Massive Dark Object 'lurking on edge of solar system hurling comets at Earth'
dailymail - A massive dark object may be lurking on the edge of our solar system, according to scientists.
Most comets that fly into the inner solar system seem to come from the outer region of the Oort cloud - a region of icy dust and debris left over from the birth of the solar system.
The cloud starts from a point about 93 billion miles from the Sun and stretches for around three light years and contains billions of comets, most of them small and hidden.
Now new calculations suggest a large object that is up to four times as big as Jupiter could be responsible for sending them in our direction.
The scientists have analysed the comets in the Oort cloud and deduced that 25 per-cent of them would need a nudge by a body of at least Jupiter size before they changed orbit.
Astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire at the University of Louisiana came up with theory said that 'something smaller than a Jovian mass would not be strong enough to perform the task'.
They believe that our solar system has a hidden 'companion' that has so far remained undetected.
The scientists have been studying the cloud using WISE, Nasa's infra-red space telescope that is capable of detecting dark objects.
Matese said: 'I think this whole issue will be resolved in the next five to 10 years, because there’s surveys coming on line that will dwarf the comet sample we have today.
'Whether these types of asymmetries in the directions that comets are coming from actually do exist or not will definitely be hammered out by those surveys,' Matese added. 'We anticipate that WISE is going to falsify or verify our conjecture.'
About 3,200 long-period comets are known, one of the most famous being Hale-Bopp which was visible to even the naked eye during 1996 and 1997.
Halley's Comet, which reappears about every 75 years, is a 'short-period' comet from a different part of the Solar System called the Kuiper Belt.
If it exists the new planet is so freezing cold it is difficult to spot, researchers said.
It could be found up to 30,000 astronomical units from the sun. One AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun, about 93 million miles.
Scientists have already proposed that a hidden star, which they call 'Nemesis,' might exist a light-year or so away from our sun.
They suggest that during its orbit it would regularly enter the Oort cloud, jostling the orbits of many comets there and causing some to fall toward Earth.
These occasional comet showers could be why the mass extinctions on Earth are so regular, some scientists believe.
The research appeared in the online edition of the journal Icarus.
'Most planetary scientists would not be surprised if the largest undiscovered companion was Neptune-sized or smaller, but a Jupiter-mass object would be a surprise,' Matese told SPACE.com
'If the conjecture is indeed true, the important implications would relate to how it got there — touching on the early solar environment — and how it might have affected the subsequent distributions of comets and, to a lesser extent, the known planets.'
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Mysterious Withering Wheat
capitalpress - The Oregon Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University are investigating the yellowing of upward of 40,000 acres of wheat in Umatilla and Morrow counties.
So far, the cause is a mystery, and researchers do not know if the problems in the two counties are related.
In early November, Umatilla County growers noticed wheat fields turning yellow and dying, OSU Extension soil scientist Don Wysocki said.
Sixteen fields from three to 10 miles northwest of Pendleton were affected, Wysocki said. They are "more or less but not completely contiguous," he said. Not every field in the area was affected.
The area was predominately planted to soft white Clearfield variety ORCF-102, but other varieties were also affected, Wysocki said.
"There's probably more than one thing going on in these particular fields, like in any field," he said.
OSU Morrow County Extension associate professor Larry Lutcher said 30,000 to 40,000 acres of wheat in his county have plants with yellow or purple tips. The discoloration spreads inward and downward on the leaf. In some cases, plants are completely desiccated and will not recover.
The symptoms have been observed in many fields in the county, Lutcher said, but do not appear tied to any particular location.
"Most of the symptoms in Morrow County are unlike anything I have ever seen," Lutcher said.
Lutcher said he doesn't believe the problem will spread to other fields, but he can't be certain.
"This does appear to be a new problem -- a problem that no one seems to have experience with," he said.
Neither Lutcher nor Wysocki were sure if the circumstances in the two counties were connected.
"The big question on everyone's mind right now is, how will the crop look this spring and will replanting be necessary?" Lutcher said.
Oregon Department of Agriculture Special Assistant to the Director Brent Searle said the department was contacted by farmers in early November.
The department sampled and tested the fields, but final results are not yet in.
Preliminary samples showed some root pathogen issues, but Searle said the investigation is still in the information-gathering stage.
The department and university sent surveys to growers asking about field history, planting dates, chemical use and where seed was purchased. OSU also examined nearby fallow land to see if it was similarly impacted.
The information may help identify common factors or patterns, Searle and Wysocki said.
In Umatilla County, the patterns are oriented across the fields, with "shadow effects" suggesting protection in areas behind slopes or fence rows, Wysocki said.
But the patterns of the die-off aren't typical of anything anyone has seen before, Searle said.
"The weather's been really weird this year and there was a tight planting window, and then temperature swings and rains and the grain jumped real fast in growth," he said. "It could be a whole combination, perfect storm kind of thing. We're just trying to sort it all out right now."
Most growers in Umatilla County were replanting their fields, Searle and Wysocki said.
Replanted acres aren't expected to have a problem, Wysocki said, "but we can't rule that out."
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Faith Healing on Trial in Philadelphia
philly - A Philadelphia forensic pathologist told a Common Pleas Court jury Tuesday that a 2-year-old Rhawnhurst boy would almost certainly be alive had he received routine medical care before he died last year of pneumonia.
"This type of pneumonia, this type of bacteria, is preventable through vaccination and treatable with antibiotics," testified Assistant Medical Examiner Edwin Lieberman, referring to the disease that killed Kent Schaible in January 2009.
Lieberman defended his decision to classify the death as a homicide as a prosecutor began her involuntary manslaughter case against the boy's parents, Herbert and Catherine Schaible.
There is no mandatory prison term for involuntary manslaughter, but the Schaibles each could face up to 24 years in prison if convicted.
The Schaibles are members of a church that preaches forgoing medical care in favor of prayer and faith healing. Authorities allege that when their son became ill with fever, cough, diarrhea, and loss of appetite, the Schaibles cared for him at home for almost two weeks, praying for him to get well as he died.
It's a case in which the jury must discern the boundaries of parental responsibility, religion, and the law.
"A 2-year-old doesn't have the wherewithal to say, 'Mommy, Daddy, I'm sick. I need to go to a doctor,' " Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said in her opening statement.
"A simple visit to the doctor, a prescription, and that little boy could have been with us today," Pescatore said.
The Schaibles' attorneys, however, argued that it took an autopsy to determine what killed young Kent and that the symptoms his parents saw were not different from those of cold or flu. The Schaibles, their lawyers told the jury, are on trial because of their beliefs.
"If we don't get through the emotion, we will never get to the reason that this child passed away," said Bobby Hoof, the attorney for Herbert Schaible, 42. "We are not here to discuss religion, we're here to discuss why this child passed away."
Hoof said he would bring in his own expert forensic pathologist, the celebrated Pittsburgh medical examiner Cyril Wecht, who will testify that the bacterium that killed Kent - Haemophilus influenzae Type B - is resistant to antibiotics.
"It would not have cured the child," Hoof added. "The child would have died."
Mythri Jaraman, the lawyer for Catherine Schaible, 41, argued in her opening statement that Schaible's religion is irrelevant because the prosecution cannot prove a key element of involuntary manslaughter: that she knew or should have known Kent "faced a substantial risk of death."
"Not this D.A., not Mr. Hoof, not the state and not any one of us loves Kent Schaible any more than his mother," Jaraman told the jury.
No one has alleged that the couple are anything but loving parents. Both defense lawyers said visits to the Schaible house after Kent's death by a nurse and social workers showed no signs of neglect or abuse among the couple's six other children.
Both Schaible lawyers argued that the couple - both quit school after ninth grade - cannot be expected to know when cold and flu symptoms are life-threatening pneumonia.
Catherine Schaible's mother, Mary Wakefield, testified that her daughter told her Kent was "coming along, doing good."
When she saw Kent on Jan. 24, 2009, Wakefield testified, he seemed grumpy but otherwise healthy. She said she was shocked when Pastor Ralph Myers, assistant pastor of the First Century Gospel Church, came to the house to pray with the parents and she was told the child had died.
First Century Gospel Church, founded in 1925, is at 4557 G St. in Juniata Park.
This is not the first time the church and its members have run afoul of the law over its belief in faith healing.
In 1993, Philadelphia officials got a court order against another couple after they prayed over their 12-year-old son at home instead of taking him to an emergency room after he was hit by a car and seriously injured.
And in 1991, the church and another congregation, Faith Tabernacle of Nicetown, came under scrutiny after eight children died in a measles epidemic after members resisted vaccinating their children.
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Red Alert As Mystery Disease Hits Uganda
nation - Kenya is on high alert after a yet-to-be identified disease killed 35 people in Uganda.
Reports indicate that 86 people had contracted the disease.
The Director for Public Health and Sanitation, Dr Shahnaaz Sharif, on Wednesday said his office was in constant communication with Ugandan officials to monitor the outbreak.
The symptoms of the illness are headaches, fever and vomiting blood. However, Dr Sharif said that he had received word that the Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever, caused by the Ebola virus, had been ruled out.
Kitkum, which is situated about 400 kilometres north of Kampala, and three districts surrounding it, have so far been affected.
Dr Sharif was quick to add that Kenya is not at immediate risk as there are some districts between Kitkum and the Kenyan border acting as ‘buffers’.
Nonetheless, health officials are vigilant especially in Turkana District, which is at highest risk, given its proximity to the affected region.
The director issued this alert as he announced the second round of the polio emergency campaign that will run from December 11-15.
This comes after a confirmed polio case was reported in Bugiri District, Eastern Uganda, which borders the Ugandan Busia District that shares a border with Kenya’s Busia District.
The reports triggered the emergency vaccination programme, due to the high transmission rate of the virus.
The first round, which has been rated as successful as 982,881 children were vaccinated, was carried out on December 20-24, 2009 and the final leg will be from January 15-19 next year.
Its target is 1,001,785 children.
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Another Alabama UDCC Reader Has `Hanging Jet' To Report
UDCC - from Rick Phillips - As some of you are aware - I started this blog as an offshoot of my blog called The Heavy Stuff as at the time THS had become too UFO oriented for my tastes of what I wanted that blog to be. And, up until September of this year - I stayed within a 1-4 posts a month schedule pretty much. I found it quite easy to cover the issues of UFOs as I saw them with that posting frequency. And, really, once you say the same general opinion four times or more - it gets to be an effort to put the mind to the screen so to speak.
I say all that because up until now(ish) this blog has not been part of any `I'll share this with you' type of info. However, with the increase to frequent postings - `information' has filtered the way of UDCC -- most recently exemplified by the comment on a year plus old `high strangeness' UFO report about a Hanging Jetliner Picture/Story - that I covered.
And, I admit, it takes a bit of an open mind to even consider such reports as something beyond nonsense. And, no one of the observers of such phenomena - other than the writings of Colin Bennett - have put a face onto the phenomena. And, even with my last post I tried to put some semblance of `logic' to it - maintaining that it would certainly seem to be indicative of some kind of cloaking phenomena or mind projection phenomena.
I would still take that positioning.
However, on Monday Dec. 6th between Midnight and 1 AM I received an E-Mail concerning yet another `Hanging Jet' - here is the content of the contact:
"Sir,
Saw your blog post on the hanging jets in Huntsville, AL. Intrigues me, as I have seen one in Madison, AL. Madison is right next to H'ville. It would take a dive back through my journal, but I could give you the exact date and the approximate time of day.
However, I work in the aerospace field, and I CANNOT have my name associated. If it was discovered I had said anything about this, my career would be over. I've heard of other high strangeness in the area.
The jet in question was a large military jet, painted black.
As you can see - I have honored this contact as far as withholding the `non working gmail.net' address used to contact me. Now, here's the even stranger part - this person did it thru my Squidoo account (in which I don't believe you can even enter a fake email - which is what I see on my end). Also, while I will not say anything in particular about the identification on the name associated with the above mailing - when I sent the returned E-mail to a gmail.com account of the same name it did NOT return.
And, yes, I did look up the name via google and yes there is someone of the name that could very loosely be said to fit the self-description of the person above. So, as far as all that goes, I guess I am trustable now. LOL.
That said, I have NOT gotten an answer to my inquiry at all in any manner and I feel my leg has more than probably been pulled by a low level trickster of some sort (and no, at least as of now I am not saying the trickster of high strangeness fame).
But, a few more things - about THIS `Hanging Jet' Report - literally qualitative things I take away for the ENTIRE presentation of this information to me via a back channel of my contact on the internet (as simply leaving a comment works too as I approve each comment). Anyway, first thing, this person keeps a dated Journal and uses the term high strangeness and now brings yet ANOTHER DESCRIPTION - that does NOT match the prior ones about this Hanging JetLiner Phenomena.
Does that lend more credence to thinking mind control/mental projections is the more likely? Or, is it just as likely some inner working of a cloaking to use such data of the mind?
I certainly don't know, - but - what I do know is that this will probably be the last time a dead end contact will be the UDCC headline. That said, I will continue to prove `updates' simply within other posts should the contact seem sincere. However, this contact somehow gave a fake E - then didn't respond to what anyone would have done - change the .net to .com. I gave two days for a further contact - UDCC will keep you updated.
Finally, as a postscript, I can't help but think of Blossom Goodchild's prediction of `UFOs Hanging Over Alabama' - as the sign from above. As indeed, if multiple people or all people in Huntsville Alabama were able to film such an event - the high strangeness factor would BE EQUAL to an UFO event IMO. And, perhaps without all the fanfare associated with a full blown UFO event - while providing the fortean `impossibilities' of all and any type of occurrence.
