A red star visited our solar system 70000 years ago

Astronomers have concluded that 70,000 years ago, a tiny, dim star probably grazed the solar system crossing its distant cloud of comets, called the Oort Cloud.

No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri. On the other hand, that’s still a thousand times further away from the Sun than the dwarf planet Pluto.

Astronomers reached the conclusion after analyzing the current speed and trajectory of a the now-faraway star, nicknamed “Scholz’s star.” The star also has a small companion in the form of a brown dwarf, a type of “failed” star.

Researchers including Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester in New York reported the findings in a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The trajectory suggests, they said, that Scholz’s star passed roughly 8 trillion kilometers, or 5 trillion miles, away. This equals 52,000 Earth-Sun distances away or about four-fifths of a light year.

A light-year is the distance light travels in a year; our closest neighbor star Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years distant.

The astronomers say in the paper that they are 98 percent sure that Scholz’s star crossed the “outer Oort Cloud” a region at the edge of the solar system filled with trillions of comets a mile or more across. Some of these have occasionally been thrown off track and started orbiting the Sun more closely, becoming what are known as “long-period” comets, though Mamajek said Scholz’s star was probably not a major cause of this sort of event.

The star originally caught Mamajek’s attention during a discussion with co-author Valentin D. Ivanov, from the European Southern Observatory. Scholz’s star had an unusual mix of characteristics including that it was apparently moving directly away from our Solar system, and fast. Most stars as nearby as Scholz’s show more sideways, or “tangential,” motion across the sky, said Mamajek.

Astronomers estimated its speed using the Doppler-shift method, which exploits the change in light rays coming from a moving object. This is analogous to what happens when an ambulance drives quickly away and the siren seems to drop in pitch. From this information, the researchers inferred what the star’s past position must have been.

Until now, the top candidate for the closest flyby of a star to the solar system was the so-called “rogue star” HIP 85605, predicted to come close to our solar system in the next quarter-to-half million years. But Mamajek and his collaborators said it won’t penetrate the Oort Cloud, based on their new calculations.

Mamajek carried out computer simulations of where Scholz’s star could have traveled, working with former University of Rochester undergraduate Scott Barenfeld (now a graduate student at Caltech). Almost all the simulations showed the star passing through the outer Oort cloud. One out of 10 thousand run-throughs brought the star within the “inner” Oort cloud which could have triggered a disastrous “comet shower” hitting Earth and other planets.

Today, Scholz’s star is a small, dim “red dwarf” star in the constellation of Monoceros, about 20 light years away. It would have been too dim to see even when it was “here,” but flare-ups due to magnetic events could have changed that, once in a long while, for minutes or hours at a time, Mamajek said.

The star weighs only an estimated 8 percent as much as our sun, and its companion about 6 percent. The formal designation of the star is “WISE J072003.20-084651.2,” but it has been nicknamed “Scholz’s star” to honor its discoverer, astronomer Ralf-Dieter Scholz of the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam in Germany, who reported it in 2013.

Source : www.world-science.net

Figure in ISIS mass beheading video could have US ties, linguistic expert says

A linguistics expert believes the man who threatens the West in an Islamic State video purportedly showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians was educated in the United States.

But Erick Thomas, a professor of acoustics and dialects at North Carolina State University, says it's unclear whether the mysterious, shrouded figure in the video released on Sunday is from the U.S.

"He clearly spent a significant amount of his childhood in the United States," Thomas told Gretchen Carlson on "The Real Story" Wednesday afternoon. "Whether it was all of his childhood or not, I couldn't say that. I would say probably from the time he began his schooling, he was in the United States, but he was properly exposed to Arabic all along."

Thomas cited the man's use of a "hard G" in two instances: when he says "chopping off" and "fighting us." He also said his pronunciation of the letter "O" in "Rome" might be a clue of his upbringing as well.

"It's a good sign of influence from another language," Thomas said.

As several men in orange jumpsuits are led to a beach where they are believed to have been beheaded, one militant, dressed differently than the others, addresses the camera.

"He clearly spent a significant amount of his childhood in the United States."

- Erick Thomas, professor of acoustics and dialects at North Carolina State University

"All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together," the militant says. "Therefore we will fight you all together," he said. "The sea you have hidden Sheikh Usama Bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood."

Also on Wednesday, a top Iraqi diplomat told world leaders that ISIS is harvesting the organs of its victims to fund it murderous operations, the latest charge of barbarity in a list that already includes mass beheadings, burning people alive, crucifying children and throwing people off of buildings.

The shocking new claim was presented by the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, who said bodies have turned up in mass graves bearing surgical incisions and missing organs such as kidneys. Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim leveled the charge as he asked the Security Council to investigate whether harvesting and selling the organs of those it executes. The claim followed an unconfirmed report late Tuesday that as many as 45 people captured by the Islamic State in the Anbar Province town of al-Baghdadi had been rounded up and burned alive.

"We have bodies," Alhakim told his international counterparts. "Come and examine them. It is clear they are missing certain parts."

Alhakim, who said a dozen doctors have been executed in Mosul for refusing to participate in organ harvesting, briefed the council on the overall situation in Iraq and accused the Islamic State group of "crimes of genocide" in targeting certain ethnic groups. The outgoing U.N. envoy to Iraq, Nikolay Mladenov, told the council that 790 people were killed in January alone by terrorism and armed conflict.

Mladenov noted the increasing number of reports and allegations that the Islamic State group is using organ harvesting as a financing method, but he said only that "it's very clear that the tactics ISIL is using expand by the day." He used an acronym for the group.

He said Iraq's most pressing goal is to win back the vast territory that the Islamic State has seized in the past year. The Sunni militants seized a third of both Iraq and neighboring Syria and imposed strict Sharia law.

"Especially worrying is the increasing number of reports of revenge attacks committed particularly against members of the Sunni community in areas liberated from ISIL control," Mladenov said.

The identities of the victims who were reportedly burned alive Tuesday in al-Baghdadi are not clear, the local police chief told the BBC. ISIS fighters reportedly captured most of the town last week.

Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday that U.S. authorities were aware of a video purportedly showing the executions, but that officials had not yet verified its authenticity, Fox News' Martha McCallum said on "The O'Reilly Factor."

Al-Baghdadi, which is about 50 miles northwest of Ramadi in Anbar province, is located about five miles from Ain al-Asad air base, where 400 U.S. military personnel are training Iraqi soldiers and Sunni tribesmen to take on ISIS. The base was raided last week by a small band of fighters, in what some experts believe may have been a probe in preparation for a full-scale attack.

The base has been the target of sporadic mortar fire in past weeks, and the jihadist army has been moving forces from its strongholds in Syria to Anbar Province, possibly setting the stage for a major clash with forces on the base that is now the sole bulwark between ISIS and Baghdad.

There are currently nearly 2,600 U.S. forces in Iraq, including about 450 who are training Iraqi troops at three bases across the country, including al-Asad. Forces from other coalition countries conduct the training at the fourth site, in the northern city of Irbil.

But even if ISIS militants close in on the base, taking it would require a massive force, that would present a target for airstrikes, retired Col. Thomas Lynch, a National Defense University fellow, told Fox News.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/19/isis-reportedly-burns-alive-45-people-in-western-iraqi-town/

Pa. liquor control cop charged with DUI; blood alcohol 3 times limit in crash

A Pennsylvania Liquor Control Enforcement officer has found himself on the other side of the state's alcohol laws.

The Citizens Voice newspaper reports that the officer, Michael Rutkowski, 34, of Nanticoke, was found with a blood alcohol level that was over three times the legal limit when he crashed his vehicle last month.


The newspaper writes that Rutkowski, who suffered a head injury in the crash, was transported to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, where he registered a blood alcohol level of .278 percent. Pa.'s blood alcohol limit is .08 percent.

He has been charged with driving under the influence and careless driving in the single-vehicle crash, which occurred when his vehicle struck a utility pole, then a tree, head-on, the newspaper reported.

The Times Leader is reporting that the officer has been placed on restricted duty in wake of the incident.

Rutkowski's formal arraignment is set for April 10 in Luzerne County.


Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/02/pa_liquor_control_cop_charged.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Texas boy suspended for saying he could make classmate ‘disappear’ with ‘Lord of the Rings’ sorcery

The ring little Aiden brought to school may not have been the true ring of power, but it had enough controversy to get him suspended from a Kermit, Texas, school.

This is the third and strangest suspension for Aiden Steward, 9, pictured on the right with a sibling, at the Texas school district.

Tolkien lore led a Texas boy to suspension after he brought his “one ring” to school.

Kermit Elementary School officials called it a threat when the 9-year-old boy, Aiden Steward, in a playful act of make-believe, told a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring forged in fictional Middle Earth’s Mount Doom.

“It sounded unbelievable,” the boy’s father, Jason Steward, told the Daily News. He insists his son “didn’t mean anything by it.”

The Stewards had just watched “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” days earlier, inspiring Aiden’s imagination and leading him to proclaim that he had in his possession the one ring to rule them all.

“Kids act out movies that they see. When I watched Superman as a kid, I went outside and tried to fly,” Steward said.

Aiden claimed Thursday he could put a ring on his friend's head and make him invisible like Bilbo Baggins, who stole Gollum’s "precious" in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings.”

“I assure you my son lacks the magical powers necessary to threaten his friend’s existence,” the boy's father later wrote in an email. "If he did, I'm sure he'd bring him right back."

Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the fourth-grader’s suspension, citing confidentiality policies, according to the Odessa American, who first reported Aiden’s troubles Friday.

The family moved to the Kermit Independent School District only six months ago, but it’s been nothing but headaches for Aiden. He’s already been suspended three times this school year.

Two of the disciplinary actions this year were in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: "The Big Book of Knowledge."

Kermit Elementary School in Texas suspended a 9-year-old student for saying he could make his friend disappear with a magical ring of invisibility.

“He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,” Steward said.

But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/texas-boy-suspended-bringing-ring-power-school-article-1.2099103

NASA predicts ‘Megadroughts’ due to climate change

A new NASA study found that in the next 75 years parts of the U.S. are likely to face droughts lasting more than 20 years.

Source: http://machprinciple.com/nasa-predicts-megadroughts-due-to-climate-change/

Memories Transplanted With Organs

I recently came across an interesting and novel phenomenon via a remarkable fact I read on Kickassfacts.com. It seems organ recipients sometimes have living memories or peculiar affinities which somehow carried over along from their donor. Can the ‘Ship of Theseus’ that arrives with new oars, planks, and sail be considered the same ship that left port?

Ethically, very few religions around the world actually have a problem with organ harvesting and transplantation. With reference to harvesting from the brain-dead, Pius XII said that knowledge of when death occurs is the domain of medical science. However some Judaic authorities take issue with harvesting the organs of a brain-dead individual because anything that will stop the heart beating causes death. Even Jehovah’s Witnesses have changed their stance since the 1980s, excluding the acceptance of an organ from their definition of cannibalism (which includes accepting blood transfusions).

However, no religions to my knowledge presently acknowledge the idea that a person may somehow be incarnate after their death when another person has accepted that person’s organ. Enter the present strange and unexplainable phenomena.

Paul Pearsall has actually written a book about the phenomenon of people retaining memories from their organ donors called “The Heart’s Code.” There are many fascinating case studies of people who have mysterious knowledge or tendencies which appeared after they accepted another person’s organ, especially when they have accepted another person’s heart. Among the strangest cases are two in which the recipient changed sexual orientation, several in which children can mysteriously identify their donor’s parents or facts about their donor’s life, and a man who has a recurring dream of the murder of his donor.

Source: http://www.thedailytrends.net/2014/11/memories-transplanted-with-organs-video.html