According to Avi Loeb, a Harvard scientist, humanity will destroy itself long before the sun will have the opportunity to do so. Humans should be less concerned about what the sun will do and more concerned about the damage we are doing to ourselves.
Loeb warns that humanity will likely bring about its own demise “as a result of self-inflicted wounds long before the sun will pose its predictable threat.” Scientists say that in billions of years, the sun will incinerate our oceans leaving a desolate and dead planet devoid of life. But we are doing enough damage to ourselves, that humanity won’t even make it long enough to witness such an event.
As the star runs out of hydrogen and helium atoms to burn in its core, it glows brighter and brighter. Eventually, the sun will bombard Earth with enough high-energy light to incinerate the world’s oceans, melt the polar ice caps, and strip our atmosphere of all moisture — effectively killing all life. –Business Insider
“I am inclined to believe that our civilization will disappear as a result of self-inflicted wounds long before the sun will pose its predictable threat,” Loeb wrote. “Why do I believe that? Because the dead silence we hear so far from the numerous habitable exoplanets we’ve discovered may indicate that advanced civilizations have much shorter lives than their host stars.”
But is there a solution to humanity’s demise? A BBC reporter recently posed that very question to Loeb, an astronomer. In a recent Scientific American blog post, Loeb stated how imperative it is for our species to relocate to other parts of the universe that are less close to our sun’s vacillating brightness.
The astronomer doesn’t want us to remain shackled to existing planets and moons, either. He said it’d be best if humanity could “manufacture a gigantic structure that will be able [to maneuver] the optimal orbital distance at any given time” from the sun’s deadly energy. Once we successfully colonize both nearby and interstellar space, Loeb added, we can make genetically identical copies of ourselves and “the flora and fauna we hold dear” to seed other planets with life.
However, Loeb is not optimistic that this will happen. Humanity is on track to wipe itself out before the sun can pose a real threat. Obviously, the astronomer’s solution is one that will have to happen in the future and therefore, won’t do much for preserving people alive on Earth today. But to Loeb, it is more important to ensure the longevity of our species as a whole rather than protecting “our own skin.”
Artist’s impression of Oumuamua.M. Kornmesser / ESO via AFP – Getty Images
Maybe it’s an alien spacecraft.
Scientists have been puzzling over Oumuamua ever since the mysterious space object was observed tumbling past the sun in late 2017. Given its high speed and its unusual trajectory, the reddish, stadium-sized whatever-it-is had clearly come from outside our solar system. But its flattened, elongated shape and the way it accelerated on its way through the solar system set it apart from conventional asteroids and comets.
Now a pair of Harvard researchers are raising the possibility that Oumuamua is an alien spacecraft. As they say in a paper to be published Nov. 12 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the object “may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization.”
The researchers aren’t claiming outright that aliens sent Oumuamua. But after a careful mathematical analysis of the way the interstellar object sped up as it shot past the sun, they say Oumuamua could be a spacecraft pushed through space by light falling on its surface — or, as they put it in the paper, a “lightsail of artificial origin.”
Who would have sent such a spacecraft our way — and why?
“It is impossible to guess the purpose behind Oumuamua without more data,” Avi Loeb, chairman of Harvard’s astronomy department and a co-author of the paper, told NBC News MACH in an email. If Oumuamua is a lightsail, he added, one possibility is that it was floating in interstellar space when our solar system ran into it, “like a ship bumping into a buoy on the surface of the ocean.”
No, it’s not Pluto. Unfortunately for die-hard astronomy fans, Pluto is still languishing in its dwarf planet classification, and now it may become replaced by an even more distant planet, hidden somewhere in the mysterious Kuiper Belt. The supposed planet, creatively nicknamed Planet Nine, has not been proven to exist yet, but astronomers have a wealth of data that points to something about 10 times the size of Earth lurking at the edge of the solar system.
The search for Planet Nine started relatively innocuously with some research in 2014: astronomers Scott Shephard and Chad Trujillo published a paper studying a strange object called Sedna, a 1,000-kilometer-wide trans-Neptunian object (TNO). TNOs are minor planets, asteroids, and other bodies who orbits taken them farther out than Neptune, and include Pluto and 10-30 other objects.
The strange thing about Sedna was that it’s incredibly long and eccentric orbit seemed to tie it to an unknown planet somewhere outside the solar system, leading Shephard and Trujillo to hypothesize there may be a ninth planet beyond Pluto.
This led a different pair of astronomers, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, to start investigating other TNOs in hopes of finding a pattern that would show Planet Nine’s gravity in action.
In 2016, they announced that they had: several TNOs were shown to have orbits that were perpendicular to the normal orbital plane of the solar system, a phenomenon that can be explained by the existence of super-Earth-sized planet.
Based on the data collected, Brown and Batygin are 99.99% sure that Planet Nine exists.
Unfortunately, spotting Planet Nine has proved harder than they expected-even working with Shephard and Trujillo, Brown and Batygin have to rely primarily on one telescope, the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
Inclement weather and bad luck have repeatedly foiled their attempts at observing the planet directly. There’s always the chance that Planet Nine is ever farther out than expected, or that it’s much smaller than estimated, both of which would make it harder to see.
The other option? Planet Nine might not exist at all.
“What’s more, this unique mixture that makes up the stone appears to have formed in pre-solar time — meaning before the sun and the planets of our solar system.”
An alien stone found in Egypt is forcing the scientific community to question how the solar system itself was created.
The latest research on an extraterrestrial stone discovered in Egypt has shown its mineral composition is unlike anything found in our solar system. Further, researchers say the formation of the stone predates the sun, forcing the scientific community to question traditionally held beliefs about how the solar system itself was created.
The “Hypatia” stone, named for Hypatia of Alexandria, the first prominent Western female astronomer and mathematician, was first discovered in 1996. By 2013, scientists had proven that the rock, which is broken into pebble fragments, was not from Earth. Two years later, it was established that Hypatia had not come to Earth from any known comet or meteorite.
Now, in a newly published study, a research team from the University of Johannesburg has revealed that even less is known about the mysterious rock than previously thought.
“When Hypatia was first found to be extraterrestrial, it was a sensation, but these latest results are opening up even bigger questions about its origins,”said Dr. Marco Andreoli, a research fellow at the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and a member of the study team.
That team, led by geochemistry professor Jan Kramers, describes the internal structure of the Hypatia stone as something like a fruitcake that’s fallen off a shelf and landed in a pile of flour. The cake dough represents the majority of the stone’s makeup, the fruits and nuts are the mineral grains, and the flour is the material picked up by the stone when it impacted Earth.
To discover how Hypatia formed, the team analyzed the mineral compounds contained within the stone’s fragments. What they found was that the combinations of minerals were unlike anything else known to exist in our solar system.
For instance, Hypatia has the opposite ratio of carbons to silicons found in known types of meteorites. What’s more, this unique mixture that makes up the stone appears to have formed in pre-solar time — meaning before the sun and the planets of our solar system.
These discoveries, which suggest the Hypatia stone formed outside our solar system and long before it was even created, are forcing scientists to reexamine the prevailing theory that the solar system came about when a nebula collapsed into the sun and the remaining material formed the planets.
Future analysis will no doubt provide even more startling details about Earth’s most mysterious rock, but as professor Kramers states, revelations about Hypatia’s origins are already “tugging at the generally accepted view of the formation of our solar system.”
The latest research on an extraterrestrial stone discovered in Egypt has shown its mineral composition is unlike anything found in our solar system. Further, researchers say the formation of the stone predates the sun, forcing the scientific community to question traditionally held beliefs about how the solar system itself was created.
The “Hypatia” stone, named for Hypatia of Alexandria, the first prominent Western female astronomer and mathematician, was first discovered in 1996. By 2013, scientists had proven that the rock, which is broken into pebble fragments, was not from Earth. Two years later, it was established that Hypatia had not come to Earth from any known comet or meteorite.
Now, in a newly published study, a research team from the University of Johannesburg has revealed that even less is known about the mysterious rock than previously thought.
“When Hypatia was first found to be extraterrestrial, it was a sensation, but these latest results are opening up even bigger questions about its origins,”said Dr. Marco Andreoli, a research fellow at the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and a member of the study team.
That team, led by geochemistry professor Jan Kramers, describes the internal structure of the Hypatia stone as something like a fruitcake that’s fallen off a shelf and landed in a pile of flour. The cake dough represents the majority of the stone’s makeup, the fruits and nuts are the mineral grains, and the flour is the material picked up by the stone when it impacted Earth.
To discover how Hypatia formed, the team analyzed the mineral compounds contained within the stone’s fragments. What they found was that the combinations of minerals were unlike anything else known to exist in our solar system.
For instance, Hypatia has the opposite ratio of carbons to silicons found in known types of meteorites. What’s more, this unique mixture that makes up the stone appears to have formed in pre-solar time — meaning before the sun and the planets of our solar system.
These discoveries, which suggest the Hypatia stone formed outside our solar system and long before it was even created, are forcing scientists to reexamine the prevailing theory that the solar system came about when a nebula collapsed into the sun and the remaining material formed the planets.
Future analysis will no doubt provide even more startling details about Earth’s most mysterious rock, but as professor Kramers states, revelations about Hypatia’s origins are already “tugging at the generally accepted view of the formation of our solar system.”
A mysterious large object that has come from a different star system is to be examined by one of the world’s biggest telescopes for signs of alien technology.
The Green Bank telescope will examine a mysterious object speeding through our solar system to check for signs of alien signals. The observation begins Wednesday and will be carried out by Breakthrough Listen, a global astronomical program searching for evidence of other civilizations.
The cigar-shaped body was first spotted in the solar system by researchers on the Pan-Starrs telescope in Hawaii in October, Breakthrough Listen reports. Named ‘Oumuamua after the Hawaiian word for “messenger,” it sped from interstellar space going as fast as 196,000 mph (315,000 kph) as it went past the sun.
“’Oumuamua’s presence within our solar system affords Breakthrough Listen an opportunity to reach unprecedented sensitivities to possible artificial transmitters and demonstrate our ability to track nearby, fast-moving objects,” said Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center. “Whether this object turns out to be artificial or natural, it’s a great target for [Breakthrough] Listen.”
“Most likely it is of natural origin, but because it is so peculiar, we would like to check if it has any sign of artificial origin, such as radio emissions,” Avi Loeb, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and an adviser to the Breakthrough Listen project told the Guardian. “If we do detect a signal that appears artificial in origin, we’ll know immediately.”
The telescope, which is located in West Virginia, will listen for radio signals from ‘Oumuamua across four different radio transmission bands. The powerful telescope can pick up signals as small as those that come from a mobile phone. ‘Oumuamua is located twice as far from Earth as the sun.
The 400 meter-long celestial body is ten times longer than it is wide, and was thought to be an interstellar asteroid by many astronomers, but its shape is unlike anything seen before.
The Breakthrough Listen project was launched by Stephen Hawking in 2015 and is funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. It aims to listen for radio signals coming from potential other civilisations outside our solar system.
“Just in time for the summer movie season comes news that something huge is lurking out there at the edge of the solar system. It’s really big, it’s never before been detected. It’s warping gravity fields.”
“As Professor Whitmire argues, “the unconfirmed planet might trigger comet showers, bringing huge extinction events.“
‘This Is Not Normal’ – Another Rogue Planet ‘Detected’ May Be Within Our Solar System As 2013 ‘Meteor Strikes Moon’ Story Is ‘Recycled’ In 2017 – Predictive Programming?
In the new story over at The UK Express that the Drudge Report linked to Friday morning, readers can be forgiven if they readily dismissed the story as ‘fake news’ due to it’s headline alone: “END OF WORLD WARNING: Watch biggest explosion EVER on Moon as NASA warns we could be next!” What the UK Express story DIDN’T report is the meteor strike on the moon they’re reporting on actually happened back in 2013. “Predictive programming from ‘our handlers’?” asked one commenter on the 1st video below.
As the Express reported, a meteor with the explosive powers of 10 cruisemissiles had struck the moon, creating a massive explosion that was visible to the naked eye. While the 56,000 mile per hour collision was caused by a space rock weighing about 88 lbs, “the impact damage was colossal and the explosion shone with the brightness of a magnitude 4 star”.
Also reporting that a similar strike upon the planet Earth would create a crater about 65′ deep while creating a ‘kill zone’ equivalent to 10 Tomahawk cruise missiles striking in the same place, they report the death toll would likely be in the thousands due to its small size and it might just have burned up in our atmosphere if it were headed towards Earth.
That’s right, according to astronomers, ANOTHER new ‘Kuiper Belt’ object has been detected that is apparently playing havoc with planets gravitational fields and their angles. Claiming that ‘Planet 9’ is too far away to have these effects, they tell us: “so, there is almost certainly another mass out there”. Sounding almost like a science fiction disaster movie, the theories they bring up within this story about this latest ‘rogue planet’ are fascinating and eye opening.
It turns out that Planet 9 is not the only massive object out there warping the orbits of the KBOs. According to soon-to-be-published research by Kat Volk and Renu Malhotra of the University of Arizona, there’s another one. It’s called . . . well, it doesn’t have a name yet, but we can make a good guess.
The researchers tell us that these unseen planets are rogues. At some point they wandered into the solar system, and are captured by the gravity of Sol, our puny little sun. Now they’re stuck in orbit, messing with our calculations.
Here’s the thing to remember about rogue planets: They’re not just wanderers; they can be destroyers, too. Simulations tell us that some 60 percent of rogue planets that enter the solar system would bounce out again. But in 10 percent of cases, the rogue will take another planet along as it departs.
And there’s something else for the sci-fi paranoiac to chew on along with the popcorn. The sequence. In early 2016, astronomers find a disturbance in the Kuiper Belt Objects and think “planet.” Fine, natural phenomenon. Then this year, they find another disturbance and think “another planet.” Fine, natural phenomenon. Then how is it that we never noticed before? Maybe the disturbances are . . . recent. So if by chance we’re soon told of a third disturbance, then by the James Bond theory of conspiracy it’s enemy action.
Whitmire and his colleague, John Matese, first published research on the connection between Planet X and mass extinctions in the journal Nature in 1985 while working as astrophysicists at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Their work was featured in a 1985 Time magazine cover story titled, “Did Comets Kill the Dinosaurs? A Bold New Theory About Mass Extinctions.”
At the time there were three explanations proposed to explain the regular comet showers: Planet X, the existence of a sister star to the sun, and vertical oscillations of the sun as it orbits the galaxy. The last two ideas have subsequently been ruled out as inconsistent with the paleontological record. Only Planet X remained as a viable theory, and it is now gaining renewed attention.
Whitemire and Matese’s theory is that as Planet X orbits the sun, its tilted orbit slowly rotates and Planet X passes through the Kuiper belt of comets every 27 million years, knocking comets into the inner solar system. The dislodged comets not only smash into the Earth, they also disintegrate in the inner solar system as they get nearer to the sun, reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth.
Found in the vicinity of the Constellation of ‘Orion’ according to the Washington Post story, is it just a coincidence that the search for ‘Planet 9’ is also taking place in the Constellation of ‘Orion’? Nicknamed ‘the perturber’ by the Cal Tech astronomers who ‘discovered’ it, we believe it’s probably NOT a coincidence that the NY Times story reported:
SOMETHING out there beyond the farthest reaches of the known solar system seems to be tugging at Uranus and Neptune. Some gravitational force keeps perturbing the two giant planets, causing irregularities in their orbits. The force suggests a presence far away and unseen, a large object that may be the long-sought Planet X.
As NASA itself reports in this story, ‘Planet Nine’ may be responsible for tilt of sun/solar system with a great question being asked within it: how can one rogue planet be responsible for the tilt of the sun? How does it have such a powerful effect and if its responsible for the tilt of the sun, what effects could it have upon our own planet Earth?
From Astronomy.com: How could Planet Nine have that much influence on our entire solar system when it’s so far out?
Here’s why: Planet Nine is only 10 Earth masses as compared to Jupiter’s 300 Earth masses, but its orbit is huge. So it’s an argument that is basically like an asymmetrical see-saw or a dolly. Planet Nine has a really long orbit so it can assert quite a bit of torque on the inner planets without having to apply so much force. Planet Nine has as much angular momentum as the entire solar system combined, because it’s orbit is so big.
With even ‘Planet 9’ yet to be officially discovered, the 2nd video below takes a look at what some are already calling ‘Planet 10’ for lack of a better name and while astronomers claim that ‘Planet 10’ and ‘Planet 9’ are not the same the same beast, how have suddenly two such anomalies been detected in such a short period of time when the study of our solar system has been ongoing for thousands of years? It may be time to break out the popcorn.
— Astronomers from The Australian National University (ANU) are investigating four unknown objects that could be candidates for a new planet in our Solar System, following the launch of their planetary search on the BBC’s Stargazing Live broadcast from the ANU Siding Spring Observatory.
Lead researcher Dr Brad Tucker said about 60,000 people from around the world had classified over four million objects in space as part of the ANU-led citizen search for the so-called Planet 9.
“We’ve detected minor planets Chiron and Comacina, which demonstrates the approach we’re taking could find Planet 9 if it’s there,” said Dr Tucker from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Dr Tucker said the SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring used as part of the project was crucial in ruling out areas in the southern sky where Planet 9 could be situated.
“We’ve managed to rule out a planet about the size of Neptune being in about 90 per cent of the southern sky out to a depth of about 350 times the distance the Earth is from the Sun,” he said.
“With the help of tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers sifting through hundreds of thousands of images taken by SkyMapper, we have achieved four years of scientific analysis in under three days. One of those volunteers, Toby Roberts, has made 12,000 classifications.”
The team will confirm whether or not the unknown space objects are Planet 9, dwarf planets or asteroids by using telescopes at Siding Spring and around the world.
Dr Tucker said he encouraged people to continue their hunt for Planet 9 through the project website on Zooniverse.org
Professor Chris Lintott from Zooniverse and the University of Oxford said while Planet 9 had not been found, it had been great fun sharing the search with all of the volunteers over the past three nights.
“Between 100 million to one billion black holes are estimated to exist in the Milky Way, though only 60 or so have been identified through observation to date.”
A vagrant black hole is behind a supersonic space cloud speeding through the Milky Way ‘like a bullet,’ according to new research which proposes two scenarios for the phenomenon.
Japanese astronomers stumbled upon the isolated black hole concealed in a cosmic cloud while examining the remains of an exploded star 10,000 light years away.
The cloud has been dubbed ‘the Bullet’ due to its high velocity – faster than the speed of sound in space by more than two orders of magnitude.
The phenomenon is two light years in size and is moving backwards against the rotation of our galaxy.
The team was delving into the mysterious molecular cloud by making observations with the ASTE telescope in Chile and Japan’s Nobeyama 45m Radio Telescope, when they discovered signs of a stray black hole at its edge.
“We found a new way of discovering stray black holes,” said Tomoharu Oka from the research team on its findings.
The data revealed that although most of the Bullet was expanding at a speed of 50km/s, the tip of the Bullet had a speed of 120km/s, according to a statement from the Nobeyama Radio Observatory.
Two possible explanations for the Bullet’s formation, both involving a black hole, have been published in the Astrophysical Journal.
One scenario put forward by the astronomers was the “explosion model,” in which an expanding gas shell from the supernova remnant passes by a static black hole. The black hole pulls the gas in close, causing an explosion which accelerates the gas towards Earth.
Astronomers estimate that, in this case, the mass of the black hole would be at least three and a half times the solar mass.
The second explanation offered was the “irruption model,” in which a high-speed black hole storms through dense gas, dragging the gas along with the black hole’s strong gravity to form a gas stream. In this instance, researchers estimate the mass of the black hole would be 36 times the solar mass or larger.
The team has been unable to determine which scenario is more likely based on the data examined so far, but hopes to use higher resolution observations to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Between 100 million to one billion black holes are estimated to exist in the Milky Way, though only 60 or so have been identified through observation to date. Lone wandering black holes are notoriously difficult to spot, but astronomers hope this new method may lead to the identification of more of the elusive celestial entities.
Sunrise or sunset can be a breathtaking spectacle, and even serve as an inspiration for a work of art. But how would such a spectacle look if observed from another planet of our solar system? Perhaps you may find an answer to this question while browsing the following gallery composed of works by Ron Miller, an acclaimed illustrator and writer specializing in science, astronomy, science fiction and fantasy.
The sunrise on Mercury is at least three times as bright as on Earth.
Scientists have found traces of a mysterious planet that’s lurking at the edges of our solar system, and many believe it could be the infamous Planet X, also known as Nibiru.
Spanish scientists at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, have recently discovered not one, but two new giant celestial bodies hiding behind Pluto, right near the edge of our solar system.
One planet is believed to be around 10 times the size of Earth, while the other one is estimated to be the size of Mars. The team of astronomers concluded that the two mysterious planets orbit at a distance equal to 200 times Earths distance from the Sun.
Backing up this find, astronomers at California Institute of technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, have found more evidence of a giant new planet in the far reaches of our solar system. Planet Nine has been discovered after researching the strange orbits of objects found in the Kuiper Belt.
With the use of mathematical models, scientists noticed that the existence of a large and previously unknown planet could explain the mystery behind these frozen objects’ behavior and also a number of other space anomalies.
This new planet is 10 times more massive than the Earth and is orbiting 20 times farther from the Sun than distant Neptune does. Although the planet appears on paper, observing it is another challenge altogether, but their find is extremely similar to that of the Spanish astronomers from 2014.
“This would be a real ninth planet,” said astronomer Mike Brown of Caltech. “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It’s a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that’s still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting.”
Since the team has no idea of the planet’s whereabouts, it may take some time before they manage to point a telescope at it. The planet’s orbit has been mapped out, but its exact location remains unknown. Still, researchers believe that numerous telescopes on Earth have a good chance of spotting the planet, if it exists.
SOLAR SYSTEM SEARCH Researchers are trying to pin down where to find a hypothetical ninth planet in the solar system (illustrated).
R. Hurt/IPAC, Caltech
More clues about where to search for a possible ninth planet lurking in the fringes of our solar system are emerging from the Kuiper belt, the icy debris field beyond Neptune. And new calculations suggest that the putative planet might be brighter — and a bit easier to find — than once thought.
Evidence for the existence of Planet Nine is scant, based on apparent alignments among the orbits of the six most distant denizens of the Kuiper belt (SN: 2/20/16, p. 6). Their oval orbits all point in roughly the same direction and lie in about the same plane, suggesting that a hidden planet, about five to 20 times as massive as Earth, has herded them onto similar trajectories.
Planet Nine’s average distance from the sun is most likely between 500 and 600 times as far as Earth’s, Brown and Batygin report. Its orbit is highly stretched and tipped by about 30 degrees relative to the rest of the solar system, taking it well above and below the orbits of the eight known worlds. And right now, it’s probably near its farthest point from the sun — possibly as far as 250 billion kilometers away — in a large patch of sky around the constellation Orion.
As we orbit the Sun, a little asteroid orbits us, scientists have discovered, in a dance that will go on for centuries.
The new asteroid, named 2016 HO3, is too distant to be considered a satellite of our planet like the Moon, but astronomers designate this constant companion a “quasi-satellite”.
It “loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun”, says Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
“One other asteroid – 2003 YN107 – followed a similar orbital pattern for a while over 10 years ago, but it has since departed our vicinity.
“This new asteroid is much more locked on to us. Our calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth’s companion for centuries to come.”
“Our citizens should know the urgent facts…but they don’t because our media serves imperial, not popular interests. They lie, deceive, connive and suppress what everyone needs to know, substituting managed news misinformation and rubbish for hard truths…”—Oliver Stone
Tales from the Conspiratum 