This surely has been a fantastic year for discoveries. After all, 2009 is currently celebrated as the International Year of Astronomy. From the findings that the outer crusts of so-called neutron stars are ten billion times stronger than steel and are the strongest known material in the universe; to the discovery that Jupiter’s moon Europa may theoretically be harboring tons of fish-sized life in its oceans; to 32 new planets seen outside our solar system, bringing the massive haul of new worlds to more than 400; to the first proof that modern and ancient Mars hosted liquid water; to the finding that Gliese 581d, the most Earth like planet yet found, may have liquid oceans; to the discovery that the oldest of the subatomic particles called neutrinos might each encompass a space larger than thousands of galaxies; to the finding of water on the Moon, when NASA crashed a two-ton rocket into a permanently shadowed crater on the moon’s south pole in October; to the incredible visual of a green “two-tailed” comet buzzing past Earth on a one-time visit in late February; and the shocking discovery that the Sun’s oddly silent phase might be indicative of the next “small ice age.”

On Sunday, I reported on the path-breaking discovery by the Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) of organic matter on parts of the Moon’s surface picked up the scientific instruments on the Chandrayaan-1 mission indicating signs of life on the lunar surface. Then on Monday, I featured the research of the Australian Starviewer Team who detected a Brown Dwarf interacting with Pluto and the Bombardeando asteroids of Oort against Pluto and Jupiter, on a path that is causing some disturbance to the orbit of Jupiter and the rest of the planets of the Solar System, fitting the description of the Sumerian mythology of the twelfth planet, Nibiru, Planet X. Also, an international team of astronomers accurately measured the distance from Earth to a black hole for the first time. Without needing to rely on mathematical models the astronomers came up with a distance of 7800 light years, much closer than had been assumed until now. The researchers achieved this breakthrough by measuring the radio emissions from the black hole and its associated dying star. Researchers also told on Monday that four newfound planets orbiting two nearby stars add weight to the promise of detecting habitable worlds within the next few years. Two of the extrasolar planets are considered super-Earths, more massive than Earth but less massive than Uranus and Neptune, the presence of which suggests finding a world like ours is just a matter of time.

Yesterday, a seamless mosaic of different images from the Messenger spacecraft, was used to make the first ever global map of planet Mercury marking a new phase in the mission to know the history and features of the Sun’s innermost planet. Today, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is sending back images showing jets of ice particles, water vapor, and trace organic compounds shooting from the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus:

Scientists once thought that life could originate only within a solar system’s “habitable zone,” where a planet would be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on its surface. But according to planetary scientist Francis Nimmo, evidence from recent NASA missions suggests that conditions necessary for life may exist on the icy satellites of Saturn and Jupiter. “If these moons are habitable, it changes the whole thought of the habitable zone,” said Nimmo, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences at UC Santa Cruz. “It changes our thinking about how and where we might find life outside of the solar system.” – PHYSORG.

With NASA’s recent upgraded to the Hubble Space Telescope and the launch of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), on its way to map the entire sky in infrared light, there is no doubt that we are in for quite an adventure of discoveries within our solar system and to far away space objects in other galaxies over the next couple of months.

Twentieth century psychic and medical clairvoyant Edgar Cayce had predicted that many of these discoveries would happen, at a time when they seemed implausible to many in the scientific community during his day. One of his most well loved predictions was that the lost continent of the technological advanced civilization of Atlantis would be learned in the Atlantic Ocean following its disappearance eons ago. Now, according to the Herald de Paris, a previously undiscovered ancient city has been found on the Caribbean sea floor:

Researchers have revealed the first images from the Caribbean sea floor of what they believe are the archaeological remains of an ancient civilization. Guarding the location’s coordinates carefully, the project’s leader, who wishes to remain anonymous at this time, says the city could be thousands of years ancient; possibly even pre-dating the ancient Egyptian pyramids, at Giza. The site was found using advanced satellite imagery, and is not in any way associated with the alleged site found by Russian explorers near Cuba in 2001, at a depth of 2300 feet. “To be seen on satellite, our site is much shallower.” The team is currently seeking funding to mount an expedition to confirm and explore what appears to be a vast underwater city. “You have to be careful working with satellite images in such a location,” the project’s principle researcher said, “The digital matrix sometimes misinterprets its data, and shows ruins as solid masses. The thing is, we’ve found structure – what appears to be a tall, narrow pyramid; large platform structures with small buildings on them; we’ve even found standing parallel post and beam construction in the rubble of what appears to be a fallen building. You can’t have post and beam without human involvement.”

Read the full article HERE.

Although, the researchers discounted the theory that the ancient city was Atlantis, they offered the following:

“The romanticized ideal of Atlantis probably never existed, nor will anyone ever strap on a SCUBA tank, jump in the water, and find a city gateway that says, ‘Welcome to Atlantis.’ But, we do believe that this city may have been one of many cities of an advanced, seafaring, trade-based civilization, which may have been visited by their Eurocentric counterparts.”

Fascinating times, ahead.

UPDATE: Scientist Claim That They Have Found The Lost City Of Atlantis!
Reader Vista pointed me to an article and video from Huffington Post indicating that scientists are really claiming that the discovery of an ancient city on the Caribbean sea floor is really the lost city of Atlantis. Have a look at the following MSNBC video

What do you all reckon?

UPDATE: Nearby Super-Earth May Be A Waterworld
More discoveries. Check this out, courtesy of SPACE.com and Yahoo:

A rocky and water-rich planet, not much heftier than our own, has been learned so close to our solar system that astronomers one day may be able to study its atmosphere. And though astronomers are pretty certain the water exists, they don’t know its state, with speculations ranging from liquid water to water ice and an exotic state called a superfluid. The extrasolar planet, now named GJ 1214b, is about 40 light-years away. It orbits a red dwarf star. It is the only known “Super-Earth” exoplanet — worlds that have masses between Earth and Neptune — with a confirmed atmosphere.

“Astronomically speaking, this [planet] is on our block,” meaning it’s in our cosmic neighborhood, said study leader David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Mass. “For perspective, our own TV signals have already passed beyond the distance of this star.” The planet is about three times the size of Earth and about 6.5 times as massive. It is the second smallest planet learned outside of our solar system to date, trailing behind only CoRoT-7b, which is 1.7 times Earth’s size and about five times as massive. GJ 1214b is rare among known rocky exoplanets because it partially eclipses, or transits, its star as seen from Earth. This fortunate alignment allows astronomers to calculate the size and density of the planet, and Charbonneau’s team thinks GJ 1214b is likely a water world with a solid center. Moreover, the planet has a thick surrounding atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Normally, a planet located at that distance from this particular type of star would be so hot that any water on its surface would be in a vapor form. But scientists reckon the thick atmosphere of GJ 1214b makes a high pressure environment that keeps water on the surface in a liquid state. – Yahoo.

Incredible, huh? Getting more and more fascinating by the minute.

Read more at Original news Source

Popularity: 4%