Including Original "Paul H. Letters" Copyright © 1996-2024 Paul V. Heinrich / website © 1996-2024 Dirk Ross - All rights reserved.



Monday 30 August 2004

Major Extrasolar Planets Discovery

Major Extrasolar Planets Discovery

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Mon Aug 30 20:18:21 EDT 2004

Extrasolar Planets Discovered

Kathleen Burton Aug. 30, 2004

NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-1731 or 604-9000
E-mail: Kathleen.M.Burton at nasa.gov

NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: News
media representatives are invited to view
live televised coverage and commentary of
a major extra-solar discovery announcement
on Tuesday, Aug. 31, at 10 a.m. PDT. The
coverage will be broadcast live from NASA
Headquarters in Washington on NASA
Television and can be viewed in the lobby
of the N-201 auditorium at NASA Ames
Research Center, located in California's
Silicon Valley. Following the briefing,
Dr. Jack Lissauer, a NASA Ames planetary
scientist, will be available for interviews.
NASA Television can be seen on AMC- 6,
Transponder 9 located at 72 degrees west
longitude with 3880.0 MHz. vertical
polarization and audio at 6.8 MHz.

RELEASE: 04-79AR
NASA TO ANNOUNCE MAJOR DISCOVERY OF NEW PLANETS

A team of planet hunters will announce its
discovery of a new class of planets located
beyond our solar system at a NASA Science
Update at 10 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, Aug. 31.
The discovery represents a significant and
much-anticipated advance in the hunt for
extra-solar planets.

Panelists include:

-- Dr. Geoffrey Marcy, University of California,
Berkeley;
-- Dr. R. Paul Butler, Department of Terrestrial
Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington;
-- Dr. Barbara McArthur, University of Texas, Austin;
-- Dr. Alan Boss, staff research astronomer,
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie
Institution of Washington;
-- Dr. Anne Kinney, moderator, director, Universe
Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA,
Washington.

The news conference will be carried live on
NASA Television, with two-way question-and-
answer capability from participating NASA
centers. The event also will be Webcast live
at:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/webcasts/ssu_0804.html

Also, last Wednesday the European Southern
Observatory announced the discovery of a 14
Earth-mass extrasolar planet ...

http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-22-04.html

The following paper appeared on the
astrophysics preprint server ...

http://cul.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0408471

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Tuesday 24 August 2004

Could A Meteorite or Comet Cause All The Fires of 1871?

Could A Meteorite or Comet Cause All The Fires of 1871?

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 24 12:26:49 EDT 2004

In Could A Meteorite or Comet Cause All The Fires of
1871?
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2004-August/143245.html
Sterling K. Webb wrote:

"These strange fires were not restricted
to the IL-WI-MI triangle centered around
the southern end of Lake Michigan. Because
of the slowness of communication in 1871,
it was not immediately recognized that the
fires of October 8, 1871 were scattered
over parts of seven states and Canada and
may have caused as many as 10,000 deaths."

I would be interested to know where the claim that the

fire actually started in seven states and Canada
simultaneously. From what I seen written in well-
researched books on the 1871 fire, i.e. "Michigan On
Fire" by Betty Sodders in 1997, the fact of the matter
is that fires outside IL-WI-MI area were occurring and

started well before October 8 and had been occurring
all Fall because of the hot and dry weather that had
created a drought that was devastating in its own
right.
If a person looks at the historical record, he or she
would find that it is an absolute misrepresentation of

it in stating that these fires all started
simultaneously
with the October 8 fire. The so-called "instantaneous"
/
"simultaneous" nature of the fire, from what I have
seen, is pure fiction created by shoddy research and
wishful thinking on the part of advocates of the comet

impact theory, who seem to be rather ill-informed of
the actual chronology of forest fires in 1871.

For example, a person can read "The Fire that
Destroyed
Holland, Michigan" at:

http://www.geo.msu.edu/geo333/holland%20fire/hollandfire1.html

In terms of the so-called "simultaneous" nature of the
1871 fire, the web page noted:

"There had already been a threat of danger
earlier in the week. Fires kept smoldering
and burned barns and houses, but the danger
seemed to be far from the city. Then on
Sunday, October 9, there were reports that
a threatening forest fire was coming."

and

"The community at the time was populated with
2400 residents and for many days previous,
these residents had battled and beaten many
small fires that had erupted throughout the
town."

It is quite clear that fires were starting within the
area of the 1871 fire days, even weeks, before October
8.
The fire of 1871 simply didn't magically appear on
October
8, 1871 out of nowhere but was preceded by numerous
smaller fires days, even weeks, before it occurred.

Even more interesting comments about the 1871 fire
can be found in "History & Ecology of Fire in Michigan

Wildland Fire In Michigan". at:

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10367_11851-24038--,00.html

This web page stated:

"It was not a single fire but a combination
of hundreds of fires, small and large, that
had been burning unattended for weeks, only
to flare up and unite when conditions became
acute."

This statement totally demolishes the case for a
meteorite or comet, as the 1871 didn't start on Oct.
8,
1871. Rather the "1871 fire" on October 8 occurred
when
it exploded into a firestorm when fires only after
burning
for days, even weeks, before that date. Oct 8 was
simply
the point that these fires, as they coalesced,
exceeded
the critical mass needed to explode into massive
firestorm.

The historical record also clearly demonstrates the
source of these fires. For example, the "History &
Ecology of Fire in Michigan Wildland Fire In Michigan"

web page stated:

"Set carelessly or by settlers in clearing
land, fires burned everywhere, and ran
uncontrolled into the woods and swamps
where they continued to smolder."

Also, the "The Fire that Destroyed Holland, Michigan"
web page stated:

"In the fall of 1871, the ground was very
dry after the long summer. The summer had
been very hot and dry and some areas hadn't
had rain since June. In Holland, fires
began in the piles of sawdust, waste wood,
and finished lumber in the yards of the
city's several sawmills, and the winds
quickly spread the flames throughout the
town. The small spark ignited the piles
of wood and spread to become one of
Michigan's most widespread forest fire."

These quotes point out the fact that that Michigan was
having problems with outbreaks of smaller fires, weeks

before October 8. The fire simply didn't magically,
simultaneously start on that date, but rather
innumerable
small fires, which had been burning for weeks before
October 8, came together on that date. The fact that
smaller fires were burning many days prior to October
8
refutes the claim that everything simultaneously burst

into flame on that date and the so-called anomalous
nature of the fire. It is quite obvious that long
before
October 8, this region was having major problems with
outbreaks of multiple, ongoing fires.

The "History & Ecology of Fire in Michigan Wildland
Fire In Michigan" stated:

"Michigan was extensively logged toward the
end of the 19th century. The White Pine that
had once covered Michigan was cut, followed
by the hardwood forests, and large expanses
of slash (the branches and other debris left
after logging) were left behind. Many areas
were cleared for farming, and the vegetation
was burned to dispose of it. Several catastrophic
fires resulted from the indiscriminate burning
of slash following logging and land clearing
for agriculture."

and

"In the summer of 1871, a drought occurred over
much of the Great Lakes region. Slash and debris
from logging and land clearing became tinder-dry
during the months without rain. From early
August no rain fell, pastures and gardens dried
up, wells went dry, streams shrank to a mere
trickle, and crops failed."

These conditions, i.e. the abundance of fuel, created
by
careless logging techniques and forest land
management;
the hot and dry weather and massive drought; and the
careless use of fire to clear land made for an ideal
situation for the development of a catastrophic fire.

In fact, a fire similar in magnitude to the 1871 fire
occurred tens years later in September of 1881 in the
Thumb area of Michigan. It was more serve, caused more

damage, and made more people to be homeless than the
1871 fire.

About the 1881 fire, the "History & Ecology of Fire in

Michigan Wildland Fire In Michigan" stated:

"Like the 1871 fire, the fire of 1881 came
at the end of an extremely severe drought
and was the result of hundreds of land-clearing
fires whipped into a seething cauldron of flame
by high winds."

This discussion reminds me of a "mysterious" sinking
of the Sandra that allegedly sank in a calm sea
without
any distress signal as described by Charles Berlitz in

his book "The Bermuda Triangle". When Larry Kusche
looked into this disappearance, he found that the ship

was half as long as the book stated and it disappeared

in the middle of a hurricane. In this case, as in the
1871 fires, the mystery disappears when the
misinformation and folklore is replaced by documented
facts.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Friday 20 August 2004

re: antarctic impact

re: antarctic impact

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 20 13:56:06 EDT 2004

Marco Langbroek wrote:


>If these craters indeed are impact craters and

>0.8 Ma old, that's interesting. Even without

>this new findings there's evidence for multiple

>cratering events around 0.8 Ma. Apart from the

>australasian tektites, there's Darwin crater,

>and there are the Tikal tektites from meso-America.


The Tikal tektites are indeed interesting as they
have been dated at 800,000+/-100,000 and overlap
in composition with Australasian tektites. It does get
more and more curious.

Tikal tektite references

Nagy, H. M.,2002, Tikal Report 27B: The Artifacts
of Tikal : Utilitarian Artifacts and Unworked
Material, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Publication,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hildebrand, A. R., Moholy-Nagy, H., Koeberl, C.,
May, L., and others, 1994, Tektites found in the
ruins of the Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala. Lunar
and Planetary Science, vol. 77, pp. 213-219.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

re: antarctic impact

re: antarctic impact

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Fri Aug 20 13:55:57 EDT 2004

Marco Langbroek wrote:


>If these craters indeed are impact craters and

>0.8 Ma old, that's interesting. Even without

>this new findings there's evidence for multiple

>cratering events around 0.8 Ma. Apart from the

>australasian tektites, there's Darwin crater,

>and there are the Tikal tektites from meso-America.


The Tikal tektites are indeed interesting as they
have been dated at 800,000+/-100,000 and overlap
in composition with Australasian tektites. It does get
more and more curious.

Tikal tektite references

Nagy, H. M.,2002, Tikal Report 27B: The Artifacts
of Tikal : Utilitarian Artifacts and Unworked
Material, University of Pennsylvania Museum
Publication,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hildebrand, A. R., Moholy-Nagy, H., Koeberl, C.,
May, L., and others, 1994, Tektites found in the
ruins of the Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala. Lunar
and Planetary Science, vol. 77, pp. 213-219.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Thursday 19 August 2004

Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) Boundary Impact Disputed

Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) Boundary Impact Disputed

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 19 12:48:31 EDT 2004

A recent paper in Earth and Planetary Science Letters
disputes interpretations that argue that a major comet
impact caused global climatic changes, which coincides
with the Paleocene-Eocene (P-E) Boundary. Instead,
this
paper, Schmitz et al. (2004) concluded:

" The environmental perturbations at the Paleocene-
Eocene boundary appear to have been triggered by
basaltic volcanism, but any model for the detailed
causal relation remains speculative."

The paper is:

Schmitz, B., Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B., Heilmann-Clausen,

C., Aberg, G., Asaro, F., and Lee, C-T. A. 2004,
Basaltic explosive volcanism, but no comet impact,
at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary: high-resolution
chemical and isotopic records from Egypt, Spain and
Denmark. Earth and Planetary Science Letters.
vol. 225, no. 1-2, pp. 1-17 (30 August 2004)

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Regional Deforestation Associated with Australasian Tektite Fall??

Regional Deforestation Associated with Australasian Tektite Fall??

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 19 12:47:54 EDT 2004

A recent paper, Haines et al. (2004), described
fluvial flood deposits containing abundant "abundant
organic debris, including whole tree trunks and
mammal bones", that its authors interpret to be
"the effects of regional deforestation, increased
run off and erosion, and other environmental
disruptions expected in the aftermath of a major
impact event."

The article is:

Haines, P. W., Howard, K. T., Ali, J. R., Burrett,
C. F., and Bunopas, S., 2004, Flood deposits
penecontemporaneous with ~0.8 Ma tektite fall in
NE Thailand: impact-induced environmental effects?
Earth and Planetary Science Letters. vol. 225, no.
1-2, pp. 19-28 (30 August 2004)

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Saturday 14 August 2004

Source Stratum of Georgia Tektites Possibly Found

Source Stratum of Georgia Tektites Possibly Found

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 14 13:52:19 EDT 2004

The latest issue of Geology (Geological
Society of America) has a paper about
the identification of grains of shocked
quartz in a sand bed within Upper Eocene
strata of Georgia. The paper argued that
they might be from the Chesapeake Bay
Impact and occur within in the source
layer for Georgia tektites.

The article is:

Duncan, M. S., Albin, E. F., Harris, R. S.,
Roden M. F., Schroeder, P. A., Holland,
S. M. 2004, Upper Eocene impact horizon in
east-central Georgia. Geology. vol. 32,
no. 8, pp. 717-720.

http://www.gsajournals.org/gsaonline/?request=get-toc&issn=0091-7613&volume=32&issue=8

In part, the abstract stated:

"We report the discovery of shocked quartz
grains in upper Eocene sediments from the
Coastal Plain of east-central Georgia. ...
These grains were collected from a sand
layer near the base of the Twiggs Clay
Member of the Dry Branch Formation and
most likely are ejecta from the Chesapeake
Bay impact, which occurred between 35.7 and
36.0 Ma. ... This horizon could represent
the source stratum for the Georgia tektites ..."

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Thursday 12 August 2004

Explorers Find UFO Fragments in Tunguska Meteorite Area

Explorers Find UFO Fragments in Tunguska Meteorite Area

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 12 10:03:47 EDT 2004

Ron Baalke wrote:

"
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13705_tunguska.html
Explorers find

UFO fragments in Tunguska meteorite area
Pravda.Ru (Russia) August 10, 2004

...text deleted...

"Members of the scientific expedition of
the Siberian state foundation Tunguska Space
Phenomenon say they have managed to uncover
blocks of an extraterrestrial technical device.
The space body, which was later called the
Tunguska meteorite, fell down on Earth on June
30th 1908, 65 kilometers off the Vanavara
settlement, the Evenkiya republic."

My wife, who from Russia, cautions the readers of this

list to take what is written in modern Pravada with
considerable amount of skepticism. From her
experience,
it isn't much different from the Parvada of Soviet
times.


>From what I have seen, it has the habit of publishing

various unverified and sensationalist news stories
with
a large content of junk science that would be at home
in New Age magazines, i.e. "Atlantis Rising", which
regularly publish poorly written articles about
various types of junk science. i.e. Antarctic being
the site of Atlantis and Hindu Old Earth creationism.

An example of such an article is " "Black Holes"
Devour People", which was published in Pravada on
April 26,2 004. It can found at:

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/12624_Holes.html

A paragraph from this article reads:

" "I blame the so-called "black holes" for
disappearance of people", says Jane Lindsett,
Professor, California University, San Francisco.
"Periodically, time and space on Earth refract,
and entire cities may find themselves in a different
dimension, which sometimes "spits them out".
There are scores of such "black holes " on Earth,
and people frequently get in them. A decade ago,
a 36-year-old Lydia Kimfield, Androver (Texas),
disappeared during her visit to the doctor. An
hour later her body was found one thousand
kilometers away from the city. An autopsy showed
that she had died two months earlier! In the
state of New Mexico there is a road on which 19
people disappeared without a trace, the last
case being in 1997. The road runs across the
desert, which can be observed from air. The
vanished people might have been carried over
to the ocean or woods where they perished.
Objects cannot travel across space, that's why
ships were found vacated, but the belongings
of those who disappeared were in place"."

Other examples of junk science published in Prvada
are:

Taking Photographs of the Past is Possible: A
scientist
from the Russian city of Voronezh invented a camera
for
that 18:50 2003-02-17
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/02/17/43424.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13657_ghost.html

Anomalous ground holes appear in the Russian province
Ufologists suppose, aliens land on Earth to take
ground
samples 08/03/2004 18:27
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13614_aliens.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/

Sexual contacts with aliens occur frequently: Aliens
take samples of semen and ovule from human abductees
for their genetic experiments 08/04/2004 18:15
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/13623_aliens.html

UFO Prevents Blast at Chernobyl Nuclear Plant
Eyewitnesses say that they saw an UFO hovering above
the
exploded reactor 16:15 2002-09-16
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/09/16/36691.html

3-D Map of the Earth created 120 millions of years
ago.
On-line press conference with Alexandr Chuvyrov 14:48
2002-04-30
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/30/28149.html
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/05/30/29507.html

Atlantis Under Antarctica? 13:00 2002-12-02
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/12/02/40228.html

Atlantis Will Be Found: Russian researchers have held
the Second Congress of Atlantis Explorers in Moscow
05/26/2003 11:19
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/10080_atlantis.html

These articles provide examples of the complete lack
of any
vetting for junk science by Pravada in what it
publishes.
Thus, a person should have a healthy skepticism of
what in
the way of the various "science" articles is published
in it.

Finally, a person might want to note that Lenin still
appears
on the banner at the top of its page, which says much
about
it philosophy and how it has changed since Soviet
times.

http://english.pravda.ru/images/06.gif

Yorus,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

P.S. For some interesting off-topic news, a person can
go to:

Cat pounces on pilot mid-flight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3551672.stm

Tuesday 10 August 2004

Review Paper on Chondrules Published in EPSL

Review Paper on Chondrules Published in EPSL

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 10 10:37:56 EDT 2004

Dear Friends,

the latest issue of Earth and Planetary Science
Letters
has a review article about chondrules. it is:

Zanda, B., 2004, Chondrules. Earth and Planetary
Science Letters. vol. 224, no 1-2 , Pages 1-17
(30 July 2004)

The abstract ends:

"The current most popular mechanisms for forming
chondrules in a nebular setting are radiation
emitted by the protosun in the X-wind setting
or shock waves propagated in the protoplanetary
disk. In the latter case, chondrule formation
may have contributed to the first stages of
accretion, which would have helped preserve the
chemical complementarity between chondrules and
matrix. It is important that the chemical and
isotopic properties, and even the petrology,
of chondrules be reassessed in order to allow
the development of chondrule formation models
that better fit these constraints."

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA

Sunday 8 August 2004

Fireball Crashes Into Desert East of Bullhead City, Nevada

Fireball Crashes Into Desert East of Bullhead City, Nevada

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Sun Aug 8 23:05:47 EDT 2004

Dear Friends,

While talking with a friend in Nevada, he mentioned
that he heard a report of a firball crashing into
the desert near Bullhead City, Nevada. He joked that
I should come look for meteorites there instead of
Louisiana.

Unfortunately, all I could find were some fragments
of text about it on the Internet. What I could find
was:

"Sky explosion investigated; airplane blowup ruled
out"
August 7, 2004, Mohave Valley News, Mohave Valley
News, NV

"Fire Marshal Jim Dykens said the reporting party
met with authorities and said they saw what
appeared to an airplane exploding and crashing in
the desert east of the city."

"It was also reported the explosion was followed
by three smaller bursts"

They have searched for plane wreckage and found
none. If they were looking for plane wreckage, not
meteorites, they have very well overlooked anything
that was out there.

I guess if people wanted some more specific
information, they could contact the Fire Marshal
named above.

Yours,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA