Planet-Sized Comet Headed This Way? By Edgar J. Steele 2-24-3 After a great misery for mankind an even greater approaches. The great cycle of the centuries is renewed: It will rain blood, milk, famine, war and disease. In the sky will be seen a fire, dragging a tail of sparks. ---Nostradamus, Century 2, Quatrain 46 (1654) A huge comet is rounding the sun, a comet twice the size of jupiter (from tip to end of tail -ed) (about 22 times the size of earth). Some have seen it at sunrise and sunset; otherwise, it is not visible because it is occluded by solar glare. Essentially, it is coming from behind the sun and was first observed by NASA less than two months ago. NASA's solar observatory has released a number of pictures of this comet, but those stopped just as a huge coronal mass ejection (an event which is to the hydrogen bomb as the hydrogen bomb is to a firecracker) erupted from the sun toward the comet. Some call these things "sunspots." This comet is passing within 9 million miles of the solar surface. In celestial terms, that is a very near miss. You haven't heard about this, have you? Remember the hullabaloo over Hale/Bopp and Levy/Shoemaker? They were pikers by comparison with what has been dubbed Comet "NEAT."  Why all the silence this time? I have read a good deal of speculation on several different internet sites. Some see it as biblical prophecy fulfilled (see Revelations - you might agree). Some consider this to be "Nibiru" or "Planet X," foretold by the Mayans as passing through the solar system every 3600 years or so. Some consider this simply to be an awesome photo opportunity. Some say the strange weather on Earth lately is the result of an effect caused by the sun which in turn is responding to Comet NEAT. Electromagnetic fields reach hundreds of millions of miles into space, you see, and are generated by all celestial objects. Influences occur at distances far in excess of that between the sun and comet Neat or, for that matter, between Earth and comet Neat. The sun has a regularly-repeating solar "sunspot" activity cycle of approximately 11 years. 2000 was to have been the most recent peak. Solar > activity, rather than dropping off in year 12, as it always has, has continued to rise ever since. Earth's magnetic field has been weakening in an accelerating fashion of > late. The North Pole, which wanders anyway, has traveled almost as far in the past 20 years as it did in the 100 years prior to that, when it was located in Canada's northern Yukon Territory. Some hypothesize that Earth's poles reverse when its magnetic field reaches zero. The geological record proves the poles have shifted many times down through the history of the Earth (metal flakes in lava align with the magnetic field, to be frozen in place when the lava cools, you see, just like the needle in a compass). Coincidence? Perhaps. Maybe it is nothing. Maybe it is something. If something, it could be the most significant occurrence in recorded human history. Generally, the concern is not that Comet NEAT will strike Earth or even come near us (though I have yet to see a good description of its path relative to Earth). Rather, the concern is for the effect upon us through the electromagnetic interaction between it and Earth and the Sun. There is a secondary concern that something this huge could have smaller objects following in its wake, or that pieces of it broke off during the massive solar flare when it passed near the Sun, pieces that might find their way to Earth. "Planet buster" asteroids can be as small as 1/3 mile in diameter. Just five days ago, a Rand Corporation (government think tank) scientist, Dr. Geoffrey Summer, publicly stated that secrecy would be the best option if it were discovered that an asteroid were about to hit the earth: "Overreaction not just by the public but by policy-makers scurrying around before the thing actually hits because we can't do anything about it anyway ... to a large extent you are better off not adding to your social costs." Go here for one of NASA's official web pages carrying photographs of this comet: http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/hotshots/2003_02_12/ Something tells me you should take a look right now, though. Who knows if this will be available even tomorrow? For the moment, my question is, "Why is there no media coverage of Comet NEAT?" Of course, we all know how paranoid I am. "I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the truth." - Morpheus Copyright ©2003, Edgar J. Steele Forward as you wish. Permission is granted to circulate among private individuals and groups, post on all Internet sites and publish in full in all not-for-profit publications. Contact author for all other rights, which are reserved. On-Line link to this article in HTML format: http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/neat.htm |
Below is an extract from http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993406 Hafnium quantum nucleonic reactor 19:00 19 February 03 Feasibility studies The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has funded at least two feasibility studies on nuclear-powered versions of the  Northrop-Grumman Global Hawk UAV
(pictured). The latest study, revealed earlier in February at an aerospace
technology conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, concluded that a nuclear
engine could extend the UAV's flight time from hours to months. But nuclear-powered planes are not a new idea. In the 1950s, both the US and the USSR tried to develop nuclear propulsion systems for piloted aircraft. The plans were eventually scrapped because it would have cost too much to protect the crew from the on-board nuclear reactor, as well as making the aircraft too heavy. The AFRL now has other ideas, though. Instead of a conventional fission reactor, it is focusing on a type of power generator called a quantum nucleonic reactor. This obtains energy by using X-rays to encourage particles in the nuclei of radioactive hafnium-178 to jump down several energy levels, liberating energy in the form of gamma rays. A nuclear UAV would generate thrust by using the energy of these gamma rays to produce a jet of heated air. The military interest was triggered by research published in 1999 by Carl Collins and colleagues at the University of Texas at Dallas. They found that by shining X-rays onto certain types of hafnium they could get it to release 60 times as much energy as they put in (New Scientist print edition, 3 July 1999). Tightly controlled reaction The reaction works because a proportion of the hafnium nuclei are "isomers" in which some neutrons and protons sit in higher energy levels than normal. X-ray bombardment makes them release this energy and drop down to a more stable energy level. So the AFRL has since been looking at ways in which quantum nucleonics could be used for propulsion. "Our directorate is being cautious about it. Right now they want to understand the physics," says Christopher Hamilton at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, who conducted the latest nuclear UAV study. The AFRL says the quantum nucleonic reactor is considered safer than a fission one because the reaction is very tightly controlled."It's radioactive, but as soon as you take away the X-ray power source its gamma ray production is reduced dramatically, so it's not as dangerous [as when it's active]," says Hamilton. Paul Stares, an analyst with the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC, wonders what would happen if a nuclear UAV crashed. But Hamilton insists that although hafnium has a half-life of 31 years, which according to Britain's National Radiological Protection Board is equivalent to the highly radioactive caesium-137, the structural composition of hafnium hinders the release of this radiation. "It's probably something you would want to stay away from but it's not going to kill you," claims Hamilton. |
Ballard's 250 kilowatt stationary generators produce
enough electricity for a small apartment complex or commercial building,
or 50 to 60 family homes. 