Space
Air Force prepares for potential EMP attack
(Planet-Today) The Air Force took the first steps to guard one of its Texas bases against an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack. Officials at the Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland issued a request for bids to inspect a facility called the Petroleum, Oil and Lubrication Complex, LiveScience reported.
(Article by Virgilio Marin republished from NaturalNews.com)
The inspection is intended to identify any equipment that may be vulnerable to an EMP attack. According to the request, it will be done ahead of a more advanced vulnerability survey, after which officials will upgrade the equipment.
The request came in response to a 2019 executive order that then-President Donald Trump issued for the federal government to strengthen its infrastructure against EMPs. Peter Pry, a defense analyst who consulted on the project, said that the inspection and ensuing upgrades are part of a broader initiative by the Air Force to ramp up its defenses against this type of threat.
Effects of an EMP attack
An EMP is a high-speed burst of electromagnetic energy that is created by the rapid acceleration of charged particles. Some experts claim that an EMP does not pose a threat, but others say it can cause widespread disruption to electricity-dependent societies.
“You can use a single weapon to collapse the entire North American power grid,” explained Pry, who served on the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack.
“Once the electric grid goes down, everything would collapse,” Pry said. “Everything depends on electricity: telecommunications, transportation, even water.”
Generating natural and man-made EMPs
Normally, the planet’s magnetic field deflects cosmic rays, but high-energy bursts like CMEs can cause the magnetic field to wobble and generate a powerful EMP. The last time this happened was during the Carrington Event in 1859, where intense solar storms disrupted electrical and telegraph services, on top of spawning super bright auroras that were visible all the way to the tropics.
EMPs can also be deliberately generated using nuclear weapons. If a nuclear weapon were to be detonated high in the atmosphere, according to Pry, the gamma radiation it would emit could strip negatively charged particles from air molecules and accelerate them to near the speed of light.
If these particles interacted with Earth’s magnetic field, they would generate an intense, fluctuating electric current that, in turn, would create an EMP.
Pry said that discharging a nuclear weapon around 200 miles above the U.S. could generate an EMP that would cover most of North America. While the exploded bits and radiation would likely dissipate before reaching the ground, the EMP would be powerful enough to destroy electronics across the region.
“If you were standing on the ground directly beneath the detonation, you wouldn’t even hear it go off,” Pry said. “The EMP would pass harmlessly through your body.”
Pry said militaries and terrorist groups are potentially capable of generating small EMPs with a radius of under a mile. The U.S. military, for example, has a prototype cruise missile that carries an EMP generator. Called the “Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project” (CHAMP), the missile can be used to target enemy facilities.
The technology required to protect against EMPs is similar to what is used to prevent damage from power surges caused by lightning. This include surge protectors, which divert excess voltage into the earth, as well as Faraday cages, which shield devices from electromagnetic radiation.
Learn more about EMPs and how to protect yourself from one at EMP.news.
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Recently, a group of experts from Harvard University, led by physics
professor Avi Loeb, announced the possible presence of alien space
debris in Earth’s orbit, reports the Daily Star.
Leading
space research expert Professor Loeb is confident that the discovery of
such “interstellar objects could help expand our knowledge of possible
alien civilizations and technologies. A team of scientists is conducting
research to confirm that some of the objects in our orbit may be
connected to other star systems.
During an interview with Live
Science, Professor Loeb explained that these objects could enter the
solar system from interstellar space, defying Jupiter’s gravitational
pull and occupying limited orbits around the sun.
Some of them may
have technological origins similar to the probes sent by mankind into
interstellar space, such as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and 11
and New Horizons.
However,
despite these interesting assumptions, Professor Loeb did not specify
what specific objects he was talking about. In his research report, he
notes that there could be “a significant number” of potentially
detectable objects in Earth’s orbit.
To confirm their assumptions,
the team of scientists uses computer simulations and the Vera Rubin
Observatory (Chile) with a high-resolution camera of 3.2 billion pixels.
This will allow for regular observations of the Southern sky and the
possibility of detecting several captured objects about the size of a
football field.
It is assumed that these interstellar objects passed through the
boundaries of the solar system and may carry unique information about
other civilizations and their technologies. If we could confirm the
origin of these objects, the mysteries that open before us, this would
be a real breakthrough in space exploration.
Professor Loeb
expresses hope that the new research will not only help expand our
knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies, but may also lead to the
discovery of new alien civilizations . Answers to such questions can be
of global significance and influence our understanding of the place of
mankind in the Universe.
And
while there are still many questions and assumptions, the study by
Professor Loeb and his team opens a new chapter in space exploration.
Each new discovery can be the key to deciphering the mysteries of the
cosmos and the possibility of encountering alien life forms.
Betelgeuse, a red giant on the brink of death, continues to show
unusual behavior. After the Great Blackout, which occurred in late 2019
and early 2020, the star became unusually bright. It is now the seventh
brightest star in the sky, while it normally ranks tenth. This has led
to speculation that Betelgeuse is preparing to explode in a
spectacularly large supernova.
However, scientists believe it’s too early to tell, and it’s likely
that this behavior is due to ongoing fluctuations after the Great
Blackout of 2019, and the star will return to normal within a decade.
Betelgeuse is one of the most interesting stars in the sky. It is
about 700 light-years from Earth and is a red giant in the last stage of
its life. It is also an unusual star for a red giant because it was
previously a monster blue-white O-type star, the most massive class of
stars.
Betelgeuse has changed its spectral type because it has almost
exhausted its hydrogen reserves. It now burns helium into carbon and
oxygen and has expanded to a gigantic size: about 764 times the size of
the Sun and about 16.5 to 19 times its mass.
Eventually it will run out of fuel to burn, become a supernova, eject
its outer material, and its core will collapse into a neutron star.
Before the Great Blackout, Betelgeuse also had periodic fluctuations
in brightness. The longest of these cycles is about 5.9 years and the
other is 400 days. But it seems that the Great Blackout caused changes
in these oscillations.
A new paper by astrophysicist Morgan McLeod of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has shown that the 400-day
cycle appears to have been halved. This pulsational cycle is probably
caused by expansion and contraction within the star. According to
simulations carried out by MacLeod and his colleagues, the convective
flow inside Betelgeuse may have risen and become material that separates
from the star.
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