yowee, just when the cosmos seemed all safe..

...something like this happens.

Now, it is kind of interesting how little we heard about this. This waggish headline follows up a little more.

But, in short, a 30 foot or so meteor entered Earth's atmosphere over Indonesia and exploded with the force of a little more than two Nagasaki bombs some thousands of feet up. What's more, "...assuming an estimated size of 5-10 meters, we would expect a fireball event of this magnitude every 2 to 12 years on average...".

REeeaally? More or less random detonations of nuclear weapon proportions every 2-12 years or so? This the first we've heard of this. Maybe a little more interesting is that meteors of this size would not connect with the ground unless they are 25 meters(80 feet or so) across or bigger. And, in that case, some major damage could occur.

Now, even more interestinger, there was no advance indication that this was going to happen. While it is the case that many objects of relatively small diameters are catalogued and more are being discovered all the time, this is no means all of them. And 'relatively small' meaning less than one kilometer estimated diameter, but the majority of those being discovered are larger than the one that blew up over Indonesia, which makes sense because they are bigger, and therefore easier to see.

Many more have been discovered recently, the most ever, and this is because they are looking harder, with better technology-- it is true.

But even so, they missed that one over Indonesia. They would need more telescopes, more money to build them, to catch more.

One 80 footer could wreak havoc.

The speed of light is constant, right?

I read this article and found it interesting. I do not understand all of it, but I get the gist of it.

The gist of it is, a new paper has been written that proposes that gravity seems to have worked differently 8-10 billion years ago.

Gravity from a mass is known to affect space and time around it, to "pull" on it, and this is demonstrated by the effect of "gravity lensing". The larger the mass, the more its gravity might affect light passing near it, this is called gravity lensing. Non-visible objects with great mass are sometimes discovered through the observation of this lensing effect.

This effect is defined in the Relativistic framework as an effect on space and time. The effect was regarded as being equally 'active' on both: each would be 'molded' by gravity in equal measure.

But this new study indicates that, for at least a small portion of deep space, that gravity seems to have had a greater distortive effect on time than space 8-10 billion years ago, three times as strong an effect on time compared to its effect on space.

This would seem to mean that light traveling through a gravitational field that is 8-10 billion light years away would be travelling at a different distance/t than 'local light' does, because "t" would be different-- significantly different-- and distance would be different but not proportionally different when compared to local light.

Light is supposed to travel 186,000 miles per second, per second. But if gravity is messing about with the base values of 'miles' and 'seconds' with different 'pressures' applied to each, then that is very interesting.

Now, it seems like if light gets bent, and slowed down, but it shouldn't, then there is where it should of gone however fast in the absence of gravity as well as where it actually did go. And stuff moves around, so the light may be affected or not.

So what is 'there' where it should have gone if it wasn't affected? Well, dark-- light cannot go there, because while there is space for it there is no time for it.

Gravity distorting time at a different rate than it bends space is a really interesting thing to think about.

I will not say what I will be doing...

so I will do some more music, another collection released, I think. Don't worry, it will be self-absorbed and self-indulgent, fairly strange, both intricately contrived and sloppily thrown together-- in short, exactly the sort of insignificant musical offering that you've come to expect from Utenzil.

But bigger.

That's all I'm going to say.

one other thing and back to music stuff..

I said before that the solar system orbits the Pleiades, to be clear what I was describing was the 'theory' of the whole 2012 thing.

But the real thing to maybe take away from all this is the enormity of so much around us in the universe. Someone who knows about astronomy and answers questions for laymen has a good description of our galactic location, the galactic plane and the Earth's relationship thereto.

But it is agreed that the Solar System "bobs up and down" in relation to the galactic plane, and that the Earth revolves around the Sun at an angle (60 degrees) relative to the galactic plane. And there are still double-domed labcoat wearers that hold out hope for an apolcalypze, although 2012 isn't circled on their calendars.

at any rate, it's all on wikipedia...

So what is maybe most useful about all of this 2012 stuff is how it causes one to learn more about the celestial neighborhood.

When I was a kid there was 9 planets, now there are 8 and three dwarf planets, Pluto, Haumea and Makemake. Oh wait, there is also Eris, four dwarf planets.

Space was "a vacuum". There were mysterious "cosmic rays".

But now. the space that the Solar System is in isa Bubble that is still pretty vacuum-ish, but has some hydrogen atoms floating around in it, even less hydrogen atoms than the surrounding Cloud. So we are in a bubble in a cloud. Surprisingly, the cloud has a lot of energy in it, but we are protected from contact with the cloud by the Solar Wind and we are protected from the Solar Wind by our Magnetosphere.

So we are in a 'bubble' that is sparsely filled with interstellar gas as opposed to the surrounding 'cloud' (which is a good thing, because that gas gives off energy) and further protected from any impinging gas by the solar wind which in turn we are protected from by the magnetosphere. The Local Bubble is courtesy of a star that went nova, leaving a kind of 3D 'crater' in the surrounding cloud of interstellar matter.

Now, something interesting about the Local Bubble is that it is thought to be narrower along the galactic plane. The reason this is interesting is because we are so far from the center of the galaxy that effect of the supermassive black hole at it's center is regarded as nearly negligible. Yet, it seems to mold the shape of the vast superbubble that surrounds the solar system.

So, as we approach the galactic plane, our surrounding celestial neighborhood will be subjected to different forces than elsewhere above or below that plane.

Something I am curious about in this context is the thing that hit Jupiter a little while back. Now, to be sure, scientists know there is a Kuiper Belt, full of Kuiper Belt Objects, and the Kuiper Belt is a 'stablized' collection of the kind of objects that are found in the Scattered Disc where most periodic comets are thought to come from at this point. Whereas scientists theorize that there is an Oort Cloud that other comets might come from, or not, and there is an "inner Oort Cloud" or Hills Cloud.

But my point (if I have one, which clearly I may not) is that there is a whole crapload of stuff floating around in the space around our Solar System, some of it definitely real, some of it theoretically real, which will come under the influence of a different kind of force along the galactic plane. The 'crapload' will come under such influence, because of what seems to be generally accepted thought that the Local Bubble is influenced by whatever force along the galactic plane.

The more firmly established celestial bodies will not be as influenced by this force because of all the protective energies surrounding them. But if there is a floating field of less stable trans-Neptunian and further detritus, it seems like it may be more influenced. Now, it doesn't mean that it will be influenced to Hollywood epic proportions, but it seems like it would be influenced to some extent.

Now, the interesting thing, the 'funny' thing, is that if that scattered collection was influenced to Hollywood epic proportions, where little misshapen iceballs started to squeeze into line along the galactic equator in such a way that some significant portion thereof bumped into each other causing their headlong descent into the Sun-- and Earth's orbit around it-- that knowledge along with a little less than $US 2.00 would get you a large boutique-ish coffee of any number of various brands to sip as the resulting cataclysm tore the world as we know it asunder.

What you might have an idea of, then, is when to purchase that coffee.

Could the Maya, knowing that their distant descendants would be in a rich coffee growing region, have established their calendar and impressively aligned architectural legacy which would cast various shadows during this alignment, and have been leaving such a message?

We can only wonder.

2012 stuff, gamma rays this time

Earlier I wrote about various 2012 doomsday scenarios, which involved some sort of space rock/comet/interstellar flotsam/Planet X hitting the Earth and causing a Hollywood style near extinction event, and how it seems unlikely. Also, a "mysterious attractive/gravitational force" scenario where the Solar System is affected by the pull of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center (Sagittarius A, or Sgr. A) doesn't seem very likely because of the distance of the center: we are far more affected by closer attractors.

Now, a scenario with a little more recent and scientific evidence surrounding it has to do with gamma ray emissions from the Galactic Center. At this point in our Earth's celestial rounds, the Galactic Center is obscured by interstellar dust, and so telescopes using non-visible wavelengths are used to study it. The doomsday scenario involves the Earth being exposed to extremely powerful emissions of gamma rays coming from the Galactic Center as we move into alignment with it. These emissions, remember, unlike the visible spectrum, are not blocked by the interstellar dust and that is what allows radio telescopes and things like the Chandra telescope to "see" them. Also, gamma rays have directional characteristics (anisotropy) and so can be emitted as "beams".

So the 'end story' goes like this: the Earth and the Solar System come into the alignment with the Galactic Center's equatorial plane. The Galactic Center emits extremely high energy gamma rays (this is known to be true) particularly so along it's equator (this is not known to be true) and so the Solar System including Earth is bathed in ultra-high energy gamma rays. Gamma rays are ionizing radiation, and so can cause cellular damage.

Now, revisiting the earlier "Solar System like Saturn's rings" model, there is also this information regarding "stardust clouds" nearing the Solar System. What it indicated was that interstellar dust could affect the terrestrial climate.

Now there are some sites that put this and other information together to indicate Solar System-wide global warming, all Sol's planets getting warmer, and this being caused by some outside influence, like interstellar dust clouds or increased gamma ray emissions.

SO, now, this is maybe something. Or nothing, because while there are indications of some planets experiencing climate change, including ours, it may be temporary in some cases, and in the case of our planet, it seems like humanity's activities have a hand in it. In addition, the current Solar Maximum is due to peak in late 2011 or 2012, so there will be more solar flare/storm emissions from the Sun.

What it comes down to is if we are headed into an interstellar cloud bank, a galactic plane of increased gamma ray emissions AND the Solar Max peak in 2012, then we may be in for some issues.

So, would building a bomb shelter help? As always, it depends on the amount of food and water you can stock your bomb shelter with, and I guess how much poop your bomb shelter septic tank can hold. If you could pull a setup like Christopher Walken does here then you might be just fine. But then, if the Earth warms up to be above 130F, you likely will not.

One thing is for certain: we have no other choice than to ride along on Earth on whatever path it goes, through whatever cosmic perils.

Jung's Red Book

This book will be very expensive, according to the publisher's website but I very much want to purchase a copy. Because what people write about what they think is different than what they actually think, and when someone tries to write what they actually think, and that person is regarded as one of the great thinkers, then that is very interesting.

The experiences that led Jung to theorize much of what he theorized are captured in this book, and I have found many of the various tools and terminology based on Jung's theories useful and meaningful.

A sticking point for me, though, is the 'collective unconscious'. It seems like it could exist, there are things that imply it might, but it is difficult to prove. The parallels between the Tarot and I Ching, two different divinination methods from two different cultures in two different times support the notion of a collective unconscious, for example. But nothing is really proven by that kind of strange exercise: one is not isolating hormones or psychoactive chemicals that exist naturally in the brain that are shown to lend themselves to 'storing' shared unconscious memories. But there is the similarity in 'deified personalities' that exist in different cultures that had never had contact prior to conceiving the personalities-- Loki and Coyote, for example. Many disparate human cultures have generated similar deified personalities for Earth. So it seems like there is an intuitive 'groove' or tendency in us that is shared: a cognitive 'parser' that assigns like attributes regardless of cultural overlay. But is that a collective unconscious? Maybe. It seems to be a collectively shared template.

There is kind of a problem with reading things about Jungian theories, because it takes a long time to accrue the knowledge that supports them, the people who write knowledgably about them are kind of giant blowhards. Korean shaman would become 'certified' by going through a series of initiation rites that could induce psychosis, but they aren't as articulate either, I guess. So there is good and bad in all of it.

But I do want that book.

2012 stuff...

I hardly know anything about astronomy or astrophysics. But like a lot of people I like to imagine what awful calamity the universe has in store for us, and the whole 2012 "galactic alignment" thing has me imagining things which are fun to imagine but have no idea how true they might be.

So the whole alignment thing is that the Sun, and hence the Solar System, revolves around the Pleiades, which are that tiny little bundle of stars way straight up mostly in the same place all the time.

A theory is that the Pleiades are the remnants of a galaxy that once collided with our current Milky Way, and although it has been consumed, momentum causes the Solar System to revolve around it. So the Solar System revolves around the Pleiades like the rim of a wagon wheel around the axle.

The Solar System and the Pleiades, in turn, revolve around the supermassive center of the Milky Way. But the Solar System revolves around the Pleiades along a plane somewhat perpendicular to the plane of the galactic equator.

This Pleiades-centric revolution causes the track of the Solar System relative to the center of the Mikly Way to "bob" up and down, above and below the plane.

So if the Milky Way is a wagon wheel spinning on its side, the Solar System/Pleiades arrangement is like a little wagon wheel spinning around a spoke-- that is, with a spoke emanating from the galactic center as its axle-- about three quarters of the way away from the center. And of course the Earth revolves around the Sun, which is similarly on a spoke of the wheel that has its center in the Pleiades, but the Sun's equator is mostly parallel with the plane of the Pleiades. And of course none of the wheels are neccessarily perfectly round, but elliptical and some more than others, and even then not always perfectly elliptical.

All of this revolving happens very slowly, even though the speeds are very high the distances to complete a revolution are vast, and all of the parts of the pieces of the galactic region we are in stay more or less together in relation to one another. So, again, if the galaxy is ideally a flat disk, then we are sometimes below, sometimes above, that disk. In addition, as the Earth rotates, its axis remains at a constant angle ot the sun, but it is like a smootly spinning top which leans as it spins. As a result, we, on its surface, over centuries see changes in the positions of constellations.

And of course this galactic disk it is not ideally flat, it is kind of fuzzy, but mostly disk like, so there is the idea of an imaginary line that is the exact 'equator' of the galaxy, that we are either above or below as this assemblage revolves around the galactic center.

At any rate, there is this notion that on Dec 21 or 23, 2012, we will be right on that galactic disk's equator, and the winter solstice will align with the equator of the galaxy. And, depending on what you read, that already happened in 1998, but the Mayan calendar recycles on 12/21/2012 so that is more woo-woo. And, again, the fluffy nature of the galaxy makes it hard to tell exactly where that equator is, but the belief is that the Maya, who had clearer skies, I guess, used the crossing thereof to set their calendar start.

The conventional wisdom is that this means nothing: the equator of the galaxy has been traversed before, and it will be again, it is a momentum thing and so there.

The unconventional wisdom is that there is a 'focus' of gravitational force at the equator, and when we hit it all kinds of things will happen.

If you think of the supermassive collapsed stars at the center of the galaxy to be like Saturn, and the galaxy is its "rings", then the rings arrange themselves on that thin line around the equator of the planet. There is a point closer to the planet where there are no rings, and presumably the ring material fell into the planet. Also, there is a point outside of the rings where Saturn's pull does not arrange things into rings.

And of course it does seem like orbiting things tend to arrange themselves around the equator of the thing they are orbiting.

So if we are descending to the "horizontal center" of the disk, then things might be orbiting there around the larger galactic center that we are unaware of, as if we are passing through Saturn's rings. But what will that be made of? Mostly it would be gas, it seems, if there is anything. That "interstellar dust" that looks so lovely in Hubble photos. Or, some of the same types of flotsam that the Oort Cloud is made out of. And even if it is "concentrated" along that plane, in this case the "Saturn" is millions of light years away, so the sorts of things that would remain under the galactic center's influence and not have been swept away by some other group of nearer stars would be meagre, so even a concentration would be sparse. Even though the supermassive galactic center is huge, they say, it won't have that great an effect on the Oort Cloud so far out-- not as great an effect as nearby stars who we are already familiar with.

But if we encounter a "membrane" of the same sort of stuff that that Oort Cloud is made out of, it seems reasonable to consider that that thin layer stuff might perturb the Oort Cloud and cause some things to fall towards the Sun. In which case some many years later we might see them as comets. But not neccessarily on that same day in 2012.

The Oort Cloud is far, far out from the edge of the Solar System. If the Solar System is the nucleus of a bubble, then the Oort Cloud is the skin of the bubble, geometrically speaking. But it is not a continuous membrane, it is made up of particles. So if there is a flat but sparser layer of the same sort of "granular bubble skin" at the galactic equator, then we can imagine it will have some effect on the Oort Cloud. So as the bubble descends through that layer, the layer will tend to maintain its position for some time, and then fall under the influence of the Sun's gravitational pull, and other body's pulls, which may result in their "accretion" into the Oort Cloud, or accretion into the other attacting bodies. The bodies with the most mass will exert the strongest attraction. But this is all based on the surmise that there is a layer of stuff that the Earth will pass thru at the galactic equator, and that the layer is not so sparsely populated that it would actually matter-- both of which are surmises based on the notion that *something* has to happen on 12/21/2012 because that's when the Mayan calendar flips over to a new "long count" era and it is all just so... cosmic; like.

Also, given all the above in our hypothesis, some things in the Oort Cloud and the layer being penetrated might get knocked loose. But, nowadays anyway, things have a lot of trouble actually colliding with one another in this celestial region. Instead they are dragged along by something else's gravity, until something bigger drags them another way. But if our "Oort Cloud Skinned Bubble" is descending through a less dense layer of some of the same kind of skin, some bits of the skin will be drawn away by the leading edge of the "bubble", and bits of that skin will remain more or less in place by the time our Solar System at the nucleus of the bubble passes through that skin. So there may be a chance for new things to come under the influence of the Sun, and some chance for things to hit us.

Now, to mention another woo-woo theory, there may be some mysterious force that emanates from the galactic center that we do not know about-- some kind of hyper gravity-lensing that occurs at the equator of the galaxy. We see that other galaxies seem to have not one disc, but two, stacked like pancakes, but with horizontal space in between them. Why is that space there? Because some mysterious force clears that area around their galactic center's equator: it is a matter-free zone. And we are descending from the upper disc towards that equator. But again there is no proof of this, it is speculation based on a simple observation.

So if that is true in our galaxy. we may hit that zone, and it sucks the whole Solar System down a little further towards the galactic center, before our momentum around the Pleiades brings us out down below the galactic equator. So we still revolve around the Pleiades, in a manner roughly perpendicular to the galactic equator, but that "wheel" is turned slightly to the side by the massive, mysterious force. (Also the roughly perpendicular thing is just to help visualize all of this, it is more like a 45 degree angle-- there are good youtube animations that illustrate this well but they are all hard selling the woo-woo theories so I hesitate to link to them).

Even then, not a lot happens, because the current mechanics that hold the Earth around the Sun and all the other pieces are still intact. The proximate forces are the ones that are most powerful, and those continue to maintain their effects.

Now, what if for some reason there are all sorts of star and planet pieces, like Saturn's rings, spinning around that galactic center, and we're headed smack dab for em? Bigger chunks, not 'grains'.

It seems to be really hard to find things that are willing to get tangled up in the Solar System and slam into us. Lord knows they try. Here is a list of some of those things that are already known about. The ones with an "LD" of less than one are coming closer to us than the moon is on average. The one coming closest, soonest, is Apophis. But that isn't until 2029. It is coming nine hundredths of a lunar distance close, which is a little less than 35000 kilometers, which is a little less than 22,000 miles. That's about a hundred times further away from the Earth than the ISS orbits.

But, maybe some pieces will break off of Apophis and we'll see some stuff worthy of Hollywood movie effects. Or maybe NASA's math is wrong, and it slams into us!

At any rate, though, it looks like 2012 isn't going to be apocalyptic so far. Even if the "descending into granulated bubble skin" theory is correct, it seems like we should expect to see the discovery of a whole bunch of new comet/asteroid type things increase dramatically, so the chances of something hitting us become "less astronomical", but still, well... astronomical.