PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet 53/2001 - 5 April 2001
----------------------------
"Duncan Steel, a physicist at Salford University, believes
that he
has found a way for these chemicals to reach the Earth safely. As
comets
approach the Sun, they spawn vast amounts of dust and meteoroids.
Astronomers usually assume that these meteoroids, which burn up
as
shooting stars or meteors in the atmosphere, are made of rock or
metal. With
Christopher McKay of the Nasa-Ames Research Centre in California,
Mr Steel
has shown that many may contain heavy organic compounds similar
to tar.
They would burn up at a lower temperature and a far higher
altitude than
lumps of rock or metal, releasing organic chemicals into the
atmosphere, and they would take decades to float down to the
surface and
into oceans."
--David Derbyshire, The Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2001
"To me the most striking aspect about all this work
presented here
is how little we still know about the distribution and
composition of
organic molecules in outer space. The scientific community has
really just
barely scratched surface. There are going to be many compounds
identified
in next few years that should give us better insights. It's
really the new
frontier."
--Peggy O'Day, Arizona State University, 5 April 2001
"An unspecified glitch temporarily knocked out America
Online's
Instant Messenger service Tuesday afternoon, keeping some users
out of
their buddy lists and unable to use the communication tool. An
AOL
spokesman declined to say how many accounts had been affected and
also
declined to elaborate on the problem beyond describing it as an
"equipment
glitch." A source at the company, however, speculated that
unusual solar
flare activity could have caused the disruption. Scientists
recorded some
of the most intense solar flare activity in the sun's 11-year
cycle
Monday and report that the activity can affect radio transmitters
and, in
rare cases, ground equipment."
--George A. Chidi, IDG.Net, 4 April 2001
(1) METEORITE 'SEEDS' CLUE TO ORIGINS OF LIFE ON EARTH
The Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2001
(2) LIFE COULD HAVE COME FROM SPACE
United Press International, 5 April 2001
(3) LOST.. ASTEROID THAT IS HEADING FOR EARTH
The Mirror, 5 April 2001
(4) MARS FEATURES NOT ANCIENT OCEAN SHORELINES
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(5) BAAMS MEETING NOTICE
Neil Bone <bafb4@central.susx.ac.uk>
(6) DID SOLAR FLARE KNOCK OUT AOL INTERNET SERVICE?
IDG.Net, 4 April 2001
(7) EM EFFECTS CAUSED BY IMPACTS OF LARGE METEOROIDS
S. Fred Singer <singer@sepp.org>
(8) ANTIPODES: OPPOSIING VIEWS
Henry Zee <hzee@nyc.rr.com>
(9) TUNGUSKA EVENT
Mr. X <fortean@resologist.net>
============
(1) METEORITE 'SEEDS' CLUE TO ORIGINS OF LIFE ON EARTH
From The Daily Telegraph, 5 April 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004712090541739&rtmo=VkFF51Vx&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/4/5/wcom05.html
By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent
SMALL tarry meteorites from comets "seeded" the Earth
with the building
blocks of life billions of years ago, according to a new study.
Meteorites may have brought the building blocks of life to Earth
British researchers working with Nasa say they have evidence that
organic
chemicals from space rained upon the lifeless Earth, providing
the
ingredients for the first simple organisms. Many scientists think
that
comets began to deposit water and carbon molecules on the Earth
four billion
years ago.
Comets are made mostly of ice and are relatively rich sources of
organic
chemicals. Water can survive a fiery descent into the Earth's
atmosphere and
explosive impact with the surface, but organic chemicals are far
more
fragile.
Duncan Steel, a physicist at Salford University, believes that he
has found
a way for these chemicals to reach the Earth safely. As comets
approach the
Sun, they spawn vast amounts of dust and meteoroids.
Astronomers usually assume that these meteoroids, which burn up
as shooting
stars or meteors in the atmosphere, are made of rock or metal.
With
Christopher McKay of the Nasa-Ames Research Centre in California,
Mr Steel
has shown that many may contain heavy organic compounds similar
to tar.
Mr Steel, who presented his findings at the National Astronomical
Meeting in
Cambridge yesterday, said these tarry lumps would survive being
heated by
the Sun as they floated through the inner solar system.
They would burn up at a lower temperature and a far higher
altitude than
lumps of rock or metal, releasing organic chemicals into the
atmosphere, and
they would take decades to float down to the surface and into
oceans.
Using radar he has shown that tarry meteoroids are continually
entering the
atmosphere. He said: "These organic chemicals have been
raining down on the
atmosphere for billions of years. Each year the Earth accumulates
40,000
tons of material from space."
All the essential amino acids needed for life have been
identified in
meteorites, he said. If comets and meteorites played a role in
life on
Earth, then it raises the prospect that life could be fairly
common
throughout the universe.
Copyright 2001, The Daily Telegraph
=============
(2) LIFE COULD HAVE COME FROM SPACE
From United Press International, 5 April 2001
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=174432
Scientists: Life could have come from space
By KELLY HEARN, UPI Technology Writer
SAN DIEGO, April 5 (UPI) -- Leading astrophysicists and chemists
presented
research, to varying degrees, bolsters the theory that life came
to Earth
from outside the solar system. They presented their
findings Wednesday at
the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.
"In our mind there is a line, however direct, connecting
molecules in the
interstellar medium 4 or 5 billion years ago and the delivery of
organic
compounds from space," said Max P. Bernstein of the
astrochemistry group at
SETI International in Moffet Field, Calif. "The theory helps
to alleviate
the difficulty of making organic compounds on Earth."
SETI or the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligences a
non-profit
corporation of researchers who study forms of life in the
universe.
The so-called exogenous delivery theory challenges an earlier one
that
lighting caused a primordial soup of gases in the Earth's
earliest
atmosphere to form amino acids and other compounds that evolved
into higher
life.
Two scientists at the University of Chicago -- Stanley L. Miller
and Harold
C. Urey -- birthed that theory in the 1950s when they ran an
electric
current through a mixture of gases believed to have been present
in
prebiotic Earth. The current simulated lighting and caused parts
of the
mixture to form amino acids, which build proteins and are the
basis of life.
Today researchers focus on determining the amount of space-born
chemicals
formed 4 to 5 billion years ago, how they changed during volatile
journey to
Earth and what they did once they arrived.
"Studies show that organic chemistry in the universe has
mostly formed in
dense clouds and then later become incorporated into the
formation of
planetary systems, comets and asteroids," said Jean E. Chiar
of NASA Ames
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
She uses infrared detectors to see fluxes in infrared waves
caused by dust
between the Earth and the waves' source in space. Organic
compounds absorb
infrared energy, causing such fluxes.
Dr. Pascale Ehrenfreund of the Leiden Observatory in the
Netherlands
reported that she had subjected amino acids to ultraviolet
photolysis
(decomposition by radiant energy) in the laboratory and found
they hold up
poorly, decreasing the chance they could survive some areas in
space with
high levels of ultraviolet rays.
But Ehrenfreund has noted in a written summary of her work that
amino acids
could form in a number of ways, including chemical alterations in
certain
meteorites, photochemical reactions in dust grains and gas
reactions in
interstellar clouds.
Vladimir Basiuk of the National Autonomous University of Mexico
in Mexico
City presented evidence countering claims that the white-hot
entry into the
Earth's atmosphere would have kill most organic compounds
hitching a ride
with meteorites.
In laboratory experiments, Basiuk subjected a range of compounds
to
temperatures up to 1000 degrees Celsius and found that even at
500 to 600
degrees Celsius some survive.
"This strongly favors the hypothesis that extraterrestrial
delivery could
have been an efficient way of supplying simple biomolecules to
the primitive
Earth in amounts sufficient for the emergence of life," he
wrote in a
summary of his work.
Extending those findings, a researcher from the University of
Tokyo, Dr.
Seiji Sugita, reported experiments showing that just-arrived
carbon embedded
in a meteorite undergoes chemical reactions with the Earth's
ambient
atmosphere, creating sizable amounts of organic material from
which life
could evolve.
"To me the most striking aspect about all this work
presented here is how
little we still know about the distribution and composition of
organic
molecules in outer space," Peggy O'Day, professor of
geological sciences at
Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz. told United Press International.
"The
scientific community has really just barely scratched surface.
There are
going to many compounds identified in next few years that should
give us
better insights. It's really the new frontier."
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
==========
(3) LOST.. ASTEROID THAT IS HEADING FOR EARTH
From The Mirror, 5 April 2001
http://www.ic24.net/mgn/THE_MIRROR/NEWS/P21S1.html
Space rock may destroy England
SCIENTISTS have lost track of an asteroid that could wipe out
most of
England. The half-mile long rock was discovered three years ago,
labelled
1998 OX4 and classed as having the potential to hit earth with
cataclysmic
effects in the next 30 years.
Astronomers observed it for 10 days but they failed to track its
orbit and
it has since vanished.
It is far bigger than a 70-yard-long asteroid that exploded over
Siberia in
1904 with enough force to devastate London from Marble Arch to
the M25.
Dr Duncan Steel, of the University of Salford, said: "If
this asteroid hit
London, much of England would cease to exist. "If it hit San
Francisco,
California would be destroyed."
Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid 6.5 miles long hit the
planet with
an impact of more than 100 megatons and wiped out the dinosaurs.
Scientists say there is a chance of a collision with an asteroid
three miles
across or more every 10 to 30 million years.
Missing 1998 OX4 is one of 300 asteroids with orbits that cross
or come
close to the earth.
Huge advances in technology mean more and more are being
discovered every
year.
But the National Astronomy conference in Cambridge will be told
this week
that OX4 is a worry.
Nasa predicts that an asteroid collision with earth similar to
the one that
killed the dinosaurs would destroy most of the world's food crops
for a
year, wipe out more than a quarter of the population and create a
global
climate similar to a nuclear winter.
A Nasa spokesman said: "None of the asteroids or comets
discovered so far is
on a collision course with earth.
"However, we can't speak for those that are not yet
discovered.
"In principle, one of those could hit any time, but
statistically the
chances are very small."
MAGNETIC gases from a massive explosion on the sun this week
cased a radio
blackout across half the earth.
The explosion was one of the largest recorded and equivalent to a
blast of a
billion megatons of TNT.
Copyright 2001, MGN, Ltd
MODERATOR'S NOTE: As reported in Tuesday's CCNet
http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc040301.html)
new observations of the
'lost' asteroid 1998 OX4 have actually eliminated a number of
impact
possibilities that initially existed for the next 20 years, i.e.
through to
2023. However, there are still some possibilities that OX4 could,
theoretically, collide with the Earth in 2038, 2044 and 2046 (see
http://newton.dm.unipi.it/cgi-bin/neodys/neoibo?objects:1998OX4;risk).
These
are the other dates mentioned in Appendix B of the NEO Task Force
Report
(see:
http://www.nearearthobjects.co.uk/neo_report.cfm?Mode=Synopsis&ID=11#B3).
The Task Force Report correctly points out that the probability
of the
object hitting the Earth is remote (i.e. thought to be about 1 in
2,000,000). As with similar 'virtual impact' possibilities in the
past,
further orbital information about the object should most likely
eliminate
these dates too. BJP
=========
(4) MARS FEATURES NOT ANCIENT OCEAN SHORELINES
From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
News Services
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Contact Information:
Paul Withers, 520-621-1507, withers@lpl.arizona.edu
Apr 4, 2001
Scientists Discover That Features on Northern Plains of Mars Are
Tectonic
Ridges, Not Ancient Ocean Shorelines
By Lori Stiles
What scientists suspect might be ancient ocean shorelines on the
northern
plains of Mars is actually a network of tectonic ridges related
to dramatic
martian volcanism, a University of Arizona planetary sciences
graduate
student and a collaborating post-doctoral researcher at the
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology report in the April 5 issue of Nature.
Their new findings don't rule out the possibility that an ancient
ocean once
did cover the northern half of Mars. However, what previously has
been
reported to be ancient shorelines apparently are not. The
discovery of the
network of ridges "opens a new tectonic window into
Mars," the authors say.
Paul Withers of the UA and Gregory A. Neumann of MIT analyzed
dazzlingly
precise new views of Mars' topography from the Mars Orbiter Laser
Altimeter
(MOLA). The instrument continues an extended mission in orbit
around Mars on
the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. MOLA transmits infrared
laser pulses
towards the surface of Mars, and the measurements are used to
create
topographic maps accurate to within a meter of elevation. Viking
era
topographic maps of Mars were accurate only to about a kilometer.
Withers worked last summer through a graduate student program
with members
of the MOLA science team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
He and
Neumann analyzed ridges that cover the enigmatic northern plains
of Mars.
The region is the flattest known surface in the solar system, and
a leading
theory is that an ocean created such extraordinary smoothness.
Authors of a December 1999 article in Science identified
candidate
shorelines of the possible ancient ocean based on the new MOLA
maps. The
topographical profile shows a succession of flat terraces along a
linear
slope in one case, and in another case a series of slopes in the
right
relation to be shorelines.
Withers and Neuman specifically re-examined two leading candidate
paleoshoreline groups, one group near the Utopia impact basin and
the other
on the opposite side of the proposed ocean near the Alba Patera
volcano.
The details of the ridges near the Utopia basin don't look like
paleocoastline, Withers said in an interview. "The
morphologies are
inconsistent with formation by shoreline processes. There are the
flat
terraces, but the ridges are on what would be the oceanward side.
That's
difficult to explain if you have an ocean coming in, flattening
things
smooth over the terrace and then receding again.
He and Neumann conclude that the ridges record a history of
enormous
tectonic stress and strain that forced the martian crust to form
10-mile-high volcanoes.
"Most ridges appear to be related to obvious stress centres,
such as the
volcanic Tharsis Rise, the Utopia impact basin and the Alba
Patera volcano,"
they report in Nature. The direction and shapes of these ridges
indicate
that they have a tectonic origin.
The network of ridges is the only tectonic feature in the region.
"In future work, we hope that studying these ridges will
reveal how the huge
martian volcanoes formed, what the martian crust and lithosphere
were like
at the time, and what the northern plains of Mars are like today
beneath
their blanketing surface layer of martian dust."
Related Links
* http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/mola.html
* http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~withers/
* http://www.nature.com
[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://uanews.opi.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=3439
]
==========
(5) BAAMS MEETING NOTICE
From Neil Bone <bafb4@central.susx.ac.uk>
Further to advice from BAA Head Ofice, the notice for the meeting
on
Saturday should now read as follows:
BAA Meteor Section Meeting Saturday 2001 April 7
John Stripe Lecture Theatre, King Alfred's College, Winchester
1415-1730
The meeting is being held as an integral part of the BAA's
Winchester
residential weekend, but is, of course, open to day-visitors.
Participants
arriving on the day should register at the BAA desk at the
lecture theatre
(for administrative purposes only!); there is a £5 charge for
admission, to
cover hall-hire costs and tea. Those requiring meals and/or
accommodation
should do so via the BAA Office: Tel. 020 7734 4145.
The meeting will offer the chance to review the recent strong
Leonid
returns, and also look ahead to some interesting activity which
we can hope
to observe under relatively moonless conditions in the year ahead
As the
first meeting of the Section in the south of England for some
time, we hope
that this event will be attended by a few new faces, too.
Programme as at 2001 April 4:
1415: Welcome/opening remarks.
1420-1450: The 1999 Leonids from Sinai - Nigel Evans
1450-1500: A brief VS diversion - Roger Pickard
1500-1530: Video Observations of Meteors - Andrew Elliott
TEA 1530-1600
1600-1610: Video of the 2000 Leonids from Andalucia - Steve Evans
1610-1640: Analysis of the 2000 Leonids - Dr John Mason
1640-1710: Radio Observations of Meteors - Nick Quinn
1710-Close: Prospects for the coming year - Neil Bone
Neil Bone, Director, BAA Meteor Section, 'The Harepath', Mile End
Lane,
Apuldram, Chichester, PO20 7DZ. Tel. (01243) 782679
Home e-mail: neil@bone2.freeserve.co.uk
===========
(6) DID SOLAR FLARE KNOCK OUT AOL INTERNET SERVICE?
From IDG.Net, 4 April 2001
http://www.idg.net/crd_idgsearch_2.html?url=http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/04/03/010403hnimknock.xml?p=br&s=10
By George A. Chidi
AN UNSPECIFIED GLITCH temporarily knocked out America Online's
Instant
Messenger service Tuesday afternoon, keeping some users out of
their buddy
lists and unable to use the communication tool.
An AOL spokesman declined to say how many accounts had been
affected and
also declined to elaborate on the problem beyond describing it as
an
"equipment glitch." He said the problem was unrelated
to a switch failure on
March 27 that also brought down AOL Instant Messenger for a short
while. In
that instance, AOL IM users with older versions of the free
software
continued to have problems for days afterward.
A source at the company, however, speculated that unusual solar
flare
activity could have caused the disruption. Scientists recorded
some of the
most intense solar flare activity in the sun's 11-year cycle
Monday and
report that the activity can affect radio transmitters and, in
rare cases,
ground equipment.
============================
* LETTERS TO THE MODERATOR *
============================
(7) EM EFFECTS CAUSED BY IMPACTS OF LARGE METEOROIDS
From S. Fred Singer <singer@sepp.org>
Dear Benny
Just a minor comment that may be relevant to the suggestion that
an impact
disrupted the magnetosphere (through ionospheric heating or some
other
mechanism).
There is a way to put a limit on this interesting idea.
High-energy protons
(> 100 Mev) trapped in the inner radiation belt have lifetimes
measured in
millennia to a million years. Any recent disruption would
severely depress
the currently measured flux, which is in good accord with
the neutron-albedo theory.
Of course, disruption of the outer belt (which connects to the
auroral zone)
-- as discussed by Nemtchinov-- is still a real possibility.
Best wishes
Fred
S. Fred Singer, President
Science & Environmental Policy Project
http://www.sepp.org
=========
(8) ANTIPODES: OPPOSIING VIEWS
From Henry Zee <hzee@nyc.rr.com>
Dear Dr. Peiser,
In his rejoinder to "Flat Earth," Mr. Giorgini takes me
to task for an
ellipsis in quoting St. Augustine, yet he too quotes selectively
from the
relevant passage. Nor does he address the main point of my
criticism, which
asserted St. Augustine exalted the authority of Scripture and
belittled
"scientific conjecture."
For anyone interested in these matters, I'll save them a trip to
the
bookshelf. Here is the passage (in full, and at length):
9. Whether we are to believe in the Antipodes
"But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to
say, men
on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it
sets
to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no
ground
credible. And, indeed, it is not affirmed that this has been
learned by
historical knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground
that the
earth is suspended within the concavity of the sky, and
that it has as
much room on the one side of it as on the other: hence they say
that
the part which is beneath must also be inhabited. But they do not
remark
that, although it be supposed or scientifically demonstrated that
the world is of a round or spherical form, yet it does not follow
that the
other side of the earth is bare of water; nor even, though it be
bare, does
it immediately follow that it is peopled. For Scripture, which
proves
the truth of its historical statements by the
accomplishment of its
prophecies, gives no false information; and it is too absurd to
say
that some men might have taken ship and traversed the whole wide
ocean,
and crossed from this side of the world to the other, and that
thus even the
inhabitants of that distant region are descended from that one
first man.
Wherefore let us seek if we can find the city of God that
sojourns
on earth among those human races who are catalogued as having
been
divided into seventy-two nations and as many languages. For it
continued
down to the deluge and the ark, and is proved to have existed
still among
the sons of Noah by their blessings, and chiefly in the
eldest son
Shem; for Japheth received his blessing, that he should dwell in
the
tents of Shem."
Clearly St. Augustine is a formidable thinker, yet his
disparagement of
"supposed or scientifically demonstrated" ideas cannot
be denied. At this
point in the discussion with Mr. Giorgini, I suppose it would be
foolish to
admit that I sort of like St. Augustine. I find his mind
attractive, and his
spiritual aspirations compelling. However, efforts to cast him as
pro-science are disingenuous. He wrote at the end of the
Greco-Roman era,
when the development of science faltered after nearly a
millennium of
remarkable progress. St. Augustine's influence is implicated in
the eclipse
of Greco-Roman science.
========
(9) TUNGUSKA EVENT
From Mr. X <fortean@resologist.net>
Dear Mr. Peiser,
In my examination of the Tunguska event, ("Adgy?" INFO
Journal, #13), my
principal objection to the "black hole" theory was that
the authors, in
NATURE, speculated that a similar event would have been observed
in the
South Atlantic Ocean, where they thought the "black
hole" would have
emerged from the Earth's interior after entering it at Tunguska.
However,
according to the microbarographic records, (which are illustrated
in
Scientific American), only indicated one event at Tunguska. If a
"black
hole" entered the Earth at Tunguska, there is no evidence
that it ever
escaped the earth's interior. Unfortunately, NATURE did not think
the
subject worth publishing my letter in 1974; but, fortunately, the
International Fortean Organization did publish my article,
despite the
perception of a limited interest in the Tunguska event.
Sincerely,
Mr. X
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