“Failed Star or Failed Science?”

HD 12545
HD 12545

A Brown Dwarf Solar Flare From NASA Science News for July 12, 2000 Astronomers were surprised when NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected an x-ray outburst from a failed star only 60 times more massive than Jupiter. NASA’s latest observatory, designed to see the most violent and stunning cosmic phenomena, captured something unexpected. The Chandra X-ray…


NASA’S Xmas Coloring Book

Coloring book
Coloring book

NASA have just released the first images from their Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1999, closest flyby of Io. See them at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/io [dead link 2012, try http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02519]. My earlier prediction that the so-called volcanos would be much hotter than the estimates made at lower resolution has been hinted at by NASA. It is reported that…


HAWAIIAN-STYLE VOLCANO ON IO?

Lightning strike on a golf course
Lightning strike on a golf course

Excerpts from a NASA/JPL Press Release November 5, 1999 New images from Galileo reveal unexpected details of the Prometheus volcano on Io including a caldera and lava flowing through fields of sulfur dioxide snow. It appears that the Prometheus volcano on Io has characteristics remarkably similar to those of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii, although…


CLOSEST EVER PICTURE OF IO

Io crater chains
Io crater chains

From NASA News of 24 October 1999 The highest resolution image ever of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, (the black and white image at top) was taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on Oct. 11, 1999, from an altitude of 617 kilometers (417 miles). It shows an area about 7.2 kilometers (4.5 miles) long and 2.2 kilometers…


DYING STAR, OR SERIOUS ELECTRICAL FAULT?

Rotten Egg nebula
Rotten Egg nebula

Comment on NASA News of October 24, 1999. “The object shown in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a remarkable example of a star going through death throes just as it dramatically transforms itself from a normal red giant star into a planetary nebula. This process happens so quickly that such objects are quite…