that powers space storms comes from clouds of plasma hurled at Earth by the sun. These clouds stretch our planet's magnetic field like a rubber band, storing energy in a long magnetic tail behind our planet.

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UFO deliberately crashed into a meteor to save Earth

From Zenbuoy


A SCIENTIST is claiming a UFO deliberately crashed into a meteor to save Earth from destruction 100 years ago.
Dr Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, insists an alien spacecraft SACRIFICED ITSELF to prevent a gigantic meteor from slamming into us above Siberia on June 30, 1908.

He claims the result was the Tunguska event - a massive blast estimated at 15 megatons that downed 80million trees over nearly 100 square miles.

Eyewitnesses reported a bright light and a huge shock wave, but the area was so sparsely populated no one was killed.

Most scientists think the blast was caused by a meteorite exploding several miles above the surface.

But Dr Labvin thinks quartz slabs with strange markings found at the site are remnants of an alien control panel, which fell to the ground after the UFO slammed into the giant rock.

He said: "We don't have any technologies that can print such kind of drawings on crystals. We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space."


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Two huge craterchains on Mercury

I was studying the surface of Mercury ON the photo below from Messenger when I came across these two huge craterchains, you can find them on the original photo, you will have to zoom in, just above the center on the left hand side of the picture, incredible



Click on picture to enlarge
Volcanic Terrain on Mercury
Credit: MESSENGER, NASA, JHU APL, CIW
Explanation: Why are many large craters on Mercury relatively smooth inside? Recent images from the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that flew by Mercury last October show previously uncharted regions of Mercury that have large craters with an internal smoothness similar to the maria on Earth's own Moon. Therefore, like our Moon's maria, these craters on Mercury are thought to have been flooded by lava floes that are old but not as old as the surrounding more highly cratered surface. The above image mosaic of the western limb of Mercury was created by MESSENGER as it approached the Solar System's innermost planet last October. Old and heavily textured terrain runs across much of the image bottom, while across the middle left lies comparatively smooth impact basins where small craters may appear similar at first to protruding hills. MESSENGER will buzz past Mercury again next year before entering orbit in 2011.

APOD