COSMIC SMOG 'KEY TO LIFE IN MILKY WAY'

Cosmic smog may have seeded life not only on our planet, but in countless
other solar systems throughout the Galaxy. According the New Scientist
Print Edition other solar systems will have the same mix of organic
ingredients as ours. That is the implication of a new study of meteorites,
which reveals that important complex organic molecules survived the
formation of our Solar System and were brought to Earth on these rocks. It
suggests ours and any other solar systems would have been dusted with this
mix of organic ingredients very early on, giving life a head start that
could make it common elsewhere. "It makes us more sanguine about finding
other habitable planets," says Max Bernstein of NASA's Ames Research Center.
Organic molecules in the meteorites might have helped the earliest organisms
capture energy. The molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs), are common in interstellar space, and many believe they were among
the raw materials for life. But until now no one knew if the PAHs in
meteorites are ones that survived the birth of our Solar System, or if they
formed from scratch only later.

Cosmic Dust -- PAHs are a family of compounds composed of two or more linked
benzene rings that share carbon atoms. The simplest, naphthalene, is used
to make mothballs. Others, many of them carcinogenic, are components of
smog and smoke from burning fuels or tobacco. PAHs are the most abundant
form of carbon known in the Universe. They also make up well over half of
the organic compounds in the most common type of meteorites, called
carbonaceous chondrites, which have rained down on the Earth along with
other cosmic dust ever since the planet formed. These meteorites contain
samples of the material from which the Solar System formed 4.6 billion years
ago. Chemist Richard Zare of Stanford University fired a sensitive laser
probe at fresh slices from two different meteorites and analyzed the organic
compounds released from the carbon grains in the meteorite, looking in
particular at the ratio of heavier PAHs to naphthalene. Zare reports to the
American Chemical Society that the ratio was surprisingly uniform throughout
the meteorite that means the molecules have not been altered since the rock
formed, he says. "We're getting a chemical snapshot of the smoggy Universe
before the Solar System formed," he says. Although PAHs themselves aren't
found in living cells, they are easily converted into other molecules that
are essential for life such as amino acids. Recent findings indicate that
bugs could travel in comfort aboard meteorites and that live bacteria are
cultured from a meteorite. Thanks to Jeff Hecht and NASA.

Editor's Note: This indicates that organic ingredients have spread across
the Galaxy aboard a fleet of meteorites seeding the estimated 100 million
Earths in our Galaxy. Assuming a civilization on one of these Earth like
planets was a hundred thousand years ahead of us they would have by now
colonized the entire Galaxy. We should be looking for evidence that this
civilization has established bases on our moon, on Mars and even Earth. The
UFOs in our skies may indicate that space travelers stop for food, water and
entertainment at our oasis in space.

WARNING, NASA FINDS RAPID CHANGES IN EARTH'S POLAR ICE

JPL reports recent NASA airborne measurements and a new review of
space-based measurements of the thickness of Earth's polar ice sheets
concludes they are melting much more rapidly than previously believed, with
unknown consequences for global sea levels and Earth's climate. Large
sectors of ice in southeast Greenland, the Amundsen Sea Embayment in the
Antarctic are melting rapidly by processes not yet well understood, said
researchers Dr. Eric Rignot and Dr. Robert Thomas. Their study, published
this week in the journal Science, "Earth's polar ice sheets are changing
over relatively short time scales, that is, decades versus thousands of
years. Rapid changes are common and the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets
together hold enough ice to raise sea level by 70 meters (230 feet)," he
said. "Even a small imbalance between snowfall and discharge of ice and
melt water from ice sheets into the ocean could be a major contributor to
the current sea level rise rate of 1.8 millimeters (0.07 inches) a year and
impact ocean circulation and climate. The review reports Greenland's ice
sheet is losing 50 cubic kilometers (12 cubic miles) of mass a year due to
rapid thinning near its coasts. That's enough to raise sea level 0.13
millimeters (0.005 inches) annually. "Rapid coastal thinning cannot be
explained by a few warm summers and is attributed to a dynamic ice sheet
response," Rignot said. Thanks to NASA
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/antarctica

KILLER ASTEROIDS

The military is set up to spot and catalog near Earth objects (NEOs) in
space and should keep track of them as a service to humankind, says Air
Force Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden, deputy director of operations at U.S.
Space Command. That's because the same equipment that watches space for
terrestrial threats like missiles could cover extraterrestrial bogies at
relatively small extra cost. Worden concedes there is a high "giggle
factor" in the idea, but cautions the U.S. Aerospace Commission that the
problem isn't limited to extinction-level events. An asteroid as small as
100 meters in diameter could release enough energy to devastate a wide area
below even if it never hits the surface, while a sea strike could inundate
coastal areas. Satellites are vulnerable to fast-moving objects as small as
the dust particles left over from comets, and a bright meteor could spoof
missile warning sensors with gave consequences in a tense international
crisis." He could just as well be talking about UFOs. We have tried
several times to get the attention of agencies like NORAD about using the
data that the systems have been taking for years even though the data isn't
related to the primary mission. Thanks to John Schuessler

Editor's Note - Uncorrelated targets coming into and leaving the atmosphere
are picked up several times a week. Correlated targets are various types of
space junk tracked and kept in Air Force computers while uncorrelated
targets are unknowns.

MASSACHUSETTS DAYLIGHT CIGAR OVER LOGAN AIRPORT

BOSTON -- The witness observed a silver cigar shaped object moving across
the sky on August 21, 2002, at 2:30 PM. He states, "This object was flying
very high in the sky close to Logan Airport and. moving very fast from left
to right. This movement went on for about one minute then the object
vanished." Thanks to Peter Davenport NUFORC http.www.ufocenter.com.

NEW YORK SMALL DISK NEAR WESTCHESTER AIRPORT

WHITE PLAINS -- Two witnesses report seeing a small disk, "My twelve-year
old daughter and I were heading home from a visit on August 21, 2002, and I
turned left out of the Westchester County Airport entrance at 2:30 PM onto
120A South, and I saw something on my left, quickly approaching my car. My
daughter saw it too. It looked like a small disk, no more than 12 inches or
so in diameter, and it was rapidly spinning vertically and moving towards
us. It was dark brown with a metallic quality, and as it passed the car it
made a strange sound. Not a buzz, or a motor-like sound. More of an
electronic sound that changed pitch as it approached my car, then hovered
for a second just at the left side of my windshield, very close to the
driver's side window, and then quickly disappeared. We both saw and heard
the exact same thing. It lasted only a few short seconds, but it remains
very clear in both of our minds. We didn't actually see it "disappear"; it
just flew quickly away and wasn't in sight anymore. Thanks to Peter
Davenport NUFORC http//www.ufocenter.com/

NEW JERSEY EGG SHAPED CRAFT

PLAINFIELD -- Mike K. a chemical engineer phoned to tell me that he had
spotted a spheroid or fat football with rounded ends flying over on the
evening of August 28, 2002. The object was twenty-five feet in diameter and
moving very slow at about twice the height of the trees The UFO flew with
the longer part flying vertically. The object was 35 to 45 feet tall and
appeared illuminated from the inside. It had a red strobe on the bottom.
It was flying far below jets approaching Newark Airport and was moving from
east to west at an estimated ten miles an hour above Plainfield Avenue.
There were no appendages visible like would be on a dirigible or balloon.
The midpoint of craft seemed to a rotate and numerous green and red lights
could be seen. The witness was very sincere and sure that it was not a
standard craft of any type and felt this was nothing from Earth. A similar
object was seen in Quebec the same evening. Thanks to Mike K.

VIRGINIA SEMI-CIRCLE UFO

MIDLAND -- On August 13, 2002, at 11:30 PM the witness and her boyfriend
were walking when he saw a huge bright light. The witness reports seeing a
semi-circled shaped object with six or seven lights that shined down onto
the tree tops moving very rapidly through the sky. We stood there and
stared at it for about 15 seconds but heard no sound. It was moving very
rapidly east and never changed direction. The trees are about 60 feet high
and the object was about 20 feet above that. The object was the size of a
football field. As it was going east it was moving towards the back of his
house and was hard to see, and in a matter of seconds it was gone. They
promised to make illustrations of their sighting." Thanks to Peter
Davenport NUFORC