The Doom Factor

[lighthouse]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5465987710587821961

this is a long video

and it is secular it show a secular viewpoint that this world is about to end

[lighthouse]

ps this some of this i have known for over 40 years
i personally believe that we were more advanced before the flood
then we are today

[CoreIssue]

ps this some of this i have known for over 40 years
i personally believe that we were more advanced before the flood
then we are today
I still have not pulled my tower to fix my speaker issues. Waiting to get one more item and do it all at once.

But I do suspect that before the flood we were more advanced, in some ways, at least, than today.

Definitely were smarter and lived longer.

Genetic deterioration is a fact. We ain't evolving into smarter animals.

[InTheWind]

Quite interesting and could be pretty true IMO.

[Chrystalwuzhere]

Genetic deterioration is a fact. We ain't evolving into smarter animals.

Nope...just more arrogant.

[lighthouse]

yea we keep going backwards

[a.baker]

As you notice as technology increases so does our laziness and ability to survive in nature. Our physical bodies are weakening and depending on meds for everything and anything. Something else I have noticed is that our emotions are becoming more intense and sensitive to everything. i.e. road rage, depression, destructiveness ect. But our society is caring less for others. We need each other for survival. This new generation of selfishness doesn't cut it.

[a.baker]

I will watch this video later. Sorry for posting before I watch.

[a.baker]

I watched the video. That scientific info. and the way all those calendars end at the same time is absolutely crazy! Who would of thought that it would be so fast or soon. Would this be the seven seals? Are we in the middle of the seals? How in the world would anyone be able to survive this? If this is so than we better really start enjoying each others company now and make sure our individual repentance is complete before we die. I always imagined getting super old and living in a more crazy high tech world then we do now. But that would destroy all electronics. I don't think many would survive this at all. Definitely scary! I gave it the highest rating.

[InTheWind]

I found the info about a pole shift the most interesting and something i believe fits in with a rapid deterioration of the earth as we know it and prophecy.

[a.baker]

With the whole polar shift does that have anything to do with the four angels in Revelations? One at the North, one at the South, one at the East , and one at the West? If this does happen than where does it put us in Revelations today? The seals or the trumpets? Or are we still at the 144,00? I think we have so many questions about Revelations because beyond a doubt we are in it some where.

[a.baker]

I bet we won't find out all scientific facts until it's happening. What does everyone think? Really 2008 -2015? Is the clock really at 2012? We will see more proof as time rolls on with this scientific info.

[Chrystalwuzhere]

With the whole polar shift does that have anything to do with the four angels in Revelations? One at the North, one at the South, one at the East , and one at the West? If this does happen than where does it put us in Revelations today? The seals or the trumpets? Or are we still at the 144,00? I think we have so many questions about Revelations because beyond a doubt we are in it some where.

These judgments haven't begun yet. They won't until after the Church is taken out of here.

[lighthouse]

we will know one day
we are NOT in the tribulation now

[Jessie]

was reading dave hunt last night.
and he wrote he thinks that a major shift of power had to occur before the trib, to bring up the ac
and guess who had to fall?

[lighthouse]

tornadoes in nyc
and in london
quakes last night in threedifferent locations
and major qukes in the past few days


hmmmmm

[CoreIssue]

The big shift of power will be in the EU, when the AC ascends. It will be massive.

Even nature is falling apart, and the world doesn't get it.

[a.baker]

Yes they don't see it and they still want science to explain certain things. But if they don't want to listen to what God has written than thats their decision of freewill. I also agree that we are somewhere in the seven Churches.

Really a tornado in NYC? What category was it? I don't know much about weather in London. I assume it's also unusual to have a tornado there too.

[a.baker]

NYC had some minor flooding (major problem for the city though) which made transportation a nightmare and a small tornado did hit in Brooklyn taking off some roofs of some buildings. I am still unsure of what the category was though.

[lighthouse]

thtat was an f2
which is not small

[Jessie]

Genetic deterioration is a fact. We ain't evolving into smarter animals.

Nope...just more arrogant.


boy aint that the truth:eek:

[lighthouse]

bump

[Jessie]

do you think they destroyed the earth like we have in the last 100 years back then?

[lighthouse]

volcanoes cyclones eathquakes tonadoes and fires
all in one week


hmmmm

[InTheWind]

When you see all these things happening at once know that I am at the door. :yowza:

[lighthouse]

bumped for ITW

[lighthouse]

It's all about the Sun

It's ironic (or maybe not) that the Mayan Calendar is often called the "sun stone." While the calendar does have "solar" days, acknowledging the 365 days it takes for Earth to rotate around the Sun, it is also true that the Sun plays a key role in the final day of the "long count." To understand what will happen to the Sun on December 21, 2012, we need to review some scientific terms like "ecliptic," "barycenter," and "sunspots." These are important in the discussion that follows. We'll start with the most difficult one first.
http://www.viewzone.com/endtime.html

[lighthouse]

What is the Barycenter?

You've no doubt heard that Earth revolves around the sun. Well, actually, that's not quite true!

Have you heard the term "center of gravity"? It's a technical-sounding term for something pretty simple. It's the exact center of all the material (that is, mass) that makes up the object. For example, if you have a straight stick, like a ruler or yardstick, there's a place at the middle where you can balance it on your finger. That's its center of gravity.



But the center of gravity may or may not be the point that is exactly in the middle, distance-wise, of the object. Some parts of the object may be heavier (denser) than others. If you have something like a sledge hammer that is heavier on one end than the other, the center of gravity will be much closer to the heavy end than the lighter end.



To get an idea of where the center of gravity is, rest the ends of any object like the ruler or a pencil on one finger from each hand. Slowly move your fingers together without dropping the object. Your fingers will meet underneath the object's center of gravity. You can balance the object on one finger at that special place.

The actual center of gravity could be close to the surface or deep inside, depending on whether the object is flat like a ruler or a dinner plate, or "three-dimensional," like a box or a ball. And if you let the object spin (like when you throw it), it will try to spin about that point.

In the case of the Earth and the sun, both bodies actually revolve, or spin, around the very center of the mass (similar to center of gravity) between them. This point is called the "barycenter." Earth and the sun are "connected" by the gravity pulling them together. It's just like the light end and heavy end of the sledge hammer. Compared to the size of the sun, Earth is about like a flea on a cat! So the center of mass between the Earth and the sun is almost--but not quite--the very center of the sun.

In the case of a planet the size of Jupiter, which is 318 times as massive as Earth, the barycenter of Jupiter and the sun is a bit further from the sun's center. So, as Jupiter revolves around the sun, the sun itself is actually revolving around this slightly off-center point, located just outside its center. Thus, a planet the size of Jupiter will make the sun (or any star) appear to wobble a tiny bit. This picture shows you that the center of mass and barycenter can be slightly different points. It isn't meant to be very accurate!



We can take advantage of this bit of knowledge and look for large planets in other solar systems by learning to detect this type of tiny wobble in the star's position.

[lighthouse]

For now, let's forget all the small planets and focus on Jupiter. It makes one complete trip around the Sun every 11.861773 years. There's a new theory put forth by Dr. Rollin Gillespie which shows that Jupiter, and to a smaller degree the other less massive planets, may trigger the 11 year cycle of sunspots and solar flares.

[lighthouse]

The barycenter is not a single point in the Sun. Because the Sun is a rotating gaseous sphere, the barycenter forms a vertical, cylindrical "sleeve" that is partially inside and outside the main solar body. All of the planets have such a "sleeve," one inside the other, depending on their relative mass and the location of their barycenters. The particular sleeve representing the mass of Jupiter intersects the solar surface at 35.9 degrees North and South. This is precisely where sunspot and flare activity begin and end during each 11 year cycle.

The new cycle has already begun with the recent observation of a solar spot with reverse polarity. But some surprising activity on March 27, 2008, shows some huge eruptions with M-class radiation at about the equatorial region of the Sun. [ See Solar Map]. These surprising eruptions suggests a barycenter of disturbance from an object even more massive than Jupiter, placing the "sleeve" outside the Sun. Could this be the beginning of the Galaxy's effects (keep reading to learn more about this) on our Sun?

Scientists have noted that when Jupiter and Saturn are aligned on the same side of the Sun, the solar activity is at its minimum; when they are on opposite sides of the Sun the solar activity is at its maximum. The positions on December 21, 2012 are ideal for extreme solar activity.

[lighthouse]

These cylinders are usually quite orderly because the planets adhere to a narrow plane, called the ecliptic which resembles a thin plate extending from the equator of the Sun. The planets hang out here because (in simple terms) this is the zone where the gravitation of the system is the strongest.

[lighthouse]

But nature is never perfect. The Sun rotates at a slight angle (7.25 degrees), much as our Earth does. As it wobbles, it tilts the sleeves, causing them to clash with eachother and eventually disrupt the surface. Havine the barycenters of the to most massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, in maximum misalignment is especially disruptive. This disturbance, to put it simply, works its way to the surface and erupts in sun spots and solar flares or CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections).
The last solar cycle was at its maximum in 2001. Each active solar cycle has a period when the flares are strongest, usually happening near the solar equator, called the "solar maximum." This is significant because the next "solar maximum" event will coincide with December 21, 2012.

[lighthouse]

Solar flares are pieces of the sun which leap into space, discharging radiation and strong electrical currents that travel outward into space. They often fall back to the surface of the Sun. Sometimes, a very strong flare, called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), actually leaves the Sun and this deadly mass shoots out from the Sun towards the planets like a bullet. Usually these CME's don't hit anything but occasionally they hit a planet like Earth. Some believe a powerful CME once hit Mars.

[lighthouse]

Most solar flares are small. But even a small flare can be dangerous. In 1989 a flare hit the North American continent and fried electric lines, zapped power grids in the US and Canada, and created large power backouts. Flares can also effect our moods and physical health. In theory, a large flare impacting the Earth could zap the ionosphere (there goes all the satellites, cellphones, GPS...) and irradiate the surface, killing every living organism that it touched.

[lighthouse]

Our solar system is part of a huge disc shaped collection of stars and planets called the Milky Way. We're located somewhere on the edge of the disc, slightly on top of the narrow disc. But very soon we'll be moving to the bottom of the disc. This change, from top to bottom, begins on December 21, 2012.

[lighthouse]

Prior to December 2012 we have been drifting on the top of the pizza, never really able to see the bottom. The plate and pizza are not parallel. They are moving at different angles. We've been drifting down, down, down... and on December 21st, 2012, we will be exactly level with the crust -- forming an "x" at the Galactic Equator where galactic gravity is the strongest. After 2012, if we are still here, we will be passing through the bottom zone, viewing the Milky Way pizza from the South.

[lighthouse]

in the book of revelation it says God gives the sun the power to scorch the earth

hmmmm

[lighthouse]

In the first quarter of 2001, the Sun switched magnetic poles. This occurs every eleven years. Prior to this the Sun's north magnetic pole was at the north rotational pole. Now the Sun's north magnetic pole is at its south pole. Since opposite poles attract, the magnetic poles of the Earth and Sun are now at their most stable.

Just about the time of 2012 Winter Solstice, the Sun's poles will switch back. During this switch there will be a tendency for the Sun's magnetic field to pull the Earth's field with it.

If the Earth's magnetic poles switch, this would put stress on the planet aggravating earthquakes and volcanos, not to mention destruction of the electrical power distribution grid.

[lighthouse]

Will the Earth burn up in 2012?

By Stephen Yulish PhD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There has been much talk of late about the supposed doomsday prediction of December 21, 2012 as reflected in the Mayan long calendar. Most of the ancient Mayan codices were burned by Spanish monks in 1521 as works of the devil. A few survived including the so called Dresden Codex. This 74 page codex written on tree bark and apparently from the famous Mayan temple and observatory at Chichen Itza was sent by Cortes to Emperor Charles V in 1519. Somehow it found its way to the Royal Library at the Court of Saxony in Dresden where it was purchased from a private collector by Johann Christian Goetze. While it was damaged by the fire bombing of Dresden during WWII, much has survived.



From this work, which was written between 1200 and 1250 AD, numerous

astronomical and calendar data points were found including information on eclipses, the transit of the planet Venus as well as information on the motion of the moon, stars and the sun. It has been determined by research scholars that the Mayan long count calendar ends on 13.0.0.0.0 which equates to our date of December 21, 2012 at 10AM GMT. On that day it has been surmised the end will come.



According to my research, many have tried to tie this upcoming apocalyptic winter solstice day with a solar shift, solar storms, and a transit of Venus as well as with severe earthquakes. Is there any truth to these allegations?



According to some astronomers, on this day our solar system will intersect with the Galactic Equator which only happens every 26,000 years. Since the Mayan calendar began in 3114 BC, they had never experienced anything like this before either. The Mayans called this event the Sacred Tree. This alignment with the center of the galaxy also allows for maximum mass and thus maximum gravity.



According to the National Earthquake Information Service of the US Geological Survey, earthquakes have gradually increased from 1 severe quake between 1890 and 1899 to 765 from 2000-2004. Could this be due to our solar systems movement towards this Galactic Equator?



NASA predicts that a terrific solar storm will hit the earth in 2012 which will be 30-50 percent greater than anything before. I believe that there has been global warming over the past decades but it is related to sunspot activity on the sun not carbon dioxide emissions. The sun has gotten hotter and that has affected the earth. A massive solar blast from the sun in 2012 could burn up the earth as could a collision with an asteroid or a comet.



There has even been talk of a polar shift which could disrupt the functioning of the entire earth and could change the axis of rotation. Such a shift has taken place in our geologic past and could happen again. If it happened on December, 1, 2012, it would truly be a day to remember



This apocalyptic date of December 21, 2012 is also supposedly found in Hopi myths, the I-Ching, Aztec writings, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman Oracles, writing of Seneca Elders, the chief Shaman of the Cherokee Tribe in NC, and even the writings of Nostradamus, The Russian mathematician Sergey Smelyakov of Khartov University taking the constant Phi (1.6180339), the so called Golden Mean or the Fibonacci sequence, and applying it to solar activity and planetary orbits, found that everything seemed to spiral in on itself on December 21, 2012 implying a time implosion or point of bifurcation.



The planet Venus is set to make a transit across the face of the sun on December 21, 2012 which happens very infrequently. It did happen recently, however, on June 8, 2004 which means it will happen again in eight years which is very unusual but predicted by the Mayans.



I cannot tell you for certain that the earth will be consumed by fire in 2012 or that there will be a polar shift or severe earthquakes, but I can tell you with certainty that one day in the not too distant future it will be consumed by fire and experience a polar shift and severe earthquakes. I can say that because the word of God says so and it did beginning over 2700 years ago, long before the Mayans or the Aztecs or the Hopi or the Seneca or the I-Ching or Nostradamus.



Once before because of its sin the earth was destroyed by water in the Great Flood of Noah’s day but the Bible says that the world will be destroyed again, this time by fire.



“The present heavens and earth, by His word, are being reserved for fire, kept for the Day of Judgment and the destruction of ungodly men” (2Peter 3:7).



“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2Peter 3:10).



“The sun scorched men with fire” (Revelation 16:8).





“A third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. A great mountain (asteroid?) burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and a third of the ships were destroyed. And a great star (comet?) fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water”

(Revelation 8:7-11).



“The inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men are left” (Isaiah 24:6).



“The hills melt and the earth is burned up” (Nahum 1:5).



Once again, many have associated December 21, 2012 with a shift in the poles as well as signs in the sky. What does the Bible tell us about these events?



“The stars will fall from the sky” (Matthew 24:29).



If the earth shifts on its axis and we are thrown around, the stars will appear to fall but it will actually be us that are moving.



“The earth is broken asunder. The earth is split through. The earth is shaken violently. Thee earth reels to and fro like a drunkard and it totters like a shack “(Isaiah 24:19-20).



Once again a shift in the polar axis might tear the earth apart.



“There will be great earthquakes. The sun became black like sackcloth; the moon became like blood…The stars of the sky fell to the earth... The sky split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up…every mountain and island moved out of their place’ (Revelation 6:12-14).



More shaking of the earth.



“There will be great earthquakes and in various places plagues and famines and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven… There will be signs in the sun and the moon and stars and upon the earth great dismay among nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves. Men fainting from fear as the powers of heaven will be shaken” (Luke 21:9, 25-26).





Here we see the Bible tell us about signs in the heavens spoken of in relation to December 21, 2012. But what do we do when we see these things happening?





“When you see these things happening, recognize that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I say to you that this generation will not pass away until all things take place…But when these things begin to take place straighten up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:31,32,28).



God assures us that, “Heaven and earth will pass away but My words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).



Some people ask why God takes so long to punish the ungodly:



“The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness but is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2Peter 3:9).



Remember this as the end fast approaches.

http://www.raptureready.com/soap/2012-Maya-prophecy.html

[lighthouse]

And what has been happening in our Planet in these last 20 years? All kind of changes have been registering. For example, strong disturbances in the terrestrial magnetism have been registered. Such prestigious magazines as Nature, Science, Scientific American and New Scientist have published works that state that we are involved in a process of magnetic inversion. Scientists have no idea about which will be the impact in the electronic and electromagnetic forces of the lattice, and they believe that this change will affect the human immunology system, while other researchers believe it will also widen our field of conscience.

We know that birds and animals migrate following the lines of these magnetic fields. Thence the speculations that the changes which are taking place are responsible for the change in the migratory patterns registered in birds of Asia and North America. The change in the magnetic fields could also explain why whales are being stranded. The navigation lines that whales follow now are conducing them to the beach. When we return them to the sea and free them, they align again with the same magnetic lines and, by following them, end again at the beach. Aviation functioning has also been affected




Another change that Norwegian, Russian and American researchers, Gregg Braden among them, author of the book “Awakening to Zero Point”, are pointing out is a decrease in the spinning velocity of the Earth, while recognizing that its basic frequency, or “beat”, called Schumann Resonance is dramatically increasing.
__________________



For thousands of years the Earth has had this pulsation frequency and life has developed in a relative ecological balance. However, in the 80s, and more acutely from the 90s, the frequency went up from 7,83 to almost 12 hertz, and it’s still increasing. This provoked that the friction mechanism of the nucleus and the magma in the centre of the Earth triggered and the environment began to change: climatic disturbances, greater volcano activities, growth of tensions and conflicts around the world and a general increase of atypical and erratic behaviours in persons, among other changes.


If the Earth would stop its spinning and the frequency of the resonance would reach 13 cycles, we would be in the magnetic field of Zero Point, which is the maximal cycle of Schumann’s scale.

Some researchers state that while we approximate to Zero Point time seems to be accelerating itself, that is, days seem shorter, weeks and months seem to elapse faster, that our DNA is changing from 2 to 12 chains, and we are becoming more intuitive




The Mayas set the birth of the “Fifth Sun” –for them our current cycle- on August 11th of the year 3113 before our era, end which will arrive in 2012 of our era. For them the Era of Water would had ended with the Deluge, the subsequent era with a rain of fire, and ours, called “Era of Movement”, will end with violent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and devastating storms





The magnetic cycle of the Sun impacts the Earth's climate and is believed to have caused the little ice age in the seventeen century. The Earth's magnetic field also flips, although much less frequently and more erratically



Sun-like Star Flips Its Magnetic Field Like Our Sun: First Observation
ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2008) — An international group of astronomers that includes the University of Hawaii's Evgenya Shkolnik have discovered that the sun-like star tau Bootis flipped its magnetic field from north to south sometime during the last year.
It has been known for many years that the Sun's magnetic field changes its direction every 11 years, but this is the first time that such a change has been observed in another star.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225133649.htm

[lighthouse]

The Schumann resonances (SR) are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, excited by lightning discharges in the cavity formed by the Earth surface and the ionosphere.

This global electromagnetic resonance phenomenon is named after physicist Winfried Otto Schumann who predicted it mathematically in 1952. Schumann resonance occurs because the space between the surface of the Earth and the conductive ionosphere acts as a waveguide. The limited dimensions of the Earth cause this waveguide to act as a resonant cavity for electromagnetic waves in the ELF band. The cavity is naturally excited by energy from lightning strikes. Schumann resonance modes are observed in the power spectra of the natural electromagnetic background noise, as separate peaks at extremely low frequencies (ELF) around 7.8, 14.3, 20.8, 27.3 and 33.8 Hz.

The fundamental mode of the Schumann resonance is a standing wave in the Earth-ionosphere cavity with a wavelength equal to the circumference of the Earth. This lowest-frequency (and highest-intensity) mode of the Schumann resonance occurs at a frequency of approximately 7.8 Hz. Further resonance modes appear at approximately 6.5 Hz intervals, a characteristic attributed to the atmosphere's spherical geometry. The peaks exhibit a spectral width of approximately 20% on account of the damping of the respective modes in the dissipative cavity. The eighth overtone lies at approximately 59.9 Hz.

Schumann resonances are used to track global lightning activity. Owing to the connection between lightning activity and the Earth's climate they can also be used to monitor global temperature variations and variations of upper water vapor. Extraterrestrial lightning may also be detected and studied with Schumann resonances. Schumann resonances have been used for research and monitoring of the lower ionosphere on Earth and was suggested for exploration of lower ionosphere parameters on celestial bodies. Schumann resonances can be used to track geomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances. More recently, Schumann resonances have been used for monitoring transient luminous events – sprites, elves, jets, and other upper-atmospheric lightning. A new field of interest using Schumann resonances is related to short-term earthquake prediction. Schumann resonances have gone beyond the boundaries of physics, invading medicine, raising interest in artists and musicians, and gaining interest from fringe fields such as psychobiology.

References
^ O. Heaviside (1902). "Telegraphy, Sect. 1, Theory.". Encyc. Brit.10th ed.. . London 9: 213–218.
^ A.E. Kennelly (1902). "On the elevation of the electrically-conducting strata of the earth's atmosphere". Electrical world and engineer 32: 473 - 473.
^ Appleton, E. V. , M. A. F. Barnett (1925). "On Some Direct Evidence for Downward Atmospheric Reflection of Electric Rays". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character 109(752): 621-641.
^ N. Tesla (1905). "The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires As A Means Of Furthering World Peace". Electrical World And Engineer January 7: 21–24.
^ Watson, G.N. (1918). "The diffraction of electric waves by the Earth". Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) Ser.A 95: 83-99.
^ a b Schumann W. O. (1952). "Über die strahlungslosen Eigenschwingungen einer leitenden Kugel, die von einer Luftschicht und einer Ionosphärenhülle umgeben ist". Zeitschrift und Naturfirschung 7a: 149-154.
^ Schumann W. O. (1952). "Über die Dämpfung der elektromagnetischen Eigenschwingnugen des Systems Erde – Luft – Ionosphäre". Zeitschrift und Naturfirschung 7a: 250-252.
^ Schumann W. O. (1952). "Über die Ausbreitung sehr Langer elektriseher Wellen um die Signale des Blitzes". Nuovo Cimento 9: 1116-1138.
^ Schumann W. O. and H. König (1954). "Über die Beobactung von Atmospherics bei geringsten Frequenzen". Naturwiss 41: 183-184. doi:10.1007/BF00638174.
^ a b Balser M. and C. Wagner (1960). "Measurement of the spectrum of radio noise from 50 to 100 c/s". J.Res. NBS 64D: 415-418.
^ Balser M. and C. Wagner (1960). "Observations of earth-ionosphere cavity resonances". Nature 188: 638-641. doi:10.1038/188638a0.
^ Balser M. and C. Wagner (1962). "Diurnal power variations of the earth-ionosphere cavity modes and their relationship to worldwide thunderstorm activity". J.G.R 67: 619-625. doi:10.1029/JZ067i002p00619.
^ Balser M. and C. Wagner (1962). "On frequency variations of the earth-ionosphere cavity modes". J.G.R 67: 4081-4083. doi:10.1029/JZ067i010p04081.
^ Balser M. and C. Wagner (1963). "Effect of a high-altitude nuclear detonation on the earth-ionosphere cavity". J.G.R 68: 4115-4118.
^ a b Volland, H. (1984). Atmospheric Electrodynamics. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
^ Price, C., O. Pechony, E. Greenberg (2006). "Schumann resonances in lightning research". Journal of Lightning Research 1: 1– 15.
^ a b Ogawa, T., Y. Tanka, T. Miura, and M. Yasuhara (1966). "Observations of natural ELF electromagnetic noises by using the ball antennas". J. Geomagn. Geoelectr 18: 443– 454.
^ Heckman S. J., E. Williams, (1998). "Total global lightning inferred from Schumann resonance measurements". J. G. R. 103(D24): 31775-31779.

[lighthouse]

Coronal Mass Ejections

Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are huge bubbles of gas threaded with magnetic field lines that are ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours. Although the Sun's corona has been observed during total eclipses of the Sun for thousands of years, the existence of coronal mass ejections was unrealized until the space age.
but the mayans did know about this so where did they get their science
and it is science
and please do not say it was demons

http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/CMEs.shtml

[lighthouse]

Solar Superstorm
Scientists are beginning to understand a historic solar storm in 1859. One day, they say, it could happen again.


In scientific circles where solar flares, magnetic storms and other unique solar events are discussed, the occurrences of September 1-2, 1859, are the star stuff of legend. Even 144 years ago, many of Earth's inhabitants realized something momentous had just occurred. Within hours, telegraph wires in both the United States and Europe spontaneously shorted out, causing numerous fires, while the Northern Lights, solar-induced phenomena more closely associated with regions near Earth's North Pole, were documented as far south as Rome, Havana and Hawaii, with similar effects at the South Pole.
__________________

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/23oct_superstorm.htm

[lighthouse]

Once in a while--exactly when scientists still cannot predict--an event occurs on the surface of the Sun that releases a tremendous amount of energy in the form of a solar flare or a coronal mass ejection, an explosive burst of very hot, electrified gases with a mass that can surpass that of Mount Everest.

[lighthouse]

What transpired during the dog days of summer 1859, across the 150 million-kilometer (about 93 million-mile) chasm of interplanetary space that separates the Sun and Earth, was this: on August 28, solar observers noted the development of numerous sunspots on the Sun's surface.

Then, on September 1, the Sun released a mammoth solar flare. For almost an entire minute the amount of sunlight the Sun produced at the region of the flare actually doubled.


"With the flare came this explosive release of a massive cloud of magnetically charged plasma called a coronal mass ejection," said Tsurutani. "Not all coronal mass ejections head toward Earth. Those that do usually take three to four days to get here. This one took all of 17 hours and 40 minutes," he noted.

[lighthouse]

we learned about solar flares in the 17th century
the mayans knew about them
3000 bc
where did they get their science
being a Christian does not mean we bury our head in the sand!!

[lighthouse]

!! Not only was this coronal mass ejection an extremely fast mover, the magnetic fields contained within it were extremely intense and in direct opposition with Earth's magnetic fields. That meant the coronal mass ejection of September 1, 1859, overwhelmed Earth's own magnetic field, allowing charged particles to penetrate into Earth's upper atmosphere.

[lighthouse]

Not only was this coronal mass ejection an extremely fast mover, the magnetic fields contained within it were extremely intense and in direct opposition with Earth's magnetic fields. That meant the coronal mass ejection of September 1, 1859, overwhelmed Earth's own magnetic field, allowing charged particles to penetrate into Earth's upper atmosphere.


http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/q768.html

[lighthouse]

Monthly suicide rates in a New Zealand city, Christchurch, are found to have a highly significant adaptive homeostatic relationship to the monthly sunspot number. A reasonable scientific question is ?how can sunspots on the sun cause suicide on the earth?? The answer to the question is ?through the Schumann Resonance signal which is modulated by the solar activity and is detected by the human brain and modulates the Melatonin output, which is related to serious depression and suicide.? The Schumann Resonance signal provides a homeostatic control of brain activity. Therefore increased and decreased Schumann Resonance intensity, produced by increased and decreased solar activity, is shown to produce homeostatic relationships with cancer, cardiac, reproductive and neurological disease and mortality rates, including anxiety, depression and suicide. This study has found significant homeostatic relationships between the monthly mean sunspot number and the suicide rates in Christchurch, New Zealand. An adaptive response appears from high, middle, low and very low solar activity over the 11-year sunspot cycle from 1988 to 1998.

http://www.neilcherry.com/cart/?mode=show_product&productid=35&catid=2&select_currency=USD

[lighthouse]

MEASURING CHANGES IN SCHUMANN WAVES



Earth's background base frequency, or heartbeat" (Schumann Waves) varies between geographical regions. For decades the overall measurement was 7.8 cycles per second. This was once thought to be a constant. Global military communications were developed using this frequency. However, recent reports set the rate at over 11 cycles and climbing.






Presumably there is some change due to the solar sunspot cycle, as the Earth's ionosphere changes in response to flares and mass ejections during the 11-year cycle of solar activity. High-energy charges coming off the Sun brush across the upper atmosphere, ionizing there.





. The amplitude (i.e., intensity) of the Schumann's resonances is not constant, and appears to be extremely dependent upon tropical (and hence global) temperature. Indeed, preliminary results seem to indicate that a mere one-degree increase in temperature correlates with a doubling of the Schumann Resonance. This could not be more significant, as it is unknown what psychobiological effect these fluctuations could have on humans.


http://www.gaiaresonance.com/Psychobiology.html

[lighthouse]

The Sun is a big magnet.

During solar minimum the Sun's magnetic field, like Earth's, resembles that of an iron bar magnet, with great closed loops near the equator and open field lines near the poles. Scientists call such a field a "dipole." The Sun's dipolar field is about as strong as a refrigerator magnet, or 50 gauss. Earth's magnetic field is 100 times weaker.

During the years around solar maximum (2000 and 2001 are good examples) spots pepper the face of the Sun. Sunspots are places where intense magnetic loops -- hundreds of times stronger than the ambient dipole field -- poke through the photosphere. Sunspot magnetic fields overwhelm the underlying dipole; as a result, the Sun's magnetic field near the surface of the star becomes tangled and complicated.

The Sun's magnetic field isn't confined to the immediate vicinity of our star. The solar wind carries it throughout the solar system. Out among the planets we call the Sun's magnetic field the "Interplanetary Magnetic Field" or "IMF." Because the Sun rotates (once every 27 days) the IMF has a spiral shape -- named the "Parker spiral" after the scientist who first described it.

Above: Steve Suess (NASA/MSFC) prepared this figure, which shows the Sun's spiraling magnetic field from a vantage point ~100 AU from the Sun.

Earth has a magnetic field, too. It forms a bubble around our planet called the magnetosphere, which deflects solar wind gusts. (Mars, which does not have a protective magnetosphere, has lost much of its atmosphere as a result of solar wind erosion.) Earth's magnetic field and the IMF come into contact at the magnetopause: a place where the magnetosphere meets the solar wind. Earth's magnetic field points north at the magnetopause. If the IMF points south -- a condition scientists call "southward Bz" -- then the IMF can partially cancel Earth's magnetic field at the point of contact.


"When Bz is south, that is, opposite Earth's magnetic field, the two fields link up," explains Christopher Russell, a Professor of Geophysics and Space Physics at UCLA. "You can then follow a field line from Earth directly into the solar wind" -- or from the solar wind to Earth. South-pointing Bz's open a door through which energy from the solar wind can reach Earth's atmosphere!

Southward Bz's often herald widespread auroras, triggered by solar wind gusts or coronal mass ejections that are able to inject energy into our planet's magnetosphere.


http://spaceweather.com/glossary/imf.html

[lighthouse]

Earth's Core, Magnetic Field Changing Fast, Study SaysKimberly Johnson
for National Geographic News
June 30, 2008
Rapid changes in the churning movement of Earth's liquid outer core are weakening the magnetic field in some regions of the planet's surface, a new study says.

"What is so surprising is that rapid, almost sudden, changes take place in the Earth's magnetic field," said study co-author Nils Olsen, a geophysicist at the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen.
Fluctuations in the magnetic field have occurred in several far-flung regions of Earth, the researchers found.

In 2003 scientists found pronounced changes in the magnetic field in the Australasian region. In 2004, however, the changes were focused on Southern Africa.


The changes "may suggest the possibility of an upcoming reversal of the geomagnetic field," said study co-author Mioara Mandea, a scientist at the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.

Earth's magnetic field has reversed hundreds of times over the past billion years, and the process could take thousands of years to complete




The decline in the magnetic field also is opening Earth's upper atmosphere to intense charged particle radiation, scientists say.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080630-earth-core.html

[lighthouse]

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14254-pulsars-wobble-provides-new-einstein-test.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news7_head_dn14254

Pulsar's wobble provides new Einstein test
20:00 03 July 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Rachel Courtland

Einstein can rest easy for a bit longer. Using a pair of orbiting pulsars, astronomers have confirmed a prediction of general relativity about how bodies wobble in the presence of gravity.



Now, a team has confirmed an old prediction that the warping of space should induce a subtle wiggle in a star's spin. This "spin precession" causes its main axis to trace a circle over time, like a spinning top

[lighthouse]

Is Earth's Magnetic Field Failing Us?

http://io9.com/395272/is-earths-magnetic-field-failing-us

Pulsar's wobble provides new Einstein test
20:00 03 July 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Rachel Courtland

Einstein can rest easy for a bit longer. Using a pair of orbiting pulsars, astronomers have confirmed a prediction of general relativity about how bodies wobble in the presence of gravity.



Now, a team has confirmed an old prediction that the warping of space should induce a subtle wiggle in a star's spin. This "spin precession" causes its main axis to trace a circle over time, like a spinning top

[lighthouse]

Planetary line-up excites the sun
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/02/2292281.htm?site=science&topic=latest

Australian astronomers may have found a solution to how far-away Jupiter and Saturn drive the sun's solar cycle.

In a paper published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, astronomer Dr Ian Wilson and colleagues from the University of Southern Queensland, suggest Jupiter and Saturn affect the sun's movement and its rotation, and hence its sunspot activity.

Every 11 years the sun undergoes a period of intense solar activity, marked by flares, coronal mass ejections and sunspots. This period is known as the solar maximum and occurs twice each solar, or Hale, cycle.


The sun can be thought of as a large bar magnet," says Wilson.

"The equatorial region of the sun spins more rapidly than the poles, and this differential rotation winds up the magnetic field lines like a rubber band."

Wilson says sunspots typically appear wherever these magnetic field lines bubble to the surface.

"Once the peak in sunspot activity is reached, a huge amount of energy is released, the magnetic poles are reversed and a new cycle begins," he says.



For many years scientists have recognised an apparent connection between the strength of sunspot activity and the movement of the sun in relation to solar system's barycentre, which is driven by the combined gravitational forces of Jupiter and Saturn.



But no one has been able to explain the connection

[lighthouse]

Tug-o-war
The authors believe the tiny gravitational tugs of Jupiter and Saturn speed up or slow down the sun's orbital motion about the centre-of-mass, when they are aligned or separated by an angular distance of 90 degrees.

They say that when the sun's orbital motion changes, so too does its equatorial rotation rate, which provides strong circumstantial evidence that there is a spin-orbit coupling mechanism operating between Jupiter and Saturn and the sun.

The authors propose that this spin-orbit coupling takes the form of a 9:8 resonance, with the 179 year alignment cycle of the Jovian planets being equal to nine alignments of Jupiter and Saturn and eight 22-year Hale cycles.

The extent to which Jupiter and Saturn affect the sun's motion may impact on the strength of sunspot activity throughout its solar cycle.

But Wilson is cautious.

"It is one thing to show an association and quite another to show cause and effect. We have to be very careful, but we will know in a few years," he says

[lighthouse]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/07/02/solarsystem.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText

Who knew? Solar system is 'dented,' not round


WASHINGTON (AP) -- When viewed from the rest of the galaxy, the edge of our solar system appears slightly dented as if a giant hand is pushing one edge of it inward, far-traveling NASA probes reveal.

Information from Earth's first space probes to hit the thick edge of the solar system -- called the heliosheath where the solar wind slows abruptly -- paint a picture that is not the simple circle that astronomers long thought, according to several studies published Thursday in the journal Nature.

Surprised astronomers said they will have to change their models for what the solar system looks like.





That push is from the magnetic field that lies between star systems in the Milky Way. The magnetic field hits the solar system at a different angle on the south than on the north, probably because of interstellar turbulence from star explosions, said Voyager project scientist Ed Stone.

[lighthouse]

solving Kepler's equation is very fast if you start from a good initial guess. If you need the eccentric anomaly for a sequence of times with small dT, then initialising the iteration with the previous solution should converge to machine precision within one or two steps.

The expression for hyperbolic orbits is nearly identical to elliptic orbits. Simply replace sin with hyperbolic sin.

If it helps, here is my code for calculating eccentric anomaly:


Code:

double Elements::EccAnomaly (double ma) const
{
// iterative calculation of eccentric anomaly from mean anomaly

const int niter = 16;
const double tol = 1e-14;
double res, E;
int i;

E = (fabs (ma-priv_ma0) < 1e-2 ? priv_ea0 : ma);
// initial guess for E: use previous calculation or mean anomaly

if (e < 1.0) { // closed orbit: solve M = E - e sin E
res = ma - E + e * sin(E);
if (fabs (res) > fabs (ma))
E = 0.0, res = ma;
for (i = 0; fabs(res) > tol && i < niter; i++) {
E += (max (-1.0, min (1.0, res/(1.0 - e * cos(E)))));
// limit step size to avoid numerical instabilities
res = ma - E + e * sin(E);
}
} else { // open orbit : solve M = e sinh E - E
res = ma - e * sinh(E) + E;
if (fabs (res) > fabs (ma)) // bad choice of initial E
E = 0.0, res = ma; // last resort
for (i = 0; fabs(res) > tol && i < niter; i++) {
E += (max (-1.0, min (1.0, res/(e * cosh(E) - 1.0))));
// limit step size to avoid numerical instabilities
res = ma - e * sinh(E) + E;
}
}

priv_ma0 = ma;
priv_ea0 = E;
return E;
I would think the sun is more than worthwhile you want to accurately display the barycenter.

As the gravitational force on the Moon caused by the Sun is 2.2 times stronger than the one exerted by the Earth, the Moon also orbits the Sun and describes an almost identical ellipse to the one described by the Earth. And its trajectory is always convex: it always curves towards the Sun. That is not the case of the majority of the artificial satellites orbiting the Earth, which make a revolution around our planet in less than 2 hours. But the Moon rotates around the Earth's reference frame 400 times slower.

[lighthouse]

The gravitational pull of the moon is the one single strongest factor in the difference we can see in the level of the oceans between high and low tides, but the Sun's gravitational pull also has a smaller, but still detectable, similar effect.

Similarly, the moon's and the sun's gravitational pulls pull on the earth's crust, and contribute to the effect we now call plate tectonics or tectonic shift.

Further, the gravitational pull of the moon is what is responsible for the fact that the moon does not orbit around the earth, but rather that the earth and the moon both orbit around an invisible point directly between the earth and the moon a few thousand miles above sea level, called the Barycenter, making it that our orbit shifts a few thousand miles closer to or away from the on a monthly basis.

Further, since the moon's orbit around the Barycenter is much larger than the Earth's orbit around the barycenter, the moon passes through a much greater amount of space than the earth does, on each annual orbit around the sun, making it that the vast majority of things floating around in space that could become shooting stars or meteorites or meteors, wind up colliding with the moon instead, making it less likely for the earth to collide with anything that might destroy all life on earth as we know it. So, the moon's gravitational pull helps keep us safe from shooting stars.

[lighthouse]

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q923.html

Do the planets affect the sunspot cycle?

There was a paper published by the Astronomical Journal in April, 1965 ( vol. 70, page 193) by Paul D. Jose which described just such an effect. He noted that the Sun and planets orbit about a point called the barycenter of the solar system which is located between 0.01 and 2.2 times the radius of the Sun from the Sun's center. The path of the Sun is actually a loop-de-loop about this point which doesn't close upon itself like an ordinary planetary orbit. Jose discovered that although this motion is complicated, the Sun returns to roughly its starting position with respect to this point every 179 years, which he noted is 9 times the synodic period of Jupiter and Saturn. This means that every 179 years as seen from the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn return to the same spot in the sky. He looked at the sunspot record from 1610 to 1954 and found evidence of this same period in the maxima and minima of the 11 year sunspot cycle. In other words, superimposed upon the 11-year cycle, there was a 179 year modulation of the amplitudes of each cycle. This modulation matched the phase of the rate of change in time of the Sun's angular momentum (dL/dt) with respect to the barycenter. He concluded that "Certain forces exerted upon the Sun by the planets are the cause of the sunspot cycle"

[lighthouse]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2001/200112065794.html

During the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, from 1645 to 1715, there is believed to have been a decrease in the total energy output from the Sun, as indicated by little or no sunspot activity. Known as the Maunder Minimum, astronomers of the time observed only about 50 sunspots for a 30-year period as opposed to a more typical 40-50,000 spots. The Sun normally shows signs of variability, such as its eleven-year sunspot cycle. Within that time, it goes from a minimum to a maximum period of activity represented by a peak in sunspots and flare activity.

Beginning in 1611, Galileo Galilei made drawings of lower sunspot activity before the Maunder Minimum. Records of sunspot activity during the Minimum from other astronomers confirm the lower number of sunspots over the70 year event.

[lighthouse]

In 2005, a pair of astronomers from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson attempted to publish a paper in the journal Science. The pair looked at minute spectroscopic and magnetic changes in the sun. By extrapolating forward, they reached the startling result that, within 10 years, sunspots would vanish entirely. At the time, the sun was very active. Most of their peers laughed at what they considered an unsubstantiated conclusion.



But will the rest of us? In the past 1000 years, three previous such events -- the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums, have all led to rapid cooling. One was large enough to be called a "mini ice age". For a society dependent on agriculture, cold is more damaging than heat. The growing season shortens, yields drop, and the occurrence of crop-destroying frosts increases.

[lighthouse]

By Eric Lowther


This was all a good friend’s fault: he just had to ask me to look into “Earth’s ‘pole shifts’” in relation to the eschatological prophecy in Isaiah 24. “I have heard some lines of thinking that suggests the Earth’s rotational axis may have in the past, and is expected to again, shift from its current position to another angle with respect to the plane of the ecliptic.” After a bit of research, the following is what I came up with.

While initially studying Isaiah 24, these key phrases jumped out:

(1a-b) Behold, the LORD will lay waste the earth and make it desolate,
He will distort its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

(3) The land shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled;

(6) the inhabitants of the earth are burned,
And few men are left.

(12) Desolation is left In the city,
and the gates are battered into ruins.

(18c) For the windows of heaven are opened;
the foundations of the earth tremble.

(19) The earth is broken asunder,
The earth is split open,
The earth is violently shaken.

(20) The earth staggers like a drunken man,
it sways like a hut. (author’s paraphrase combining RSV & NKJV)

These phrases clearly describe a major earthquake. All the effects noted here were observed in the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and have been well documented in other earthquakes since. “The earth is burned (vs.6),” could have been a pocket of natural gas that ruptured and exploded (a modern analogy are gas pipelines). “The earth staggers like a drunken man (vs.20),” was probably a phenomenon called ‘liquefaction’: during a major earthquake, sandy or otherwise loose soil actually behaves like liquid.

Also take note of these two verses:

The words of Amos ... which he envisioned in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah... two years before the earthquake. ~ Amos 1:1 (NASB)

… Yes, you shall flee
As you fled from the earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

~ Zechariah 14:5 (NKJV)

In commentaries on the Book of Amos, there is extensive speculation about why an earthquake is mentioned in vs.1:1; Zechariah 14:5 being the only other instance in the Bible. Oddly, the quake is not mentioned at all in 2 Kings 15 or 2 Chronicles 26; perhaps the ancient redactors of these books did not consider it worthy of inclusion?

Besides the quake of Isaiah 24:19-20, many phrases in vss.4-13 (e.g. “the proud people languish,” “the earth is defiled under its inhabitants,” “the city of confusion is broken down”) could describe the careless, complacent, depraved condition of Judah's elite during the earthquake (cf. Amos 4:1-3). Israel is situated on the west side of a rift valley, which is actually the northern end of the Great Rift Valley that extends southward through the Red Sea into eastern Africa. Although major earthquakes are rare, there are moderate quakes at somewhat regular intervals. For example, an earthquake of 5.0 on the Richter Scale occurred on 11 February 2004, the epicenter being in the Northern Dead Sea region (along the rift); more recently, on 15 February 2008, a quake measuring 5.3 was centered ten miles northeast of Tyre, Lebanon, and caused significant damage to the city of Shechem and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

One must remember the knowledge & mind-set of the time Isaiah 24 was written, well over 2,000 years ago. References here to ‘the earth’ (16 of them in the whole chapter) probably meant only the known world of the Middle East, not the entire planet as we now know it, a ‘blue ball’ orbiting alone in space. The immediate conditions described in vss. 19-20 quite likely describe a massive earthquake of 7.6 or greater on the Richter scale. But that was not the writer’s purpose; he was not reporting an earthquake he witnessed, but used the imagery of a cataclysmic earthquake to describe a vivid prophesy about future event(s) affecting Earth as a whole. According to Torrey's New Topical Textbook, Isaiah 24:19-20 falls under the category Earthquakes: “illustrative of the judgments of God,” (cf. Isaiah 29:6; Jeremiah 4:24). The New Interpreter's Bible has an interesting comment: “vss. 19-20 use the imagery of an earthquake, but this is no ordinary earthquake. It will strike the whole earth with violence beyond measure.”

Back to the original question about “Earth’s ‘pole shifts’”: whether or not the prophecy of Isaiah 24 supposes a world-wide celestial-caused event is impossible to discern from Scripture. The only event I'm aware of (to modern science, that is) that could cause Earth's rotational axis (or ‘poles’) to shift in relation to the ecliptic plane — ‘officially’ known in astronomy as ‘obliquity of the ecliptic’* — is a large meteorite impact at an oblique angle near one of the rotational poles, likely an asteroid of at least 8-10 kilometers. But in such an event it would take hundreds of years for the ecliptical angle of Earth’s rotational axis to shift enough to cause climate change; whereas the impact itself would be immediately catastrophic, causing global cooling due to ejected material (darkening of the sun & moon in vs.23?), and possibly planet-wide earthquakes such as those described in vss. 19-20.

Although no Scripture should be taken lightly, the allusion to “the sun & moon will be darkened” is all the more profound due to similar phrases appearing in no less than six other places in the Bible! Check out these passages:

For the stars of heaven and their constellations
Will not give their light;

The sun will be darkened in its going forth,

And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

~ Isaiah 13:10 (NKJV)

When I put out your light,
I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark;

I will cover the sun with a cloud,
And the moon shall not give her light.

~ Ezekiel 32:7 (NKJV)

The earth quakes before them,
The heavens tremble;

The sun and moon grow dark,
And the stars diminish their brightness …

The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

~ Joel 2:10,31 (NKJV)

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” ~ Matthew 24:29 (NKJV)

I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood. ~ Revelation 6:12 (NLT)

Note that the darkening of the sun & moon in Joel 2:10 and Revelation 6:12 occur in conjunction with a great earthquake; Isaiah 13:10 and Ezekiel 32:7 also state the stars & heavens will go dark. Along with this darkening, in Matthew 24:29 Jesus says “stars will fall from heaven,” which could indicate an intense meteor shower: dozens of ‘shooting stars’ falling every minute, thousands each hour. Remember, the ancients believed that meteors blazing across the sky were literally stars falling from heaven.

There are historical precedents & plausible scientific explanations for each of these phenomena. An excellent example of “darkening of the sun & moon” occurred in the early 19th century. Significant global cooling occurred after the April 1815 explosions/eruptions of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, which ejected an estimated 36 cubic miles of rock into the atmosphere. This added to substantial amounts of volcanic dust already spewed out by other major eruptions in 1812 & 1814; the accumulated events caused ‘The Year Without a Summer’ of 1816. This abnormally cold summer resulted in freezing weather throughout the year across the northern hemisphere; devastating crop failures & famine, especially in Europe and the American Northeast; along with ‘brown’ and ‘red’ snowfalls throughout the year in parts of Europe.* A similar effect to an even greater magnitude would be caused by a large asteroid impact which would quite likely eject greater amounts of debris into the atmosphere. As shown in graphical representations of the impact events that presumably caused the mass extinctions of the past, some of this ejecta could go into low sub-orbit, re-entering the atmosphere as ‘falling stars’: an intense meteor shower.

Since I first researched & wrote this article in April 2008, I have seen Lee Strobel’s The Case For A Creator. In the video he describes how, by utilizing observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have refined the values of the cosmological constant. Without going into a highly scientific explanation here, these newly refined values show that Earth’s position in the solar system, which makes life possible on our tiny planet, are so ‘fine tuned’ that they exist within tolerances of up to 10-120 reduced Planck units.* Not only does Mr. Strobel make the point of “how could tolerances this infinitesimal have happened by evolution?”, he also makes note of the influence of the moon’s stable orbit on Earth’s position. It is now widely accepted that the centrifugal gravitational pull of the moon’s orbit is what actually stabilizes Earth’s rotational axis, keeping Earth’s poles at their present angle to the ecliptic plane (currently, the axial tilt is approximately 23°26”*). Now, if an asteroid of ≈10 km struck the moon — which has only .02% of the volume and .0123% the mass compared to that of Earth’s* — the impact could easily knock the moon out of its current orbit, causing a radical fluctuation in the Earth’s axial tilt. Such an event could possibly also change the precession of the axis, and induce a planet-wide ‘wobble’ which would last for eons (this latter effect has been discovered on the moon, the result of a meteor impact about 1000 years ago). This now seems to me a more likely scenario than the direct hit mentioned above, but I wanted to keep both for the sake of debate.

Of special note: there are now catalogued over 400,000 asteroids in our solar system (registered by the International Astronomical Union (IAU)), discovered at the rate of ≈5,000 per month*. Although the orbits of these bodies are carefully plotted so that ‘near-earth’ objects can be identified, their small size makes them highly susceptible to gravitational pulls from the planets, thus plotting their orbits into the distant future is difficult to impossible.

Meteoric impacts on Earth are far more common than first thought before the 1990s (the definition of ‘impact’ here includes the atmosphere & oceans, not just dry land). On the average, each year one of only 3-6m size, with the explosive potential of a small nuclear bomb, strikes Earth. Since most of Earth’s surface is water or otherwise uninhabited by humans, most surface impacts go unnoticed; and more often, meteors explode in the atmosphere. While U.S. spy satellites started operating in the 1960s — originally intended to detect atmospheric nuclear detonations — they have detected hundreds of explosions in the atmosphere caused by natural sources*. Of course, the great danger here is that a natural explosion could be mis-interpreted as a man-made nuclear device. But that’s another story.

Back to Isaiah 24, G. G. D. Kilpatrick wrote a fascinating exposition for The Interpreter’s Bible (my paraphrase): “The entire chapter is a picture of the world scourged by God. A divine house cleaning of sin, not only of people who have strayed from the Law and polluted the earth (vs.5), but of Earth itself. The contamination of evil is so great that evil permeates even the structure of the world. And, to prove that no one is exempt — God is not a respecter of persons [cf. Acts 10:34; Galatians 2:6] — all people from the highest of the wealthy to the lowest of the poor will be affected (vs.2). The impersonality shown by natural disasters abolishes instantly all artificial classifications. Something has to be done with a world profaned and an Earth poisoned by human sin. The Bible knows nothing of the theory that matter itself is evil. The great disasters which ravage nature and destroy life are not depicted as the work of evil spirits, but always as judgment on human sin. Is there some kind of moral sympathy between man and nature? Is man merely a temporary manifestation of a type of life, which for a little while infests Earth then passes, leaving to time the healing of his disfigurement & pollution? Or as the Bible claims, is man of such moment to God that Earth is at his service?”

The Apostle Peter seemed aware of this upcoming cataclysm when he wrote:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? ~ 2 Peter 3:10-12 (NKJV)

Among other things, this passage refers back to both Isaiah 24:19 and a prophecy of Micah:

The mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like water poured down a steep place.

~ Micah 1:4 (NASB)

Unfortunately, this article has probably generated more questions than answers. And of course, I have no intention of downplaying God’s divine role in this prophecy, attempting to explain it away with modern science. But such uncertainty is the study of Biblical prophecy. And as I pointed out in my article Modern Idolatry, we as believers in Christ must be ready to face what will happen if modern society does not turn away from its idolatrous practices (emphasis added):

The LORD said to the sons of Israel … “you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” ~ Judges 10:11,13-14 (NASB)

Blessings in Christ Who guides us,

~ Eric

http://www.raptureready.com/soap/lowther2.html

[CoreIssue]

Absolutely no doubt God uses the patterns of nature in such things as the Trib.

Getting into these kinds of formula is very complex.

You are right, a gravity well does not equal the center of a planetary mass when looking a solar system. Tons of influences distend and extend the issues.

Moons around planets, planets around sun, solar system around galaxy center and galaxy around universe center. All those gravity and other energy fields playing against each other.

Magnetic pole drift summing up to reversal.

Inertia and resistance slowing the earths rotation and path around the sun, thus changing everything. But on a incredibly slow pace of time.

Then toss in meteors, asteroids and comets. A hit from anyone of them being instantly and long term devasting plus changing other aspects of the earth.

I fully see these issues used in the Trib. They are also proof that what is now was not what it use to be.

Scientific models demonstrate that many assumptions of an old earth are impossible unless God restarted some clocks at some point in time. Otherwise the earth would be unlivable already or in ancient times the rotationary speed would have been too fast to support life.

Very complex. Man being cocky thinking they have such a profound grasp of it all utter nonsense.

But we do know a lot of basics. And those basics tell us something is coming. Will it be on nature's time table or God's? God's I believe.

[InTheWind]

But it also says it will be like birth pains starting out slow and getting bad quickly, which an event like 2012 and others could do.
If we are in the actual last part of the church age i think these things may play a roll.
Time will tell.