Another Scientific Muligan (as in golf)

Once again what was "Hard Science" yesterday is completely different today. This is further proof that we don't have a clue about global warming and shouldn't form policy based on unfounded "science" and political correctness.
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May 22, 2007

Cassini Probes Saturn's Icy Rings

BY PATRICK PETERSON
FLORIDA TODAY
Saturn's largest ring is made of churning clumps of icy particles that break up and reform, according to new findings from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

The study said Saturn's B ring is "clumpy and dynamic," made of sheets of dirty water ice ranging from the size of a marble to the size of a boulder. As the ring spins around the planet, these particles form and reform into sheets, some 100 to 150 feet across.

"The particles are sort of jostling along," said Josh Colwell, assistant professor of physics at the University of Central Florida, who helped make the discovery. "At any given time, most particles are going to be in one of the clumps, but the particles keep moving from clump to clump as clumps are destroyed and new ones are formed."

A professor in UCF's growing planetary sciences program, Colwell led the study. Additionally, the study revealed that the rings have two to three times as much material as scientists thought.

"There's been an evolving view of Saturn's rings," he said. "It's been really turned upside down since Cassini got there."

The observations were made using the spectrograph aboard the Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997 to study Saturn, its rings and moons. Scientists made the discovery by watching the brightness of a star change as the rings passed in front of the star.

Saturn is a giant ball of gas with no surface. The study will help scientists determine the age of Saturn's rings and understand how they were formed.

The findings will be published in the journal Icarus.

Science is Nothing More Than Idle Speculation

The following article points again to "science" being crap. This one "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before.". Another one "might blow in similar fashion any day now or 50,000 years from now". Basically, they don't have a clue and have reported theories as fact that once again has been proven untrue. Same with all the cause and effect theories of global warming. Scientists don't have a clue only "theories". Putting any faith in all this stuff and even worse creating policies based on this stuff is completely political and absolutely futile.


Massive supernova dazzles scientists

ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- A massive exploding faraway star - the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen - has scientists wondering whether a similar celestial fireworks show may light up the sky much closer to Earth sometime soon.

The discovery, announced Monday by NASA, drew oohs and aahs for months from the handful of astronomers who peered through telescopes to see the fuzzy remnants of the spectacular explosion after it was first spotted last fall.

Using a variety of Earth and space telescopes, astronomers found a giant exploding star that they figure has shined about five times brighter than any of the hundreds of supernovae ever seen before, said discovery team leader Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley. The discovery was first made last September by a graduate student in Texas.

"This one is way above anything else," Smith told The Associated Press. "It's really astonishing."

Smith said the star, SN2006gy, "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before." He called the star "freakily massive" at 150 times the mass of the sun.

Observations from the Chandra X-ray telescope helped show that it didn't become a black hole like other supernovae and skipped a stage of star death.

Unlike other exploding stars, which peak at brightness for a couple of weeks at most, this supernova, peaked for 70 days, according to NASA. And it has been shining at levels brighter than other supernovae for several months, Smith said.

And even at 240 million light years away, this star in a distant galaxy does suggest that a similar and relatively nearby star - one 44 quadrillion miles away - might blow in similar fashion any day now or 50,000 years from now, Smith said. It wouldn't threaten Earth, but it would be so bright that people could read by it at night, said University of California at Berkeley astronomer David Pooley. However, it would only be visible to people in the Southern Hemisphere, he said.