Bill and others,
There could be a much less expensive way to detect
incoming space bodies than radar.
BTW, I found JPL/NASA’s Asteroid Radar Research.
http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/
http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroids/index.html
I wonder if any of you know about ELFRAD.
http://elfradgroup.com/
This group was active from about 1999 to 2002 I think.
They built an extremely low frequency radio receiver.
Low f limit = 0.01 Hertz. The signals that would
interest us are the frequency, which implies a
wavelength, and the Doppler shift, which would yield
a closing speed.
They were looking for earthquake precursor signals
from inside the Earth. But in August 1999 there was
a side effect that puzzled everybody and caught my
interest.
My ‘crackpot’ theory is that every star, planet,
comet and asteroid has an electric charge. If so,
there should be a standing electromagnetic wave
between the Earth and the Moon (nobody looked for
that signal) and between the Earth any nearby
asteroid or comet.
If the charges have the same sign, the distance
between them should be a full wavelength. If the
charges have opposite signs, the distance should
be a half wavelength.
Maximum λ = c/f_min = 300,000/0.01 = 30 million km.
Max range = 0.20 AU = 78 Moon distances (full wave).
Max range = 0.10 AU = 39 Moon distances (half wave).
My ‘theory’ should be easy to falsify because it
predicts a persistent signal corresponding to the
instantaneous Moon distance.
Using 60Re = 382,700 km as the average Moon distance,
the full-wave frequency (same signs) would be
f = c/λ = 300,000/382,700 = 0.784 Hz.
This frequency would have to be inversely
proportional to the actual Earth-Moon distance on an
instantaneous basis to confirm my theory. Otherwise
my theory is refuted.
I sent the owner, Charlie Plyer, an e-mail last
February 3, and he never replied. But the e-mail
did not bounce either. I cited the late Kent
Steadman's conversation with him in August 1999,
and he may want to distance himself from Steadman.
http://cyberspaceorbit.com/CBJD/elfrad/incomin3.html
Kent was a UFO guy, so you can imagine that Charlie
might want to distance himself from UFOs. Still, an
unrecognized comet that manages to hide from the
observations of comet hunters would meet the
definition of a UFO.
What comet? My other ‘crackpot’ theory is that the
small comet-like image 1 arcminute under the
eclipsed Sun’s limb at about 175° CW from North
in this photo taken by the Exploratorium at Amasya,
Turkey on August 11, 1999 at 11:28:48 UT is an
actual small comet located on that line of sight
at a range of a few Moon distances from the Earth.
http://tinyurl.com/eclipse-08-11-99-shows-comet
Evidence to support this theory is given
unwittingly by Charlie Plyer when he said:
“For some unknown reason to us as of yet,
the signal was the strongest when the moon
was beginning to eclipse the sun and grew
weaker as the sun reappeared from behind
the moon.”
http://tinyurl.com/email-Plyer-to-Steadman
My theory would suggest that the signal dropped
in magnitude when the Moon moved in front of the
comet, thereby eclipsing it’s signal.
Charlie posted other frequency observations at
earlier times. I have not read all of his material,
but if someone else (not me) would contact him,
we might get an observation arc of sorts.
The eclipse photo is a plausible and a precise
observation, and I am aware of two other actual
optical observations of a speculative nature.
The speculation is in relating them to this
hypothetical comet. Believe me, they will seem
to be a real stretch. Eyes will roll when I
describe them.
One is an unconfirmed visual observation in a small
telescope 3.5 days after the eclipse. The timing
could have an error of a couple of minutes, since
the observer just glanced at his watch and recalled
the number from memory later. But the celestial
coordinates of the path is very precise over a
5-minute span of time because of an extraordinary
celestial reference.
The other observation took place on April 6, 2000
with a double star as a coordinate reference, and
the timing is precise. The observation was taken
with a CCD camera, but that 13-year old image is
now lost. I confirmed it with the astronomer who
took it. He was imaging an asteroid occultation
at the time, and he observed an unexpected
nebulosity nearby. He remarked on the nebulosity
at the time, but he did not save the image. Too
bad. That nebulosity appeared to be static then,
but it is certainly gone now.
My plan is to attempt to create an ephemeris using
these three optical observations. Then I would
plot the range and the radial velocity of this
object over the days leading up to the eclipse to
see if they agree with Charlie Plyer’s observations.
I think Charlie is an engineer attempting to do
science and get some respect from scientists.
But his project withered because of a lack of
financial support. And that might be because it
was too ambitious.
An open letter from Charlie Plyer asking for help
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi/noframes/read/123934
was published in May, 2008. Since ELFRAD's website
shows no activity past 2007, I guess his letter did
not produce the response that he was seeking.
http://www.elfradgroup.com/infof.htm
http://www.elfradgroup.com/Quake/solar.htm
If I could talk to Charlie, I would try to tell him
that detection of incoming Near Earth Objects may
be at least if not more important that predicting
earthquakes, and it would require just a few
monitoring stations, not a global network.
But maybe I should work out my ephemeris and see
if its range and radial velocity matches Charlie’s
observations before anybody gives too much
credence to either him or me.
-Glen
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