Water World Planet Gj1214b Discovered to be Completely New Type by the Hubble Telescope and Astronomy Scientists

""Cambridge, MA - Our solar system contains three types of planets: rocky, terrestrial worlds (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), and ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). Planets orbiting distant stars come in an even wider variety, including lava worlds and "hot Jupiters." 

Observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have added a new type of planet to the mix. By analyzing the previously discovered world GJ1214b, astronomer Zachory Berta (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and colleagues proved that it is a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.

"GJ1214b is like no planet we know of," said Berta. "A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water."

GJ1214b was discovered in 2009 by the ground-based MEarth (pronounced "mirth") Project, which is led by CfA's David Charbonneau. This super-Earth is about 2.7 times Earth's diameter and weighs almost 7 times as much. It orbits a red-dwarf star every 38 hours at a distance of 1.3 million miles, giving it an estimated temperature of 450 ° Fahrenheit.""

""In 2010, CfA scientist Jacob Bean and colleagues reported that they had measured the atmosphere of GJ1214b, finding it likely that the atmosphere was composed mainly of water. However, their observations could also be explained by the presence of a world-wide haze in GJ1214b's atmosphere.

Berta and his co-authors used Hubble's WFC3 instrument to study GJ1214b when it crossed in front of its host star. During such a transit, the star's light is filtered through the planet's atmosphere, giving clues to the mix of gases.

"We're using Hubble to measure the infrared color of sunset on this world," explained Berta.

Hazes are more transparent to infrared light than to visible light, so the Hubble observations help tell the difference between a steamy and a hazy atmosphere.

They found the spectrum of GJ1214b to be featureless over a wide range of wavelengths, or colors. The atmospheric model most consistent with the Hubble data is a dense atmosphere of water vapor. 

"The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere," said Berta.

Since the planet's mass and size are known, astronomers can calculate the density, which works out to about 2 grams per cubic centimeter. Water has a density of 1 g/cm3, while Earth's average density is 5.5 g/cm3. This suggests that GJ1214b has much more water than Earth, and much less rock.""

http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2012/pr201204.html

Cybersecurity Act of 2012: (SOPA'S NEW NAME) Department of Homeland Security Plans to Monitor Social Media Sites. Who's Best Interests are Really at Play here, is this "Security" for the People or Congress?

S. 2105: Cybersecurity Act of 2012

A bill to enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and 

communications infrastructure of the United States
[link to www.govtrack.us]

Cybersecurity Act of 2012: (SOPA'S NEW NAME)

Unveiling Antarctica's Mysterious Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountain Range Using Ice-Penetrating Radar, Laser-Ranging Systems, Gravity Meters and Magnetometers to Collect Data Over 3-Million-Square-Kilometers

 

""In 1958, geologists discovered a mountain range buried more than a kilometer beneath the East Antarctica Ice Sheet. For more than half a century, the origins of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains have proven to be a geological puzzle, but a new study may have finally solved the enigma, and simultaneously given geologists a new understanding of mountain-building processes.

The Gamburtsevs lie under the highest point in Antarctica, the 4,000-meter-high Dome Argus Plateau. The mountain range, in the middle of an ancient continental craton, has a thick, crustal root and high topography, which has made the Gamburtsevs the least-understood tectonic feature on Earth for the past 50 years.

“The reason why the Gamburtsevs are so enigmatic is that stable cratons are generally low-lying features with no huge mountain ranges atop,” says Fausto Ferraccioli, a geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England.""

""The Gamburtsevs are completely covered by ice, preventing scientists from recovering physical rock samples. Earlier studies that determined the root — all that remains of an earlier mountain chain — was at least Precambrian in age relied on indirect evidence: outcrops exposed to the north of the mountains, detrital zircons retrieved from ice cores, and seismic measurements that revealed a crustal thickness of 45 to 60 kilometers. Elsewhere in East Antarctica, the average crustal thickness is about 35 to 40 kilometers.

Ferraccioli and his colleagues used two Twin Otter aircraft equipped with ice-penetrating radar, laser-ranging systems, gravity meters and magnetometers to collect data over a 3-million-square-kilometer area between the South Pole and the Lambert Glacier. The data revealed a previously unknown extension of the East Antarctic Rift System — a 2,500-kilometer-long fracture that extends from East Antarctica across the ocean to India, which, when active, resembled today’s East African Rift System — making it the longest fossil rift system on Earth.""

""Finding the rift extension led the team to propose that the mountains are actually the result of multiple orogenies, or mountain building episodes, involving a unique combination of continental collision, rifting and uplift processes not previously seen together in other mountain ranges.

“We infer that the root may have formed about 1 billion years ago during the assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia,” Ferraccioli says. “However, sparse zircon data retrieved from small amounts of sediment inclusions entrained in accreted ice at Lake Vostok suggest that 1.8-billion- to 1.6-billion-year-old rocks may be present in the Gamburtsev Province,” he adds, which means the root could possibly be older.""

http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/unearthing-antarcticas-mysterious-mountains

U.S. Navy Trial Testing New 32-Megajoule Advanced Electromagnetic Railgun Prototype Launching Projectiles at Velocities of 4,500 to 5,600 MPH

""The Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today that they will begin testing an advanced Electromagnetic Railgun (EMR) within the next few weeks. The development and testing of this advanced EMR is the result of a $21 million contract awarded to BAE Systems by the Office of Naval Research roughly two years ago. For those that may not know, the ONR is the office within the United States Department of the Navy that facilitates all science and technology programs for the U.S Navy and Marine Corps through various institutions, such as universities and government laboratories.""

""While most munitions both heavy and small depend on chemical propellants (like gunpowder), the EM Railgun launcher (as you may have guessed from its name) utilizes magnetic energy instead. The EM Railgun propels a conductive projectile along metal rails using a magnetic field powered by electricity. The magnetic field produced by the high electric currents thrusts a sliding metal conductor between two rails to launch a projectile at velocities of 4,500 to 5,600 mph. By contrast, the average velocity of a chemical propelled weapon is limited to about 2,700 give or take.""

""So what does that mean? Well, this increased velocity should allow for the Navy to reach targets of up to 50 to 100 nautical miles away or, if your inner sea-dog is a little rusty, about 57 to 115 miles out. Navy planners hope to eventually increase that range even further to distances up to 220 nautical miles (253 miles).

According to ONR, this increase velocity and extended range will give sailors multi-mission capability, and allow them to conduct precise naval surface fire support. In addition, ONR states that the EM Railgun may provide effective ballistic missile defense.""

""BAE Systems EM Railgun was delivered to the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren on January 30, 2012 and features a 32-megajoule payload. To add some perspective, one megajoule of energy is equivalent to a one ton car traveling at 100 miles per hour.""

http://www.digitaltrends.com/international/u-s-navy-to-test-32-megajoule-em-railgun-in-the-coming-weeks/

Obama Signs Executive Order On Iran: War is in the Preperations and Shadow Operations

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