Proof of "dark energy"

The Korean Peninsula from Space. Unlike the prosperous South, the North has energy shortages and no electricity after 9 PM. Their one bright spot is Pyongyang where Kim Jong Il and cronies keep their own lights on. Even China has more electricity.

Here is something to consider: If a blast had the yield of 1000 tons of TNT, maybe it really was 1000 tons of TNT. The Communist world has built Potemkin villages before. On July 4 North Korea launched 6 old Scuds to cover the failure of their ICBM. That same day the US Space Shuttle launched successfully.

Physicists would say that a "dark energy" is causing those data points to crowd South. Perhaps dark energy explains the precession of Mercury too. Remember the Emperor's new clothes? Who wants to be the little boy pointing out that the fool is naked?

At yesterday's High Energy Physics Advisory Panel meeting, Michael Salamon of NASA HQ made these points:

* Original 2004 ordering of Beyond Einstein Missions was LISA (launch in 2013), Con-X (launch in 2018), with Einstein Probes initiating as funds were provided (JDEM, Inflation Probe, Black Hole Finder Probe)

* FY 05 Presidential Budget delayed LISA and Con-X by a year, and deferred the Einstein Probes to beyond the budget horizon.

* Intense focus on Dark Energy has created programmatic pressure to consider placing JDEM at top of BE queue.

Thanks to Nigel for citing condensed-matter theorist Phil Anderson commenting in Cosmic Variance that Dark Energy Might Not Exist. Blogger Sean argues that the accelerating universe is the best evidence for DE. You all know that acceleration is an illusion caused by c change. We remember Cassandra's warnings being ignored.

Now we have "dark energy researchers" fighting amongst themselves for which expensive DE probe will go while the whole project is likely to be deferred indefinitely. We have them pressuring to skip the queue ahead of Con-X. We all can see other blogs where string and LQG theorists rip each other apart. Is this a time to say I told you so?

Below is Saturn imaged by Cassini's Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIRMS). The strings of pearls are clearings in the cloud system. More than two dozen of these clearing occur at 40 degrees North latitude. Each clearing follows another with a regular spacing of 3.5 degrees.

As our Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea saw earlier, Saturn has an infra-red hot spot centred within 2-3 degrees of the South Pole, most visible at 17.65 microns. There is more going on in Saturn than meets the eye. Here is more energy than humans could desire.