Original Post December 16, 2011 New images of the third largest asteroid reveal etched chasms and deep holes. The Dawn mission continues in orbit around Vesta. Vesta is ranked high among minor planets, with Pallas (531 kilometers) and Ceres (952 kilometers) as its larger cousins. Ceres is also part of…
Original Post December 13, 2011 A remote galaxy is said to host two black holes. Could an electrical explanation better fit the observation? Electric Universe advocates propose that electric currents in plasma generate magnetic fields that constrict the current. As previous Picture of the Day articles point out, the constricted…
Original Post December 9, 2011 Throughout human history the planet Mars has held mankind’s rapt attention. When telescopes were sufficiently advanced by the late nineteenth century, the red planet seasonally fogged over with dust storms. After such storms it appeared to darken in spots with what was thought to be…
Original Post December 5, 2011 A bright star without companions challenges popular theories. Electricity comes to the rescue. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released this image of a “superstar,” named VFTS682. It appears reddish, but the color is attributed to the absorption of higher wavelengths by surrounding dust. The…
Original Post December 2, 2011 Gamma-rays are said to be particles with no mass, yet possessed of extreme momentum. According to a recent press release, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected several unidentified sources of intense gamma-ray emissions that are not seen in any other frequencies. NASA launched the…
Original Post November 30, 2011 Did pieces of stone really carve these holes? Rockwood Provincial Park lies alongside the Grand River in the Niagara Escarpment region of Canada. Numerous geological features are located in the park and all are attributed to glacial action as the sole creation mechanism. The two…
Original Post November 28, 2011 Consensus opinions state that a star in the latter stages of its life will undergo violent upheavals as its supply of hydrogen fuel diminishes and the “ash” of heavier elements accumulates in its core. Before stars reach the final white dwarf stage in their evolution,…
Cracks in Theory by Andrew Hall Every butte has a crack, but not all cracks are beautiful. Though some are magnificent, ruler-straight, and parallel, some can be ugly, chaotic mangles. But there is a quixotic pattern to ugly cracks, so we must not discriminate. Whether they make lovely geometric shapes…
Original Post November 16, 2011 The key to modern knowledge is the exclusion of disproof and other possibilities. From the press release (emphasis added): Data from [five instruments] were combined to create the most complete spectrum of an asteroid ever assembled. This spectrum of Lutetia was then compared with that…
Original Post November 15, 2011 MESSENGER has completed 100 orbits around the planet Mercury. In the image at the top of the page, all the characteristics of an electric discharge leaping from Mercury’s surface to space can be seen. The crater walls are terraced, there is a peculiar spiral-shaped crater…
