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Small Comets and Our Origins
University of Iowa ^ | circa 1999 | Louis A. Frank

Posted on 10/19/2004 11:13:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Given the reality of the dark spots, which soon became known as "atmospheric holes" because of their appearance in the images, there is only one explanation which has endured over all these years to present. That is, the holes are due to the shadowing of the atmospheric light by an object above the atmosphere. This object simply cannot be a stony or iron meteor because the holes are very large, tens of miles in diameter. A rock of this size would provide a disastrous impact on the Earth's surface. As it turns out, water vapor is very good at absorbing the atmospheric light and thus appearing as a atmospheric hole in the images taken by the spacecraft camera. The only other step in the interpretation is to note that a cloud of water vapor will have only a brief existence in interplanetary space so that it must be delivered to Earth as a small comet filled with water snow which is disrupted and expands as it impacts into our atmosphere.

(Excerpt) Read more at smallcomets.physics.uiowa.edu ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Reference; Religion; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: abiogenesis; archaeology; armandhdelsemme; bigsplash; biogenesis; catastrophism; churyumovgerasimenko; comet; comet67p; comets; earlyearth; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; louisafrank; louisfrank; notsogreatflood; originoflife; originofoceans; originoftheoceans; panspermia; patrickhuyghe; smallcomets; tethysocean; thebigsplash; water
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To: SunkenCiv

Carolina Bays (500,000 of these along the east coast of the US)

21 posted on 10/20/2004 10:19:01 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam
I'm sure I've read somewhere that the Carolina Bays were the work of underground fungus. :')
George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent

22 posted on 10/20/2004 10:28:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv
A really long but interesting read. Only to arrive at: Only a comet appears to satisfy the constraints imposed both by extraterrestrial requirements and observed terrestrial characteristics. Which coincidentally appears (more or less)obvious to the "untrained" observer. Where's my grant money?!?!

I also went back and, ahem, took a look at the original posted item. Very cool! Water balloons in space? Next thing you know the planet will get "wrapped"! Anyway, the notion of megatons of water coming to earth from space really gave the pseudo-scientists a case of the vapors. Who then circled their wagons and fought off the heresy til they could no longer resist..........the obvious. At least when the evidence was originally presented('86?), it would seem to be self evident......again to the untrained observer.

The more of these "scientific" links I follow, the stronger my feeling that many/most(?) scientists are pretty much like yellow dog Dimocrats; Don't approach me with facts, my mind's made up! Something seems to have gone awry in the scientific community. But that's not really news since things seem to have gone awry most everywhere.

FGS

23 posted on 10/20/2004 1:36:29 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: SunkenCiv
My question is:

Is this activity specific to Earth's orbit?
Is orbital distance then a pre-requisite to habitibility?

Is this happening on Mars? Venus?
Do we see any evidence pro or con for the other planets?

Has anyone reviewed say, Cassini film/photo footage for evidence of such cometary activity?
Would there be similar photographic evidence to help confirm the theory?

It raises a hell of a lot more questions than it answers, IMHO...

24 posted on 10/20/2004 2:46:52 PM PDT by Drammach (Freedom; not just a job, it's an adventure..)
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To: ForGod'sSake

Yeah, 's goofy, eh? Last time I checked, Phil Plait of "Bad Astronomy" fame remained in the "not happenin'" camp. :')


25 posted on 10/20/2004 10:29:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: Drammach
Venus may be immune because the comets can't quite make the trip (more solar energy hitting 'em). I'd be inclined to think that it is happening on Mars at least. Mars' surface is cratered, but one half (the "Hemisphere of Craters") has many more, which suggested to at least one researcher (circa 1980s) that, when one subtracts the number found on the other half (the "Opposite Hemisphere" -- to clarify, these hemispheres are not related to the axis of rotation at all), the remaining number (the extra ones in the "Hemisphere of Craters") were formed from a single, very large, impact event, not dissimilar to the event that formed the Carolina Bays, but probably a bolide (a mass of mostly rock) rather than a comet. :') An object perhaps the size of Ceres (which was the first asteroid discovered, and still among the largest) is what that researcher hypothesized.
26 posted on 10/20/2004 10:38:47 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: ForGod'sSake

Yeah, here's the links for Phil "Bad Astronomy" Plait re Louis Frank:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/minicomet.html

http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=111647

"Louis Frank is as wrong as wrong can be. I have seen his claims, read papers, and years ago decided his claims are utterly incorrect." -- Phil Plait


27 posted on 10/20/2004 11:26:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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Donald Simanek's Page: Cutting Edge Science
by Donald Simanek
Snowball Comets. In 1986 physicist Louis Frank of the University of Iowa stirred controversy with evidence that the earth gets significant water from impact of icy comets vaporizing in our atmosphere. Now new and more direct evidence.

28 posted on 10/20/2004 11:35:04 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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Sandia scientist, colleague suggest
meteor plumes causing
transient dark spots in upper atmosphere

Sandia National Laboratories
February 10, 1998
Sandia physicist Mark Boslough and Randy Gladstone of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Tex., have published a study that provides a less provocative -- but still scientifically interesting -- explanation for the so-called atmospheric holes. They may be plumes, not holes, and meteoroids may be the source. Their computational simulations, which make use of Sandia's shock physics code CTH and Boslough's earlier work with Sandia colleague Dave Crawford in successfully predicting the visible plumes from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact into Jupiter in 1994, suggest that the entry of ordinary meteoroids can form dark spots very similar to those reportedly observed by the satellite instruments... [T]hey believe that atomic oxygen, which is the source of the dayglow, is momentarily displaced by the passage of meteoroids. Normal air from lower altitudes contains oxygen in its molecular form and is black in the wavelength that the satellite sees. They propose that when a stony object as small as 50 centimeters across collides with the atmosphere and plunges into the lower layers, it ejects a very thin plume of this "black" air to as high as 1,000 kilometers. It is these dark plumes, they suggest, that are being detected by the satellites. Their work is preliminary and they acknowledge that the hypothesis doesn't account for the observed high rate of dark hole formation. But they say if they can show their idea is correct for large meteoroids, they will look into the possibility that small ones have a similar effect.

George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent

29 posted on 10/20/2004 11:52:57 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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another GGG topic (from the Catastrophism subsection):

When the Days Were Shorter
Alaska Science Forum (Article #742) ^ | November 11, 1985 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 10/04/2004 10:31:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1234919/posts


30 posted on 10/21/2004 10:05:40 AM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv
They may be plumes, not holes, and meteoroids may be the source.

If this theory is to be believed, wouldn't there necessarily have to be a fireball when something as hard as a meteoroid enters the atmosphere? Maybe I'm missing something obvious here.

FGS

31 posted on 10/21/2004 8:32:35 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: ForGod'sSake
Well, they would be small. To get a rock all the way through the atmosphere to the surface (depending in part, of course, on the initial velocity of the object) requires something on the order of a large motor vehicle in size. I've only seen one "shooting star" in daylight, it was a nice (but brief, no more than three seconds) show. If one lies out under the stars, on any night, not even during the various annual showers, one will catch (usually in the corner of the eye) a shooting star every minute or so. They are very brief in transit, and typically they are no more than a tiny pebble or even a grain of sand. :')
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest
-- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

32 posted on 10/21/2004 10:34:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv
Well, they would be small.

I expect so. Do you know if the instruments on these observation platforms are able to detect heat and/or visible light(or are these really the same things???) To the layman, it seems there would be additional evidence when/if  hard objects are entering the atmosphere. But all I've been able to determine from these articles is that holes(shadows?) are frequently visible(on some wavelength) in the upper atmosphere. And these holes/shadows are NOT in the visible light range??? Is that about right?

FGS

33 posted on 10/21/2004 11:49:00 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: ForGod'sSake

I believe they would not be visible to the naked eye from the ground, but if they were, would appear to be a brighter spot. They show up dark in the part of the spectrum used by the satellites.


34 posted on 10/21/2004 11:52:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv
Well ok, the one thing that has me totally confused is if these holes/shadows are in fact "water balloons", their "mark", upon explosion, would be in the visible light range would they not? I mean, we're talking a hole/shadow created by water vapor, and it wouldn't require cameras fitted with spectral capabilities to see these shadows would it? UNLESS these holes/shadows are so faint so as to NOT be visible in, er, visible light? Near as I can tell, none of these observations were conducted in the visible light range.

One other thing that comes to mind. I'm sure you've seen the clips taken of thunderstorm activity on the dark side of the planet from orbiting spacecraft, I believe, that show what appear to be jets(poor choice of word, but the best that comes to mind) of material escaping FROM the earth. Now it occurs to me that these "jets" could maybe just as easily create a hole/shadow in the atmosphere??? As far as I know, these jets have not been adequately explained. Could they be related?

FGS

35 posted on 10/22/2004 9:48:32 AM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: ForGod'sSake

Not sure about those jets escaping from the Earth, can you point me in the right direction? :')

These comets go boom, spread out, and all that takes place at high altitudes. The most that could be visible from the ground (at night) might be some optical distortion, that would be my guess. In the daytime, any optical distortion would be very difficult to notice, because of the Sun.


36 posted on 10/22/2004 8:33:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv
Not sure about those jets escaping from the Earth, can you point me in the right direction? :')

Be glad to; I'm just not sure where to start. I can't even remember where I saw these clips. Most likely Discovery, TLC or even an outside chance on the weather channel. I'll see what I can find.

If I could put it in some perspective, the cameras were taking videos of lightning flashes and there would occasionally be an outward explosion of material shooting off into space seen at the curvature of the earth; on the horizon if you will. Now, I'm not sure, but I think I also heard that high flying aircraft pilots have seen these things, but don't hold me to that.

These comets go boom, spread out, and all that takes place at high altitudes.

Understood, at the outer edge of our atmosphere even.

The most that could be visible from the ground (at night) might be some optical distortion, that would be my guess. In the daytime, any optical distortion would be very difficult to notice, because of the Sun.

I wasn't so much referring to anything being visible from the ground but you raise an interesting point. That is, there should be instruments on the ground similar to those on the satellites that could pick up these anomalies? The more I look at this the curiouser it gets.

FGS

37 posted on 10/22/2004 9:45:35 PM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: vannrox; Justa

A tiny bump to one of those older style URL topics:

Catastrophic event preceded Dark Ages - scientist
Miscellaneous News Keywords: SCIENCE HISTORY IMAGINATION
Source: Reuters
Posted on 09/08/2000 10:06:44 PDT by VadeRetro
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39b91ca42b27.htm

Justa posted this link:
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39b91ca42b27.htm#100


38 posted on 10/22/2004 10:35:48 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("All I have seen teaches me trust the Creator for all I have not seen." -- Emerson)
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To: SunkenCiv
Not sure about those jets escaping from the Earth, can you point me in the right direction? :')

My first search brought me to some stills on this site that appear to be very close to the videos I saw. The videos are much more interesting, so I'll keep looking...

Gigantic Jets Observed between a Thundercloud and the Ionosphere

FGS

39 posted on 10/24/2004 12:30:38 AM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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To: SunkenCiv
SPRITES?

FGS

40 posted on 10/24/2004 12:48:53 AM PDT by ForGod'sSake (ABCNNBCBS: An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.)
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