Mars-Venus and the Hadron Collider

[SpiralHawk]

Dear Friends,
For your consideration, here are some scrambled scraps on noteworthy celestial, and earthly, doings for Sept. 10 and 11.

I first note that there is a major conjunction of Mars-Venus and Mercury in the sky this week. It's visible after sunset in the southwest, as as pretty a picture as you can imagine. Seeing the planets together like that that got me thinking.

Then I read about the Large Hadron Collector, which will be “switched on” under the signature of the Mars-Venus-Mercury – conjunction. That really caught my attention. It’s a major, international scientific event,

Here are the elements of consideration. The Hadron thingy is, to my mind, amazing.

As above, so below. - SpiralHawk
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Mars and Venus will be only 0.3 degrees apart on Sept. 10-11 at the center of Cardinal sign Libra, while Mercury will be less than five degrees from the pair. The three will be visible to the naked eye, but binoculars or a telescope will make them large, luminous, vivid.

Mercury will dance with Mars and Venus, then go Retrograde around Sept. 24, ultimately bringing all of the related Mars-Venus issues that arise back up for reconsideration, revaluation.

Here’s a short youtube video that shows the dance of the planets. Worth watching – first they do Sept. 7, then on to Sept. 11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecT8ITmbSXU




AP – September 8, 2008

Swiss to activate Big Bang machine


Scientists insist the most powerful particle accelerator ever built is "absolutely safe".

Concerns have been voiced over the £5 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which will be switched on this Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008.

The machine, to be based underground on the Swiss-French border, will smash protons - one of the building blocks of matter - into each other at energies up to seven times greater than any achieved before.

In the flashes from the collisions (conjunctions), they expect to reproduce conditions that existed during the first billionth of a second after the Big Bang at the dawn of creation.

Professor Otto Rossler, a German chemist from a group of scientists mounting a last-minute court challenge to the project, has expressed worries about the creation of black holes.

Scientists believe microscopic black holes might be generated in the machine. But according to the predictions, they will blink in and out of existence before anything scary happens.

Prof Rossler believes it is quite possible that the black holes made in the LHC will grow uncontrollably and "eat the planet from the inside".

But Particle physicist Dr James Gillies, a spokesman for the project, said: "We have received a lot of worried calls from people about it.

"There's nothing to worry about, the LHC is absolutely safe, because we have observed nature doing the same things the LHC will do. Protons regularly collide in the earth's upper atmosphere without creating black holes."

The experiments could help scientists find answers to some of the biggest questions in physics, such as why the universe looks the way it does, and how to explain mass, gravity and mysterious "dark matter".

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gJlBbJVKcIbLyH0VBswS1rM-ntTw


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Astro note (this is from a blog on the net. My apologies, lost the source citation)

Sep.11 – Venus conjunct Mars (15:17 dgrees of Libra)

Diplomacy and harmony combine with forcefulness and enthusiasm under this transit. How you experience the results will depend in part on which you value more – winning (Mars dominant) or resolution (Venus dominant).

One possibility is being able to negotiate agreements with others in assertive ways; another possibility is being able to confront others with gentleness and diplomacy.

The courage to act could become either blunted or enhanced by an increased sensitivity to how your actions could affect others. Your ability to negotiate a diplomatic solution to a problem might be sabotaged by impatience, frustration or too much directness – or that same forcefulness might help by keeping things from getting bogging down or by injecting an infectious enthusiasm to the discussion.

Although the effects could look very different in various situations, the best results will likely be found by using the best of both of these opposite energies.

End

[SpiralHawk]

1. For the record: the Hadron activation was successful

Mars and Venus (and Mercury) have -- and are tonight -- conjuncting in the center of the sign of Libra. Onward...