The place of a final battle between the forces of good and evil, prophesied to occur at the end of the world. - Dictionary.com

A famous blockbuster hollywood movie released on 1998, starring Bruce Willis, featuring as a deep core driller, sent to space and drill into the surface of the doomsday asteroid that was on collision course with the earth, to plant and detonate a nuclear weapon to split the asteroid into two halves. 

Even-though the movie depicts a high tech masala, the ideology of deflecting the course of asteroids and avoiding the catastrophical collision on the earth by using technology is still on course.  The Association of space explorers, an international group of astronomers and cosmonauts released a recent report Asteroid Threat: A call for Global Response, urging UN/International Institutions to appoint a governing body to identify the Near Earth Object(NEO) asteroids, pinpoint the exact location of the impact,predict the potential devastation, issue warnings of mass evacuation to the city or country under threat, deploy technology and devise plans to deflect the path of the asteroid,funding and assigning the job to specific space agency,point finger for accepting liabilities due to failure in technology or wrong predictions. Whether such a governing body will be formed in-spite of the political, technological and economical risks associated with this - an impossible dream or distant reality, only timeline can answer.

Figure: Asteroid Collision Illustration

The million dollar question is "What is the technology used to deflect the path of the NEOs?" - Is that same as Hollywood Drama by Bruce Willis?

The strategy for such a technology, conceived during a study carried in 2005 by Ed Lu and Stan Love, both astronauts and founders of B612 Foundation, and published in the November edition of Nature. In order to analyze the performance of Gravity Tractor, a B612 contract was issued to JPL in 2008, to conduct a formal performance analysis.A detailed report, facts and figures can be obtained from B612 foundations website

The study shows that, even a weak gravitational pull from a near by space craft is sufficient to change the orbital path of asteroid, as big as 140 meters across, the size big enough to cause a regional devastation if it hit earth. The conceptual design becoming reality in the near future is the Gravity Tractor.

The asteroids or other foreign bodies when approaches the earth, gets attracted due to the earth's gravitational pull and form new unstable orbital path,revolves around the earth and eventually crash on the earth's surface.

Figure: Asteroid's Unstable Orbital Path

In spite of  the vastness of the space, the foreign bodies were to pass through a small region of space called gravitational keyhole, which is a few hundred kilometers, so as to get pulled by earth's gravity.

Even though the chances of a foreign body's orbit path, fall in line with the keyhole is meagre, the use of a device like gravity tractor has to be deployed much advance in time, before the asteroid is nearing the keyhole. The gravity tractor weighing about 1 ton in weight is positioned about 155 meters away from the asteroid surface and exert a very gentle gravitational force, could alter the asteroid's velocity by 0.22 microns/second per day. But on prolonged exposure of force on a long enough time scale, the course of the asteroid will be changed so that it is avoiding the keyhole entry and subsequent bashing on earth. The success of the gravity tractor is due to its precision of exerting the force on to the asteroid.

                              Figure: Gravity Tractor functions Illustrated

Suppose if the hypothetical orbit of the asteroid exists on a direct path to impact, then the use of gravity tractor alone cannot do the trick. Instead scientists proposed a second method called two-punch.

Initially a space craft is crashed directly to the asteroid, that would create a much change in asteroid's orbital path, then the gravity tractor will be employed to move the asteroid away from the collision course.

Sounds interesting. The NEO threat in the nearest future may happen on a Easter Sunday, April 13, 2036, in the name of "Apophis". The chances of Apophis hitting the earth is less than 1 in 45000. However, the Apophis will be in close encounters with earth on Friday, April 13, 2029 - 29,470 Kms from the earth, appearing to the naked eye as a moderately bright point of light moving rapidly across the sky.

Figure: APOPHIS Orbital Path

NOTE: NASA's collision probability calculation of 1 in 45000, is challenged by a 13 year old German student Nico Marquardt, as 1 in 450. His assumptions indicate that, when the Apophis is nearing earth on 2029, could hit any of the 40,000 Geosynchronous satellites positioned around a band of 30,000 Kms from the earth's surface, causing its orbital path to drift and thereby increasing the possibility of hitting the earth on April 13,2036. Although NASA denied this estimations, the fate of the earth remains a mystery until 2013, by then space observers can predict the exact path of Apophis. 

The Phoenix spacecraft has been conducting experiments on the Martian soil and atmosphere since it landed in Mars’ northern arctic region on May 25 of this year.

Phoenix carried to Mars a suite of scientific packages, including a meteorological station that was designed and built by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) with scientists at York University in Toronto and the University of Alberta, Dalhousie.

The CSA is reporting that for the past few days a weather instrument called the LIDAR has for the first time on Mars detected falling snow high in the Martian atmosphere.

“The irony of us, the Canadian team, finding the snow — it’s not lost,” says Cameron Dickinson, a research associate at York University associated with the Phoenix weather station, in an interview with a reporter for the Chronicle Herald in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

LIDAR stands for LIght Detection And Ranging instrument (a stretch for a catchy acronym). The LIDAR shoots a green laser beam up into the Martian atmosphere and with a small telescope analyzes the light that scatters off clouds back down to the ground. The LIDAR can partially determine the composition and distribution of material in the Martian atmosphere.

If you’ve ever played with one of these newer, green laser pointers you might have an idea how the LIDAR works. Point the laser up into the sky on the clearest of nights and you can see the beam head straight off into space. There is a considerable amount of dust even in the calmest air near earth’s surface, and the green laser scatters efficiently off this material. This experiment doesn’t work so well with the less expensive and more common red laser pointers.

The lead scientist for the CSA weather station on Phoenix is Dr. Jim Whiteway, of York University in Toronto. Dr. Whiteway says “We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground,” noting in a NASA press release that the snow detected by the LIDAR falls high in the Martian atmosphere. It is not uncommon for rain and snow to evaporate in the atmosphere before reaching the ground even here on earth.

While fall is settling in for us here in West MI, on Mars’ northern hemisphere it is still summer. But the days are getting shorter for Phoenix just as they do for us after the first day of summer. And since Mars does not have a thick atmosphere to act as a blanket, the planet cools down rapidly even in mid summer.

A Martian year is 684 earth days long. A Martian day -- called a sol -- is, however, only about half an hour longer than an earth day. There are 668 sols in a Martian year.

The first day of fall for Phoenix on Mars is Dec. 26, 2008. Winter will set in on May 22, 2009. But Phoenix’s productive time on Mars is rapidly coming to an end. As the sun sinks lower and lower toward the Martian horizon and the sols get shorter and shorter, the amount of electricity Phoenix’s solar panels can generate dwindles. Before too long, there won’t be enough power to keep Phoenix alive.

And in detecting the first flakes of snow falling high above it, Phoenix has seen the beginning of its end. It is expected that when the snow does start falling in earnest during the Martian northern hemisphere fall and winter, Phoenix will eventually be buried.

On the 2nd October 1608, the Dutch lens maker Hans Lippershey demonstrated the first practical telescope to the Dutch parliament. He is thought to have been the first to try and patent the invention, which could provide the user with roughly three times magnification. (However, legend has it that Lippershey got the idea after seeing some children playing around with his lenses in a telescopic fashion...)

50 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH

On the 11th October 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft to be launched by NASA. The mission objective was to study the radiation, magnetic fields, and micrometeorites of the Earth/Moon environment, but due to a malfunction at launch it never acheived its intended lunar orbit. It did reach an altitude of nearly 114,000km above the Earth though and was the most successful of the early "Thor-Able" craft.

...The Launch of Sputnik 1?

Although too young to remember the actual event, the launch of Sputnik 1, the world's first artificial satellite, by the Soviet Union on October 4th 1957, was of great interest to myself in later years when I rather took to the hobby of Amateur Radio.

Sputnik 1 weighed in at 83.6kg and was 580mm in diameter. It was placed in an elliptical low earth orbit by a modified R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Orbiting the Earth once every 96 minutes, it was transmitting telemetry signals which indicated the internal satellite pressure and temperature. These signals were received on Earth, not only by the Soviets as intended, but also by the BBC monitoring station at Tatsfield, England just southeast of London. Many Radio Amateurs around the globe also monitored the signals after being alerted to the launch. This is a short sample of the signal transmitted on 20.007MHz it was recorded October 7, 1957 at 04:57utc by Roy Welsh, W0SL (then W5SLL) from Dallas, Texas using a military surplus AN/FRR3A HF RTTY receiver.

Transmissions ceased after 22 days in orbit, as it's orbit decayed Sputnik 1 burnt up on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere on Jan 4th, 1958.

It was the unexpected launch of Sputnik that led to the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States and sparked the start of the "Space Race".

It shows you the current Martian year, month, date, and time for the current (or any) terrestrial date and time.

Posted on the Martian date of Saturday, Septima 5th, of the year 1068, at 8:59 Martian time.

Back to the moon...a moon base...a Mars base...beyond?

"The human race has existed as a separate species for about two million years. Civilisation began about 10,000 years ago, and the rate of development has been steadily increasing. But, if the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before."

A shuttle mission to service the Hubble telescope will be delayed because of a malfunction on the observatory.

The glitch means Hubble cannot format or store data from its instruments, nor transmit the information to Earth.

The US space agency, Nasa, had planned to send the Atlantis orbiter to repair and upgrade the telescope next month.

Now, it says the shuttle is unlikely to fly until next year, to allow time for a replacement electronics box to be prepared for inclusion in the mission.

"Mid-February is looking to be a reasonable timeframe to do that," said Preston Burch, the Hubble manager at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center where telescope operations are overseen.

Nasa says the problem is in a box known as the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SIC&DH) Unit, and affects the functions carried out by its Science Data Formatter - Side A.

The glitch arose on Saturday and all attempts to correct have proved fruitless. The assessment is that the formatter has totally failed and will not be recoverable.

The anomaly prevents Hubble from formatting the data gathered by its instruments ready for sending to scientists on the ground. The malfunction also stops that data being stored locally on the telescope's solid state recorders for later transmission.

The back-up should allow Hubble to return to full operations

Hubble has a back-up - Side B - and if systems can be switched over, the observatory should return to normal operations. Engineers say it is a complex procedure but they hope to have Hubble functioning at its previous level of performance within a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, a spare SIC&DH Unit on the ground will be prepared for flight, to be included as an additional servicing task on the forthcoming Atlantis mission.

Ed Weiler, Nasa's associate administrator for science, said it was important Hubble had redundancy for Side B going into the future

"If we just go to Side B, we would be left with a system that had several single point failures, and that would be a risk to the [Hubble] mission for the long duration," he explained.

"By going ahead and accepting a delay of perhaps several months, we can get our full-up spare tested and ready to go - and if we could put that in [Hubble] sometime in the winter, we would have an observatory that was again doubly redundant; that is, it would have back-up systems."

Rescue readiness

The 62kg (136lb) box requires no new tools be developed for astronauts to fit it inside Hubble. However, time will have to be found in an already tight spacewalk schedule to get the job done.

Setting a new date for the mission is complicated by Nasa's strict flight rules introduced after the Columbia disaster.

Because Atlantis cannot get to the safety of the space station from Hubble's orbit if something goes wrong, a second shuttle must be put on the launch pad ready to fly a rescue mission if required.

For the planned 14 October launch opportunity, the back-up was supposed to be the Endeavour orbiter. But this ship is also needed for a space station mission on 16 November.

The Atlantis delay means Endeavour's mission may now be brought forward by a couple of days, and Atlantis slotted into the shuttle manifest in February or April next year when another orbiter would take up the rescue-readiness role.

Flight rules require two shuttles are prepared for a Hubble mission

The upcoming mission to Hubble is the fifth and final flight designed to keep the great observatory serviceable.

Hubble's batteries and gyroscopes, which are used to point the telescope, are degrading and they now need to be replaced.

The shuttle crew is also tasked with installing two new instruments: the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). The new instruments will improve significantly Hubble's ability to probe distant, faint objects in the early Universe.

The Atlantis astronauts must also repair two instruments that have failed in recent years - the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).

If the work is carried out successfully, it should allow Hubble to keep operating into the next decade.

Ed Weiler said everyone should think it was lucky that the Data Formatter broke just before Atlantis set off on its servicing mission rather than just after it.

"Hubble has a habit of coming back from adversity; and the Hubble team works miracles," he added.

"I'm not too concerned about this. We'll find a way to get this fixed. This particular failure was anticipated and we have spare hardware ready to go."

SERVICING THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE Shuttle Atlantis will grab Hubble with a robotic arm and pull it on to a work platform to allow astronauts easy access to its interior Hubble has six gyroscopes that are critical to its control and pointing systems. These have started to fail and all will have to be replaced Six new batteries will rejuvenate the electrical system; astronauts will attach new thermal blankets to insulate sensitive components The telescope has two instrument bays; the COS and WFC3 will be slid into racks made vacant by the removal of older instruments An attempt will also be made to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) which stopped working in 2004

The 13.5-tonne cargo ship had completed a six-month mission to the space station and was packed with the orbiting platform's rubbish.

Two engine firings were required to slow the freighter sufficiently to pull it into the atmosphere.

The European and US space agencies had chase planes in the air to try to capture the fireball on video.

Astronauts on the space station reported seeing the light from the falling freighter.

It's been a fantastic ride  John Ellwood, ATV project manager

"Everything went correctly, nominally, smoothly. This was the last section of the chain," said Simonetta di Pippo, head of human spaceflight at the European Space Agency (Esa).

Most of the vehicle was expected to burn up in the descent; only fragments should have made it down to the ocean water. Computer modelling of the re-entry had put the impact time at 1346 GMT.

Events were overseen from Esa's freighter control centre in Toulouse, France.

John Ellwood, the agency's vehicle project manager, said all the data would need to be assessed before it was known conclusively how the re-entry went; but the early indications were that everything had proceeded as expected.

And summing up the past six months, he told BBC News: "It's been a fantastic ride; everything has worked nominally. Although there are mixed emotions at the end, there is a lot of satisfaction after having had such a fantastic mission."

Jules Verne - also known by the generic name Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - cost about 1.3bn euros to develop.

Although Esa has produced many complex scientific satellites, none match the scale of the freighter.

JULES VERNE - THE FIRSTS The ATV is the first completely automated rendezvous and docking ship to go to the ISS The ATV is the largest and most powerful space tug going to the ISS over its mission life It provides the largest refuelling and waste elimination capability for the space station It is the only vehicle on the current timeline able to de-orbit the ISS when it is retired Berlin unveils 'crewed spaceship' Manned spaceship design unveiled Key moment for Europe

After launch, the space truck can work out where it needs to go in space, and then makes a fully automatic docking once it arrives at its destination.

It was developed as part of Esa's ISS membership agreement, to haul cargo, propellant, water and oxygen to the space station; and also to provide propulsion capacity at the station.

But such has been the performance of Jules Verne that Esa officials and industry chiefs are already talking about upgrading the ship's design - potentially to carry astronauts.

The first step, however, would be to develop technologies that enable the safe return of cargo to Earth.

European space ministers will discuss the issue at their meeting in The Hague in November.

Cost: Total bill was 1.3bn euros (at least 4 more ATVs will be built) Total cargo capacity: 7.6 tonnes, but first mission flew lighter Mass at launch: About 20 tonnes depending on cargo manifest Dimensions: 10.3m long and 4.5m wide - the size of a large bus Solar panels: Once unfolded, the solar wings span 22.3m Engine power: 4x 490-Newton thrusters; and 28x 220N thrusters Mission timeline: Launch - 9 March; Docking - 3 April; Undocking - 5 September; De-orbit - 29 September Mission Guide: Jules Verne

Under the agreement Esa has with its international partners, at least four more ATVs will be flown to the space station in the coming years. The next is due to launch in 2010.

And, ultimately, it is likely that an ATV will be tasked with destroying the space station when the partners have decided the platform is beyond servicing, perhaps towards the end of the next decade.

A freighter will be commanded to drive the whole structure into a similar region of the south Pacific.

Source:

"Freighter destroyed over pacific", BBC News Online, Science & Environment, Jonathan Amos, 29th Sept 2008

Richard Garriott, son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, will spend two weeks on the ISS as a Space Adventures client. He will participate in three NASA studies while on the station. Story link

Richard Garriott is a legendary computer game designer. Those my age will remember the Ultima series, which he founded. His latest is Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.

This is cool. NASA is just turning 50, and we're flying the second generation of astronauts, sort of. I think it's actually a better thing that he is flying commercial than on the government megadime. Of course, flying on Russian hardware is not so cool.

I keep thinking, "Who in 1958 thought we would land a man on the moon in 11 years? And who would have thought we would abandon the dream?" Now it occurs to me: computers were the size of houses in 1958. Who would think a computer game developer, and son of an astronaut, would have the money to fly into orbit and stay for two weeks on an internationally-designed and built space station? Computer games? What are those?

So while I wish I was flying the Orion 3 on Pan Am to Space Station V, at least we're doing something. And we never blew ourselves up. And the Russians, no matter how frisky they think they are now, are NOT something we fear on a daily basis. And maybe, just maybe, this time we will go there to stay...

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) basically took over the operations of NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics)to be the "official" agency of exploration of space and aviation. The first administrator of NASA was T. Kenneth Glennan, who served in that capacity from August 19, 1968 until January 20, 1961. The current administrator is Michael Griffin.

It would be hard to list the many varied and vast achievments that have happened over the past fifty years, or the leaps in technology that have been brought to the mainstream populace due to the ingenuity, courage, and intelligence of the people who have worked for NASA over the years. Suffice it to say the world would be a vastly different place without their efforts.

If you head over to the main NASA site, they have a wide variety of images and stories regarding their anniversary.

The 8th Continent Project believes today's event represents a clear signal to investors that the age of private sector commercialization of space (Space 2.0) has officially left the launch pad, opening the next era of space-related business development opportunities with earthbound applications and future profit potential.

SpaceX's next launch will be a Falcon 1 carrying a RazakSat (a low-earth orbiting satellite for remote sensing). If successful, the Falcon 1 launch will be followed by a flight of the much larger Falcon 9 rocket, slated for liftoff in the second quarter of 2009.

SpaceX began with $120 million in capital ($100 million from founder Elon Musk and another $20 million from Founders Fund). The company has more than tripled its headcount in the past 35 months, growing from 160 employees in November 2005 to its present size of more than 500.

The 8th Continent Project would like to publicly congratulate SpaceX for its entrepreneurial spirit, grit and staying power that it has demonstrated with the achievement of today's historic milestone.

Please see TechCrunch for more information as well as a video of the launch here.

The official SpaceX release can be found here.

The folks at SpaceX successfully launched a two-stage liquid-fueled rocket into orbit yesterday. It was their fourth attempt. You can see video excerpts at this link.

The first commercially-funded, built-from-the-ground-up space launcher, Falcon 1 is just the beginning. SpaceX plans on a heavy lifter, Falcon 9, and the Dragon capsule, to take passengers to the ISS. 

Congratulations, SpaceX!

If you have not seen the ISS pass over before - you are looking for a fairly fast moving bright point object. The times and locations given in the above link will guide you.

Forget about failed banks and corporate communist bailouts, this is the top story today.

Rejoice!

On Friday, President Dmitri Medvedev, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, chaired a conference with military-district commanders in Orenburg in the Volga Federal District and announced the main military-development aspects planned for implementation up to 2020.  President Medvedev said a joint aerospace defence system capable of shielding Russia from missile and terrorist attacks would have to be created in the next 12 years.

The Russian General Staff said the Space Force, a separate armed service, would now become an element of the Air Defence Force, an Air Force component. The tie with the Air Force may be ended and a separate service comprising the Space Force and the Air Defence Force established. A Defence Ministry staff official said the Moscow missile-defence system would be an independent unit; it would comprise radio-technical and air-defence elements, and it would eventually become a large formation shielding the Russian Far East, southern Russia, and other regions.

Viktor Yesin, former chief of the Strategic Missile Force's main headquarters, said, unlike the United States, Moscow was unable to deploy elements of its missile-defence system outside Russia. "Even if Russia deployed its missile interceptors in Cuba and Venezuela, it would still be unable to reach missile bases in the northern USA. We must build missile-defence systems on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East", Mr Yesin told the paper.  He said a nationwide missile-defence system would prove too expensive and ineffective, and that it was better to deploy missile interceptors around major cities, industrial centres, and strategic nuclear-force bases.

Mr Yesin said that neither the federal budget nor the Stabilisation Fund had enough funds to build a 100 percent effective missile-defence system, and that Moscow must convince theoretical enemies that it is ready to defend itself and to retaliate, regardless of any scenario. "This is the essence of Russia's current strategic deterrence policy", Mr Yesin told the paper. "Russia, which staunchly opposes the militarization of other space and the deployment of orbital weapons, will not launch such weapons, unless the United States does it first", he told the paper. Mr Yesin said Russia had the required know-how to quickly orbit extremely destructive weapons.

29 September 2008

RBC Daily

Quoted in RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080929/117273136.html (in English)

Millions around the world watched the live broadcast with momentous awe and admiration as Zhai Zhigang emerged from the module wearing a US$4.4 million Chinese-made extravehicular activity (EVA) space suit, tethered to the craft by two safety wires.  He proceeded to wave a small Chinese flag while floating in the vast nothingness of space – a moment of pure symbolism marking a milestone in the nation’s space exploration.

The crew of the Shenzhou-VII spacecraft safely touched down by parachute on the Inner Mongolia region, where they were greeted as heroes having victoriously carried out a historical landmark achievement.   Their success has been greeted with substantial enthusiasm across the world.

So what comes next for the conquering nation?  Well, China is adamant that the developments of its space flight technologies are solely for the peaceful exploration and use of outer space.  By all means further significant accomplishments are certainly desired.  China's manned space program spokesman, Wang Zhaoyao, announced plans to set up a simple space lab in 2011 and a manned space station by 2020.

It has been previously reported in Nature that China does not yet have any official plans to place a man on the moon.  However, recent developments show that this may not be the case with the prospect of a moon landing certainly not residing out of their sights, Zhaoyao stating that “The moon landing is an extremely challenging and sophisticated task, and it is also a strategically important technological field. It is necessary for China to achieve something in this field.”

The success of this space mission has undoubtedly revealed China to be a serious contender in cosmic exploration.  A space race is certainly underway.

Photo credit: Xinhua/Associated Press

An edited version of this article was posted on the Nature news blog, which can be viewed here.

On August eleventh this year NASA Hubble telescope completed one hundred thousand orbits around the planet and in doing so it has provided astronomers with eighteen long years of excellent service. To commemorate this momentous occasion the NASA Hubble telescope was aimed at an exciting region of the universe where celestial renewal and births are taking place. Read further  NASA Hubble Telescope

So scientists rationalized somehow that this was an exception to their model about the Universe, a freak accident of some sort they claimed. "This was an unexpected identification, because at the time a blue supergiant was not considered a possibility for a supernova event in existing models of high mass stellar evolution. Current understanding is that the progenitor was a binary system, the stars of which merged about 20,000 years before the explosion, producing a blue supergiant. Difficulties persist with this interpretation"

I agree it's a problem for evolutionists but not for creationists. This is another example of so-called evidence not matching up with observational science. Apparently, this wasn't the first supernova to have done this that we know of, but another was recently discovered...

"The data show that SN 1996cr is among the brightest supernovae ever seen in radio and X-rays. It also bears many striking similarities to the famous supernova SN 1987A, which occurred in a neighbouring galaxy only 160 000 light-years from Earth."

"Visible-light images from the archives of the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Australia show that SN 1996cr exploded sometime between 28 February 1995 and 15 March 1996, but it is the only one of the five nearest supernovae of the last 25 years that was not seen shortly after the explosion."

"Other major X-ray observatories in orbit like ROSAT and ASCA did not detect SN 1996cr, but since it was first detected by Chandra in 2001 it has become steadily brighter. Previously, SN 1987A was the only known supernova with an X-ray output that increased over time."

Are evolutionists going to change their models with this new data or it this another so-called freak of nature?  While some are coming around to the idea it's not as strange as previous believed, they still have no clue about why it's growing brighter rather than dimmer.

Perhaps their are currently running it under computer simulations in order to explain the interpretation of the model. When it doubt you type in some calculations, and wham, you rescue a failing model...That generally how it works in the hypothesis of evolution or in this case evolutionary astronomy.

These Supernovas are well designed, not through naturalism but through God. I would even go out on a limb and say there are more like these two that have yet to be discovered...