posted October 08, 2009 05:04 AM         

SOFT GAMMA RAY REPEATERS IN ASTROLOGY

Toward an Astrology of Magnetars
©1998-1999 by Richard Nolle

Earth - or half of it, any rate - got blasted at 10:22 UT on August 27, 1998.1 During the following five minutes, our home planet was on the receiving end of a cosmic ray barrage (of gamma-rays, X-rays and radio waves) so intense that it ionized Earth's upper atmosphere to levels normally seen only during the daytime. Researchers at Stanford University who measured the ionization described it as "the first direct evidence of a physical effect on the Earth's environment by a distant star, or by any star other than our own Sun."2

The blast came from SGR 1900+14, a newly recognized type of star called a magnetar, in the constellation Aquila (the Eagle). At its source, the phenomenal five-minute cosmic ray surge was the energy equivalent of our Sun's entire output for the next 300 years, according to UC Berkeley physicist Kevin Hurley.3 Fortunately for us, SGR 1900+14 is so far away that it took the surge of cosmic radiation over 20,000 years just to reach us. Our distance from the source of the blast was one major protective factor. Another is that Earth's upper atmosphere absorbed the lion's share of the interstellar burst. By the time it reached ground level, the intensity of that flare had been reduced to the point that anyone on the receiving end only got the equivalent of a normal dental X-ray. (Two satellites in Earth orbit, outside the protective blanket of our atmosphere, were overwhelmed by the blast. They went into automatic shutdown to preserve their shielded electronics from destruction by the onslaught of cosmic radiation.)

SGR 1900+14SGR 1900+14 is a telling nomenclature, if you know how to read the astronomical code. SGR stands for Soft Gamma-ray Repeater, and 1900+14 is the magnetar's location on the celestial sphere in Right Ascension (19h 00m) and declination (14 degrees north). In the zodiacal parlance more familiar to astrologers, this equates to 18o12' Capricorn at an ecliptic latitude of 36oN30'. SGR is a bit of a misnomer, according to magnetar co-discoverer Robert Duncan: "In fact, most SGR photons are really high-energy or 'hard' X-rays - not gamma rays at all! A more descriptive name would thus be 'hard X-ray flashers'."4 SGRs also emit radio waves, in addition to gamma- and X-rays.

Epicenter of the AUG 27, 1998 SGR 1900+14 flareMagnetar SGR 1900+14 was over the western North Pacific Ocean when its blast hit Earth. To be more precise, the burst was directly overhead at about 154E10, 14N00 - roughly halfway between Guam and Wake Island. Everyone in the terrestrial hemisphere centered on that point - including East and Southeast Asia, all of Australia and most of Alaska - got the equivalent of a dental X-ray that night, courtesy of SGR 1900+14. That's not much for a human, but it's a lot for a microbe. Given that X-rays are mutagenic, don't be surprised if the 1999-2000 edition of the Asian flu is a real viral blitzkrieg. (Gazing at the Saturn-Mars square in effect as the cosmic ray front hit - part of a Grand Cross involving Uranus, Neptune and the Moon - I rather suspect a new strain of streptococcus will soon rear its ugly head as well.) Had the magnetar been closer to Earth, the X-ray dose could have been lethal to everyone not living in a lead mine at the time. Magnetars may in fact be agents of evolutionary change here on Earth - of mass extinction, even.5

If it seems peculiar that a cosmic ray blast could reach Earth from a star over 20,000 light years away, consider the source. Magnetars are most peculiar stars, according to current astrophysical theory. They're born in a supernova, the explosion of a massive star. (All five currently known magnetars are located in or near what are called SNRs - SuperNova Remnants.) The stellar core that remains after the supernova blows off the bulk of the star is a neutron star, composed mostly of neutrons (with a trace mixture of protons and electrons). This neutron brew is so compressed by the force of gravity that a single cup of the stuff would weigh as much as a mile-high mountain on Earth. The whole neutron star can be more massive than our Sun, yet is less than 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) in diameter. And the surface of the neutron star is peculiar too: it's a half-mile thick crust of iron. The whole strange star glows brightly in the X-ray spectrum, due to the immense heat trapped within it.

All magnetars are neutron stars, but not all neutron stars are magnetars. If a neutron star is born rotating fast enough, it creates a monstrously powerful magnetic dynamo (1014 - 1015 Gauss, a thousand trillion times stronger than Earth's magnetic field). This super-strong magnetic field quickly slows down the star's rotation. Then it goes to work on the body of the star, deforming and cracking the iron crust to create 'starquakes' (analogous to earthquakes on our home planet). These starquakes drive magnetic waves outward, energizing clouds of particles surrounding the magnetar to produce a burst of radiation - thus giving rise to a normal SGR burst, which can produce as much energy in a second as our Sun does in a whole year. Normal SGR bursts, strong as they are, are not at all uncommon. SGR 1900+14 emitted over 50 of them in the last week of May 1998 alone.

Occasionally the magnetar's immensely powerful magnetic field destabilizes, giving rise to a magnetic flare analogous to the solar flares produced by our own Sun. Such a magnetic flare produces a rare super SGR burst of radiation, far stronger than the normal bursts from these peculiar stars. Astronomers now believe that it was just such a super-burst from SGR 1900+14 that hit Earth on August 27, 1998. An even stronger one - "the most intense blast of gamma rays ever detected from outside our solar system"6 - reached our home planet at 15:51 UT on March 5, 1979. It originated in SGR 0526-66, associated with a supernova remnant (SNR N49) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (the LMC, 180,000 light-years from Earth), and it was a blast of truly cosmic proportions. "In the first two-tenths of a second," calculates Duncan, "the burster radiated away as much energy as the Sun radiates in 1000 years . . . at its peak the burster was shining about 10 times brighter than all the stars in our galaxy put together."7

No one knows for sure how many magnetars there are in our galaxy. Most of them are undetectable, because magnetars have a short lifespan. Some 10,000 years after one of these spectacular bursters is born in the aftermath of a supernova, its magnetic energy begins running down. As this happens, it ceases bursting, grows cold and dark, and dies out. Duncan estimates there are at least a million (and perhaps as many as 100 million)8 of these slowly rotating dark iron stars drifting through the Milky Way . . .

There are now five known and several more suspected magnetars, and there are certainly a great many more yet undiscovered. In the suspect category are AXPs - Anomalous X-ray Pulsars - which appear to be magnetars that have yet to be observed emitting the characteristic SGR burst. (The technology to detect such stellar eruptions is now only 30 years old.) These could be magnetars in which the magnetic dynamo has run down, but with enough heat remaining in their cores to generate X-rays. Given their amply demonstrated capacity to affect Earth from truly cosmic distances, these wonderfully weird stars could prove to be a new frontier not only for astrophysics, but for astrology as well. To that end, here's a table with zodiacal coordinates (tropical zodiac, J2000 ecliptic) and a thumbnail sketch of the five currently known SGR magnetars. (Check your charts!

Designation Long. Lat. Notes
SGR 0526-66 05 ARI 24 86 S 32 in LMC, monster flare MAR 5 1979
SGR 1627-41 11 SAG 38 19 S 02 discovered JUN 15 1998, 26 bursts to date
SGR 1806-20 01 CAP 56 43 N 26 1st SGR burst ever detected (JAN 7 1979)
SGR 1815-13 03 CAP 43 10 N 23 discovered 1997, three bursts that year
SGR 1900+14 18 CAP 12 36 N 30 in Aquila, last major flare AUG 27 1998
http://www.astropro.com/features/articles/magnetars/magnetar1.html

The following are astrological insights from Philip Sedgwick:

Also, periodically things in deep space blast us with repeating gamma rays. These bodies called Soft Gamma Ray repeaters (SGR’s not to be confused with the astronomers designation for Sagittarius) shower people with the urge to conjure up transformational events by deriving meaning from the events occurring around us. The essence of understanding occurs when a person realizes how to adjust their energy with what surrounds the body, thus creating a state of alignment. It’s a bit like watching a lizard change color to fit in with its surroundings. The most recent burst lasted 1.8 seconds and reached our sensors on April 6th. Why bother with something so short in length? These bursts can knock out satellites, disrupt cell phones and re-tweak any electromagnetic sensitive device - like a person’s chakra system for instance. http://www.mayanmajix.com/art2425.html

Personally, I believe cell phones and such ought to be banned. I use my cell phone so minimally that if it weren't for things like, "my airbus has been delayed, please reprogram your Mercedes for my pick-up time," I wouldn't use it at all. Plus I wonder... with the increasing dependence upon these devices, the proliferation of the satellites required to support the technology, what will happen when Soft Gamma Ray Repeaters and solar storms of the next solar max regardless how minimal, knock out our satellites as is suggested, will occur and has occurred in the past? Can you image if for two days the entire cell phone/satellite system dropped off line? Could it be Twitter Twilight? http://snoedel.punt.nl/?id=467972&r=1&tbl_archief=&

wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_gamma_repeater

LIST OF GALACTIC ANOMALIES FROM PHILIP SEDGWICK'S GALACTIC TRILOGY CD

SGR 0525-66 - 5'11 Aries
Soft Gamma Ray Repeater'

GT 2318+620 01'22 Taurus
Anomalistic galaxy, low mass X-Ray binary with radio jets, within our galaxy, relativistic characteristics,
similar to that of SS433.

Super Galactic Ctr 02'03 Libra
ZS, with 3U (4U) 1228+12, NGC 4486, contains 3 trillion stars, 10K globular clusters, holds 30+ galaxies in place,
extremely violent jet, 3 Billion QM

Z/ZS 14'26 Scorpio
Midpoint of Galactic Center and Super-Galactic Center

SGR 1627-41 11'41 Sagittarius
Soft Gamma Ray Repeater, showing up June 15, 1998 w 200 ms bursts.

Abell 3627 14'02 Sagittarius
The “Great Attractor,” Extreme gravitational vortex pulling massive galaxies towards it source. Strong IFR.
Located in Centaurus.

Galactic Center 26'50 Sagittarius
Z, strong IFR and radio, Black Hole within the core.

SGR 1801-23 28'42 Sagittarius
Soft Gamma Ray Repeater

SGR 1806-20 0'28 Capricorn
Soft Gamma Ray Repeater, p = 7.56687 s, bright radio, possibly with neutron star, 40 K Lt yrs

SGR 1900+14 19'34 Capricorn
Soft Gamma Ray Repeater, strong outburst on 8/28/1998 disrupting electronic communications, unusual
impact of galactic radiation on Earth, p = 5.16s

SS433 20'11 Capricorn
Neutron Star in Binary orbit with yellow star, P = 164d, subperiod = 13.1d.

SN1987A 7'28 Aquarius
Super Nova of 1987, near LMC, 1st Neutrino detected from non-solar source @ 7:35:41.37 (UT) 2/23/1987,
with sensors at bottom of Lake Erie, OH, possibly fulfills the Hopi Blue Star prophecy.

You can find your SGR,Galactic Anomaly positions with Riyal software which is a free astrological software http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/riyal.html

Select Tables ,and then select Unusual Deep Space

In my chart:

SGR 1627-41 is in 11'17 Sagittarius
conjunct Imum Coeli in 11'14 Sagittarius

Raymond

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"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"