MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“A powerful flare erupted from the sun this past weekend, but while the storm was not aimed directly at Earth, it was nearly the most powerful type of solar storm there is, scientists say.

The brief but strong solar flare occurred late Friday (July 29) at 10:09 p.m. EDT (0209 GMT July 30), and grew in intensity. The flare was followed by an unrelated geomagnetic storm, which was triggered by fluctuations in the solar wind, according to Spaceweather.com, a website that monitors space weather events.

As a result of the solar storm, skywatchers at high latitudes, particularly in the southern hemisphere, were alerted for potentially dazzling aurora displays.

The M9-class flare erupted from a large sunspot, officially known as AR 1261. Two large sunspot groups have emerged on the sun, reported Spaceweather.com, and the active regions are breeding grounds for weak to powerful solar flares.

‘Because of its brevity, the eruption did not hurl a substantial cloud of material toward Earth,’ Spaceweather.com reported. ‘So far none of the eruptions has been squarely Earth directed, but that could change in the days ahead as solar rotation turns the sunspots to face our planet.'” Read more.

Signs in the Sun: Some Scientists Believe Bursts of Solar Activity May Be Causing Natural Disasters on Earth – “Some scientists believe bursts of solar activity cause natural disasters on our planet, but until now the star has been too difficult to reach or explore in any detail. Some Russian researchers think they have the solution. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis – apocalyptic pictures are becoming an ordinary part of news bulletins across the globe. And scientists are not giving out reassuring forecasts.” Read more.

Coincidence, or a sign?

By Joe Kovacs – “In the summer of 1998, Americans raced into movie theaters for not one, but two major Hollywood productions featuring giant asteroids about to smash into Earth.

The films – ‘Deep Impact’ and ‘Armageddon’ – had plots so similar, many people confuse the two.

Now 13 years later, a newly discovered, real-life comet named Elenin is racing toward our home planet.

No, it’s not an asteroid, and no, it’s not on a crash course, but it is expected to be at its closest point to us – some 21 million miles – during the culmination of God’s annual holy days mentioned in the Bible.

This has sparked a wave of speculation that it could be some sort of miraculous sign possibly heralding the long-anticipated return of Jesus to Earth.

‘It’s coming!’ thunders Paul Begley, a preacher at Community Gospel Baptist Church in Knox, Ind., in a YouTube video. ‘It’s on its way and right in the middle of the Feast of the Trumpets, it is going to come through and get in between the Earth and the sun.'” Read more.

Conspiracy Theorists: Comet Elenin is Either an ‘Incoming Spacecraft’ or an ‘Intelligently Controlled Object’ – “Comet Elenin is an incoming spacecraft or intelligently controlled object according to a number of presenters at a recently completed conference hosted online by the popular whistleblower website – Project Camelot. Several presenters agreed that Elenin will approach its closest points near the Sun and Earth at a time of extraordinary planetary and societal changes coinciding with the end of the Mayan Calendar. A number of anonymous whistleblowers were cited in support of the view that Elenin was an artificially controlled object responsible for widespread planetary changes in the solar system.” Read more.

By Mike Wall – “A surprise meteor shower spotted in February was likely caused by cosmic “bread crumbs” dropped by an undiscovered comet that could potentially pose a threat to Earth, astronomers announced today (July 27).

The tiny meteoroids that streaked through Earth’s atmosphere for a few hours on Feb. 4 represent a previously unknown meteor shower, researchers said. The “shooting stars” arrived from the direction of the star Eta Draconis, so the shower is called the February Eta Draconids, or FEDs for short.

The bits of debris appear to have been shed by a long-period comet. Long-period comets whiz by the sun very infrequently, so it’s tough to predict when they last cruised through our neck of the woods — and when they’ll come back, researchers said.

That uncertainty is cause for some concern in this case, they added.

‘If the meteoroids can hit us, so can the comet,’ said FEDs discoverer Peter Jenniskens, of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center. ‘We don’t know whether the comet has already passed us by or is still on approach.'” Read more.

By Andrew Fazekas – “A celestial traffic jam may be on tap this week as two meteor showers combine forces to put on a brilliant sky show.

One of the best shooting star events of the year is the annual August Perseid meteor shower.  However this year’s peak, on August 12, happens to coincide with a bright full moon—drastically cutting down the number of meteors visible to the naked eye.

Yet while the main event might be blocked out by the blinding moonlight, the opening act promises to be much better.

This year the lesser known Delta Aquarid meteor shower is expected to peak on Friday night, when the Delta Aquarids’ more productive Perseid cousin is just starting to ramp up.

Together the showers will produce anywhere between 15 and 30 shooting stars per hour under clear, dark skies.

‘While the moon is set to be an unpleasant guest for the Perseid peak, skywatchers are not out of luck as the Delta Aquarids could be one of the best meteor showers of the year,’ said Raminder Singh Samra, astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

‘The new moon during the peak of the Delta Aquarids may actually allow for a much more spectacular display.'” Read more.

“A dark gap in the sun’s atmosphere–a ‘coronal hole’–is spewing solar wind toward Earth. Estimated time of arrival: July 19th. This morning, UV-filtered telescopes onboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Obervatory photographed the opening:

Coronal holes are places where the sun’s magnetic field opens up and allows hot gas to escape. A million mile-per-hour stream of solar wind flowing from this hole could spark polar geomagnetic storms when it arrives early next week. High-latitude sky watchers should be prepared for auroras.” Source.

By Sallie Don and Amos Aikman – “BRITAIN is preparing to invoke emergency powers to turn off its electricity to shield the country from the worst effects of the biggest solar flare in 150 years.

The British government has been warned that a massive surge of energy from the sun could hit the Earth in the next 18 months. In a worst-case scenario, it could blow out the national grid and leave parts of the country without electricity for months.

Australian electricity experts are not convinced the solar flare will have anywhere near the catastrophic effects predicted in Britain and think any electromagnetic surge will go largely unnoticed.

Head of electrical engineering at the University of Technology, Sydney, Jianguo Zhu, said communication networks such as the internet would be the systems most likely to suffer from any solar flare. ‘The power grid is run by a computer network, which could be affected by the surge, which may cause blackouts,’ Professor Zhu told The Australian…

The most extreme form of solar storm could knockout computers and the banking system, throw satellites off course and disrupt GPS technology, navigation and defence systems.” Read more.

“Earth-orbiting satellites detected a flash of X-rays coming from the western edge of the solar disk. Registering only ‘M’ (for medium) on the Richter scale of solar flares, the blast at first appeared to be a run-of-the-mill eruption–that is, until researchers looked at the movies.

NASA has just released new high-resolution videos of the event recorded by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The videos are large, typically 50 MB to 100 MB, but worth the wait to download…

‘IN terms of raw power, this really was just a medium-sized eruption,’ says Young, ‘but it had a uniquely dramatic appearance caused by all the inky-dark material. We don’t usually see that.’

Solar physicist Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC calls it a case of ‘dark fireworks.’

‘The blast was triggered by an unstable magnetic filament near the sun’s surface,’ he explains. ‘That filament was loaded down with cool1 plasma, which exploded in a spray of dark blobs and streamers.'” Source.

“LOS ANGELES (AP) – It began as a bright white dot in Saturn’s northern hemisphere. Within days, the dot grew larger and stormier.

Soon the tempest enveloped the ringed planet, triggering lightning flashes thousands of times more intense than on Earth.

The international Cassini spacecraft and ground telescopes have been tracking the turbulence since last December, visible from Earth as a type of storm known as a ‘Great White Spot.’

‘It’s still going like crazy,’ said Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Such planet-wide weather disturbances are rare on Saturn, where the atmosphere is typically hazy and calm. Since 1876, astronomers have observed only five other megastorms on Saturn.

‘This is a one-of-a-kind storm,’ said Andrew Ingersoll, a self-described planetary weatherman at the California Institute of Technology, who was part of the discovery team.” Read more.

By Dr. Tony Phillips – “In Sept. 1859, on the eve of a below-average1 solar cycle, the sun unleashed one of the most powerful storms in centuries. The underlying flare was so unusual, researchers still aren’t sure how to categorize it. The blast peppered Earth with the most energetic protons in half-a-millennium, induced electrical currents that set telegraph offices on fire, and sparked Northern Lights over Cuba and Hawaii.

This week, officials have gathered at the National Press Club in Washington DC to ask themselves a simple question: What if it happens again?

‘A similar storm today might knock us for a loop,’ says Lika Guhathakurta, a solar physicist at NASA headquarters.” Read more.

This one was only discovered five days before its fly-by.  Seems like it’s just a matter of time before one of these bullets hits this third rock …

Revelation 8:8, “Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.”

By NANCY ATKINSON – “A newly discovered house-sized asteroid will miss the Earth by less than 17,700 km (11,000 miles) on Monday June 27, 2011. That’s about 23 times closer than the Moon. The size and location of the asteroid, named 2011 MD, should allow observers in certain locations to take a look at the space rock, even with small telescopes. It’s closest approach will be at 13:26 UTC on June 27.

According to Skymania, 2011 MD was found just yesterday, June 22, by LINEAR, a pair of robotic telescopes in New Mexico that scan the skies for Near Earth Asteroids.

As of now, asteroid 2011 MD is estimated to be between 9 to 45 meters (10 to 50 yards) wide. Dr. Emily Baldwin, of Astronomy Now magazine, said there is no danger of the asteroid hitting Earth, and even if it did enter the atmosphere, an asteroid this size would ‘mostly burn up in a brilliant fireball, possibly scattering a few meteorites.'” Read more.

Update June 28, 2011: Snapshots of Asteroid That Buzzed Earth – “Earth got a close shave Monday morning from an asteroid so small it was originally mistaken for space junk. The object, called 2011 MD, zipped 7,600 miles above Earth’s surface at about 1:15 p.m. EDT on June 27. It was discovered on June 22 by the LINEAR project, which hunts for objects that pass close to Earth using robotic telescopes in New Mexico.” Read more.