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Sixth Seal – Heavenly Signs
The Bible prophecies about certain Heavenly Signs as
the 6th of seven Seals. We are to be looking for anything
happening in the heavens leading up to these events. In the
14 items to look for in world events, Mr.
Armstrong lists as item 13, to look for heavenly signs (meteor
showers/comets) and any other noteworthy developments. First
notice key verses followed by an important story reported on 6 July
2004.
Rev 6:12-17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there
was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of
hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree
casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together;
and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men,
and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and
every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from
the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to
stand?
Matt 24:29-30
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall
fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and
then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the
Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great
glory.
Joel 2:30-31
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood,
and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Sunspots reaching
1,000-year high |
 |
By Dr David Whitehouse --BBC
A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has
been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years.
Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice
cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity
in the past.
They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at
the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer.
This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning,
they argue.
'Little Ice Age'
Sunspots have been monitored on the Sun since 1610, shortly after
the invention of the telescope. They provide the longest-running
direct measurement of our star's activity.
The variation in sunspot numbers has revealed the Sun's 11-year
cycle of activity as well as other, longer-term changes.
In particular, it has been noted that between about 1645 and 1715,
few sunspots were seen on the Sun's surface.
This period is called the Maunder Minimum after the English
astronomer who studied it.
It coincided with a spell of prolonged cold weather often referred
to as the "Little Ice Age". Solar scientists strongly suspect there
is a link between the two events - but the exact mechanism remains
elusive.
Over the past few thousand years there is evidence of earlier
Maunder-like coolings in the Earth's climate - indicated by
tree-ring measurements that show slow growth due to prolonged cold.
In an attempt to determine what happened to sunspots during these
other cold periods, Dr Sami Solanki and colleagues have looked at
concentrations of a form, or isotope, of beryllium in ice cores from
Greenland.
The isotope is created by cosmic rays - high-energy particles from
the depths of the galaxy.
The flux of cosmic rays reaching the Earth's surface is modulated by
the strength of the solar wind, the charged particles that stream
away from the Sun's surface.
And since the strength of the solar wind varies over the sunspot
cycle, the amount of beryllium in the ice at a time in the past can
therefore be used to infer the state of the Sun and, roughly, the
number of sunspots.
Latest warming
Dr Solanki is presenting a paper on the reconstruction of past solar
activity at Cool Stars, Stellar Systems And The Sun, a conference in
Hamburg, Germany.
He says that the reconstruction shows the Maunder Minimum and the
other minima that are known in the past thousand years.
But the most striking feature, he says, is that looking at the past
1,150 years the Sun has never been as active as it has been during
the past 60 years.
Over the past few hundred years, there has been a steady increase in
the numbers of sunspots, a trend that has accelerated in the past
century, just at the time when the Earth has been getting warmer.
The data suggests that changing solar activity is influencing in
some way the global climate causing the world to get warmer.
Over the past 20 years, however, the number of sunspots has remained
roughly constant, yet the average temperature of the Earth has
continued to increase.
This is put down to a human-produced greenhouse effect caused by the
combustion of fossil fuels.
This latest analysis shows that the Sun has had a considerable
indirect influence on the global climate in the past, causing the
Earth to warm or chill, and that mankind is amplifying the Sun's
latest attempt to warm the Earth.
Source
News Story 22 July 2004
Earth-Directed Sunspot Now Size of 20 Earths
At 20 times the size of Earth, the largest
sunspot observed since the fall solar storm onslaught is now pointed
directly at Earth. Its unusually large size also means that it's now
visible with the naked eye (although you should never look at the
Sun without a proper filter). The implications of this spot have
scientists on the edge of their seats - if the active region
generates coronal mass ejections (CMEs), massive explosions with a
potential force of a billion megaton bombs, it will be a fairly
direct hit to Earth and its satellites and power grids.
Right: A view from
the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) instrument on the SOHO
spacecraft. It's a helioseismology instrument that analyzes the
vibrational modes of the Sun as well as the Sun's magnetic field.
Click on image for movie. Credit: NASA/ESA
The last large
solar events occurred in the fall of 2003 when about 17 major
flares erupted on the Sun. In this case, the region (AR 10652) has
generated several medium-sized flares and CMEs over the past three
and a half days. These views are from the SOHO spacecraft's MDI and
EIT instruments, respectively. The EIT view shows the active regions
churning out massive amounts of magnetically confined plasma in
small blasts. Over the next few days, the region has the potential
for unleashing more and larger solar storms.
Left: Full-disk
view of the Sun with SOHO's Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT).
The bright active regions are the source for flares and CMEs. Click
on image for movie. Credit: NASA/ESA
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is
located in an orbit approximately one million miles from Earth in
order to gain an unobstructed view of the Sun. It carries 12
instruments and is a joint NASA / European Space Agency (ESA)
mission.
Source
Note: Click on two photos above to see
video of each
Links:
Space Weather
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Space.Ref.com –Space News As
It Happens
Space.Ref.ca –Space Ref for
Canada
Space.Ref EU – Space Ref for
Europe
Space.Ref Photo Gallery
NASA Watch
National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration –official source of space weather alerts
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