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July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into the planet Jupiter. It was in March 1993, that astronomers discovered the strange celestial fairy made up of 24 aligned fragments traveling close to the biggest planet of our solar system. For over 15 months the scientific world observed the fragments, calculated with precision their collisions, and tried to imagine the effects and consequences of this encounter.
Scientists, having spent months dissecting all this information, haven't yet
found explanations or models complete enough to include all the data.
This step forward kicked the door open in the
United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and then in China to
the development of the nuclear fission weapon, as well as the installation
of its "big sister" of fusion: the H-bomb, known as thermonuclear. In the
Sixties, while our world hadn't yet understood or even discovered the
climactic phenomenon "nuclear winter" that would inexorably decimate the
survivors of an atomic conflict and put an end to our earthly civilization,
military laboratories were preparing the next step in great secrecy.
A certain number of physical parameters had to be pushed further in order to exceed the fantastic pressure of one hundred million atmospheres to reach the threshold where the balance of matter is broken, a threshold where some of its characteristics inverse: this is antimatter. In order to obtain this fateful pressure, a sophisticated technology is necessary; the gigantic lasers at that time, even those of x-rays, weren't yet powerful enough. It was in reworking certain ideas of Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet Nobel Prize winner, that the first successes took place.
During the Fifties, Sakharov, known as the father of the Soviet H-bomb (before he became a militant for peace), perfected an electromagnetic cannon system which, in compressing a solenoid with the help of an explosive, enabled him to obtain a magnetic pressure of twenty-five million atmospheres, that which transformed a mini-charge of aluminum into plasma and ejected it at dizzying speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second. This system was therefore improved; the standard solenoid was replaced by a solenoid supraconductor, and the conventional explosive, by a small atomic charge, facilitating the attainment of the necessary pressure threshold.
The target, instantly transformed into plasma,
is ejected into a chimney where the particles of antimatter thus obtained,
are sorted electromagnetically and gathered into a "magnetic bottle."
LAURENCE LIVERMORE, SANDIA, LOS ALAMOS, NEVADA are among the many places
which participated in this epic, each in its own way, sometimes under the
cover of the experimental program: Centurion-Halite, the official program of
research on the mastery of the fusion of hydrogen, but which also served as
a cover when the experiments employed atomic explosives.
The realization of this project
necessitated, therefore, a regrouping of a certain number of material
elements, and the adoption of an ingenious and rigorous dissimulation
strategy, both by technological contributions as well as by the preparation
and manipulation of opinion. Let us look at some of these means.
August 16, 1984, the 175th Delta rocket, carrier of the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorer (AMPTE) program, was launched from Cape Canaveral. The mission consisted of 3 small satellites which, over the course of one year, were first meant to release several "clouds" of barium and lithium at different points in intra and extra-magnetospheric space, and then to observe the evolution of the element tracer ions in order to study the interactions of solar wind with our magnetosphere. The material realization of this experiment was the result of the collaboration of several laboratories situated in three different countries (U.S.A., Federal Republic of Germany, United Kingdom of Britain).
The research goal of some
was to study for an improved understanding of the earth's environment; the unconfessed goal of others was to experiment in real conditions the
creation
of cometary phenomenon in order to observe its evolution over time as well
as in diverse spatial conditions. Under the action of the sun's rays, the
barium and lithium are rapidly ionized and have the characteristic of
becoming fluorescent, creating, therefore, an artificial comet. The AMPTE
program was one of the stages of preparation for the "Jupiter Project,"
one
of the steps towards the perfection of the camouflage system by a cloud of
particles of an alloy of barium-lithium.
"Then I came across this very strange-looking object. I thought it had to be a comet, but it was the strangest comet I had ever seen, (see below enclosed report)" (2) said Carolyn Shoemaker, recounting the night of March 24, 1993, at the Mont Palomar Observatory (California), where she was the first to observe the phenomenon which afterward would be called: the "periodic comet Shoemaker-Levy 9" or said more simply, "SL9."
Carolyn Shoemaker was no doubt far from imagining that she had just discovered the luminous barium-lithium clouds, those which were generated by the module-bombs.
The size of their clouds were adapted to the presumed force of the corresponding bomb. In certain cases the modules were grouped by two's and were able either to separate one from the other ("fragments" P and Q) or stay close together ("fragments" G and K), the latter which provoked explosions spaced apart by a few minutes where the phases were overlapping, the forces and epicenters slightly different in longitude, latitude or altitude.
THE POSITION OF THE IMPACT SITES
The "SL9" modules were placed on a very eccentric jovian orbit over a 2-year period. This orbit, an oval shape stretched to the extreme, has the following characteristics: at one of its extremities (periastre), it passes at a distance from the mass center of Jupiter which is less than the radius of the planet itself, hence, it faces an unavoidable collision; at the other extremity (apoastre), it brushes the limit of the gravitational attraction zone of Jupiter. If "SL9" had had a slightly faster speed, it would have left Jupiter's influence and continued its route on a solar orbit. In observing this trajectory, we rapidly notice that there is no better choice of orbital plan if one wishes to spend time far from Jupiter to have the greatest chance to be spotted and then to come back and strike the planet.
As far as the other parameters go, parameters
which conditioned the impact sites, they were calculated so that the
collisions took place on the back side of the planet, invisible from Earth.
This was an indispensable precaution, as these explosions look exactly like
nuclear explosions with powerful emissions of electromagnetic rays,
primarily gamma rays, which would have fatally given away their questionable
nature. However, even though no observer on Earth could directly see the
events, moving in the obscurity of cold space at more than 11 kilometers per
second, an eye was observing.
It was in 1973, the period just after the glorious Apollo missions that the Galileo project was born, even though it didn't take its real first breath until 1977. This program of advanced exploration of Jupiter and its environment, experienced a certain number of difficulties and several launch delays.
Curiously, while the impacts of "SL9" were on the hidden side of Jupiter, slightly beyond the planet's limb, Galileo was at that moment in direct view of the event. Was it just by chance, or by judicious programming that Galileo was the only ocular testimony, looking innocently like a simple and fortunate coincidence? This spacecraft, loaded with cameras and multiple sophisticated detectors, was confronted right from the start with several technical problems: the large antenna, the registering tape, the probe parachute, etc. It is important to discern between the real technical problems and the strategic breakdowns which would offer an excellent pretext to occult a part of the information:=0B- delay of 50 seconds in the opening of the atmospheric probe's parachute which would mask the composition of the first kilometers of the jovien atmosphere, just at the altitude where the explosions seemed to have taken place.
As for the rest of the jovian mission, the possibility that the collected
information be seriously skimmed and filtered before it was divulged, is
more than just a simple hypothesis. Many scientists were astonished by
certain gaps in information on the "SL9" observations. It is quite troubling
that Galileo only filmed the relatively modest effects of the
"SL9" impacts, when the astronomers based on Earth, even though they were five times
farther away and not as well-placed, observed the grandiose effects which at
times saturated the detectors.
THE SPACEGUARD PROJECT
Fortunately, the opinion of certain scientists
was voiced in order to relativize the dangers, that is, the minor
probability of a collision with the earth versus the major risk of the
manipulation and the deployment of such weapons (either known or secret).
One must note the particular way the presentation of the project was
inscribed into a bigger scenario. The program, not being accepted the first
time around, witnessed a revival of interest as the "collisions of SL9" hit
the scene to incite new fears, permitting, therefore, its reconsideration,
this time much more favorable.
The observation of a certain number of cosmic events prove that the answer is no. There is a specific category of comets which have the distinctive feature of grazing or even striking the sun.
This "Kreutz Group," as it is called, is made up of over 30 observations, the oldest dating from the year 371 B.C. What is interesting is that more than half of this group is composed of a wave of 16 mini-comets carrying the names of "SOLWIND" and "SMM," the two artificial satellites which observed them from a terrestrial orbit. This curious wave which took place from 1979 to 1989, is not without a strange similarity to "SL9," as all of them disintegrated in an explosive manner. The two military satellites were there, supposedly, to study the sun and its magnetic storms; in reality, their more specific role was to observe the performance of these 16 experimental projectiles in their final phase.
The Kreutz Group comets which were spotted before had, for the most part, orbits inclined approximately 144 degrees. Therefore to insure the camouflage of these 16 bombs, it was necessary to have them approach the sun following the same incline. The 16 projectiles were not surrounded by a luminous halo of barium-lithium as was "SL9"; thus, they were not visible in advance.
It was only in their final phase of approach to the sun while they were plunging under the effect of the powerful solar gravity at speeds of 300 to 400 kilometers per second (or more than a million kilometers per hour), leaving behind them a luminous trail due to the heating up of the thermic shield, that they were able to be recorded by telescope-coronographs of the U.S. Military satellites.
The strong luminosity of the solar disk obviously
didn't permit a direct observation of the explosions; only the illumination
of the solar corona was observable by the coronographs during several hours
after the impacts.
This indeed would require an acceleration of over 50 kilometers per
second, that is, much more than it took to send the spacecraft Galileo
towards Jupiter. Galileo, weighing only 2200 Kg, couldn't benefit from a
launcher adequate enough to provide the minimum acceleration necessary to
leave directly towards its objective (6400 meters per second was needed,
starting from the terrestrial orbit), and thus was restricted to take a
long, complex route.
This limit restricts, therefore, the loading of enormous quantities of fuel
used to augment the capacity of the launcher (2000 tons at liftoff for the Space Shuttle and close to 3000 tons for the Saturn V rocket); hence, a
certain amount of research is done on other types of propulsors with
heightened ejection speeds. These new propulsors allow for the diminution of
fuel masses, and at the same time offer an augmentation in payload and
performance.
During the Seventies, in the laboratories of Sandia (New Mexico), a new type of propulsor was perfected which, right from the first utilizations in space, accelerated ionized gas electromagnetically at close to 100 kilometers per second, indeed, a jump by a factor of 20 in comparison with performances of the best chemical combustion engines. In the standard technique, the propergol ensure both the supply of ejected material in the form of residual gas from the combustion, and the stock of energy in the form of an exothermic chemical reaction (combustion), which accelerates the gases. The new technology is, of course, very different and much more complex.
The material ejected, an isotope of silicon, doesn't undergo chemical modifications, rather, it is simply accelerated by powerful magnetic fields after having been vaporized and ionized. The source of energy of these propulsors is antimatter, itself which, by an astute autoregulatory system, produces the electricity necessary for the propulsion as well as for its proper confinement. Admittedly our study does not have the means to reveal the details of this top-secret knowledge.
All the same, it could be
interesting to reflect on it, namely in remembering that the interaction of
the gamma rays with a material produces powerful electromagnetic effects (effect EMP). That all this was thought up incognito and realized in an
ultra-light system - a compact system perfectly adapted to spatial
navigation - may seem incredible. Certain readers will be tempted to say
impossible. However, the wisdom of science doesn't ask us to believe in the
existence of things, not more than it obliges us to believe in their
non-existence. It pushes us to study, to verify; it urges us to open our
eyes.
There was one additional mission that had the same target: the
second test flight of Columbia, November 12, 1981. It is true that it
wouldn't have been "clean" to put a military mission right at the start of
the Shuttle program; it was much easier, therefore, to place it discreetly
into one of the four test flights. The November 12th mission of Columbia
holds the record for the heaviest take-off weight of all the unclassified
shuttle launches, hence, it was necessary to conciliate its covered-up
objective with the material needed for the announced objective, that is to
test fly the Space Shuttle.
Nevertheless, there is a common element in the chosen trajectories: a
passage by the outskirts of the planet Mercury. Of course it was not a
direct meeting which would have been too visible for certain observers, but
rather a deferred encounter, a bit like the spacecraft Magellan, launched in
1989, which reached Venus after a journey of 15 months and one and a half
orbits around the sun. It is interesting in this optic to observe the
reciprocal positions of Earth and Mercury at the time of each mission:
November 12, 1981 and January 24, 1985, on the one hand, as well as October
3, 1985 and December 2, 1988, on the other.
Each Shuttle carried in its payload bay a long cylindrical cargo spacecraft equipped with a large propulsor in the back. Since the first launches towards the sun, 10 years had passed, and the technology had greatly miniaturized, allowing for a greater number of bombs to be carried at each mission. The 6 cargo vessels didn't all have the same size: 4 of the vessels contained 3 module-bombs each; the 2 others, being much larger held 6.
This means there were a total
of 24 bombs. The smaller vessels were conceived to ensure that if problems
occurred with the Shuttle fleet, the vessel could be launched by the TITAN
IV. Each cargo vessel individually took the route to Jupiter, following a
trajectory adapted according to the position of the earth at the moment of
the launch and the time it had to reach its destination.
It must be made clear that this space convoy never passed in proximity to Jupiter in July 1992, but rather around March 1, 1993, it directly joined a point in this jovian orbit very close to where it was discovered. Thus, the last cargo vessel which left Earth November 24, 1991, made the trip to Jupiter in hardly more than 15 months. At the departure from the earth's orbit, it had to create an additional acceleration of about 8400 meters per second, then in arriving at its objective it needed to accelerate again (actually a breaking) this time around 15,000 meters per second.
If we want to compare the performances of
the two types of space propulsion, we must note that in 1979, one of the
space probes "Voyager" realized the trip Earth-Jupiter in almost the same
time (18 months), but only the first acceleration at the departure was
necessary. For in passing the neighborhood of Jupiter, the spacecraft
maintained its speed in order to continue its route towards Saturn. What's
more, Voyager was actually a feather (800 kg) next to the cargo vessels of
"SL9" which weighed 15 to 30 tons.
At the entry into the jovien atmosphere, it was, therefore, the core of ionized particles which collided with the molecules of the outer layer of the planet's atmosphere and provoked the first luminosity which in certain cases was observable from Earth, above the limb, above the horizon of Jupiter. (click image right to enlarge and watch Video)
These 24 modules, even though globally conceived around the same principle, differed in size, explosive power and technology. It was the module/"fragment" K which evoked the strongest interaction with the planet's magnetosphere, creating powerful particle accelerations of ions and electrons, found there. These particles which traveled rapidly along the lines of the jovian magnetic field, produced x-ray emissions in Jupiter's atmosphere even before the impact.
We remember that in December 1995, Galileo's probe plunged into the jovian atmosphere with a relative speed nearly equal to that of "SL9" (50 kilometers per second, Galileo; 60 kilometers per second, "SL9").
The probe
was equipped with a highly efficient thermic shield made to resist the
intense heat provoked by its entry into the atmosphere; the "SL9" modules
didn't use this sort of thermic shield. It would be very interesting if the
promoters of this operation explained the technology that was used at this
precise moment of the mission, given the fundamental importance of this
knowledge. When this information is in better hands at the service of nobler
objectives, Man's voice from the moon can once again proclaim: "One giant
leap for mankind."
Even at the time, certain clues should have inspired doubts: the "race to the Moon" was in fact completely inscribed in a political challenge, the West against the East, capitalism versus communism. The flag planted in the lunar soil was not a global symbol or even the emblem of the United Nations. The Stars and Stripes represented a U.S. political victory. But why talk about the conquest of the Moon? What
does it have to do with the story of "SL9"? Well, looking closely we find an interesting parallel:
By this very particular manner of celebrating the 25th anniversary of Apollo
XI, the American military-spatial lobby shows us its real objectives when it
comes to the mastery and the utilization of space.
For it is important to understand that contrary to the nuclear bomb that only explodes when one activates the firing system, antimatter, once created, MUST BE CONFINED ACTIVELY AND PERMANENTLY by magnetic fields in order to keep it from entering into contact with matter in which case it explodes. One must also know that each one of the bombs fabricated, possesses a force equal and often superior to the entire world-wide nuclear power!
What would happen if an incident occurred during a manipulation over the Western American states or if a Space Shuttle or another bomb-carrying rocket had an accident? Right from the beginning minutes, all life on the North American continent would be annihilated by an enormous fireball that would cover several thousands of kilometers. Then would come the shock wave, the intense heat and the electromagnetic waves that would continue their devastating effects over a much vaster area. Finally the phenomenon "nuclear winter" would spread rapidly over the totality of the planet, and Earth would lose herself in an almost total obscurity and a glacial cold.
One can read in diverse literature and even in the Bible, of dark prophecies
of an apocalypse for a period which highly resembles ours. Yet nothing is
ineluctable. But are we willing to see; are we willing to accept our
responsibilities; will we have the courage to say NO to destructive
insanity?
It is also necessary that there be a way to observe the
explosions, that is, to have an on-site observer. At the moment it is the
satellites of Jupiter which correspond to these conditions, with the
spacecraft Galileo which is in place for a close observation. What's more,
if we put this deduction next to the curious breakdown of Galileo's recorder
when it passed Io and Europa in December 1995 - a breakdown which officially
deprived us of close-up images of these two satellites, images which perhaps
wouldn't be judicious if we compared them with other images in the
future - one could reasonably be frightened for one or the other of the jovian satellites.
PHOTO GALLERY
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