Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
On the morning of Feb. 4, 2016, the waning crescent moon will be between Saturn and Venus, seen here half an hour before sunrise.
Credit: Starry Night Software
For the last couple of weeks, early risers have been enjoying the "parade of the planets," as all of the naked-eye planets gather in the dawn sky. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter have been strung like glistening jewels across the southern sky.
For the next few mornings, the waning crescent moon will join the array, as Mercury moves to its best position this month.
On Thursday morning (Feb. 4), the moon will be about one-third of the way from Saturn to Venus. Venus is, as always, the most brilliant object in the predawn sky. Saturn is less bright, but gradually coming into its own as it moves away from behind the sun. If you have a telescope, be sure to check out Saturn's famous rings, now tilted toward Earth almost as far as they can get, and its surrounding cluster of tiny moons. [5 Dawn Planets and a Dusk Comet: Feb. 2016 Skywatching Video]
By Friday morning (Feb. 5), the moon will have moved so that is now two-thirds of the way from Saturn to Venus, and its crescent will have shrunk noticeably. Now would be a good time to look for "earthshine" — light reflected from Earth shining on the portion of the moon not in direct sunlight. Binoculars will help make this visible.
By Saturday morning (Feb. 6), the moon will have shrunk to a narrow sliver and will have moved to between Mercury and Venus, again seen half an hour before sunrise.
Credit: Starry Night Software
On Saturday morning (Feb. 6), the moon will have moved past Venus, and will be forming a tight triangular group with Venus and Mercury. This provides a great opportunity to spot tiny Mercury, the smallest of the planets and one that is rarely seen because of its proximity to the sun.
Mercury is easiest to see about half an hour before local sunrise. Use binoculars to first pick it up; you should then be able to see it with your naked eye. It sometimes helps to use "averted vision" — look slightly to one side of where Mercury is located, putting it on the more sensitive portion of your eye's retina.
These close conjunctions make for excellent photo opportunities, and, as always, we welcome your images of the planets of dawn. Use a telephoto lens and try to frame them with a nearby tree or building.
Editor's note: If you capture a stunning view of the moon, a planet or any other celestial sight and would like to share it with us and our news partners, you can send in images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at: spacephotos@space.com.
Un élément suffit presque à lui seul à prouver le mensonge. Lorsque vous observez Mars depuis la Terre, dans un télescope amateur, jamais vous ne verrez Mars être rougeâtre. Il existe de nombreuses photos de la NASA qui sont trafiquées, et l’agence l’avoue elle-même pratiquement.
Le mythe veut aussi que la planète Mars soit rouge, or elle n’est pas « rougeâtre », mais brune clair ou foncé, selon les zones. Voici Mars photographié depuis un télescope amateur. Ceci est une image authentique !
Les images de la NASA sont 100% fausses. C’est une agence aux mains de la cabale qui a été infiltrée par les nazis après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, cela n’est même plus à prouver. La NASA n’est qu’un écran de fumée pour le grand public crédule. La NASA est là seulement pour déformer la réalité, cacher des vérités, on peut citer notamment la dissimulation des programmes spatiaux secrets.
Alors d’où proviennent ces photos, si elles ne proviennent pas de Mars ?
Les photos de la NASA sur Mars sont prises sur la Terre, sur l’île Devon au Canada…
Il y a une augmentation du nombre de personnes qui pensent que les rovers martien de la NASA n’ont jamais quitté la Terre et que les photos qui parviennent de la planète Mars sont prises dans des régions reculées de notre planète.
Mais si les rovers de la NASA ne sont pas sur Mars, alors où sont-ils exactement ?
Tout d’abord, il semble que les photos que nous voyons sur le site Web de la NASA ne sont même pas prises par le rover Curiosity et le rover Opportunity.
Il est très probable qu’actuellement, les deux rovers sont stockés dans un hangar, quelque part au Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) et qu’ils aient été remplacés par leurs petits frères plus petits et plus pratiques.
Un des emplacements connus où la NASA joue avec ces petits rovers est l’Île Devon !
Il convient de souligner que l’île Devon est « la plus grande île inhabitée sur Terre », ce qui semble être un très bon emplacement pour une fausse séance photo Martienne. Il suffit de jeter un coup d’œil à ces photos…
Base de la NASA dans l’île Devon au Canada. Même sans filtre de couleur, le décor est étonnamment similaire à Mars…
Les « rovers » de la NASA, prenant des photos sur l’île Devon, au Canada…
Bien sûr, on pourrait penser que la NASA a juste besoin d’un endroit où ils peuvent simuler les conditions de la planète Mars, mais à quoi bon de simuler ces conditions avec des rovers miniatures, qui ressemblent et fonctionnent comme leurs grands frères...
Ces robots ne possèdent pas de laboratoires en leur sein contrairement aux vrais rovers qui en possèdent, donc qu’est-ce qui est simulé ? Hormis prendre des photos, « les rovers » de l’ île Devon semblent inutiles.
Vidéo ci-dessous pour de plus amples éléments de preuve …
Les caméras équipées sur les «rovers» ont déjà des filtres de couleur appliqués, mais les images finales, celles que nous téléchargeons sur le site Web de la NASA subissent encore plus de correction couleur, jusqu’à ce qu’elles affichent cette fausse couleur rougeâtre qui nous est maintenant si familière.
Nous avons été dupés par le mythe que mars est une « planète rouge » même si pourtant toutes les photos des télescopes amateurs prouvent le contraire, donc la NASA désormais ne fait seulement que perpétuer le mensonge.
Comme vous pouvez le voir clairement par vous-même, Mars n’est pas rouge. Mars est brune clair et foncé, semblable à ce que la Terre ressemblerait s’il n’y avait plus d’eau et de végétation. Voici plus de photos amateurs de Mars…
Ce qui suit est une compilation d’images d’Antonio Cidadao (1999)…
Noter que Mars a une atmosphère et des nuages bleu, très similaire à celle de notre planète.
Maintenant, nous ne pourrions sans doute pas respirer sur Mars comme nous le faisons sur Terre, encore que, mais où sont les cieux bleus dans les photos de la NASA ?
La NASA a admis à plusieurs reprises qu’elle modifie les couleurs de ses photos avant de les poster en ligne, de sorte qu’elles ressemblent plus à ce que nous devrions voir, si nous étions sur Mars. Voici quelque chose provenant directement du site Web de la NASA.
La NASA admet ouvertement la correction des couleurs, l’équilibrage des couleurs et même le peaufinage des couleurs de leurs images, de sorte que vous pouvez voir ce qu’ils veulent que vous voyiez.
Pourquoi ne pas prendre simplement des photos de l’environnement tel qu’il est ? Pourquoi changer ses couleurs en quelque chose d’autres ?
C’est la même vieille rengaine disant que le gouvernement sait ce qui est le mieux pour nous. Les gens ont été dupés dans une croyance aveugle et nous croyons cela sans réfléchir, sans nous poser des questions.
Mais le peaufinage des couleurs n’est qu’une partie de ce qu’ils font pour les images originales. La NASA a été confondue plus d’une fois, trafiquant des environnements entiers provenant soi-disant de Mars.
Voir ci-dessous une images montrant le trucage des photos de Mars…
Il est maintenant plus facile de comprendre pourquoi les amateurs trouvent tant d’incohérences et d’anomalies dans les images de la NASA. Prenons l’image ci-dessous, par exemple...
Les médias l’ont appelé ‘’le rat de Mars’’, mais c’est en fait un lemming arctique... le lemming est un rongeur, on voit clairement un œil, une oreille et sa patte avant sur la photo ci-dessus et il est couramment trouvé… vous l’avez deviné… sur l’île Devon au Canada.
Voici une photo du lemming arctique, pris sur l’île Devon.
Cette photo a été prise dans une zone avec de la végétation, mais comme vous pouvez le voir dans les deux premières images il y a beaucoup de paysages sur l’île Devon.
La technique de la NASA est de colorer l’ensemble du sol pour faire en sorte qu’il ressemble à Mars comme vous le verrez, cela fait que le petit rongeur ressemble au final à une roche, jusqu’à ce que quelqu’un ayant un œil aiguisé l’ait découvert.
Dans la vidéo, de la minute 3:18 à 5:30, vous pouvez voir à quel point il est facile de faire en sorte que n’importe quel environnement terrestre ressemble à un désert martien. L’auteur de la vidéo, Danny Wilten, prend une photo aléatoire de la Terre (Irlande , pour être plus précis), où il y a beaucoup de végétation et où il y a une route avec une camionnette blanche.
En seulement cinq minutes de travail, il parvient à retirer la camionnette et la route, et à transformer l’ensemble de la végétation en un paysage rougeâtre, stérile, similaire aux images que la NASA nous montre de Mars...
Comme touche finale, il ajoute même une partie du rover dans le coin inférieur gauche de l’image éditée, ce qui rend l’image presque indiscernable des images diffusées par la NASA.
Maintenant, imaginez ce qu’un expert Photoshop peut faire avec une image qui avait déjà des filtres de couleur appliquées à la caméra, et a été emmené dans un environnement ou est contrôlé l’emplacement, l’éclairage, l’exposition, etc.
Tout le monde se souvient de la célèbre photo suivante, dans laquelle nous pouvons voir l’ombre du rover et, juste à côté, l’ombre d’un homme en combinaison spatiale, semblant faire quelques ajustements...
Cela signifie soit qu’il y a déjà des humains sur Mars... ou que cette image a été prise sur la Terre.
Voici une photo du scientifique de la NASA Pascal Lee, il porte une combinaison spatiale sur l’île Devon, au Canada.
Récapitulons :
Sur l’île Devon, il y a un paysage identique à celui des images de la NASA (présentées à nous comme étant des images de Mars) ils ont des bases permanentes sur l’île, les rovers miniatures sont équipés de caméras se promenant partout, et des personnes équipées en costumes d’astronautes.
Avec la NASA qui avoue truquer les photos avant de les diffuser au public et le fait qu’elle a été prise plus d’une fois truquant les paysages, la connexion devient limpide... les photos ne sont PAS de Mars !
Les missions de la NASA vers Mars ne sont qu’une triste plaisanterie…
Les Rovers n’ont jamais quitté la Terre et les pouvoirs en place ont détourné encore d’autres milliards de l’argent des contribuables, utilisés pour leurs projets noirs.
La NASA utilise un emplacement secondaire sur la Terre pour simuler l’environnement Martien, il se trouve dans le Désert de Mojave.
Dans cet emplacement, ils apprennent aux astronautes à se promener et faire leurs travaux quotidiens en étant habillé dans des combinaisons spatiales. Il est aussi possible que la NASA envoie leurs équipes dans des zones reculées diverses sur Terre, pour prendre des photos de l’environnement stérile, lesquelles seront modifiées plus tard pour ressembler à Mars.
Ils peuvent même créer des environnements totalement faux, en combinant deux ou plusieurs images, ou par ajout/retrait de roches, de collines ou même de montagnes, techniques déjà bien rodée avec les clichés lunaire !
L’image suivante est une autre preuve que les clichés soit disant pris sur Mars sont faux !
Malheureusement pour la NASA, ils ne peuvent pas présenter cela comme étant un ballon météo, un avion, un oiseau, un drone, ou une lanterne chinoise, comme ils le font habituellement, parce que l’image aurait été prise sur Mars.
Alors, soit ils doivent admettre que les soucoupes volantes sont réelles, ou que ces photos sont prises sur Terre. Un choix vraiment impossible...
LA NASA est un écran de fumée pour un programme spatial secret avancée…
La NASA est juste un écran de fumée pour le programme spatial réel, qui tombe dans le domaine militaire, et hautement top secret avec l’US Navy.
McKinnon le pirate qui a réussi à pénétrer les ordinateurs du Pentagone, de l’armée de l’Air, de la Marine et de la NASA, a découvert que l’US Navy dispose d’une flotte de vaisseaux spatiaux pleinement opérationnels. Voici ce qu’il affirme avoir trouvé...
Maintenant, en corroborant tout cela, il devient évident qu’ils ont vraiment un programme spatial secret avancé depuis des décennies, que la NASA est juste un écran de fumée pour le public, et que tous les cliché, qu’ils soient martien, ou lunaire, sont de vulgaires fakes !
Source : ZONE INFORANDIA
Mais repassons vite fait sur l'Île Devon, qui est une île du nord de l'archipel arctique canadien. 27e île mondiale par la superficie, 6e du Canada et 2e des îles de la Reine-Élisabeth. C'est aussi la plus grande île du monde qui soit entièrement inhabitée. Sa superficie est d'environ 55 000 km².
La vie animale et végétale est également faible sur l'île en raison des conditions climatiques dues à la latitude et à l'altitude. On y trouve principalement de petits oiseaux, des bœufs musqués et d'autres petits mammifères arctiques.
L'été la température ne dépasse jamais les 10 °C et descend fréquemment à -50° durant le long hiver polaire. Les précipitations y sont également faibles.
Géologiquement, l'île est principalement composée de gneiss et de schiste. On y trouve aussi un cratère de 20 km de diamètre dû à l'impact d'une météorite de 2 km de diamètre tombée il y a environ 23 millions d'années. C'est le cratère de Haughton.
Durant l'été, le site est occupé pour des activités scientifiques liées à la recherche spatiale, de la vie sur Mars, le site météoritique étant proche de ceux que l'on peut trouver sur la planète rouge la géologie, la microbiologie, etc.
D’autres preuves incontestables dans les sujets liés ci-dessous :
Un spécial OVNIs en Belgique pour cette reprise en douceur des publications de votre site Sciences et Fictions et Histoires. Avec les interventions de Gaetan Bovy et Rémy Fauchereau qui vous présentent UFOwallonia et de Gilles Durand qui vous parle de l'Histoire de l'ufologie Belge.
Présenté par Gilles.T., voici également en enregistrement audio, Gaetan Bovy, qui vous parle de la vague d'ovnis en Belgique des années 89-90.
Pour finir, un extrait de documentaire sur cette même vague d'OVNIS de 1989-1990 en Belgique. Bien qu'un faussaire ait reconnu récemment avoir fabriqué une maquette pour la prendre en photo et faire mesquinement parler de lui en trompant l'humanité pendant de nombreuses années, il est évidemment impossible que tous ces témoignages, y compris ceux de policiers et de pilotes d'avions de chasse, et aussi de controleurs aériens-radaristes, sur une bonne partie du territoire belge, concernent cette unique maquette du faussaire qui s'est déclaré bien tardivement... Le 29 novembre 1989, dans l'Est de la Belgique, de nombreux témoins, dont des policiers, signalèrent avoir vu des OVNIS dans le ciel, ce qui fut le début de ce que l'on nommera par la suite "la vague Belge" qui dura en tout 18 mois. Ce soir là, des agents de la police fédérale belge patrouillaient près de la frontière allemande, dans la ville d'Eupen, lorsqu'ils furent les témoins d'OVNIS de forme triangulaireévoluant dans le ciel sans aucun bruit. Ils décidèrent alors de contacter leur QG qui était submergé par des appels téléphoniques signalant ces apparitions...
Mirror Installation Complete for NASA's Next Space Telescope
Mirror Installation Complete for NASA's Next Space Telescope
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
In a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a robotic arm installs the last of 18 mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope structure.
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn the 18 mirrors for the Webb Telescope In this rare view, the James Webb Space Telescope's 18 mirrors are seen fully installed on the James Webb Space Telescope structure at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Credits
The biggest-ever space telescope is now one major step closer to completion.
On Wednesday (Feb. 3), technicians installed the 18th and final primary mirror segment on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an $8.8 billion observatory that's scheduled to launch in 2018 to investigate some of the biggest questions in astronomy.
"Scientists and engineers have been working tirelessly to install these incredible, nearly perfect mirrors that will focus light from previously hidden realms of planetary atmospheres, star forming regions and the very beginnings of the universe," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. [Images: The James WebbSpace Telescope]
A rare view shows all 18 mirrors installed on the James Webb Space Telescope structure at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
"With the mirrors finally complete, we are one step closer to the audacious observations that will unravel the mysteries of the universe," Grunsfeld added.
JWST is billed as the successor to NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope. The new observatory features a much larger light-collecting surface than Hubble; with the 18 segments installed, JWST's primary mirror is 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) wide, compared to 7.9 feet (2.4 m) for Hubble.
Each of JWST's hexagonal mirror segments is about the size of a coffee table and weighs 88 lbs. (40 kilograms), NASA officials said. Workers at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, used a robotic arm to fit the last of the 18 sections into place on Wednesday.
"Now that the mirror is complete, we look forward to installing the other optics and conducting tests on all the components to make sure the telescope can withstand a rocket launch," JWST project manager Bill Ochs said in the same statement. "This is a great way to start 2016!"
Whereas Hubble's most famous images have been captured in visible light, JWST is optimized to view the universe in longer infrared wavelengths. Infrared light can penetrate dust clouds, allowing the observatory to look across vast stretches of the universe to study the formation of galaxies, stars and planets, mission team members have said.
Astronomers will also use JWST for a number of other purposes — including the search for possible signs of life in the atmospheres of relatively nearby alien planets.
The observatory's primary mirror segments were built by Colorado-based Ball Aerospace, a subcontractor for Northrop Grumman, which is building JWST for NASA. The mirror installation was performed by Harris Corp., another Northrop Grumman subcontractor, NASA officials said.
"The Harris team will be installing the aft-optics assembly and the secondary mirror in order to finish the actual telescope," Gary Matthews, director of universe exploration at Harris Corp., said in the same statement.
"The heart of the telescope, the Integrated Science Instrument Module, will then be integrated into the telescope," Matthews added. "After acoustic, vibration and other tests at Goddard, we will ship the system down to [NASA's] Johnson Space Center in Houston for an intensive cryogenic [extremely cold temperature] optical test to ensure everything is working properly."
NASA Jupiter Probe Fine-Tunes Path to Giant Planet
NASA Jupiter Probe Fine-Tunes Path to Giant Planet
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Artist's illustration of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. The probe will enter orbit around the solar system's largest planet on July 4, 2016.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A NASA spacecraft now has Jupiter more squarely in its sights ahead of its July 4 arrival at the solar system's largest planet.
NASA's solar-powered Juno probe performed an engine burn Wednesday (Feb. 3), consuming 1.3 pounds (0.6 kilograms) of fuel to change its speed by about 0.7 mph (1.1 km/h). Juno was roughly 51 million miles (82 million kilometers) from Jupiter when it conducted the maneuver, agency officials said.
"This is the first of two trajectory adjustments that fine-tune Juno's orbit around the sun, perfecting our rendezvous with Jupiter on July 4 at 8:18 p.m. PDT [11:18 p.m. EDT; 0318 GMT on July 5]," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement.
The second of these engine burns is scheduled to take place on May 31, NASA officials said.
The $1.1 billion Juno mission launched in August 2011. Its main goal involves mapping Jupiter's gravitational and magnetic fields in precise detail, to help scientists learn about the gas giant's structure, formation and evolution, mission team members have said.
Juno will perform its science work from orbit. The nominal mission plan calls for the 4-ton spacecraft to zip around Jupiter 33 times, coming within just 3,100 miles (5,000 km) of the planet's cloud tops once every 14 days, NASA officials said.
Jupiter
Jupiter, the giant of our solar system, is as fascinating as it is photogenic. How much do you know about the king of the planets?
Juno carries three 30-foot-long (9 m) solar panels, which together hold a total of 18,698 individual solar cells. Such extensive light-collecting gear is necessary to power the spacecraft in the relatively dim environment around Jupiter, which orbits more than five times farther from the sun than Earth does.
Last month, Juno became the farthest-flung solared-powered probe in spaceflight history. The previous record was held by the European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft, which got a maximum of 492 million miles (792 million km) from Earth in October 2012.
The Moon or Mars? NASA Must Pick 1 Goal for Astronauts, Experts Tell Congress
The Moon or Mars? NASA Must Pick 1 Goal for Astronauts, Experts Tell Congress
By Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer |
NASA is targeting a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, but big challenges loom for a trip to the Red Planet.
Credit: NASA
NASA can't afford to put humans on Mars while also pursuing missions to put astronauts back on the moon, according to a panel of experts who testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space yesterday (Feb. 3).
"Today the future of NASA's human spaceflight program is far from clear," said Tom Young, former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "There has been continual debate about should we go to the moon or Mars or both … It is clear, again, that we cannot do both. And there is a need to focus our attention, capability and resources on one option."
NASA has been advertising its "Journey to Mars" campaign, with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden saying that humans could go to the Red Planet as early as the 2030s. But in addition to the technological and fiscal hurdles, the three panelists agreed that without a solid plan in place, none of the proposed human-spaceflight goals would come to fruition. [5 Ideas for Manned Missions to Mars]
"In the current fiscal environment, there are no good pathways to Mars," said John Sommerer, retired director of the Space Department at Johns Hopkins University.
Sommerer contributed to a report that Congress asked the National Academy of Sciences to assemble, which looked at the feasibility of human spaceflight endeavors. The results of its investigation were released in a report called "Pathways to Exploration," in 2014.
The report concluded that "the first crewed Mars landing might be possible 20 to 40 years from now, after a cumulative expenditure on the order of half a trillion dollars," Sommerer said.
If the current budget of $9 billion spent on human spaceflight "remains constant, with the addition of inflation," Young said, then approximately $180 billion "with today's spending power" will be spent on human spaceflight over the next two decades.
"Just as it is not feasible to take a cross-country trip on a child's allowance … we may well never be able to get to Mars at current expenditure levels," Sommerer said. "It might be better to stop talking about Mars if there is no appetite in Congress and the administration for higher human spaceflight budgets, and no willingness to cut programs that do not contribute to progress."
Subcommittee member Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., spoke enthusiastically to the panel about the possibility of a human mission to Mars, and pointed out some of the young people in the room who might be the ones to go to Mars. He showed the panel a bumper sticker that read "Mars 2033: We Can Do This." He pressed Sommerer to confirm that, if given a sufficient budget, NASA could put humans on Mars in only 17 years.
"If you give [NASA] the date, and the money, and help with the discipline, the answer is yes," Sommerer said. "If any of those three things is missing, the answer is almost certainly no."
Mo Brooks, R-Ala., noted that the United States is currently facing serious budget concerns. He mentioned the Constellation program — which aimed to put humans back on the moon by 2020, but which was defunded in 2010 — and asked the panelists to talk about how to avoid putting money into missions that would ultimately not come to fruition, and what lessons could be learned.
Young spoke about the desire to have fewer "tombstones" for cancelled projects and more "memorials" to successful ones. He reiterated the thesis of his opening remarks, that what NASA needs more than anything is a concrete plan for how it should proceed.
"I am personally passionate about humans going to Mars, but I'm equally passionate about a good, disciplined plan that is not frivolous," he said. "A plan that does what is required, but also … doesn't just do what's possible."
In a response to Brook, Sommerer brought up the possibility of defunding human spaceflight and relying entirely on robotic missions, which are "much more cost effective."
"That's a choice that, in really grim financial straits, the country might be forced to make," Sommerer said. "But it doesn't seem to be something people want to stand up and proudly say, 'Let's end the human space endeavor and rely on only robots.'"
He added, "Although the robot stuff is pretty cool."
The third member of the witness panel was Paul Spudis, a senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute at the Universities Space Research Association. Spudis' research is focused on the geology of the moon. In his opening remarks, Spudis laid out reasons why NASA and humanity should not only return humans to the surface of the moon, but also develop an entire infrastructure in cislunar space (the space between Earth and the moon) that would include "transport vehicles, staging nodes, deep-space habitats, power stations and fuel depots."
In the journey to send humans to other planets, a pit stop at the moon might be the right way to go, Spudis argued. A moon base might help humans develop technologies and know-how to survive on Mars. Humans could potentially harvest resources from the moon, like water, which can be used to keep humans alive — as well as broken up into oxygen and hydrogen to fuel spacecraft. Having access to those resources could make a trip to Mars more feasible, he said. (This is a discussion going on in congress for some time).
"America's space program is in disarray," Spudis said. "What we need is a logically arranged set of short-term, realizable space goals that are not only interesting in and of themselves, but whose attainment will build capability in the long term."
Spudis also spoke about the need to have crewed spacecraft that can be used to visit satellites that humans are relying on more and more for communications and other daily services, such as GPS.
"Many of these satellites are national security assets. Satellites upon which we are critically dependent," Spudis said. Currently, when those satellites break, often the only option is to let them die and replace them, Spudis said.
Spudis also said that China is developing the ability to "travel throughout and loiter within cislunar space," which might enable the country to disable satellites belonging to other countries. Such a move would put the United States at a disadvantage if it didn't have the same capabilities, he said.
A cislunar program would also offer NASA a set of goals that could be obtained on much shorter timelines than a human mission to Mars. The appeal of financing a set of shorter-term goals, rather than a single, long-term goal, was echoed by subcommittee member Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who expressed concern at the prospect of investing in a human Mars mission, only to have it set aside if a more pressing priority arose.
A panel of witnesses testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space about the path forward for NASA's human spaceflight program. The witnesses were (l to r) Tom Young, former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, John Sommerer, retired director of the Space Department at Johns Hopkins University, Paul Spudis, a senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute at the University Space Research Association.
Credit: House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
Moving forward
It is highly unlikely that the United States would be able to afford to simultaneously pursue a human mission to Mars while also deploying human missions to the moon or cislunar space, said Young during his testimony.
If congress decided to push for NASA to pursue a human mission to Mars, Young said, the agency would need to develop a specific plan in the near future "that takes us from today to humans on Mars." He listed a dozen things that such a plan would need to address, including defining intermediate missions that would be needed to prepare for a Mars trip, assessing risk, getting an idea of the resources that would need to be allocated and applying those resources "in the most effective manner."
"An argument against a plan at the current time is that we are not ready to finalize the necessary elements of the plan," Young said. "I believe a strength of NASA program management is to establish a plan relatively early, with the recognition that as new information becomes available, the plan can be changed."
"We have our work cut out to us," subcommittee chair Brian Babin, (R-Texas, 36th District) said in his closing comments. "I agree that whatever NASA puts their mind to we can do. But we do have the parameters of an almost 20 trill dollar national debt that we have at this time. … I think we have our marching orders. We just have to get organized on this."
Astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, who was part of the Apollo 14 missions, that flew to the moon in 1971, died late Thursday in West Palm Beach.
Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the moon, as a member of the eighth manned mission in the United States Apollo program. Mitchell was the lunar module pilot on the mission.
Stuart Roosa, Alan Shepard, and Edgar Mitchell
In his 1996 memoir, “The Way of the Explorer,” he described the experience on his return as: ” What I experienced during that three-day trip home was nothing short of an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness. I actually felt what has been described as an ecstasy of unity.”
Mitchell was also a long-time advocate for the release of information pertaining to UFOs, being a firm believer that an extraterrestrial presence had and continues to monitor planet Earth.
Despite his personal beliefs, he was an American icon, and will be missed, but surely not forgotten.
As per NASA, the sun irradiates the earth with 174 Petawatts (Pw) of solar energy per day. Approximately 30% of this energy is reflected back into space, and a major part of it is absorbed by our atmosphere. Even if we get only 10% of this energy, which is about 17.4 Pw per day, it is still more than the daily energy requirement for the entire planet.
A team of researchers at NextPV (a partnership between the French National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Tokyo), is doing an amazing job overcoming some of the limitations of standard ground-based solar panels. They are creating solar balloons which would be able to float above the clouds where the sun is shining all the time.
Concepts behind solar balloons:
Limitations like the requirement for energy storage for nighttime and the effects of cloudy or inclement weather on solar electricity production will be covered in this unique photovoltaic solution.
These solar balloons would be deployed above the clouds (6 km or 3.7 miles above the ground), where there will be no clouds or any diffusion by the atmosphere to interfere with their efficiency.
This innovation involves using hydrogen as an energy carrier. The solar energy captured during the day will be sent to a fuel cell, which would convert the current into hydrogen and keep the balloon afloat. At night, the fuel cell will take over to recover the hydrogen and convert it back into a charge, which is then fed to the ground.
Nidhi Goyal
Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. You can also find Nidhi on Google+.
You can’t fly over Area 51. That’s the rule, even if you’re an Air Force pilot in a jet that’s running out of fuel. Find another runway; you can’t land there.
Private pilots who have mistakenly entered “The Box”—the restricted airspace over Area 51—have been “escorted” down by military jets, and there are tales of planes actually being shot down, as inthis infamous call to radio host Art Bell in 1997.
New Signs Have Appeared atthe Area 51 Base Borders Banning Consumer Drones
A NEW AREA 51 BAN
Drones? Now they’re banned too.
We don’t just mean the remote-piloted planes the US uses in the Middle East to take out terrorists and wedding parties. We’re talking about the drone you got for your birthday, the one that can go a thousand feet up, the one with the GoPro attachment, the one that (if you’re in the US) you had to register with the FAA.
Now that consumer drones are widely available, you knew someone was going to try and fly one over Area 51. We don’t have reports of anyone’s drone being shot down over the base, but that may just mean that the drone flight was successful. Or, maybe the base management realized what could happen and is merely being proactive.
THE REAL REASON FOR THE BAN
Some have suggested this new drone bad is strictly for safety: they do test aircraft (and probably other kinds of, ahem, craft) at Area 51, and the borders are patrolled by helicopter. A consumer drone flying out of control nearby could cause a catastrophe for sure.
We don’t believe that’s the real reason for ban, though. The real reason: these drones have cameras mounted in them. Video cameras.
Most consumer-grade drones can’t go 20-odd miles away from their remote controls, so one would need to be modified in order to reach the base. But it is within the realm of possibility. And if someone got a drone into base territory, some 500 feet up, the drone could take some nice pictures of things that are not supposed to exist.
That is what Area 51 officials are afraid of. That is what prompted this ban.
THEY CAN’T BAN ON PUBLIC LAND
The nearest legal observation point to the base is Tikaboo Peak, and, being public land, there is still no drone ban there. Our friends over at Finding UFO ventured out to Tikaboo and took some footage from their drone, which they posted to their excellent YouTube channel. Check it out below.
Nieuw onderzoek suggereert dat de aarde frontaal op Theia botste. Het kan verklaren waarom de aarde en de maan qua samenstelling sterk op elkaar lijken.
Dat de maan zo’n 4,5 miljard jaar geleden ontstond door een gewelddadige botsing tussen de aarde en Theia, is al jaren bekend. Maar nieuw onderzoek onthult nu enkele nieuwe details over die botsing. Zo zou het een frontale botsing zijn geweest. Dat staat haaks op eerdere ideeën over de botsing, die stellen dat de aarde en Theia elkaar zijdelings raakten (zie het filmpje hieronder).
Gesteenten Dat er sprake moet zijn geweest van een frontale botsing, baseren de onderzoekers op de samenstelling van gesteenten op de maan en de aarde. Ze bestudeerden zeven gesteenten die tijdens de Apollo-missies van de maan naar de aarde waren gebracht. Ook bestudeerden ze zes vulkanische gesteenten, vijf van Hawaii en één uit Arizona. Ze richtten zich op zuurstofisotopen en dan met name op de verhouding tussen O-16 en O-17. Opvallend genoeg blijkt – in tegenstelling tot wat eerdere onderzoeken suggereren – dat de verhouding tussen die isotopen op de aarde en de maan vergelijkbaar is. “We zien geen verschil tussen de zuurstofisotopen op de aarde en de maan: ze zijn niet van elkaar te onderscheiden,” stelt onderzoeker Edward Young.
Hetzelfde En dat is veelzeggend. Als de aarde en Theia elkaar zijdelings hadden geraakt, zou het grootste deel van de maan bestaan uit Theia en zouden de aarde en de maan andere zuurstofisotopen bezitten. Tijdens een frontale botsing tussen de aarde en Theia zou je echter verwachten dat de aarde en de maan een vergelijkbare chemische samenstelling hebben. “Theia werd evenredig met de aarde en de maan gemixt,” stelt Young.
Theia overleefde de klap met de aarde dus niet en ging deel uitmaken van de maan en de aarde. Theia was in die tijd waarschijnlijk een ‘planetaire embryo’ die nog volop aan het groeien was. Als de botsing met de aarde niet had plaatsgevonden, was Theia waarschijnlijk uitgegroeid tot een planeet.
Mensen teleporteren: behoort het al bijna tot de mogelijkheden?
Mensen teleporteren: behoort het al bijna tot de mogelijkheden?
Het – over kleine afstand – teleporteren van atomen behoort al tot de mogelijkheden. Wanneer zijn we zover dat we ook mensen kunnen teleporteren?
Interstellaire reizen maken: dat vraagt om nieuwe oplossingen. De afgelopen weken zijn op Scientias.nlverschillende van die oplossingen de revue gepasseerd. We schreven over warp-speed en wormgaten. Maar er is nog een manier om razendsnel van A naar B te reizen. Een manier die de meesten van ons kennen uit Star Trek en die steevast geassocieerd wordt met de woorden “Beam me up, Scotty!” We hebben het natuurlijk over teleportatie.
Wat is het? Teleportatie is eigenlijk niets anders dan van A naar B reizen, zonder dat je fysiek de ruimte tussen A en B doorkruist. Je verdwijnt simpelweg op plek A en je komt op plek B weer tevoorschijn.
Sciencefiction? Klinkt het als sciencefiction? Dat is terecht. Want het teleporteren van mensen is inderdaad nog steeds toekomstmuziek. Maar..teleporteren van bijvoorbeeld informatie is dat niet. In 2014 hebben wetenschappers van de TU Delft informatie in een kwantumbit geteleporteerd naar een kwantumbit drie meter verderop. Ze deden dat met behulp van ‘verstrengeling’. “Als twee deeltjes verstrengeld zijn, smelten hun identiteiten samen,” zo vertelde onderzoeker Ronald Hanson daar in 2014 over. “Hun gezamenlijke toestand is exact bepaald, maar de identiteit van elk afzonderlijk is verdwenen. De verstrengelde deeltjes gedragen zich als één, ook als ze ver van elkaar verwijderd zijn. In ons geval was dat drie meter, maar dat zou in theorie ook de andere kant van het universum kunnen zijn.” Het experiment van Hanson en collega’s was veelbelovend. Ze waren de eersten ter wereld die erin slaagden om informatie te teleporteren tussen kwantumbits in verschillende computerchips door die kwantumbits met elkaar te verstrengelen. “Het bijzondere aan de methode die wij gebruiken, is dat de teleportatie met 100 procent zekerheid werkt. De informatie komt altijd aan, zogezegd.”
Veilig communiceren Wetenschappers die – zoals Hanson – graag experimenteren met teleportatie doen dat niet direct omdat ze in de voetsporen van Scotty willen treden. Hun werk is niet gericht op het teleporteren van mensen, maar op het teleporteren van informatie. Het voordeel van teleportatie is namelijk dat de informatie niet fysiek van A naar B reist en dus ook onderweg niet onderschept kan worden. Het is dus fundamenteel onmogelijk om geteleporteerde informatie af te luisteren.
Microben Allemaal heel interessant, natuurlijk, maar hoe zit het nu met het teleporteren van mensen? Dat is vooralsnog onontgonnen terrein. Alhoewel wetenschappers recent met een idee kwamen om de kwantumtoestand van een micro-organisme te teleporteren. De onderzoekers denken dat het mogelijk moet zijn om een kopie van de eigenschappen van een levende microbe te teleporteren. Hoe dan? Door de microbe op twee plaatsen tegelijk te laten zijn. En dat kan alleen door deze in superpositie te brengen. Uit eerder onderzoek is al gebleken dat een specifiek membraan – als je het voldoende af laat koelen – in superpositie kan worden gebracht. De onderzoekers stellen nu voor om de microbe op dit membraan te plaatsen. Zo moet het mogelijk zijn om eigenschappen van de microbe (de kwantumstaat) over te brengen naar een andere plaats in het elektrisch circuit waar de microbe deel van uitmaakt (zie ook de afbeelding hieronder). Het blijft echter een gedachte-experiment, het is onderzoekers dus nog niet gelukt om een levende bacterie te teleporteren.
Fundamentele problemen Tot op heden blijft teleporteren dus beperkt tot lichtdeeltjes en atomen. En misschien is dat maar beter ook, zo vertelde onderzoeker Carlo Beenakker, hoogleraar theoretische natuurkunde aan de universiteit van Leiden, enige tijd geleden aan Scientias.nl. “Er zijn een paar fundamentele problemen die het mijns inziens onmogelijk maken om mensen te teleporteren.” Het belangrijkste probleem is onze kwetsbaarheid. Beenakker illustreert het met behulp van een voorbeeldje: röntgenonderzoek. “Soms gaat er tijdens röntgenonderzoek iets mis en wordt een heel klein stukje DNA van mensen aangetast,” vertelt hij. “Dat kan leiden tot kanker.” Bij teleportatie moet informatie aan het eind van het traject worden uitgelezen. Een klein foutje tijdens dat proces kan al desastreuze gevolgen hebben. “Als je het zo bekijkt, is teleportatie de ultieme kankermachine.”
Zijn we slechts atomen? Maar teleportatie roept nog meer vragen op. Een heel interessante is of wij mensen niet meer zijn dan de atomen waaruit we bestaan. In andere woorden: als je een mens atoom voor atoom uit elkaar haalt en vervolgens op de eindbestemming weer atoom voor atoom in elkaar zet, heb je dan weer dezelfde mens?
“EEN HEEL INTERESSANTE VRAAG IS OF WIJ MENSEN NIET MEER ZIJN DAN DE ATOMEN WAARUIT WE BESTAAN”
Even geduld! Onderzoek van de universiteit van Leicester wijst verder uit dat teleporteren een tijdrovende aangelegenheid is. Alle data waaruit een mens bestaat – de menselijke genetische code, de neurale informatie – moet immers omgezet worden naar eentjes en nulletjes en vervolgens verstuurd worden. Dat alleen kost naar schatting al zo’n vijf biljard jaar.
Star Trek wil ons doen geloven dat teleportatie ergens aan het begin van de 22e eeuw werd uitgevonden. We hebben dus nog even als we dit stukje sciencefiction werkelijkheid willen laten worden. Maar dat wil niet zeggen dat het haalbaar is. ““Men begint nu pas na te denken over het teleporteren van bacteriën,” stelde Beenakker in 2013. “Dat zou een mijlpaal zijn, maar ik denk niet dat wij dat nog gaan meemaken.” Dus bewaar die OV-kaart en fiets in de schuur nog maar even: voorlopig wordt het verzoek ‘Beam me up!” alleen in sciencefictionfilms gehonoreerd.
Planetoïde scheert begin maart op nog onbekende afstand langs de aarde
Planetoïde scheert begin maart op nog onbekende afstand langs de aarde
De planetoïde passeerde de aarde twee jaar geleden ook al, maar zal begin maart mogelijk veel dichter bij onze planeet in de buurt komen. Maar: geen paniek!
De planetoïde draagt de naam 2013 TX68 en passeerde de aarde twee jaar geleden op een afstand van ongeveer 2 miljoen kilometer. Op welke afstand de planetoïde de aarde op 5 maart zal passeren, is nog onduidelijk. Schattingen lopen uiteen van 14 miljoen kilometer tot 17.000 kilometer.
Schattingen omtrent de afstand waarop de planetoïde langs de aarde zal scheren, lopen sterk uiteen. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Onzeker Dat onderzoekers nog niet goed weten hoe klein de afstand tussen de aarde en de planetoïde werkelijk zal zijn, komt doordat de baan van de ruimtesteen nog niet helemaal duidelijk is. “De baan van de planetoïde is onzeker en het zal lastig zijn om te voorspellen waar we deze kunnen zien,” vertelt onderzoeker Paul Chodas. “Er is een kans dat de planetoïde tijdens de scheervlucht van volgende maand wordt opgemerkt door één van onze telescopen en we meer te weten komen over de baan die de planetoïde rond de zon trekt.”
Kansen De baan mag dan onduidelijk zijn, wetenschappers sluiten uit dat 2013 TX68 begin maart op de aarde zal botsen. Wel is er een héél klein kansje dat de planetoïde in de toekomst een gevaar vormt. Zo wordt de kans dat deze op 28 september 2017 op de aarde afstevent, geschat op ongeveer 1 op 250 miljoen. De kans op een inslag tijdens latere scheervluchten langs de aarde – in 2046 en 2097 – is nog kleiner. “De mogelijkheid van een botsing tijdens één van deze drie scheervluchten is veel te klein om je echt zorgen over te maken,” benadrukt Chodas.
De planetoïde is naar schatting ongeveer 30 meter groot. Ter vergelijking: de planetoïde die drie jaar geleden in de atmosfeer boven Tsjeljabinsk uit elkaar spatte was twintig meter groot. Als een planetoïde ter grootte van 2013 TX68 de aardse atmosfeer binnendringt, zou daarbij ongeveer twee keer zoveel energie vrijkomen als tijdens de situatie boven Tsjeljabinsk.
The dwarf planet Ceres as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Parker (Southwest Research Institute), P. Thomas (Cornell University), L. McFadden (University of Maryland, College Park), and M. Mutchler and Z. Levay (STScI)
Ceres is a dwarf planet, the only one located in the inner reaches of the solar system; the rest lie at the outer edges, in the Kuiper Belt. While it is the smallest of the known dwarf planets, it is the largest object in the asteroid belt.
Unlike other rocky bodies in the asteroid belt, Ceres is an oblate spheroid, rounded with a rotational bulge around its equator. Scientists think Ceres may have an ocean and possibly an atmosphere. The recent arrival of a probe has unlocked some of the dwarf planet's secrets, but others remain hidden. [See more photos of the dwarf planet Ceres]
Bright spots & lonely mountains
On March 6, 2015, NASA's Dawn Spacecraft became the first probe to orbit two bodies in the solar system. After leaving the asteroid Vesta, Dawn traveled to Ceres, an icy world that has tantalized scientists for years. While most asteroids are made of rock, Ceres revealed hints that it could contain water on its surface since 1991, though those hints remained unconfirmed for more than 20 years.
As Dawn drew closer to the giant asteroid, a bright spot on its surface grew clearer. After observing Ceres, 130 similar spots of varying brightness were found on the planet. The surface of Ceres is generally as reflective as freshly poured asphalt, while the spots ranged from the dull sheen of concrete to the startling brightness of ice floating on Earth's oceans. The brightest region lies in the 56-mile-wide (90 kilometers) Occator Crater, which contains the most famous collections of shining spots on the surface of Ceres.
Early speculation regarding the spots included the possibility of ice volcanoes on the dwarf planet. However, only a single "lonely mountain" rises from the surface. The pyramid-shaped mountain rises to an altitude of 21,120 feet (6,437 meters). The 4-mile high mountain stands solitary, with no evidence of volcanic or other geologic activity to suggest its puzzling origin.
A recent study of the spots found that they are made up of hydrated magnesium sulfates, the same material that makes up Epsom salt back on Earth. Most of the bright regions are associated with craters, suggesting that their formation could be related to impacts. These findings tie into earlier understanding of the formation of the dwarf planet.
Ceres has a density of 2.09 grams per cubic centimeter, leading scientists to conclude approximately a quarter of its weight is water. This would give the dwarf planet more fresh water than Earth contains. By comparison, Earth has a density of 5.52 grams per cubic centimeter.
Scientists think that water-ice serves as the mantle of the dwarf planet. The thin, dusty crust is thought to be composed of rock, while a rocky inner core lies at the center. Spectral observations of Ceres from Earth reveal that the surface contains iron-rich clays. Signs of carbonates have similarly been found, making Ceres one of the only bodies in the solar system known to contain these minerals, the other two being Earth and Mars. Formed by a process that involves heat and water, carbonates are considered good potential indicators of habitability. [The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)
When large bodies crash into Ceres, they may scoop out a region of the crust, cutting into the icy mantle beneath to leave the ice closer to surface. When sunlight heats the outer layer, the ice could go from solid to gas through a process known as sublimation.
In 2014, the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory detected plumes of water vapor escaping from the dwarf planet at a rate of 13 lbs. (6 kilograms) per second.
"This is the first clear-cut detection of water on Ceres and in the asteroid belt in general," said Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Cañada, Spain. Küppers led the study of the vapor that appeared in Nature.
Ceres is thought to contain a thin outer layer of dust and rock over an icy layer.
Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI
History & discovery
Astronomers in the late 18th century mathematically predicted the presence of a planet between Mars and Jupiter, eagerly turning their telescopes to the region in search of the missing body. On Jan. 1, 1801, Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered what was then considered a planet, naming it Ceres for the Roman goddess of corn and harvests.
Within a decade, four new objects were discovered in the same region, all also considered planets. Nearly 50 years passed before more, smaller bodies were found scattered between Mars and Jupiter — the components of the asteroid belt — and Ceres was demoted to the status of an asteroid.
In 2006, Ceres was promoted to the status of a dwarf planet; it did not reach full planetary status because it failed to gravitationally clear its neighborhood of debris, though it often retains its classification as an asteroid, as well. [Infographic: Dwarf Planets in the Solar System]
The largest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres makes up nearly a third of its mass. Even so, it remains the smallest known dwarf planet, only 590 miles (950 km) across — roughly the size of Texas. A day on Ceres lasts a little over 9 Earth-hours, while it takes 4.6 Earth-years to travel around the sun.
The close proximity and low mass of Ceres have led some scientists to suggest that it could serve as a potential site for manned landings and a launching point for manned deep space missions.
Asteroid Basics: A Space Rock Quiz
Asteroids are fascinating for lots of reasons. They contain a variety of valuable resources and slam into our planet on a regular basis, occasionally snuffing out most of Earth's lifeforms. How much do you know about space rocks?
The source of Earth's water?
Unlike most of the asteroid belt, Ceres contains a significant amount of ice. This could mean similar worlds in the early solar system could have been responsible for bringing water to Earth.
Under current solar system models, Earth would have formed primarily rocky. Any water it held on its surface would have been vaporized when a large protoplanet collided with it to form the moon. For a long time, scientists thought that comets might have delivered water to the reformed Earth as they collided with its surface. However, comet-studying probes have shown that the icy rocks don't contain the right kind of water for their siblings to be responsible for those deliveries. New studies have turned to objects known as main belt asteroids, rock and icy neighbors of Ceres.
"One quarter of the mass of Ceres is water, and three quarters is rock," Dawn scientist Chris Russell told Space.com in 2015.
"If we had just a few Ceres-type bodies colliding with the Earth, we can explain where the water came from."
Moon Trees, like this one at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, stand as living monuments to the 1971 Apollo 14 mission.
Credit: NASA
They are spread across the United States, standing as living monuments to a moon mission 45 years ago this week.
The "Moon Trees" — redwoods, loblolly pines, sycamores, Douglas firs and sweetgums sprouted from seeds carried to the moon and back between Jan. 31 and Feb. 9, 1971 — are reminders of the Apollo 14 mission, even if some, if not many, of the trees' locations have now been lost to the passage of time.
Apollo 14 was the third mission to land astronauts on the moon. Commander Alan Shepard and lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell explored the moon's Fra Mauro highlands, while command module pilot Stuart Roosa orbited above. Shepard and Mitchell conducted two moonwalks, almost making it to the rim of Cone crater while using a pull cart to carry their equipment and collect moon rocks. [NASA's 17 Apollo Moon Missions in Pictures]
Shepard, who 10 years prior had become the first United States astronaut to fly to space, was the first commander to wear red stripes on his spacesuit, an identifier still used by NASA today. Shepard was also the first to hit a golf ball off the moon, a record that is perhaps better remembered today, four and a half decades later, than Apollo 14's other, more official achievements.
While Shepard was packing the "little white pellets" for his "miles and miles" moon shot, Roosa chose to fly with him 500 tree seeds as a nod to his previous history as a smoke jumper for the U.S. Forest Service.
The five species of seeds, which were provided to Roosa by the Forest Service's genetics research staff, were more than just a memento of the flight.
"It was part science, part publicity stunt," Stan Krugman, a former Forest Service geneticist, told NASA in 2002. "The scientists wanted to find out what would happen to these seeds if they took a ride to the moon. Would they sprout? Would the trees look normal?"
Unfortunately, a mishap with the seeds after they returned to Earth made their fate even less certain: the canister that held the seeds for their flight to the moon was burst open during its decontamination, scattering its contents.
But the trees did grow, and by 1975, saplings were ready to leave Forest Service nurseries to be planted across the nation.
"We wanted to give them away as part of the bicentennial celebration in 1976," Krugman recalled.
The first of the Moon Trees, a sycamore, was planted with Roosa's help in Philadelphia's Washington Square Park on May 6, 1975. (The tree that grows there today is a clone of the original, which died in 2011.) [Apollo Landing Sites Spotted in Sharp New Detail (Video)]
Another of the arboreal monuments, a loblolly pine, went to the White House in Washington. At the time, President Gerald Ford described it as "a living symbol of our spectacular human and scientific achievements."
"May this young tree renew our deep-rooted faith in the ideals of our Founding Fathers," stated Ford, as relayed by telegram to the sites holding Moon Tree ceremonies. "May it inspire us to strive for the kind of growth that benefits our own citizens and all mankind."
Unfortunately, detailed records were not kept as to where the Moon Trees were planted. In 1996, 25 years after the Apollo 14 mission, David Williams, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, began a website to track where the Moon Trees had gone.
"They look like ordinary trees — but they're special because they've been to the moon," said Williams in a 2002 NASA article. "I found one Moon Tree right here at Goddard near my office. I had no idea it was there."
Twenty years after beginning the search, Williams has now recorded the locations of more than 75 Moon Trees in 25 states. Trees were also planted in Brazil, Switzerland and presented to the Emperor of Japan.
Though clones and second-generation trees continue to be planted, finding the originals has taken on a new sense of urgency in recent years.
Some of the trees are long-lived species, but others have fallen victim to the effects of old age, severe weather and disease, according to NASA. Some two dozen of the trees have died, including the loblolly pine planted at the White House and a pine in New Orleans that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and later removed.
"I think when people are aware of the heritage of the trees, they usually take steps to preserve them," Williams said. "That's why we want to locate as many as we can soon. We want to have a record that these trees are — or were — a part of these communities, before they're gone."
NASA’s 1971 Apollo 14 crew: Stuart Roosa (left), Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell.
Credit: NASA
Roosa died in 1994, but his children continue to make sure the legacy of his Moon Trees lives on.
"The trees are the only living thing to commemorate man's most impressive achievement," said Roosa's son, Jack, in 2015.
This is the moment a mysterious UFO is spotted 'hovering' in the skies above Greater Manchester.
Video footage shows what appears to be a black object in the air with dark grey trails streaming out behind it above Ashton-under-Lyne.
As the recording plays through, the UFO continues to fly through the air, but doesn't appear to move in any direction.
Aliens? This is the moment a mysterious UFO is spotted 'hovering' . Video footage shows what appears to be a black object in the air with dark grey trails streaming behind it above Ashton-under-Lyne
Sophie Birch says she and her partner were so shocked by what they saw while driving in Ashton-under-Lyne, they had to pull the car over.
Sophie, a 23-year-old PA from Ashton, said: 'We were driving along and suddenly we spotted it. We just couldn't believe it - at first I thought it was a plane or something but it just wasn't moving, it was hovering.
My boyfriend was driving and he slammed on his brakes, then we pulled over so we could both see it better.'
On the video the couple have a conversation trying to work out what it is they are seeing, but Sophie says it remains unexplained.
She said: 'It was so unusual, we kept watching it for quite a while and there's no simple explanation as to what it is, I think it could be aliens - my sister said it was.
Shock: Sophie, a 23-year-old PA from Ashton, said: 'We were driving along and suddenly we spotted it. We just couldn't believe it - at first I thought it was a plane or something but it just wasn't moving, it was hovering
'You can see on the video it's like a black ship, with something coming out of the back.
'At one point we saw a flock of birds flying suddenly away from it like they were scared.'
The first well-known UFO sighting occurred in 1947, when businessman Kenneth Arnold claimed to see a group of nine high-speed objects near Mount Rainier in Washington while flying his small plane.
Arnold estimated the speed of the crescent-shaped objects as several thousand miles per hour and said they moved 'like saucers skipping on water.'
This is how the term flying saucer was coined as, in the newspaper report that followed, it was mistakenly stated that the objects were saucer-shaped.
Mysterious: Sophie said: 'It was so unusual, we kept watching it for quite a while and there's no simple explanation as to what it is, I think it could be aliens - my sister said it was'
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Giants With Double-Rowed Teeth, Flattened Heads and Six Fingers
Giants With Double-Rowed Teeth, Flattened Heads and Six Fingers
The Cherokee called them the Moon People. The Utes and Paiutes spoke of a hideous race of cannibals ten feet tall living in caves. And the Choctaw also have an account of the race of giants that first colonized the Ohio Valley.
From Old World Roots of the Cherokee, chapter 5, "America's Middle Ages," pp. 78-79, we read:
What kind of Indians lived in the territory the Choctaw and Chickasaw carved out for their new home? According to their traditions, reports Cushman, as confirmed by excavations of bones in Tennessee, it was a “race of white giants”:
[T]he tradition of the Choctaws... told of a race of giants that once inhabited the now State of Tennessee, and with whom their ancestors fought when they arrived in Mississippi in their migration from the west, doubtless Old Mexico.
Their tradition states the Nahullo (race of giants [literally, wizards]) was of wonderful stature; but, as their tradition of the mastodon [which used to be found on the Great Plains], so this was also considered to be but a foolish fable, the creature of a wild imagination, when lo! Their exhumed bones again prove the truth of the Choctaws’ tradition (151).
These giants could have been Rafinesque’s Atlans.
Cushman then recounts the discovery in 1880 at a burial mound site near Plano, Texas, of human bones “of enormous size... the femoral bones being five inches longer than the ordinary length, and the jaw bones... so large as to slip over the face of a man with ease.”
Cushman goes on to identify them with the older occupants of North America called Allegewi or Taligewi (Talegans). Many historians, moreover, speculate they were the builders of the Adena mounds.
As for the Chickasaw, Cushman notes that they have no record of their history before the colonial period, although it is assuredly "the same as the Choctaws, being one tribe and people until the division made by their two chiefs Chikasah and Chahtah many years after their arrival and location east of the Mississippi River" (p 358).
Of the Natchez, Cushman records that they, "if tradition may be believed, also came from Mexico where they had lived for centuries" (p 440).
A story was told by the Comanches in 1857:
Innumerable moons ago, a race of white men, ten feet high, and far more rich and powerful than any white people now living, here inhabited a large range of country, extending from the rising to the setting sun.
Their fortifications crowned the summits of the mountains, protecting their populous cities situated in the intervening valleys.
They excelled every other nation which was flourished, either before or since, in all manner of cunning handicraft — were brave and warlike — ruling over the land they had wrested from its ancient possessors with a high and haughty hand. Compared with them the palefaces of the present day were pygmies, in both art and arms.
They drove the Indians from their homes, putting them to the sword, and occupying the valleys in which their fathers had dwelt before them since the world began.
At length, in the height of their power and glory, when they remembered justice and mercy no more and became proud and lifted up, the Great Spirit descended from above, sweeping them with fire and deluge from the face of the earth.
The mounds we [i.e. the speaker Chief Rolling Thunder and his Spanish listener] had seen on the tablelands were the remnants of their fortresses, and the crumbling ruins that surrounded us all that remained of a mighty city.[i]
The word Nahoolo or Nahullo “is now emphatically applied to the white race and no other... The Nahullo were of white complexion, according to Choctaw tradition, and were still an existing people at the time of the advent of the Choctaws to Mississippi,” concludes Cushman (p 153).
In agreement, the Indian trader Adair often refers to the Nani Ishtahoolo as departed white ghosts vested with spiritual powers whose descendants were priests and magicians.
Their cries and magic spells could still be heard in the mounds like those at Ocmulgee.[ii] These references contribute to the suspicion that the “Indians” who preceded Asiatic tribes from Mexico were, as we would say today, Caucasian.
About exactly a year ago on this blog, we published a post about "Neanderthals in America," mentioning also the peculiar archaic skeleton that is now a roadside attraction in Arizona, called The Thing. In the meantime, we acquired a copy of Fritz Zimmerman's book, The Nephilim Chronicles, which reproduces over 300 historical accounts of Giant skeletons.
Many are associated with the earliest mound sites in America, but Zimmerman's survey of this worldwide phenomenon ranges from the Hunter-Fisher People of northeast Europe and Red Paint People whose movements were circumpolar to the giants of the Bible, noted by the Babylonian Talmud as having double rows of teeth, and "Giants' Remains in the British Isles" (pp. 157-65).
Navajo legends speak of the Starnake People, a regal race of white giants endowed with mining technology who dominated the West, enslaved lesser tribes and had strongholds all through the Americas. They were either extinguished or "went back to the heavens."
The name may be a corruption of the Biblical race known as Anakim (Num. 13:33, Deut. 1:28). The name Og (Hebrew "chief") appears to be characteristic (see Zimmerman, pp. 188-91). The ogham alphabet is attributed to this cultural founder.
Certainly, many of the mound sites uncovered in the nineteenth century tell a story of constant warfare by incoming Asiatic tribes against the giants occupying the land. One grisly scene showed thousands of skeletons, male, female and young heaped in a mass grave, with warriors' skulls pierced by arrows.
It would appear that as these aboriginal inhabitants of the Ohio Valley were gradually displaced, some members of their society went over into the ranks of the new conquerors, bequeathing a strain of great stature still noticeable, for instance, in the Mobilian chief Tuscaloosa and DeSoto's Indian queen Cofitachiqui, both of whom were said to be seven feet tall.
We are struck by the following traits of this giant race or ethnic group from human prehistory:
-Mother Goddess religion
-Copper (not bronze) axes
-Polished slate tools including fishing plummets, which were apparently regarded as sacred
-Belief that the Grandmother Moon was the repository of souls
-Diet emphasizing shellfish (for which the double row of teeth probably was selected as an evolutionary advantage in their beachcomber origin out of Africa?)
-Building of fish weirs in North American rivers to trap migrating eels
-Certain vegetarian habits (wild rice, for instance)
-Inscriptions on artifacts, especially pipes, often buried with the dead
-Use of coal and petroleum
-Weaving and looms
-Knowledge of seafaring, mathematics and engineering, including canals and irrigation
-Burying of a dog with a child to guard the latter in the afterlife
-A language apparently Afro-Asiatic and close to Semitic tongues
-Kingcraft: nobles were buried in seated positions on thrones surrounded by a coterie of their retainers
When Denisovan Man was first discovered, we had just a fingerbone to go on. We can only extrapolate the look of the skull. Geneticists conjecture, however, that it was an Austronesian type.
We suggest that a modern prize of science will belong to the geneticist who can derive ancient DNA to study and classify from the bones of giant hominids that are unavoidably plentiful in the archeological and mythological records of humankind.
Maybe the owner of The Thing will allow researchers to borrow one of the femurs for laboratory analysis and measurement.
If that's not possible, the Smithsonian, Carnegie Institute and dozens of local historical societies throughout the Midwest have basements and storage facilities brimming with these relics of American history.
Plumes erupting off the surface of Enceladus, an icy moon. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI
How acidic is the ocean on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus? It's a fundamental question to understanding if this geyser-spouting moon could support life.
Enceladus is part of a family of icy worlds, including Europa (at Jupiter) and Titan (also at Saturn), populating our outer solar system. These bodies are some of the most promising places for life because they receive tidal energy from the gas giants they orbit and some contain liquid water.
The Cassini spacecraft has been taking regular measurements of Enceladus for more than a decade to evaluate its environment. One of the key factors influencing the habitability of an environment is its chemical composition, in particular its pH. On Earth, it's possible for life to exist near the extremes of the pH scale that ranges from 0 (battery acid) to 14 (drain cleaner). Knowing the pH can help us to identify geochemical reactions that affect the habitability of an environment, because many reactions cause predictable changes in pH.
Oceanography of another world
While we cannot stick a strip of pH paper into the ocean water on Enceladus to measure the pH directly, it can be estimated by looking at molecules in its plumes that change form in response to pH changes.
Serpentinization, which is believed to occur on Enceladus, may also happen on other moons such as Europa (pictured). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute
Recently, geochemist Christopher Glein led a team that developed a new approach to estimating the pH of Enceladus' ocean using observational data of the carbonate geochemistry of plume material. This is a classic problem in geochemical studies of Earth (such as rainwater), but scientists can now solve the carbonate problem on an extraterrestrial body thanks to measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon by the Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA), and carbon dioxide gas by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) onboard Cassini.
Glein's team tried to create the most comprehensive chemical model to date of the ocean by accounting for compositional constraints from both INMS and CDA, such as the salinity of the plume. Their model suggests that Enceladus has a sodium, chloride and carbonate ocean with an alkaline pH of 11 or 12, close to the equivalent of ammonia or soapy water. The estimated pH is slightly higher by 1 to 2 units than an earlier estimate based on CDA data alone, but the different modeling approaches are consistent in terms of the overall chemistry of an alkaline ocean.
"It's encouraging that there is general agreement, considering that these approaches are based on spacecraft data from a plume. This is much more difficult than getting the pH of a swimming pool, so it would not be surprising if the models are missing some of the details. Of course, we are trying to reconcile the data as much as possible because the details may provide clues to understanding the eruptive processes that turn an ocean's chemistry into a plume," said Glein.
A paper based on Glein's research, "The pH of Enceladus' ocean," was published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta in August. Glein is a research scientist at Southwest Research Institute, but completed the research while at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The work was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute element of the Astrobiology Program at NASA.
Hydrothermal activity for life
A portion of the “Lost City” hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic Ocean, which may be most similar to what is happening on Enceladus. Credit: NASA
It is believed that Enceladus' alkaline chemistry comes from a geochemical process called serpentinization. This happens when a rock that is rich in magnesium and iron is converted to clay-type minerals. On Earth, we see this process in very limited locations, such as the low-temperature hydrothermal vent field named Lost City in the Atlantic Ocean.
"It's exactly what we would expect if there is a liquid water ocean in contact with rocks on and below the ocean floor on Enceladus," Glein said.
In addition to a high pH, this process produces hydrogen gas, a potent fuel that can drive the formation of organic molecules that in some cases can be building blocks of life.
An unresolved question, however, is whether serpentinization is taking place now. If the activity is ongoing, this would provide habitable conditions, which could support an ecosystem similar to Lost City. If it occurred long ago, the high pH may be a relict and life may be less likely, although still not impossible if there are other sources of chemical energy.
Cassini did a final flyby of Enceladus in late October that targeted the chemistry of the plumes directly. The INMS team, which includes Glein, is searching for molecular hydrogen in that plume, which would be chemical evidence of active serpentinization. An absence of molecular hydrogen would be a sign that the serpentinization is extinct.
The data analysis from this flyby may be completed in time for the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in December. Glein added that the planned NASA mission to Europa includes advanced descendants of both the CDA and INMS instruments, meaning that in a decade or two, scientists can start to make these same measurements at Europa. This will allow us to better understand the importance of serpentinization across the Solar System.
"On other icy worlds, if they have liquid water oceans, [serpentinization] should be inevitable because these bodies are massive mixtures of water and rock," he said. "Maybe the methane we see in Titan's atmosphere formed when hydrogen from serpentinization combined with deep carbon in a hydrothermal environment. There may also be liquid water on [dwarf planet] Pluto, through cryovolcanoes and a youthful surface. We expect there to be some degree of water-rock interaction on suchocean worlds, setting the stage for serpentinization and the generation of hydrogen that could be utilized if there is anyone out there."
You can now send a 'message in a bottle' that'll reach the North Star in 434 years
by FIONA MACDONALD
If you've ever wanted to reach out to potential life outside of our Solar System, this is your chance. A new project will beam people's text-based messages into space at light speed later this year, with the communications predicted to reachPolaris - or the North Star - in 434 years.
The messages will be transmitted as radio signals, and the researchers hope they'll form something of a 'time capsule' that will reveal insights into how we feel about the environment at this crucial point in our history. "This project will create a culturally inspired message in a bottle capturing global perspectives that will travel into space for aeons," explains one of the project coordinators, Paul Quast, from the University of Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland.
The 3-minute binary transmission was put together by Frank Drake, creator of the famous Drake equation, and astronomer Carl Sagan, and contained a whole lot of encoded information about our DNA, a graphic image of a human, a map of the Solar System, and other information that aliens might find handy if they wanted to know more about us.
Since then, a range of other projects have beamed radio-wave transmissions towards distant planets and stars, mostly with the aim of providing any intercepting extraterrestrial intelligence with crucial insights into humanity. Or, if nothing else, asking them to hit us back with a message of their own.
This new project, titled A Simple Response, is a little different, because its aim isn't to speak to life outside our planet (although there's always the possibility of the transmission being intercepted). Instead, the researchers involved hope the messages will help them understand more about how people around the world think about climate change, regardless of geography or background.
To that end, the project is asking people to answer a simple question: "How will our present environmental interactions shape the future?" The results will be compiled and beamed into interstellar space as radio waves in August this year. That next step is something they're now working on with physicists and astronomers at the University of Edinburgh.
Thanks to the fact that radio waves travel at the speed of light, within 21 hours of transmission, the signal will have travelled deeper into space than one of our most famous message-carriers - Voyager 1, which was launched in 1977 and is now venturing through interstellar space.
Polaris was chosen as the target for the new message because of its significance as a reference point for navigators and stargazers throughout the ages, the project website explains.
It also allows us the emotional benefits of being able to track our tiny human time capsule as it makes it way out into the depths of space. And if that doesn't help to remind people that we're all just one species, living on lonely rock with the common goal of survival, I don't know what will.
CubeSats offer the chance for unprecedented access to space at a low cost. Low enough, indeed, that a group of UFO researchers were able to crowdsource the funds on IndieGoGo to launch their own UFO-hunting satellite into low-Earth orbit.
It all started on IndieGoGo with the CubeSat 4 Disclosure project, led by Vancouver-based UFO researcher David Cote. While the project fell short of its $50,000 goal, they were able to get $16,641, enough to nearly buy them the $19,000 CubeSat kit. They've turned to Kickstarter, where they hope to raise an additional $10,000 to cover the cost of the science instruments.
Once they raise those funds, the group of six behind the CubeSat 4 Disclosure project will be able to launch their small sat into space from the Mojave Desert-based Interorbital Systems, which also provided the CubeSat system. The cost of the kit includes the cost of the launch. It will spend three months in low-Earth orbit, armed with a radiation detector and a camera. If an anomalous amount of energy is picked up, it'll sprout into action and take pictures of whatever is going on.
While the group hopes to find the smoking gun of UFO research (a close-up picture of an alien craft), it also may be able to help more mainstream scientists by detecting solar flares and other upper atmosphere phenomena in its short time. After three months, the craft will likely have been deorbited by gravity and solar radiation. The group promises to make their findings open source ... whatever findings they may have.
"Maybe we'll get data readings and pictures of solar-flare caused auroras. Maybe we'll capture images of some very interesting meteors," Cote said on the IndieGoGo page. "And maybe we'll actually capture a verifiable craft."
While plenty of UFO researchers keep an eye on the International Space Station's live feeds and there's always a headline in British tabloids about something Curiosity saw in the distance on Mars, this may be the first dedicated UFO hunting satellite. And with launch kits as low as $20,000, it probably won't be the last.
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Earth scores an unimpressive 82% chance of sustaining life in 'habitability' calculation
Earth scores an unimpressive 82% chance of sustaining life in 'habitability' calculation
Aliens watching might think we're too close to the Sun.
With so much human hope and endeavour focused on the task of identifying extraterrestrial life on worlds outside our Solar System, it can be pretty disheartening when scientists point out how slim the prospects could really be.
Which is why a recent finding that Earth itself would only rate an 82 percent chance of being habitable – per a new calculation designed to rate exoplanet habitability – could actually be considered rather positive news. Wait… what?
Yes, strange as it sounds, researchers say that their 'habitability index', developed to help scientists prioritise the search for alien life on exoplanets, doesn't actually award Earth a 100 percent score in terms of the likelihood of being able to sustain life.
Which is more than a little ironic, when you think about it, given it's the only planet we 100 percent know for sure does sustain life. So why the less-than-perfect rating?
"Basically, where we lose some of the probability, or chance for life, is that we could be too close to the [Sun]," said astronomer Rory Barnes from the University of Washington. "We actually are kind of close to the inner edge of the habitable zone. If we spotted Earth with our current techniques, we would reasonably conclude that it could be too hot for life."
Barnes and his fellow researchers developed their index last year, which ranks exoplanets based on habitability-influencing factors such as whether their atmospheric pressure would be sufficient for liquid water to exist on the surface, how rocky they are, and how much energy they absorb or reflect from their host star.
When these details are considered, the researchers say Earth would look good but not great to alien astronomers observing our home from afar. Chiefly, this is because our proximity to the Sun might lead them to conclude that we're simply too close to the superheated inner edge of our star's habitable zone.
"Remember, we have to think about Earth as if we don't know anything about it,"said Barnes. "We don't know that it's got oceans, and whales and things like that – imagine it's just this thing that dims some of the light around a nearby star when it passes."
According to the researchers, this could mean astronomers on other planets – if they were to arrive at the same conclusions – might focus their efforts on other planets offering better habitability scores than Earth and overlook us entirely, having taken our home as being a little on the crispy side.
"The point of the paper is that the [higher-ranking planet] is the best to spend our time on. Because it's less in danger," said Barnes. "But, it's obviously based on this very limited information."
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.