Jukia, STARDUST is the latest development in Walt's predictions...
Jukia, STARDUST is the latest development in Walt's predictions...
A NASA Fellow asked Dr. Walt Brown to make predictions of what their STARDUST mission would discover. The following emails tell the story of Dr. Brown’s predictions, and that the initial findings about the comet dust collected by STARDUST are inconsistent with BB/evolutionary/atheistic expectations, but consistent with Walt’s Hydroplate theory on the origin of the comets.
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Hi Walt,
I was wondering if you have any predations before STARDUST lands on Sunday. I will be flying to Houston on Tuesday to [*****]. I would love to have your comments with me.
See the attachment to see what I’m up to.
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PREDICTIONS E-MAIL FROM DR. BROWN TO NASA FELLOW, PER HER REQUEST
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 3:52 PM
Subject: Stardust Predictions
****,
I am attaching the current version of the comet chapter, as it would appear if the 8th edition were printed today. (It will be printed in two years.) I know you read several drafts of that chapter seven years ago, but there have been many new discoveries, such as the results of Deep Impact mission that I describe on page 222. Reading the whole chapter will be the best way to understand what should be discovered by the Stardust mission and future missions. This chapter is at our web site (
www.creationscience.com); the comet chapter begins at
www.creationscience.com/Comets.html.
I will try to summarize (a) what I think should be found and (b) what evolutionists think should not be found.
1. The dust particles will be mostly crystalline and mostly silicates. Silicates contain silicon, oxygen, at least one metal, and perhaps hydrogen. Silicates comprise about a third of all minerals on Earth. About 95% of the Earth's crust consists of silicates. Of that 95%, about 60% are feldspars and 12% quartz. Olivine is one silicate that I think will be found, because the metals in olivine—iron and magnesium—make olivine dense and very likely to have been part of the pillars.
A particular type of powdery rock particle that I think the aerogel probably snagged is loess. Loess' outward characteristics are particularly telling: extremely tiny (15-50 µm) and very angular. One-seventh of the earth surface contains loess. In the mind's of evolutionists, the angularity raises the question as to why weathering and millions of years of erosion haven't rounded the sharp edges, and loess' location on high mountains raises the question of how it got up there. Some have said loess must have come from outer space. Finding loess in comets will heighten the mystery, and isotopic studies of what Stardust brings back will clearly identify it as loess. You can read what I believe are the answers in the Frozen Mammoth chapter (pages 166-167, 173-174).
As you will recall, olivine was discovered in comets in 1997. (See Endnote 39.) I explained that to you on the phone in 1999, and you later asked Don Brownlee why crystalline minerals, as opposed to amorphous minerals, should be found in comets. As I recall, you told me that Brownlee's response was that he didn't believe the data, and he wanted to get more definitive data. Let's see.
If crystalline minerals are brought back by Stardust, a good question to ask Brownlee is, "How did crystalline material form in outer space?"
2. Other minerals that might be found are those that require liquid water to form, such as salt (NaCl) and carbonates (limestone, dolomite, and others). According to all theories for the origin of comets, except for the hydroplate theory, the water in comets should never have been liquid because outer space is too cold, especially where comets are thought to have formed.
3. Some have written me saying that Stardust might bring back a few cells from organisms. If cells are snagged, I would not be surprised, but the fraction of a comet that is organic is probably so small that cells will not be retrieved. Organic molecules have been detected in comet tails spectroscopically since 1868.
4. Chemical elements—such as aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, carbon, oxygen, and the heavier elements—that are extremely rare in space but common on Earth will be brought back in minerals by Stardust.
I am again attaching the PDF I sent yesterday. Made a change to it this morning. I hope the recovery of the space capsule goes as planned tomorrow and that you have a safe and enjoyable trip to Houston to see the canister in the clean room. Please let me know how it goes.
Walt
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Walt,
Thank you for sending the information and letter. My students do not understand how the scientists cannot see alternative points of view. I have tried to explain to them that most of the scientific world is trained only in evolutionary thinking; not in critical thinking.
During the Stardust Return Briefing on Thursday, Dr. Don Brownlee showed a new instrument that will be used to analyze the particles. He stated that the particles from this comet dust would be pristine material from the formation of the solar system. He also stated that the ions would show that this dust would be very different than material from Earth. This difference was not in the elements but something to do with the ions. [****]. But, my simple way of understanding this is that I expect he will pop one of those particles in that expensive machine and find out it is the same stuff we find on Earth. And this will be very shocking and unexpected. These are words I hear often from NASA researchers.
Thank you for thinking about this and pondering the possibilities from a different point of view.
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NASA FIND THROWS SPACE EXPERTS
Mineral traces in Stardust samples upset long-held assumptions about origins of comets
By MARK CARREAU
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
March 13, 2006
Tiny pieces of minerals that form at high temperatures have been found in the comet fragments retrieved by NASA's Stardust mission, scientists announced Monday. The discovery challenges conventional thinking on how comets — collections of ice and rock — formed in the early days of the solar system.
The robotic Stardust spacecraft descended into the Utah desert by parachute on Jan. 15, ending a seven-year, nearly 3-billion-mile journey through the solar system to retrieve fragments of the comet Wild 2.
Astronomers have long assumed that comets formed in the most distant reaches of the solar system, where temperatures barely rise above absolute zero. But an initial examination of the Wild 2 fragments revealed tiny pieces of minerals previously extracted from meteorites that had been born close to the sun at temperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
"This is very exciting. It's a mystery story," said University of Washington astronomer Don Brownlee, who served as the chief scientist for the $212 million Stardust mission. Brownlee and others presented their findings to the 37th annual Lunar and Planetary Conference meeting in League City during a three-hour session.
The tiny fragments are being extracted in the same laboratory at Houston's Johnson Space Center that houses the Apollo moon rocks. They are being shipped to scientists around the world for additional analysis.
Astronomers believe comets are leftovers from a vast swirling disk of gas and dust that provided the building blocks for the assembly of the sun and planets 4.6 billion years ago.
The early studies found microscopic bits of peridot, diopside, anorthite and other minerals rich in magnesium, calcium, aluminum and titanium in the comet fragments. Until the Stardust findings, the minerals were thought to reside no more distant than the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
"There's a kind of temperature zoning in the solar system," said Mike Zolensky, a mineralogist and Stardust co-investigator from Johnson Space Center.
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Celestial dust challenges basic view of comets
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002863682_cometdust14m.html Seattle Times
March 14, 2006
By Sandi Doughton
THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES
University of Washington astronomer Don Brownlee, principal investigator for NASA's Stardust Mission, examines comet particles.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UW
This comet particle collected by the Stardust spacecraft is made up of the silicate mineral forsterite, also known as peridot. It is surrounded by a rim of melted aerogel, used to collect the comet dust samples. The particle measures about 2 micrometers across.
NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UW
In the two months since the Stardust capsule parachuted to Earth, scientists have extracted hundreds of bits of comet dust. Averaging less than one-fifth the diameter of a human hair, the particles have been distributed to researchers around the world.
At first, Don Brownlee thought he was looking at a bit of debris from the spacecraft.
The crystals he saw in his microscope were so unexpected, the University of Washington astronomer didn't think they could have possibly come from a comet.
"It was truly astounding," he said Monday at a briefing in Houston to unveil the first scientific results from NASA's Stardust mission. The robotic probe flew by the comet Wild 2 in 2004, grabbed dust from its halo and brought it back to Earth in January.
Tiny grains embedded in the capsule's collector contain minerals such as olivine, found on Hawaii's green sand beaches, and spinel, a rubylike gemstone used in jewelry.
Both form at temperatures higher than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
But that doesn't jibe with the standard view that comets are made up only of materials from the distant fringe of the solar system, where temperatures hover around minus 400 degrees.
"Remarkably enough, we have found fire and ice," said Brownlee, principal investigator for the $212 million mission. "We have found samples in the coldest part of the solar system that formed at extremely high temperatures."
Unraveling the mystery will reveal much about the creation of the solar system, which scientists believe coalesced about 4.5 billion years ago from a spinning disc of gas and dust. The center of that disc was a turbulent inferno that eventually gave birth to the sun and the inner planets.
The new findings from Stardust suggest high-temperature materials like olivine were somehow hurled from the blistering center of the vortex to the icy edges where comets were born, said Mike Zolensky, of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"They would have been ejected ballistically all the way out across the solar system ... like a conveyor belt," he said.
Astronomers scanning the galaxy with high-powered telescopes have seen massive jets spouting from nebulae where they believe new solar systems are forming, Brownlee said.
It's also possible the high-temperature minerals in the comet dust originated in the fiery environs of far-flung stars, not our own solar system.
Scientists will be able to tell the difference once they have time to analyze the comet particles in greater detail, Brownlee said. Grains that form on other stars differ from those formed in our solar system.
In the two months since the Stardust capsule parachuted to the Utah desert, researchers have extracted hundreds of bits of comet dust from the collector, made of an extremely light-weight material called aerogel. Averaging less than one-fifth the diameter of a human hair, the particles have been distributed to 150 researchers around the world.
Stardust marks the first time a NASA mission has delivered extraterrestrial material to Earth since the Apollo moon missions in the 1970s.
Brownlee has been studying two particles in his Seattle lab. With diamond blades called microtomes, he can carve one speck into a hundred slivers. His electron microscopes are powerful enough to resolve individual molecules.
"For us these are actually quite large rocks," he said.
One of the first particles extracted from the aerogel — on Valentine's Day — was shaped like a heart. Others fractured into dozens of even tinier particles.
While the early results are exciting, there's much more to come, Brownlee said.
Comets almost certainly contain organic material. Some scientists believe comets may have delivered the ingredients of life to Earth. There are already some hints of organic compounds in the Stardust grains, but it's a laborious process to rule out any possibility of contamination from Earth.
"It's a very exciting mystery story," Brownlee said. "So stay tuned."
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Good job so far, Walt. And please keep making predictions, based on the Bible's history and cosmology. God bless you!
-Bob Enyart
