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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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Category Archives: Energy
Energy Solutions at the “Board”
I thought that I was likely done with my energy ranting for the day. However, I have to share this one with you. The solution is not as easy as the comic portrays but it is funny anyway.
Posted in Energy, Humor
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Energy Debates
Now admittedly this report does not address the problems in our approach to policy, and I wish we would get off this partisan finger pointing and move the country forward. It is an election year so I would expect that … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Politics, Presidential Politics
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The Politics of Energy
Growing up and learning to drive during the 70′s I think I can safely say that I have been paying attention to the energy situation for quite some time now. A couple of things that have really struck me over … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Politics
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Did You Know…
Oil shale… this is something that has been talked about and around since I first started looking into energy when I was a Boy Scout back in the early ’70s. One of my first merit badges was for nuclear energy. … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Foriegn Policy, Politics, Uncategorized
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Did you know…
Did you know that, the United States has vast oil and gas resources onshore and offshore that are currently illegal to develop and therefore inaccessible. U.S. law prohibits the development of approximately 38 billion barrels of undeveloped oil resources (19 … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Politics
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Energy Costs
Over at Flopping Aces, the team has a nice summary of the current energy (Gasoline) situation. I cannot find fault with any of their points. If this country had taken action at any point in the last 8-10 years we … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Politics
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Oil Sources
It seems that some folks have gotten an effort started to try and wake up the congress critters in DC. I hope that it will do some good but, even if they got off their tails and opened up areas … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Politics
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Global Warming or CGI?
It seems that there was been a lot of discussion about global warming, fact or fiction. I won’t pretend to have all the data for an intelligent discussion here. I would encourage you to get out there and look at … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Energy
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Corn – Food or Fuel?
Ed Morrisey published a piece on Ethanol earlier today. It was interesting to me that I was having a very similar conversation with one of my fellow Kyuki-do practitioners the other night. I think Ed made some outstanding points throughout … Continue reading
Posted in Energy, Society
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