Venus // Current

Naked snow sculpture covered up after complaints

A family in America was told by police to cover up their snow sculpture after... more

sophosthegreat
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Venus once had Oceans and Continents like Earth

Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.

The map comprises over a thousand individual images, recorded between May 2006 and December 2007. Because Venus is covered in clouds, normal cameras cannot see the surface, but Venus Express used a particular infrared wavelength that can see through them.

Although radar systems have been used in the past to provide high-resolution maps of Venus's surface, Venus Express is the first orbiting spacecraft to produce a map that hints at the chemical composition of the rocks. The new data is consistent with suspicions that the highland plateaus of Venus are ancient continents, once surrounded by ocean and produced by past volcanic activity.

"This is not proof, but it is consistent. All we can really say at the moment is that the plateau rocks look different from elsewhere," says Nils Müller at the Joint Planetary Interior Physics Research Group of the University Münster and DLR Berlin, who headed the mapping efforts.

The rocks look different because of the amount of infrared light they radiate into space, similar to the way a brick wall heats up during the day and gives off its heat at night. Besides, different surfaces radiate different amounts of heat at infrared wavelengths due to a material characteristic known as emissivity, which varies in different materials. The Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument captured this infrared radiation during Venus's night-time orbits around the planet's southern hemisphere.

The eight Russian landers of the 1970s and 1980s touched down away from the highlands and found only basalt-like rock beneath their landing pads. The new map shows that the rocks on the Phoebe and Alpha Regio plateaus are lighter in colour and look old compared to the majority of the planet. On Earth, such light-coloured rocks are usually granite and form continents.

Granite is formed when ancient rocks, made of basalt, are driven down into the planet by shifting continents, a process known as plate tectonics. The water combines with the basalt to form granite and the mixture is reborn through volcanic eruptions.

"If there is granite on Venus, there must have been an ocean and plate tectonics in the past," says Müller.

Müller points out that the only way to know for sure whether the highland plateaus are continents is to send a lander there. Over time, Venus's water has been lost to space, but there might still be volcanic activity. The infrared observations are very sensitive to temperature. But in all images they saw only variations of between 3-20°C, instead of the kind of temperature difference they would expect from active lava flows.

Although Venus Express did not see any evidence of ongoing volcanic activity this time this time around, Müller does not rule it out. "Venus is a big planet, being heated by radioactive elements in its interior. It should have as much volcanic activity as Earth," he says. Indeed, some areas do appear to be composed of darker rock, which hints at relatively recent volcanic flows.

The new map gives astronomers another tool in their quest to understand why Venus is so similar in size to Earth and yet has evolved so differently.Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at... more

EmperorThan
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8 months ago
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The Williams' Sisters Are Making First in NFL

The William Sister's Are Who's Hot! Venus and Serena William are on the... more

miawhwn
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7 months ago
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What is Redshift?

If the lines in the spectrum of the light from a star or galaxy appear at a lower frequency (shifted toward the red) than where they are observed in the spectrum of the Sun, we say this object exhibits 'positive redshift'. The accepted explanation for this effect is that the object must be moving away from us. This interpretation is drawn by analogy with the downward shift in the pitch of a train whistle as it passes through a railroad crossing and then speeds away from us. The question is: Is recessional velocity the only thing that can produce a redshift, as modern astrophysicists presume? It has become clear that the answer to that question is an emphatic NO!

But a high redshift value does not necessarily mean the object is far away. There is another, more important cause of high redshift values.

Halton C. Arp is a professional astronomer who, earlier in his career, was Edwin Hubble's assistant. He has earned the Helen B.Warner prize, the Newcomb Cleveland award and the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award. For years he worked at the Mt. Palomar and Mt. Wilson observatories. While there, he developed his well known catalog of "Peculiar Galaxies" that are misshapen or irregular in appearance.

Arp discovered, by taking photographs through the big telescopes, that many pairs of quasars (quasi-stellar objects) which have extremely high redshift z values (and are therefore thought to be receding from us very rapidly - and thus must be located at a great distance from us) are physically associated with galaxies that have low redshift and are known to be relatively close by. Arp has photographs of many pairs of high redshift quasars that are symmetrically located on either side of what he suggests are their parent, low redshift galaxies. These pairings occur much more often than the probabilities of random placement would allow. Mainstream astrophysicists try to explain away Arp's observations of connected galaxies and quasars as being "illusions" or "coincidences of apparent location". But, the large number of physically associated quasars and low red shift galaxies that he has photographed and cataloged defies that evasion. It simply happens too often

Because of Arp's photos, the assumption that high red shift objects have to be very far away - on which the "Big Bang" theory and all of "accepted cosmology" is based - is proven to be wrong! The Big Bang theory is therefore falsified.If the lines in the spectrum of the light from a star or galaxy appear at a lower... more

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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If this won't make you get a Pap, what will?

Tagline: The world needs women.

catchiecoo
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9 months ago
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3 comments

Venus Cu'Mara - UNDER THE STARS

Venus Cu'Mara UNDER THE STARS The beautiful poetry of Venus, from her new... more

da100thmonkey
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3 months ago
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The Electric Universe 4

Part 4 of 4 Theory of Electric Universe easily explained in this documentary.

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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Venus Cu'Mara HER MAGNIFICENT BEAUTY

Venus Cu'Mara HER MAGNIFICENT BEAUTY The beautiful poetry of Venus, from... more

da100thmonkey
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3 months ago
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Journey to the Edge of the Universe

In one single, epic camera move we journey from Earth's surface to the outermost... more

covelogibbs
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1 year ago
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3 comments

Solar winds strip Venus of atmosphere

Venus Express has also showed how solar winds are stripping away the atmosphere of... more

pjacobs51
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1 year ago
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33 comments

The Electric Universe 1

Part 1 of 4 Theory of Electric Universe easily explained in this documentary.

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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Sky Show Tonight: Jupiter, Venus, Moon to Make "Frown"

Skywatchers across the world are in for a celestial treat Monday night as two of the... more

huffamoose2k
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1 year ago
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Cosmology in Crisis - Again

“Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.” —from The Sound... more

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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Velikovsky's Comet Venus

Immanuel Velikovsky concluded from his extensive interdisciplinary research that the... more

rodstradamus
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8 days ago
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The Electric Universe 2

Part 2 of 4 Theory of Electric Universe easily explained in this documentary.

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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Experts puzzled by spot on Venus

Astronomers are puzzled by a strange bright spot which has appeared in the clouds of... more

unimatrix0
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8 months ago
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Science in Turmoil - Are We Funding Fraud?

"There can be little doubt in the minds of those who are involved in attempting to disseminate research results among the entire scientific community that major problems exist. It is well documented that adopting certain stances will result in an inability to publish in the majority of the so-called high impact academic journals.

There are also well documented cases of people experiencing grave difficulties in their place of work and even, on some occasions, being driven out. Amazingly, there are even cases of attempts being made – some successful – to deny research students their doctorates because their theses contain material which may cause embarrassment for some person with an inflated sense of his/her own importance. Again, more and more academics, certainly in British universities, are coming under increasing pressure to draw funds into their establishments. Note the emphasis is not on good research, or even just research, but rather on attracting more and more money.

Remember though that as one university official told an academic member of staff, “I don’t pay you to think”! With this attitude, what hope is there unless people read books such as Against the Tide and learn from them?

Scientific truth, that is the actual answer to a scientific problem, is of paramount importance. Personal position and advancement on the back of a scientific untruth should never be tolerated and deliberately covering up inconvenient results by pseudo-scientific argument – such as has happened with at least some of Halton Arp’s work for example – should be treated for what it is and the perpetrators dealt with accordingly by the entire scientific community.

Occasionally, blatant examples of scientific fraud become public and are treated with horror by those who read of them – scientists and non-scientific laymen alike. However, is the suppression of scientific results and ideas such as are discussed in the articles included in this book ethically any different? This is a serious question which must be answered individually by each and every scientist. For myself, I see no difference and feel the treatment meted out to such as Halton Arp amounts to nothing less than academic fraud.

Let the public which ultimately pays the bill, know all the facts and judge accordingly!""There can be little doubt in the minds of those who are involved in attempting... more

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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Plasma Volcanoes

"The recent eruption of Mt. Redoubt in Alaska calls to mind the skeptical... more

rodstradamus
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5 months ago
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Electric Comets Re-write Space Science

On January 3rd, 2010, the SOHO satellite captured images of a comet disintegrating as... more

rodstradamus
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2 months ago
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Clash of planets

The space telescope of the NASA Spitzer found evidence of a collision between two... more

hyperion74
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7 months ago
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2 comments

TAGS

tagged w/ Venus

Naked snow sculpture covered up after complaints

Venus once had Oceans and Continents like Earth

The Williams' Sisters Are Making First in NFL

What is Redshift?

If this won't make you get a Pap, what will?

Venus Cu'Mara - UNDER THE STARS

The Electric Universe 4

Venus Cu'Mara HER MAGNIFICENT BEAUTY

Journey to the Edge of the Universe

Solar winds strip Venus of atmosphere

The Electric Universe 1

Sky Show Tonight: Jupiter, Venus, Moon to Make "Frown"

Cosmology in Crisis - Again

Velikovsky's Comet Venus

The Electric Universe 2

Experts puzzled by spot on Venus

Science in Turmoil - Are We Funding Fraud?

Plasma Volcanoes

Electric Comets Re-write Space Science

Clash of planets

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