Excerpt from huffingtonpost.comIntroduction 65 years ago, in 1950, while having lunch with colleagues Edward Teller and Herbert York, Nobel physicist Enrico Fermi suddenly blurted out, "Where is everybody?" His question is now known as Fermi's p...
Tag: guiding (page 1 of 3)
 |
| The James Webb Telescope |
Excerpt from space.com
A telescope will soon allow astronomers to probe the atmosphere of Earthlike exoplanets for signs of life. To prepare, astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger and her team are modeling the atmospheric fingerprints for hundreds of potential alien worlds. Here's how:
The James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018, will usher a new era in our search for life beyond Earth. With its 6.5-meter mirror, the long-awaited successor to Hubble will be large enough to detect potential biosignatures in the atmosphere of Earthlike planets orbiting nearby stars.
And we may soon find a treasure-trove of such worlds. The forthcoming exoplanet hunter TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), set to launch in 2017, will scout the entire sky for planetary systems close to ours. (The current Kepler mission focuses on more distant stars, between 600 and 3,000 light-years from Earth.)
 |
| Astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger |
While TESS will allow for the brief detection of new planets, the larger James Webb will follow up on select candidates and provide clues about their atmospheric composition. But the work will be difficult and require a lot of telescope time.
"We're expecting to find thousands of new planets with TESS, so we'll need to select our best targets for follow-up study with the Webb telescope," says Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at Cornell University and co-investigator on the TESS team.
To prepare, Kaltenegger and her team at Cornell's Institute for Pale Blue Dots are building a database of atmospheric fingerprints for hundreds of potential alien worlds. The models will then be used as "ID cards" to guide the study of exoplanet atmospheres with the Webb and other future large telescopes.
Kaltenegger described her approach in a talk for the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Director Seminar Series last December.
"For the first time in human history, we have the technology to find and characterize other worlds," she says. "And there's a lot to learn."
Detecting life from space
In its 1990 flyby of Earth, the Galileo spacecraft took a spectrum of sunlight filtered through our planet's atmosphere. In a 1993 paper in the journal Nature, astronomer Carl Sagan analyzed that data and found a large amount of oxygen together with methane — a telltale sign of life on Earth. These observations established a control experiment for the search of extraterrestrial life by modern spacecraft."The spectrum of a planet is like a chemical fingerprint," Kaltenegger says. "This gives us the key to explore alien worlds light years away."
Current telescopes have picked up the spectra of giant, Jupiter-like exoplanets. But the telescopes are not large enough to do so for smaller, Earth-like worlds. The James Webb telescope will be our first shot at studying the atmospheres of these potentially habitable worlds.
Some forthcoming ground-based telescopes — including the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), planned for completion in 2020, and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), scheduled for first light in 2024 — may also be able to contribute to that task. [The Largest Telescopes on Earth: How They Compare]
And with the expected discovery by TESS of thousands of nearby exoplanets, the James Webb and other large telescopes will have plenty of potential targets to study. Another forthcoming planet hunter, the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO), a planned European Space Agency mission scheduled for launch around 2022-2024, will contribute even more candidates.
However, observation time for follow-up studies will be costly and limited.
"It will take hundreds of hours of observation to see atmospheric signatures with the Webb telescope," Kaltenegger says. "So we'll have to pick our targets carefully."
Set to see its first light in 2021, The Giant Magellan Telescope will be the world’s largest telescope.
Getting a head start
To guide that process, Kaltenegger and her team are putting together a database of atmospheric fingerprints of potential alien worlds. "The models are tools that can teach us how to observe and help us prioritize targets," she says.To start, they have modeled the chemical fingerprint of Earth over geological time. Our planet's atmosphere has evolved over time, with different life forms producing and consuming various gases. These models may give astronomers some insight into a planet's evolutionary stage.
Other models take into consideration the effects of a host of factors on the chemical signatures — including water, clouds, atmospheric thickness, geological cycles, brightness of the parent star, and even the presence of different extremophiles.
"It's important to do this wide range of modeling right now," Kaltenegger said, "so we're not too startled if we detect something unexpected. A wide parameter space can allow us to figure out if we might have a combination of these environments."
She added: "It can also help us refine our modeling as fast as possible, and decide if more measurements are needed while the telescope is still in space. It's basically a stepping-stone, so we don't have to wait until we get our first measurements to understand what we are seeing. Still, we'll likely find things we never thought about in the first place."
A new research center
The spectral database is one of the main projects undertaken at the Institute for Pale Blue Dots, a new interdisciplinary research center founded in 2014 by Kaltenegger. The official inauguration will be held on May 9, 2015."The crux of the institute is the characterization of rocky, Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of nearby stars," Kaltenergger said. "It's a very interdisciplinary effort with people from astronomy, geology, atmospheric modeling, and hopefully biology."
She added: "One of the goal is to better understand what makes a planet a life-friendly habitat, and how we can detect that from light years away. We're on the verge of discovering other pale blue dots. And with Sagan's legacy, Cornell University is a really great home for an institute like that."
 |
| A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to boost a Dragon capsule on its fifth commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. If all goes as planned, the rocket will land on a barge on Saturday. |
Excerpt from
news.nationalgeographic.com
SpaceX chief aims to make rockets reusable by guiding them to a barge instead of letting them splash down.
Rockets have landed on the moon and on Mars, but now SpaceX rocket maven Elon Musk aims to land one someplace really exotic—a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean.
The barge, or "autonomous spaceport drone ship" as SpaceX calls it, is scheduled to land its returned rocket on Saturday, about 17 minutes after the planned 4:47 a.m. (EST) launch of a Dragon cargo spacecraft heading to the International Space Station from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The point of the barge landing is to recover the rocket's expensive engines and reuse them. Until now, rocket engines have typically been allowed to burn up on reentry or plummet into the ocean, either for disposal or recovery later by boat. If SpaceX pulls off the barge landing, it will be a first for ocean landings.
The barge's landing site, just 300 feet by 170 feet in size (about 90 by 50 meters), will act as the outfielder's glove to catch the massive first stage of the Falcon 9 launch rocket, maneuvered into place by remote control.
"Our main mission is to get cargo to the space station," said SpaceX's Hans Koenigsmann, speaking last week at a NASA briefing. "I'm pretty sure it will be pretty exciting," he said of the attempted controlled landing of the 14-story-tall first stage of the rocket on a flat floating platform.
Failure an Option
SpaceX has successfully landed rocket stages on land, and made a controlled landing on water after a past cargo launch, which still led to the loss of the rocket stage in the drink. Musk has previously suggested that barge landings of stages would expedite their reuse, leading to cheaper rocketry.
Musk gave 50 percent odds of the barge landing working out. ("I pretty much made that up. I have no idea," he added in a recent web chat on Reddit.)
Thomas Razzeto, GrahamHancock.comMy most passionate plea is for you to wake up to your true self as pure awareness. We have all heard it said that you are not a human being having a spiritual experience, but instead, you are a spiritual being having a human experience. Yet you are not a being of any kind, spiritual or physical. You are pure awareness! And most importantly, your awareness is the One Awareness – the Divine Awareness – and as such, it is the only reality tha [...]
.jpg){kind=link}
Many people are having difficulty coming to terms with the information that is being made public at this time. What was suppressed is now leaking out. Your governments deliberately kept you in darkness and under control. Yes, there are beings from other planets amongst you. Many of them chose to live among you, so as to lead you forward into the Light and to release you from the burden which the Dark Ones imposed on you.
The population of the Earth had to increase enormously to prevent the dark takeover. The Dark Ones have responded in return, by using many methods to cull the population: through vaccination, medication, and altering the air you breathe and the food you eat. This is why this information is so important to understand. Do not agree to anything without thoroughly researching it. All the information you need is freely available to everyone.
The Dark Ones want you to be as sheep, blindly obeying your “Masters” orders. You, and you alone, are responsible for your life. You must take back this responsibility from the politicians and the medical profession, since they are being used to enforce the agenda. The thirteen who control all on Earth, have been successful until now. They are prepared to go to any lengths to create their New World Order. They manipulate every situation for their own ends. They own all forms of news information and entertainment, and they ruthlessly use them to MIND CONTROL the masses.
It is up to each one of you to free yourselves from this manipulation by refusing to buy into it. It is time for all of you to take control. Start with your own lives and the lives of those who are dependant on you. Share freely all information that will help others to see the full picture. Become the LEADERS; not the mindless, who conform to the agenda for their own extinction.
I have asked, many times, for you to learn to meditate. Then, you will be able to get whatever information is relevant to you, directly, without third party involvement. It takes time to perfect meditation, but those who have done this, have benefitted hugely from the experience and the information gained. The Spirit World will assist and guide you. We are ready and willing to help you.
Free yourselves from all restrictions that were imposed on you by Church and State. Your minds are yours, and yours alone. Use them to your own advantage. Why would so much be done to dumb down your minds by those who control you, if they were not frightened of you waking up and using your minds to see what is being done to you. As beings, you are far greater than those who control you and manipulate you. They are terrified that you will come to realise this fact. They are IN FEAR OF YOU.
Your controllers are not capable of LOVE. They do not have compassion, so they can kill without conscience. They are constantly finding new ways of killing that you would never suspect. You must understand that your ability to love and relate to all living things is your greatest weapon. Love will win the day. LOVE has a powerful energy that invades their darkness. This is why they try to destroy it. To them, money and possessions equal love. You, on the other hand, know that love is what makes life worthwhile. It lifts you and embraces you. It engulfs you and makes you happy and fulfilled. Look with love upon everything and you will find that it improves the quality of your lives enormously. Where there is love, there is no room for aggression.
The Earth itself is trying to help you understand this, too. It lives and suffers also, because of what is being done to it. It is trying to communicate this to you. You need to protect and care for the Earth as it supports your lives by producing food, plants, and trees. It supports your wildlife. It needs to be loved and cared for. Treat everything with love and it will respond. By helping each other, humanity will survive. Planet Earth will be reunited once more with the living universe. This is your greatest adventure.
Look with eyes wide open at all the restrictions upon your lives. Ask what you can do about them. Ask why you just accept, without question, all the laws that enslave you. Questions need to be asked, and reasons demanded, in a civilised and respectful way. This is being done in Ireland. There is no reason why others cannot follow the example. It has to start somewhere, so why should not the most sinned against country on Earth, lead the way forward.
The true history of Ireland is hidden in the Vatican. When this comes to light, then the real history of your world will be available to all of you for the first time in nearly 2000 years. It is not possible to keep it hidden forever. It is time the truth was revealed and humanity moves forward in truth and light. Everything that Man needed to know and understand, was known back then. People were at one with Nature. They understood how the planet worked and they connected with other planets. Then, at one disastrous gathering of the corrupt, plans were made to take control of Mankind and to take over Planet Earth. All that was truth and light was destroyed. The enslavement of Mankind began and continues to this day.
Here is your task. You have returned to Earth in order to restore the truth and light, and this you will do. It will be done peacefully. Love will be your guiding light. This is a time for decisions to be made. The right decisions, that will benefit humanity and Planet Earth. The evil assault on humanity must cease forthwith.
My dear, life is difficult right now. Try to keep calm and controlled. Much is done to try to cause you fear. See it for what it is. Those who are with you, are with you one hundred percent. Circumstances are created to cause you worry and distress, but you must rise above them. The end result will surpass all expectations. Then, you will quickly forget all the suffering you endured along the way.
This is a critical time for your world. Keep calm and do not be drawn into the false information being put forward in an effort to start World War III. You want PEACE, not WAR ! Stand together for peace. You are the 99% and you must never forget that. You have a voice, so use it. We in Spirit stand with you, so you are not alone.
Appreciate all that Nature provides for you. Springtime is about new beginnings. This is Mankind’s NEW BEGINNING. Go forward with confidence because you are on the right track.
My love, I wish that I was still beside you, to comfort and support you. I am only a thought away. I never leave you. Love endures, my dear.
I am your adoring, Monty.
{mainvote}
By Kathy
Inspirational Message
Move from a place of knowing within you rather than as a result of adaptation to outer experience. Let go of you assumptions and need to control life's creative process. It does not ma...
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
unless otherwise marked.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
— Up ↑ —
Cosmic Awareness Newsletter 2012-01
{mainvote}
7 March 2012
Channeler: Will Berlinghof
Well...Anasazi1 just made me realize that there was no Cosmic Awareness message posted here recently,so here's the most recent one avaiable right one,as the CAC newsletter is for mem...
View Article Here Read More