*

*

Twin NASA Moon Probes Start New Year by Entering Lunar Orbit

Space.com- A pair of NASA spacecraft are ringing in the new year in grand style, with both now successfully circling the moon after journeying through space for more than three months.

The Grail-B probe entered lunar orbit today (Jan. 1) after firing its main engine at 5:05 p.m. EST (2205 GMT) in a 40-minute-long orbital-insertion burn, NASA officials said. It joins its twin spacecraft, Grail-A, which arrived at the moon yesterday evening (Dec. 31) after completing a similar maneuver.

The two probes are on a mission to study Earth's nearest neighbor from crust to core. After gradually circling down to super-low orbits, the pair will zip around the moon in tandem, working together to map the lunar gravity field in unprecedented detail, researchers said.

Scientists expect the probes' measurements to help unlock some longstanding mysteries about the moon's composition and evolution— mysteries that have withstood more than 100 moon missions over the years.
"You might think that, given all of these observations, we would know what there is to know about the moon," Grail principal investigator Maria Zuber, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told reporters Wednesday (Dec. 28). "Of course that's not the case."

The moon's many secrets

Scientists think the moon formed after a Mars-size body struck Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. This titanic impact blasted huge amounts of material into space, and they eventually coalesced.
While this basic outline of the moon's origin is pretty well established, many mysteries remain about how the rocky body has evolved since then.

Chief among these puzzles, perhaps, is why the near side of the moon — the face we always see from Earth — is so different from the far side. For example, plains of volcanic rock (called maria) are much more widespread on the near side, and the far side is higher and more mountainous, with the lunar surface 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) higher in elevation, on average, than the near side.

"We don't actually know why the near side and far side of the moon are different," Zuber said. "We think that the answer is locked in the interior."

One possible explanation, proposed by researchers this August, is that the gigantic collision 4.5 billion years ago actually created two moons. The second moon, which was much smaller, later slammed into our moon's far side, the idea goes, spreading itself over the surface rather than creating a crater.

The Grail probes' observations could help determine whether that scenario is accurate, researchers said.
"We believe that we can obtain the information that we need to test this hypothesis," Zuber said.

Formation flying

The $496 million Grail (short for "Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory") mission launched Sept. 10. The two washing-machine-size probes then spent more than three months making their slow, circuitous way to the moon.

By comparison, NASA's manned Apollo 11 mission in 1969 reached the moon in three days. But Apollo 11 prioritized speed, while Grail's path is energy-efficient and has given engineers ample time to assess the probes' health and charge up their scientific gear, researchers said.

Grail-A and Grail-B still have some work to do from their initial lunar orbits to get into position. They'll spend two months circling lower and lower, eventually settling into orbits just 34 miles (55 kilometers) above the lunar surface by March.

Only then will the twin spacecraft begin their science campaign. They'll chase each other around the moon for 82 days, staying 75 to 225 miles (121 to 362 km) apart. [Video: Grail's Mission to Map Moon Gravity]
Regional differences in the lunar gravity field will cause the two spacecraft to speed up or slow down slightly, changing the distance between them as they fly. Bouncing microwave signals back and forth off  each other, Grail-A and Grail-B will gauge these tiny distance variations constantly.

The Grail team will use the twin probes' measurements to construct highly detailed maps of the moon's gravitational field. These maps are expected to reveal a great deal about lunar composition, allowing scientists to draw insights about how the moon formed and how it has changed over time, researchers said.
Public outreach and education are a big part of the Grail mission. Each spacecraft is carrying four cameras and will snap photos of the lunar surface at the direction of middle-school students across the country. Students will get to pore over these pictures after they're beamed back down to Earth.

The photo project — which is called MoonKam and is run by former NASA astronaut Sally Ride — has already generated lots of enthusiasm. More than 2,100 schools have signed up to participate, according to Zuber.

"We've had a great response to the MoonKam project," Zuber said. "We're still accepting applications. We can accommodate another several hundred schools into the program if there's interest in doing that."

* Special thanks to Space.com.

            **************************************************

*

Photo and video capture furious activity in Milky Way nebula 2,000 light-years away

*



(Space.com)  Just in time for the holidays, the Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a spectacular view of a star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy that looks like a snow angel in deep space.

This region, called Sharples 2-106 (or S106 for short) is located nearly 2,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan). The nebula is found in a relatively isolated part of the Milky Way, researchers said.

The S106 nebula measures several light-years across, and contains vast clouds of gas that resemble outstretched wings amidst an hourglass shape. The light from the glowing gas is colored blue in this image. A video and photo of the "snow angel" based on Hubble's observations reveal a spectacular view of the cosmic sight.



Hubble's view captures furious activity in the nebula, with ridges and ripples of super-hot gas mixing with the cooler interstellar medium. A massive young star, called Infrared Source 4 or IRS 4, is responsible for this turbulence, scientists said.

Radiation from IRS 4 makes the lobes of gas glow bright blue in the image, as they stretch outward from the central star. Luminous red veins also appear throughout the nebula creating intricate patterns.

A ring of dust and gas around the star squeezes the expanding nebula into its apparent hourglass shape. Faint light from the central star reflects off tiny dust particles, making the surrounding environment glow, and revealing darker filaments of dust beneath the blue dust clouds, the researchers said.

Astronomers have studied S106 and found several hundred brown dwarfs, which are cool, failed stars. When the nebula is viewed in infrared wavelengths, more than 600 of these misfit stars appear, scientists said.

Brown dwarfs weigh less than a tenth of our sun, and because of this low mass, they are unable to trigger enough energy through nuclear fusion. These cosmic objects encompass the S106 nebula in a small cluster, the researchers said.

S106 was the 106th object to be cataloged by astronomer Stewart Sharpless in the 1950s, the researchers said.

The newly released image was taken by Hubble in February. The composite picture was created by stitching together two images taken in infrared light.

Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

            *

More of This Week's Science News





            *********************************************

I am getting many requests for me to continue the story called “TAKEN UP”. being a writer is globally fun in what we acquire as the work and word we use as serendipity. I use it in the formation of my world with the energy that I expand on daily.

read more

Video Capture- MUFON CASE # 33047

*
More than Trick or Treaters were out and about on Halloween night in Missouri. 
UFO witnesses report to MUFON.

[Note: These reports are "as is" with no corrections. -SW]


MUFON CASE # 33047
Date:    2011-10-31
Time:   20:10
Status:    Assigned
City:    Lee's Summit
State:    Missouri
Shape:    Circle,Disc,Sphere
Distance: Unknown
Summary: One extremely large, circular, disc-like main ship, bright, pulsating lights of all colors and white, + small, red, orb-like shape ejected toward the end, which stayed behind, hovered for many minutes, then shot off after the large craft!

Report:
I was in the car with my daughter-in-law and two small grandsons, while Trick-or-Treating last night (10-31-11). We were stopped at a light on a busy street when I noticed a huge, circular object moving right toward us from the North. It had pulsating and blinking multi-colored lights, as well as extremely bright, white lights. It came very close and hovered over all the cars and buildings, through several light changes (everyone who saw it just sat where they were!), then slowly began to move off toward the SW in an arcing path. When we first saw it, it was as if it was approaching us with its bottom facing us, (as if on a vertical orientation, and as it retreated, it turned flat (or horizontal), at times moving very slowly, then accelerating very quickly. It would completely disappear from time to time. We followed it, both of us taking turns video-ing it with our phones. It at times acted as if it were playing a game with us, hiding,then appearing very close so we could see details, including a dome-like appendage on the bottom-center. Then it would speed off, eventually making a complete circle over our area and winding up hovering over the neighborhood where we had originally been headed. It disappeared again, as we got out of the car to go tell our friends, and many people in the neighborhood came running up asking if we saw it, too! It returned from low on the Northern horizon, hovered directly over us, at times turning on its end, as before, and at other times performing all sorts of movements that seemed to defy regular laws of physics! Someone said the news was saying it was a group of 7 precision-flight small plane operators, performing a fly-by over the football stadium, but we saw this very closely and it was not a group of small planes (or large ones)! It was completely circular and everything moved as one, without fail. It made very little noise, a pleasant, low, oscillating hum, that I have never heard before, nor had anyone else. Definitely not the sound of any plane or helicopter I have ever heard. This sky-line ballet went on for over an hour and toward the end, the craft had turned to a horizontal position and forcefully ejected a much smaller, red, orb-like object, then shot off never to be seen by us again. The red orb hovered for many minutes, its light just pulsating and varying in intensity of frequency, then it began moving, slowly at first, then it also shot off in the same direction as the large craft and we never saw it again, either. It had no sound. We all felt very affected on many levels. We were, of course, very excited, skeptical (kept trying to google any news about it but phones were not working well), happy (no one seemed to feel frightened or upset), and tingly. Personally, I felt like I had lost a huge chunk of time, and felt an enormous amount of high-frequency energy around me and running through me! I felt hopeful, and could not sleep the rest of the night. The small children were also elated, and had lots of energy as well. Today, I could find no news on TV or the net, other than MUFON, about this! I am just so sad that my phone camera could not capture the beauty and enormity of this thing!

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3

            *

MUFON CASE # 33033
Date:    2011-10-31
Time:   20:00
Status:    Assigned
State:    Missouri
Shape:    Circle
Distance: 20 feet or less
Summary: It was huge. it was like a circle with lots of lights

Report:
Halloween night around 8, heading to Swopeparkway Health Center on Bluepkwy in Kansas City MO for a trick or treat event, I saw one of the parking guards pointing and I looked and it was a huge circular object in the sky with lots of lights, I tried to get it on my camera phone but it took off really fast, It was lots of people outside who witnessed it, It looked like the bottom of a flying saucer, huge....., I was really shocked because it was in the area where I saw another ufo about a month ago, I NEVER thought I would see anything like that again in my life, but I did, shocking..

             *

MUFON CASE # 33050
Date:    2011-10-31
Location: Blue Springs, Missouri
Summary: Two venus like objects diaganol of each other in the southeast sky one fades then the other.

Report:
I was going to report this last night, but didn't. I have never seen or reported anything weird like this. I searched again today and saw three others reported the exact same thing. Two reports in California and one close to me in Kansas. My story is pretty much the same as the other three. I didn't notice any temp change like the one person said though. I was sitting in my driveway passing out treats and waiting for my family to get back from trick or treating. At 7:30pm central time,I glanced up in the southeast sky at about 45-55 degrees up from the horizon and noticed what I thought were two bright planets diaganol of each other. They were totally stationary. I noticed in the other reports they were vertical of each other and in another part of the sky. I don't know if that has to do with where they are in the U.S. compared to where these things were in the sky. Anyway, I watched them about 60 seconds. I don't know how long they were there before I noticed them. Then one faded and about 4 seconds later, the other. Weird. I don't think it was any alien action, but I would like to know what it was. I thoght maybe military flares, but they were not falling. Then when it was seen in California, I knew that wasn't the case.

             *

MUFON CASE # 33028
Date:    2011-10-31
Location:  Lee's Summit, Missouri 
Summary: 10/31/11 Lee's Summit, Mo Disc UFO

Report:
My wife and I were driving to take our child trick-or-treating. My car was heading west on Hwy 50 and had just passed the Hwy 7 exit. On the north side of Hwy 50 to the North West I saw a long line of lights moving accross the sky to the north. I pointed at them and told my wife to look because it was such a very long line of lights. They quickly changed direction and moved South East bound right at us. The line of lights moved up as the bottom of the disc shaped ufo was exposed. The bottom was covered in a very large amount of spot lights. As the disc came closer and decended it tilted so far up that the bottom part of the disc with all the spot lights was completely visable. One of the spot lights on the bottom caught my eye as the rest of them shown down. The bottom was curved just like a saucer. It was so gigantic and low to the ground I decided to slow down to 50 mph and took the first U-turn available. Cars all around me were slowing down. I passed Hwy 7 again and turned North. I watched the ufo decend and then hover to the North West. The night sky lit up with a flash of light in a perfect circle around the ufo. I kept my eyes in the sky but didn't see it again. I did notice shortly after the ufo sighting an unusual amount of normal aircraft activity was everyhere. Two planes flying at the same low altitude came from the East flying West bound. They flew right over the location the ufo seemed to land but kept going.

             *

MUFON CASE # 33023
Date:    2011-10-31
Location: Belton, Missouri   
Summary: Lights in sky

Report:
I was sitting on my driveway in a chair, handing out candy for halloween, very clam out no clouds beautiful evening moon was at a crecent, just enjoying the peacefulness, then i look up at the sky facing south i saw in the sky 2 bright objects, at first i thought they were jets in formation with there lights on, as i kept watching they werent moving they were hovering, then the one a little lower, lights got dimmer and dimmer, i was in awe never have ever seen anything like this, then the other one did the same thing just slowly dimed its light's out. best way to discribe it would be the Phoinex light's all over again with this being in Belton Missouri and only 2 of them and for a shorter time by best guess is they were there for a min or 2 i watched them for at least one min.

             *

MUFON CASE # 33022
Date:    2011-10-31
Location: Missouri
Summary: Tubular Ufo Just above tree line.

Report:
I was taking pictures of the skyline and noticed this object in the sky. As it came over head it looked semi transparent. It had no noticable wings and was tubular in shape. These type of craft come through this area quite often. However this one was rather large. It was about 30 to 40 feet in length with a dark band in the center and on one end. I didn't know what to make of it. Just thought folks would be interested in seeing this and maybe someone else has seen this before.

Photo link

             *

MUFON CASE # 33020
Date:    2011-10-31    
Location: Missouri
Summary: bright moving light

Report:
1. on my front porch my dad was letting dogs in and he noticed it
2. vary bright lights
3. plane but it was not moving and had moving lights on it
4. hard to describe a shape , but the lights moved along it axis and fallowed each other then it would pause over a spot and let of a bright glow ..... like an exploshion , it was there for a while hovering and moving back and forth acrost the sky
5. we joked that it was a ufo vary light harted , we where amazed by the brightess of the lights
6.  we went back in the house and it was drifting off

             *

MUFON CASE # 33016
Date:    2011-10-31
Location: Lee's Summit, Missouri    
Summary: Very scary to look at, Many bright flashing lights and it was a fast moving object.

Report:
Ok, I was having a boring halloween tonight. I have just gotten back from my school basketball tryouts, and i was planning on going trick or treating with my girlfriend tonight, but i didn't. I instead stayed home, watched southpark, and the chiefs game. Before the chiefs game, i went outside to check on my dogs for about 20 minutes. About 5 minutes after i had gone outside, I saw something moving rapidly across the sky. The Object stopped from time to time, Maybe every 5 minutes, But it moved fast and rapidly. Now, My home is in Peculiar, Missouri. This object was in the direction of Lee's Summit, Missouri. I think it was in Lee's summit, but it MAY have been in Raymore.
Nothing really made me notice it at first, I just looked up at the sky, and boom. There it was. This object had very bright lights that seemed to go on randomly, and it moved very rabidly. As i said, it hovered from time to time. I have heard from some of my friends that they saw something move in the sky too. One of my friends from Lee's Summit said that they went outside on their front porch, and they saw something move rapidly across the sky. Another one of my friends was in a car with a group of people. They were about to go to a Halloween party, and they all said they saw something. I looked up Lee's Summit UFO sightings, and i have found out that UFO sightings in that area are very common. I lost sight of the object, when it seemed to look as if it was descending. It MAY of landed, but i am not for sure. I had a weird reaction, I was scared, and i ran inside. However, i went into the sunroom, and continued to look out the window at the object. After the sighting, i talked to my mom. She said that it was probably just an Airplane or a blimp for the monday night football game. I said that airplanes do not hover, and that blimps probably do not move and change direction as fast as the object i saw.

            *               *               *

Editor's Note:  I wonder if perhaps the occupants of the UFOs are curious about all the little goblins, ghost, Spider Men, Thors and Captain Americas?  Could be. -SW

            *********************************************

As I gazed at the “Photo of the Week” of the strange, brilliantly lighted craft over Hoboken, New Jersey, I wondered what so many of us wonder, “What is their power source? What energy or energies are they using?” Meanwhile, back on the planet, Homo sapiens have hit the 7 billion mark, and counting.

read more

Video Link

See NEWS Video here on KVUE.com


A San Antonio resident made the news, when he claimed that on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, he spotted an Unidentified Flying Object and captured it on video.

“I was pointing that way and I saw that object traveling that way, going east,” said Vallejo. “First of all no navigational lights that’s what got my attention at first. Then I started zooming in and I started seeing the different configuration of the lights.”

As of today, his Youtube video has had over 45, 000 views.

Sep-14-2011 a Huge UFO craft was filmed over San Antonio,Tx..As I was facing west I notice this Huge glowing object traveling east.I could clearly see this object was no aircraft .No FAA navigational light's were visible.So i quickly crabbed my camcorder for a closer observation..As i began filming this huge unknown object multiply lights could be seen..This UFO appears to be a solid craft.On the video you can see this object to be emiting some kind of glowing energy.While i was filming unknown,the lights configuration began to change.When zooming in multiply lights were diff were shape... I did not see any FAA lights/hear any noise coming from this unknown object....In my opinion Clearly an UNIDENTIFED FLYING OBJECT..This was an awesome sighting due to as it appears to be One solid object..And the size of this object seemed to be enormous..This huge glowing object was clearly no aircraft or satellite.

          *                    *                    *

Note:  UFO stands for 'Unidentified Flying Object' and clearly, this thing in the video is "unidentified".  Now whether it is of this Earth or not, you decide. -SW

          ********************************************