Heavy Snowfall and Cold Wave in America Not Caused by Global Warming

Global Research | Feb 27, 2015 | Ganapathy Ponmudi

The heavy snowfalls during the months of December 2013 and January 2014 were caused by the excessive snow and ice deposits formed in the Arctic region during August 2013.

Last year, fifty states in the U.S. experienced heavy snowfalls during the months of December 2013 and January 2014. Based on the information released on the internet, I found out that the snowfall was the aftermath of the unusual formation of extensive ice deposits in the Arctic region. However, it is explained on the basis of the “Global Warming” conception.

We are told that the ice deposits on the surface of the sea in the North Polar Region melted and the resultant sea water on the surface evaporated with the heat and rose up. This affected the polar vortex, which usually circles the middle and upper troposphere and extends into stratosphere. This further altered the path of the polar vortex, which widely spread over the entire North American continent causing heavy snowfall. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2757831/Is-global-warming-causing-COLDER-winters-Melting-ice-destabilising-polar-vortex-study-claims.html

But the British Meteorological Department has found out from the records of 30,000 stations which recorded weather that during the past seventeen years, i.e. from 1997 to 2014, the world’s temperature had not risen at all. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2436710/Met-office-proof-global-warming-pause-climate-summit-confirms-global-temperature-stopped-rising.html

Hence the explanation given for the widespread snowfall in America last year, during the months of December 2013 and January 2014 on the basis of the “Global Warming” conception is totally wrong.

In the year 2007, BBC released a news item stating that a study conducted by Prof. Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski and researchers of NASA has predicted that particularly in the month of September 2013, the North Polar Region might be ice-free. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7139797.stm

But contrary to the predictions of those “Global Warming” scientists, the Arctic Region was not only not sea ice-free, but that ice had unusually formed in an area of around 5,33,000 square miles amounting to 29 percent of additional ice formation in the Arctic Region, and this was captured in the satellite images of NASA.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415191/And-global-COOLING-Return-Arctic-ice-cap-grows-29-year.htm

It proves that the unusual excessive formation of ice in the Arctic Region is the sole reason for the heavy snowfall in America.

There is also a possibility that this incident would recur if excessive ice is again formed in the Arctic Region. So, America, Canada and European nations may be alerted on these grounds.

Ganapathy Ponmudi is an independent scientist from Chennai, India.

Scientists puzzled by 'bright spots' on surface of dwarf planet Ceres

Two strange reflective patches spotted on Ceres.
Image: NASA, JPL

Mashable | Feb 26, 2015 | Chris Taylor

A dwarf planet is shining two bright lights at a NASA spacecraft right now, and our smartest scientists are unsure what they are.

As bizarre as that sentence sounds, that's the situation with Ceres — the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, officially designated as a dwarf planet (the same category as Pluto).

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is approaching Ceres ahead of a March 6 rendezvous. The picture above was taken February 19, from a distance of just under 29,000 miles, and shows two very shiny areas on the same basin on Ceres' surface.

Previous Dawn images from further away showed a single light on Ceres, which was just as mysterious. Then, to the amazement of every astronomy geek, the one light turned out to be two — reflecting roughly 40% of the light hitting them.

Read more..

Four More Mystery Craters Found In Russia, Bright Flash of Light Witnessed Claims Underground Explosions

Dahboo77 | Feb 23, 2015

http://www.undergroundworldnews.com

Four new mysterious giant craters have appeared in the Siberian permafrost in northern Russia.
Scientists spotted the new holes, along with dozens of other smaller ones, in the same area as three other enormous craters that were spotted on the Yamal Peninsula last year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetec...

Discourses on an Alien Sky | To Hear the Ancient Witnesses

Thunderbolts Project | Feb 21, 2015

The subject of this video series is the ancient experience of towering celestial forms that are no longer present. From a single snapshot of the configuration, we can work backwards to the first appearance of these bodies out of an undifferentiated cloud or sea of dusty plasma. We can then follow the configuration’s evolution through phases that range from quasi-stability to earth shaking catastrophe.


This is 4th in the series. View the other three Discourses--
Discourse #1: When Planets Were the Gods https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svfWv...
Discourse #2: The Acid Tests of Reconstruction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Z5x...
Discourse #3: Cosmic Catastrophe & Cultural Obsessionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJgQL...

Bad news for warmists: Sun has gone quiet - Weakest solar cycle in over 100 years

© spaceweather.com
Latest solar image with 
little sunspot activity

SOTT | Feb 17, 2015 | Paul Dorian

Discussion

Overview

The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky - has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. For the past 5 days, solar activity has been very low and one measure of solar activity - its X-ray output - has basically flatlined in recent days (plot below courtesy NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center). Not since cycle 14 peaked in February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots. We are currently more than six years into Solar Cycle 24 and today the sun is virtually spotless despite the fact that we are still in what is considered to be its solar maximum phase. Solar cycle 24 began after an unusually deep solar minimum that lasted from 2007 to 2009 which included more spotless days on the sun compared to any minimum in almost a century.

© NOAA/SWPC
The flatlining of solar X-ray output in recent days

Solar maximum

There was an uptick in the number of sunspots in April 2014 which produced a second peak during solar cycle 24 and it is looking increasingly likely that this will be considered the solar maximum point for this particular cycle (figure below courtesy NASA). Many solar cycles are double peaked; however, this is the first one in which the second peak in sunspot number was larger than the first peak which occurred in February 2012. Going back to 1755, there have been only a few solar cycles in the previous 23 that have had a lower number of sunspots during its maximum phase.

© NASA
Sunspot numbers for solar cycles 23 and 24 (current) with second peak

Consequences of a weak solar cycle

First, the weak solar cycle has resulted in rather benign "space weather" in recent times with generally weaker-than-normal geomagnetic storms. By all Earth-based measures of geomagnetic and geoeffective solar activity, this cycle has been extremely quiet. However, while a weak solar cycle does suggest strong solar storms will occur less often than during stronger and more active cycles, it does not rule them out entirely. In fact, the famous Carrington Event of 1859 occurred during a weak solar cycle (#10). In addition, there is some evidence that most large events such as strong solar flares and significant geomagnetic storms tend to occur in the declining phase of the solar cycle. In other words, there is still a chance for significant solar activity in the months and years ahead.

Second, it is pretty well understood that solar activity has a direct impact on temperatures at very high altitudes in a part of the Earth's atmosphere called the thermosphere. This is the biggest layer of the Earth's atmosphere which lies directly above the mesosphere and below the exosphere. Thermospheric temperatures increase with altitude due to absorption of highly energetic solar radiation and are highly dependent on solar activity.

Finally, if history is a guide, it is safe to say that weak solar activity for a prolonged period of time can have a negative impact on global temperatures in the troposphere which is the bottom-most layer of Earth's atmosphere - and where we all live. There have been two notable historical periods with decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The first period is known as the "Maunder Minimum", named after the solar astronomer Edward Maunder, and it lasted from around 1645 to 1715. The second one is referred to as the "Dalton Minimum", named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, and it lasted from about 1790 to 1830. Both of these historical periods coincided with below-normal global temperatures in an era now referred to by many as the "Little Ice Age". In addition, research studies in just the past couple of decades have found a complicated relationship between solar activity, cosmic rays, and clouds on Earth. This research suggests that in times of low solar activity where solar winds are typically weak; more cosmic rays reach the Earth's atmosphere which, in turn, has been found to lead to an increase in certain types of clouds that can act to cool the Earth.

Outlook

The increasingly likely outcome for another historically weak solar cycle continues the recent downward trend in sunspot cycle strength that began over twenty years ago during solar cycle 22. If this trend continues for the next couple of cycles, then there would likely be more talk of another "grand minimum" for the sun. Some solar scientists are already predicting that the next solar cycle, #25, will be even weaker than this current one. However, it is just too early for high confidence in those predictions since some solar scientists believe that the best predictor of future solar cycle strength involves activity at the sun's poles during a solar minimum and the next solar minimum is still likely several years away.

Source: Vencore Weather

'Solar Ballet': NASA releases spectacular 5yrs time lapse of Electric Sun

RT | Feb 13, 2015

February 11, 2015 marks five years in space for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which provides incredibly detailed images of the whole sun 24 hours a day. Capturing an image more than once per second, SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010. The imagery is also captivating, allowing one to watch the constant ballet of solar material through the sun's atmosphere, the corona.

Courtesy: NASA


Watch the original here: http://youtu.be/GSVv40M2aks

Best Of: Wal Thornhill: An Electric Cosmology for the 21st Century | EU Workshop

Thunderbolts Project | Jan 17, 2015 | Wal Thornhill

This talk by Wal Thornhill at the EU Workshop Nov 14-16, 2014 offers a compendium of the things that scientifically curious people need to know in order to see the electric force in its dynamic role from microcosm to macrocosm.

Rosetta Mission Update | 67P—The Violent Birth of a Comet

Thunderbolts Project | Jan 17, 2015

The electric comet idea forces us to consult the astronomical testimony of our earlier forebears, where independent accounts, told with different words and different symbols in different parts of the world, convey a story of planetary catastrophe.


Watch Update #1: The Rocky Comet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-a_j...
Watch Update #2: Comets May Not Be What We Thought https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UliV...
Watch Update #3: Oops! No Water on Comet 67P? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqxF5...
Watch Update #4: Rubble on 67P Defies Current Comet Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMkj...
Watch Update #5: Jets of Comet 67P -- Failed "Explanations" Continue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceZqI...
Watch Update #6: Comet 67P -- Electrical Sculpting of Surface Dust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0smmB...

Sea Turtles Use Earth's Magnetic Field to Find Home

A loggerhead sea turtle nests at the Archie Carr
National Wildlife Refuge in Melbourne Beach, Florida.
Credit: J. Roger Brothers

Live Science | Jan 15, 2015 | Laura Geggel

Female sea turtles, known to swim thousands of miles before returning to their birthplace to lay eggs, find their way home by relying on unique magnetic signatures along the coast, a new study finds.

For more than 50 years, scientists have been mystified by how sea turtles do this, said the study's lead researcher, J. Roger Brothers, a graduate student of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Our results provide evidence that turtles imprint on the unique magnetic field of their natal beach as hatchlings, and then use this information to return as adults," Brothers said in a statement.

Previous studies have shown that sea turtles use Earth's magnetic field to help guide them at sea, but it was unclear whether magnetic features also help steer them toward the nesting sites chosen by their mothers, the researchers said.

To investigate, the scientists examined a database of records covering 19 years of loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting along the eastern coast of Florida, the largest sea turtle rookery in North America. Earth's magnetic field, which acts as a giant invisible shield that protects the planet from dangerous solar radiation, changes over time. Earth's iron core is surrounded by a layer of molten metal, and as this molten metal sloshes around, it causes fluctuations in the magnetic field, with some areas strengthening and others weakening.

The researchers wondered whether turtles had changed their nesting locations as magnetic signatures drifted across the coast

A loggerhead sea turtle heads toward
the water in Melbourne Beach, Florida.
Credit: J. Roger Brothers

"We reasoned that if turtles use the magnetic field to find their natal beaches, then naturally occurring changes in the Earth's field might influence where turtles nest," Brothers said.

A look at the data, from 1993 to 2011, confirmed this idea. At certain times in some places, Earth's magnetic field shifted so that magnetic signals from nearby beaches moved closer together. During these times, turtle nests densely covered these areas, they found.

Similarly, there were fewer turtle nests, and the nests were farther apart, in places where magnetic signatures diverged, just as the researchers predicted.

"Our results provide the strongest evidence to date that sea turtles find their nesting areas at least in part by navigating to unique magnetic signatures along the coast," the researchers wrote in the study.

Scientists are unsure how turtles detect the geomagnetic field, but it's possible that tiny magnetic particles in their brains help the turtles process unique signatures, Brothers said.

Whatever the mechanism, it clearly helps sea turtles find their birthplace so they can reproduce, usually on accessible beaches that have soft sand, the right temperature and few predators.

"The only way a female turtle can be sure that she is nesting in a place favorable for egg development is to nest on the same beach where she hatched," Brothers said. "The logic of sea turtles seems to be that 'If it worked for me, it should work for my offspring.'"

The study was published today (Jan. 15) in the journal Current Biology.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

Rosetta Mission Update | Jets of Comet 67P -- Failed "Explanations" Continue

Thunderbolts Project | Dec 24, 2014

It seems that the puzzle of cometary jets continues to haunt comet science. The mystery has been stated and re-stated for decades.

But it’s possible that a resolution is now within reach, through the Rosetta Mission to comet 67P?Churyumov Gerasimenko?


This video is the third in a series of reports on the Rosetta Mission. First two updates:
Comets May Not Be What We Thought https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UliV...
Oops! No Water on Comet 67P? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqxF5...

Subscribe to Thunderbolts Update newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ETy41
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Electric Universe by Wal Thornhill: http://www.holoscience.com/wp/
Electric Universe T-shirts and Gifts: http://www.thunder-stuff.com

Lightning in the Wind

Thunderbolts Project | Nov 25, 2014 | Stephen Smith

Lightning from a supercell captured in
Paducah, Texas. Image credit: Kelly DeLay

Ionized particles from the Sun contribute to electric discharges on Earth

Electric Universe theories propose that plasma discharge behavior is a better model for solar activity than most consensus opinions would like to accept. Experiments using a positively charged sphere show that a plasma torus forms above its equator. Charged plasma bridges the torus, coupling the sphere’s middle and lower latitudes, consistent with the principle of “anode tufting,” a plasma discharge effect expected from a positively charged electric Sun.

Sunspot filaments, seen clearly in sunspot penumbrae, indicate that they are rapidly rotating charge vortices. Electric discharges in plasma form rope-like, hollow tendrils, so looking down into a sunspot will reveal its rotating discharge columns in profile. Since they are funnels of plasma, their centers are darker, where convection cells would appear darker at their edges.

Since the Sun is the most powerful electrical entity in the Solar System, it stands to reason that its influence will extend outward as far as its heliospheric boundary. That influence, as previous Pictures of the Day argue, instigates many electrical phenomena on Earth.

A recent press release ignores the primary electrical aspect of the Sun, preferring to focus on magnetic reconnection as the major factor in the Sun’s impact on lightning generation. It is a step forward for heliophysicists and planetary scientists to acknowledge the Sun-Earth connection, but it is disappointing to see them rely on such a poorly supported theory like magnetic reconnection.

Briefly, according to the announcement, solar magnetic field lines “stretch between two points…twist and entangle”, forming magnetic flux ropes that snap, releasing enormous energy that blasts away from the Sun as a solar flare or a coronal mass ejection. The field lines then relax until the next energy build-up.

Electric discharges in plasma create tube-like magnetic sheaths along their axes. If enough electric charge flows, it will cause the sheath to glow, sometimes creating a number of other sheaths within it. The sheaths are called “double layers.” Powerful electric fields appear between regions in the double layers, which accelerate charged particles. Sometimes, the stored electrical energy will be catastrophically released in a “Langmuir burst.” Those bursts are what conventional astrophysicists incorrectly call “magnetic reconnection”.

It is a confirmed fact that the movement of electric charges in plasma forms electromagnetic fields that constrict the current. As previous Picture of the Day articles point out, the constricted channel is known as a “Bennett pinch,” or “z-pinch.” The pinched electric filaments remain coherent over long distances, forming helical structures that can transmit power through space. It is that phenomenon that scientists refer to as flux ropes. They are also known as Birkeland currents.

Electric fields freely accelerate charged particles, which move outward in opposite directions, activating an electric current that follows the Sun’s magnetic field. That field is carried into Earth’s electrical environment along gigantic Birkeland current filaments. It was reported elsewhere that in September 2002 a major premise of Electric Universe theory was confirmed: weather systems on Earth are electrically connected to a field of charged particles called the ionosphere. Dual bands of plasma shining in ultraviolet light were found by the IMAGE satellite. The plasma streams are circling the Earth in opposite directions along the equator, carrying positive and negative electric charges.

Along with that observation, the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) satellites found what were called “space tornadoes” (Birkeland currents), electrified plasma vortices rotating faster than 1,600,000 kilometers per hour, about 64,000 kilometers from Earth. The THEMIS satellites, together with Earth-based stations, verified that those charged plasma formations are connected to the ionosphere. This means that the Sun is directly coupled to lightning generators on Earth—otherwise called thunderstorms.

As previously written, the capacitor effect is probably what contributes to lightning discharges. Capacitors are usually made of two conductors separated by an insulating medium, or dielectric insulator. An electric charge on one conductor attracts an opposite charge to the other conductor, resulting in an electric field between them that acts as an electrical energy reserve. Thunderstorms are most likely behaving like capacitors: the clouds are one plate, the ground another, and the atmosphere is the dielectric insulator.

Since the clouds are connected to the ionosphere, electric charges carried into the ionosphere by the solar wind cause increases in the electrical energy in the clouds, which also increases the stored charge in the ground. That accumulated charge overcomes the atmosphere’s ability to keep the two separate, so they reach out to each other in the form of “leader strokes.” When the two lightning leaders meet, a circuit between the clouds and the ground (or between one cloud and another) is completed: lightning flashes.

Stephen Smith

Click here for a Spanish translation

Scientists Discover An Invisible Shield Surrounding Earth, Baffled At How It Formed

Inquisitr | Nov 26, 2014

Scientists have discovered something truly remarkable in the Earth’s atmosphere. An invisible shield is located approximately 7,200 miles above Earth that scientists are likening to “force fields on Star Trek.”

According to Front Line Desk, the shield was discovered in the Van Allen radiation belts, two doughnut-shaped rings above Earth that are filled with high-energy electrons and protons. Held in place by Earth’s magnetic field, the Van Allen radiation belts swell and shrink in response to incoming energy disturbances from the sun. The Van Allen radiation belts were first discovered back in 1958. However, scientists only discovered two belts, an inner and outer belt extending up to 25,000 miles above Earth’s surface.

However, last year, Professor Daniel Baker from the University of Colorado Boulder and his team used the twin Van Allen Probes launched in 2012 to discover a third, transient ‘storage ring.’ According to their research, the third belt is located between the previously known inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts. This belt is different in that it seems to come and go as space weather changes.

The purpose of the ring was quite clear to the researchers — the ring is used to block killer electrons from entering deeper into the Earth’s atmosphere. These electrons can be extremely devastating at their near-light speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites and damage space systems.

Beta Wired notes that Baker likened the invisible shield to Star Trek force fields. The Earth’s magnetic field holds the belts in place, but the scientist says that the electrons in these belts — which travel at nearly the speed of light — are being blocked by some invisible force that reminded him of the kind of shields used in television series like Star Trek to stop alien energy weapons from vaporizing starships. However, in the case of Earth, the invisible shield is being used to stop killer electrons from entering the atmosphere.

Prior to the invisible shield discovery, scientists assumed that electrons making it into the upper atmosphere of the planet would be dispersed by air molecules, but it looks like these particles don’t even get that far thanks to Earth’s invisible electron shield.

Now that the scientists know the invisible shield exists, they are trying to determine how it was formed and exactly how it works.

“It’s almost like these electrons are running into a glass wall in space. It’s an extremely puzzling phenomenon.”

[Image Credit: NASA]

Impossible "Neutron Star" Shatters Theory | Space News

Thunderbolts Project | Oct 25, 2014

What is a neutron star? Astronomers tell us that these tiny yet massively dense objects form by gravitational collapse from the remnants of a massive star that has exploded. The theoretical neutron star was invented to try to explain highly intense bursts of energy from tiny regions of space. However, no one has ever seen a neutron star. Rather, scientists infer the objects existence when interpreting energetic emissions in deep space. Does a better explanation exist in the domains of plasma cosmology and the Electric Universe?

Source story: http://www.businessinsider.com/myster...

Previous Space News on yet another "impossible" neutron star: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni55CI...

Rosetta Could Change Science Forever | Space News

Thunderbolts Project | Oct 15, 2014

Human beings around the world may be witnessing one of the most significant dramas in the modern history of the space sciences. The ESA’s Rosetta mission to the comet 67P has shattered the theoretical predictions of standard comet science. For many decades, we were told that comets are dirty snowballs, which formed billions of years ago, tracing back to the solar system’s origins. In contrast, the electric universe has stated for decades that comets, meteors and asteroids are materials excavated electrically from planetary surfaces. Wal Thornhill explains that the Rosetta mission has already provided a stunning confirmation of the electric comet theory.

The Electric Comet feature-length documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wtt...

Previous Space News on Rosetta mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYIpU...

Looking for a fast track to comprehensive education on the Electric Universe? Those most eager to learn are invited to the EU Workshop, November 14-16, 2014 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. This event will be led by Wal Thornhill and Dave Talbott, who are preparing full summaries of their life’s work, something that has never been presented publicly. Wal’s talks will be complemented by additional material from electrical theorist Dr. Donald Scott, and Dave’s presentations will be reinforced by Ev Cochrane, author of several essential books on the ancient sky. Seating will be limited. Check out: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2014...

Subscribe to Thunderbolts Update newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ETy41
The Thunderbolts Project Home: http://www.thunderbolts.info
Essential Guide to the Electric Universe: http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/eg-co...
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thunderboltsp...
Electric Universe by Wal Thornhill: http://www.holoscience.com/wp/
Electric Universe T-shirts and Gifts: http://www.thunder-stuff.com

Rapid Geomagnetic Reversal Possibility: Confirmed

Suspicious0bservers | Oct 15, 2014

www.Suspicious0bservers.org
www.ObservatoryProject.com

FIRST 2 VIDEOS ARE ABOUT EARTH MAGNETISM: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=...

CITATIONS:
Weakening Magnetosphere
2003 BBC Magnetism Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/na...
2004 NatGeo Magnetism Article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne...
2006 NatGeo Magnetism Article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne...
2008 NASA Magnetic Breach: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/...
2011 ESA Magnetism Article: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Obs...)
Magnetic Field Animation: http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/igrf/an...
Pole Shift
2003 NASA Pole Shift Article: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y20...
2008 Kyoto Pole Shift Animation: http://geomag.org/info/Declination/ma...
2010 Kyoto Pole Shift Visual: http://wdc.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/poles/f...
2011 Discovery Pole Shift Article: http://news.discovery.com/earth/weath...
Magnetic Field Links: http://phys.org/news/2014-06-video-ma... - http://gji.oxfordjournals.org/content... - http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2014/1... - http://www.scientificamerican.com/art... - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/...

Unique organic molecule discovered in deep space

AFP Photo / NASA

RT | Sep 26, 2014

A new kind of organic molecule has been discovered in a giant gas cloud in interstellar space, indicating that more complex molecules – the very core building blocks of life – can potentially form outside of the Earth and even be widespread in space.

The analysis of a star-forming gas cloud some 27,000 light years away from Earth, published in the journal Science, detected an iso-propyl cyanide molecule with a unique structure that is common in life-forming molecules, such as amino acids.

While finding a simple organic chemical in space is nothing new, a carbon-bearing molecule with a branched structure has been discovered for the first time, indicating that biologically crucial molecules can form not only on Earth, but in deep space too.
 
“This detection suggests that branched carbon-chain molecules may be generally abundant in the ISM [interstellar medium],” the study’s abstract reads.

The scientists – Dr Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy and his colleagues – found the molecule in a gas cloud called Sagittarius B2 – the “star factory” near the center of the Milky Way where many new stars are formed.

The team used the 12 telescopes of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in Chile, to make its observations.

Reuters/ESA/Hubble & NASA

“Amino acids on Earth are the building blocks of proteins, and proteins are very important for life as we know it. The question in the background is: is there life somewhere else in the galaxy?” Belloche told the BBC.
 
“Our goal is to search for new complex organic molecules in the interstellar medium,” he said.
And the evidence suggests their presence could actually be widespread.
 
“The enormous abundance of iso-propyl cyanide suggests that branched molecules may in fact be the rule, rather than the exception, in the interstellar medium,” stated Robin Garrod, an astrochemist at Cornell University and a co-author of the paper, according to astrobiology.com.

Previously discovered organic molecules, like vinyl alcohol and ethyl formate, all shared a major structural characteristic: the atom carbons they consist of are arranged in one, more or less, straight line. So the finding of iso-propyl cyanide – the largest and most complex molecule discovered to date – is significant according to a Cardiff university astronomy professor.
 
“There seems to be quite a lot of it, which would indicate that this more complex organic structure is possibly very common, maybe even the norm, when it comes to simple organic molecules in space,” Professor Matt Griffin, head of the school of physics and astronomy at Cardiff University said.

The finding is already a breakthrough, but what scientists really hope to discover is actual amino acids.
 
“It's a step closer to discovering molecules that can be regarded as the building blocks or the precursors… of amino acids,” Griffin said.

Rosetta Update: Dirty Snowball is "Dry like Hell" | Space News

Thunderbolts Project | Sep 27, 2014

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission to the comet 67/P may be rewriting everything astronomers thought they knew about the nature of comets. The latest high-resolution images of the comet nucleus have astonished scientists around the world, revealing a remarkably jagged, pitted, black as coal surface. It is nothing like the so-called dirty snowball or fluffy ice ball that mainstream astronomers have long envisioned. Most astonishingly, scientists have reported they have not found a single trace of water ice on the comet surface. It is, in the words of mission scientist Holger Sierks, "dry like hell."

Source story: http://news.yahoo.com/rosetta-spacecr...

The Electric Comet documentary: Episode 3 Symbols of an Alien Sky: The Electric Comet (Full Documentary)

"Water" from Deep Impact: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1f99R...

Looking for a fast track to comprehensive education on the Electric Universe? Those most eager to learn are invited to the EU Workshop, November 14-16, 2014 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. This event will be led by Wal Thornhill and Dave Talbott, who are preparing full summaries of their life’s work, something that has never been presented publicly. Wal’s talks will be complemented by additional material from electrical theorist Dr. Donald Scott, and Dave’s presentations will be reinforced by Ev Cochrane, author of several essential books on the ancient sky. Seating will be limited. Check out: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2014...

[...]

Electric Sparks Shape Lunar Surface | Space News

Thunderbolts Project | Sep 25, 2014

According to a recent paper, scientists are now exploring whether so-called “electrical sparking may occur on the moon, altering the lunar soil. The scientists have developed computer models to explore how strong electric fields might accumulate in permanently shadowed regions on the moon, creating electrical sparking that fragments soil grains. Wal Thornhill offers a brief overview of the evidence of vastly greater, high-scale electrical discharge events that shaped the lunar surface.

Source story: http://www.space.com/27009-electric-m...

Previous Space News on electrical scarring on planets and moons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DEvb...

Looking for a fast track to comprehensive education on the Electric Universe? Those most eager to learn are invited to the EU Workshop, November 14-16, 2014 at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown. This event will be led by Wal Thornhill and Dave Talbott, who are preparing full summaries of their life’s work, something that has never been presented publicly. Wal’s talks will be complemented by additional material from electrical theorist Dr. Donald Scott, and Dave’s presentations will be reinforced by Ev Cochrane, author of several essential books on the ancient sky. Seating will be limited. Check out: https://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/2014...

Big Bang? Mystery Extends Into Nearby Galaxy, Puzzling Cosmologists

National Geographic | Sep 10, 2014 | Michael D. Lemonick

New observations of the star cluster Messier 54, shown above,
reveal that it is just as strangely deficient in lithium as our own
galaxy, deepening a mystery about the element's big bang origins.

Theory suggests stars should contain three times as much lithium as they do. 

A star cluster some 80,000 light-years from Earth looks mysteriously deficient in the element lithium, just like nearby stars, astronomers reported on Wednesday.

That curious deficiency suggests that astrophysicists either don't fully understand the big bang, they suggest, or else don't fully understand the way that stars work. (See interactive story "Cosmic Questions.")

The discovery, slated for publication in an upcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, doesn't threaten the basic idea of the big bang—that is, that the cosmos began in a state of enormous heat and density, then expanded and evolved into the universe of stars and galaxies we see today. (Related: "Big Bang Discovery Opens Door to the 'Multiverse.'")

"The most radical solution to the problem is that the big bang theory is incomplete. But less radical solutions haven't yet solved the problem," says theoretical physicist Brian Fields of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who was not involved in the observations.

Still, the mismatch between theory and observations is a sign that something isn't right. According to basic cosmological theory, the universe served as a nuclear reactor during its first few minutes of existence, forging the three lightest chemical elements: hydrogen, helium, and lithium. Every element heavier than these, including oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, silicon, and the rest, was created either in the cores of stars or in powerful supernova explosions.

Cosmic Questions

Exactly how our universe began
and what it's made of are among
the cosmic questions that scientists
are still trying to answer.

Based on their understanding of those very earliest nuclear reactions, theorists can predict how much of the three light elements should have been produced, says Joel Primack, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was also not part of the new observations. In general, those predictions are spot-on. "It's one of the great successes in cosmology," he says.

As long as you leave out lithium, that is.

"With lithium," Primack says, "the predictions are about three times higher than what we actually see in stars."

Different Galaxy...

This shortfall of lithium was uncovered in 1982, when the husband-and-wife astronomy team of François and Monique Spite first measured it. "So many people have gone back and re-measured it since then and gotten the same answer," says Primack, "that it's regarded as being well confirmed."

But nobody had measured stellar lithium in stars beyond the Milky Way, and that's what Alessio Mucciarelli of the University of Bologna and his colleagues set out to do with the new study. "We said, 'OK, if the problem is the same in another galaxy, it would confirm that this is a universal problem, not just local,'" Mucciarelli says.

They chose a globular cluster of stars known as Messier 54, part of a small galaxy known as the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, which is being slowly torn apart by the gravity of the Milky Way. "We honestly weren't sure it was even feasible," he said, "because these stars are so faint."

In the end, it took 30 hours of observation with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, one of the world's most powerful, to get the evidence. Stars outside the Milky Way have the same lithium deficit as those within.

...Same Mystery

One possible explanation for the lithium shortfall could be that stars originally contained much more lithium than they do now, and that the element was somehow destroyed in nuclear reactions. "It's not a crazy idea," says Fields, "but it's hard to work out in detail."

A more likely explanation, according to both Fields and Primack, is that there was some sort of energy release in the first few minutes after the big bang that suppressed the production of lithium, and which isn't being accounted for. If that's true, the now-missing lithium may have started out in another form as cosmological detritus. That flotsam, in turn, may have decayed into "dark matter"—a kind of invisible stuff thought to make up most of the matter in the universe today.

If that's true, says Primack, "the lithium problem might not be telling us something boring about stars. It might be telling us something fundamental about dark matter."

Given that the nature of dark matter is one of the major outstanding mysteries of cosmology, that could be a very big deal indeed.

Follow Michael D. Lemonick on Twitter.

Scientists Claim Discovery "Confirms" Standard Solar Nuke Model

Thunderbolts Project | Sep 12, 2014

On this series Space News from the Electric Universe, we have presented numerous recent findings that challenge the underpinnings of solar physics and the nature of the sun and all stars. However, based on a new scientific study, some science media are proclaiming a confirmation of the standard solar model, which states that a thermonuclear reaction powers the sun at its core. Wal Thornhill weighs in with the Electric Universe perspective.

Source story: http://news.sciencemag.org/physics/20...

Previous Space News on solar neutrinos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxAtAp...

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