All those fascinating threads building interest pre-Eclipse. Discussing everything under the sun and beyond. Nostradamus, Millennium Group, NASA scientist bolts to cave, myths, legends, writings from various cultures about prophesies, aliens, other planets.

Then after the Eclipse, huge earthquakes along its path, still continuing.

And now this:

[ Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only ]

11/13/99 -- 7:35 PM Breaking News

Scientists: Eclipse proves existence of planet light years away

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - A startling image of a planet passing in front of a bright star has confirmed what scientists before only could deduce with math - there are planets beyond our solar system.

``This is the first independent confirmation of a planet,'' said Geoffrey Marcy, a professor of astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley. ``It also gives us the first-ever measure of the size of one of these planets.''

Marcy's planet-hunting team had gathered mathematical evidence of 19 planets but could only infer their existence by measuring the wobble of nearby stars caused by the planets' gravity as they orbit.

That changed last week.

Marcy and his colleagues first detected a wobble in the star HD 209458, in the constellation Pegasus, on Nov. 5 from the Keck Telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea.

The team notified astronomer Greg Henry of Tennessee State University, who operates a cluster of remote-controlled telescopes in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona.

Henry focused one automatic telescope on the star, and observed it dimming visibly as the planet crossed in front of it - just as Marcy's scientists had predicted.

The star's radiance dimmed 1.7 percent on Nov. 7. On Thursday, it happened again, seemingly verifying the scientists' calculations that the planet orbits its star every 3.523 days. Henry is predicting the same dimming next Thursday and again Nov. 22.

``We've essentially seen the shadow of the planet,'' Henry said.

Marcy's team determined the planet to be a ``gas giant,'' similar to Jupiter, but its mass is just 63 percent of Jupiter's while it is 60 percent wider.

A gas giant could not have formed so close to a star, Henry said, which supports the theory that ``extra-solar planets very near their star did not form where they are, but formed farther out and migrated inward.''

The star HD 209458 lies 153 light-years from Earth - almost a million billion miles. It is near the star 51 Pegasi, around which the first extra-solar planet was discovered in 1995.

``With this one, everything hangs together,'' Marcy said. ``This is what we've been waiting for.''
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Interesting times! Patience, things do peek from behind the woodwork. And the scope of Y2K will be known AFTER the Rollover. Of course Rollover itself may be dynamic too ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 13, 1999

Answers

Maybe their inhabitants will come with the Silver Bullet on New Year's Eve.

-- riding on a star (programmers@beam.up), November 13, 1999.

Is this off topic, or am I suppose to stock up on these for Y2k?

-- Psychotic (y2k@doom&gloom.com), November 13, 1999.

What it does is show, even if an actual event is "anti-climatical," there may be very interesting results even if they are not immediately discernible. Patience, patience, these are fascinating times.

Also, had to follow-up on those cool threads!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 13, 1999.

A&L

Thanks for the post, not sure about then connection to Nostradamus but the existance of planets is important in cosmology and astronomy. There is a PBS show that is great about the search for planets around other stars. Exciting really :o)

-- Brian (imager@home.com), November 13, 1999.

Glad to know that we need preps when it comes to new planets being discovered? Would a local cave be fine for the fallout shelter?

-- Prepper (thanks@fortheheadsup.com), November 13, 1999.

Glad to know that we need preps when it comes to new planets being discovered. Would a local cave be fine for the fallout shelter?

-- Prepper (thanks@fortheheadsup.com), November 13, 1999.

Hey kids -

Great to hear from you! It is nice to realize that all of our knowledge and advancements are still just a glimmerless spot of the whole. We should take heart in the fact that our resilience and fortitude will survive the coming debacle, but remain humble in the face of unknown wisdoms, circumstances, and plans made before the dawn of our age.

Since we missed the fireworks of the 4th, and missed meeting again last month, how about making a date to view the Leonoids together. Let's invite any other GI's in the area to join us, if you like.

Got florescents for you!!

Michael

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), November 13, 1999.

We'd survive the coming debacle better if you would buy yourself some Old Spice--WIHTIN THIS MILLENIUM!

-- Any less would (be@uncivilized.pu), November 14, 1999.