Badan Penelitian dan Pengembangan Teknologi Kegunungapian (BPPTK) Yogyakarta -lembaga resmi yang memonitor gunung Merapi secara terus-menerus baik dalam kondisi aktif normal maupun di luar normal seperti saat ini- secara resmi melansir letusan Merapi 2010 ini merupakan letusan skala VEI 4. Pernyataan resmi ini mengonfirmasi dugaan sebelumnya akan dinamika Merapi dalam letusan kali ini. Namun BPPTK juga menekankan -mengutip mas Agus Hendratno- bahwa dalam skala letusan VEI 4 ini dinamika Merapi sungguh sulit untuk ditebak sehingga kapan letusan berakhir menjadi hal yang sangat sulit diprediksi. Senada dengannya, Pusat Vulkanologi dan Mitigasi Bencana Geologi (PVMBG) di Bandung pun melansir penyataan bahwa aktivitas Merapi masih terhitung tinggi meski intensitas letusan memang cenderung merendah, seperti telah ditulis sebelumnya. Namun masih terdapat kemungkinan intensitas letusan menaik lagi hingga mendekati atau bahkan menyamai letusan besar 3-5 November lalu. Sehingga Merapi tetap berstatus awas, dengan zonasi radius bahayanya yang spesifik per wilayah dan seharusnya dipenuhi semua pihak demi keselamatan bersama. Terlebih korban jiwa yang terenggut dalam letusan kali ini cukup banyak, diindikasikan mencapai 450-an jiwa atau terbesar dalam 80 tahun terakhir.
Menanti kapan letusan Merapi usai mungkin seperti Menunggu Godot-nya Samuel Beckett. Namun, sembari menunggu hal yang terasa tak berkesudahan itu, pihak-pihak terkait dan masyarakat luas, baik di sekitar Merapi maupun di Indonesia secara keseluruhan, sebaiknya juga mulai mempersiapkan diri akan berbagai kemungkinan pasca letusan. Dalam konteks lokal, dengan keluaran magma melebihi 100 juta meter kubik yang kini sebagian besar tertumpuk di lembah-lembah sungai yang berhulu di Merapi, dibutuhkan suatu penanganan terencana agar material tersebut tidak berdampak luas. Dalam skup Yogyakarta, sungai-sungai yang melintasi kota ini khususnya sungai Code (yang terhubung langsung dengan sungai Boyong, salah satu sungai yang menjadi jalan tol material vulkanik Merapi) harus diperhatikan, termasuk menyiapkan penduduk yang bermukim sepanjang lembahnya untuk bersiap-siap dievakuasi tatkala lahar dingin dalam volume besar meluncur melewati alur sungai. Perhatian besar terutama harus diarahkan kepada lingkungan di sekitar kelokan/tekuk sungai (slope-break), mengingat pada lokasi inilah aliran lahar dingin bisa melejit keluar dari alur sungai. Perhatian yang sama seharusnya juga diberikan pada alur sungai Krasak, Bebeng, Putih dan Pabelan yang mengarah ke Magelang. Apalagi estimasi awal memperlihatkan volume seluruh lembah sungai tersebut masih lebih kecil dibanding 100 juta meter kubik, sehingga ada ketidakseimbangan di sini.
Tambora
Secara regional (Indonesia) dan global, juga tak ada salahnya untuk mulai memprakirakan potensi anomali cuaca pasca letusan Merapi. Bahwa letusan gunung api berpotensi mengubah cuaca, tak ada yang meragukannya. Letusan Tambora 1815 adalah contoh yang paling sering diulas. Letusan yang mencapai puncaknya pada 11 April 1815 itu merupakan letusan superkolossal, memuntahkan 150 km kubik magma yang disemburkan hingga ketinggian 43 km pada skala letusan VEI 7 yang setara dengan tingkat energi 27.000 megaton TNT. Sebagai pembanding, jika seluruh hululedak nuklir yang dimiliki dua negara adidaya pada puncak Perang Dingin dikumpulkan dan diledakkan bersama-sama, energi yang dilepaskannya 'hanya' 20.000 megaton TNT, sehingga letusan Tambora masih 35 % lebih energetik. Dahsyatnya letusan Tambora bisa dilihat dari kemampuannya memenggal pucuk gunung dari yang semua berketinggian 4.300 meter menjadi hanya setinggi 2.720 meter. Pucuk yang terpenggal lantas menyisakan kawah besar (kaldera) bergaris tengah 7 km. Debu dan batu letusan diendapkan hingga 1.300 km dari gunung -di Yogyakarta pun masih setebal 1 cm-, namun mayoitas mengendap di area seluas 874 km persegi dengan ketebalan rata-rata 20 meter. Thomas Stanford Raffles -saat itu Indonesia dibawah kekuasaan Inggris- mencatat korban jiwa yang jatuh di Pulau Sumbawa saja mencapai 100 ribu jiwa.
Jejak letusan Tambora 1815 sebagaimana dicitrakan satelit pengindraan jauh NASA. Nampak kaldera bergaris tengah 7 km yang terbentuk di tubuh gunung Tambora, pasca letusan super-kolossal 1815. Inilah letusan yang mengubah wajah iklim dunia.
Sumber : NASA, 2009
Namun kedahsyatan letusan Tambora 1815 yang melegenda adalah kemampuannya menyimpangkan iklim dunia. Dari 150 km kubik magma-nya, 36 km kubik ditaburkan jauh tinggi ke lapisan stratosfer, termasuk didalamnya 65 juta ton Belerang yang lantas bereaksi dengan uap air dan oksigen di atmosfer sehingga membentuk 200 juta ton asam sulfat berbentuk aerosol. Aerosol ini tersebar ke segenap penjuru atmosfer Bumi dan berperan menghalangi sinar Matahari sehingga intensitasnya di permukaan Bumi tinggal 75 % dari normal. Padahal dalam waktu yang sama, aktivitas Matahari pun sedang cenderung menurun -ditandai dengan sedikitnya jumlah bintik Matahari di permukaannya- dalam periode yang lebih dikenal sebagai ekstrimisitas minimum Dalton. Kombinasinya dengan letusan Tambora membuat suhu global menurun 1 derajat Celcius dari normal (0,7 derajat Celcius di Eropa), yang menggiring dunia ke episode perubahan iklim tak terperi sepanjang sejarah modern.
Tahun 1816 selalu dikenang sebagai tahun tanpa musim panas (year without summer) karena inilah saat Eropa menggigil kedinginan ketika suhu rata-rata sepanjang tahun itu sama dengan suhu musim dingin. Salju menyebar dimana-mana, membuat lahan pertanian tak bisa digarap. Tiap negara pun didera problem kelaparan hebat, yang berujung pada gejolak sosial akibat melambungnya harga makanan. Hujan turun terus-menerus hampir setiap saat yang menjadikan jalanan sebagai kubangan lumpur. Ambisi Napoleon Bonaparte, kaisar Perancis yang sebelumnya tertawan namun sempat melarikan diri dari Pulau Elba, menyerbu Russia berantakan total tatkala amunisi dan perbekalan beratnya terjebak di jalanan berlumpur. Kekalahan demi kekalahan terus dideritanya dalam berbagai pertempuran, hingga akhirnya pertempuran terakhir di Waterloo memaksanya bertekuk lutut. Sementara di India, kolera jenis baru merajalela, menelan korban jiwa yang tak terhitung.
Dua Skenario
Letusan Merapi 2010 barangkali takkan berdampak sehebat skenario Tambora di atas, bahkan andaikata dikombinasikan dengan serial letusan gunung Eyjafjallajokul di Islandia (yang dikategorikan dalam skala VEI 5 atau setingkat di atas Merapi). Model perubahan iklim TTAPS (akronim dari lima ilmuwan perintisnya yakni Turco, Toon, Pollack, Ackerman dan Sagan) yang bisa diaplikasikan baik untuk memerikan dampak perang nuklir global, letusan kolossal gunung api maupun tumbukan komet/asteroid raksasa (diameter > 1 km) mengindikasikan perubahan iklim global baru akan terjadi jika energi yang dilepaskan salah satu peristiwa itu melebihi 1.000 megaton TNT. Sementara kombinasi energi letusan Merapi dan Eyjafjallajokul hingga saat ini masih dibawah 200 megaton TNT.
Namun dampak regional takkan terelakkan. Pada titik ini harus dipahami bahwa situasi atmosfer menjelang letusan Merapi 2010 hampir sama dengan skenario Tambora. Badan atmosfer dan kelautan seperti NOAA dan LAPAN telah lama memperingatkan aktivitas Matahari saat ini cenderung menurun dibandingkan normal. Sepanjang 2009 lalu permukaan Matahari bersih dari bintik Matahari selama 260 hari, rekor baru sepanjang seabad terakhir kecuali tahun 1913. Dan sejak 2004, Matahari sudah menjalani 772 hari tanpa bintik, berkebalikan dengan normalnya yang hanya 485 hari. Model-model matematis kontemporer mengindikasikan dalam siklus Matahari ke-24 ini, yang telah dimulai sejak Desember 2008, Matahari akan sangat tenang sehingga pada puncak aktivitasnya (diprediksi pada bulan April/Mei 2004 mendatang) hanya akan memiliki bilangan bintik Matahari 40. Konsekuensinya, intensitas pencahayaan Matahari pun menurun dan menimbulkan pendinginan global yang dampaknya melampar ke segenap penjuru Bumi.
Prediksi siklus ke-24 Matahari yang telah dimulai pada Desember 2008. Dibanding sebelumnya, nampak jelas bahwa siklus ini memperlihatkan Matahari yang tenang, yang memicu global cooling.
Nah, letusan Merapi 2010 (bersama Eyjafjallajokul) berpotensi kian meredupkan pencahayaan Matahari akibat tabir surya dari aerosol sulfat yang dibentuknya di atmosfer. Memanfaatkan data-data volume magma vs massa aerosol sulfat dari letusan-letusan gunung api di kawasan tropis seperti Tambora 1815, Krakatau 1883, St. Maria 1902 dan Agung 1963, diperoleh suatu hubungan linier yang mengestimasikan letusan Merapi 2010 memproduksi sedikitnya 6 juta ton aerosol sulfat di atmosfer yang akan berkorelasi terhadap penurunan suhu sekitar 0,2 derajat Celcius di kawasan regional. Merujuk pada respon lautan Indonesia terhadap global cooling, penurunan suhu tersebut mungkin tetap akan diikuti hangatnya air laut di sekitar Indonesia sehingga produksi uap air tetap tinggi dan akibatnya curah hujan yang tinggi akan tetap terjadi. Apalagi LAPAN telah mengingatkan bahwa situasi cuaca Indonesia di tahun 2011 mendatang diestimasikan akan tetap sama dengan situasi cuaca tahun ini.
Estimasi linier sulfat vs volume magma letusan gunung di daerah topis. Kiri : melibatkan Tambora 1815, kanan : tidak melibatkan Tambora 1815. Dari estimasi ini maka diindikasikan Merapi 2010 membentuk setidaknya 6 juta ton aerosol sulfat di atmosfer.
Sumber : Ma'rufin, 2010
Di sisi lain, kita juga tak bisa menafikan data empirik seperti dipaparkan Dr. Joko Wiratmo (ITB) bahwa letusan-letusan berskala tinggi gunung api (khususnya di kawasan tropis) sering diiringi fenomena El-Nino pada tahun berikutnya. Sebagai contoh, letusan El-Chichon (Meksiko) 1982 dan Galunggung 1983 yang diikuti El-Nino 1982-1983 serta letusan kolossal Pinatubo (Filipina) 1991 dan Kelut 1990 yang diikuti El-Nino 1992-1993.
Peta sebaran gas sulfurdioksida secara komposit per 4 - 8 November 2010 dari letusan Merapi. Nampak kopnsentrasi gas mayoritas berada di Samudera Hindia, pada lapisan tropopause (15 km). NASA memperkirakan jumlah gas ini sekitar 0,17 juta ton.
Sumber : NASA
Dengan demikian ada dua potensi anomali cuaca yang bisa terjadi pasca letusan Merapi ini. Yang pertama: tahun tanpa musim kering karena curah hujan berlebih. sementara yang kedua: tahun dengan sedikit musim hujan karena munculnya El-Nino. Mana yang berpeluang lebih mungkin terjadi? Biarlah ini menjadi urusan para vulkanolog dan klimatolog. Sembari menanti analisis mereka, tak ada salahnya untuk mulai mempersiapkan diri.
Pergi ke Mars jadi impian manusia, terutama mereka para ahli yang suka menjelajah angkasa. Apalagi planet merah itu adalah planet yang mendekati kondisi bumi, adan sudah diincar jadi koloni manusia jika suatu saat Bumi makin rusak dan tak layak huni lagi.
Mewujudkan impian itu memang bukan pekerjaan mudah. Selain soal teknologi yang belum memadai, misi ini juga terkendala soal dana.
Untuk meminimalisasi biaya yang dikeluarkan, sejumlah ilmuwan menyarankan agar perjalanan ke Mars dilakukan sekali jalan. Artinya, begitu pergi ke sana, jangan kembali lagi ke bumi.
Para ilmuwan menyatakan, kolonialisasi Mars akan makin cepat diwujudkan dan murah jika para astronot berperilaku seperti para pemukim pertama di Amerika Serikat. Mereka tak pernah berharap bisa pulang.
Itu adalag, "Poin utama, agar eksplorasi Mars terwujud," kata Dirk Schulze-Makuch, profesor dari Washington State University yang menerbitkan artikel kontroversial, seperti dimuat Daily Mail, Rabu 17 November 2010.
Ia mengusulkan misi diawali pengiriman dua orang astronot berusia 60 tahunan yang akan terbang dalam dua pesawat berbeda -- pesawat ini juga berfungsi sebagai tempat tinggal mereka di Mars. Selanjutnya, kapal koloni dan perbekalan akan disusulkan kemudian.
Publikasi artikel ini kurang dari sebulan setelah NASA keceplosan sedang menginvestigasi kemungkinan kolonialisasi manusia di planet lain dalam proyek ambisius yang dinamakan 'Hundred Years Starship'.
Sementara, ilmuwan lain, Paul Davies, fisikawan dari Arizona State University berargumen, manusia harus mengkoloni planet lain untuk mengantisipasi malapetaka di Bumi.
"Sebaiknya yang dikirimkan orang berusia 60 tahun atau sekitar itu."
Alasannya, misi ke luar angkasa pasti akan mengurangi umurr seseorang -- baik akibat kurangnya perawatan medis maupun paparan radiasi dalam jumlah besar.
Radiasi juga dapat merusak organ reproduksi, sehingga pengiriman orang di usia subur bukanlah ide yang baik.
Sementara, untuk perjalanan sekali jalan, diperkirakan bisa memotong anggaran hingga 80 persen.
Namun, baik Davies maupun Schulze-Makuch menyatakan penting artinya untuk menyadari bahwa ini bukan 'misi bunuh diri'.
Tapi, "astronot di Mars akan tinggal di sana seumur hidupnya, menjadi pionir dari kolonialisasi manusia secara permanen di planet merah." Untuk itulah, profil psikologis astronot, termasuk intensitas komunikasi dengan Bumi jadi faktor penting.
Gagasan sekali jalan ini mendapat tentangan dari sejumlah pihak. Termasuk, mantan astronot Apolo 14, Edgar Mitchell. "Ini prematur. Kita belum siap untuk menjalani hal seperti ini."
NASA pun tak setuju dengan hal ini. "Kami ingin astronot bisa kembali ke Bumi." Rekomendasikan
Carl Sagan's Favorite: "Life is a system capable of reproduction, mutation, and reproduction of its mutations": Impractical to apply when searching other worlds. Life on Earth Early History of Earth:
* primordial disk of dusty gas surrounding the protosun. * clumps of matter stick together, gain more mass and gravitationally attract more matter: planetesimals * Earth slowly builds up from planetesimals; molten, differentiates * Primordial Earth collides with Mars-sized planetesimal, creates the Moon * Earth's surface bombarded by impact from debris, surface is molten. lasts until about 3.9 billion years ago. * Surface cools, atmosphere and oceans build up.
3.8 billion years ago Oldest Carbon evidence for life
3.5 billion years ago Oldest fossils of blue-green algae and stromatelite bacteria
***Geological Timeline*****
Biology All life on Earth shares the same biochemistry. Carbon compounds (Organic): long chains of Carbon with Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen attached. Same substances that Earth's surface and atmosphere are mostly made of.
Primary structural unit of chain molecules are amino acids. H,C,N,O,S all arranged into specific patterns. Amino acids form more complex chains of molecules called Proteins. Proteins give structure to living cells and provide energy to the cell.
DNA Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. A very, very long molecule shaped like a ladder with rungs twisted into a double helix. The "rungs" are called base pairs and are a kind of molecular code. The code contains information on the construction of amino acids and proteins. The molecule can split in half and make a copy of itself. The molecule is "alive"!
That all living things on Earth share the same biochemistry (all organisms that use DNA use the same code book of base pairs) speaks to a common origin of life on Earth. A singular spark of life ~ 3.8 billion years ago leading to an unbroken chain of life. An enormous diversity of lifeforms evolve from that single spark of life!
Evolution of life is a process that leads to the diversification of life. It is not a drive toward greater complexity, it is only a drive toward greater diversity.
Lifeforms change with time due to random mutations that arise from a variety of sources: High Energy E&M radiation, Particle Radioactivity, Cosmic Rays, Chemical Reactions, and random errors in the copying of DNA (caused by the Uncertainty principle).
Most mutations are lethal to the organism (i.e. cancer), but some are beneficial. Over long periods of time species can change; those that are best suited for survival in their current environment thrive over others. In times of changing environments those species capable of rapid adaptation survive over others. This process is called Natural Selection.
Despite the increase in complexity of some organisms over time, the overwhelming majority of life on Earth is still in the form of simple one-celled organisms: bacteria. Nature likes to stick with what works. Origin of Life Organic molecules are very common in the Cosmos. Find them all the time in interstellar clouds. Must have been common in the early Earth atmosphere.
Miller-Urey Experiment: place compounds common in the early Earth's atmosphere in a container (nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide, etc. Note: no oxygen) and put energy into it with electrical sparks (to simulate lightening). Forms an organic sludge containing amino acids!
NOTE: Life is found practically everywhere on Earth (deep sea ocean vents, dry desserts of Antarctica, etc.). Commonality: Require liquid water. Liquid water is the best solution for organic chemistry. Life is not found to exist on Earth where there is no liquid water present. Life on other worlds in our Solar System We've mentioned that there are other worlds in the Solar System that either at one time or another have had (or still have) liquid water on their surfaces. Given the abundance of organic matter on these worlds might life have once existed on these worlds? Might it still exist?
Venus: Once had liquid oceans (probably water) but runaway greenhouse effect evaporated all water and cooked the planet. Definitely no life there now. fossil records from earlier epochs before the runaway greenhouse?
Mars: Liquid water on surface in past, thicker atmosphere, warmer temperatures. A world very much like Earth. Could life have started there and been extinguished? Could there still be some life hanging on? Fossils of past life?
Europa: Liquid oceans of water beneath a frozen ice crust. Heat from interior geologic activity (tidal friction). Life in those oceans?
Titan: Organic Molecules in atmosphere. Liquid Methane on surface (similar solvent properties as water). Heat from Saturn and a greenhouse effect. Life with different biochemistry?
Panspermia Idea that life could have originated on either Mars or Earth, and meteor impacts sends rocks containing life into space that later crash land on the other planet. Cross contamination? Could we be Martians? Or could there be life on Mars that originated on Earth?
Or what if life originated on some distant world in another planetary system? Simple bacteria spores might survive the eons in the vacuum and then settle down on Earth and take root. Might we be aliens on our own world? Other Planetary Systems There are now upwards of 50 other known planets orbiting other stars. These planets are all being found indirectly by their gravitational influences on their parent star. Since the search for such planets is very young only the most massive planets will be found first (they have the strongest gravitational effect on their parent star). Also the first systems to be found are likely to have the big planets closer to their star than the Jovian planets are to our own Sun (because they will then have shorter orbital periods and stronger gravitational tugs on their parent stars).
Planetary scientists fully expect that in the next several decades planets like Earth will be found around many stars.
Not all stars are expected to have planets. The most massive stars (O and B stars) live so fast and die so young that planets barely have a chance to form around them before the stars blow up as supernovas.
Double stars systems also would tend to not have planets as the gravitational effects of the 2 stars would tend to eject planets from the system.
That still leaves ~200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone that could have planets.
Some of those planets must lie in a habitablity zone and have liquid water present. Given that it seems so easy to make the building blocks of life, how easy is it for life to start going and survive?
We really have no clue.
Intelligent Life in the Universe Life has the possibility to be abundant in the Universe. In all of those living worlds, how often does intelligence arise? UFOs, Alien Abductions, and Ancient Astronauts If it turns out to be very possible for intelligent life to exist then, certainly there must have been many intelligent civilizations that would have evolved billions of years before us.
They would have become technologically advanced and likely become space-faring. They could build space ships that held whole generations of space explorers, and travel at relativistic speeds to make the journies between stars not so long for them (although those of us at lower relative speeds observe their journies to take aeons).
If that were the case, then where are they? Should they not have come this way already?
* Perhaps we are the first in our galaxy to reach this level. It's highly unlikely, but someone has to be first. * Our Sun is an unremarkable star in a galaxy of 100s of billions of stars just like it. It's possible that space explorers just haven't made it out this way yet. * Or maybe they have...
Some suggest that the phenomenon of UFOs may be extraterrestrial visitors coming to our world. Or that strange historical accounts or grand technological accomplishments of humans in the past are evidence of visits from extraterrestrials. There are those claiming to have been abducted by aliens and have terrible medical experiments performed on them.
This all falls into the realm of pseudoscience. There has never been any concrete evidence of extraterrestrials having anything to do with UFOs. UFOs could be so very many things. Why assume automatically that there is an otherworldly explanation? But those who want to believe will do so even despite evidence to the contrary.
"Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence" - Carl Sagan.
To this date there has never been any such evidence of an extraterrestrial connection to UFOs. The fact the the majority of the human population lives in cities now and has very little familiarity with the sky goes a long way to explaining most UFO sightings. How many of you have ever seen ball lightening, a stealth fighter or bomber in flight, swamp gas, Insect swarms flying through electric fields? All of these things are real and in the sky. Most people have no idea what they are looking at when they see them.
Alien abduction stories bare a resemblance to post traumatic stress disorder. People experience something horrible in their lives and their brains suppress the memories. The memories come back in dream-like states where the mind is highly susceptible to confabulation and fantasy.
There is such a large main-stream consciousness of the typical alien abduction story (thanks to TV and Movies) that it's no wonder that "abductees" tell stories that are remarkably similar to one another.
Their stories often involve elements that sound like a condition called sleep paralysis. When you are in REM sleep and are dreaming your body paralyzes the major voluntary muscles so that you cannot injure yourself while you dream. Sometimes we can fall into dream states before we have become completely unconscious. Our bodies become paralyzed and we can even dream in the state, but yet we are also partially awake. It's called waking dreams it's a real and studied phenomenon. Its happened to me on more than one occasion. Pretty spooky. SETI All of this skepticism over UFOs and alien abductions does not hinder astronomers from thinking that intelligent life could exist in the Universe. In fact most think that it can. A project now known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was begun back in the 1960s to search the heavens for radio signals that reach us from some other technological civilization in the Cosmos.
NASA funded the program in the 1980s but Congress pulled the plug on the project in the early 1990s. Seems the Congress felt that tax payer money shouldn't be spent on a project that they thought was more like science fiction than science.
They sought private funding for their research and have now established the SETI institute.
The idea is that radio communication is simple, inexpensive, and the Universe is relatively quiet at most radio frequencies. So the first choice for an alien civilization to attempt to make contact would be via radio communication.
So the SETI project scans billions of radio frequencies everyday from across the sky searching for some signal that would stand out as being unequivocally unnatural. They do this with supercomputers and a network of radio telescopes around the world.
To date there have been no detections. But that doesn't mean we will never find anyone out there.
Radio waves travel at the speed of light (they are light afterall). Earth has been producing radio waves for our own communication purposes for about 100 years now. Those signals escape from Earth and spread away from Earth in a sphere. So the Earth is surrounded by a sphere of about 100 light-years in radius of radio waves. Any aliens farther away than 100 light-years could not possibly know about us yet. Likewise if they have only started producing radio signals in the last 100 years we will not know about them for some time.
If a signal were ever detected it would not likely be easy to decode, unless it were specifically designed to be decoded by any species with sufficient understanding of simple mathematics. Plus 2-way communication would be excruciatingly slow. We could exchange information over periods of decades and centuries. But it would not be like a real conversation. The Drake Equation Can we estimate, based on the things we have learned in this class, the number of intelligent civilizations that we could contact via radio communication?
Frank Drake of UC Santa Cruz developed a simple equation which is just the multiplication of all the probabilities involved to make an estimate of this very thing.
Nc = Rs · fp · n · fl · fi · fc · L
Nc is the number of civilizations in our Galaxy with whom we can communicate.
Rs: Rate of star formation in the Galaxy ~ 40 stars/year
fp: Fraction of Stars that have planets ~ 0.5
n : Average number of planets that are habitable in a planetary system 1 - 5
fl: Fraction of habitable planets on which life arises 0.1 - 1.0
fi: Fraction of planets with life on which intelligence arises 0.01 - 1.0
fc: Fraction of intelligent civilizations that communicate via radio waves 0.1 - 1.0
L : Average lifetime of a civilization 100 - 109 years
* If you make optimistic estimates you find that the Universe is teaming with life. Billions of civilization in each galaxy. * If you make pessimistic estimates you find that we are alone in the Universe.
Both ideas are huge!!
The Universe did at least make us. So the probability of intelligent life in the Universe is 100%.
"We are starstuff contemplating the stars" - Carl Sagan
JAKARTA* - Sebuah majalah Teknologi terbitan Jakarta pernah menyebut Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie sebagai "Manusia Multidimensional".
Sebutan ini ternyata sangat disukai Habibie.
Terlebih, julukan itu muncul tidak berselang lama setelah meraih medali penghargaan "Theodore van Karman". Ya, anugrah bergengsi di tingkat internasional tempat berkumpulnya pakar-pakar terkemuka konstruksi pesawat terbang.
Habibie juga dikenal sebagai "Mr Crack" karena keahliannya menghitung crack propagation on random sampai ke atom-atom pesawat terbang. Di dunia ilmu
pengetahuan dan teknologi, para ahli dirgantara mengenal apa yang disebut
Teori Habibie, Faktor Habibie, Fungsi Habibie.
Sebelum titik crack bisa dideteksi secara dini, para insinyur mengantispasi kemungkinan muncul keretakan konstruksi dengan cara meninggikan faktor keselamatannya (SF).
Caranya, meningkatkan kekuatan bahan konstruksi jauh di atas angka kebutuhan teoritisnya.
Akibatnya, material yang diperlukan lebih berat. Untuk pesawat terbang, material aluminium dikombinasikan dengan baja. Namun setelah titik crack bisa dihitung maka derajat SF bisa diturunkan. Misalnya dengan memilih
campuran material sayap dan badan pesawat yang lebih ringan. Porsi baja
dikurangi, aluminium makin dominan dalam bodi pesawat terbang. Dalam dunia
penerbangan, terobosan ini tersohor dengan sebutan Faktor Habibie.
Faktor Habibie bisa meringankan operating empty weight
(bobot pesawat tanpa berat penumpang dan bahan bakar) hingga 10 persen dari bobot sebelumnya.
Bahkan angka penurunan ini bisa mencapai 25 persen setelah Habibie
menyusupkan material komposit ke dalam tubuh pesawat.
Namun pengurangan berat ini tak membuat maksimum take off weight-nya (total
bobot pesawat ditambah penumpang dan bahan bakar) ikut merosot. Dengan
begitu, secara umum daya angkut pesawat meningkat dan daya jelajahnya makin
jauh. Sehingga secara ekonomi, kinerja pesawat bisa ditingkatkan.
Faktor Habibie ternyata juga berperan dalam pengembangan teknologi
penggabungan bagian per bagian kerangka pesawat. Sehingga sambungan badan
pesawat yang silinder dengan sisi sayap yang oval mampu menahan tekanan
udara saat tubuh pesawat lepas landas. Begitu juga pada sambungan badan
pesawat dengan landing gear jauh lebih kokoh, sehingga mampu menahan beban
saat pesawat mendarat. Faktor mesin jet yang menjadi penambah potensi
fatique menjadi turun.
Memang Habibie memegang banyak
hak paten atas temuan di bidang konstruksi pesawat terbang, sehingga menjamin
hidupnya rutin memperoleh uang royalti.
Tak hanya itu, dalam disiplin ekonomi makro pernah dikenal istilah
Habibienomics. Semacam pemahaman yang menegaskan bagaimana gagasan Habibie
tentang pemberian nilai tambah ekonomi tinggi di setiap produksi barang dan
jasa melalui pemanfaatan ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi.
Kejeniusan mantan Ketua Ikatan Cendekiawan Muslim Indonesia (ICMI) semakin
kelihatan encer ketika berhasil meraih gelar doctor ingenieur dengan
predikat suma cum laude pada 1965. Rata-rata nilai mata kuliah Habibie 10.
Presatsi ini mengantarkan Habibie menjadi Kepala Departemen Riset dan
Pengembangan Analisis Struktur di Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB).
Kala itu tugas utamanya adalah memecahkan masalah kestabilan konstruksi
bagian belakang pesawat Fokker 28. Hebatnya, hanya dalam kurun waktu 6
bulan, persoalan tersebut mampu dipecahkan mantan Presiden RI ini.
Karier Habibie yang dikenal sangat keras dengan keyakinan prinsip yang
dipegangnya ini, terus menanjak setelah meraih kepercayaan mendesain utuh
sebuah pesawat baru. Buah karyanya adalah prototipe DO-31, pesawat
baling-baling tetap pertama yang mampu tinggal landas dan mendarat secara
vertikal, yang dikembangkan HFB bersama industri Donier.
Badan Penerbangan dan Luar Angkasa Amerika Serikat (NASA) akhirnya membeli
pesawat rancangan Habibie. Pria kelahiran Pare-pare yang bertubuh kecil dan
berotak jenius ini kemudian dilirik oleh Messerschmitt Boelkow Blohm Gmbh
(MBB). Yakni, sebuah industri pesawat terbesar yang bermarkas di Hamburg.
Karier Habibie di MBB terus melambung. Jabatan Vice President/Direktur
Teknologi MBB disabetnya tahun 1974. Hanya Habibie-lah, orang diluar
kebangsaan Jerman yang mampu menduduki posisi kedua tertinggi itu.
Di MBB inilah mantan Menteri Negara Ristek/Kepala BPPT selama kurang lebih
20 tahun dan membawahi 10 perusahaan BUMN industri strategis, menyusun
rumusan asli di bidang termodinamika, konstruksi ringan, aerodinamika dan
crack progression. Dalam literatur ilmu penerbangan, temuan-temuan Habibie
ini lantas dikenal dengan nama Teori Habibie, Faktor Habibie dan Metode
Habibie.
Paten dari semua temuan itu telah diakui dan dipakai oleh dunia penerbangan
internasional. Pesawat Airbus A-300 yang diproduksi konsorsium Eropa
(European Aeronautic Defence and Space) tak lepas dari sentuhan Habibie yang
sangat menonjol dalam hal pelajaran - pelajaran eksakta.
Prestasi keilmuan dari mantan Presiden RI ketiga ini adalah mendapat
pengakuan di dunia internasional. Mantan Ketua ICMI ini juga menjadi anggota
kehormatan berbagai lembaga di bidang dirgantara.
"Pemikiran dan karya Habibie banyak diakui dunia. Dan teknologi Indonesia
saat itu sudah cukup maju," ungkap mantan Ketua Serikat Pekerja PT
Dirgantara Indonesia, Arif Minardi, ketika dikonfirmasi okezone, Senin
(14/6/2010).
Menurut Arif, Habibie setelah dipanggil pulang ke Indonesia tidak hanya
mengebangkan sejumlah pesawat terbang, tapi merambah ke pembuatan satelit
dan ruang angkasa, serta peluru kendali (rudal).
Kejeniusan dan prestasi inilah yang mengantarkan Habibie diakui lembaga
internasional di antaranya, Gesselschaft fuer Luft und Raumfahrt (Lembaga
Penerbangan dan Angkasa Luar) Jerman, The Royal Aeronautical Society London
(Inggris), The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Swedia), The
Academie Nationale de l'Air et de l'Espace (Prancis) dan The US Academy of
Engineering (Amerika Serikat).
Sementara itu penghargaan bergensi yang pernah diraih Habibie di antaranya,
Edward Warner Award dan Award von Karman yang hampir setara dengan Hadiah
Nobel. Di dalam negeri, Habibie mendapat penghargaan tertinggi dari Institut
Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Ganesha Praja Manggala Bhakti Kencana.
Karya:
1. Vertical Take Off & Landing (VTOL),Pesawat Angkut DO-31
2. Pesawat Angkut Militer TRANSALL C-130
3. Hansa Jet 320 (Pesawat Eksekutif)
4. Airbus A-300 (untuk 300 penumpang)
5. CN - 235
6. N-250
7. Secara tidak langsung turut berpartisipasi dalam menghitung dan
mendesain, Helikopter BO-105, Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA), serta
beberapa proyek rudal dan satelit.
http://news.okezone.com/read/2010/06/14/337/342682/otak-habibie-pernah-digunakan-fokker
The picture above is our universe. No one could possibly take such a picture because the universe is so big. The Milky Way Galaxy, some 150,000 light years across, is just a tiny dot, barely visible in this computer generated image, based on deep space observations.
What's interesting about the structure of the universe is that it is made up of countless string-like filaments that arrange themselves in parallel lines and sometimes intersect at "nodes" that encircle empty holes. Some scientists have described the universe as looking like Swiss Cheese.
This new view of how the universe is constructed has upset the traditional paradigm of science. It contradicts the model of the universe that was predicted by the 17th century physicist, Isaac Newton, in which gravity is the basic fabric of everything. It's also hard to imagine a Big Bang theory with a structure like this. Where's the central point of the initial explosion? Why do we have this strange kind of structure?
At the moment, most scientists are struggling to explain the traditional model in light of this new evidence but others are quite confident that have found an explanation in a theory called "the electrical universe."
Science moves slowly and carefully. Old ideas and theories -- paradigms -- are stubbornly defended even when they are opposed by new discoveries. When Sir Isaac Newton developed his gravitational theories in the 17th century, electricity was not yet understood. Now, 400 years later, we have begun to understand the nature of electricity and something interesting called plasma.
Plasma has been called the "fourth state" of matter, after solids, liquids and gases. Most of the matter in the universe is in the form of plasma. A plasma is formed if some of the negatively charged electrons are separated from their host atoms in a gas, leaving the atoms with a positive charge. The negatively charged electrons, and the positively charged atoms (known as positive ions) are then free to move separately under the influence of an applied voltage or magnetic field. Their net movement constitutes an electrical current. So, one of the more important properties of a plasma is that it can conduct electrical current. It does so by forming current filaments that follow magnetic field lines. Filamentary patterns are ubiquitous in the cosmos. That's what you see in the computer generated image.
The Electric Universe model grew out of a broad interdisciplinary approach to science. It is not a technique taught in universities. The Electric Universe is based more on observations and experiment than abstract theory. It recognizes connections between diverse disciplines. It concludes that the crucial requirement for understanding the universe is to take fully into account the basic electrical nature of atoms and their interactions. Strangely, this is not the case in conventional cosmology where weaker magnetism and the infinitely weaker force of gravity rule the cosmos. Such a simplification may suit a theoretical physics based on electrical neutrality of matter in Earthly laboratories but it does not apply in space where plasma dominates.
No where does the Electrical Universe model impose itself more on our paradigm of creation than with regards to the formation of our Sun and planets.
The Newtonian theory of a gravity forming gaseous body has the Sun coalescing and contracting. This is followed by cooler dust clouds which encircle the central mass and form gravitational clumps of accruing planetary bodies. But the electrical model is more dynamic, allowing large clumps of plasma to change orbits and eject smaller globs of plasma that form smaller orbital bodies.
If we consider that the entire universe is made from plasma, then huge galaxies are formed much the same way as suns and planets. This fits neatly in to a kind of "macrocosm" and "microcosm" order.
Proponants of the Electrical Universe observe the various bodies in our solar system. They note the pockmarked surface of the Moon and satellites around other planets but they also pay attention to human history in legends, epics and icons. They envision a time when the planets were in eccentric orbits, often coming very close to Earth, causing huge electrical bolts to discharge between the heavenly bodies, and sometimes colliding with each other. They view the craters on the Moon as evidence of a planetary cataclysm which supports their timeline.
The Enuma Elish Sumerian Epic Of Creation, 1500 BC, from the ancient Ashurbanipal Library of Nineveh in northern Iraq is one of even cuneiform tablets relating the epic battle between the solar deity Marduk and the celestial dragoness Tiamat, discovered within the ruins of Nineveh in the late 19th century. Giving accounts remarkably similar to biblical stories, they were first published in 1876 as the "The Chaldean Genesis."
Modern translations of this epic now suggest that it was telling the events of a celestial nature relating to the formation of planet Earth and a great cataclysm in which the planets approached eachother, releasing electrical bolts of energy, as theorized in the Electric Universe.
This evidence suggests that, at one time, Venus approached the Earth exhibiting a comet-like tail as it streaked across the sky. Electrical arcs zapped between planets as they approached each other, causing deep scars and craters and ejecting debris that rained down on the surface of the Earth. These events, according to theorists, were recorded in human history as epics of the Gods of Heaven and in archetypal shapes and artistic representations of antiquity.
Most of these epics and artistic motifs can be found in ancient Egypt. Here, the electrical universe is revealed by a civilization that appears to have understood what some scientists are just now beginning to realize as a better paradigm for understanding how the universe is made and functions.
The following illustrations from ancient Egypt were provided by Gary Gilligan
Velikovsky's Comet Venus
Immanuel Velikovsky concluded from his extensive interdisciplinary research that the planet Venus was remembered from the time of the dawn of civilization as a brilliant cometary body.
While there is a wealth of literary sources to draw upon, when it comes to the pictorial evidence it isn't as forthcoming. No images can be conclusively identified as actually representing Venus in cometary form, a situation that essentially shouldn't exist. After all, it stands to reason that it was naked eye observations that primarily inspired the myths. So, at the very least the imagery should be equal to or analogous to the literary sources -- but this clearly isn't the case.
Have we overlooked something? Is it possible images of Comet Venus have been staring us in the face for decades?
The image on the right has been taken from the back of Tutankhamun's throne. It depicts the wife of king Tut, Ankhsunamun. The queen is shown wearing a very distinctive crown consisting of a disk surmounted by cow horns and two tall plumes.
This unusual headdress made its appearance in the New Kingdom and features prominently in Egyptian art -- numerous queens can be seen sporting this particular crown. Although the actual shape or outline remained constant (for approximately 900 years), there exist a few variants to the colours shown. For example, the disk was predominantly painted the traditional Egyptian deep red, the 'horns' normally black, while the plumes can be gold, a plain yellow, or blue and without the 'filaments'.
Like most Egyptian crowns encompassing a sphere, it somehow represents an aspect of the sun, or so the conventional way of thinking goes. This is a perplexing line of thought since the Sun is a golden glaring ball -- it doesn't have cow horns wrapped around it and most certainly exhibits no signs of enormous cometary tails.
It is apparent even to the uninitiated that what we are looking at here is a comet -- a large comet with a plumed tail. Furthermore, if Egyptian art is used as a measure of time, this comet graced our skies for nearly a thousand years. It is carved, painted, and represented in statues the length and breadth of the Nile valley. Even the legendary Cleopatra wore this headdress.
Could this particular crown be a true-life physical representation of proto-Venus as it appeared in ancient times?
To quote Wal Thornhill:
'In the electrical model of the solar system, any body on a sufficiently eccentric orbit about the Sun will exhibit cometary features. For ancient people to have seen Venus as an Earth-threatening comet, Venus must have had an eccentric orbit that brought the planet near to Earth'.
Are we looking at Velikovsky's comet Venus?
Comparing the comet crown with the Venus diagram on the left reveals some fundamental similarities, far too close to be deemed coincidental. In fact, for all intents and purposes they are virtually identical!
The orb represents the body of Venus: the horns signify the bow shock as the solar wind slams into the Venusian surface, enveloping its body due to a lack of an intrinsic magnetic field. The two large plumes represent Venus' magnetotail -- split in two and flowing downstream at least three times its diameter.
The image on the left is just a diagram, and today Venus' comet tail can only be detected by magnetometers and charged particle detectors. However, place Venus on an eccentric orbit in a highly charged 'dusty' environment and the normally invisible magnetotail (and bow shock) would become highly visible.
Wal Thornhill commenting on Venus' cometary magnetotail:
'A power surge in those filaments today would cause them to glow, and Venus would form a "stupendous" cometary apparition in the sky. The forensic evidence would stand up in court, showing that Venus was a comet within human memory'.
Science is slowly proving Velikovsky to be correct in a number of areas. Perhaps with the comet crown of ancient Egypt we now have the pictorial evidence to match.
Re (Ra) the Red Sun
A hazed red Sun, planetary chaos, and a solar system besieged by dust and debris.
The Egyptian Sun god Re was typically represented as a sun-disk, or as a falcon-headed man wearing a red sun-disk on his head. Such imagery points to the god's solar character. The following epithets present traits which are consistent with the life-giving properties of the Sun experienced today.
'Re is the great light who shinest in the heavens Lord of all lands... praise Re when he riseth at the beginning of each day. Thou passest over the sky, and every face watcheth thee and thy course, for thou hast been hidden from their gaze. Thou dost show thyself at dawn and at eventide day by day'
Re's solar disk features heavily in Egyptian art and there exist numerous orbs adorning every monument, tomb, and temple wall throughout Egypt. They are also carved on stela and statues, painted on coffins and sarcophagi, as well as on scrolls of papyrus. They are even incorporated into Egyptian jewellery. Since the Sun was the primary source of life, such ubiquitous representation is only to be expected. However, there is something unusual about the way the Egyptians represented our nearest star that is incredibly revealing when considered alongside planetary chaos. Re's most basic form consisted of a simple red disk. Why was this? Why not portray the Sun as it appeared?
The Sun is a blinding, golden-yellow disk with emanating rays -- a ball of glaring, golden light. A red disk is drab and lifeless by comparison, and yet Egyptian art reveals not one single golden glaring Sun with a complete 360 degree sweep of sun rays. A perplexing situation, especially when considering that gold was the flesh of the gods and Re was the Sun god par excellence as epitomised in the godly pharaoh's title sa re, which means 'offspring of Re'.
Whether Velikovsky's Comet Venus was the largest 'volcano' in the solar system, spewing out countless tons of sulphurous gas from its many thousands of volcanic vents, or Mars was disturbed from its orbit to undergo a catastrophic transformation, the result of any cosmic catastrophe would have been the release of immeasurable quantities of debris, dust and gas.
This debris eventually settled down into the plane of the ecliptic where it impacted the planets, the Moon, or fell into the Sun. To understand the effect that a stream of dust and gas 93 million miles long had on the Sun's appearance, we need look no further than the art of the Egyptians. Their portrayals clearly reveal the red haze that surrounded our Sun. The Egyptians carved, drew and painted a red Sun because all they ever experienced was a red Sun. Furthermore, if the duration of Egyptian dynasties is anything to go by, our Sun was hazed red for an incredible 3,000 years.
The supposition that ancient cultures only experienced a diminished red Sun is both profound and exciting. It allows us to take much of the art and many seemingly bizarre beliefs at face value. Not the least being the fact that a hazed Sun means there was no glare, so they were able to look directly at the Sun without being blinded. This led to naked-eye observations of electrical phenomena such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), flares, and prominences.
The image on the right at the top of the page depicts an Egyptian Sun encircled by a yellow royal uraeus serpent which was known to spit fire and venom at Egypt's enemies. The image on the left was taken by SOHO and can be used for comparison, providing some idea of how the Sun appeared in a world dominated by cosmic catastrophe.
The cobra is a symbolic representation of vicious CME's 'striking out' several times the diameter of the Sun at sungrazing cometary bodies: snakelike CME's protecting the body of Re by spitting fire at Egypt's enemies. In ancient times, those eruptions might have been observable on a daily basis and perceived to be a perennial battle against the forces of evil.
Regarding the association between CME's and comets, Stephen Smith commented in a previous Picture of the Day:
'Comet NEAT swung close by the Sun in 2003, apparently initiating a CME eruption that appeared to impact the comet. Astronomers at the time discounted any relationship between the two events because of the size differential between the comet and the Sun.
'However, several other sungrazers have been associated with violent flares. One event can be a coincidence, two can be long odds, but three or more cannot be dismissed as mere oddities'.
Regarding comet 96P/Machholz:
'It did not rapidly dissipate, however. Instead, its intense charge differential caused a gigantic CME to discharge from the Sun, blasting out for millions of kilometers'. The yellow coronal ring encompassing the snake represents the highly charged million-degree corona of the Sun, bursting through as a yellow ring due to its 20 million degree temperature. Gold really was the 'flesh of the gods', as bursts of golden energy were also observed emanating from the body of Re, as in the image above.
Egypt today has one of the most sunniest and driest climates in the world. Its sunsets and sunrises invoke thoughts of serenity and are a sight to behold. In total contrast, the ancient Egyptians believed Re's daily path across the sky was fraught with dangers.
It was believed that the setting Sun prompted a perpetual nightly battle with the demons of the underworld. It was a doomsday scenario, and they believed that the Sun might not shine the next day.
The fighting aspect of the Sun is also played out on Mesopotamian cylinder seals. The 'dispenser of divine justice,' the Sun god Utu/Shamesh [right], is shown with fiery solar 'rays' (CME's) emanating from his shoulders. He also holds a pruning-saw. He is depicted cutting his way through the eastern horizon to again rise victorious. On some seals the snakelike shoulder rays end in stars, indicative of CME's zapping space debris.Upon consideration, a red Sun at war opens a window to many ancient enigmatic beliefs.
The Sahara Desert
An extraterrestrial sand scar?
The light areas in the image above show the wide swath of desert area that extends across Africa, the Middle East, and the entire Asian continent. It encompasses many deserts including the Sahara.
The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 square miles), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the sand dunes can reach 180 meters (600 ft.) in height. Mixed in with the oceanic sands there are large rock formations, boulders, stones and pebbles. Some have compared areas of the Sahara to the surface of Mars.
The sands of the Sahara hold many secrets. It wasn't always a vast desolate ocean of sand; around 5,000 years ago it was a very different terrain. It was a sub-tropical paradise where deer, hippos and elephants were hunted and giraffes and rhinoceros roamed the area. With a plentiful supply of food, thousands of hunter-gatherers flocked to live in this lush savannah.
These facts are evident from the discovery of hundreds of human graves and numerous rock paintings [above], depicting people hunting and even swimming. Furthermore, radar images taken by the NASA space shuttle show that beneath the sand are networks of rivers, once spanning the entire Sahara. North Africa was once alive with people! What happened to this lush green world?
It was initially believed the Sahara died out abruptly about 5,000 years ago. However, recent studies have supposedly shown this to be incorrect. Conventional scientists believe the process took about three millennia as reported by Reuters in May 2008.
"The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that may help understanding of future climate changes. The study of ancient pollen, spores and aquatic organisms in sediments in Lake Yoa in northern Chad showed the region gradually shifted from savannah 6,000 years ago towards the arid conditions that took over about 2,700 years ago. The findings, about one of the biggest environmental shifts of the past 10,000 years, challenge past belief based on evidence in marine sediments that a far quicker change created the world's biggest hot desert."
Sand is the result of finely weathered and eroded rock. It is believed it takes tens of thousands, if not millions of years for exposed rock to weather into sand. The longer this erosion takes place, the finer the grains. The sand in the Sahara is some of the oldest on the planet; it is believed to have existed for seven million years. Some of the sand dunes are rich in iron ore. The impurities stain the quartz particles, which accounts for their yellow colour.
Where did the Sahara sand come from? It did not exist 6,000 years ago. Experts are proposing that vast oceans of sand formed in less than 3,300 years. This is impossible because Saharan sand is some of the oldest on the planet. Putting this into context means that an area the size of the US has been covered in a vast sea of sand in what has to be the blink of an eye in geological terms. This makes no sense because the time frame for the formation of the sand does not allow it according to consensus theories. If the adjoining deserts swathing out across the Middle East and Asia are also considered, this equates to an area twice the size of the US. Where did all this sand come from?
Is it possible the earth is covered with debris from recent cosmic catastrophe? Could debris such as large boulders, rocks, stones, pebbles, dust and sand which are believed to be indigenous to Earth actually be extraterrestrial in origin?
Wall Thornhill speaking on "Coast to Coast" November 26, 2007:
"When you have an highly charged object like a comet coming towards the earth, before it strikes the earth there will be an electrical discharge between the two bodies and that discharge will usually be of sufficient magnitude to destroy the incoming object -- so you end up with a shower of sand and stuff like that."
"The famous Chicago fires where that whole area of the US was lit by strange fires and falls of sand and such like. And this occurred at the time of the disappearance of Biela's comet."
Countless tons of rocks bombarded Earth's atmosphere, fragmenting and breaking up into fine grains of sand. As it fell to Earth it covered vast areas of once-lush, green fertile land, turning it into the barren deserts we see today.
This sand forms a gigantic scar across the landscape which suggests great swarms of debris were hurled at the Earth, and the enormous quantities of sand demonstrates the extent of this bombardment.
Amun - An Ancient Aurora Filled Sky
Planetary chaos and intense geomagnetic storms encapsulated in the 'king of the gods' Amun.
Auroras are striking displays of coloured lights often seen over the Earth's magnetic poles. They occur when the solar wind particles trapped by the Earth's magnetic field collide with molecules of air in the upper atmosphere (ionosphere). They are a spectacular sight and take the form of rapidly shifting patches of colour and dancing columns of light of various hues. The colours observed depend on several factors such as atmospheric conditions, intensity of the solar wind, temperature and location. The aurora is always present in almost every area of the sky, but it is usually too faint to be seen except near the North and South Poles.
The intensity of the aurora is dictated by the solar wind, a stream of electrically charged particles from the Sun. When the solar wind blows exceptionally strong, the aurora increases. When the Sun is in the active phase it can unleash powerful magnetic storms that disable satellites, threaten astronaut safety, and even disrupt communication systems on Earth.
Amun is most commonly shown entirely in human form. Often he is standing or sitting on a throne wearing a red, flat-topped crown with two tall plumes and holding a sceptre in his hand. Thousands of images of Amun are to be found throughout the Pharaonic Egypt. The enormous temple complex of Karnak [Above] was the principal home of Amun where he was worshiped as the prominent divine entity. During the New Kingdom, his popularity eclipsed that of other major deities so much so he was referred to as the 'king of the gods'.
The image on the left depicts Amun in typical form with blue skin, yellow kilt, and red flat-topped crown with tall plumes segmented into sections of blue, red and green (?). A thin yellow frame separates these 'sacred' colours. The Northern Lights photo on the right depicts a plumed or pillared aurora with similar colours i.e. mainly blue supported by green, red and a hint of yellow. Comparing Amun's tall plumes with the aurora photo it is apparent they are clearly a symbolic representation of intense geomagnetic storms that dominated ancient skies.
Amun's epithets are completely consistent with an aurora filled sky.
Mysterious of form Who raised high the sky The king of the south and of the north Prince of rays and beams of light The flame which sendeth forth rays of light with mighty splendour Living flame who came forth from Nun King of heaven, ruler of the two lands Who makes light/gives free passage Secret of manifestations and sparkling of shape Marvellous god rich in forms Light was his coming into existence on the first occasion
Amun's colours were at times interchangeable. Although his flesh was predominantly blue (main sacred colour), some images reveal a red coloured flesh. His segmented plumes were sometimes coloured yellow or white, as too was his crown. The plumes were often depicted devoid of segments and were painted just one colour, normally yellow or white.
The main colours of the aurora are blue, yellow, red and green and any variants in Amun's colours merely reflect the hues seen at the time which could change on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Sometimes red neon lights covered the entire sky, other times blue, green, yellow, white or a combination of all colours. The Egyptians reflected what they saw in their art.
The aurora manifests itself in many forms including homogenous arcs, bands, active arcs, rays, pillars, plumes, draperies (or curtains) and coronas. The aurora variations are reflected in the epithet which describes Amun as the 'One creator who has millions of forms & transformations'.
Amun was also known as 'the hidden one' and the 'one whose true form could never be known'. Such 'hidden' traits reflect the transparency of the aurora. Unlike the light emanating from the body of the Sun, the auroral light had no solid body or attributable physical 'form'. In this respect the Egyptians had a blank canvass, and so chose to encapsulate the aurora as a human being adorning auroral hues and a plumed auroral crown.
The solar wind is deflected around the earth to form an enormous magnetotail [right] which can extend more than 3,976,766 miles out into space. It is divided into two lobes, or tails, rising and setting in opposition to the Sun. Today it is invisible. From the point of view of Earth's horizons it appeared as two mountains with the title 'Lord of the Two Mountains'. Those electrical apparitions were also attributed to Amun. It's probably why he wore two plumes on top of his crown and not one, or three.
During that period all close proximity planetary bodies exhibited highly visible electrical traits (this would include the cometary plumes of Comet Venus). These were all attributed to Amun. It is the very reason why the omnipresent Amun/aurora rose to prominence to become the 'king of the gods'.
Perhaps 3,000 years of cosmic catastrophe is staring us in the face by way of every facade the length and breadth of the Nile Valley.
Untuk mulai membahas, maka kali ini akan saya awali dengan sebuah pertanyaan, "Pernahkah kawan-kawan berpikir bahwa apa yang ada di sekeliling kita itu tidak lebih hanya sekumpulan ilusi yang dibentuk oleh otak kita?"
Apa yang akan saya jelaskan sebenarnya sudah tercantum dengan sangat gamblang dalam Al-Qur'an. Di beberapa ayat, Allah SWT memberi petunjuk bahwa dunia ini hanyalah ilusi, sesuatu yang fana dan tidak absolut, sesuatu yang menipu dan penuh senda gurau, dan penggambaran-penggambaran lainnya yang semakna.
Setidaknya saya menemukan ada beberapa ayat dalam Al-Qur'an yang mempertegas pernyataan di awal tadi. Bahwa dunia dan segala yang ada di dalamnya tidak lebih hanyalah tipu daya belaka! Berikut ini adalah beberapa ayat dalam Al-Qur'an yang menjelaskan tentang hal tersebut:
1. Al-Qur'an menyebutkan bahwa kehidupan di dunia tidak lebih hanya main-main dan senda gurau semata:
"Dan tiadalah kehidupan dunia ini, selain dari main-main dan senda gurau belaka. Dan sungguh kampung akhirat itu lebih baik bagi orang-orang yang bertakwa. Maka tidakkah kamu memahaminya?" (QS. Al-An'Am: 32)
"Dan tinggalkanlah orang-orang yang menjadikan agama mereka sebagai main-main dan senda-gurau, dan mereka telah ditipu oleh kehidupan dunia...." (QS. Al-An'am: 70)
"Dan tiadalah kehidupan dunia ini melainkan senda gurau dan main-main. Dan sesungguhnya akhirat itulah yang sebenarnya kehidupan, kalau mereka mengetahui." (QS. Al-Ankabut: 64)
"Sesungguhnya kehidupan dunia hanyalah permainan dan senda gurau. Dan jika kamu beriman serta bertakwa, Allah akan memberikan pahala kepadamu dan Dia tidak akan meminta harta-hartamu." (QS. Muhammad: 36)
2. Al-Qur'an menyebutkan bahwa kehidupan di dunia adalah tipuan semata:
"Hai golongan jin dan manusia, apakah belum datang kepadamu rasul-rasul dari golongan kamu sendiri, yang menyampaikan kepadamu ayat-ayat Ku dan memberi peringatan kepadamu terhadap pertemuanmu dengan hari ini? Mereka berkata: "Kami menjadi saksi atas diri kami sendiri", kehidupan dunia telah menipu mereka, dan mereka menjadi saksi atas diri mereka sendiri, bahwa mereka adalah orang-orang yang kafir." (QS. Al-An'am: 130)
"(yaitu) orang-orang yang menjadikan agama mereka sebagai main-main dan senda gurau, dan kehidupan dunia telah menipu mereka...." (QS. Al-A'raf: 51)
"Yang demikian itu, karena sesungguhnya kamu menjadikan ayat-ayat Allah sebagai olok-olokan dan kamu telah ditipu oleh kehidupan dunia..." (QS. Al-Jatsiyah: 35)
"Ketahuilah, bahwa sesungguhnya kehidupan dunia itu hanyalah permainan dan suatu yang melalaikan, perhiasan dan bermegah-megah antara kamu serta berbangga-bangga tentang banyaknya harta dan anak, seperti hujan yang tanam-tanamannya mengagumkan para petani; kemudian tanaman itu menjadi kering dan kamu lihat warnanya kuning kemudian menjadi hancur. Dan di akhirat (nanti) ada azab yang keras dan ampunan dari Allah serta keridaan-Nya. Dan kehidupan dunia ini tidak lain hanyalah kesenangan yang menipu." (QS. Al-Hadid: 20)
3. Peringatan Allah agar manusia tidak terpedaya dengan kehidupan dunia:
"Hai manusia, sesungguhnya janji Allah adalah benar, maka sekali-kali janganlah kehidupan dunia memperdayakan kamu dan sekali-kali janganlah syetan yang pandai menipu, memperdayakan kamu tentang Allah." (QS. Al-Fathir: 5)
"Hai manusia, bertakwalah kepada Tuhanmu dan takutilah suatu hari yang (pada hari itu) seorang bapak tidak dapat menolong anaknya dan seorang anak tidak dapat (pula) menolong bapaknya sedikit pun. Sesungguhnya janji Allah adalah benar, maka janganlah sekali-kali kehidupan dunia memperdayakan kamu, dan jangan (pula) penipu (setan) memperdayakan kamu dalam (menaati) Allah." (QS. Lukman: 31)
Tanpa perlu saya cantumkan kembali ayat-ayat tersebut di tulisan ini, saya yakin banyak orang yang sudah mengetahui akan hal itu. Hanya saja sayangnya kebanyakan orang pemikirannya terhenti hanya sebatas pada sisi ke-fana-an duniawi saja. Sisi yang saya maksud tersebut adalah lebih pada sisi zuhudnya saja. Banyak orang yang akhirnya menyikapi ayat-ayat tersebut dengan hidup yang sederhana saja (karena memang Allah katakan bahwa kehidupan dunia itu hanya tipu daya belaka), tetapi tanpa pernah memikirkan lebih lanjut sebenarnya apa yang Allah maksud dengan "kehidupan dunia yang menipu, memperdaya, senda gurau, dan main-main" tersebut. Padahal jika saja kita mau merenungkan dan memikirkan lebih dalam, niscaya kita bisa temukan jawaban secara pendekatan ilmiahnya. Penjelasan secara ilmiah yang inilah yang saya maksud akan sulit difahami atau bahkan dipercaya seperti yang telah saya katakan di awal.
Fakta mencengangkan mengenai hal ini semuanya bermula ketika atom dan permodelan strukturnya ditemukan. Dulu manusia mengira bahwa atom adalah penyusun materi yang paling kecil. Namun, penelitian terbaru di awal abad ke-21 ternyata menghasilkan fakta baru. Atom bukan penyusun materi yang paling kecil, melainkan masih ada lagi unsur penyusun atom yang ukurannya pasti jauh lebih kecil daripada atom itu sendiri.Partikel penyusun atom itu lah yang disebut dengan quark. Sebagaimana telah kita ketahui, bahwa atom adalah suatu molekul/zat dasar penyusun materi. Materi apa pun itu, pasti tersusun atas kumpulan atom-atom. Dalam satu molekul atom, bisa tersusun dari beberapa partikel proton, elektron, dan neutron. Partikel-partikel dalam satu molekul atom tersebut terus berrevolusi mengelilingi inti atom sesuai pada orbitnya masing-masing, sama seperti halnya planet-planet dalam sistem galaksi Bima Sakti berrevolusi mengelilingi Matahari. Karena partikel-partikel dalam atom tersebut yang terus berputar mengelilingi inti atom, maka dapat kita ketahui bahwa di antara partikel-partikel dalam atom tersebut sebenarnya hanyalah ruang-ruang kosong. Sama halnya ketika kita membayangkan pergerakan planet di sistem Tata Surya kita. Antara planet Bumi dengan planet Venus tentunya dipisahkan oleh ruang hampa, bukan?! Hal ini lah yang selanjutnya masih menjadi pertanyaan besar dalam bidang fisika quantum. Bagaimana mungkin sebuah atom yang sebenarnya terdiri dari ruang kosong mampu membentuk materi yang berwujud cair, padat, atau gas?
Namun, pertanyaannya ternyata tidak berhenti sampai di sana. Jika memang atom-atom penyusun materi tersebut adalah suatu ruang kosong, maka bagaimana mungkin kita dapat merasakan keberadaan materi tersebut? Agar lebih jelas, mari saya gambarkan lewat sebuah contoh berupa meja. Meja tentunya merupakan wujud suatu materi. Sebagaimana telah dijelaskan tadi, bahwa setiap materi tersusun atas atom. Dalam atom sendiri sebenarnya terdapat ruang-ruang kosong yang memisahkan antara satu partikel dengan partikel lain. Tapi pada kenyataannya sekarang, lewat kumpulan atom yang tidak lain hanya ruang-ruang kosong tersebut kita bisa memegang, melihat, dan merasakan bahwa meja itu memang benar ada dan masif. Padahal sebenarnya bukan kah meja tersebut terkumpul dari atom-atom yang memiliki ruang yang kosong? Lalu bagaimana mungkin sekumpulan atom-atom yang memiliki ruang kosong tersebut dapat membentuk sebuah wujud materi yang padat seperti meja?
Sebenarnya hal itu bisa terjadi dikarenakan apapun yang kita persepsikan sebagai "dunia luar", sebenarnya merupakan serial dari sinyal-sinyal elektrik semata. Yang saya maksud dengan "dunia luar" adalah segala sesuatu yang ada di luar kita atau lingkungan sekitar kita. Coba kita ambil contoh "penglihatan". Kita bertanya "bagaimana kita bisa melihat?" Jawaban gampangnya tentu "karena adanya mata". Padahal jawaban yang sebenarnya tidak segampang itu.
Kita bisa melihat benda itu dikarenakan serangkaian proses yang terjadi di dalam mata dan otak kita sendiri. Pertama, berkas cahaya yang dinamakan foton masuk ke mata kita setelah memantul dari benda yang tersinari cahaya. Selanjutnya foton-foton tersebut akan dikonversikan ke dalam sinyal-sinyal listrik dan dibawa ke otak kita dalam bentuk ini. Jadi, apa yang sampai ke mata kita sebenarnya bukanlah foton-foton dari objek yang kita lihat, melainkan sinyal-sinyal yang dihasilkandari reaksi foton yang mengenai lapisan tertentu dari mata. Dengan kata lain, pusat penglihatan yang ada di dalam otak tidak memproses cahaya dari objek, melainkan justru copy/salinan dari cahaya tersebut lah yang sudah berbentuk sinyal-sinyal elektrik. Saat kita bilang "saya sedang melihat benda ini", kita sebenarnya tidak sedang melihatnya. Apa yang kita lihat adalah sinyal-sinyal elektrik yang menggambarkan objek/benda tersebut di dalam otak kita. Apa pun yang kita lihat, termasuk alam semesta, sebenarnya hanya melalui pusat penglihatan kita yang ukurannya hanya beberapa centimeter persegi saja!!!
Dengan demikian, bisa dikatakan kalau sebenarnya kita bukan melihat dengan mata, tapi justru dengan pusat penglihatan kita. Ini bertentangan dengan pendapat yang diketahui selama ini. Sebab terbukti, tidak ada cahaya yang masuk ke otak. Otak kita selalu dalam keadaan gelap. Kita dapati hasilnya selalu nihil cahaya, meskipun saat itu orang yang bersangkutan sedang memandang matahari secara langsung. Pantulan cahaya dari benda yang kita lihat tidak pernah masuk dan sampai ke otak sama sekali. Kesimpulannya, otak tidak pernah melihat objek itu sendiri, namun otak hanya mempersepsikan sinyal elektrik dari objek yang dilihat.
Seorang ilmuwan, Bertrand Russle, dalam bukunya The ABC of Relativity memberi contoh berikut:
"Pendapat awam membayangkan bahwa ketika kita melihat meja, kita melihat meja. Ini adalah delusi kasar. Ketika awam melihat meja, sebuah gelombang cahaya mencapai mata, kemudian diasosiasikan dengan sensasi sentuhan dalam pengalaman sebelumnya, dan juga dari pengakuan orang lain yang juga melihat meja itu, maka dianggaplah bahwa kita bisa benar-benar menemukan meja (jika memang meja itu ada). Kejadiannya adalah: Gelombang cahaya menyentuh mata, menimbulkan keadaan tertentu di mata kita. Keadaan itu kemudian menyebabkan keadaan-keadaan lain di dalam otak kita, dan kemudian kita menyangka melihat meja, meskipun sebenarnya mungkin saja keadaan-keadaan itu dapat terjadi tanpa benar-benar ada meja di sana."
Proses mendengar juga tidak berbeda dengan yang lain. Gelombang bunyi mencapai telinga kemudian dikonversikan ke dalam sinyal-sinyal elektrik dan dibawa oleh sel saraf ke pusat pendengaran. Sebagaimana dengan mekanisme 'melihat' tadi, yang sampai ke otak adalah sinyal-sinyal elektrik yang merupakan copy gelombang bunyi tadi.
Fakta yang berhubungan dengan penglihatan ini ternyata juga sama pada indera-indera yang lain. Kita mencium sinyal-sinyal elektrik, mendengar sinyal-sinyal elektrik, termasuk kita mengecap sinyal-sinyal elektrik saat makan.
Sejauh ini, jelaslah bahwa semua objek yang kita lihat, sentuh dan raba, cuma sinyal-sinyal yang diproduksi dan diinterpretasikan di dalam otak kita.
Dengan demikian, "dunia luar" yang diperkenalkan kepada kita oleh indera kita, adalah sekumpulan copy berbentuk sinyal elektrik semata. Otak kita, sepanjang hidupnya, memproses dan mengevaluasi copy-copy ini.
Kita selama ini percaya bahwa kita terhubungkan dengan objek yang "sesungguhnya", tapi ternyata kita hanya berhubungan dengan copy dari image-image objek. Tanpa kita pernah tahu apakah objek/benda itu memang benar-benar ada !!!
Pembahasan kita tidak berhenti hanya sampai di sini. Jika sekarang telah terbukti bahwa apa yang kita lihat, dengar, pegang, dan kecap dengan seluruh indera kita ternyata tidak lebih dari sekumpulan sinyal-sinyal elektrik yang dipersepsikan oleh otak. Lalu bagaimana sebenarnya dengan otak kita sendiri? Bukan kah otak kita juga merupakan wujud dari objek/benda/materi?
Sebagai ilustasi, sekarang mari kita anggap bahwa kita dapat memanjangkan saraf-saraf antara mata dengan pusat penglihatan di otak kita. Lalu kita dapat mengeluarkan otak kita tepat di depan mata kita dengan kondisi saraf-saraf penghubung organ mata dengan otak masih berfungsi normal. Bukankah dengan begitu kita juga dapat melihat otak kita sendiri? Dengan demikian, sama halnya dengan benda-benda atau materi yang lainnya. Otak kita juga memang tidak berbeda dengan materi yang selama ini kita lihat atau indera. Otak juga adalah materi yang terlihat seolah-olah memiliki wujud seperti yang kita lihat.
Dengan demikian semakin jelas, bahwa apa yang kita lihat, cium, rasakan, dengan segala indera yang kita miliki dalam tubuh sebenarnya tidak lebih daripada interpetasi otak sendiri terhadap benda-benda tersebut. Kita tidak pernah tahu secara pasti bagaimana sebenarnya wujud atau keberadaan benda-benda di sekitar kita karena yang kita lihat adalah hanya bentuk intepretasi dari otak. Secara sederhana dapat kita anggap bahwa dalam otak telah dimuat segala macam informasi yang mirip seperti sebuah super komputer yang sangat canggih. Di dalamnya terdapat berbagai macam data dan software yang sewaktu-waktu dapat kita panggil atau tampilkan sesuai dengan yang kita inginkan. Allah lah yang membuat dan mendesain software, data-data, serta segala sesuatu yang terkait dengannya, sedangkan kita hanya bisa menggunakan tanpa bisa mengubah. Dengan demikian, tentu kita hanya tahu sebatas apa yang telah ada dalam desain tersebut, tanpa pernah tahu proses kerja pembuatan software tersebut, apalagi ada rahasia apa di baliknya. Sebagai contoh lagi, kita melihat bahwa batu itu bentuknya ada yang lonjong, bulat, atau kisut karena memang otak kita menerjemahkan bahwa bentuk batu tersebut seperti itu. Tapi sekali lagi, tanpa kita pernah tahu apakah bentuk original dari batu itu memang seperti itu?! Bahkan secara ekstrim dapat juga saya simpulkan bahwa sebenarnya bukan kita yang ada di dalam alam semesta, melainkan alam semesta lah yang ada di dalam otak kita! Otak kita sendiri lah yang selama ini menciptakan berbagai intepretasi tentang "dunia luar" yang ada di sekitar kita.
Rasanya hampir lucu sekali ketika saya katakan bahwa selama ini kita hidup dalam dunia yang sebenarnya dibentuk oleh otak kita sendiri. Tapi memang begitulah fakta yang sebenarnya terjadi.
Jika sampai penjelasan sekarang ini kita berkesimpulan bahwa otak, sang penerjemah "dunia luar", juga merupakan bagian dari "dunia luar" itu sendiri, lantas siapakah sebenarnya yang dapat melihat, mencium, memegang, meraba, mendengar, tanpa melalui indera dalam tubuh kita? Dia tentu adalah sebuah zat yang tidak tergolong materi, sosoknya absolut, dan bersumber dari kekuatan Ilahiah. Itulah ruh. Nyawa kita sendiri. Ruh yang telah Allah tiupkan sejak usia ke-4 bulan kita dalam kandungan ibu kita. Itu lah sosok yang sebenarnya ada dan bersifat kekal.
