Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Stock Time Travelers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: faqsnlojiks who wrote (708)	6/6/2004 12:35:40 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 753

Thanks J....I'll have to look at it later, when I'm at the other computer that has sound and a faster connection. My little rascal puppy chewed on the cords so now the sound is kapoot.... Here's an interesting article... Meteor Explosion Lights Up The Northwestern Skies June 3, 2004 By KOMO Staff & News Services Video : KOMO 4 NEWS A meteor about the size of a computer monitor lit up the Northwest sky early Thursday morning, setting off sharp booms that stunned witnesses. Watch Video Video requires the use of the free QuickTime Player. Tools Email This Story Printer-friendly Version SEATTLE - Bright flashes and sharp booms were reported in the skies over the Puget Sound area early Thursday, and aviation officials said a meteor may have been the source. Nothing unusual was detected on National Weather Service radar, and authorities also ruled out aircraft problems or military flight tests. Toby Smith, a University of Washington astronomy lecturer who specializes in meteorites, told The Associated Press that scientists were looking into the cause of the skybursts reported over a wide area about 2:40 a.m. Witnesses along a 60-mile swath of the sound from near Tacoma to Whidbey Island and as far as 260 miles to the east said the sky lit up brilliantly, and many reported booming sounds as if from one or more explosions. Weather service officials at Sand Point in north Seattle said there was no storm or other meteorological activity that could have produced the skybursts. Jay Neher, a weather service meteorologist, said the agency's radar on Whidbey Island showed nothing unusual but added that the dish could have been pointed at another part of the sky at the time and could not detect objects above about 20,000 feet. Duty officers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station said they knew of no civilian or military airplane problems. Civilian pilots reported seeing the flash from Ellensburg, east of the Cascade Range, said an FAA duty officer who did not give her name. She also said one or more meteorites - meteors that hit the Earth - could be responsible. At Whidbey Island, Petty Officer Andrew Davis said he and others on the base about 40 miles north of Seattle saw the skyburst. "It made a pretty big bang," Davis said. "We thought it could maybe be a meteorite or something." In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, about 260 miles to the east, Dick Haugen said he was driving to work at KVMI Radio when he saw a flash that he took to be lightning about 2:40 a.m. - then learned there were no lightning storms anywhere in the region. Ralph Gaume, head of astronometry at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., said he knew of no likely source from outer space, such as a passing comet or meteor cluster or shower, but added that meteors commonly appear at random. Another possibility, he said, would be "space junk" such as spent rocket engines or satellites falling from Earth orbit. Astronometry is the branch of astronomy that measures the size and location of celestial objects. See Videos Of The Meteor Flash View from Silver Reef Casino in Ferndale -- www.komotv.com/qt/meteor_silver_reef.wmv. (Windows Media File). Look to the left of the light pole right before the flash, you can see a piece of the meteor streaking left to right * Montage of six different video shots from various locations -- komonews.com/qt/meteor_flashes_060304.mov (Quicktime Movie) Two separate security camera views from Harborview Medical Center -- Version 1 and Version 2. (AVI Movie) Backyard security cam from Tacoma -- here. (Windows Media) The Skinny On Meteors/Meteorites By: Scott Sistek, KOMO Weather Producer As the officials noted, it seems it was a meteor explosion that caused the bright flash. Why do they occur? There are trillions of dust particles and tiny rocks floating in outer space. The good news is, the Earth's atmosphere protects us by making sure those objects burn up before they reach the ground. Some of the particles are moving at a very fast speed, plus the Earth is moving at roughly 67,000 mph as it orbits the sun. As the object goes from the void of outer space and enters the outer fringe of the atmosphere, the friction from the air resistance causes the object to heat up -- much like how your foot feels warm when you drag it along a carpet. The combined speed of the object plus the intense amount of braking force the Earth's air provides causes the objects to heat to incredible temperatures, burning them up before they get anywhere near the ground. However, if the objects are larger, it can take longer for them to burn up. What might have happened here is you had a rock or something that was large enough so that instead of disintegrating in the first seconds when it hit the atmosphere, it managed to survive in one piece quite a ways until its temperature reached a critical point and the rock just exploded in the sky. That would also explain the thunderous sounds, and why there was a significant delay between the flash and the boom (sound travels at only 700 mph, and figure 5 seconds for each mile away.) You can see this general process any time there's a meteor shower. Those occur when the Earth enters dust trials from past comets and those tiny particles burn up upon reaching the atmosphere, making those gorgeous streaks across the sky. Sounds like this object might have been larger, though. In checking, we are in the initial stages of a weak meteor shower -- the June Aquilids -- but there's no word if the two events are related. There are rare occasions when the rocks survive the atmosphere and can strike the Earth's ground (those would be called "meteroites") but we don't have any reports of that happening in this case. For More Information: International Meteor Organization -- www.imo.net Links To Other Meteor Sites -- www.namnmeteros.org

To: faqsnlojiks who wrote (708)	6/6/2004 12:36:54 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 753

And here's another: Scientists launch web site to view Transit of Venus 4/6/2004 komotv.com Scientists at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth have launched a new website which will feature live images of the transit of Venus on the morning of Tuesday 8 June, as well as providing safety advice on how to view the event. Members of the public are also invited to see the transit using specialist equipment at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. For the first time since 1882 the planet Venus will pass between the Earth and the Sun, appearing as a black circle drifting across the face of the Sun. Only six of these transits have ever been observed - the first in 1639. According to Dr Andy Breen, a solar-terrestrial physicist at the Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at UWA, transits of Venus have been of enormous importance in increasing our understanding of the solar system in which we live. “Until high-powered radars were available the only way of measuring the distance between the planets was by observing transits of Venus from many different places on Earth, when the difference in the times when Venus crossed the disc of the Sun could be used to calculate how far Venus was from the Earth and - with further calculation - how far the Earth was from the Sun. “The expeditions to observe the Venus transits during the 18th and 19th centuries were the first great international scientific programmes, sending scientists from many countires out across the whole of the world to make measurements – one expedition even travelled to Tahiti with Captain Cook to observe a transit. “Today the size of the solar system is well-known, but this year's transit is still important for science as astronomers and space scientists use the change in the spectrum of light from the Sun as Venus passes in front to test instruments which will be used in the next generation of planet-hunting telescopes”, he added. The Institute of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, at UWA will be observing the transit of Venus on the morning of 8th June, using two computer-controlled telescopes mounted outside Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The views from the telescopes will be streamed live to the Institute's Venus Transit website and will be shown on screens in the Arts Centre. The transit of Venus begins shortly after 6:20am, and from 9am - weather permitting! - the Institute will be streaming images of Venus passing across the face of the Sun to the website breakfastwithvenus.org.uk and to screens in the cafe and foyer of Aberystwyth Arts Centre. The transit lasts until shortly before 12:30pm, and from 11am the streamed images of the transit will also be screened in the theatre bar in Aberystwyth Arts Centre. If the sky is cloudy staff from the Institute will show the view of the transit from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer Spacecraft - one of several spacecraft members of the Aberystwyth team use to study activity on the Sun. Source: aber.ac.uk