Sunlight could be a subtle cause of asteroids leaving stable orbits and pushing
them into new orbital zones that eventually cross earth's path. "Like a sunlit
sidewalk, a tumbling object in space would be expected to heat up slowly and
reradiate the energy back into space," according to a CNN article. The
new U.S.-Czech theory for asteroids makes good sense, even though
direct sunlight is only one possible source of heating.
The principle of heating pushing asteroids into the earth's path
holds true even if the source of the heating extends beyond
direct sunlight. "Because radiation carries some momentum,
the reradiated energy could slowly push the asteroids, similar
to
an effect first described by Russian engineer I.O. Yarkovsky
a century ago."
Several planets and moons in the solar system are showing signs of heating,
including the earth itself. But the source of the heating
has not yet been conclusively identified and may not be direct sunlight.
Bill Hamilton, Executive Director of
Skywatch International, Inc. collected articles about signs of
accelerated heating in the solar system that are excerpted below.
Hubble Space Telescope Helps Find Evidence that Neptune’s Largest Moon
is Warming Up
Observations obtained by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based
instruments reveal that Neptune's largest moon, Triton, seems to have
heated up significantly since the Voyager spacecraft visited it in 1989.
"Since 1989, at least, Triton has been undergoing a period of global
warming – percentage-wise, it’s a very large increase," said James L.
Elliot, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge, MA. The warming trend is causing part of Triton’s frozen
nitrogen surface to turn into gas, thus making its thin atmosphere
denser. Dr. Elliot and his colleagues from MIT, Lowell Observatory,
and Williams College published their findings in the June 25 issue of
the journal Nature.
Reference
Dec. 7, 2001 — It might seem like the weather's getting warmer here on
Earth, but Mars appears to have an even bigger global warming problem.
High-resolution images snapped by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor show
that levels of frozen water and carbon dioxide at the Red Planet's
poles have dwindled dramatically — by more than 10 feet — over a single
Martian year (equivalent to 687 days or about two Earth years).
Michael Caplinger of San Diego's Malin Space Science Systems points
out that if the warming were to continue at the same rate (that's a
big "if"), Mars could become a nearly inhabitable place for people
within 5,000 years or so.
Then this news story broke in October 2002:
Pluto is undergoing global warming, researchers find.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY NEWS RELEASE
Posted: October 10, 2002
Pluto is undergoing global warming, as evidenced by a three-fold
increase in the planet's atmospheric pressure during the past 14
years, a team of astronomers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), Williams College, the University of Hawaii, Lowell Observatory
and Cornell University announced in a press conference Wednesday at the
annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) Division
for Planetary Sciences in Birmingham, Ala.
Then an astronomer makes this statement:
"Jay Pasachoff, an astronomy professor at Williams College, said that
Pluto's global warming was "likely not connected with that of the Earth.
The major way they could be connected is if they were caused by a large
increase in sunlight. But the solar constant --the amount of sunlight
received each second-- is carefully monitored by spacecraft, and we know
the sun's output is much too steady to be changing the temperature of
Pluto."
If not the sun, then what?
We know that the sun's activity extended beyond solar maximum during
this last cycle.
Is there an increase in radiation flux from outside the solar system?
I don't know the answer presently, but perhaps this will stimulate
discussion and others may have more input. Abrupt changes like
these need attention and in this age of technology we should be
able to find out what is going on and how it might affect us.
Sincerely,
Bill Hamilton
Executive Director
Skywatch International, Inc.
http://www.skywatch-research.org
Fiat Lux et Veritas
