NASA Bombs The Moon Creating New Dimple

This is the first image of the Moon taken from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite on its approach. Two Nasa spacecraft barrelled towards the Moon at twice the speed of a bullet this afternoon

Saturday, 10 October 2009 8:31 AM
KOMPAS.com - It was billed as one of the most ambitious missions in the history of space exploration. But Nasa's audacious attempt to smash two spacecraft into the surface of Moon in the search for water turned into a damp squib for millions of people today.The £49million 'bombing raid' was supposed to create a six-mile high cloud of dust that would be visible from telescopes on the Earth.But live pictures relayed back from the Moon showed no sign of an impact - even though both craft dived into a darkened crater as planned.Nasa scientists were today analysing the data and images sent back to the Earth to find tell trace traces of ice in the debris.Millions of people had watched live on the internet as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite and its two-tonne Centaur rocket approached the Moon's south pole.The rocket was first to crash, plunging into the pitch-black Cabeus crater at 12.31pm. Nasa hoped it would blast 350 tonnes of rock and dust into a cloud, leaving behind a dimple the third the size of a football pitch. Travelling faster than a bullet, it was supposed to hit with the force of 1.5 tonnes of TNT and create a mini-crater about half the size of an Olympic pool. The second crash, caused by the smaller LCROSS probe, was to be about one-third as strong.The first crash was filmed by the LCROSS probe, which had detached from the rocket the night before. It beamed live information to Earth from its five cameras and four scientific instruments as it flew above the impact zone before it too smashed into the surface four minutes later.Scientists hoped to find evidence of ice at the bottom of dark craters at the Moon's poles, where temperatures are lower than minus 170C.However, the big spectacle Nasa had promised failed to happen. The webcast images of the crater loomed larger and larger as the satellite approached on its collision course, but still showed no sign of debris.Nasa officials said their instruments were working, but the planned live photos were missing. The only evidence of an impact was a small heat signature picked up by the LCROSS probe's infra-red camera.Expectations by the public for live plume video were probably too high and based on pre-crash animations, some of which were not by Nasa, said project manager Dan Andrews.Nasa's director at the Ames Research Centre which monitored the mission Michael Bicay admitted: 'We didn't see a big splashy plume like we wanted to see.'Prior to impact some scientists had claimed that there was chance that it would be clear within an hour of the collision whether there was water on the Moon. Now Nasa say it will probably be two weeks before they have an answer.Another issue regarding the impacts was the poor lighting, said Mr Andrews. Experts said the images could be essentially 'grey against black'.'What matters for us is: What is the nature of the stuff that was kicked up going in?' he said. 'All nine instruments were working fine and we received good data.'Mr Andrews said the science team was poring through the information - including what are supposed to be good images from ground-based telescopes on Earth - to answer the big question: Is there some form of water under the moon's surface that was dislodged?It will probably be two weeks before scientists will be certain about the answer, he said.Before the crash, mission scientists said there was a chance that if it was really moist under the crater, they'd know about water within an hour. That's not the case now, Mr Andrews said.People who got up before dawn to look for the crash at Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory exchanged confused looks instead. Jim Mahon called the celestial show 'anticlimactic'. 'I was hoping we'd see a flash or a flare,' he said.A British expert who helped the American space agency Nasa pick the location near the Moon's south pole said the lunar surface may not have reacted as expected.But Dr Vincent Eke, from the University of Durham, stressed it was still too early to know if the mission had been a success or failure.'If it turns out to be as dull as it looked, I'd imagine the soil just didn't respond as was hoped to being hit,' said Dr Eke. 'It might mean we don't get sufficient data, which would be a shame.'Dr Eke's team discovered strong evidence of hydrogen - a key component of water - within cold permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles, where temperatures fall to minus 200C.Finding water, which could be used for drinking, making fuel and providing oxygen, would have major implications for the future of moon exploration.A ready supply of water would make it far more practicable to build lunar bases or launch missions to Mars from the Moon.Dr Eke, who led a study of data from Nasa's 1998 Lunar Prospector mission which revealed hydrogen concentrated in darkened craters, said: 'There's absolutely no doubt that they hit the place they were aiming for, but how material gets thrown out from the surface depends on whether it's rocky or loose. If you hit a sponge, you're not going to see anything.'It sounds like they got an infrared signal, but its too early to predict yet what they're likely to get.'Last month new findings from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan-1 probe, showed that small amounts of water might be chemically bound up with the Moon's soil.Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the mission, cautioned: 'We don't anticipate anything about presence or absence of water immediately. It's going to take us some time.'If hydrogen is present as water ice, then the data would imply the top metre of the surface in these craters holds about 200,000 million litres of water in total.Preparation for impact comes as stunning thermal images of the far side of the Moon have been revealed for the first time.The British-made Thermoteknix camera is onboard the LCROSS, and will be one of the instruments that will study the first plume of debris before crashing itself.'The camera has worked flawlessly for nearly 100 days, and counting, in interplanetary space,' said Mr Colaprete.'It provided the first thermal images of the far side of the moon and also images of Earth and the Moon from distances as great as 560,000km and 850,000 km away, respectively.'The MIRICLE camera was developed by pioneering thermal imaging company Thermoteknix Systems, based in Cambridge.Dr Richard Salisbury, managing director of Thermoteknix, said: 'We are delighted to have been selected to play a critical part in Nasa's important mission to find water on the Moon, which is vital for the future of longterm space exploration.'We are all very proud of this achievement.'Sumber : The Daily Mail

World Stocks Lose Gains As Wall Street Flounders

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:59 PM
LONDON, KOMPAS.com — European stocks lost their earlier gains Thursday as Wall Street floundered on the open, pushing investors to take profits on this week’s rally, which has seen many indexes reach new highs for the year. Germany’s DAX was up 0.1 percent at 5,703.84, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.4 percent to 5,142.83 and France’s CAC-40 was down 0.1 percent to 3,810.78. Asian markets made strong gains, but U.S. indexes were unable to maintain the previous day’s momentum. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.1 percent at 9,797.75 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index traded 0.1 percent lower at 1,068.04. U.S. traders were hesitant to extend this week’s rally, which has been driven largely by strong economic data, on fears that the good news may be priced in by now. The figures have supported the claims by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the recession is “very likely over,” although some analysts say markets need more proof of recovery to sustain gains. On Thursday, data showed housing starts rose 1.5 percent in August, about as expected, indicating the sector’s downturn has bottomed out, although experts believe a recovery will be slow because of high foreclosure rates and weak consumer spending. Other upbeat statistics this week included industrial production on Wednesday — a 0.8 percent rise in August, better than expected — and retail sales on Tuesday. After weeks of caution over the valuation of stocks — with investors worrying that gains since March were not justified and economic recovery would be slow — equities have risen steadily this week. Mitul Kotecha, analyst at Calyon, noted that while momentum is strong and stocks may rise further, “equity valuations are increasingly suggesting some caution.” The increased appetite for risk and rise in stocks has had the knock-on effects of weakening the dollar — which is typically bought as a safe haven — and boosting oil prices and commodities. In Ireland, the benchmark index jumped 2.8 percent after the government announced it would acquire euro77 billion ($113 billion) in defaulting property loans from the country’s struggling banks — and pay 30 percent less. The hope is that a “bad bank” would stabilize the financial sector and free up banks to lend normally once again. Shares in Allied Irish Banks soared 21.7 percent and Bank of Ireland rose 12.8 percent on the news. In Asia, indexes generally rose more sharply than their European or U.S. counterparts, driven in part by unprecedented liquidity from government stimulus spending and low interest rates set by central banks. “Asia is outperforming right now, but this is primarily liquidity driving the market up,” said Peter Lai, investment manager at DBS Vickers in Hong Kong. “I feel the upside opportunities are quite limited but the downsides risks are high, and many people may start looking for opportunities to take profits.” Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average closed up 1.7 percent at 10,443.80 after the central bank raised its assessment of the world’s second-largest economy and kept interest rates at 0.1 percent to nurture a recovery. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 1.7 percent, China’s Shanghai benchmark rose 2 percent and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.7 percent. Elsewhere, Australia’s market jumped 1.4 percent and India’s Sensex was up 0.5 percent. Among other countries whose main stock measures hit new highs for 2009 on Thursday were India, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan. Oil prices rose slightly, holding above $72 a barrel. Benchmark crude for October delivery was up 7 cents at $72.58 a barrel by afternoon European time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The dollar rose to 91.33 yen from 90.88 yen late Wednesday in NewYork. The euro gained to $1.4740 from $1.4706.Sumber : AP

The Meaning of Noordin M Top's Death

Thursday, 17 September 2009 10:50 PM
SOLO, KOMPAS.com — Noordin Muhammed Top, a militant mastermind who eluded capture for seven years and terrorized Indonesia with a string of deadly al-Qaida-funded bombings, was killed during a raid Thursday, the Indonesian police chief said. Police hunting for suspects in bombings of two luxury Jakarta hotels raided a hide-out in central Indonesia, sparking an hours-long gunfight that ended at dawn with an explosion. Four suspected militants died, including Noordin, national police Chief Bambang Hendarso Danuri said. Three suspects also were captured. The operation left behind a charred house with no roof and blown-out walls. Noordin’s remains were found inside the house on the outskirts of the town of Solo in central Java, the main Indonesian island, Danuri said. Fingerprints of Noordin’s obtained from authorities in his native Malaysia and stored on a police database matched those of the body, Danuri said. DNA tests have not yet been conducted. The bodies were flown to Jakarta for autopsies. “It is Noordin M. Top,” Danuri told a nationally televised news conference to loud cheers from the audience of reporters, photographers and TV crews. Documents and laptop computers confiscated from the house prove that Noordin “is the leader of al-Qaida in Southeast Asia,” he said. Hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of explosives, M-16 assault rifles, grenades and bombs were removed from the house as ambulances shuttled away the dead and injured.“We asked Noordin M. Top to surrender, but they kept firing,” Danuri said. “That is how he died. ... He even had bullets in his pockets.” Noordin fled to Indonesia in 2002 amid a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Malaysia in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. He is accused of heading a splinter group of the al-Qaida-funded regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah and has been implicated in every major attack in Indonesia since 2002, including two separate bombings on the resort island of Bali that together killed 222 people, mostly foreigners. He has also been blamed for a pair of suicide bombings at Jakarta’s J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in July, an earlier attack on the Marriott in 2003 and a bombing at the Australian Embassy in 2004. “The most dangerous terrorist in Southeast Asia has been put out of commission,” said Jim Della-Giacoma, Southeast Asia project director for the International Crisis Group think tank. “It would have been better if police had managed to arrest him alive, but it appears that this was not an option,” he said. “Unfortunately, Noordin’s death does not mean an end to terrorism in Indonesia, though it has been dealt a significant blow.” In the Philippines, where authorities are fighting an Islamist insurgency in the south, Noordin’s death was welcomed by authorities as a sign that terrorists cannot hide from the law forever. “It’s a major accomplishment, it’s a big blow to their leadership, to their capability to train new bombers,” said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, who leads assaults against al-Qaida-linked militants. “There are gains being made in the anti-terrrorism campaign in the region.” A spokesman for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he was aware of reports of Noordin’s death. “We are awaiting official confirmation from the Indonesian government,” he said. Dozens of Australians were killed in the 2002 bombing of Bali nightclubs. An Indonesian counterterrorism official said the militants killed Thursday included alleged bomb-maker Bagus Budi Pranato. The captured militants included a pregnant woman who is being treated at a hospital, national police spokesman Nanan Sukarna said. She was in stable condition.Sumber : AP

Did Hitler Play Lenin at Chess?

Sunday, 6 September 2009 8:43 AM
KOMPAS.com - Their opposing ideologies would be a central part of the most destructive military clash of the 20th century. But here the battleground was just a chessboard.This remarkable picture supposedly shows Adolf Hitler pitting his wits against Vladimir Lenin. And its owners claim it is based on a real chess game between the men 100 years ago. While historians have cast doubt on its authenticity, the family which owns the picture is convinced they can prove it is genuine.The image is said to have been etched in Vienna by Hitler's art teacher, Emma Lowenstramm. It is also said to be signed on the reverse by the men who would go on to lead their respective nations.Hitler was a 20-year-old jobbing artist in the city in 1909 and Lenin - twice his age - was in exile from Russia. The house where they apparently played the game belonged to a prominent Jewish family.In the run-up to the Second World War the family fled and gave many of their possessions, including the etching and chess set, to their housekeeper.Now the housekeeper's great-great grandson is selling the image and the chess set at auction. Both items have a pre-sale estimate of £40,000.The unnamed vendor is confident they are genuine after his father spent a lifetime attempting to prove their authenticity.He compiled a 300-page document that included results of tests on the paper and the signatures. Richard Westwood-Brookes, of auctioneers Mullock's, said: 'The signatures in pencil are said to have an 80 per cent chance of being genuine.'Some experts, however, have questioned the picture's authenticity. Historian Helen Rappaport, author of Conspirator: Lenin in Exile, said the etching was probably a 'glorious piece of fantasy'.She said there was no evidence Lenin had been in Vienna in 1909, adding that 'he was as bald as a bat by 1894' - unlike the man pictured, who has a full head of hair. The items are to be auctioned in Ludlow, Shropshire, on October 1.Sumber : The Daily Mail

Istanbul-Jakarta Flight Service Offered

Sunday, 6 September 2009 9:21 AM
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Turkish Airlines has opened an Istanbul-Jakarta flight service to increase cooperation between the two countries. "The opening of the service is part of the company’s efforts to widen relations between the two countries," the airline’s chief, Candan Karlitekin, said here on Saturday. He made the statement at the opening of the service, which was also attended by the chairman of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly, Hidayat Nur Wahid. The opening of the service had long been awaited by various parties in the two countries, Karlitekin said adding the route to Jakarta was one of hundreds the airline was serving in the world. He said he was optimistic the service would increase the two countries’ relations in the economic field and also in tourism and make the relations between the two countries and their communities closer. "Indonesia is a big country and potential so that the company has considered it necessary to open flights to Jakarta," he said. For the time being flights would still make a stopover in Singapore but in 2011 there would be direct flights, he said. Hidayat Nur Wahid welcomed the opening of the service and hoped it would make the two countries’ relations closer. "I welcome the opening of the service and hoped it would benefit both Indonesia and Turkey," he said. The Istanbul-Jakarta service will be carried out five times a week namely on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday departing at 11.20 pm local times and arriving at 05.25 pm local times. The Jakarta-Istanbul service will also be carried out five times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with schedule of departure at 07.15 pm local time and arrival at 05.40 am local time.Sumber : Antara

Terrorist Infiltrated Indonesian Airline

Tuesday, 1 September 2009 6:16 AM
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — A suspect wanted in connection with hotel suicide bombings in the Indonesian capital infiltrated the national airline in a plot to carry out a “bigger attack,” the police chief said Monday. The suspect, identified only as Syahrir, was recruited by a militant network and had been working as a technician with the airline, Garuda Indonesia, said National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri. Documents seized by police uncovered the plot to strike Indonesia’s airline sector, he said, without providing details about when or how the attack was supposed to have taken place. Syahrir resigned from the airline and remains at large, Danuri said. The blasts at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels on July 17 killed seven people and wounded more than 50 others, ending a four-year pause in terror attacks in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Syahrir is the brother-in-law of a militant suspect shot dead by police earlier this month in an hours-long standoff in Central Java province, Danuri said. The dead suspect, Ibrohim, had been working as a florist at the two hotels for years before smuggling in explosives and the bombers for the July attacks, police say. Danuri declined to provide further information to reporters after making his comments to parliament’s foreign affairs and security committee, but the details appear to support theories by terrorism experts that militants infiltrated potential targets years in advance. Additional evidence was also found about a plot to assassinate President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in retaliation for the execution of three convicted Bali bombers in 2008. Danuri provided no further details. Police were still searching for several suspects in the recent hotel bombings, including the alleged mastermind, Noordin Muhammad Top, said to head a breakaway faction of the regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah. Indonesia suffered bombings between 2002 and 2005 that together killed more than 240 people, most of them foreign tourists on the resort island of Bali. Danuri said 455 suspected militants have been detained in Indonesia since 2002, and 347 received prison sentences ranging from a few months to the death penalty. Some 192 have served prison terms and been released. One of the four fugitives in the Jakarta hotel bombings was a convicted bomb-maker named Urwah who was sentenced to seven years but released and “returned to his old habitat,” Danuri said. Police have said they were investigating the possibility the July bombings were carried out with foreign funding, which terrorism experts believe could indicate links to al-Qaida. Authorities say the terrorism network was involved in four major attacks in Indonesia, including the two Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005, the J.W. Marriott bombing in 2003, and a blast at the Australian Embassy also in Jakarta in 2004.

Philippine police arrest suspected Muslim militant

The Associated Press , Manila Tue, 09/01/2009 10:23 AM World
Police have captured a suspected al-Qaida-linked militant accused of high-profile kidnappings of at least four Americans and dozens of Filipinos in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.Last week's arrest of Hajer Sailani, an alleged member of the Abu Sayyaf, in a shopping mall in southern Cotabato city was the latest success of a crackdown that has netted several militants in the country's south and foiled kidnapping and terror plots, police said.Sailani has been linked to the 2000 kidnapping of American Jeffrey Schilling, a Muslim convert who traveled to an Abu Sayyaf jungle stronghold on southern Jolo Island but was held by the militants on suspicion that he was working for the CIA, police spokesman Leonardo Espina said. Schilling escaped eight months later.Sailani also was allegedly involved in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans and 17 Filipino tourists at the Dos Palmas resort in southwestern Palawan province, which prompted Washington to deploy U.S. troops to the southern Mindanao region to help the Philippine military rescue them, Espina said.American missionary Gracia Burnham survived the yearlong jungle captivity, but husband Martin was killed in the military rescue in 2002. The third American, Guillermo Sobero, was beheaded by the militants on Basilan Island.Espina said Sailani also played a role in the kidnappings of dozens of teachers, riests and students in two Basilan schools in 2000. Most of the hostages were freed or escaped, but at least two teachers were beheaded.The national police "will not rest until all terrorists and criminals are arrested, accounted for and neutralized," Espina said.Among those arrested recently was inno-Amor Rosalejos Pareja, alleged head of the Rajah Solaiman Movement that officials say was behind the 2004 Manila ferry bombing that killed 116 people in the country's worst terror attack.The Abu Sayyaf, which has more than 300 fighters, is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. It is suspected f receiving funds and training from al-Qaida.Although the government has claimed to have crippled the Abu Sayyaf after several U.S.-backed offensives, the group still poses a major threat. It held three Red Cross workers and several others hostage earlier this year, engaged government troops in fierce fighting and planted bombs, including Sunday's blast that wounded two soldiers outside an airport and an air force base on Jolo, about 590 miles (950 kilometers) south of the capital, Manila.