Space Is Still An Unknown And Dangerous Place

We take the exploration of space for granted but the fact remains that our lack of understanding of the final frontier means that our place in the universe does not lack for mystery.

Here are some recent news items that indicate that space is still an unknown and dangerous place.

The 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society featured a report on an interesting discovery. The discovery of a newly detected signal far louder than any Astronomy expected.

A team led by Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center detected a signal from a balloon-borne instrument named ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission). In July 2006, the instrument was launched from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and reached an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36,500 meters), where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.

It not unusual for many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, to emit radio waves. Some galaxies even send out a background radio hiss. However this new signal is measured to be six times brighter than the combined emission of all known radio sources in the universe. The origin of the signal is unknown and remains a total mystery.

Meanwhile, the potential danger to this planet from a solar storm was outlined in a report that was funded by NASA and released in January 2009. All sorts of dire problems would occur on earth if a solar storm were to hit the earth's magnetic field. It happened before in 1859 and it could happen again but this time the ramifications would be much more severe.

For More Read: A Global Disaster From The Perfect Solar Storm on the Daily Vu.

Finally, a lack of sunspot activity continues in 2009 and the earth continues to cool despite the the hype of the proponents of global warming. An astronomer by the name of Theodor Landscheidt predicted the current activity of the sun and this unexpected global cooling trend prior to his death in 2002.

Read about his predictions for the future in : Follow The Sun To The Landscheidt Minimum on the Daily Vu.