55 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Alien Meteors Meteors or shooting stars are usually considered to be small fragments that have been broken off the asteroids plying orbits between Mars and Jupiter. If this belief is correct, meteors darting into the earth's upper atmosphere would have speeds less than 260,000 kilometers per hour. Any objects with significantly higher velocities must come outside the solar system. It has, therefore, been unsettling to find that quite a few meteors hit our atmosphere at speeds much higher than 260,000 km/hr. Radar measurements of 160,000 meteors by A. Taylor and colleagues, at a New Zealand site, found that about 1% (1500 meteors) struck the atmosphere with velocities greater than 350,000 km/hr. These speedsters must come from beyond the solar system. The question arising is: Whence all this interstellar debris? One hint comes from the fact that the aliens appear to come from the direction in which the sun and its family of planets are traveling through interstellar space. Evidently, this interstellar medium is far from a vacuum; it is strewn with flotsam and jetsam -- but from what smashed planets, moons, and asteroids? (Samson, Alan; "Radar Traps Visitors from Outer Space," Dominion Sun Times (Wellington), April 25, 1993. (Cr. P. Hassall) From Science Frontiers #90, NOV-DEC 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 25 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf090/sf090a99.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 90: Nov-Dec 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The shorter, the stranger Just a few months ago (in SF#85), we held forth on biology's Big Bang: that Cambrian paroxysm of biological creativity about 570 million years ago. Until now, biologists had opined that this "explosion" required a rather leisurely 20-40 million years (still very short in geological terms). After all, biological creativity must take time if it is powered only by stepwise random mutations. But the recent dating of Cambrian formations in northeastern Siberia (which was previously off limits to Western scientists because of its Soviet radar installations) has now compressed this great event to a veritable flash. S.A . Bowring et al, in their startling report in Science, have measured the length of this period of unparalleled biological diversification at only 5-10 million years, possibly as short as a mere 1 million years! What wand of biological creativity was waved at this magical moment? It had to be something that has not happened again down the long eons that followed, for never again has nature favored our planet in this way. Never again were any more of life's major body plans (the phyla) synthesized. Even ardent evolutionists marvel at the newly measured intensity of this moment. For example, S.J . Gould has remarked: "You've taken the most accelerated period of evolutionary rates and made it a whole lot shorter. The ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf090/sf090b05.htm
... of impact structures. Those eight craters in a row. Geologists are questioning whether the eight structures stretching from Kentucky to Kansas (mentioned in SF#105) are all impactcaused. In a letter to Astronomy. A. Goldstein asserts that only three are impact craters; the other five are cryptoexplosion structures; that is, due to internal activity of some sort. However, Goldstein adds that there are actually three additional structures on this long line in Kentucky. (Goldstein, Alan; "Multiple Strike Stricken," Astronomy, 24:20, July 1996) Comment. Even if eight of the eleven structures on the line are cryptoexplosive in origin, one has to wonder why these are all lined up. A long line of weakness in the crust? Meanwhile, in Africa. 1994 radar images from the Space Shuttle have revealed a chain of three suspicious circular structures in the Sahara of northern Chad. Largely buried in sand, each is about 12 kilometers in diameter. Only one of these structures has been studied at ground level; and it is of impact origin, as confirmed by upturned strata and grains of shocked quartz. The other two could be volcanic say the skeptics. It will take an expedition to Chad to clarify things. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Impact Craters All in a Row?" Science, 272:33, 1996) A final comment -- at last! All impactcrater chains are relevant to the claim of H.R . Shaw that even the earth's largest impact structures are found in swathes (chains). In ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf106/sf106p12.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 122: Mar-Apr 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unusual Wave January 14, 1998. Indian Ocean. Aboard the m.v . Oriental Bay , enroute Port Klang to Suez. "At 2230 UTC the vessel was on a course of 269 at 23 knots when a line was observed on the radar at a range of 3 n mile, travelling from northwest to southeast at an estimated speed of 15 knots, as indicated on the sketch. The line was observed to be a wave. "It was about 10 minutes after the first sighting that the vessel passed over the wave, which was approximately 4 m [13 feet] high, and she heeled 5 to port while the autopilot deviated 3 off course. At the time of the event, there was a low swell of 1.0 m from 320 and the sea was 0.5 m from 360 . The current was estimated to be 2.5 knots running to the west." (Talbot, A.P .; "Unusual Wave," Marine Observer, 69:10, 1999.) Comment. The wave could not have been a tsunami because it was travelling too slowly. Tsunamis travel at jet speed and are rarely visible on the deep ocean. Since the wave was solitary and four times the height of the gentle swells, it is unlikely that it was a chance combination of the swells. Most likely it was a surface manifestation of an internal wave that had been reflected from ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf122/sf122p12.htm
... ISBN 0-915554-48-8 , 7 x 10-in Geophysics Catalogs For a full list of geophysics subjects, see here . Lightning, Auroras, Nocturnal Lights: A Catalog of Geophysical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Nothing catches the human eye and imagination as quickly as a mysterious light. All down recorded history, scientists and laymen alike have been seeing strange lightning, sky flashes, and unaccountable luminous objects. Typical subjects covered: Horizon-to-horizon sky flashes * Episodes of luminous mists * Mountain-top glows (Andes glow) * Earthquake lights * Ball lightning with tails * Rocket lighting * Lightning from a clear sky * Ghost lights; ignis fatuus * Darting streaks of light (sleeks) * The milky sea and light wheels * Radar-stimulated phosphorescence of the sea * Double ball lightning * Luminous phenomena in tornados * Black auroras * [Picture caption: Luminous display over Mt. Noroshi during earthquake swarm] Comments from reviews ". .. the book is well-written and in places quite fascinating", Science Books. Contents also included in Remarkable Luminous Phenomena in Nature 248 pages, photocopied edition, $16.95, 74 illustrations, 5 indexes, 1982. 1070 references, LC 82-99902, ISBN 915554-09-7 , 7x10-in format. Hardcover edition, $24.95: out of stock Tornados, Dark days, Anomalous Precipitation: A catalog of Geophysical Anomalies Sorry: Out of Print. No longer available. Here is our "weather' Catalog. As everyone knows ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 10 Oct 2021 - URL: /sourcebk.htm
