NASA News 10 October 2011
The search for the missing link, the thingthat is said to link humans and apes in the evolutionary scale,is always going on. Well there is another type of missing link that NASA thinks has been found and that isthe link between planets and stars. It is believed that Brown dwarfs are that link, since they exhibit both the characteristics of starsand planets. Recently a Brown dwarf was discovered that fits the bill better than any other yet seen. Some refer to Brown dwarfs as failed stars, but this is not always accurate. The latest discovery is of a Brown dwarf that has the coolest temperature so far. This Brown dwarf fits a class that was only theoretical until now. It is called the “Y” class. Prior to this the coolest of Brown dwarfs were in the “T”class. This means that this Brown dwarf has a temperature less than 225 degrees Celsius or 440 F. Theseare certainly not star like temperatures. Some scientists believe that this type of Brown dwarf is the bridge between planets like Jupiter and stars. Just to makethings even more mysterious, 6 of these “Y” class Brown dwarfs were suddenly sighted. But wait, it turns out that the WISE telescope has discovered that one ofthese Brown dwarfs has a temperature of only 25 degrees Celsius which is a comfortable 80 degrees F. Here is the million dollar question, could there be life of some kind ona Brown dwarf like this? Further study is scheduled to take place using other instruments and telescopes.
When NASA decided to look at hurricane Irene from one of its satellites, it saw something that took its breath away. It is not often that a UFO video like this gets outfrom NASA, but this one did and appeared on Fox news. I have listed the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86hTiaL3174
Everyone wants to shoot things into orbit, but no one wants to have to cleanup their mess. It is getting so bad in orbitthat the chances of hitting junk when you launch a satellite have increased tremendously. A former NASA scientist stated, "we've lost control of the environment.” That is a pretty scary statement, because the junk up there not only causes troubles for launches, but whatgoes up must come down someday. Little pieces burn up, but history has shown that many of these satellites come crashing back to Earth.Think that is bad? Things might even be worse than you think, depending on what is on these satellites andwhat power source they use. I think that itis needless to say that nuclear powered onespresent special problems for all of us. There have been several proposals overthe years on how to clean up the junk. Some of suggested using huge nets, whileothers scoops. We have to remember that if we do the cleanup, other countries will accuse us of spying on their satellites and maybe even taking one or two. Can the world ever get together to solve this problem? It may not be possible.
Black Hole Sucking The Life Out Of A Star
Picture Source: Ken, About Facts Net
For the first time scientists witnessed a star dying from being eaten by a black hole. It is said that they sawthis in real time, but we have to remember that at the great distances that these things happen at, the act already occurred. In this case it happened over 3.9 billion light years ago.The event was seen byNASA's SWIFT telescope. This is the same instrument that has been discovering those cool Brown dwarfs.
Artist's Conception Of TrES-2b
Graphic Source:NASA
A planet has been discovered that is so dark, that it is blacker than coal. It only reflects 1 percent of allthe light that hits it. It is a gas giant about the size of Jupiter and is called TrES-2B. One scientist said, "TrES-2b is considerably lessreflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly an alien world," This planet is only 3 million miles from its star as compared to Earth's 93 million miledistance from our sun.Scientists believe that the atmosphere of thisdark planet is heated to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. This is hotter than most oventemperatures. While the distance is known and the size is known, scientists are stumpedon why the color of the planet is black."However, it's not completely pitch black. It's so hot that itemits a faint red glow,much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove." saidone scientist. It is believed that only one face of this planet faces its star.
While NASA is continuing to launch probes to other planets, it is begging Washington not to stop the funding for exploration. Many at NASA have said that they were now operating on a shoestring, but the last shuttle flight has to have saved them oodles of money. The space shuttle Endeavor cost 1.7 billion dollars to build.While NASA has said that the cost of a space shuttle launch is450 million dollar per mission, the true amount is far greater. It was estimated that the space shuttle program cost 170 billion dollars by early 2008 and each launch cost about 1.5 billion dollars including the launches right through 2011. There were 135 launches. That means the program has cost about 202.5 billion dollars to date. This is far more than the original estimate that NASA gave in the beginning of the program of 7.45 billion dollars, which even if figured in 2011dollars instead of 1970s dollars is far more than we were originally told. Now if we could only get rid of the International Space Station.
NASA made an announcement recently that the components of DNA can be made naturally in space. "People havebeen discovering components of DNA in meteorites since the 1960's, but researchers were unsure whether they were really created in space or instead they came from contamination by terrestrial life," said a NASA scientist. Here is the interesting part of how that statement could be interpreted, we could have been created from alien DNA and not been partof any evolutionary process. That is only one interpretation of the statement, it couldalso mean that the first life on Earth camefrom the stars and we evolved from it, or there could be other meanings. In March of this year, 2011, another scientist stated that he found alien bacteria in a 200year old meteorite that had been discovered in France.
NASA scientists have discovered a strange scar on the moon and they are trying to figure out where it came from. The current thinking is that it may be from a decades old probe that was sent from Earth, that crashed into the moon. The LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) discovered the strange mark. It is believed that the dark material that lays on top of lighter material was dredged up from the crash.
Scientists have confirmed that an asteroid has been following the Earth in orbit for all the time since its formation. Now how could they know that for sure? Anyway it is about a thousand feet across and from 12 million to30 million miles away at any given time.
NASA's delay in moving forward with the next generation Space Launch System known also as SLS is destroying the Aerospace industry, Since none of these companies can now plan for the future, they are losing their scientists and engineers at an alarming rate. Even United Technologies Corp may be for sale. “It’s a real challenge on a couple of fronts.” “We don’t have any way to spend our discretionary resources on whatever the government plans to do next... People are getting out of the industry and it’s causing a brain drain like we’ve never seen before.” This statement was made by PWR Vice PresidentJohn Vilja.

well,Obama has given NASA a new Motto!

To Boldly Go No-Where!