The Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama leaves the Tsug-la Khang temple for lunch on the first day of the teachings on Atishas Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment (jangchup lamdron). At the request of a group of Taiwanese, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give four days of teachings from October 1-4, 2012 at the main temple, Dharamshala. (Phayul photo/Norbu Wangyal) [Monday, October 01, 2012, Phayul]
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Overcoming a Parents Worst NightmareBereaved Mother Offers Tips on Her
Most Important Life Lesson
Perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a parent is experiencing the loss of a child. However, as one mother shares, its possible to turn ones devastation into spiritual enlightenment and to weave the tragedy into the fabric of your life and your family.
I dont think any parent ever gets over the loss of a child, says Caroline Flohr, whose memoir Heavens Child, (www.heavenschild.com), recounts the transformative death of her 16-year-old twin daughter, Sarah.
Through the web of pain, I have been amazed by the power of family, love and faith in healing. I have learned that death defines not the end of the journey, but a beginning.
Flohr reviews some of the milestones in her journey to inner peace:
Deeper meaning: Through the death of someone so important, you will be changed. The question is how you will be changed. Will you grow, or become diminished? Flohr grew with the realization that death so often viewed as an end is just the beginning of another phase of existence. One of my favorite quotes is from poet Rabindranath Tagore: Death is not extinguishing the light. It is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.
Celebrate life: When the bereaved are able to look at the life of a person who has passed and see more beauty than pain, they should rejoice. The reality of a persons absence will always have an element of sadness, but the joy of wonderful memories is even more powerful. When loved ones leave this Earth, graces are given to those relationships left behind. These are gifts. When we can acknowledge them, our lives can expand in the present.
Ready for anything: Once youve experienced the worst and pulled through, you know you will be able to weather just about any adversity. Maya Angelou wrote, You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. Have faith in that inner strength we all harbor, Flohr says.
Appreciate what you have: Life as we know it will come to an end. This includes everyone we know, love and care about; its a fact that we often forget, and its as startling to remember as it is true. Come good or bad, we do not know what the future will bring, which means we should take every opportunity to fully embrace the present, and our loved ones.
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A new book by Marc Leavitt takes the reader behind the scenes of 'Spiritual Enlightenment'.
Roseland, Virginia (PRWEB) September 27, 2012
Marc kept meticulous journals detailing the day to day, month to month, and year to year unfolding of the self in detail. His book, Enlightenment: Behind the Scenes is a very personal account of an incredibly impersonal process broken down step by step and presented to the reader almost in slow motion. Marcs story of Enlightenment centers on four life altering Visions that spontaneously occurred while he was living out his day to day life. Until that time, Marc had never experienced anything remotely out of the ordinary. It was after his repeated visit to the world renowned Monroe Institute that things began to take a dramatic turn.
After returning home from a weeklong meditation retreat at the Monroe Institute, Marc writes that I would find myself spontaneously thrust into a vastly more expansive perspective which placed the entire world in a wholly new context. These Visions were progressive in nature as they clearly and pointedly demonstrated the Grand Design of Reality. Describing his book, Marc continues, I outline a play by play account of how four of these Visions shaped a new understanding regarding the true architecture of Reality and how this understanding resolves one of our greatest philosophical paradoxes, the relationship between mind and matter / God and the world.
The current trend is to call this subject Advaita, Nonduality or not-two, which infers that there is only God or more specifically, only Awareness. The implication being that the entire universe along with its inhabitants is actually none other than God or Awareness manifesting as this world of appearances. Marc points out that prior to the word Nonduality, the popular buzz word associated with the subject of Spiritual Enlightenment was Oneness. Of course, the view that the entire world is a manifestation of God or Awareness has a long history in all major religions generally referred to as the Perennial Teachings.
Marc describes that There is an evolutionary flow that dictates our understanding of these Perennial teachings is becoming ever more nuanced by taking us from One-Ness to Non-Dual to a Tri-Unistic perspective. The concept of the Triunity is also found in all major religions as a means to describe the multifaceted aspect of God. Marc maintains that the mystery of our relationship to God is revealed in this Triunistic model of Reality. He concludes, What the Triunistic perspective brings to the conversation is specifically just how and why we are all One and specifically how and why the relationship between man and the world or even man and God are nondual in nature. Whereas the current teachings in Nonduality simply assert that everything is God or Awareness, Marc clearly explains for the first time in lay terms how a Triunistic perspective of Reality explains the natural mechanism that ensures that God or Awareness manifests as the world we all know as home.
Marc Leavitts ebook Enlightenment: Behind the Scenes is available on Kindle, Nook or http://www.enlightenmentbehindthescenes.com
Marc Leavitt Reality Publishers 434-277-9518 Email Information
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LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 2, 2012) - Douglas, Isle of Man-based Odyssey Moon Ltd. and Israeli-based NSL Satellites Ltd., in partnership with NanoRacks LLC of the U.S., together will fly a number of educational microgravity experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).The next launch of an experiment is scheduled for October 7th on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
Rick Sanford, CEO of Odyssey Moon, said, "We at Odyssey Moon are so excited about this opportunity to give students around the globe access to the NASA U.S national lab. For a start-up space technology company it is very impressive that we have lined up over three successful commercial space missions in a three year period."
The three different experiments will look at how cancer cells develop in microgravity, another will determine the direction of the sprouts/roots growth of radish seeds under microgravity, and there is an experiment to examine the hardening of an epoxy resin sample to test the characteristics of the mix in microgravity conditions. These experiments are being developed by Israeli students in Misgav Middle School and OR High School.
Odyssey Moon Chairman Ramin Khadem pointed out that, "Besides the technical expertise that NSL brings to commercial space allowing these terrific experiments to take place, it is such a pleasure to collaborate with them and NanoRacks LLC."
The project is enabled through NanoRacks LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory. Says Managing Director Jeffrey Manber, "NanoRacks is delighted to again be working with the educational community, this time for showing students the potential of using space as a tool for learning."
About Odyssey Moon Odyssey Moon Ltd. is developing sustainable commercial systems and services to deliver payloads and instruments to space in support of science, exploration, and commerce.
Odyssey Moon Ltd. plans to meet near-term and long-term global market needs for low cost, reliable and frequent space and lunar access currently unaddressed by large government space programs. By creating alternative commercial delivery systems that provide rapid mission schedules and standardized systems, we provide value-added opportunities for government, academic and commercial customers to conduct space research or technology demonstrations on a simple cost per kilogram basis.
OM Space/Odyssey Moon Ltd. is one of the firstcommercial deep space enterprises and the veryfirst entrant into the Google Lunar Xprize (GLXP) competition.
About NSL Satellites:
NSL Satellites Ltd. is a space technology and education company. Formed in 2009, NSL is involved in many game-changing technologies for space applications and exploration.
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Odyssey Moon & NSL Satellites Ltd. to Launch Science Experiments to International Space Station
A private rocket poised to launch its first official cargo delivery run to the International Space Station performed a major engine test this weekend, setting the stage for its planned Oct. 7 liftoff.
The Falcon 9 rocket fired up its nine Merlin engines on Saturday (Sept. 29) for just two seconds during a full dress rehearsal at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station ahead of the upcoming flight by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
"During the static fire test today, SpaceX engineers ran through all countdown processes as though it were launch day," SpaceX officials wrote in an update Saturday. "Post static fire, SpaceX will conduct a thorough review of all data, and the Dragon spacecraft will be mated to Falcon 9 in preparation for next Sunday's targeted launch."
The Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch an unmanned Dragon space capsule (also built by SpaceX) on Sunday at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Oct. 8 GMT). If all goes well, the spacecraft should arrive at the International Space Station on Oct. 10, where it will be grappled by a robotic arm controlled by astronauts and attached to a docking port.
The mission follows a similar demonstration flight to the station in May by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. But Sunday's launch will kick off the company's first official cargo flight for NASA under a $1.6 billion deal that includes 12 such missions. [Photos: SpaceX's 1st Dragon Flight to Space Station]
The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX is one of two U.S. spaceflight companies with contracts to provide robotic cargo flights to the International Space Station for NASA. The other firm, Orbital Sciences Corp., of Virginia, has a $1.9 billion contract for eight missions using its new Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. The first Antares rocket rolled out to its launch pad on the Virginia coast today (Oct. 1).
With the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet in 2011, the space agency is relying on new privately built spacecraft to ferry American astronauts and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit. The unmanned resupply flights are the first stage of that plan, which also includes purchasing seats for U.S. astronauts on private space taxis once they become available.
SpaceX is one of several companies also seeking to launch astronauts into space for NASA. The company plans to use a crewed variant of its Dragon capsule for the job.
The upcoming Falcon 9 launch will be the fourth flight of the booster for SpaceX and the third flight of a Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon capsule made its first test flight in December 2010, which was followed by a successful round trip to the International Space Station earlier this year during SpaceX's demonstration flight in May.
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Private SpaceX Rocket Test-Fires Engines for Space Station Trip
This NASA Research Announcement (NRA) solicits hypothesis-driven research proposals for 1) Ground-Based Research Designed to Lead to Space Flight, 2) Rapid Turn-Around Space Flight Experiments 3) ISS Flight Experiments and 4) New Space Biology Investigations. NASA Space Biology experiments have one or more of the following primary goals: 1) to effectively use microgravity and the other characteristics of the space environment to enhance our understanding of basic biological processes; 2) to develop the scientific and technological foundations for a safe, productive human presence in space for extended periods and in preparation for exploration; and 3) to apply this knowledge and technology to improve our nation's competitiveness, education, and the quality of life on Earth. NASA Space Biology experiments will be designed to discover how space flight affects a diverse group of microorganisms, plants, and animals; study the effects of gravity (g) across the g-spectrum, i.e., from micro- to hyper-gravity; and characterize the biological effects of radiation, magnetic fields, and the interaction amongst species in the unusual environments of space and spacecraft.
The full text of the solicitation is available on the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com under menu listing "Open Solicitations." Potential applicants are urged to access this site well in advance of the proposal due date to familiarize themselves with its structure and to register in the NSPIRES system. Proposals must be submitted electronically.
Step-1 proposals are due on October 31, 2012 at 5 PM Eastern Time, and invited Step-2 proposals are due on December 19, 2012 at 5 PM Eastern Time. Proposals must be submitted electronically by an authorized official of the proposing organization. Proposers can use either NSPIRES (see URL above) or Grants.gov (http://www.grants.gov) for proposal submission. NASA's selection of research projects will be guided by recommendations of the National Research Council's 2011 Decadal Survey Report, "Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era" (http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13048.html).
All categories of U.S. institutions are eligible to submit proposals in response to this NRA. Principal Investigators (PIs) may collaborate with investigators from universities, Federal Government laboratories, the private sector, state and local government laboratories and other countries.
Every organization that intends to submit a proposal in response to this NRA must be registered with NSPIRES, and such registration must identify the authorized organizational representative(s) who will submit the electronic proposal. Instructions on how to register in NSPIRES will be described in the NRA. Each electronic proposal system places requirements on the registration of principal investigators and other participants (e.g. co-investigators). Potential proposers and proposing organizations are urged to access the system(s) well in advance of the proposal due date(s) of interest to familiarize themselves with its structure and enter the requested information. Questions in regards to responding to this NRA may be addressed to the contacts referenced in the full solicitation document.
This is a broad agency announcement as specified in FAR 6.102 (d)(2). Notwithstanding the posting of this opportunity at FedBizOpps.gov, nspires.nasaprs.com, or Grants.gov, NASA reserves the right to determine the appropriate award instrument for each proposal selected pursuant to this announcement.
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Release of NASA Research Announcement NNH12ZTT001N "Research Opportunities in Space Biology"
The space shuttle Endeavour's hatch will be opened by NASA technicians one last time this week, in part to retrieve thousands of souvenir patches and a photo the retired orbiter's final flown cargo.
Endeavour, which is now temporarily parked in a United Airlines hangar at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), is being prepared for its delivery to the California Science Center (CSC) for display. The shuttle, piggybacking atop a NASA jumbo jet, landed at LAX on Friday (Sept. 21) after a three-day cross-country ferry flight and four-hour flyover of the Golden State.
Just a few days before Endeavour left NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the final time, the space agency fulfilled a request by the CSC and stowed a care package on the shuttle's mid-deck inside its crew compartment. Stored in a locker, the pouch was flown with the orbiter on its recent ferry flight, which marked the last time a space shuttle ever took to the air.
Over the course of its 25 missions to space, Endeavour flew numerous significant payloads, including equipment to service and upgrade the Hubble Telescope, Spacelab and Spacehab modules, and the components to assemble the International Space Station. [Photos: Shuttle Endeavour's California Sightseeing Tour]
Endeavour's final cargo, carried on what the CSC dubbed "Mission 26: The Big Endeavour," may be more memento than mission-critical, but it still served a purpose: to say thank you.
25:123:12
The California Science Center flew 5,000 woven patches aboard Endeavour featuring a design that celebrated both of the modes of transport responsible for delivering the shuttle to its new display pavilion.
The 4.5-inch wide (11.4 centimeters) colorful badges depict Endeavour soaring on top of NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) and riding the self-propelled overland transporter that will take it on its road trip to the CSC. Endeavour is set to depart LAX and travel through Inglewood and Los Angeles city streets on Oct. 12-13 as the final leg of "Mission 26."
The numbers "25:123:12" are inscribed along the top of the patches. The "25" is for Endeavour's 25 missions to space and the "123" represents the 123 million miles (198 million kilometers) the orbiter traveled in flight. The "12" refers to the number of miles the shuttle will travel on the road to the science center.
While black-bordered versions of the patches are already for sale in the CSC's gift shop, the flown patches which are set apart by their gold thread border will not be sold. Instead, say science center officials, they will be given to those who made "Mission 26" possible: team members who worked on the ferry flight and the upcoming overland transport, as well as the center's donors who helped fund Endeavour's temporary and permanent exhibits.
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Space Shuttle Endeavour Made Final Flight Packed with Souvenir Patches
BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
American Semiconductor, Inc. today announced the first space flight FleX Silicon-on-Polymer by Team RockSat, a crew of engineering students from Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) in Nampa, Idaho. The NNU RockSat team designed a project to test the effects of radiation on flexible integrated circuits using American Semiconductors FleX process.
The June 21 launch of NASAs 35-foot-tall Terrier-Improved Orion suborbital sounding rocket heralded the first space demonstration of flexible ICs. NNUs RockSat-C experiment included a FleX IC with direct write interconnects in parallel with a traditionally packaged IC for control. Both ICs were fully functional after the 20G launch that propelled the rocket 73 miles into space and subsequent recovery of the rocket from the Atlantic Ocean.
American Semiconductor supported Team RockSats six engineering students in designing and implementing their experiment. The students worked at the NNU campus in Nampa, ID, American Semiconductors R&D facility in Boise, ID, and NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. After the rocket was recovered Team RockSat showed the FleX IC functioned through the flight with no upset due to radiation effects.
American Semiconductor is proud to sponsor NNU and their innovative engineering program, said Doug Hackler, President and CEO of American Semiconductor. We are committed to supporting engineering and manufacturing capability in the United States and especially in Idaho. We are happy to see NNUs engineering program engage students and industry to produce valuable research.
FleX can be applied to almost any SOI wafer from any IDM or foundry to economically create flexible ICs, said Rich Chaney, General Manager of American Semiconductor. FleX is compatible with printed electronics to create flexible hybrid systems that enable new innovation in many applications including conformal and structurally integrated antennas, structural health monitoring for automotive and aerospace, and flexible consumer electronics.
American Semiconductor, Inc. provides FleX technology as a standard process offering for both commercial and ITAR customer requirements.
American Semiconductor, Inc. is the industry leader in single crystal flexible ICs. As an on-shore, ITAR compliant, pure-play U.S. foundry, American Semiconductor provides services for all aspects of wafer fabrication and process development. Services include process development and process transfer engineering; design engineering including design, verification, layout, and test; and FleX Silicon-on-Polymer technology for flexible CMOS.
American Semiconductor Inc., the American Semiconductor logo, FleX, Silicon-on-Polymer, are trademarks of American Semiconductor, Inc.
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Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has defended a comment he made about Australian telecommunications bosses wearing red underpants on their heads.
Senator Conroy made the remarks in a presentation he gave in New York earlier this week.
A scratchy recording has emerged of Senator Conroy talking about telecommunications and the cost of broadband in Australia during the presentation.
"I'm in charge of spectrum auctions and if I say to you everyone in this room, 'if you want to bid next week in our spectrum auction you better wear red underpants on your head', you'll be wearing them on your head," he said.
"I have unfettered legal power."
Senator Conroy made the comments comparing the Government's position in the telecommunications industry in Australia to that in the United States.
"Not many regulators have quite that much power," he said.
"But we don't just have the power, we believe we have the responsibility to do something."
He said that is why the Government is committed to the National Broadband Network.
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Australia's Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy has bragged of his unfettered power to command local telcos, saying it gives him the power to compel them to wear red underpants on their collective heads.
Conroy's remarks were made at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information conference in the USA last week. The context for the comment was Australia's imminent spectrum sale, which like others around the world will be conducted as an auction.
Conroy's speech saw him point out that Australia's auction rules differ from those in other nations, because the Minister has executive power to set the rules for the sale, to the extent that:
If I say to you, everyone in this room, that if you want to bid next week in our spectrum auction, you had better wear red underpants on your head, I have got news for you: you'll be wearing them on your head. I have unfettered legal power.
Inevitably, someone with a camera in the audience recorded the speech posted the results to YouTube.
Watch Video
The reportedly teetotal Conory is not generally gaffe-prone, but has acquired many fierce critics thanks largely to his backing of a policy to create a national internet filter for Australia. The antipodean nation has also recently tabled data retention proposals that have earned the ire of civil libertarians and the attention of Anonymous.
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Summary: Communications Minister Conroy's boast about his power over the Australian telecommunications industry may not have been far off the mark, according to one US analyst.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy's comments about having "unfettered legal power" to make spectrum bidders wear red underpants on their heads made sense in the context, according to one US telecommunications analyst.
Conroy made the comment in New York last week at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information Conference, boasting about the power that he wields in Australia.
"We are in the fortunate position that the regulation of telecommunications powers in Australia is exclusively federal," he said at the time.
"That means I am in charge of spectrum auctions, and if I say to everyone in this room, 'if you want to bid in our spectrum auction, you'd better wear red underpants on your head', I've got some news for you. You'll be wearing them on your head."
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull accused Conroy of being a "control freak" in response.
But according to US telecommunications analyst Fred R Goldstein, posting on Australian telecommunications analyst Paul Budde's blog, the comments were "taken out of context" in a similar way to US President Barack Obama's comments about building road infrastructure , which were taken out of context to suggest that governments build businesses.
Goldstein said that in the US, power over telecommunications law is split between the federal government, the states, and the courts, so Conroy's statement was a good explanation.
"Conroy was noting that in [Australia], there is no state regulation for him to contend with, and he's not kowtowing to the [International Telecommunication Union] either. So it's all federal regulation. That was meant to reassure people that the ITU wasn't going to mess things up for Oz. So in context, he was right, and it was perfectly reasonable for him to introduce a bit of jocularity," he said.
"It would not surprise me, then, if an Australian Linux distro called Red Underpants came out."
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September 26, 2012
Image Caption: The shadowy outlines of the terrain in Vesta's northern region are visible in this image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. The image comes from the last sequence of images Dawn obtained of the giant asteroid Vesta as it departed the giant asteroid. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online
Astronomers suggest that water may have been delivered to Vesta through a build-up of small particles during an epoch when the Solar System was rich in dust.
The team presented their research at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid on Wednesday, offering up a radically different hypothesis from the way in which hydrous materials are deposited on other cosmic objects.
Using data from NASAs Dawn mission, the team found that Vestas surface shows distinct areas enriched with hydrated materials.
These regions are not dependent on solar illumination or temperature, as we find in the case of the Moon, De Sanctis, of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Planetology in Rome, said in a press release. The uneven distribution is unexpected and indicates ancient processes that differ from those believed to be responsible for delivering water to other airless bodies, like the Moon.
The team studied data from Dawns visible and infrared (VIR) mapping spectrometer, showing large regional concentrations of hydroxyl clearly associated with geological features like ancient, highly-cratered terrains and the Oppia crater.
Hydroxyl on the surface of the Moon is thought to be created by the interaction of protons from the solar wind with the lunar regolith, or extraterrestrial soil.
Highest concentrations are found in areas near the lunar poles, and in permanently shadowed craters where it is cold.
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ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) The mechanism by which water is incorporated into the terrestrial planets is a matter of extensive debate for planetary scientists. Now, observations of Vesta by NASA's Dawn mission suggest that hydrous materials were delivered to the giant asteroid mainly through a build-up of small particles during an epoch when the Solar System was rich in dust.
This is a radically different process from the way in which hydrous materials are deposited on the moon and may have implications for the formation of terrestrial planets, including the delivery of the water that forms Earth's oceans. Maria Cristina De Sanctis and the Dawn team will present the scenarios at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid on Sept. 26.
De Sanctis, of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Planetology in Rome, said, "Vesta's surface shows distinct areas enriched with hydrated materials. These regions are not dependent on solar illumination or temperature, as we find in the case of the Moon. The uneven distribution is unexpected and indicates ancient processes that differ from those believed to be responsible for delivering water to other airless bodies, like the Moon."
A team led by De Sanctis studied data from Dawn's visible and infrared (VIR) mapping spectrometer. Analysis showed large regional concentrations of hydroxyl -- a hydrogen and an oxygen atom bound together -- clearly associated with geological features including ancient, highly-cratered terrains and the Oppia crater.
Hydroxyl on the surface of the Moon is thought to be created continuously by the interaction of protons from the solar wind with the lunar regolith. Highest concentrations are found in areas near the lunar poles and in permanently shadowed crater where it is very cold. By contrast, the distribution of hydroxyl on Vesta is not dependent on significant shadowing or unusual cold temperatures. It is also stable over time, so its origin does not appear to be due to short-term processes.
The hydroxyl-rich regions on Vesta broadly correspond to its oldest surfaces. Around relatively large and young impact craters, hydroxyl detections are weak or absent, suggesting that the delivery of hydroxyl is not an ongoing process.
The evidence from VIR suggests that much of Vesta's hydroxyl was delivered by small particles of primitive material, less than a few centimeters in diameter, over a time-limited period. This period may have occurred during the primordial solar system, around the time it is believed water was accreted on Earth, or during the Late Heavy Bombardment, when collisions would have produced a significant amount of primitive material dust.
However, this is not the whole story of hydrous materials on Vesta. The Oppia Crater is hydroxyl-rich, but not covered with the primitive material. This suggests that there is more than one mechanism at work for depositing hydroxyl on Vesta's surface.
De Sanctis said, "The origin of Vesta's hydroxyl is certainly complex and possibly not unique: there could be various sources, like formation of hydroxyl actually on Vesta, in addition to the primordial impactors. Vesta is providing new insights into the delivery of hydrous materials in the main asteroid belt, and may offer new scenarios on the delivery of hydrous minerals in the inner Solar System, suggesting processes that may have played a role in the formation of terrestrial planets."
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Dawn suggests special delivery of hydrated material to Vesta
Call it a blast from the past. Uncovered by Nazis in Tibet, an ancient Buddhist sculpture turns out to have been carved from a meteorite.
(Related pictures: "Three Thousand Ancient Buddhas Unearthed in China.")
Known as the "Iron Man," the 22-pound (10-kilogram) figure is likely a Buddhist god. Seated, he wears a large swastika on his midsectiona good-luck symbol in Buddhism.
In 1938 a team of Nazis traveling in Tibet came across the statue andpossibly intrigued by the familiar bent-armed crossbrought it back to Germany. There, the "Iron Man" remained in a private collection in Munich until 2007, when the statue became available for study.
Since then, Elmar Buchner of the Planetology Institute at Stuttgart University has been analyzing the Buddhist statue, which is thought to hail from 11th-century Tibet. Buchner says the statue was carved from a meteorite that landed somewhere between Mongolia and Siberia roughly 15,000 years ago.
Among the clues is the sculpture's telltale mineral content and structure, which give it away as a kind of meteorite called an ataxite. "It is rich in nickel, it is rich in cobalt. Less than 0.1 percent of all meteorites and less than 1 percent of iron meteorites are ataxites ... It is the rarest type of meteorite you can find," Buchner told the BBC.
No doubt the figure was dear to the artist who sculpted it, but what is it worth today? Its status as the only known human figure carved from a meteorite may give it a value of $20,000, according to Buchner. But, he said in a statement, "if our estimation of its age is correct and [the sculpting] is nearly a thousand years old, it could be invaluable."
More: "'Nazi Twins' a Myth: Mengele Not Behind Brazil Boom?" >>
The new study, "Buddha From Space," appears in the September issue of the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
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Swastika-Bearing Buddhist Statue Was Chiseled From a Meteorite
The mechanism by which water is incorporated into the terrestrial planets is a matter of extensive debate for planetary scientists. Now, observations of Vesta by NASA's Dawn mission suggest that hydrous materials were delivered to the giant asteroid mainly through a build-up of small particles during an epoch when the solar system was rich in dust. This is a radically different process from the way in which hydrous materials are deposited on the Moon and may have implications for the formation of terrestrial planets, including the delivery of the water that forms Earth's oceans. Maria Cristina De Sanctis and the Dawn team will present the scenarios at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid on Wednesday 26th September.
De Sanctis, of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Planetology in Rome, said, "Vesta's surface shows distinct areas enriched with hydrated materials. These regions are not dependent on solar illumination or temperature, as we find in the case of the Moon. The uneven distribution is unexpected and indicates ancient processes that differ from those believed to be responsible for delivering water to other airless bodies, like the Moon."
A team led by De Sanctis studied data from Dawn's visible and infrared (VIR) mapping spectrometer. Analysis showed large regional concentrations of hydroxyl -- a hydrogen and an oxygen atom bound together -- clearly associated with geological features including ancient, highly-cratered terrains and the Oppia crater.
Hydroxyl on the surface of the Moon is thought to be created continuously by the interaction of protons from the solar wind with the lunar regolith. Highest concentrations are found in areas near the lunar poles and in permanently shadowed crater where it is very cold. By contrast, the distribution of hydroxyl on Vesta is not dependent on significant shadowing or unusual cold temperatures. It is also stable over time, so its origin does not appear to be due to short-term processes.
The hydroxyl-rich regions on Vesta broadly correspond to its oldest surfaces. Around relatively large and young impact craters, hydroxyl detections are weak or absent, suggesting that the delivery of hydroxyl is not an ongoing process.
The evidence from VIR suggests that much of Vesta's hydroxyl was delivered by small particles of primitive material, less than a few centimeters in diameter, over a time-limited period. This period may have occurred during the primordial solar system, around the time it is believed water was accreted on Earth, or during the Late Heavy Bombardment, when collisions would have produced a significant amount of primitive material dust.
However, this is not the whole story of hydrous materials on Vesta. The Oppia crater is hydroxyl-rich, but not covered with the primitive material. This suggests that there is more than one mechanism at work for depositing hydroxyl on Vesta's surface.
De Sanctis said, "The origin of Vesta's hydroxyl is certainly complex and possibly not unique: there could be various sources, like formation of hydroxyl actually on Vesta, in addition to the primordial impactors. Vesta is providing new insights into the delivery of hydrous materials in the main asteroid belt, and may offer new scenarios on the delivery of hydrous minerals in the inner solar system, suggesting processes that may have played a role in the formation of terrestrial planets."
Images
http://www.europlanet-eu.org/outreach/images/stories/epsc2012/vesta-hydratation-map1-ver2.jpg This map from NASA's Dawn mission of the giant asteroid Vesta indicates the presence of hydrated minerals in white. The data were obtained by VIR, Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, in August 2011 from an altitude of 2700 meters. The data included in the map are from Survey and are limited to 30 degrees north latitude because of the poor illumination condition above that latitude (Vesta winter season). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/INAF
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More than 600 astronomers from all over the world will convene in Reno, Nevada, in mid-October for the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS). They'll share their latest discoveries about the solar system not only with each other, but also with the general public. At 7:30 p.m. PDT on Monday evening, October 15th, Dr. Patrick Michel will give a presentation entitled "The Fascinating Quest of Asteroids: Remnants of Planetary Formation." Dr. Michel, an asteroid expert at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, is the 2012 recipient of the DPS Carl Sagan Medal, which recognizes excellence in public communication by an active planetary scientist. He'll speak in the Grand Ballroom at the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, 2500 E. Second St., Reno, NV 89595. Admission is free.
Dr. Michel began his advanced education with a degree in aeronautical engineering and space techniques in 1993, after which he moved to the study of asteroids. He received his PhD in 1997 for a thesis titled "Dynamical Evolution of Near-Earth Asteroids." He leads the planetology group at CNRS and is a participant in several international robotic space missions to asteroids, including Europe's MarcoPolo-R, Japan's Hayabusa 2, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx. In 2006 he received the Young Researcher Award from the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Scientific sessions at the DPS meeting are scheduled Monday, October 15, through Friday, October 19. The DPS offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and public-information officers, and news briefings will be held during the lunch break Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; please contact DPS Press Officer Dr. Vishnu Reddy (dpspress@aas.org) for details. More information about the DPS annual meeting: http://www.psi.edu/dps12
The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899 and based in Washington, DC, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. Its membership of about 7,000 also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising contemporary astronomy. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity's scientific understanding of the universe.
The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) is the largest organization of professional planetary scientists in the world. The DPS was formed in 1968 as a sub-organization within the AAS devoted to solar system and extrasolar planet research. Today it is the largest special interest division of the AAS.
SOURCE American Astronomical Society
CONTACT: Dr. Vishnu Reddy, DPS Press Officer, +49 555 697 9246, dpspress@aas.org; or Dr. Rick Fienberg, AAS Press Officer, +1-202-328-2010 x116, rick.fienberg@aas.org
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Asteroid Expert To Give Free Public Talk At Planetary Science Meeting In Reno
ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) An ancient Buddhist statue which was first recovered by a Nazi expedition in 1938 has been analyzed by a team of scientists led by Dr. Elmar Buchner from the Institute of Planetology, University of Stuttgart. The probably 1,000-year-old statue, called the "Iron Man," weighs 10 kilograms, portrays the Buddhist god Vaisravana and is believed to originate from the pre-Buddhist Bon culture of the 11th Century. Geochemical analyses by the German-Austrian research team revealed that the priceless statue was carved from an ataxite, a very rare class of iron meteorites.
It sounds like an artifact from an Indiana Jones film: a 1,000-year-old ancient Buddhist statue which was first recovered by a Nazi expedition in 1938 has been analyzed by scientists and has been found to be carved from a meteorite. The findings, published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science, reveal the priceless statue to be a rare ataxite class of meteorite.
The statue, known as the Iron Man, weighs 10kg and is believed to represent a stylistic hybrid between the Buddhist and pre-Buddhist Bon culture that portrays the god Vaisravana, the Buddhist King of the North, also known as Jambhala in Tibet.
The statue was discovered in 1938 by an expedition of German scientists led by renowned zoologist Ernst Schfer. It is unknown how the statue was discovered, but it is believed that the large swastika carved into the centre of the figure may have encouraged the team to take it back to Germany. Once it arrived in Munich it became part of a private collection and only became available for study following an auction in 2009.
The first team to study the origins of the statue was led by Dr Elmar Buchner from Stuttgart University. The team was able to classify it as an ataxite, a rare class of iron meteorite with high contents of nickel.
"The statue was chiseled from an iron meteorite, from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which crashed into the border areas between Mongolia and Siberia about 15.000 years ago. "While the first debris was officially discovered in 1913 by gold prospectors, we believe that this individual meteorite fragment was collected many centuries before," said Dr Buchner.
Meteorites inspired worship from many ancient cultures ranging from the Inuit's of Greenland to the aborigines of Australia. Even today one of the most famous worship sites in the world, Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is based upon the Black Stone, believed to be a stony meteorite. Dr Buchner's team believe the Iron Man originated from the Bon culture of the 11th Century"The Iron Man statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite, which means we have nothing to compare it to when assessing value," said Dr Buchner. "Its origins alone may value it at $20,000; however, if our estimation of its age is correct and it is nearly a thousand years old it could be invaluable."
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Ancient Buddhist statue made of meteorite, new study reveals
Buddhist Statue Made of Meteorite, New Study Reveals
An ancient Buddhist statue which was first recovered by a Nazi expedition in 1938 has been analysed by a scientist team led by Dr. Elmar Buchner from the Institute of Planetology, University of Stuttgart. The probably 1000 years old statue, called the Iron Man, weighs 10kg, portrays the Buddhist god Vaisravana and is believed to originate from the pre-Buddhist Bon culture of the 11th Century. Geochemical analyses by the German-Austrian scientist team revealed that the priceless statue was carved from an ataxite, a very rare class of iron meteorites.
It sounds like an artifact from an Indiana Jones film; a 1000 year-old ancient Buddhist statue which was first recovered by a Nazi expedition in 1938 has been analysed by scientists and has been found to be carved from a meteorite. The findings, published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science, reveal the priceless statue to be a rare ataxite class of meteorite.
The statue, known as the Iron Man, weighs 10kg and is believed to represent a stylistic hybrid between the Buddhist and pre-Buddhist Bon culture that portrays the god Vaisravana, the Buddhist King of the North, also known as Jambhala in Tibet.
The statue was discovered in 1938 by an expedition of German scientists led by renowned zoologist Ernst Schfer. It is unknown how the statue was discovered, but it is believed that the large swastika carved into the centre of the figure may have encouraged the team to take it back to Germany. Once it arrived in Munich it became part of a private collection and only became available for study following an auction in 2009.
The first team to study the origins of the statue was led by Dr Elmar Buchner from Stuttgart University. The team was able to classify it as an ataxite, a rare class of iron meteorite with high contents of nickel.
The statue was chiseled from an iron meteorite, from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which crashed into the border areas between Mongolia and Siberia about 15.000 years ago. While the first debris was officially discovered in 1913 by gold prospectors, we believe that this individual meteorite fragment was collected many centuries before, said Dr Buchner.
Meteorites inspired worship from many ancient cultures ranging from the Inuits of Greenland to the aborigines of Australia. Even today one of the most famous worship sites in the world, Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is based upon the Black Stone, believed to be a stony meteorite. Dr Buchners team believe the Iron Man originated from the Bon culture of the 11th CenturyThe Iron Man statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite, which means we have nothing to compare it to when assessing value, said Dr Buchner. Its origins alone may value it at $20,000; however, if our estimation of its age is correct and it is nearly a thousand years old it could be invaluable
Paper URL:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2012.01409.x/abstract
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27-09-2012 12:00 According to Einstein, whenever massive objects interact, they produce gravitational waves -- distortions in the very fabric of space and time -- that ripple outward across the universe at the speed of light. While astronomers have found indirect evidence of these disturbances, the waves have so far eluded direct detection. Ground-based observatories designed to find them are on the verge of achieving greater sensitivities, and many scientists think that this discovery is just a few years away. Catching gravitational waves from some of the strongest sources -- colliding black holes with millions of times the sun's mass -- will take a little longer. These waves undulate so slowly that they won't be detectable by ground-based facilities. Instead, scientists will need much larger space-based instruments, such as the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, which was endorsed as a high-priority future project by the astronomical community. A team that includes astrophysicists atNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is looking forward to that day by using computational models to explore the mergers of supersized black holes. Their most recent work investigates what kind of "flash" might be seen by telescopes when astronomers ultimately find gravitational signals from such an event. To explore the problem, a team led by Bruno Giacomazzo at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and including Baker developed computer simulations that for the first time show ...
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NASA | Simulations Uncover 'Flashy' Secrets of Merging Black Holes - Video
28-09-2012 13:49 Cassandra Rodriquez is an Operations Support Officer (OSO) in the International Space Station Flight Control Room at Johnson Space Center's Mission Control. Cassandra, also an astronaut trainer has been involved with nearly every Shuttle mission and ISS Expedition since 2004. Her duties as an OSO include being responsible for all Intra-Vehicular Activity (IVA) maintenance performed on the Space Station and also the mechanisms that keep the modules together and berth visiting vehicles to the Station. She is currently working on a project with the Robotics System Technology Group to develop training and operational products to upgrade the Robonaut onboard the station with legs.
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NASA 2012 Hispanic Heritage Month Profile - Cassandra Rodriquez - Video
