Will the World's Largest Supercollider Spawn a Black Hole? (Op-Ed)

Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the United States' biggest Large Hadron Collider research institution. He also writes about science for the public, including his recent "The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Things That Will Blow Your Mind" (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014). You can follow him on Facebook. The opinions here are his own. Lincoln contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Cutting-edge science is an exploration of the unknown; an intellectual step into the frontier of human knowledge. Such studies provide great excitement for those of us passionate about understanding the world around us, but some are apprehensive of the unknown and wonder if new and powerful science, and the facilities where it is explored, could be dangerous. Some even go so far as to ask whether one of humanity's most ambitious research projects could even pose an existential threat to the Earth itself. So let's ask that question now and get it out of the way.

Can a supercollider end life on Earth? No. Of course not.

But it's not really a silly question for people who haven't thought carefully about it. After all, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator, is explicitly an instrument of exploration, one that is designed to push back the frontiers of ignorance. It's not so unreasonable to ask how you know something isn't dangerous if you've never done it before. So how is it I can say with such utter confidence that the LHC is completely safe?

Well, the short answer is that cosmic rays from space constantly pummel the Earth with energies that dwarf those of the LHC. Given that the Earth is still here, there can be no danger, or so the reasoning goes.

And that could well be the final story, but the tale is much richer than that short (but very accurate) answer would lead you to believe. So let's dig a bit deeper into what makes some suspect a danger, and then explore a fairly detailed description of the point and counterpoint involved in delivering a solid and satisfying answer to the question.

Can the LHC create an Earth-killer black hole?

Skeptics have proposed that the LHC would produce many possible dangers, ranging from the vague fear of the unknown to some that are strangely specific.

The most commonly mentioned is the idea that the LHC can make a black hole. In popular literature, black holes are ravening monstrosities of the universe, gobbling up everything around them. Given such a depiction, it's not at all unreasonable for people to then wonder if a black hole created by the LHC might reach out and destroy the accelerator, the laboratory, then Switzerland, Europe and finally the Earth. This would be a scary scenario, were it credible — but it's not.

What immediately follows are the weaker (but still compelling) reasons why this possibility is, well, not possible, and in the next section you will see the cast-iron and gold-plated reasons to dismiss this and all other possible Earth-ending scenarios.

The first question is whether a black hole can even be created at the LHC. Alas, when looking at all of the scientific evidence and using our most modern understanding of the laws of the universe, there is no way that the LHC can make a black hole. Gravity is simply too weak for this to occur.

Some skeptics protest that one explanation for the weakness of gravity is that tiny extra dimensions of space exist. According to that theory, gravity is really strong and just appears to be weak because gravity can "leak" into the extra dimensions. Once we start probing those tiny dimensions, the strong gravity could perhaps make a black hole. Sadly for black hole aficionados, no one has found evidence for the existence of extra dimensions, and if they don't exist, the LHC can't make black holes.

So the entire underlying idea of that particular possible danger is built on a long shot. Yet, even in the unlikely case that extra dimensions are real and a black hole can be created, there is a good reason to not worry about black holes damaging the Earth.

The shield against that hypothetical danger is Hawking radiation. Proposed in 1974 by Steven Hawking, Hawking radiation is essentially the evaporation of a black hole caused by its interactions with particles created in the vicinity of the hole. While black holes will absorb surrounding material and grow, an isolated black hole will slowly lose mass.

The mechanism is a quantum mechanical one, involving pairs of particles being made near the surface of the hole. One particle will go into the hole, but the other will escape and carry away energy. Since, according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, energy and mass are the same, this process has the effect of very slowly decreasing the mass of the black hole. Even though one particle enters the hole, the loss of the other results in the hole slowly evaporating. This is a tricky point. Most people think of a black hole as the mass at the center, but it's actually both the mass at the center and the energy stored in the gravitational field. The particle zooming down to the center is just moving around in the black hole, while the particle that moves out escapes the black hole entirely. Both the mass of the escaping particle and the energy it carries are lost to the black hole, reducing the energy of the entire black hole system.

And the rate at which a hole evaporates is a strong function of the hole's size. A large black hole will lose energy very slowly, but a small one will evaporate in the blink of an eye. In fact, any black hole the LHC could possibly make, via any possible theory, will disappear before it can get near any other matter to gobble up.

Strange strangelets

Another proposed danger is a thing called a strangelet. A strangelet is a hypothetical subatomic particle composed of roughly an equal number of up, down and strange quarks.

Mind you, there is zero evidence that strangelets are anything other than an idea born in the fertile imagination of a theoretical physicist. But, if they exist, the claim is that a strangelet is essentially a catalyst. If it impacts ordinary matter, it will make the matter it touches also turn into a strangelet. Following the idea to its logical conclusion, if a strangelet were made on Earth, it would result in the entire planet collapsing down into a ball of matter made of strangelets … kind of like turning the Earth into an exotic version of neutron star. Essentially a strangelet can be thought of as a subatomic zombie; one that turns everything it touches into a fellow strangelet zombie.

But there is no evidence that strangelets are real, so that might be enough to keep some people from worrying. However, it's still true that the LHC is a machine of discovery and maybe it could actually make a strangelet … well, if they really exist. After all, strangelets haven't been definitively ruled out and some theories favor them. However, an earlier particle accelerator called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider went looking for them and came up empty.

Those are but two ideas for how a supercollider could pose a threat, and there are more. We could list all of the possible dangers, but there remains something more unsettling to keep in mind: Since we don't know what happens to matter when we start studying it at energies only possible with the LHC (that is, of course, the point of building the accelerator), maybe something will happen that was never predicted. And, given our ignorance, maybe that unexpected phenomenon might be dangerous.

And it is that last worry that could have potentially been so troubling to the LHC's creators. When you don't know what you don't know, you … well … you don't know. Such a question requires a powerful and definitive answer. And here it is…

Why the LHC is totally safe

Given the exploratory nature of the LHC research program, what is needed is an ironclad reason that demonstrates that the facility is safe even if no one knows what the LHC might encounter.

S

Luckily, we have the most compelling answer of all: Nature has been running the equivalent of countless LHC experiments since the universe began — and still does, every day, on Earth.

Space is a violent place, with stars throwing off literally tons of material every second — and that's the tamest of phenomena. Supernovas occur, blasting star stuff across the cosmos. Neutron stars can use intense magnetic fields to accelerate particles from one side of the universe to another. Pairs of orbiting black holes can merge, shaking the very fabric of space itself.

All of those phenomena, as well as many others, cause subatomic particles to be flung across space. Mostly consisting of protons, those particles travel the lengths of the universe, stopping only when an inconvenient bit of matter gets in their way.

And, occasionally, that inconvenient bit of matter is the Earth. We call these intergalactic bullets — mostly high-energy protons — "cosmic rays." Cosmic rays carry a range of energies, from the almost negligible, to energies that absolutely dwarf those of the LHC.

To give a sense of scale, the LHC collides particles together with a total energy of 13 trillion (or tera) electron volts of energy (TeV). The highest-energy cosmic ray ever recorded was an unfathomable 300,000,000 TeV of energy.

Now, cosmic rays of that prodigious energy are very rare. The energy of more common cosmic rays is much lower. But here's the point: Cosmic rays of the energy of a single LHC beam hit the Earth about half a quadrillion times per second. No collider necessary.

Remember that cosmic rays are mostly protons. That's because almost all of the matter in the universe is hydrogen, which consists of a single proton and a single electron. When they hit the Earth's atmosphere, they collide with nitrogen or oxygen or other atoms, which are composed of protons and neutrons. Accordingly, cosmic rays hitting the Earth are just two protons slamming together — this is exactly what is happening inside the LHC. Two protons slamming together.

Thus, the barrage of cosmic rays from space have been doing the equivalent of LHC research since the Earth began — we just haven't had the luxury of being able to watch.

Now one must be careful. It's easy to throw numbers around a bit glibly. While there are lots of cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere with LHC energies, the situations between what happens inside the LHC and what happens with cosmic rays everywhere on Earth are a bit different.

Cosmic ray collisions involve fast-moving protons hitting stationary ones, while LHC collisions involve two beams of fast-moving protons hitting head-on. Head-on collisions are intrinsically more violent; so to make a fair comparison, we need to consider cosmic rays that are much higher in energy, specifically about 100,000 times higher than LHC energies.

Cosmic rays of that energy are rarer than the lower energy ones, but still 500,000,000 of them hit the Earth's atmosphere every year.

When you remember that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, you realize that the Earth has experienced something like 2 billion billion cosmic ray collisions with LHC-equivalent energies (or higher) in the atmosphere since the Earth formed. In order to make that many collisions, we'd need to run the LHC continuously for 70 years. Given that we're still here, we can conclude that we're safe.

But to be absolutely sure ...

The cosmic ray argument is fantastic, as it is independent of any possible LHC danger, including ones we haven't imagined yet. However, there is a loophole that potentially reduces the argument's strength. Because cosmic ray collisions are between a fast-moving and a stationary proton, the "dangerous" particle (whatever that might be) gets produced at high velocity and may shoot out of the Earth before it has time to damage it. (It's like in billiards when a cue ball hits another ball. After the impact, at least one, and often both, go flying.) In contrast, the LHC beams hit head-on, making stationary objects. (Think of two identical cars with identical speeds hitting head-on.) Maybe they will stick around and wreak carnage on the globe.

But there is an answer to that too. I picked the Earth because it is near and dear to us, but the Earth isn't the only thing being hit by cosmic rays. The sun gets hit as well; and when a cosmic ray hits the sun, it might make a high-energy "dangerous" product, but that product then has to travel through a much larger amount of matter. And this doesn't take into account that the sun is much larger than the Earth, so it experiences many more high-energy collisions than our planet does.

Further, we can expand the number of cosmic targets to include neutron stars, which consist of matter so dense that whatever potentially dangerous thing we might consider will stop dead in the neutron star right after it is made. And yet the sun and the neutron stars we see in the universe all are still there. They haven't disappeared.

Safety assured!

So that argument is the bottom line. When you ask if the LHC is safe, you have to realize that the universe has already done the experiments for us.

Cosmic rays hit the Earth, the sun, other stars and all the myriad denizens of the universe with energies that far exceed those of the LHC. This happens all the time. If there were any danger, we would see some of these objects disappearing before our eyes. And yet we don't. Thus, we can conclude that whatever happens in the LHC, it poses exactly, precisely, inarguably, zero danger. And you can't forget the crucial point that this argument works for all conceivable dangers, including those that nobody has imagined yet.

So having established the ironclad safety of the LHC, what then? Well, we absolutely hope that we do make black holes in the LHC — as explained, they would be tiny and not gobble up the planet. If we do see tiny black holes, we'll have figured out why gravity seems so weak. We'll probably have established that extra dimensions of space exist. We'll be that much closer to finding a theory of everything, a theory that is so persuasive, simple and concise that we can write its equation on a T-shirt.

While we are now assured that the LHC is utterly safe, it is absolutely true that the safety question was important for scientists to investigate. In fact, the whole exercise was a satisfying one, as it used the best scientific principles to come to a definitive conclusion that all can agree is valid. So now we can push back the boundaries of our ignorance, with only our increasing excitement of the prospect of a discovery to distract us.

Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.

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19-02-2016 om 17:30 geschreven door peter  

A Violent Wind Blown from the Heart of a Galaxy Tells the Tale of a Merge

An international team led by a researcher from Hiroshima University has succeeded in revealing the detailed structure of a massive ionized gas outflow streaming from the starburst galaxy NGC 6240 (Figure 1). The team used the Suprime-Cam mounted on the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope on Maunakea in Hawaii.

Figure 1: A pseudo-color image of NGC 6240 taken with Suprime-Cam at the Subaru Telescope. Blue, green, and red colors are attributed to the B-band, R-band, and H-alpha (emission line from ionized hydrogen gas) images, respectively. The giant ionized gas blown out from the galaxy is seen in red. Click the figure to jump to the larger image of the central region. (Credit: Hiroshima University / NAOJ)

The ionized gas the astronomers observed extends across 300,000 light-years and is carried out of the galaxy by a powerful superwind. That wind is driven by intense star-forming activity at the galactic center. The light-collecting power and high spatial resolution of Subaru Telescope made it possible to study, for the first time, the complex structure of one of the largest known superwinds being driven by starbirth – and star death.

Starbursts and the Evolution of Galaxies

The term "starburst" indicates large-scale intensive star-forming activity, making a "starburst galaxy" one where starbirth is occurring on a grand scale. The star formation rate (SFR) of our Milky Way Galaxy is approximately one solar mass per year. By contrast, the SFRs of starburst galaxies reach ten, or even a hundred to a thousand solar masses per year.

Starburst activity is a very important part of galaxy evolution. When a starburst occurs, the intense episode star formation rapidly consumes the galaxy's interstellar gas. In addition, ultraviolet light from newborn massive stars as well as gas heating and ram pressure from supernova explosions blows much of a galaxy's gas away into intergalactic space. This galactic-scale energetic wind is called a "galactic wind" or "superwind". Its action forces interstellar gas out of the galaxy very efficiently, which accelerates the galaxy's gas-loss rate. It also chokes off star formation.

The metal-rich gas expelled from the galaxy's disk pollutes its halo as well as intergalactic space. Consequently, starburst and starburst-driven superwind significantly affect the evolution of the galaxy and the gas outside of that galaxy.

One of the mechanisms that seems to induce large-scale starburst activity is galaxy collision and merger. When two gas-rich giant spiral galaxies merge, the gravitational perturbation induced by the merging process disturbs the orbits of stars. At the same time, the gas in the galaxy disks loses its angular momentum via viscous process associated with gas mixture, and falls into the gravitational center of the merger. This creates a vast concentration of gas, which begins to coalesce, creating a starburst knot. The starburst also creates a huge amount of dust which emits strong infrared radiation as it absorbs ultraviolet light from the newly born massive stars.

Starburst Activity in NGC 6240

NGC 6240 is a starburst galaxy fairly close to the Milky Way, at a distance of about 350 million light-years. Its SFR is estimated to be 25-80 times that of our galaxy (Note). It has a peculiar, disturbed morphology (Figure 1) which indicates that two spiral galaxies are merging. Due to the giant starburst at its heart as a result of the merger, NGC 6240 is very bright in infrared light being emitted from heated dust. The total infrared luminosity reaches almost a trillion times of that the Sun's.

NGC 6240 is an important object to investigate in order to understand the physical and evolutional relationship among the processes of galaxy merger, the action of a starburst, and the phenomenon of an active galactic nucleus. Hence, it is one of the most-studied starburst galaxies in the nearby universe within 500 million light-years of the Sun.

Observing NGC 6240 and Its Massive Outflow

The research team wanted a wide-field of NGC 6240. The Suprime-Cam optical camera was used on Subaru Telescope to zero in on the detailed structure of the starburst-driven superwind. In addition, the team searched for important clues to understanding the starburst history of NGC 6240. They observed the galaxy using a special band-pass filter that selectively transmits the light around an emission line produced by ionized hydrogen (called the H-alpha emission line). It allowed them to study the structure of the ionized gas associated with the superwind.

Diving Deep into the Outflow

Their unprecedented deep observation (long-exposure images) revealed a complex giant ionized gas nebula (called an "H-alpha nebula") surrounding NGC 6240 (Figure 2, 3a). This nebula extends out about 300,000 light-years and contains complicated structures of filaments, loops, and blobs (Figure 3b). Astronomers knew that such a large ionized gas nebula surrounds NGC 6240, but the depth of the observation significantly surpassed any previous studies and first allowed the Hiroshima team to study the some of the faintest, most detailed structure of the nebula. Large "broken bubbles" were detected in the northwestern (upper right direction of Figure 3b) and southeastern (lower left direction of Figure 3b) parts of the galaxy. These features are the evidence of a past energetic bipolar-shaped superwind that blew along the minor axis of the main galaxy disk (orthogonal to the main galactic disk).

Figure 2: The giant ionized gas nebula (H-alpha nebula) of NGC 6240. This image was produced by subtracting the stellar continuum light from the H-alpha image and extracting the pure (net) H-alpha emission. The complicated filamentary structure extends over hundreds of thousands light years. (Credit: Hiroshima University / NAOJ)

Figure 3:
a) Right panel: Same as Figure 2. The giant ionized gas nebula (H-alpha nebula) of NGC 6240. This image was produced by subtracting the stellar continuum light from the H-alpha image and extracting the pure (net) H-alpha emission. The complicated filamentary structure extends over hundreds of thousands light years.
b) Left panel: A sketch of the H-alpha nebula of NGC 6240.
(Credit: Hiroshima University / NAOJ)

Starburst-induced Superwinds Trace a Galactic Merger

The research team performed detailed data analysis and found that NGC 6240 has experienced violent starbursts at least three times in the past and each starburst drove an energetic superwind. Those superwinds form complex structure in the H-alpha nebula. The oldest starburst started about 80 million years ago. Astronomers think that the galaxy merger process of NGC 6240 began about a billion years ago, so this work suggests that the later stages of the merger are what excited the gigantic starbursts and subsequent superwinds. These results contribute new information to the studies of galaxy evolution and its relation to galaxy-galaxy mergers.

The research paper based on these observations will be published in the Astrophysical Journal of the American Astronomical Society (Yoshida et al., 2016, "Giant H-alpha Nebula Surrounding the Starburst Merger NGC 6240"). This research was financially supported in part by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research No.2344030, No.15H02069 from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), No.24103003 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, and MOST grant 104-2112-M-001-034- of Taiwan.

The research team:

• Michitoshi Yoshida (Hiroshima University, Japan)
• Masafumi Yagi (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / Hosei University, Japan)
• Youichi Ohyama (Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan)
• Yutaka Komiyama (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan)
• Nobunari Kashikawa (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan)
• Hisashi Tanaka (Hiroshima University, Japan)
• Sadanori Okamura (Hosei University, Japan)

Note:

1. Various different estimation methods of star formation rate of NGC 6240 have suggested this range of the estimate value.

Links:

• http://www.subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2002/04/15/index.html
• http://www.subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2000/03/24/index.html

{ http://subarutelescope.org/index.html }

19-02-2016 om 17:17 geschreven door peter  

Did NASA Nuke an Alien Base on the Moon While Everyone Was Watching?

Could the Government hide something as crucial as the existence of alien structures on the surface of the Moon? And, more importantly, did NASA blow up some of those structures back in 2009?

 

 The idea that our Moon might still preserve mysterious structures built eons ago by some intelligent alien race is not new. Over the years, countless photos of UFOs and other anomalous structures have turned up, revealing constructions with complex architectures that couldn’t had been built by the primitive earth dwellers.

 

 

But there is an assumption that draws conspiracy theorists like a magnet and it has to do with NASA’s 2009 LRO/LCROSS missions. Here’s the official chain of events:

 

On June 18, 2009, NASA launched a new dual mission – a probe the size of a car named Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and a smaller spacecraft called LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite).

 

LRO sole purpose was to provide detailed maps of the lunar surface while LCROSS had a kamikaze mission – it was sent on a precise and carefully planned collision course interacting with a specific area, a crater found near the Moon’s South Pole.

 

According to the Agency’s official statement, the impact caused by LCROSS would determine the presence (or absence) of water in the cloaked crater, but some conspiracy theorists couldn’t just simply buy this ‘official’ explanation.

 

They believe LCROSS had a more complex mission and a more destructive payload than what the space agency is stating. It allegedly carried a small nuclear device and was aimed at destroying the alien base located in and around the crater. But why would they do such a thing?

 

When you think about it, the existence of an alien outpost on our natural (or artificial) satellite isn’t such a stretch of imagination. If an extraterrestrial species would want to keep a close eye on the evolution of mankind, the Moon would be probably the perfect location to set up camp. After all, in our own space race, we did the same because it simply is a question of logistics.

 

On October 9th, 2009, at 7:31 a.m., LCROSS fulfilled its mission by impacting the Moon at a velocity of 5,600 miles per hour (9,000 km/h). Despite keeping a watchful eye, observers on Earth couldn’t see the shock wave due to the impact site being on the dark side of the Moon, which is never visible from down here. Because of this, determining whether LCROSS was in fact a mini nuke was impossible.

 

Although NASA streamed the event live, there are some who believe the entire video feed was manufactured. This wouldn’t have required a great skill since the live footage showed very little.

 

…alas, the promised giant plume of impact debris was invisible from Earth, leaving a receptive public feeling cheated, said leading lunar and planetary scientist Dr. Paul Spudis.

 

Is there any to prove those claims? The short answer is yes. Take a look at the photo below of NASA researchers Anthony Colaprete and Karen Gundy-Burlet during work at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

 

 

Seen anything strange? If not, lets have a closer look at the monitor display.

 

 

That actually looks like a rectangular structure and the odd thing is that it’s located in the Cabeus crater – the very same crater that LCROSS deliberately crashed into. If we carefully look at the picture, an intricate and artificial design can be observed. This ‘building’ and others like it could be the real reason why we stopped going to the Moon.

 

But that doesn’t explain the destructive approach towards these ancient lunar structures does it? While some would say it’s easier to just nuke the hell out of anomalies rather than rewrite the history books, others believe that these buildings are meaningless now that the Government has captured alien technology, and so they’re only getting rid of the remaining proof.

 

http://www.ewao.com/

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19-02-2016 om 17:06 geschreven door peter  

By: Nidhi Goyal 

Image courtesy http://www.engineering.unsw.edu.au/

Australian researchers are getting ready to begin trials of a new fully implantable bionic eye system.

The Phoenix 99 bionic eye was developed by scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The eye works through nerve stimulation.

With the aim of helping people with Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), scientists at UNSW have been researching bionic eye technology. RP refers to the group of diseases that causes retinal degeneration. People with RP experience a gradual decline in their vision. Costly medication available in only developed countries can slow its progress, but scientists have yet to find a way to reverse the degeneration.

Bionic vision can help in restoring vision to people affected by RP.

A high-tech chip is inserted through a small incision made in the eye. Patients are made to wear glasses; these glasses have special cameras which capture the image signals. These image signals stimulate the nerve cells in the retina and send signals to the visual cortex of the brain.

The required surgery takes about 2 to 3 hours. A small disc that goes behind the ear transmits power and data to the device, which in turn sends signals to the visual cortex of the brain.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. You can also find Nidhi on Google+.

{http://www.industrytap.com/ }

19-02-2016 om 17:01 geschreven door peter  

De meest bijzondere manen in ons zonnestelsel

Wij hebben er één. Saturnus meer dan zestig. En Uranus telt er 27. Geen wonder dat tussen al die manen in ons zonnestelsel best wat vreemde snuiters te vinden zijn.

In ons zonnestelsel zijn tot op heden meer dan 140 manen ontdekt. We hebben het dan alleen over de manen rond de grote planeten en dus niet rond dwergplaneten of planetoïden. Jupiter spant de kroon met 67 manen (van zeventien van deze manen moet het bestaan nog officieel bevestigd worden). En ook Saturnus mag zich rijk rekenen met 62 manen (van negen van deze manen moet het bestaan nog officieel bevestigd worden). Uranus is met 27 manen ook niet eenzaam. Datzelfde geldt voor Neptunus met 13 manen waarvan het bestaan bevestigd is. Zieliger zijn de planeten Venus en Mercurius die het – voor zover we weten – zonder manen moeten stellen.

Vreemd
Het is niet zo vreemd dat tussen zoveel natuurlijke satellieten ook wel wat vreemde exemplaren te vinden zijn. De meest bijzondere zetten we vandaag voor je op een rij.

Miranda
Als we denken aan bijzondere manen, dan komt deze maan direct bovendrijven: Miranda. Te vinden rond Uranus. De maan – die ongeveer 500 kilometer breed is – ziet er een beetje uit als een misbaksel. Mogelijk is de maan tijdens een botsing met een ander hemellichaam uit elkaar gespat, waarna de brokstukken toch – heel provisorisch – weer samen zijn gekomen en Miranda vormden. Opmerkelijk zijn ook de gigantische valleien op de maan: sommige zijn wel twaalf keer dieper dan de Grand Canyon! Als je in zo’n vallei zou kukelen, zou het een lange val worden. Zeker ook doordat de zwaartekracht op Miranda heel beperkt is. Als je een steentje van de hoogste klif af zou gooien, zou het tien minuten duren voor het op de grond valt!

Miranda: na een botsing weer in elkaar geknutseld? Afbeelding: NASA / JPL-Caltech .

Mimas
De Death Star: een verzinsel van een enthousiaste sci-fi-auteur? Nou, je zou bijna denken dat het beroemde schip uit Star Wars echt bestaat als je de ogen op Mimas richt. Deze maan – te vinden rond Saturnus – lijkt namelijk sterk op de Death Star. Het heeft alles te maken met een 130 kilometer brede krater op de 400 kilometer brede maan.

Zoek de verschillen. Afbeelding links: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Hyperion
En we blijven nog even bij Saturnus, want rond de gasreus zijn nog meer vreemde snuiters te vinden. Wat dacht je bijvoorbeeld van Hyperion? Een maan die nog het meeste weg heeft van een spons. Hyperion – met een gemiddelde diameter van 270 kilometer – is waarschijnlijk het restant van een grotere maan die door een inslag vernietigd werd. De kraters op het oppervlak van de maan zijn diep, mogelijk doordat deze heel poreus is. De rotatie van Hyperion is chaotisch: het maantje tuimelt op onvoorspelbare wijze door de ruimte.

Hyperion. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Io
Rond Jupiter vinden we ook zo’n bijzonder exemplaar: Io. De maan is ietsje groter dan de aardse maan en is het meest vulkanisch actieve hemellichaam in ons gehele zonnestelsel! Het oppervlak van de maan wordt hierdoor continu vernieuwd. Niet alleen Jupiter, maar ook de grote manen Europa en Ganymedes oefenen met hun zwaartekracht invloed uit op Io. Net zoals de zwaartekracht van de maan ervoor zorgt dat we hier op aarde getijden (hoog en laag water) hebben, zorgt de zwaartekracht van Jupiter en enkele grote manen ervoor dat ook het oppervlak van Io getijden kent. Het oppervlak van Io kan met wel 100 meter omhoog komen zetten door het getrek van de grote hemellichamen in de buurt. De getijdenwerking zorgt er bovendien voor dat er in Io veel hitte wordt gegenereerd en gesteente net onder het oppervlak vloeibaar wordt. Dat vloeibare gesteente wil naar boven en vandaar dat de maan zo vulkanisch actief is.

Io. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Atlas
Is het een vliegende schotel? Nee, het is een maan! We hebben het over Atlas, te vinden rond Saturnus. Rond de evenaar van de 32 kilometer grote maan bevindt zich een flinke richel die Atlas aan zijn vliegende schotel-uiterlijk helpt. Atlas cirkelt langs de buitenrand van Saturnus’ A-ring en is een zogenoemde herdermaan: de maan houdt de rand van deze ring ‘scherp’ door deeltjes op te vegen of terug in de ring te dwingen. Overigens is Atlas niet de enige maan in ons zonnestelsel met alien-achtige trekjes. Ook maantje Pan lijkt op een vliegende schotel.

Hier zie je Atlas (links) en Pan (rechts). Beiden cirkelen rond Saturnus. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL / SSI.

Callisto
Rond Jupiter vinden we Callisto: de maan is ongeveer 4800 kilometer groot en daarmee de op twee na grootste maan in ons zonnestelsel. Maar dat is niet wat Callisto zo bijzonder maakt. Wat pas echt bijzonder is, is de enorme hoeveelheid kraters op het oppervlak van de maan. Geen enkel object in ons zonnestelsel heeft zoveel kraters! Wat tevens bijzonder is, is dat het landschap van Callisto waarschijnlijk het oudste in ons zonnestelsel is. Er is namelijk geen enkele aanwijzing dat Callisto geologische actief is.

Callisto. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL / DLR (German Aerospace Center).

Epimetheus en Janus
Deze maantjes zijn op zichzelf niet zo bijzonder, maar wanneer we ze samen bekijken, wel. Epimetheus en Janus draaien namelijk in bijna dezelfde baan rond Saturnus heen. In eerste instantie dachten astronomen dat de maantjes dan ook wel een keer op elkaar moeten botsen. Maar dat gebeurt niet. De ene maan draait 50 kilometer hoger (verder van de planeet verwijderd) dan de ander om Saturnus heen. De maan die verder van de planeet verwijderd is, beweegt ietsje trager dan de andere maan. Het betekent heel concreet dat de ene maan de andere maan inhaalt. Elke vier jaar komen de manen dan ook heel dichtbij elkaar in de buurt. Maar wanneer dat gebeurt, gebeurt er iets bijzonders: de manen beginnen aan elkaar te trekken. De binnenste maan die de andere maan probeert in te halen wordt door die andere maan omhoog getrokken en naarmate de afstand tot de planeet zo groter wordt, gaat deze planeet ook weer trager om de planeet draaien. De andere maan wordt ondertussen door de aantrekkingskracht van zijn soortgenoot naar beneden (richting de planeet) getrokken, waardoor deze weer sneller gaat bewegen. In feite halen de manen elkaar dus nooit in, botsen de manen nooit, maar wisselen ze op het moment suprême heel veilig van baan.

Epimetheus en Janus (niet op schaal). Afbeeldingen: NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Space Science Institute .

Enceladus
Een maan waar je al heel veel over hebt kunnen lezen, maar die toch echt niet in dit rijtje mag ontbreken: Enceladus. Deze maan bezit onder zijn dikke ijskorst een wereldwijde oceaan. De maan beschikt bovendien over geisers die ijsdeeltjes, waterdam en organische moleculen afkomstig uit die oceaan de lucht inslingeren. Onlangs dook ruimtesonde Cassini door die geisers heen. De maan is met name interessant, omdat in die oceaan wellicht leven mogelijk is.

Enceladus. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Nog meer bijzondere snuiters
Natuurlijk zijn er nog veel meer bijzondere manen in ons zonnestelsel te vinden, maar we kunnen ze helaas niet allemaal uitlichten. Je kunt bijvoorbeeld denken aan Titan: een maan met een dikke atmosfeer. Of Iapetus, een maan die letterlijk een duistere zijde heeft. Of Triton, de enige grote maan die zich in een retrograde baan beweegt (de maan beweegt zich ten opzichte van de rotatie van Neptunus in tegenovergestelde richting). Of Nereid die soms ‘slechts’ 1.372.000 kilometer van Neptunus verwijderd is, maar zich soms ook 9.655.000 kilometer van de planeet verwijderd weet.

Alleen in ons zonnestelsel zijn dus al heel wat bijzondere manen te vinden. Maar hoe zit het dan buiten ons zonnestelsel? Tja, dat is een goeie vraag. Het opsporen van zogenoemde exomanen blijkt best lastig te zijn. Tot op heden is er dan officieel dan ook nog geen maan buiten ons zonnestelsel ontdekt. En zelfs als we er één vinden, zullen we daar op korte termijn niet zoveel vreemde feitjes over kunnen achterhalen. Dus die vreemde exomanen laten nog even op zich wachten! Gelukkig valt er op manen in ons eigen zonnestelsel nog genoeg te ontdekken. Cassini doet nog regelmatig grote ontdekkingen omtrent Saturnus en zijn manen, er zijn serieuze plannen voor een missie naar Jupiter en zijn manen en NASA fantaseert over een missie naar maan Europa en ook een missie naar onze eigen maan staat bij sommige ruimtevaartorganisaties nog hoog op het verlanglijstje.

{ http://www.scientias.nl/ }

19-02-2016 om 12:26 geschreven door peter  

SpaceShipTwo: On a Flight Path to Space Tourism

SpaceShipTwo is a spacecraft that is intended to one day take tourists on brief trips to suborbital space. Manufactured by The Spaceship Company, the vehicle is currently in the testing stage, with commercial operations expected to begin sometime in the next few years.

The technology for SpaceShipTwo was forged in competition for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which was created to spur the development of private spaceflight. After predecessor SpaceShipOne won the prize in 2004, two companies, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, formed The Spaceship Company to work together to commercialize the technology. 

Developing SpaceShipTwo has come with its share of setbacks, both privately and publicly, and the date for the first fully operational spaceflight has been pushed back repeatedly. Scaled Composites experienced a fatal explosion in 2007 that delayed development of the rocket engine, and SpaceShipTwo crashed during a test flight on Oct. 31, 2014, killing copilot Michael Alsbury and injuring pilot Peter Siebold. 

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the accident was caused by SpaceShipTwo's "feathering" re-entry system deploying too early, as a result of an error by Alsbury. The next version of SpaceShipTwo, which Virgin Galactic will unveil and name during a ceremony on Feb. 19, 2016, includes safeguards that will prevent this scenario from happening again, company representatives have said.

The tragic accident occurred during SpaceShipTwo's fourth rocket-powered test flight. The third powered flight, which took place in January 2014, sent the vehicle to an altitude of 71,000 feet (21,641 meters) and a top speed of Mach 1.4 (1.4 times the speed of sound). 

X Prize ancestry

SpaceShipTwo's ancestor, SpaceShipOne, was designed to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize by becoming the first privately funded vehicle to fly to space and back twice within a two-week span. SpaceShipOne was manufactured by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture of Scaled Composites — a firm led by famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan — and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Rutan had a different vision of spaceflight than usual. Most of the cargo that leaves Earth does so upon a rocket that goes straight from the ground into space. SpaceShipOne launched instead from underneath a carrier aircraft, called WhiteKnightOne, then separated and rocketed to more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) in altitude.

Just before the spacecraft won the X Prize in 2004, Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson announced that he would work with Scaled Composites to manufacture a commercial version that would take tourists to suborbital space. Development then began on SpaceShipTwo.

"We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years and bring alive their dream of seeing the majestic beauty of our planet from above, the stars in all their glory and the amazing sensation of weightlessness," Branson said in September 2004.

Since then, about 700 people have signed up to take a quick joyride into space. Tickets initially cost $200,000 apiece but were raised to $250,000.

Development milestones

As development proceeded, the company focused on putting together a launch area. The state of New Mexico offered Virgin Galactic a taxpayer-funded $225 million facility in December 2005, called Spaceport America. Virgin Galactic would establish its global headquarters and spaceflight operations there.

The company rolled out several construction milestones in the next year, but the momentum halted in 2007. A fatal fire during a ground test sent shockwaves through Scaled Composites and the greater "new space" community. Three Scaled Composites employees died, and others were injured, during a routine ground test. Work was briefly suspended as an investigation into the cause was launched.

Things began to turn around in July 2008, when Virgin Galactic held a major launch event to showcase WhiteKnightTwo, which would carry SpaceShipTwo into the sky. The first carrier aircraft would be called "Eve." Before 2008 finished, Eve had its first successful test flight.

The first SpaceShipTwo was unveiled in December 2009. It was named VSS Enterprise, after the famous "Star Trek" craft. (Enterprise was also the name of the first NASA space shuttle, but it was used for glide tests only and never made it into space.)

Crewed test flights of Enterprise began in July 2010. The company completed a major glide test in late 2012 that had the spacecraft in its "powered flight configuration," meaning that the hybrid rocket motor and all other components were built in. The first rocket-powered test flight took place in April 2013. (The vehicle was destroyed in the Oct. 31, 2014, crash.)

Virgin Galactic bought out Scaled Composites in 2012 to obtain full ownership of The Spaceship Company.

"The completion of the acquisition comes as Virgin Galactic and Scaled begin to plan the handover of the [SpaceShipTwo] development program to Virgin Galactic," Virgin representatives stated at the time. "Scaled [is] fully committed to the final portion of the [WhiteKnightTwo] and [SpaceShipTwo] test flight programs prior to Virgin Galactic commencing commercial operations."

On April 29, 2013, Virgin Galactic took a huge step toward suborbital spaceflight -- the six-person SpaceShipTwo ignited its rocket engine for the first time in flight, accelerating it to supersonic speeds. Richard Branson called the test "critical." Seen here, WhiteKnightTwo -- SpaceShipTwo's mothership -- taxis along the airstrip at California's Mojave Air ans Space Port shortly before takeoff at 7 a.m. PST.

At an altitude of 46,000 ft, WhiteKnightTwo released the spaceship -- manned by a three-person test crew including Virgin Galactic's lead pilot David Mackay.

Shortly after release, the spaceship's rocket engine lit up, accelerating the vehicle faster than sound.

A telescopic view from the ground highlights the bright exhaust from the SpaceShipTwo's single RocketMotorTwo.

VIRGIN GALACTIC

A typical flight profile

When it begins commercial flights, SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers. The spaceship will fly to 50,000 feet in altitude underneath WhiteKnightTwo, then separate for the trip into space. SpaceShipTwo will fire its engines for about 70 seconds, then shut off for the final coast to 62 miles (100 kilometers.)

The passengers will feel weightless for about five minutes, Virgin Galactic representatives say, with room "to allow for an out-of-seat zero-gravity experience as well as plenty of large windows for the amazing views back to Earth."

Next, SpaceShipTwo will turn back to Earth. It will "feather" its rudders, turning them up to 90 degrees to increase the drag and control the yaw of the spacecraft. This will allow better control as the vehicle travels through the atmosphere.

"The feather configuration is also highly stable, effectively giving the pilot a hands-free re-entry capability, something that has not been possible on spacecraft before, without resorting to computer controlled fly-by-wire systems," Virgin representatives stated.

At 70,000 feet (21,336 m), the spaceship will have enough air around it to move the rudders back to a configuration that allows for gliding. It will then land back on Earth on a normal runway.

Branson had said he hoped to commence commercial flights in earnest around 2015; the test-flight tragedy will push that timeline back, however. Branson aims to be onboard when SpaceShipTwo is ready to go. The billionaire, an amateur adventurer who is famous for his publicity stunts, has been interested in space since at least the Apollo era.

The lengthy delay in the first Virgin flights caused some ticketholders to ask for refunds, but the vast majority stuck around eager for the experience to begin. Industry watchers have applauded Virgin's patient approach.

"They're taking the time necessary to make sure the vehicles are as safe as they possibly can be before they take paying customers up," said John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, in a 2011 Space.com interview. "There's never going to be such a thing as perfectly safe spaceflight, but they're going to get as safe as they possibly can."

A tragic accident

Plans to start flights in 2015 were derailed Oct. 31, 2014, when fatal accident killed copilot Michael Alsbury and injured pilot Peter Siebold. The vehicle broke apart during the fourth test flight of the program.

The crash investigation, led by the National Transportation Safety Board, could take as long as 12 months, acting Chairman Christopher Hart said shortly after the incident occurred.

Early results from 2014 indicated that the feathering re-entry system was deployed early during the flight, apparently because Alsbury activated it too soon. That said, the NTSB emphasized the investigation is ongoing. 

The design of the system has it activated after two separate actions: a lever must unlock the system, and then the handle is moved to the “feather” position. It appears the system activated on Oct. 31 before the second action occurred; Hart called it “an uncommanded feather.”

After the crash

Branson had some reservations about continuing after the crash, but in a blog post in January 2015, he said he felt the best path was to move forward — especially after talking with the team involved in SpaceShipTwo's engineering.

"In short — was Virgin Galactic, and everything it has stood for and dreamt of achieving, really worth it?” Branson wrote. 

“I got a very firm answer to that question immediately when I landed in Mojave. From the designers, the builders, the engineers, the pilots and the whole community who passionately believed — and still believe — that truly opening space and making it accessible and safe is of vital importance to all our futures." 

An Associated Press interview with CEO George Whitesides indicated that the company plans to resume test flights in 2015, and to continue using Spaceport America in New Mexico for the program. The first flight date with astronauts has not been announced publicly since the crash.

"I really think we're turning the corner," Whitesides said in the interview. "We've gone through one of the toughest things a company can go through and we're still standing, and now we're really moving forward with pace."

Additional resources

• Virgin Galactic official website
• Spaceport America

{ http://www.space.com/ }

19-02-2016 om 12:07 geschreven door peter  

18-02-2016 om 23:52 geschreven door peter  

Alien Disc Close Encounter In Colorado

(Before It's News)

ALIEN DISC CLOSE ENCOUNTER IN COLORADO

18-02-2016 om 23:40 geschreven door peter  

OVNI et Science-Fiction

image:

http://www.sciences-fictions-histoires.com/medias/images/4eternites1-mini.jpg

Pour les familiers du genre littéraire, il est évident que le thème des OVNIs, et principalement celui des "soucoupes volantes", a fait partie très tôt des scénari composant des films tant à succès ("Les Soucoupes Volantes Attaquent" (1956) par exemple) que de films de seconde zone ou peu connu ("The Thing from Another World" (1951) par exemple), et ceci dès les années 1950-1960... les soucoupes volantes étant dans la majorité des cas des vaisseaux extra-terrestres menant des aliens béliqueux sur la Terre. Un film remarquable faisant très tôt le contre-poids de ces films étant par exemple "Le Jour où la Terre s'arrêta" (1951), où ce sont plutôt les humains guerriers et peu compréhensifs qui s'en prennent à une soucoupe pacifique... 

On peut noter que certains auteurs affirment que c'est en fait les premiers écrivains de science-fiction (H.G.Wells avec "La guerre des Mondes" en 1898, Jules Verne avec "De la Terre à la Lune" en 1865, ou encore par exemple "la Sphère d'or" (Out of the Silence) de Erle Cox en 1925, qui auraient "influencé" et en fait "inventés" les soucoupes volantes dans l'imaginaire des êtres humains... même s'ils admettent que le genre littéraire a été reconnu (et encore ! l'est-il vraiment ?) très tardivement par les spécialistes et "décideurs-afficheurs" du métier... il est en effet difficile d'admettre qu'un genre assez ignoré (voir méprisé) par une grande majorité de potentiels lecteurs (alors que c'est pourtant bien le seul genre littéraire à avoir prouvé indéniablement la réalité future de ses "prévisions" - voir Jules Verne par exemple, ou Asimov pour la robotique - et donc son importance pour le genre humain !), ait pu d'une quelconque façon "influencer" ainsi un peuple peu lecteur du genre, au point d'y trouver des dizaines de milliers de témoignages du phénomène... y compris en plus des scientifiques, des militaires, policiers, pilotes, assez peu enclins en principe pour céder facilement à la fiction... même si elle peut parfois entrevoir l'avenir de l'humanité. Mais on peut aussi noter que l'Ufologie, en tant que spécialité liée à l'étude du phénomène OVNI, n'a aucun réel lien avec la science-fiction en tant que telle, bien que quelques auteurs (comme Jimmy Guieu par exemple) a réussi avec succès l'intégration "d'affaires ovni" étudiées par des ufologues (dont lui), dans des romans de science-fiction... Le thème "OVNI" a bien sûr été "récupéré" par les auteurs de science-fiction (principalement sous forme de vaisseau alien), mais pas l'ufologie en tant que telle (car je ne considère pas un film comme "Rencontre du 3eme type" comme de la science-fiction, mais bien plutôt un documentaire scénarisé sur les ovnis et un ufologue célèbre (Allen Hynek)...). Le phénomène OVNI est une réalité scientifique pour moi, et est donc a éloigner de l'imaginaire et de la science-fiction pure et dure... même s'il s'avère que, parfois, la science-fiction débouche sur une réalité à venir...

Ces sujets sont débattus dans les vidéos suivantes d'ODHTV, présentées par Gilles Thomas :

Ovni et Science-fiction avec Alix Leproust et David Hauguel

Est-ce que la science-fiction a influencé les témoins ou l'inverse ? Le phénomène s'est-il adapté à notre culture de l'imaginaire ?
Alix et David ont présenté les Ovnis dans la science-fiction au cinéma, dans les livres et les magazines. 
Site d'Ufologie dynamique:
http://anomalia-informations.blogspot.fr/

La soirée Ufologie et science-fiction vous est présentée par Gilles.T.
Les invités sont Yves Herbo du site Sciences et Fictions et Histoires, Thierry Gaulin, président de l'association Ovni-Languedoc et Franck Maurin, auteur du livre "Mystères du phénomène ovni" et conférencier.

Un petit interview audio dans laquelle je donne mon avis sur les liens (ténus pour moi, je dis pourquoi plus haut) entre l'Ufologie et la science-fiction. Il faut dire tout d'abord que le titre de mon site porte à confusion (un peu involontairement mais à peine, car je n'aime pas les lecteurs qui s'arrêtent aux titres et ne cherchent pas à aller plus loin !), car on y traite très peu du genre littéraire "science-fiction" : il s'agit en fait de l'addition de trois choses qui me passionnent : les Sciences, les Fictions (l'imagination) et l'Histoire (dont les légendes et mythes)... Ma vie passée et le hasard ont fait que, enfant (10 ans), j'ai été le témoin direct d'un phénomène OVNI, dont mes parents ont à l'époque admis la réalité, puis que je me suis mis à écrire très peu de temps après, alors que je ne lisais que quelques BD pour mon âge ("Rahan" ou "Pif" par exemple) et n'écrivais pas du tout auparavant. Et surtout, alors que je n'étais pas adepte du genre, ni des "soucoupes volantes" d'ailleurs, je me suis mis à écrire assez rapidement deux romans d'anticipation (ou science-fiction plus largement)... ces deux livres, mais surtout mes subites rédactions et histoires racontées à l'intérieur, ont ensuite poussé ma professeur de français et mon père à me faire passer un test de QI, qui s'est avéré suffisament concluant pour que l'on me propose un "sautage" de classe... ces deux romans d'anticipation (le premier (Quatre éternités pour une Rose immortelle, paru en 2015 aux éditions Edilivre de Paris) parlant d'un enlèvement de deux ado par un ovni et de toute une histoire "spatiale" s'ensuivant, avec la rencontre d'une entité universelle, le second (Je n'étais qu'un Androïde, paru en 2011) parlant de robots à apparence humaine qui ignorent qu'ils sont des androïdes et qui découvrent leur surprenante origine... ce livre du début des années 1970 affirme  par exemple que l'humanité provient d'une autre planète en fait !) ont finalement "dormi" dans un tiroir pendant des décennies, avant qu'un autre hasard fasse que je les redécouvre et qu'ils soient publiés (sans réelle volonté de ma part d'en tirer de l'argent, ce qui est évident d'ailleurs pour le premier éditeur qui romp le contrat), mais c'est surtout parce que j'ai la nette impression qu'ils doivent être lus par certaines personnes précises, pas obligatoirement en nombre... En fait, ma question serait plutôt : pourquoi un OVNI (ou une entité X représentée par cette sphère dans le ciel) influencerait-il un petit enfant pour qu'il écrive quelques semaines plus tard des histoires "futuristes" et à priori totalement imaginaires ? Y a-t-il un message ou un "thème", une certaine approche, qui y serait significative pour quelques lecteurs, pour la science ? C'est une possibilité et la principale raison de ces publications.

Ovni et science-fiction 2: 
ovnis et extraterrestres dans la littérature et le cinéma.
Invité:
Franck Maurin

Yves Herbo, Sciences et Fictions et Histoires, 

http://herboyves.blogspot.fr/, 18-02-2016

{ http://www.sciences-fictions-histoires.com/ }

18-02-2016 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

Langonnais : un ovni signalé dans le ciel de Sainte-Croix

Au coeur du vignoble, un habitant a cru apercevoir, mercredi après-midi, un objet volant non identifié. Les gendarmes sont allés constater

Le Centre d'opérations et de renseignements de la gendarmerie de la Gironde a reçu un appel pour le moins très curieux, hier mercredi en fin d'après-midi. Ainsi, un habitant du secteur de Sainte-Croix-du-Mont affirmait aux forces de l'ordre avoir vu sur sa commune, ce qu'il pensait être un aéronef positionné à basse altitude, qui a ensuite disparu à travers des fumées épaisses.

Gendarmerie de la Gironde

10 uur geleden

À LA RECHERCHE D'UN OVNI...

17 février, 18h20, appel au CORG 33 d'un riverain qui signale avoir vu ce qu'il pense être un aéronef, à basse altitude, disparaitre à travers des fumées épaisses, dans le secteur de Ste Croix du Mont, entre Langon et Cadillac...

Immédiatement, des patrouilles sont dépêchées sur le secteur présumé de la chute, appuyées par un hélicoptère Gendarmerie....

Afficher la suite

Voir la traduction

Les autorités ont pris très au sérieux cet appel, au point d'avoir dépêché des patrouilles sur place ainsi qu'un hélicoptère de la gendarmerie. Mais, aucune trace ni disparition d'avion n'ont été signalés. Le mystère demeure. 

La gendarmerie a posté l'information sur sa page Facebook. Seule piste plausible avancée à ce jour, un écobuage d'une parcelle de vignes a été repéré par l'hélicoptère, ce qui peut expliquer les fumées signalées par le témoin...

En tout cas, les militaires s'interrogent : peut-être s'agit-il d'une pluie de météorites qui s'était abattue au même moment, dans le sud-est de la France? Mais, les gendarmes savent aussi manier l'humour : ne serait-ce pas une avant première de la série X-Files qui revient sur nos écrans le 25 février après 14 ans d'absence?

{ http://www.sudouest.fr/ }

18-02-2016 om 22:28 geschreven door peter  

Discovery of a Huge Underground Pyramid in Alaska’s Mysterious Bermuda Triangle

(Before It's News)

The Bermuda Triangle…it conjures up thoughts of what else…Bermuda. Sandy clean beaches, beautiful crystal clear water, fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas in them, tropical breeze blowing gently…what??? That’s not what you think of when you hear the words Bermuda Triangle??? So let me guess, you must think of strange vortexes that swallow up planes and ships with all occupants on board never to be heard from again.

Well I wouldn’t and couldn’t blame you if in fact that is what you think about when those words are mentioned, but I bet you never thought of Alaska. Oh yeah you read that right, there is supposedly a Bermuda Triangle in Alaska, so for all purposes it is the Alaskan Triangle and has been doing the same type of damage for years…it just doesn’t get as much notoriety as its tropical counterpart.

So the Alaskan Triangle stretches well over hundreds of miles between the towns of Anchorage, Barrow & Juneau. It came to its most prominence over 20 years ago, 1972 to be exact, with the disappearance of a plane carrying prominent politicians House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and Representative Nick Begich along with the experience bush pilot. They searched for the 3 men for over 35 days and ended up calling off the search and declaring all men deceased.

No trace ounce of evidence of them or the plane has ever been found and I don’t think there ever will be. Now some say that the infamous head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover was in fact responsible for covering leads to the missing men because of his hatred and constant battles with Boggs in the political arena. Now this type of political espionage and secret plots surrounds Washington more than any other government in this entire world.

There have been over thousands of recorded missing people in the Alaskan Triangle some either hiking or some flying they have all disappeared without a trace. Now it could easily be chalked up to the harsh climate of the Alaskan wilderness and it multitudes of wild animals willing to eat any potential human who gets lost on their way and the winds and weather in the mountains could easily down a plane without ever trying.

So yes, it is quite possible to easily explain the rational to all these people going missing, but to find no trace of any plane or person in all the thousands if missing people cases associated in the area of the Alaskan Triangle, now that seems a bit odd to me. With the technology of today and we can find a single piece of material associated to a missing person leaves me a bit puzzled.  Again, though like its counterpart in Bermuda no traces of the ships, planes or people have been either so it isn’t that far fetched after all I guess.

Could the discovery of a Huge Underground Pyramid in Alaska’s mysterious Bermuda Triangle region be the cause of thousands of missing people?   On May 22 1992 Chinese Set Off Their Biggest Nuclear Explosion weapons testing program.  A huge underground pyramid was identified during the ,Chinese underground test it was much larger than the Great Pyramid at Giza.

There are huge number of disappearances in Alaska, We are trying to figure out why, people are being abducted and not returned.  Because so many go missing in Alaska, part of the wilderness has been called the Bermuda Triangle.  Thousands of people go missing each year but is there really a mystery here?

According to their folk-lore there exists a man, known as Kushtaka who can shape-shift to an otter and has the ability to lure innocent people and trap them. This theory surrounded by the amount of missing persons list that the state puts up is enough to confirm and verify the truth about Alaska’s Bermuda Triangle.  The region’s statistical data of 2,883 missing persons is adequate proof about the insolvability of Alaska’s Bermuda Triangle. The state ranks 50th among the nation’s population count.

Despite it’s supposedly ancient provenance, evidence of the black pyramid’s existence didn’t appear until 26 July 2012, when reporter and cattle mutilation expert Linda Moulton Howe announced its discovery on late night conspiracy radio talk show Coast to Coast AM. That evening, Moulton Howe broadcast a pre-recorded interview with Doug Mutschler, “a retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence Warrant Officer,” who provided many of the initial “facts” (those are sarcastic quotes) about the pyramid, and first alleged the site’s current connection with the U.S. military.

According to Mutschler, geologists had used the detonation to undertake a seismographic study of the earth’s crust, only to find “a pyramid structure larger than Cheops” underground, somewhere west of Mt. McKinley.  Mutschler recalls that the local NBC affiliate ran a story announcing the structure’s discovery about 6 months after the detonation, but when Mutschler attempted to follow up with the station to get a copy of the story (evidently not as part of his duties at Fort Richardson) they denied that the story had ever run, and asserted that they certainly didn’t have a copy to provide. Mutschler then called relatives to track down copies of the story that had run on other stations, but apparently none had: the discovery only appeared on Anchorage’s Channel 13 (in case you need to add some numerological significance to the whole thing).

     Douglas A. Mutschler gives proof of who he was and tells there is a Ancient Pyramid in Alaska bigger than the biggest one in Egypt.   Located between Nome and Mt. McKinley.  The Alaskan underground pyramid is HOT and HUMMING, an active underground base, run by who or for what reason?  These are Questions that we are asking and want answers to!

From:   Douglas A. Mutschler
Subject:   To Linda Moulton Howe, Pyramid under Alaska?
Date:   June 22, 2012
To: earthfiles@earthfiles.com

Hello
My name is Douglas A. Mutschler CW2, USA (ret) and during my service tour in Alaska I was informed of a pyramid under the land in Alaska. There is other information concerning this that came to my attention after it was reported to us in 1992. I have tried to pass this info to others but have not heard any response to my information. I assure you I am telling you the truth about this and I think that this is being kept quiet by our government as the news was buried the very next day after it was brought to my attention. If you can help me get this info out to you please call me so I can talk to you about this. My phone number ——-. The whole story is pretty interesting and this can be verified with your contacts I’m assured of that, as I do not have them and came up with zero from the news people there. I’ll tell you the whole story if you are interested. I’ve only contacted a couple of people but have not heard back from any of them. I’m wondering if my emails are getting through to them or is this an old story that has no interest to news reporters?
Thank you for your time in this matter.
Douglas A. Mutschler

So is there in fact a pyramid under Alaska? Is there truly a Alaska Triangle wrecking havoc in this world making people and planes disappear without a trace?

Source:

www.earthfiles.com

18-02-2016 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

SILENT UFO CLUSTER SPOTTED OVER KENT CAPTURED IN MOBILE FOOTAGE

18-02-2016 om 17:52 geschreven door peter  

Edward Snowden Leaks Top Secret Aircraft Built From Alien Technology

This photograph began circulating the internet, and allegedly was “leaked” by Edward Snowden. The text associated with the image, disseminated online by Keith Thomson Books, read as follows:

---

 

 

According to an anonymous Internet source, you are looking at a classified photo of a secret space plane, leaked by Edward Snowden.

 

Adds the source, “These ships were created from technology taken from Alien spacecraft that have been confiscated since the Truman Administration and reverse engineered at Area 51, Los Alamos, and The Dulce’s N.M. Deep Underground Military Base. They are launched into space from the top secret Base on Diego Garcia Island in the Philippines [sic]. Expect Full Disclosure in the coming weeks.”

 

I’m a bit skeptical because the photo is blurry, but then again most alien/UFO photos are. Also our source misreported the location of Diego Garcia, the atoll in the Indian Ocean, but that may have been a function of haste, perhaps with CIA assassins on his heels. The other thing is, it sort of looks like a computer render, but if the aliens have intergalactic travel capability, they could probably create that effect. What do you think?

 

It took all of about 2 minutes to show that this is not connected to Edward Snowden and it is not an aircraft.

 

Artist Alex J. Brady has released many different concept art sketches. Living in England, Mr. Brady has worked on different projects as a freelancer, creating images such as these.

 

It appears someone took his artwork, and began disseminating it, alleging it was an top secret aircraft, buit by alien technology, and leaked by Edward Snowden.

 

This one can easily be put to rest as a provable hoax, but for the record, NOT of the doing by the artist. On a personal note, he does some amazing work! Please don’t associate him with this hoax, however, as it appears it was someone else entirely who perpetrated it.

 

Source: theblackvault

{ http://7tales.net/index.php }

18-02-2016 om 17:47 geschreven door peter  

Etoile Filante, Météorite ou Bolide ?

18-02-2016 om 17:42 geschreven door peter  

Vraagtekens bij evolutietheorie: “We zijn gemaakt door aliens”

18-02-2016 om 17:29 geschreven door peter  

Overheid Cyprus gaat fenomeen chemtrails ‘tot op de bodem uitzoeken’

18-02-2016 om 17:21 geschreven door peter  

Archeologische sensatie: “Eerste Spaanse piramide ontdekt”

18-02-2016 om 17:17 geschreven door peter  

China To Operate The Largest Radio Telescope Ever In Hopes To Find Intelligent Alien Life

China is looking to level up the research for intelligent life outside planet Earth as it is preparing for the world’s largest radio telescope. Nearly 10,000 people will be relocated from their homes to give way to the project that is expected to intensify the search for intelligent being in the universe. The presence of people in the area could interfere the telescope’s electromagnetism, which is the reason residents should evacuate their homes.

The FAST will surpass the largest telescope in Puerto Rico with its 500m-wide Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope. The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico only has around 300m in diameter. The telescope, which is due to be operational later in 2016, costs about 1.2bn yuan. It has a high level of sensitivity that necessary to accomplish what they are looking outside of the galaxy, according to the director-general of the Chinese Astronomical Society, Wu Xiangping.

China is increasing its spending in astronomy and accelerating its multi-billion-dollar space exploration program. Interestingly, it also eyes to be the first team to discover not just alien life, but extraterrestrial being with an intellect that is expected to be more advanced than humans.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

18-02-2016 om 17:10 geschreven door peter  

THE SECRET US PLAN TO USE FEAR OF AN ALIEN INVASION

18-02-2016 om 17:05 geschreven door peter  

BERMUDA TRIANGLE MYSTERY REVEALED IN INDIAN VEDAS LONG TIME AGO

18-02-2016 om 12:14 geschreven door peter