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- Portrait of a Doomed Asteroid
A new study provides a possible explanation of mysterious X-ray flares detected by the Chandra K-ray Observatory for several years in the region of Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*. The study suggests a cloud around Sgr A*, a supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, which contains hundreds of trillions of asteroids and comets that have been stripped from their parent stars. The flares occur when asteroids of six miles or larger in radius are consumed by the black hole. An asteroid that undergoes a close encounter with another object, such as a star or planet, can be thrown into an orbit headed towards Sgr A*. If the asteroid passes within about 100 million miles of the black hole, roughly the distance between the Earth and the sun, it is torn into pieces by the tidal forces from the black hole. These fragments would then be vaporized by friction as they pass through the hot, thin gas flowing onto Sgr A*, similar to a meteor heating up and glowing as it falls through Earth's atmosphere. A flare is produced and eventually the remains of the asteroid are swallowed by the black hole. Image Credit: Illustrations: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss
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Monthly Archives: December 2009
Traveling
I spend a fair amount of time traveling on business. During these trips I always have a chance to: a.) Do some people watching b.) Observe how others choose to deal with, what to me are, standard challenges of traveling … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Humor
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Friday Funny
Four Catholic men and a Catholic woman were having coffee. The first Catholic man tells his friends, “My son is a priest, when he walks into a room, everyone calls him ‘Father’.” The second Catholic man chirps, “My son is … Continue reading
Posted in Humor
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Global Warming…
Not buying it. Forget about all of the CLimategate data and the whole “we faked it” finger pointing that is currently going on. Today is December 10, not yet the first official day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and … Continue reading
Posted in Climate
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TR – Resolution
Continuing our TR series of Motivators from the good folks over at The Art of Manliness. As the Marine Corps taught me – Any decision is better than no decision.
Posted in Heroes, History
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Pearl Harbor Day
Dec. 7 — Not much of a post today, in remembrance of this day in 1941. Much has been written today, and throughout the years about the events that took place at Pearl Harbor. It is a day that is … Continue reading
Posted in History
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Iranian Antics
I have commented before, about the rather low key recognition that seems to be given the threat to these United States that is Iran. We have recently seen Specifics about their nuclear weapons development. The ties that have been developed … Continue reading
Posted in GWOT, Iran, Terrorism, Threats
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Geolocation
An interesting read over at “Slight Paranoia”. It seems that over the course of 13 months, law enforcement agencies have generated 8 million geolocation traces from Sprint. What does that mean? Sprint has approximately 50 million subscribers. During the course … Continue reading
Posted in Darkside
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The “Surge”
Life has been intruding lately and I have been absent from meaningful posting. Apologies. Even though it is very near the holidays, and demands on the “spare time” are high, I am working to remedy my absence. We start with … Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy, GWOT, Presidential Politics
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TR – Self Reliance
Continuing our TR series of Motivators from the good folks over at The Art of Manliness.
Posted in Heroes, History
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