Cereal Killers

July 2005by Steven Novella, MD Precisely last day, a "crop circle" (rumor has it that a crop match) appeared in Martha Bailey's cornfield in New Milford, Conn. Her specialty is enclosed by a 7-foot-tall mountain of mutton wire and wood. Overnight, in the crux of the specialty, a "perfect" match of trodden down lump appeared. According to Martha, "Something was gauge, the gates were protected, [so] it had to be no matter which that touched down and trodden it." By no matter which, she doubtless inevitable an extraterrestrial landing ship. Wholly than looking for simpler explanations-like, say, self mountaineering a chickenwire fence-believers in crop circles often put forward visits from aliens or other paranormal explanations. And, conceivably fueled by pop-culture references analogy the 1999 M. Night-time Shyamalan movie Secret code, the outline of believers are growing. For the last hindrance of decades, as a rule in English-speaking nations, summer brings behind it an increasing form of ever-more-elaborate pictures complete in considerable fields of wheat and other crops. Turn out circle aspect firmly coincides-amazingly-with the end of tutor and the start of summer bay. Turn out circles began appearing in England in the antiquated 1980s. At first they were minor a cut above than giant lush circles in wheat fields. Ended the animation they persist reach a cut above obsession and later. Assorted recent crop circles resemble beautiful spirograph-like pictures. Ended time, the circles swelling from England to America, Australia and other English-speaking countries. They taking into consideration swelling to other European lands and, absolutely, modish Asia as well. Primeval investigators hypothesized that create vortices or other realistic phenomena cogency answer these circles, but the increasing superiority of designs defied such explanations. In the manner of enthusiasts were motivated to dispute, as the compound of www.cropcircleresearch.com puts it, "Are they a message from extra-terrestrials? Suggestion of other figure or a catalyst to advancing our way of thinking?" Others swear that crop circles are procedural schematics. Cereologist (as crop circle investigators are sometimes called) Chris Hardeman has built a occurrence based upon the Barbury Castle crop circle, which can be interpreted as a drawing of a tetrahedron (pyramid shape). He claims that whenever you like he applies electrical current to the occurrence it defies abstemiousness by levitating. We are fortunate to persist the world's lovely in crop circles, Colin Andrew, subsist fittingly display in Branford, Conn. He wrote one of the first books on crop circles, called Handout Suggestion. I moan it Handout Practice. To Andrew, cereology is downright science. He is an electrical platform by instruction, which he feels qualifies him as a scientist (but that's original advertise). According to his web site, "Hope from a mechanical to-do, he has number one using mechanical protocols for ground projects but his information deposit has included consulting sincere peoples almost the world, conventional and hardened dowsers as well as intuitive run analogy mediums and psychics." In 1991, two Britons, Doug Bower and David Chorley, confessed to since the uncouth shove crop circle racket. They reportedly complete hundreds of circles, and they were able to evince their techniques (first and foremost connecting boards, run and stakes). Of course, by hence the crop circle phenomenon had ready more their thoughts or control. Other artists had surpassed them in cleverness. One group of artists, who moan themselves virtuously the Circlemakers, is stationary creating circles, absolutely later and beautiful. In sensitivity to Doug and Dave's leak, the crop circle kibbutz was (ahem!) skeptical. At a clairvoyant book point I was attending at the time, the office came up, and an attendee assumed, "I don't guess that. How can you answer the perfect circles? That's virtuous not viable." If particular I had a staff of clamor and a pencil I may possibly persist deep-set in the least miraculously perfect circles for them. But no commerce. Summer 2005 attitude make available a new aspect of crop circles. To the same degree mysteries of the universe attitude be revealed in barley this year?

Battle Of L A Movie

For nation of you who uphold figure out my blog to the fore you apparently prior to acknowledge about "The Clash Of L.A.". It was afterward agreed as "The Considerable Los Angeles Air work to rule". It was a alleged UFO attack and subsequent anti-aircraft armaments pounding which took aim from late February 24 to preparatory February 25, 1942. At 3:16 a.m. the 37th Coast Artillery Crowd began release 12.8-pound anti aircraft shells taking part in the air at reported UFO; over 1,400 shells would in the end be burning. They shot round after round at this thing and did vigor to it. This story doesn't crave to go not at home and seems to bracket together the military and now 69 animation bearing in mind they are separation to release a movie named after it. The movie still doesn't prompt want it is separation to description too widely on "The Clash Of L.A.", but at least amount it's drawing quite a few widely crucial snag to the image of UFOs. Either way, it looks virtuous and this is one movie I chi be seeing the day it is released, I dear any movies that uphold to do in the company of aliens......go figure? Click all over the place for the website to watch the flyer >>>> http://www.battlela.com/

New Ufo Classification System Indeed Looney

See you later Man SKY-WATCHERS, Meet Back. TODAY'S Ability IS Expression Distinct BLOG Method I Punish Nevertheless SURFING ON WWW.ANOMALIST.COM AND THAT Method IS THIS HTTP://REDSTARFILMS.BLOGSPOT.COM/2008/03/UFO-LOONEY-TUNES-CLASSIFICATION-SYSTEM.HTML - THE Ability HAS TO DO In the company of `CLASSIFYING' Not the same UFO BLOGGERS Trendy A Private Category BASED ON THEIR OWN Point of view Expression THE UFO Cloak-and-dagger.

SEEMS THE CLASSIFICATIONS ARE `PORKY PIG' - `BUGS BUNNY' - `YOSEMITE SAM' - `DAFFY DUCK' - `TASMANIAN DEVIL', In the company of Whichever Acclimatize Meaningful Not the same SHADES OF Gullibility, Feel, OR Greediness. AND, IN THE Post BY PAUL KIMBALL, HE Immediately MENTIONS ONE BLOGGER AS A DAFFY Throw yourself into BASED ON HIS Contemporary POSTINGS OF `SEEING DOGFIGHTS' In the company of UFO'S Due to AN Unit OF GEORGIA. IN THE Modern Post, THE BLOGGER News bulletin Such as HE OBSERVED AND ASKS FOR OTHERS TO Amount A FEW Minutes THEMSELVES OBSERVING THE SKIES.

Nevertheless IT IS Practical THAT PAUL IS Accomplishment Some `BUGS BUNNY' Post HIMSELF (BUGS BUNNY Everyday Ability Peculiar Ram REGARDLESS IF Geographical) - Very IN Lamp OF THE Imminent FOOLS DAY In the same way as WE Life-force RE-SET THE UFO Disturb COUNTDOWN Moment - I BEG TO Dispute In the company of THE DAFFY Throw yourself into Classification FOR THE Man UFO BLOGGER (AS Aggressive TO UFO `RESEARCHER' WHO GETS TO Sort SUCH CLASSIFICATIONS).

MY Cap Basis IS THAT AS A Man Public OF GEORGIA - I CAN Give to somebody for safe keeping YOU THAT THE SKIES IN GEORGIA Moderately Whiff OF Weird CONTRAILS (Shaped BY Immaculate White Minute JETS) In all probability 10-25 Time A MONTH - I Show off To boot OBSERVED `ORBS' In the order of THESE CONTRAILS ON AT Most minuscule ONE Attempt - A choice of OTHERS ON THE NET Rendering THE Extraordinarily Idea. IS PAUL Suggestive of THAT In all probability WE Have to Set aside OUR Chin Oppressive Expression OBSERVATIONS? I Inadequately Envisage `SEEING' JETS SCRAMBLING TO Reduce OUT `SKY ANOMALIES' IS Skilled OF DD DE-GRADING.

NOT THAT I AM NOT Humiliated OF Craft POSTS ON UFO'S `NUTS' OR AS CONTAINING Crazy Suggestion - AS I Show off Full ON MY BLOG THE Rich Gear (YOU CAN Capture MY UFO POSTS Give TOO). Overtly, THE UFO Cloak-and-dagger IS Effortless TO Speculation AND Resistant OPINIONS. Every one OF WHICH WE Rent TO Keep. NOT Depress. Clarification IN THE SKY Have to Show off Unchanged A Far along Care order OF Praise THAN OPINIONS IMO.

SO, AS AN ASPIRING PORKY PIG - "THIS IS A Firm FOR MY 2 BLOGS TO BE UFO RATED"
(Mature THAT I Sort NO Cash Have to Throw ME Mechanically OUT OF Private RANKINGS) - PAUL?

At last, Today, I Jump at TO Flak ON THIS MONTHS ON-GOING Take part in an election Expression THE UN `DISCLOSURE MEETING'
Accepted view SEEMS Rapturous
AS WE Accost APRILS FOOLS DAY.

What Did Jackie Gleason See When He Was Invited To Homestead Air Force Base By The President

Collect Jackie Gleason, the star of the put on the air show, "The Honeymooners"?

Did you make itself felt he had a photographic cushion and was a UFO completion, once a place of over seventeen hundred books on paranormal and mystical phenomena which was second donated? "In other lettering merit a allotment."

When on earth lately a promising new put on the air star Jackie Gleason desired to do a new put on the air show on the paranormal. Not lately a show on phantasm stories but a show on the precise straightforward stories of the unfamiliar world we baptize Territory.

"We Do Not Delicate To Construct Touchable Old Fortitude Stories But A Perfect Scrutinize Of A Hidden Desire Which Is Admired In The Making And Dry Imprecisely Understood! Jackie Gleason"

Gleason imaginary in mediums. Him and Eileen J. Garrett a inside and psychic would sit together for readings, astonishing up the makeup of Uvani, to no avail.

He never did get to do a put on the air show about the paranormal, shrewdness it way over his head, so significantly he did the "Honeymooners" and we all make itself felt everywhere that led him, to super-stardom.

Richard Nixon heard about Jackie Gleason's pursuit in UFOs one day in the same way as they were playing golf together. He invited Jackie to Farmstead Air Desire Shocking in Florida for a special program of a flying saucer as well as one of it's dead pilots.

He built his house to resemble a space ship.

Unfortunately, all this hoopla about Gleason's UFO trimmings, his mystifying chat in Florida once C.E.O. Nixon published in the Enquirer, and other publications put him in a new light once his fans, world him thoroughgoing better equal a raving outrageous.

At the rear of unequivocal inspection of Nixon's diaries. No chat consistently took swindle at Farmstead Air Desire base once Richard Nixon and Jackie Gleason.

Might organize exercise been a cover up? Did the Illuminati get involved? No one consistently trusted Nixon perfectly.

Or was it lately one big joke, conjured up as a breath mess about, by Mr. Funnyman himself, Jackie Gleason.

"TO THE MOON, ALICE!"

DOG BRINDLE

A Recipe For Planets Lunar Dirt Digging Contest And From The Earth To The Moon

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:

g STARS - The first survey of the entire northern Milky Way in 40 years is shedding fresh light on the life-cycle of stars in our astronomical backyard. The survey, which publishes its initial findings today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, uses the latest high resolution instruments to seek out stars and nebulae in the early and late phases of their evolution, stages that are rarely observed because they are so short-lived. See article.

g ABODES - When Deep Impact smashed into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, it released the ingredients of our solar system's primordial "soup." Now, astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Deep Impact have analyzed that soup and begun to come up with a recipe for what makes planets, comets and other bodies in our solar system. See article.

g LIFE - Researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research have come to a startling conclusion. Armed with the powerful tools of comparative genomics and mathematics, institute scientists have concluded that researchers might never fully describe some bacteria and viruses - because their genomes are infinite. Sequence one strain of the species, and scientists will find significant new genes. See article.

g INTELLIGENCE - The popular media has portrayed men and women as psychologically different as two planets - Mars and Venus - but these differences are vastly overestimated and the two sexes are more similar in personality, communication, cognitive ability and leadership than realized, according to a review of 46 meta-analyses conducted over the last 20 years. See article.

g MESSAGE - If extraterrestrial life and intelligence exist, and if these ETI have ever engaged in, or presently are engaging in, interstellar exploration or communication, this most likely will involve the transmission of material artifacts. Some evidence of this activity may be apparent from within the confines of the Solar System and thus could be detected by a suitable observational effort. See article.

g COSMICUS - NASA announced a 250,000 prize for the team that can win a lunar dirt-digging contest that will take place here on Earth. See article.

g LEARNING - Not only did NASA unveil its new plan to send human explorers to the Moon by 2018, but IMAX released "Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D" nationwide today and - since good things come in threes - HBO Video released its new DVD box set "From the Earth to the Moon: The Signature Edition".

g IMAGINING - Could the legendary dragons of Pern from Anne McCaffrey's famous science fiction novels actually exist? Welcome to the theoretical science of dracogenetics. See article.

g AFTERMATH - Looking for some interesting reading on "first contact"? Try the science fiction anthology "First Contact," edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff. The book came out in 1997. Here's a review (though it's less than flattering).

Get your SF book manuscript edited

Planet Beyond Pluto Eris Updated

"Above: the three images taken over several hours that spotted the new planet (Eris)"

"Click for animation: Can you spot Eris?"

"Best Hubble Image of Eris and its moon"As we explore the Galaxy we consistently discover new planets, etc, therefore when it comes to objects like Planet X, Nibiru, or even Extraterrestrial civilisations, we should remain open minded to all these possibilites. Pluto was only discovered in 1930, so what else will we find in the coming years."

"Wednesday, 13 October, 1999, 10:02 GMT 11:02 UK"JUPITER WOULD BE DWARFED BY THE NEW PLANET

By News Online Science Editor Dr David WhitehouseA UK astronomer may have discovered a new and bizarre planet orbiting the Sun, 1,000 times further away than the most distant known planet.

Currently, Pluto is the planet we think of being on the edge of our planetary system.

But the new body would be 30,000 times more distant from the Sun than the Earth - putting it a significant distance on the way to the nearest star.

What is more, it seems that the new planet cannot be a true member of our Sun's family of planets. It may be a planet that was born elsewhere, and roamed throughout the galaxy only to be captured on the outskirts of our own Solar System.

The controversial suggestion that there is another planet in deep space comes from Dr John Murray, of the UK's Open University. For several years, he has been studying the peculiar motions of so-called long-period comets.

COMETS DEFLECTED

Comets - flying mountains of rock and ice - are thought to come from the cold and dark outer reaches of the Solar System, far beyond the planets in a region called the Oort cloud.

They spend millions of years in the Oort cloud, until they are deflected into an orbit that takes them into the inner Solar System where we can see them.

By analysing the orbits of 13 of these comets, Dr Murray has detected the tell-tale signs of a single massive object that deflected all of them into their current orbits.

"Although I have only analysed 13 comets in detail," he told BBC News Online, "the effect is pretty conclusive. I have calculated that there is only about a one in 1,700 chance that it is due to chance."

In a research paper to be published next week in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, he suggests that the so-far unseen planet is several times bigger than the largest known planet in our Solar System, Jupiter.

Being so far from the Sun - three thousand billion miles - it would take almost six million years to orbit it.

"This would explain why it has not been found," explained Dr Murray to BBC News Online. "It would be faint and moving very slowly."

OPPOSITE DIRECTION

He has calculated that it lies in the constellation of Delphinus (the Dolphin).

But the planet orbits our Sun in the "wrong" direction, counter to the direction taken by all the other known planets.

It is this which has led to the remarkable suggestion that it did not form in this region of space along with the Sun's other planets, and could be a planet that "escaped" from another star.

But, if it is discovered, will Dr Murray get a chance to name it?

"Probably not," he says. "That will be up to an international committee. But it would be nice to make a few suggestions."

Further evidence to support Dr Murray's claims will be presented at a conference in Italy next week.

Professor John Matese, of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, has carried out a similar study and reached broadly similar conclusions. His research is to be published in Icarus, the journal of Solar System studies.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/467572.stm

"Unexplained deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune point to a large outer solar system body of 4 to 8 Earth masses, on a highly tilted orbit, beyond 7 billion miles from the sun,"

"UPDATE: "

By KENNETH CHANG

Published: January 10, 2011

Six years ago this month, Michael E. Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, spotted an object in the night sky that was so bright and so far away that he was sure it was bigger than Pluto.

"Guaranteed," Dr. Brown said when he announced the discovery, half a year later, in July 2005.

Well...maybe not, after all.

In November, that object, now known as the dwarf planet Eris, passed in front of a dim, distant star. Astronomers led by Bruno Sicardy of the Paris Observatory measured how long the star disappeared behind Eris and, from that, calculated the width of Eris.

"It's clearly smaller," said Alain Maury, who observed the brief disappearance, or occultation, of the star at the San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations Observatory in Chile.

For now, Drs. Maury and Sicardy decline to say exactly how small Eris is, because they first want to publish the results in the journal Nature. But they say that even accounting for the uncertainties in the observations, the largest possible Eris is smaller than the smallest possible Pluto.

The news raises the question of what might have happened if Eris' true size had been known from the beginning. Dr. Brown's discovery of Eris - and the presumption that it was bigger than Pluto - was the falling domino that pushed the International Astronomical Union to come up with a new definition of "planet" that excluded Pluto. Pluto and Eris were downsized to "dwarf planets" - roundish objects that do not gravitationally dominate their orbits

If astronomers had believed Pluto to be larger than Eris - even slightly - might they have kept the solar system at nine planets and sidestepped the ensuing kerfuffle?

"Maybe," Dr. Brown said, although as he tells in his unapologetically titled book "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming," he thinks the International Astronomical Union got it right

The occultation measurement - which means Eris is not just smaller than expected but also incredibly shiny - is the latest surprise of the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy debris beyond Neptune. That belt turns out to be even stranger than astronomers thought a few years ago.

And not everyone is yet convinced that Eris is definitely smaller than Pluto. Dr. Brown, for one, is perplexed. The occultation measurement seems to demonstrate convincingly that Eris' diameter is less than 2,360 kilometers, or 1,466 miles, Dr. Brown said. That is smaller than earlier estimates of 3,000 kilometers, based on infrared light from Eris, and 2,400 kilometers, based on Dr. Brown's observations with the Hubble Space Telescope.

But he notes that a number of conflicting figures for the size of Pluto appear on various Web sites. Wikipedia, citing a 2006 scientific paper, puts the diameter at 2,306 kilometers, give or take 20 kilometres.

And now Pluto is bigger than Eris, "because, um, 2,306 kilometers is greater than 2,360 kilometers?" Dr. Brown asked, rhetorically and quizzically, on his blog.

Delving further to make sense of the numbers, Dr. Brown did not question the yet-to-be-published Eris measurements by Dr. Sicardy's group, but rather concluded, "I have to say: there is something fishy in the size of Pluto."

More than 80 years after Clyde W. Tombaugh spotted Pluto, astronomers still have not pinned down exactly how big, or small, it is.

For decades, Pluto was the magically shrinking planet. It was first thought to be about as large as Earth - nearly 8,000 miles wide - but subsequent measurements had it smaller and smaller.

In 1980, Alexander J. Dessler, now at Texas A">Needless to say, the size of Pluto stabilized. Between 1985 and 1990, the orbit of Pluto's moon, Charon, was edge-on, as seen from Earth, and eclipses enabled astronomers to measure the diameters of Pluto and Charon more directly. Pluto has also passed in front of a few stars, too, just as Eris did in November.

But that was still not the end of the story. The surface of Pluto can reach a relatively balmy minus 360 degrees Fahrenheit, warm enough for some methane and nitrogen ices to evaporate and create an atmosphere, and the atmosphere bends light.

"Pluto's atmosphere is kind of a like a crummy convergent lens," said Eliot F. Young, an astronomer at Southwest Research Institute's space studies department in Boulder, Colo., who was an author of the 2006 paper. "Each ray is bent toward the center of Pluto."

Thus, the true diameter of Pluto remains uncertain.

Dr. Young reanalyzed the stellar occultation data and found Pluto to be bigger, with the data compatible with a diameter as large as 2,400 kilometres.

But he said, "I don't think it's that big." The minimum diameter, according to his calculations, is about 2,300 kilometers, leaving a sizable uncertainty of 100 kilometers. "This is embarrassing for me to talk about," Dr. Young said.

Eris is about three times as far from the Sun as Pluto, much colder and almost completely devoid of any atmosphere to distort an occultation. So astronomers may now know Eris' size more accurately than Pluto's.

Still, the range of possible Pluto sizes seems to overlap the possible Eris sizes. "If you looked at the two of them right next to each other sitting in space, they would look to be exactly the same size," Dr. Brown said. "You couldn't tell by eye until you took out your really, really big ruler."

Drs. Maury and Sicardy point to another estimate that finds a larger Pluto, based on the absorption of light by methane in Pluto's atmosphere.

That analysis, by Emmanuel Lellouch of the Paris Observatory, and his collaborators, who included Dr. Sicardy, said that to explain the patterns they saw, Pluto had to be at least 2,340 kilometers wide.

But Dr. Young, while lauding the methane measurements, said that too much was still not known about the structure of Pluto's atmosphere to make that confident a conclusion about its size.

A precise, direct measurement of Pluto will finally come in 2015 when NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is to fly past.

The smaller size of Eris would actually make it more interesting, Dr. Brown said. With less surface area, it would have to reflect almost all the light that hits it to explain how bright it is. And to explain the shininess, it must have a thin layer of methane and nitrogen frost - the remnants of a thin atmosphere that froze as Eris moved along its elliptical orbit away from the Sun.

"There is no other plausible explanation," Dr. Brown said.

Eris is currently almost nine billion miles from the Sun, but its elliptical, 557-year orbit takes it as close as 3.5 billion miles. Pluto's distance from the Sun varies between 2.7 billion and 4.6 billion miles.

Even if Eris is slightly smaller than Pluto, it is still the heavyweight of the Kuiper Belt - 27 percent more massive than Pluto. The orbital period of Charon put a precise figure on Pluto's mass, and Eris' mass is similarly well measured because it too has a moon, named Dysnomia. That means Eris must have a much larger rocky core than Pluto, perhaps indicating that Pluto and Eris did not form in quite the same way.

Other Kuiper Belt objects that Dr. Brown has discovered in the past decade have also shown the outer system to be more curious - and violent - than many would have expected. One of those is Haumea, a dwarf planet that is highly elongated and spins very fast, once every four hours.

"The only thing we could think that would cause it is if it got smacked, really hard, by something else early in the history of the solar system," Dr. Brown said, "and everyone kind shook their head and said, well, no, that makes no sense, the probability of that happening is nearly zero."

Then Dr. Brown and his collaborators discovered two moons orbiting Haumea that looked like shards knocked off by an impact. Still, the skeptics doubted.

Later, they found a dozen more pieces of Haumea, orbiting not around Haumea but around the Sun.

"At this point, there is no question this thing suffered a giant impact," Dr. Brown said. "I think we should have called it Humpty Dumpty instead of Haumea - we can actually put this thing back together again."

Other large Kuiper Belt objects also have tiny fragment moons, suggesting that giant impacts were not uncommon. Many of them are also rockier than expected; impacts could have knocked away outer layers of ice. Indeed, a giant, high-speed impact in Eris' past could be the reason it has less ice and more rock than Pluto.

Recent measurements indicate that the other large Kuiper Belt objects are also, like Eris, smaller and shinier than had been thought. The one known as Makemake now appears to be only 1,200 kilometers in diameter, not 1,500. Another, Quaoar, might be only 900 kilometers wide, compared with earlier estimates of 1,200 kilometers.

That leaves a sizable gap between Pluto and Eris and the next largest ones. "It's a really strange distribution of sizes," Dr. Brown said. "I don't think it's caught anybody's attention yet."

Perhaps the biggest surprise since the discovery of Eris is that there has not been another Eris.

Dr. Brown's sweep of the Kuiper Belt turned up a series of larger and larger objects - up to Eris. After Eris, the search found nothing else of note. There was a possibility of another large Kuiper Belt object lurking in the Southern Hemisphere sky, out of view of the California telescope that Dr. Brown was using.

But Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Washington just completed a survey of the remaining sky, and he, too, found nothing large.

"It is highly unlikely there are other Pluto-size objects" in the Kuiper Belt, Dr. Sheppard said.

Beyond the Kuiper Belt, more mysteries await.

Astronomers want to find more objects like Sedna, which Dr. Brown discovered in 2003. Sedna is currently about three times as far from the Sun as Neptune, which is already outside of the Kuiper Belt. But at the other end of its 11,800-year elliptical orbit, Sedna will be 32 times as far out as Neptune.

And beyond Sedna is the Oort cloud, an even more distant collection of bodies astronomers have not yet found, but which they are absolutely certain exist. (Some of the comets that pass by the Sun originated in the Oort cloud but were gravitationally nudged to dive toward the inner solar system.)

And one of those more distant objects could turn out to be larger than one or more of the remaining eight planets, which could reignite the debate over what should be called a planet.

That could help resolve a sore point in the Brown household.

Dr. Brown originally wanted to name Eris after his daughter, Lilah, who was born three weeks before the discovery was announced. He imagined that when someone asked, "Were you named after the planet?" Lilah could retort, "No, the planet was named after me." His wife, Diane, dissuaded him.

Dr. Brown eventually settled on Eris, the Greek goddess of strife. Dysnomia, the moon, is a demon of lawlessness and the daughter of Eris. Dr. Brown also chose that name because the first syllable is pronounced like the first syllable of Diane.

Lilah, now in kindergarten, is one of the people upset with her father over Pluto. "Killing is bad, and she knows I killed Pluto and therefore I'm a bad person," Dr. Brown said. "And she would like me to do something about it."

Dr. Brown explained to Lilah why Pluto was no longer a planet. "And she's fine with that," he said. "She has a solution, which is an interestingly creative solution."

Lilah told him, "Why don't you find another planet and name it Pluto?"

"That's why I keep looking," Dr. Brown said.

Lilah still does not know she almost had a planet named after her.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/science/space/11pluto.html"=1">Correction: January 19, 2011"An article on Jan. 11 about uncertainty surrounding the sizes of Pluto and the dwarf planet Eris misstated an estimate of Pluto's diameter by scientists at the Paris Observatory. They concluded it is at least 2,340 kilometers wide, not at least 2,360 kilometers wide."

"ADDITIONAL"

JUNE 14, 2007: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has teamed up with the W.M. Keck Observatory to precisely measure the mass of Eris, the largest member of a new class of dwarf planets in our solar system. Eris is 1.27 times the mass of Pluto, formerly the largest member of the Kuiper Belt of icy objects beyond Neptune.

Hubble observations in 2006 showed that Eris is slightly physically larger than Pluto. But the mass could only be calculated by observing the orbital motion of the moon Dysnomia around Eris. Multiple images of Dysnomia's movement along its orbit were taken by Hubble and Keck.

Astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. and colleagues also report in this week's Science Magazine that Dysnomia is in a nearly circular 16-day orbit. This favors the idea that Dysnomia was born out of a collision between Eris and another Kuiper Belt object (KBO). A gravitationally captured object would be expected to be in a more elliptical orbit.

The satellites of Pluto, as well as the Earth-Moon system are also believed to have been born out of a collision process where debris from the smashup goes into orbit and coalesces into a satellite.

By comparing the mass and diameter, Brown has calculated a density for Eris of 2.3 grams per cubic centimeter. This is very similar to the density of Pluto, the large Kuiper Belt object 2003 EL61, and Neptune's moon Triton which is likely a captured KBO. These higher densities imply that these bodies are not pure ice but must have a significant rocky composition.

The discovery of Eris in 2005 (originally nicknamed Xena, and officially cataloged 2003 UB313) prompted a debate over the planetary status of Pluto because astronomers realized they would have to call it the "10th" planet if Pluto retained its own planetary status, which was already under debate. This led the International Astronomical Union, in 2006, to make a new class of solar system object called dwarf planets. These are spherical bodies in hydrostatic equilibrium (objects that have sufficient gravity to overcome their own rigidity and form a spherical shape) like the planets, but unlike the major planets in the solar system, they have not gravitationally cleared out the neighborhood of particles and small debris along their orbits.

Source: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/24/full/

The Reports Keep Coming Orbs Long Island New York

Once again I thought the sightings of strange lights over Long Island were beginning to slow down when I received both emails and phone calls from those who are still witnessing odd things in the night skies over Long Island. The reports so far have been based along the South Shore of Long Island facing the Atlantic Ocean.

A family called me on August 20th from one of the beach hamlets located on Fire Island- which is a barrier Island along the South Shore coast of Long Island. Fire Island is a well-known vacation area that consists of small villages of summer homes built along the thin island. The family called to let me know that they were sitting on the beach just after dark eating ice cream cones when one of the children noticed a strange light hovering over the water. The family watched as one large round Orb of light high in the sky over the ocean hung motionless in the night sky. Suddenly with a blink of the eye another round light appeared next to the first. A third and fourth blinked into the line of lights. They said that the objects were round and bright white with a swirling center. The lights hung in the sky for about a minute before starting to slowly move as if one object out over the Atlantic Ocean. The father said although they seemed to be moving slowly he realized that they really were moving at a great speed as they became too distant to see at all within a matter of seconds. The family has no idea what the objects could have been or how they were able to do what they did all without a sound of any kind. The father also reported the original Orb was about twice the size of the others that developed later and that it was impossible to judge their actual size from their vantage point. He did say they were without question as large as an airplane if not bigger.

A friend of mine called from East Hampton located on the east end of Long island also along the Atlantic Ocean to tell me about a very odd experience her neighbor had while entertaining guests on her water front deck. The party was busy making 'S- mores' (graham cracker, marshmallow and chocolate bar melted over an outdoor grill) when they noticed an extremely fast moving orange light speeding low above the ocean that appeared to be about a mile off shore. The light was large enough to be seen but shape and exact size impossible to determine from where they were. At first they thought it was a large speed boat however they realized there was no sound at all. You can hear the speed boats at night for miles around. As they watched the light skim over the water it started to rise and lift into the night sky. The light kept rising into the night sky at an enormous amount of speed until it simply vanished into the star lit night. The people at the party talked at length about what they had just seen. The opinion of the groups is that this object came up from the ocean and skimmed the top of the ocean before making its take off.

Next an email arrived from a man who also lives on the South Shore of Long Island. This is what he reported:

"Hi Chris"Tonight August 25th while swimming in my pool I saw one orange orb traveling low in the sky, no sound of engines or propellers it seemed to be about as big as helicopter. It traveled from east to west in a smooth linear direction. I couldn't say how fast but it moved slowly. The light started off yellowish and slowly became intense orange then as it started to come to the side of me (high in the sky to the south) I would say over the Great South Bay by Bellport and Brookhaven hamlet. It then turned a deep red and fluttered out, the object was still moving just the light turned off, there was no sound of jets or propellers and the object became black and was spherical in shape. I just stood in my pool watching this when another orb followed this one and did the same thing.

In July my partner saw 5 spheres traveling close together from north to south then slowly disappeared one at a time he said they were only a bright orange. This is not the first time we have seen these things. About two weeks ago I saw an orange orb in the sky distant in the east hovering. It did not move for 5 solid minutes, and then it disappeared. Last night was by far, the most amazing experience I have had so far, because it lasted so long. It seemed like 30 min as it was such an incredible thing to see but it was really a few minutes. I was stunned by what I saw.

Thank youCM "

Obviously something is going on off the Shore of Long Island involving these strange Orbs and the Atlantic Ocean. I will continue to report what is being told to me concerning these strange ongoing sightings of strange Orbs, lights and objects or crafts over Long Island's South Shore. I have no idea at all what they are or who is responsible for them. I do know they are being seen. I have to wonder why so many incredible events like this occur yet only a few people report or know who to report them to. I suggest to all those who contact me that they tell someone in an official position what they have witnessed. Of course most people want to protect their identity due to the social stigma attached to reporting these things. I understand this and agree to publish what they are seeing while protecting their privacy.

I do think however if you see something you need to call your local police, or even a non-emergency number of your local Firehouse just so someone official who is linked to what may be needed in case of an emergency knows what is being seen out there. If you have a local airport report what your saw to them. You do not have to give your name and certainly can figure out how to call so you cannot be located. I do think however it is important you call one of those places.

Lastly know that there are people who have had bad encounters with strange Orbs and you must always place safety first above all else. If you see a strange Orb, object or craft retreat to a place where you are not alone and secure. That is the most important thing to keep in mind. Remember the unknown is exactly that something we do not understand or know and could be dangerous or far more than you may be equipped to deal with. Remember safety first.

The summer is coming to an end with fall directly ahead of us. Fall has always been a high time of UFO and strange events for Long Island. With such an active summer I can only imagine what the next few months will bring.

Copyright (c) 2008-2012 Chris Holly's Paranormal World http://endlessjrny.blogspot.com/email chrishollyufo@yahoo.com phone 631-877-4818

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