Tidal Tales of Minor Mergers: Young Stars Where They Shouldn't Be

Optical image of the galaxy merger NGC 2782 showing the location of young star clusters which formed in the sweeping tails of debris after the collision. Even though the gas properties of the two tails are different, both tails show unexpectedly similar populations of young star clusters. This material was presented to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 11, 2006. (Photo: Karen Knierman, UA Steward Observatory, and Patricia Knezek, WIYN/NOAO)Arizona astronomers have discovered a population of what appear to be young star clusters where they aren't supposed to be. The newborn stars appear to have formed in the debris of the NGC 2782 galaxy collision -- debris that lacks what astronomers believe are some important ingredients needed to form stars.A large, Milky Way-type galaxy collided with a much smaller galaxy in the NGC 2782 collision. It's an example of the most common type of galaxy collision in the universe. Scientists believe that such collisions played an important role in the buildup of large galaxies in the early universe.If confirmed, these newly discovered young star clusters and their environment could help shed light on the process of star formation, especially in the early universe in regions far from the crowded, active centers of galaxies.Karen Knierman, a graduate student and Arizona/NASA Space Grant Fellow at The University of Arizona, and Patricia Knezek of the WIYN Consortium in Tucson, Ariz., have reported the research at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.The astronomers found the star clusters by taking deep images of the galaxy collision with the 4 Megapixel CCD camera of the 1.8 meter (71-inch) Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT) at Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona.NGC 2782 lies about 111 million light years away toward the Lynx constellation. When the two galaxies of unequal mass collided about 200 million years ago, their gravitational pull ripped out two tails of debris with very different properties.Beverly Smith of Eastern Tennessee University and collaborators studied the optical and gas properties of these two tails and published their results in 1994 and 1999. Studying the gas properties tells astronomers about neutral hydrogen gas and molecular gas -- both important ingredients in star formation. Smith and collaborators found that the optically bright eastern tail has some neutral hydrogen gas and molecular gas at the base of the tail, and an optically bright, but gas-poor concentration at the end of the tail. The optically faint western tail is rich in neutral hydrogen gas, but has no molecular gas.Knierman and Knezek found blue star clusters younger than 100 million years along both tails, indicating that those stars formed within the tails after the galaxy collision began."That's surprising because the western tail lacks molecular gas, one of the key ingredients for star formation," Knierman said.Star clusters are thought to form from the collapse of giant molecular gas clouds. If this is the case, astronomers would expect to see remnants of the molecular gas which helped give birth to the stars.Given Smith's earlier observations of gas in the debris tails, Knierman and Knezek expected they might see star formation in the eastern tail, where molecular gas is clearly present. But they didn't expect to see star formation in the western tail, where no molecular gas was detected. Finding young star clusters in the western tail should prompt astronomers to question their current models of star formation, the Arizona team said."Do we still need a model of giant molecular gas clouds?" Knierman asked. "Or do we need a different model - perhaps one with smaller clumps of molecular gas that might have been destroyed or blown away when these energetic young stars formed?"Finding unexpected young star clusters in the western tail could help explain why stars form in other places where there may be little molecular gas, like the outer edges of the Milky Way galaxy or in the debris of other galaxy collisions, Knierman and Knezek noted."This has important implications in how star formation proceeded when our universe was young and galaxy collisions were much more common than they are today," Knierman said."Only recently have we become aware of the importance of the merging of small galaxies with larger systems in creating galaxies like our own Milky Way," Knezek added.Source: University of Arizona

Dusty Planetary Disks Around Two Nearby Stars Resemble Our Kuiper Belt

These two bright debris disks of ice and dust appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system´s Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune and the source of short-period comets. The disks encircle the types of stars around which there could be habitable zones and planets for life to develop. The disks seem to have a central area cleared of debris, perhaps by planets. The new disks, each about 60 light-years from Earth, bring to nine the number of dusty debris disks observable at visible wavelengths. The new ones are different, however, in that they are old enough -- more than 300 million years -- to have settled into stable configurations akin to those in our own solar system, which is 4.6 billion years old. Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Kalas (University of California, Berkeley)These two bright debris disks of ice and dust appear to be the equivalent of our own solar system's Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy rocks outside the orbit of Neptune and the source of short-period comets. The disks encircle the types of stars around which there could be habitable zones and planets for life to develop. The disks seem to have a central area cleared of debris, perhaps by planets.The new disks, each about 60 light-years from Earth, bring to nine the number of dusty debris disks observable at visible wavelengths. The new ones are different, however, in that they are old enough -- more than 300 million years -- to have settled into stable configurations akin to those in our own solar system, which is 4.6 billion years old. The wide disk on the left, which is inclined obliquely to the line-of-sight, surrounds HD 53143, a K star slightly smaller than the Sun but about 1 billion years old. The narrow disk on the right, which is tipped nearly edge-on encircles the star HD 139664, an F star slightly larger than the Sun but only 300 million years old. The sharp outer edges of the narrow belt may be telltale evidence for the existence of an unseen companion object that keeps debris gravitationally corralled, in the same way that shepherding moons trim the edges of debris rings around Saturn and Uranus. A survey by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows that such disks fall into two categories: those with a broad belt, wider than about 50 astronomical units; and narrow ones with a width of between 20 and 30 AU and a sharp outer boundary, seemingly like our own Kuiper Belt. An astronomical unit, or AU, is the average distance between the Earth and Sun, about 93 million miles. Our Kuiper Belt, for example, is thought to be narrow, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 AU to about 50 AU.The false-color images were taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in September 2004. The black central circle is an image artifact produced by the camera's coronagraph which blocks the glare from the central star to allow the much fainter disks to be seen. A smaller black circle at the edge of each photo is a "coronagraphic finger" also used to block light from a bright object in the field.Source: Space Telescope Science Institute

UFO Cylinder

New York City/Brooklyn, New York A Dark Grey Cylinder UFODate: August, 1965Time: Approx: 8:30 p.m.Every now and then, my mother and I would take our dog on his night walk to the Parade Ground, a flat park of baseball and football fields. We went there because at the time it was being renovated, and the fields were being partitioned and fenced. This gave us some confidence to allow the dog off the leash to run free for a change.The Parade Ground is just across Parkside Avenue from Prospect Park. It is August, 1965. I am ten years old.The dog was having a good run, and once we saw that he wasn't about to run off completely, we relaxed and gazed upwards to view the night sky, trying to find various constellations.In those days, the street lights in Brooklyn emitted a white light, and not the beige-looking type now in use. If you went to a park, you could get a decent view of the stars, but of course not anywhere near the view if you were upstate in deep woods.Suddenly, as I looked to the left of me, I saw what I first mentally equated as a submarine perhaps two story's off the ground higher than the six story buildings beneath it."Hey Mom, do you see what I see?" She did.Here comes this thing, slow and steady and silent. It is huge. It is dark grey - not "battleship grey," but as grey as can be before you rule it black. There is no shine to it.The front of it was round; I'd seen pictures of submarines, and that is what came to mind. It is actually shaped more like a very long medicine capsule.As it proceeded to float past us, we observed its right side. It is solid. It is a perfect and very long dark grey cylinder, and it just keeps coming very slowly and steadily.Obviously, we can't see the top of it, but so far, we see that even though it is almost black, we sense a light behind the darkness. This does not make sense, as my mother and I later reckoned. The best I can come up with is that my eyes sawdark grey, but my mind knew the cylinder was emitting light. Dark light!This was no blimp. No lights. No sound. No windows. No gondola beneath. No visible markings. No nothing! It is just a cylinder 300 feet longer than the Intrepid aircraft carrier now docked in the Hudson River going by!This thing was so huge, that even from the height above me, (200 Feet?) it was clearly visible; visible enough to see even the slightest imperfection clearly, if it had any.At the same time, we are not in any panic. We are unusually serene. As if it's no big deal somehow. Maybe we were in a stupor beyond awe.Finally, the end of the ship passes. I ran to see the back of it. I see it is as round as the front with an opening in the center. To this day, I'm not sure if it was square or arch-like. I am convinced that at least the bottom of the opening in the back of it was flat, so it was square or arched. I remember thinking that 3 buses could easily drive inside at the same time. On the other hand, I've seen jets low to the ground on approach to JFK Airport, and thought that "my" cylinder was at least 3 times wider at the same height.This is the only time I experience apprehension. I worry for a moment that whoever is flying this cylinder might see me.I ran to where I could see the other side of the cylinder. It is exactly as perfect and unremarkable as the other side and the bottom.I have been struggling with my memories for years as to whether there was a single tiny light, blue or red atop the openingin the back. I add this item, but I am not sure. Inside the opening it is absolutely pitch black.The cylinder was in the order of 1200 feet long. I did not know this at the time. When I saw the cylinder completely, it was "crossing" Stratford Road, and the back of it was at Buckinham Road. The distance between these streets on Caton Avenueaccording to street maps is about 1200 feet.I rejoined my mother in the original field, and we watched this thing float over the Prospect Park police station, heading westuntil it faded from sight about half a mile west of the Parade Ground. No newspaper, radio, or TV station mentioned it. Forthat matter, we didn't even tell my father!As I first accessed the Internet, I ran a search for "cylinder UFO," and plenty of links came up. Even pictures! I wasn't too surprised, because I know damn well what I saw was real, and other people must have seen something as well.I told some close friends. They gave me the jaundiced eye. I could hardly blame them. I guess its just one of those things one must see to believe.Thank you to the witness for the excellent and interesting report.

Alien Implanted History ... The implications of "AIH"

The possibilty exists that we are under the influence of a mind bending scenario involving manipulation of our perceptions concerning the past,present, and possible future. A time traveling intelligence could easily implant relics, enigmas, religious icons and information in our recent and distant past creating a presence that didn't exist there until modern day contact with the Earth and our Solar System. We will be exploring this more in the coming months {as we have information leading us to believe this is indeed a fact} along with possible explanations and details on the seemingly powerless situation the United States Government found themslves in beggining at the point of our planets interaction with the "Grays" situation, and their technology. We will begin with some of the "enigmas" unearthed only in our recent past that are not so enigmatic if we view this information and theThe possibilty exists that we are under the influence of a mind bending scenario involving manipulation of our perceptions concerning the past,present, and possible future. A time traveling intelligence could easily implant relics, enigmas, religious icons and information in our recent and distant past creating a presence that didn't exist there until modern day contact with the Earth and our Solar System. We will be exploring this more in the coming months {as we have information leading us to believe this is indeed a fact} along with possible explanations and details on the seemingly powerless situation the United States Government found themslves in beggining at the point of our planets interaction with the "Grays" situation, and their technology. We will begin with some of the "enigmas" unearthed only in our recent past that are not so enigmatic if we view this information and theory with an open mind.. let's examine the Dropa Stones with this scenario in mind.FRJ ory with an open mind.. let's examine the Dropa Stones with this scenario in mind.FRJ

An account of a close encounter of the third kind comes to us from Poland. The incident occurred on August 11, 2003. Lech Chacinski was driving down the road in the early morning hours, about 5:00 A M, when he saw three figures standing on the shoulder of the road. Oddly, they were standing in a triangular formation. They wore uniforms similar to that of an astronaut. The encounter was near the small city of Szczecinek, and its roads, as usual, were deserted during the wee hours of the morning.Enthralled with the three strange beings, he slowed down to see if his eyes were deceiving him. When he got a closer look, he immediately knew they were not astronauts. The three moved toward the front of his car in the same triangular pattern. The closest being to him raised one arm as a signal for him to come to a complete stop. Chacinski states that "something" had told him to stop, though he heard no voice. Feeling almost frozen, he raised the driver side window as the beings moved toward him. He could now clearly see one of the beings, except for a darkened helmet. He could not make out facial details, except for big, black eyes. On top of the helmet, there was something that Chacinski thought to be a communications device.As the full realization of what he was seeing overcame him, Chacinski wanted to run away, but before he could, he saw a strong beam of light come from the top of the one of the beings helment, which he associated with the question;
"Do you hear us?"
To this, the frightened man answered in his mind,
"YES!"
He was prompted to exit his vehicle, and asked what type of material his car was made of.He was now able to see all of the beings uniform. The spacesuit was bluish in color; the shoes had a metallic look; and on the chest of the alien was a rectangular electronic device with lights moving. The beings asked Chacinski other questions also, like;
What kind of material are your clothes made of?.How does your vehicle work?.What kind of fuel does it use?
.He answered their questions, telepathically, and they told him they had come to deliver a message to the inhabitants of Earth, and this message was given only to him. We should care about our planet; our water and air. If we neglect our environment, they will cause our destruction.Finally, Chacinski asked one question of the alien beings; which he was able to convey telepathically.
"Where do you come from?

"They replied,

"Eight Galaxy." While Chacinski stood in awe, the three moved up into the air about six feet, and flew to their waiting ship, which was about 100 yards away. From the bottom of the ship, a beam of light took the three into the craft, and as it did, a fog appeared around the UFO, which was sitting on three legs, and adorned with mult-colored lights. Soon, the ship rose about 50 feet high; and disappeared from sight. The area of the encounter is also one
where crop circles often appear, and also where Chacinski's picture was taken. This incredible report of a close encounter in Poland is still under investigation

Are Extraterrestrials trying to stop a supervolcano from eruping?

Geologists and astrophysicists are slowly getting convinced that the Sumatra epicenter of the earthquake that caused the landslide and Tsunami in late December and caused the Tsunami is in the same area where a mega volcano erupted 74,000 years back and killed almost all living beings on the earth. The ash and volcanic cloud engulfed the earth for years, most vegetation suffered, all living being suffered from hunger and was almost at the point of extinction. It is believed that extraterrestrials may be manipulating the tectonic plates to relieve the pressure that would cause a super-volcano eruption