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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

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A star that shoots cosmic rays

New data from the space telescope NuSTAR suggests that the giant star Eta Carina, expected to be a supernova sometime in the future, emits cosmic rays, some of which reach the Earth.

The cosmic rays are produced by shock waves resulting from the clash between the intense solar winds of the system’s two stars.

Go to the link to see a truly beautiful image of this star system. You will immediately see that it is a system exploding.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

2 comments

  • Max

    Beautiful picture, interesting story. I think they made a few mistakes when referring to starlight (electrons) being accelerated to the speed of light. (Electrons already travel at the speed of light) They must of been talking about heavier particles like protons.
    If I pretend to know what is happening, I would say that the two massive stars share an intense magnetic field. (think of a very awkward but effective particle Excelerator)
    On our Sun, strong magnetic field’s force light in them to climb to ultra violet strength to escape the resistance field. (we do this every day using strong magnetic field making electron beams into UV light which is how the tube type TVs work)
    To our eyes it appears as a dark spot on the Sun when it is actually the brightest, most energetic light our Sun can produce. Our eyes are unable to see light in the UV and in x-ray range making sunspots “just look dark”.
    Magnetic fields like to twist until they explode and collapse. Now imagine two super massive stars with shared magnetic fields because of their close proximity (140 million miles, like the Martian orbit) The binary magnetic field’s taking on a repulsive then attractive force while the sun’s spinning motion causes the magnetic field’s to twist and snap with unheard of explosive energy that rivals a supernova looking like an hour glass.
    At the moment the magnetic field collapses, an electrical discharge between different potential’s, a massive lightning bolt, will heat up and accelerate atoms through the magnetic fields gaseous remains throwing off energetic particles like a particle excelerator.
    My point is, this is a good explanation, yet unverified, of where cosmic rays come from. Light from other stars being accelerated is unnecessary since both of the super massive stars have more than enough electrons and light that originate from that source.

  • Max

    I forgot to add a link to a picture that claims to be the first one of a planet orbiting a star.
    More massive than Jupiter at the orbiting distance of Uranus.
    It appears to me to be a binary star system with similar problems like the above article, just less energy involved.
    https://m.phys.org/news/2018-07-image-newborn-planet-caught-eso.html

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