quarta-feira, 18 de setembro de 2013

Church of Chelyabinsk Meteorite Founded in Russian Urals



September 16 (RIA Novosti) – The meteorite that hit Russia’s Urals Mountains in mid-February contained “scriptures” that can usher in a new age on Earth, say followers of a new religious group in Russia, local media reported Monday.

But mishandling the meteorite could cause harm throughout the world and may already be fueling the bloody civil strife in Syria, said Andrei Breivichko, founder of the Church of the Chelyabinsk Meteorite, 1obl.ru news website reported.

The meteorite, estimated at 10,000 metric tons, exploded over the Chelyabinsk Region earlier this year, leaving 1,500 injured, mostly due to glass shattered by the shockwave. The biggest of seven major chunks that the celestial body fragmented into ended up in the local Chebarkul Lake, and an operation to fish it out is currently under way.

Though scientists said earlier that the space rock was a typical chondrite (non-metallic meterorite) distinguished mostly by its size, the space rock actually contains “data about the universe and a code of moral and legal guidelines that would help mankind at a new stage of development of spiritual knowledge,” Breivichko said.

The founder of the cult of the meteorite opposes the operation to bring the chunk out of the lake, claiming that only “psychic priests” of his church are qualified to handle the celestial body, which they want to be placed in a temple to be built in Chelyabinsk for the purpose.

The believers are already holding rites on the shores of Chebarkul, trying to protect the meteorite by projecting a sort of protective psychic energy toward it, though they have no plans to physically interfere with the divers trying to bring it up, online tabloid LifeNews.ru reported.

The tabloid published a video of half a dozen people, led by the church’s founder – identified by LifeNews.ru as Breivichenko – standing in a ring on the lake’s shore, holding hands and praying for the meteorite’s safety.

The Chebarkul fragment of the meteorite, sized 50 by 90 centimeters, is expected to be brought ashore by September 25. It will be examined by scientists and then handed over to the local authorities, Chelyabinsk Governor Mikhail Yurevich said Monday.


Source: http://en.ria.ru

quarta-feira, 11 de setembro de 2013

Scientists find the building blocks of extraterrestrial life in California meteorite



In April 2012, a large meteorite streaked across the morning sky in California, with a sonic boom rattling houses up and down the San Joaquin Valley. Fragments of the exploding space rock came down around Sutter's Mill, California, the same place where prospectors discovered gold in California, sparking the 19th century gold rush.





Scientists working with samples of the meteorite subjected the rock to forensic examination looking for evidence of organic compounds. They're interested in learning just how common the basic building blocks for life are in the solar system. If those compounds are common, then life may have arisen on Earth quite easily. If rare, then it becomes harder to explain the mechanics of the origin of life.





It should be noted here that despite popular sentiment, neither result impacts the ultimate question of creation.





Biochemist Sandra Pizzarello from the Arizona State University in Tempe told Space.com, "Their composition therefore has always been seen as an indication that the precursors to the evolution that led to the origins of life could have come from the extraterrestrial material of meteorites."





In other words, the molecules that form life on Earth may have come from elsewhere.





One of the problems with the scientific theory of creation and evolution of life is that it is difficult to explain how life arose on a planet that should otherwise be sterile. The primordial Earth was incredibly hostile to life. The planet baked at hundreds of degrees at the surface destroying any possibility that life could naturally evolve. Liquid water did not exist at the surface, which was initially molten.





So how did we get life from a virtual Hell on Earth?





Over time, the planet's surface cooled and water, as well as important molecules arrived on the surface. Comets bombarded the cooling planet, delivering their dust and ice, rich in organic compounds, to the surface, forming the oceans and most of the water now on the planet.





Meteorites also brought organic compounds.





How those compounds developed to create life remains a mystery that scientists still have difficulty replicating in a lab. However, according to theory, those compounds eventually came together in just the right proportions to form life, which subsequently evolved into all that lives on the Earth --including us.





The meteorite from Sutter's Mill did not produce very promising results at first. Initial study suggested that organic compounds were virtually nonexistent. However, a subsequent study that included dissolving fragments of the meteorite in conditions similar to steaming hot hydrothermal vents on Earth, yielded a startling result. The meteorite was actually rich in compounds.





This suggests that under the right conditions, organic compounds embedded in the rock can emerge and create the soup of molecules needed to form life.





Of course, the soup of molecules extracted from the rock formed no such life nor was that the aim of the experiment. Moreover, no life has ever been created in the lab from non-living compounds. It appears there remains a missing ingredient.





Aside from that, the study tantalizingly suggests that compounds needed to create life are otherwise common and may be found throughout the solar system, and possibly the universe entire.




Source: catholic.org

quinta-feira, 5 de setembro de 2013

Massive mystery fireball adds flare to night sky over Italy

After a search for meteorite fragments yielded niente, the jury's still out as to what exactly lit up the night sky in Italy's northeast. The fireball reportedly entertained and horrified Italians between 2.30am and 2.45am on Sept. 3, roaring like thunder and producing a loud bang. Pets in Padua and Venice were reportedly "unsettled" by the incident, and their owners called police and firefighters, whose guesses as to the origin of the fireball were no better than theirs.


Source: msn.com

Largest Piece So Far of Chelyabinsk Meteorite Found

Russian scientists have confirmed the authenticity of a 3.4-kilogram (7.5-pound) fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteorite - the largest piece found so far from the meteorite that hit the Urals region in February.

An unnamed resident of the Chelyabinsk region in Russia's Urals found the fragment near the village of Timiryazevsky and submitted it for analysis and authentication to Chelyabinsk State University.

"Yes, it is a meteorite. This is the largest [Chelyabinsk] fragment analyzed so far by scientists," Andrei Kocherov, an official from the university, told RIA Novosti.

The lucky owner was given an official certificate confirming the authenticity of the celestial fragment, Kocherov said.

The meteorite, more than 18 meters in size and weighing 10,000 metric tons, exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in the Urals on February 15. The blast was an equivalent to 440 kilotons of TNT - 27 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945.

The meteorite blast left 1,200 injured, most by window glass shattered by the shockwave.

The meteorite broke into some seven large fragments, and one of them is believed to have fallen into Chebarkul Lake, forming a hole in the ice about eight meters in diameter. In late March, a radar probe of the bottom of the lake revealed a crater possibly created by a fragment of a meteorite.

Chelyabinsk region authorities have allocated 3 million rubles (about $10,000) for the recovery of the fragment, which is believed to have an oval shape, a size of up to a meter and a weight of about 600 kilograms.



Source: spacedaily.com