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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Man-Size Meteor From Comet Lights Up Georgia Sky

A brilliant meteor blazed through the sky above Georgia recently, and two NASA fireball-monitoring cameras caught the dramatic display on video.

The meteor was caused by a human-size chunk of an unknown comet. It was the brightest meteor yet recorded by NASA's fireball-observing network — based at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. — in its nearly three years of operation, officials said.

The 6-foot-wide (1.8-meter) space rock barrelled into Earth's atmosphere at 10:47 p.m. EDT on May 20 (0247 GMT on May 21), about 66 miles (106 kilometers) above the city of Macon, Ga. [Video of the bright Macon meteor]

Cameras ready and waiting

Two NASA all-sky cameras, both located in northwest Georgia, tracked the resulting meteor and captured it on video. Analysis of the videos allowed scientists to calculate the basics of the object's speed, trajectory, mass and orbit.

When it entered the atmosphere, the comet chunk was traveling northwest at about 86,000 mph (138,404 kph), researchers said. At this velocity, the boulder-size "dirty snowball" possessed an energy or striking power somewhere between 500 and 1,000 tons of TNT.

But that striking power was never realized on the ground. The Macon meteoroid was too small, and made of the wrong kind of stuff, to survive the trip through Earth's atmosphere, researchers said. Indeed, the video shows four distinct flares emanating from the comet chunk as it broke apart multiple times.

After a last burst of light, the meteor burned up completely 38 miles (61 km) above the town of Villa Rica, Ga., officials said.

The Macon meteor qualifies as a fireball, which is officially defined as a meteor that shines brighter than Venus in the sky.

Fireballs like the May 20 event are impressive but not terribly unusual. Objects as big as washing machines typically fall into Earth's atmosphere on a monthly basis, but most of them burn up before reaching the ground. Many of the resulting fireballs are not seen because they occur over remote areas or over oceans (which cover more than two-thirds of Earth's surface).

A robotic fireball-monitoring network

NASA's meteor-watching network, run by the Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall, currently consists of four robotic cameras: the two in Georgia, one in Huntsville, and one in southern Tennessee. These "smart" cameras are linked into a computer system that automatically analyzes their video, then calculates relevant information about incoming space rocks' trajectories and orbits.

Researchers hope to place a total of 15 such cameras in various locations throughout the eastern United States, which has few such systems, NASA officials said.

The overall goal of the camera system is to learn much more about the pieces of space rock that strike Earth and our atmosphere — how big they are, what they're made of and where they come from, researchers have said.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Monster Southern Tornado Spawned by Rare "Perfect Storm"

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA: Tornadoes and violent storms tore through seven Southern states, killing at least 306 people and causing billions of dollars of damage in one of the deadliest swarm of twisters in US history.

President Barack Obama described the loss of life as "heartbreaking" and called the damage to homes and businesses "nothing short of catastrophic." He promised strong federal support for rebuilding and plans to view the damage on Friday.

Over several days this week, the powerful tornadoes -- more than 160 reported in total -- combined with storms to cut a swath of destruction heading west to east. It was the worst U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed up to 1,800 people. In some areas, whole neighborhoods were flattened, cars flipped over and trees and power lines felled, leaving tangled wreckage.

While rescue officials searched for survivors, some who sheltered in bathtubs, closets and basements told of miraculous escapes. "I made it. I got in a closet, put a pillow over my face and held on for dear life because it started sucking me up," said Angela Smith of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the worst-hit cities.

In Birmingham, Alabama, which was also hard hit, Police Chief A.C. Roper said rescue workers sifted through rubble "hand to hand" on Thursday to pull people from destroyed homes.

"We even rescued two babies, one that was trapped in a crib when the house fell down on top of the baby," Roper said in an interview on PBS NewsHour.

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the U.S. South and Midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of tornadoes in the United States since 310 people lost their lives on April 3, 1974.

Given the apparent destruction, insurance experts were wary of estimating damage costs, but believed they would run into the billions of dollars, with the worst impact concentrated in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

"In terms of the ground-up damage and quite possibly the insured damage, this event will be of historic proportions," Jose Miranda, an executive with the catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT, told Reuters.

'ONE OF THRE WORST'

"I think this is going to rank up as one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history," said Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

White Jews are marching, protesting against BLACK Jews being in Israel!! South Tel Aviv Is On Fire!!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New Space Currency The Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination( QUID)

The Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination, or QUID, is the new currency of inter-planetary travelers. It was designed for the foreign exchange company Travelex by scientists from Britain's National Space Centre and the University of Leicester.

The design intent is that QUIDs must withstand the rigors of space travel – no sharp edges and no chemicals that could hurt space tourists.

"None of the existing payment systems we use on earth – like cash, credit or debit cards – could be used in space," said Professor George Fraser from the University of Leicester. "Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation." Scientists Design New Space Currency
Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination or QUID is the first currency of its kind in the universe.
CREDIT: Business Wire
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The Quasi Universal Intergalactic Denomination, or QUID, is the new currency of inter-planetary travelers. It was designed for the foreign exchange company Travelex by scientists from Britain's National Space Centre and the University of Leicester.

The design intent is that QUIDs must withstand the rigors of space travel – no sharp edges and no chemicals that could hurt space tourists.

"None of the existing payment systems we use on earth – like cash, credit or debit cards – could be used in space," said Professor George Fraser from the University of Leicester. "Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts while the chips and magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic radiation."

The QUID (see photo) is made from a space-qualified polymer – PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene). This material is widely used by space agencies because of its durability and versatility. Earthlings know it better as "teflon," and are well-aware of its resistance to high temperatures and corrosive materials. (Merchants will like the ease with which QUIDs slide out of consumer's pockets.)

The rounded edges of the QUID make it safer, and also encompass the eight planets orbiting a sun which are part of the design. Each of the orbiting planets contain a serial number; taken together, these numbers will give each QUID disc a unique code to prevent counterfeiting.

What's a QUID worth? The current exchange rate for the new currency is £6.25 to the QUID (or US$12.50 or about 8.68 Euros).

Hopefully, as we travel further from Earth and spread throughout the galaxy, people will not confuse the QUID with the "quid" – a slang term for the British pound sterling, possibly deriving from the location of the Royal mint at Quidhampton, Wiltshire, England.

Science fiction fans are probably more used to terms like the ubiquitous "credit." Here's a sample of more interesting future currency names:

"Authority pays the same for ice now as thirty years ago. And that's not okay. Worse yet, Authority scrip doesn't buy what it used to. I remember when Hong Kong Luna dollars swapped even for Authority dollars. Now it takes three Authority dollars to match one HKL dollar..."

(From Robert Heinlein's 1966 novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress)

Philip K. Dick fans enjoy swapping the genetically unique truffle skins from his 1964 novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch:

"...Mr. Icholtz brought out his wallet and began counting out skins. 'Very little publicity will be attached to this at first. But eventually--' He offered Hnatt the stack of brown, wrinkled, truffle-skins which served as tender in the Sol system..."

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Friday, August 19, 2011

Georgetown Basketball Team Brawls In China ...

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Hacktivist vow to shut down facebook on Nov 5th