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Massive canyon lies beneath Greenland ice sheet
By AFP | AFP – Thu, Aug 29, 2013

This NASA Earth Observatory image, captured during an IceBridge flight and released May 3, 2012, shows a glacier in eastern Greenland. A huge canyon twice the size of the longest river in Britain and as deep as the Grand Canyon lies beneath the ice sheet in Greenland, scientists said Thursday

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/giant-canyon-discovered-under-greenland-094100902.html

A huge canyon twice the size of the longest river in Britain and as deep as the Grand Canyon lies beneath the ice sheet in Greenland, scientists said Thursday.

Prior to the establishment of the ice sheet some four million years ago, the canyon is believed to have been a major pathway for water from the interior of the land mass to the coast.

Even today, the deep river channel -- which originates in the center of Greenland and terminates at its northern coast -- transports sub-glacial meltwater to the edge of the ice sheet and then into the ocean.

"A 750-kilometer (460-mile) canyon preserved under the ice for millions of years is a breathtaking find in itself, but this research is also important in furthering our understanding of Greenland's past," said David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey.
"This area's ice sheet contributes to sea level rise and this work can help us put current changes in context."

Scientists found the canyon using airborne radar data, much of which came from a NASA mission called Operation IceBridge, which used radio waves that traveled through the ice to measure the depth of the bedrock.

The Greenland sub-ice canyon is about twice as long as the River Severn in Britain, which extends 350 kilometers.

Michael Studinger, Operation IceBridge Project Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, described the finding as "quite remarkable."

"It shows how little we still know about the bedrock below large continental ice sheets."
The study was published in the US journal Science.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/massive-canyon-lies-beneath-greenland-ice-sheet-200615828.html?vp=1#XgAP7aX

A mega-canyon on the same scale as the American landmark lies buried under ice in Greenland, according to scientists

Vast canyon discovered under Greenland ice

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/vast-canyon-discovered-under-greenland-060218272.html

A vast and previously unmapped gorge, 800 metres deep, has been found under ice in Greenland. The canyon is 750 kilometres long and is said to be comparable in scale to parts of the Grand Canyon that is twice as deep – 1.6 kilometres – at its deepest. The Greenland canyon is buried under deep ice. Scientists used airborne data collected mainly by NASA and by scientists in Britain and Germany to piece together maps of the canyon.

Black hole at heart of our galaxy “will erupt next year”, say astronomers By Rob Waugh

A huge eruption lit up the skies on our planet two million years ago - coming from the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way.

A huge eruption lit up the skies on our planet two million years ago - creating a fuzzy ball of light around the size and brightness of the moon.

The eruption - a huge blast from the black hole at the centre of our galaxy - would have been witnessed by our ancestors, homo erectus, on the plains of Africa.

Scientists have found the first evidence of this “huge explosion” of radiation from the supermassive black hole - four million times the mass of our sun - a faint glow in a cloud of gas millions of miles from the black hole itself.

Scientists describe the supermassive black hole - Saggitarius A* - as a “dormant volcano”.

Blasts of energy can jet out of black holes when stars and gas clouds are “consumed” by the black hole - and scientists warn that there are “lots and lots” circling our galactic centre.

One in particular could erupt next year.

"They have been monitoring a cloud and predict that it will fall into the black hole at some point in the next year; however, the amount of material will be far less than the event that illuminated the stream," said Greg Madsen, astronomer at the University of Cambridge.

"It will be much fainter and will pose no threat to Earth, but several powerful telescopes will be poised and ready to watch what happens."

Astronomers have long suspected that a large explosion occurred millions of years ago - but have never been able to prove it.

The evidence comes from a lacy filament of gas, mostly hydrogen, called the Magellanic Stream. This trails behind our galaxy’s two small companion galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

“For twenty years we’ve seen this odd glow from the Magellanic Stream,” said Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn, of the University of Sydney, who led a team studying this problem.

“We didn’t understand the cause. Then suddenly we realized it must be the mark, the fossil record, of a huge outburst of energy from the center of our galaxy.”

“It’s been long suspected that our galactic center might have sporadically flared up in the past. These observations are a highly suggestive ‘smoking gun’,” said Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal.

See Video Link Below:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/death-star-hypernovas-black-holes-124614311.html

Death Star: Hypernovas and Black Holes

Stan Woosely, a scientist at the university of California, tries to identify where the powerful explosions in the universe are coming from, where stars are dying and where black holes are being born. From BBC science show Death Star.

The team gives its arguments in a paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Professor Bland-Hawthorn will speak about the work at the Galaxy Zoo meeting in Sydney, Australia, on 24 September.

The galaxy’s supermassive black hole has been known for decades. It’s orbited by a swarm of stars whose paths let us measure the black hole’s mass: four million times the mass of the Sun.

The region around the black hole, called Sagittarius A* [“A-star”], pours out radio waves, infrared, X-rays and gamma rays.

Flickers of radiation rise up when small clouds of gas fall onto the hot disk of matter that swirls around the black hole.

But evidence has been building of a real cataclysm in the past. Infrared and X-ray satellites have seen a powerful ‘wind’ (outflow) of material from this central region. Antimatter boiling out has left its signature. And there are the ‘Fermi bubbles’ -- two huge hot bubbles of gas billowing out from the galactic center, seen in gamma-rays and radio waves.

“All this points to a huge explosion at the center of our galaxy,” said team member Dr. Philip Maloney of the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA.

Scientists studying the galactic center came together at a workshop at Stanford University in California earlier this year.

While at the workshop, Professor Bland-Hawthorn realized the Stream could be holding the memory of the galactic center’s past.

See Video Link Below:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/death-star-huge-explosion-deep-093411297.html

Death Star: Huge explosion in deep space

On 2nd July 1967, a satellite picked up a huge burst of gamma rays. Was it evidence of a nuclear bomb test in space? Or was it from a much bigger explosion in deep space? Can Einstein's famous physics equation E=MC2 help?

Struck by the fiery breath of Sagittarius A*, the Stream is emitting light, much as particles from the Sun hit our atmosphere and trigger the colored glows of the aurorae -- the Northern and Southern Lights.

The brightest glow in the Stream comes from the region nearest the galactic center.

Geometry, the amount of energy from the original flare from Sagittarius A*, the time the flare would take to travel to the Magellanic Stream, the rate at which the Stream would have cooled over time -- “it all fits together, it all adds up,” says team member Dr. Greg Madsen of the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Scientists say that such flares can and will happen again.

“There are lots of stars and gas clouds that could fall onto the hot disk around the black hole,” says Professor Bland-Hawthorn. “There’s a gas cloud called G2 that we think will fall in next year. It’s small, but we’re looking forward to the fireworks!”

A letter from the Post Office

Whoever wrote and did this for this child... is a beautiful soul working in the UNITED STATES Post Office. Thank you.

Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month.
The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey.
She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her.
I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog?
She died yesterday and is with you in heaven.
I miss her very much.
I'm happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.
I hope you will play with her.
She likes to swim and play with balls.
I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog.
I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey & Meredith, addressed it to God/Heaven.
We put our return address on it.
Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office.
A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet.
I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand.
Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.'
Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope.
On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away.
Abbey isn't sick anymore.
Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart.
Abbey loved being your dog.
Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in so I'm sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.
Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me.
What a wonderful mother you have.
I picked her especially for you.
I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.
By the way, I'm easy to find.
I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

ID Fraud: Protect Yourself Online
Sky Sunrise

Cons and scams expert Paul Wilson talks about the scale of the problem of identity fraud and gives tips on how Internet users can keep their information safe.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/id-fraud-protect-yourself-online-114606878.html

Human beings came from another planet, not Earth, new book claims

Dr Ellis Silver offers arguments, based on human physiology, that suggest we may not have evolved alongside other life on Earth - but arrived from elsewhere.

Rob Waugh

One of the habitable planets found by NASA, Gliese 667d (NASA)

Scientists discover 'life' in space

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/scientists-discover-life-space-185457459.html

A balloon returned from a high-altitude flight this year covered in microscopic life forms which seemed not to be of this world - and reignited the debate over whether life on Earth actually began here, or somewhere else.

This year, other scientists have argued that life originated on Mars, due to a mineral found in Martian meteorites, thought to be crucial to the genesis of life. Another experiment showed that amino acids could have arrived in impacts with comets - which suggests life might be widespread in the solar system.

But a new book by American ecologist Dr Ellis Silver argues that humans may well not be from Earth - and may have arrived separately. Silver offers arguments, based on human physiology, that suggest we may not have evolved alongside other life on Earth - but arrived from elsewhere, brought here by aliens as recently as a few tens of thousands of years ago.

Silver, an environmentalist who is currently working with the effort to clean plastic debris from the Pacific, says his book aims to provoke debate - and is based on scientific work on the difference between humans and other animals.

“The Earth approximately meets our needs as a species, but perhaps not as strongly as whoever brought us here initially thought,” Silver said in an interview with Yahoo news.

“Lizards can sunbathe for as long as they like - and many of them do. We can just about get away with it for a week or two. But day after day in the sun? Forget it. You might as well just lie down on the freeway and wait for a bus to hit you.” We are dazzled by the sun, which is also odd, says Silver - most animals are not.

Silver claims that some chronic illnesses that plague the human race - such as bad backs - could be a sign we evolved on a world with lower gravity. Silver points to other unique human traits - such as the fact that babies’ heads are so large that women have trouble giving birth - in earlier eras, this was often fatal for mother, child or both.

“No other truly native species on this planet has this problem,” he says. Silver also points out to the “extra” 223 genes in human beings, which are not found in any other species, and to the lack of a fossil “missing link”.

Silver chose not to publish in a scientific imprint, wanting to inspire open debate. Reviewers have compared Silver to other space-gazing theorists such as Erich von Däniken, while others have said, “it is possible to drive a coach and horses through several of his arguments.”

To See More, click on link below:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/aliens-extremofiles-weird-animals-151832795.html

Silver also claims that the human race has defects that mark us out as being possibly “not of this world”.

“We are all chronically ill,” says Silver. “Indeed, if you can find a single person who is 100% fit and healthy and not suffering from some (perhaps hidden or unstated) condition or disorder (there's an extensive list in the book) I would be extremely surprised - I have not been able to find anyone.”

“I believe that many of our problems stem from the simple fact that our internal body clocks have evolved to expect a 25 hour day (this has been proven by sleep researchers), but the Earth's day is only 24 hours. This is not a modern condition - the same factors can be traced all the way back through mankind's history on Earth.”

Silver does not suggest one answer - but a possibility that early pre-humans such as homo erectus were crossbred with another species. He also suggests several possible origins, including Alpha Centauri.

“Mankind is supposedly the most highly developed species on the planet, yet is surprisingly unsuited and ill-equipped for Earth's environment: harmed by sunlight, a strong dislike for naturally occurring (raw) foods, ridiculously high rates of chronic disease, and more. Plus there's a prevailing feeling among many people that they don't belong here or that something "just isn't right".

“This suggests (to me at least) that mankind may have evolved on a different planet, and we may have been brought here as a highly developed species. One reason for this, discussed in the book, is that the Earth might be a prison planet - since we seem to be a naturally violent species - and we're here until we learn to behave ourselves.”

“Humans are not from Earth was published mainly to gauge reaction from readers and to provoke thought, particularly among those who might not have considered such a possibility before.”

Ellis hopes that readers will contact him with more evidence for a more extensive follow-up work.

The claim that bacteria are arriving from space has also caused controversy - and revived the idea of “panspermia”, where life from Earth might have “pollinated” other planets nearby..

"There is probably truth to the report that they find curious stuff in the atmosphere," Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA told SPACE.com in an interview. "The jump to the conclusion that it is alien life is a big jump and would require quite extraordinary proof."

Professor Wainwright and his colleagues at the University of Sheffield aim to conduct further tests.

“In the absence of a mechanism by which large particles like these can be transported to the stratosphere, we can only conclude that the biological entities originated from space," Wainwright added.

"Our conclusion then is that life is continually arriving to Earth from space, life is not restricted to this planet and it almost certainly did not originate here."

Silver’s more radical idea is presented as polemic, intended to inspire argument - “Initial reaction has been positive, although one reviewer thought it was a parody, while another found the writing style heavily dictatorial,” he admits.

The debate over the origin of life looks set to intensify. Simulations on supercomputers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the U.S. have found that amino acids, the building blocks of life, could have arrived on Earth via comets.

This would suggest that life might be found elsewhere in our solar system - or even beyond.

Nir Goldman suggests that the simple molecules found in comets (such as water, ammonia, and carbon dioxide) could have supplied the raw materials, and the impact with early Earth could have “ignited” a prebiotic reaction.

A series of experiments where projectiles were fired into a cometary ice mixtures formed amino acids - the building blocks of life.

"These results confirm our earlier predictions of impact synthesis of prebiotic material, where the impact itself can yield life-building compounds," Goldman said. "These results present a significant step forward in our understanding of the origin of the building blocks of life. This increases the chances of life originating and being widespread throughout our solar system," Goldman said.

Silver wants to pose the question of whether humans arrived separately, “Recent scientific reports suggest that life itself might not be from Earth but might have arrived here on meteors or comets. This primitive form of life then evolved over billions of years into what we find on Earth today.

“My thesis proposes that mankind did not evolve from that particular strain of life, but evolved elsewhere and was transported to Earth (as fully evolved Homo sapiens) between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago.”

“Little in the book can be proven - it can only be supposed or suspected. But there is more than enough indisputable evidence to make further study worthwhile.”

To See More, click on link below:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video/horizon-alone-universe-103301931.html