Comet Holmes revisited 1 year ago

This amazing comet burst into the sky when its brightness zoomed to 2 magnitude. Eventually is appeared as big as the moon in the sky. Here is more about what happened.

http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=24&month=10&year=2008

10 intriguing extrasolar planets

Learn about 10 of the most interesting extrasolar planets and their characteristics

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/extrasolar_planets.html

strange weather on other planets

Weather on other worlds is many times unlike anything on Earth. Learn more

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/081020-mm-exoplanet-weather.html

Mysterious gamma ray bursts

What are these mysterious blasts from the past . Here is more.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/20oct_briefmystery.htm?list731500

Beautiful fireball photo

Once in awhile you might see a brilliant fireball light up the sky. Here is a great photo of one taken at a star party


Beautiful Fireball photo
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081011.html

Mars news

Snowfall Seen on Mars
By Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
posted: 29 September 2008
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080929-phoenix-update.html


Wind and Snow Do Strange Things on Mars
By Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
posted: 29 September 2008
06:53 am ET
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080929-mm-mars-ice.html


Melting Glaciers Sculpted Mars Gullies
By Andrea Thompson
Senior Writer
posted: 25 August 2008
05:56 pm ET
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080825-mars-gullies.html

Mars underground plumbing

More evidence of water traveling underground on Mars

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080926-fracture-mars.html

Shark attack on video

Amazing how this guy survived this shark attack by not one but two sharks!

http://video.aol.com/partner/animalplanet/untamed-and-uncut-double-great-white-attack/8852c0d8cd18927da0be4f200547051969d33815?icid=100214839x1210601480x1200591757

Scientist see the wreakage of planets that collides in a far away system

Scientists see the results of what happened when planets collide.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080923-worlds-collide.html

FOOTBALL-SHAPED NEW DWARF PLANET

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has just named the solar system's fifth dwarf planet, Haumea, after the Hawaiian goddess of childbirth and fertility. Located just beyond Pluto, Haumea spins so rapidly that it has been elongated like a football approximately 2200 km long. The strange planet has two moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka: IAU press release.
921/2008
http://www.spaceweather.com/
can't find it? use the archives and go to earlier date other then this one

Extreme environments and possible relationship to live beyond our Earth

I first learned about these creatures and special environments when I saw a video in the late 70s or 80s. I have been hooked ever since to find out more about these creatures and their possible tie in to life beyond our Earth. Read more .
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0809180-am-northern-vents.html

Total solar eclipse photo showing outer corona

Very impressive photo of total eclipse with wide angle shot of outer corona. A picture like this takes the use of many photos and a lot of time to produce

http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/Eclipse/Ecl2008m/Tse2008_200_mo1/0-info.htm

upside down rainbow

Upside down rainbow photo is taken of unusual phenomenon

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=135627

New creatures found in seas near Australia

New creatures have been found off the coast of Australia. Read all about it

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080918/ap_on_re_au_an/as_australia_new_marine_life

Unicorn-Like Animal photographed

Animals once thought extinct or on the brink are turning up all the time on the land and in the oceans. Here is information about the latest one.
By NANCY ZUCKERBROD
http://news.aol.com/article/camera-snaps-unicorn-like-animal/170495

The hurrican train: 3 storms in the atmosphere

Hanna, Ike and Josephine were lined. Some are weakening and others are lining up.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Nice video of comet mysteries and more

This video details more information about the mystery of comets
http://www.space.com/common/media/video.php?videoRef=comets_bright

Noctilucent slide video show

Nice video movie with music contains videos and scenes of recent the mysterious high flying noctilucent clouds

---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xF2vSKINK0

Destroyed in seconds 9/4 El Reno airport tornado destruction

2 category 1 tornado footages from Oklahoma (no date)

One was I think this year when the tornado was caught by the chopter pilot as it destroyed a pig farm. If you have not seen this, it was impressive close up footage. Commentator most of the pigs (in metal cages) survived which is hard to believe when you look at the ferocity.

Other one was anticyclonic rips off and rips through the long hangars

Mars Lanader probes soil even further

Analysis has begun of soil sampled  delivered to NASA's
Phoenix Mars Lander's wet chemistry experiment from the deepest trench dug
in the Martian arctic plains.

 http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/phoenix/080902trenching.html

Hurricane Gustav will hit New Orleans Monday morning

People are not taking this hurricane for granted. It is slow moving (which is not good , the slower it goes the more time it can stay around and pound any area/city). Now category 3 it could do much more damage then Katrina. Also it seems while it moves, the Republic gathering may be stalled until later.

http://news.aol.com/article/new-orleans-mayor-says-get-out-now/152235?icid=100214839x1208673938x1200502198

mars rover leaves crater

One of the rover needed to leave the crater it was in

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/080829-opportunity-marscrater.html


mars rover 10 best discoveries
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/top10_rover_discovery.html

Ash plumes and more from the Alaskan Kasatoch volcano

Current beautiful sunset are partially due to the ash plumes and more from the Alaskan Kasatoch volcano. This mountain is spewing sulfur dioxide gas and volcanic ash clouds high in the air which is creating some interesting colorful sunsets. Take a look at these satellite images.
Also try observatories in Cascades, Hawaii, Long Valley, Yellowstone

http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Kasatochi.php

more about Alaskan volcanoes
http://www.mms.gov/alaska/kids/shorts/Alaska's%20Volcanoes/alaska's%20volcanoes.htm
http://www.alaska.net/~logjam/volcanoes.html

Great Planet or mini planet debate rolls on

Great Planet Debate: Scientists Could Overturn Official Definition
Here you read up on past info on the controversy and some of the latest info
Information from the latest meeting we will here more I am sure
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080805-st-planet-debate.html

Tornado puzzle: what actually may trigger the hook signature on Dopplers

Are heavy rains the key for triggering tornadoes? Some scientists may have some
interesting correlations.

*Heavy Rain Triggers Destructive
Tornadoes<http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/22/tornado-rain.html>
*Michael Reilly, Discovery News

*Aug. 22, 2008* -- When the spring skies blacken over the Midwestern United
States and the clouds begin to rotate ominously, residents know a
tornado<http://science.howstuffworks.com/tornado.htm>could be on its
way.

But just how the deadly twisters form is a mystery that has puzzled
scientists for decades. They know a range of atmospheric conditions must be
in place, including strong, closely paired up- and downdrafts, windshear at
high altitudes, and usually a foreboding supercell thunderstorm, spinning
slowly in the sky.

Amid this stormy cocktail, new research suggests that the heavy rains that
often accompany supercells may be key in triggering
tornadoes<http://blogs.discovery.com/news_earth/2008/01/tornadoes-globa.html>to
form. According to Robert Davies-Jones of the National
Severe Storms Laboratory <http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/> in Oklahoma, rain
falling in heavy sheets from supercell storm cloud provides a strong push to
updrafting air, causing it to spin up into a fully fledged twister.

"You can have a rotating storm but until you have rain you don't get a
tornado," Robert Davies-Jones of the National Severe Storm Laboratory said.

Scientists have known this simple fact since 1953, when radar first allowed
meteorologists to peer into supercells. In tornadic storms, they noticed the
rain swirled into a hook shape. The feature, called a 'hook echo' quickly
became known as a tell-tale radar marker for a tornado.

But the swirling rain was regarded as a by-product of a tornado, merely the
effect of its powerful corkscrewing winds. Davies-Jones believes the
opposite may be true.

"The hook echo is usually thought to be a passive feature of tornadoes," he
said. "I'm saying it's not passive, it's an active mechanism for tornado
formation."

His work is published in the August issue of *Journal of the Atmospheric
Sciences*.

Davies-Jones ran computer simulations of supercell storms to see if falling
rain could provide the needed kick that turned diffuse updrafts rising off
the warm plains into tight-spinning, lethal tornadoes. As the rain
falls<http://science.howstuffworks.com/question479.htm>out of a
rotating supercell cloud it is also twisting, and as it falls he
found it transfers the rotational energy into the updrafting air adjacent to
it.

The rain also acts as a sort of wall, confining the swirling, rising air. As
it continues to head skyward the air inside the rain curtain stretches out
like a figure skater raising her arms. The spinning speeds up, and a tornado
is born.

"The mechanism is a good one," David Lewellen of the University of West
Virginia said. "But until these things are seen more conclusively out in the
field, it's not at all clear whether rain is involved in the formation of
most tornadoes, a few, or none at all."

Lewellen points out that rain is only one of myriad weather conditions that
have to be just right for a tornado to form. A massive field campaign of
experiments is scheduled for the spring season in 2009 and 2010 that he
hopes will determine if the implications in the models are correct.