FIREBALL PLOWING INTO GALAXY

1-Fireball plowing into Galaxy. 2-Quakes hit San Fransico. 3-EU leaders ponder future.

Jesus Warned us there would be signs in the heavens in the last days.

LUKE 21:11,25
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Giant “ball of fire” hurtling through space,June 12, 2006
Courtesy European Space Agencyand World Science staff

Astronomers say they have found a comet-like “ball of fire, over a billion times weightier than our Sun, plowing into a distant galaxy cluster. By far the largest object of its kind ever identified, scientists say, it’s estimated to be moving at over 2.7 million kilometres (1.7 million miles) per hour. The size and velocity of this gas ball is truly fantastic, said Alexis Finoguenov of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in Baltimore, Md., and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, one of the researchers.

The gas ball doesn’t emit visible light, though it contains visible galaxies and spews X-rays, a high-energy form of light, he added. The researchers used the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray satellite to study these.

The fireball is estimated to be about three million light years long, more than two billion times the width of our solar system. A light year is the distance light travels in a year. The object is in a cluster of galaxies called Abell 3266, millions of light years from Earth, thus posing no danger to us, the researchers said. The cluster, one of the most massive such agglomerations in the southern sky, contains hundreds of galaxies and hot gas. It’s also part of a “supercluster”—or cluster of galaxy clusters—called Horologium-Reticulum. Both cluster and supercluster are still growing, said Mark Henriksen, also of the University of Maryland, a member of the research team.

The supercluster will become one of the largest mass concentrations in the nearby universe, he added; the fireball is a sign of that growth. This is likely a massive building block being delivered to one of the largest assemblies of galaxies we know,said Finoguenov.The object appears from Earth as a circular glow of X-ray light with a comet-like tail nearly half the size of the moon, the astronomers said.The gas ball is 46 million degrees C (83 million degrees F), Finoguenov added; the surrounding gas is even hotter, but emits fewer X-rays because it is sparser.

What interests astronomers is not just the size of the gas ball but the role it plays in the formation and evolution of structure in the universe,” said Francesco Miniati of the Swiss Federal Institute ofTechnology in Zurich, Switzerland, another of the scientists. The group produced an “entropy map” of the gas ball, a technique that allows for separation of comet gas from the cluster gas based on temperature and density.

The map shows gas being stripped from the gas ball’s core and forming a large tail containing lumps of colder and denser gas, they said. This results in a comet-like formation. They added that about a sun’s worth of mass falls away each hour, not unlike the way dust sloughs off a comet’s tail. The fireball wouldn’t actually related to comets in any way, other than in its general form. Comets are balls of dust and ices that are tiny compared to the reported fireball.With the fireball, “We are seeing structure formation in action, said Henriksen. The cluster’s hot gas is “stripping off and dispersing gas that perhaps one day will seed star and galaxy growth within the cluster.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

Thursday AM EarthquakesThursday, June 15, 2006 - 07:45 AM

San Francisco, CA -- So far there are no reports of damage or any injuries after a series of earthquakes shook a remote area of Santa Clara County.The U-S Geological Survey says a magnitude 4.7 shaker was recorded about eight miles northeast of Gilroy around 5:24 this morning.Three aftershocks measuring between 2.9 and 1.6 were recorded several minutes later.

DANIEL 7:23-2423 Thus he said, The fourth beast (European Union) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,( 7th World Empire) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.

Europe's leaders ponder EU future

Leaders must decide whether to revive the constitution The 25 leaders of the European Union countries have begun a summit in Brussels aimed at hammering out a future direction for the EU. They are considering how it should be organised and how much it should grow. They are expected to extend a year-long period of reflection on what to do with the EU constitution after its rejection by France and the Netherlands in 2005. Austria is also pushing for a decision that could further slow down the bloc's enlargement to the south and east.

Timetable?

EU countries are split between those who would like to bury the constitution, and those who would like it to be revived, in one form or another. I am convinced that at this summit, we will simply extend the period of reflection Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. At this summit, some want to agree on 2008 or 2009 as a target date for institutional changes of the kind mapped out in the constitution, but others want to avoid setting a timetable. The Polish Prime Minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, made clear he favoured an open open-ended pause. I am convinced that at this summit, we will simply extend the period of reflection. We will try
not to prejudge how long this extension should be, he told reporters. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said there seemed to be less consensus now on the way forward than there had been before.

Delicate talks will be needed on issues facing the EU. So an extended period of reflection would seem to make sense, she said. The debate on enlargement is expected to turn on the question of how much weight to give to the EU's capacity to "absorb" new members. The EU has always said that this is an "important consideration" affecting decisions about new members, but there is now a move from Austria, the outgoing EU president, to make the language stronger. BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell says some countries want further enlargement to be conditional on the support of public opinion in the EU. It (Turkish membership) will be a very difficult task .

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso

The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, told the BBC in an interview that all democracies had to take account of public opinion. He added that it was possible for Turkey to join the EU, but it would be very difficult. First of all (it will be) very demanding for them but also demanding for us here to be ready to accommodate such an important big country that is seen by so many of us as culturally different from let's say mainstream Europe," he said.

UK U-turn France and Germany are backing Austria on enlargement, but the UK and the newer member states argue that erecting new barriers would be unfair to potential candidates. Other topics which may arise include:Transparency - Austria says discussions of EU legislation by the Council of Ministers should be televised. The UK, which took the same view during its presidency last year, has made a U-turn, and is now opposing the idea . Foreign policy - the European Commission has proposed closer co-operation between the EU's foreign policy and security chief, Javier Solana, who answers to member states, and the European Commission's external relations apparatus .Co-operation on crime - the Commission wants member states to give up their veto in the area of criminal justice, on the grounds that this would help produce common policies on cross-border crime and terrorism. The UK and France are in favour, but Germany is not.