Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection

Are there moonlets near Uranus' alpha and beta rings?

R. O. Chancia, M. M. Hedman

(Submitted on 7 Oct 2016)

The Voyager 2 Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) occultations of Uranus' alpha and beta rings exhibit quasi-periodic optical depth variations with radial wavelengths that vary with longitude. These patterns may be wakes from small moonlets orbiting exterior to these rings. Based on the observed structures in the rings, we estimate that the moonlets would need to be located about 100 km exterior to the rings' semi-major axes and be 2-7 km in radius. Such moonlets could help keep the rings confined. Due to their small radii and presumed low albedo, the expected brightness of these moonlets is on the order of the noise in Voyager 2 images.

Source: _https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02376
 
Altair said:
Are there moonlets near Uranus' alpha and beta rings?

R. O. Chancia, M. M. Hedman

(Submitted on 7 Oct 2016)

The Voyager 2 Radio Science Subsystem (RSS) occultations of Uranus' alpha and beta rings exhibit quasi-periodic optical depth variations with radial wavelengths that vary with longitude. These patterns may be wakes from small moonlets orbiting exterior to these rings. Based on the observed structures in the rings, we estimate that the moonlets would need to be located about 100 km exterior to the rings' semi-major axes and be 2-7 km in radius. Such moonlets could help keep the rings confined. Due to their small radii and presumed low albedo, the expected brightness of these moonlets is on the order of the noise in Voyager 2 images.

Source: _https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02376

Here is more from newscientist.com

Uranus might have two dark moons we’ve never seen before

Uranus may have two small moons that no one has ever seen, orbiting closer to the planet than any of its other satellites and making wavy patterns in the planet’s rings.

The ice giant has 27 known moons, far fewer than the 67 and 62 of its neighbours Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. Uranus is a smaller planet, which may explain the difference.

But it might just be that we haven’t previously had a chance to look for more moons. Unlike its larger brethren, Uranus has entertained only one passing spacecraft – Voyager 2, which tripled the number of known Uranian moons in its 1986 flyby. Uranus is also yet to receive an orbiting spacecraft like Jupiter’s Galileo and Juno, or Saturn’s Cassini.

In addition to its moons, Uranus has dark, narrow rings. Scientists detected the first of these in 1977, when the planet and its rings blocked the light from a distant star. Voyager 2 later discovered two moons, Cordelia and Ophelia, on either side of the outermost ring, named Epsilon. The gravitational pulls of the two moons herd the ring’s particles into a narrow formation.

Small, dark satellites

Now planetary scientists Rob Chancia and Matthew Hedman at the University of Idaho in Moscow have re-examined Voyager data and discovered wavy patterns in two other rings, Alpha and Beta. These may similarly arise from the gravitational tug of a moon that lies outside each ring.

“These moons are pretty tiny,” says Chancia, at only 4 to 14 kilometres across if they exist. That means they’re probably smaller than any Uranian satellite known – and too diminutive for Voyager to have seen clearly. Still, at least four of Saturn’s moons are even smaller.

The two putative moons are probably dark, based on the colours of their neighbours. “Not only are Uranus’s rings dark, so are most of the little satellites that are in that region,” says Hedman.

The existence of the two moons is “certainly a very plausible possibility”, says Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who has discovered moons around Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

In the coming months, Showalter and his colleagues will examine observations of Uranus by the Hubble Space Telescope, which spotted Pluto’s four smallest moons years before the New Horizons spacecraft visited in 2015. He calls Hubble “the best bet” for finding the Uranian satellites, adding that characterising their orbits is very useful.

If a Hubble search fails, a Uranus orbiter could someday succeed – or else rule out the moons’ existence altogether. “That would definitely be a good way to do it,” says Hedman.

Journal reference: The Astrophysical Journal, in press, arxiv.org/abs/1610.02376
 
Astronomers spot distant world in Solar System’s far reaches 18 October 2016

Astronomers have spotted a distant world that orbits far beyond Pluto, in the extreme reaches of the Solar System.

The object, known informally as L91, may be in the process of gradually shifting its way inward from the Oort cloud — a reservoir of comets and other icy bodies — into the nearby, equally icy Kuiper belt. No object has ever been seen doing this.

The discovery of L91 reveals more about the extreme worlds whose orbits lie beyond the gravitational influence of Neptune, the most distant giant planet in the Solar System. Researchers have yet to fully explain how these bodies end up in their current orbits. “Every time we find another one of these objects, it adds another piece to the puzzle,” says Meg Schwamb, a planetary scientist at the Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii.

Astronomers with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey discovered L91 in September 2013 using the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. The group has been conducting a detailed survey of a small portion of the sky, aiming to catalogue and describe the Kuiper-belt objects within it.

Going long

L91’s elliptical orbit never brings its closer to Earth than about 50 times the Earth–Sun distance (or 50 astronomical units, au). At its farthest, the object is 1,430 au away. That means its orbit is more stretched out, and centred farther from the Sun, than previously discovered worlds such as Sedna and 2012 VP113.

The location and trajectory of L91 make it “fascinating”, said Michele Bannister, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast, UK. She reported the finding on 17 October at a joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences and the European Planetary Science Congress.

L91 may have been tossed into its remote orbit by gravitational interactions with Neptune in the distant past. “This one is right on the hairy edge of everything,” says Nathan Kaib, an astronomer at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

Bannister and her colleagues think the object may have been banished as far as 2,000 au from the Sun before it began easing its way back towards the star’s gravitational pull. L91’s orbit “is changing in quite a remarkable way”, she said.

But Konstantin Batygin, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, isn’t so sure. He thinks Bannister’s suggestion that L91 was first tossed towards the Oort cloud and is now moving inward is too complicated. He argues that an unseen giant planet — such as Planet Nine, which he and a colleague proposed in January — might instead be shepherding L91’s orbit more simply and directly.

Bannister counters that L91 travels an orbit that is almost within the plane of the Solar System, rather than being tilted at high angles, as might be expected if it were being battered around by a Planet Nine.

Nature doi:10.1038/nature.2016.20831

Source: _http://www.nature.com/news/astronomers-spot-distant-world-in-solar-system-s-far-reaches-1.20831

Nemesis approaching?
 
Kepler has caught hundreds of asteroids, 24 Oct 2016, by László Molnár

A selection of Trojan light curves. The shape of the light curve depends on the shape of the asteroid and its altitude with respect to the Sun. Asteroid (22056) appears to be a binary object with a period of almost fifteen days (lower right). Credit: Gy. M. Szabó et al. 2016

trojanastero.png


Previously, the Kepler space telescope looked straight out from the solar system in a direction almost perpendicular to the ecliptic and the plane of the planets. This way, it could observe the same spot all year long, as the sun, and most of the solar system, were out of its field of view. But since the start of K2 mission, it has been observing parallel to that plane in order to better balance against the radiation pressure of the sun. This new strategy has two important consequences: One is that Kepler has to change its field of view every three months to avoid the sun; the other is that our own solar system, unexpectedly, has become a target for the exoplanet-hunting telescope.

For most astronomers working with Kepler, planets and asteroids zipping through the images are little more than a nuisance when studying the light variations of stars. Researchers from the Konkoly and Gothard Observatories in Hungary, however, saw a research opportunity in these moving specks of light. Following up on their work with trans-Neptunian objects, they examined the light variations of some main-belt and Trojan asteroids in a pair of research papers. They used a custom-built pipeline based on the software package Fitsh, developed by team member András Pál, to accurately measure moving targets in the images.

Main-belt asteroids were not targeted by Kepler, so the astronomers selected two extended mosaics that covered the open cluster M35 and the path of the planet Neptune, and simply tracked all known asteroids crossing them. Most of the objects were continuously observable for one to four days, which may not sound like much, but is significantly longer than single-night runs achievable with ground-based telescopes. Indeed, the researchers hoped that with Kepler, they could determine the rotation periods of the asteroids more accurately, without the uncertainties caused by daytime gaps in the data—and they did, but only for a fraction of the sample.

Asteroids zip through the images of Kepler. The large, overexposed object is Neptune, the smaller one following it is Nereid, one of its moons. Images of stars have been subtracted for better visibility. The video covers 69 days. Credit: NASA Ames/András Pál


https://youtu.be/7VMLYA8JYD8

"We measured the paths of all known asteroids, but most of them turned out to be simply too faint for Kepler. The dense stellar background toward M35 further reduced the number of successful detections," said Róbert Szabó (Konkoly Observatory, MTA CSFK), lead author of the paper. "Still, we have to keep in mind that Kepler was never meant to do such studies; therefore, observing four dozen asteroids with new rotation rates is already more than anybody anticipated," he added.

The other study focused on 56 pre-selected Trojan asteroids in the middle of the L4, or "Greek" group, which orbits ahead of Jupiter. Since they are farther out from Kepler, they could be observed for longer periods, from 10 to 20 days, without interruption. And this turned out to be crucial: Many objects exhibited slow light variations between two and 15 days. Long periodicity suggests that what we see is not just one rotating asteroid, but actually two orbiting each other—the study confirmed that about 20 to 25 percent of Trojans are binary asteroids or asteroid-moon pairs. As Gyula M. Szabó (ELTE Gothard Astrophysical Observatory), lead author of the other paper, said, "Estimating the rate of binaries highlights the great advantage of Kepler, because the interesting periods, longer than 24 to 48 hours, are really hard to measure from the Earth."

What Kepler did not see are rapidly spinning Trojans. Even for the fastest ones, one rotation takes more than five hours, suggesting that the asteroids we see are likely icy, porous objects, similar to comets and trans-Neptunian objects, and different from the rockier main belt objects. "A large piece of rock can rotate much faster than a rubble pile or an icy body of the same size without breaking apart. Our findings favour the scenario that Trojans arrived from the ice-dominated outer solar system instead of migrating outwards from the main asteroid belt," Szabó said.


Kepler aimed at the heart of the L4 swarm. Green dots are the known Trojans, black dots are the observed ones. Credit: Gy. M. Szabó et al. 2016

1-keplerhascau.png


As Kepler continues its new mission, more objects from the solar system are crossing into its view, including planets, moons, asteroids and comets. The telescope that transformed the science of stars and exoplanets will undoubtedly leave its mark in planetary science, as well.

More information:
Szabó, R., et al: Uninterrupted optical light curves of main-belt asteroids from the K2 Mission, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2016), dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201629059, arxiv.org/abs/1609.02759

Szabó, Gy. M., et al.: The heart of the swarm: K2 photometry and rotational characteristics of 56 Jovian Trojan asteroids, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2016), doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201629401, arxiv.org/abs/1609.02760

Journal reference: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Source: _http://phys.org/news/2016-10-kepler-caught-hundreds-asteroids.html
 
Catalog of Known Near-Earth Asteroids Tops 15,000, 27.10.2016

The number of discovered near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) now tops 15,000, with an average of 30 new discoveries added each week. This milestone marks a 50 percent increase in the number of known NEAs since 2013, when discoveries reached 10,000 in August of that year.

Surveys funded by NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program (NEOs include both asteroids and comets) account for more than 95 percent of discoveries so far.

The 15,000th near-Earth asteroid is designated 2016 TB57. It was discovered on Oct. 13 by observers at the Mount Lemmon Survey, an element of the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona. 2016 TB57 is a rather small asteroid -- about 50 to 115 feet (16 to 36 meters) in size -- that will come closest to Earth on Oct. 31 at just beyond five times the distance of the moon. It will safely pass Earth.

A near-Earth asteroid is defined as one whose orbit periodically brings it within approximately 1.3 times Earth's average distance to the sun -- that is within 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) -- of the sun (Earth's average distance to the sun is about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers). This distance also then brings the asteroid within roughly 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit. Observers have already discovered more than 90 percent of the estimated population of the large NEOs -- those larger than 0.6 miles (one kilometer).

"The rising rate of discovery is due to dedicated NEO surveys and upgraded telescopes coming online in recent years," {yeah, there must have been a real technical revolution in telescopes technology in the last 3 years} said NASA's NEO Observations Program Manager Kelly Fast. "But while we're making great progress, we still have a long way to go." It is estimated by astronomers that only about 27 percent of the NEAs that are 460 feet (140 meters) and larger have been found to date. Congress directed NASA to find over 90 percent of objects this size and larger by the end of 2020.

Currently, two NASA-funded NEO surveys -- the Catalina Sky Survey and the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Hawaii -- account for about 90 percent of new NEO discoveries. Both projects upgraded their telescopes in 2015, improving their discovery rates.

A recent upgrade to one of the Catalina Sky Survey's telescopes resulted in a tripling of its average monthly NEO discovery rate. When the Pan-STARRS system increased the observing time it devoted to NEO searching to 90 percent, it increased its rate of discovery by a factor of three. Pan-STARRS also will add a second telescope to the hunt this fall. As more capable telescopes are deployed, the overall NEO survey effort will be able to find more objects as small as and smaller than 140 meters (460 feet).

The NEO Observations Program is a primary element of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which is responsible for finding, tracking and characterizing potentially hazardous NEOs, issuing warnings about possible impacts, and coordinating U.S. government planning for response to an actual impact threat.

"While no known NEO currently poses a risk of impact with Earth over the next 100 years," says NASA Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson, "we've found mostly the larger asteroids, and we have a lot more of the smaller but still potentially hazardous ones to find."

Source: _http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6664
 
Altair said:
"The rising rate of discovery is due to dedicated NEO surveys and upgraded telescopes coming online in recent years," {yeah, there must have been a real technical revolution in telescopes technology in the last 3 years} said NASA's NEO Observations Program Manager Kelly Fast. "But while we're making great progress, we still have a long way to go." It is estimated by astronomers that only about 27 percent of the NEAs that are 460 feet (140 meters) and larger have been found to date. Congress directed NASA to find over 90 percent of objects this size and larger by the end of 2020.

That 27% number is based on an assumption of what we don't know and should be discounted heavily in the downward direction. NASA consistently overstates their capability to detect/track these objects.

Before retirement, I took a hard analytical look at the array of sensors required to bring the probability of detection/track to greater than 90%. No practical array of ground telescopes can even get close. The only way to do this is to launch a space-based array of telescopes (MEO orbit and lower) for stereo scanning around the earth/sun/moon. The cost would be just a drop in the bucket compared to the massive amount spent on idiocies.
 
After the "slow down" in 2015, the comet activity seems to pick up again:

Pashalis said:
Couldn't wait to share with you guys the latest numbers from AMS. It is not only Rocking and Rolling on the ground, but also in the skies. Still 16 days to go for this year though. Looks like this year (2016) will be the alltime record, in all departments:

20161214071134FZB3C.jpg


A closer look, without the number of reports about sightings:

201612140710433055W.jpg


AlltThe numbers in table form:

786CIL.jpg
 
10-15 feet of snow to bury California; wintry weather also targets South Video
USA TODAY Published 4:28 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2017 | Updated 8 hours ago
http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2017/01/04/california-sierra-snow-south/96164874/

C1VySoAWEAEfJ0p.jpg

https://twitter.com/squawalpine/status/816684573706911744/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

C1Wl3ahWIAALAOP.jpg

https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/816741372455690240/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

[Interstate 80- California IN THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AREA & SIERRA NEVADA]
http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi?roadnumber=80&submit=Search
Interstate 80-IS CLOSED TO TRUCKS FROM APPLEGATE (PLACER CO) TO THE NEVADA STATE LINE - DUE TO TRACTION CONCERNS - TRUCKS ARE ADVISED TO USE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE
b40b8ba1d3f15972c904553aa5ae73ea.png

80- CLOSED FROM COLFAX (PLACER CO) TO THE NEVADA STATE LINE - DUE TO TRACTION CONCERNS

Message: NOAA-NWS-ALERTS-CA
Sent: 00:00 PST on 01-05-2017
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/wwacapget.php?x=CA125837F2C8C0.HydrologicOutlook.125837F44F60CA.HNXESFHNX.0369243f4209f09390fff0d459829227
THE TROPICAL NATURE OF THE NEXT WEATHER SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE HIGH
SNOW LEVELS...OR ABOVE 8000 FEET...RESULTING IN ADDITIONAL RUNOFF
FROM SNOW MELT. RAIN TOTALS EXPECTED WITH THE MORE SIGNIFICANT
WEEKEND WEATHER SYSTEM WILL RANGE FROM 0.5 TO 2.5 INCHES IN THE
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY...IN THE SIERRA FOOTHILLS 2 TO 7 INCHES...AND
IN THE SIERRA NEVADA 5 TO 15 INCHES.
 
c.a. said:
10-15 feet of snow to bury California; wintry weather also targets South

Is it feet or inch? Could it be that they made a mistake there? 10 - 15 feet are 3 - 4,5 meters of snow! Or do they mean some high mountain top is getting that much snow?
 
Pashalis said:
c.a. said:
10-15 feet of snow to bury California; wintry weather also targets South

Is it feet or inch? Could it be that they made a mistake there? 10 - 15 feet are 3 - 4,5 meters of snow! Or do they mean some high mountain top is getting that much snow?

Snow & Weather Reports At Lake Tahoe
http://squawalpine.com/skiing-riding/weather-conditions-webcams/squaw-valley-snowfall-tracker
Snowfall Updated: Wed, Jan 4 @ 11:44am
As of 6am 6,200 | 24hr 6,200 | Cumulative 8,000 ft = 2438.4 mt | 24hr 8,000 Cumulative
Wednesday, January 4, 2017 15" 93" 23" 154" Total Accumulations
16132a2b2a65a77dcd5be4b5220c7f61.png


Sorry about that. The USA site was misleading, (as always). Still significant levels so early in the year. Thanks for the necessary correction :)
It is in inches at 154 inches = 391.16cm = 5.0688976 Ft. = 1.54499998848 Meters
http://squawalpine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/multiple_medias/media_snowy-chairlift.jpg?itok=DGSaK7TO

Heavenly Snow and Weather Report (South Lake Tahoe Ca.)
1-5-17 http://www.skiheavenly.com/the-mountain/snow-report/snow-report.aspx
18 " = 45.72 cm.
New Snow
Last 24 hrs: 18 "
Overnight*: 12 "
Last 48 hrs: 36 "
Last 7 days: 40 "
Map
https://www.google.fr/maps/place/Heavenly+Mountain+Resort/@38.9568128,-119.9426539,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xce810176609a01e8!8m2!3d38.9568128!4d-119.9426539

Heavenly 1-2-2017

https://youtu.be/KkUSDmjWlMI
 
Pashalis said:
After the "slow down" in 2015, the comet activity seems to pick up again:

[...]

2016 is finished now and here is the current count. Note: I've must have made a mistake above; the "All Reports about Sighting" I probably have taken from "all countries" instead from the "US alone ". The counts below should be correct now (still a record year in all departments...):

20170105113240NNBKI.jpg


A closer look, without the number of reports about sightings:

20170105113739JC2JJ.jpg


All numbers in table form:

8DHQG2.jpg
 
A contact in the States emailed an observation of the third, and severe storm system that continues to rack California.

It almost sounds like a mild form of bleed through in this recent event. As perhaps the continued up rooting of trees and the earths surface are experiencing and anti gravity effect. Or a shift in wihin the FRV.

Jan 18, 2017 The mail:
The power is out and the house feels as if it is twisting and spinning and getting ready to fly off into the sky.... i am hoping the windows don't break. This storm is worse than last week's storm.
My road has taken a huge hit in these storms, flooding and pot holes. Pardee Dam are surging, and they are having to let water out so the dams can hold more water. Dought? What drought?
Hoping that there is a break in the storm.

Published on Jan 18, 2017

https://youtu.be/W9YcA-SYGBY

Just reminds me of the following -Wizard of OZ 1939 and of course "Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection":

The Wizard of Oz 1939
Plot
wizard-oz-twister_l.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_(1939_film)#Plot
They meet Professor Marvel, a phony but kindly fortune teller, who realizes Dorothy has run away and tricks her via his crystal ball into believing that Aunt Em is ill so that she must return home. She races home just as a powerful tornado strikes. Unable to get into her family's storm cellar, she seeks safety in her bedroom. A wind-blown window sash hits her in the head, knocking her out. The house is picked up and sent spinning in the air by the twister. Inside the storm outside the window, she awakens and sees an elderly lady in a chair, several farm animals, two men rowing a boat, and Miss Gulch (still pedaling her bicycle), who transforms into a cackling witch flying on a broomstick.
Dorothy (Judy Garland, right) with Glinda the Good Witch of the North (Billie Burke)

The farmhouse crashes in Munchkinland in the Land of Oz, where the film changes to Technicolor. Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Munchkins welcome her as their heroine, as the house has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East, leaving only her stocking feet exposed. The Wicked Witch of the West, arrives to claim her sister's ruby slippers, but Glinda transports them onto Dorothy's feet first. The Wicked Witch of the West swears revenge on Dorothy for her sister's death. Glinda tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz might be able to help her get back home.

mythicquote.gif

http://tapestryinstitute.org/ways-of-knowing/mythic/tornadoes/

vibrating.jpg


2014

https://youtu.be/7F16hXNp15I
http://Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection: Quote:
440ae17077e40ef3d10c78eb86675e19.png
 
Electrical Volcanoes | Space News

https://youtu.be/UvIovdRmmoM
Published on Feb 14, 2017
In previous episodes, Andrew Hall presented his groundbreaking thesis on new aspects of Electric Universe geology. In his Arc Blast Theory, Hall explains the formation of mountains and other features on earth through the principles of plasma physics and electrical engineering. In this episode, Hall explores the possible role of electrical discharges in earthly volcanism.

Electric Volcano Thunderblog: The Maars of Pinacate, Part One https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2017...
 
:whistle:
Remembering Velikovsky's Comet

https://youtu.be/X-bHYXr1cN4

Published on Mar 7, 2017
ThunderboltsProject
In 1950 Immanuel Velikovsky’s book WORLDS IN COLLISION claimed that, in the middle of the second millennium BC, the planet Venus passed close to our Earth as a comet, creating a worldwide catastrophe. The response from the scientific community was a storm of protest. But now, after decades of independent research on the question, the cross-cultural evidence for the comet Venus appears definitive. The anciently-named attributes of comets are the anciently-named attributes of the planet Venus, a precise accord that could not be accidental.

Today's popular myth of stable and predictable planetary motions for millions or billions of years can no longer be maintained.

Edit: Added
Visual Comets in the Future (Northern Hemisphere) 3-5-17
_http://www.aerith.net/comet/future-n.html
 
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