UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

De twee fuserende zwarte gaten die het bestaan van zwaartekrachtsgolven verraadden, zijn mogelijk binnen één ster geboren.

Op 14 september 2015 botsten twee zwarte gaten op elkaar. Bij de fusie kwamen zwaartekrachtsgolven vrij die vervolgens door het Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) werden gedetecteerd. Een primeur: hoewel Einstein het bestaan van deze golven al voorspelde, waren ze nog nooit overtuigend waargenomen. Tot september 2015 dus.

Gammastraling
Een nieuw onderzoek gaat nu wat dieper in op de twee zwarte gaten aan wie we deze ontdekking te danken hebben. Het onderzoek suggereert dat de twee zwarte gaten voortkomen uit één enkele ster. De onderzoekers trekken die conclusie op basis van gegevens van ruimtetelescoop Fermi. Een fractie van een seconde nadat LIGO de zwaartekrachtsgolven detecteerde, nam deze ruimtetelescoop een uitbarsting van gammastraling waar. En dat is opvallend; bij de fusie van twee zwarte gaten hoort geen gammastraling vrij te komen.

Eén stervende ster
Er moet dan ook meer aan de hand zijn geweest dan een ‘simpele’ fusie van twee zwarte gaten, zo stellen de onderzoekers. Ze vermoeden dat de twee zwarte gaten kort voor hun fusie uit één stervende ster zijn voortgekomen.

“DE NATUUR KAN ONS ALTIJD VERRASSEN”

Tweeling
Normaalgesproken is het zo dat wanneer een zware ster het einde van zijn leven nadert, de kern van de ster ineenstort en één zwart gat vormt. Maar als de ster heel snel draait – bijvoorbeeld doordat deze het resultaat is van de fusie van twee sterren – kan de kern worden uitgerekt en in twee ‘brokken’ uiteenvallen en elke ‘brok’ wordt vervolgens een zwart gat. “Het is de kosmische equivalent van een zwangere vrouw die een tweeling in haar buik draagt,” stelt onderzoeker Avi Loeb. Om zowel zwaartekrachtsgolven als een uitbarsting van gammastraling te kunnen produceren, moeten de zwarte gaten heel dicht bij elkaar geboren zijn en binnen enkele minuten met elkaar zijn gefuseerd. Het enkele zwarte gat dat na de fusie ontstond heeft stermaterie verorberd en daarbij kwam de door Fermi waargenomen gammastraling vrij, zo denken de onderzoekers.

Het is een fraaie theorie. Of deze ook klopt, blijft nog even onduidelijk. De uitbarsting die Fermi waarnam, werd namelijk niet gezien door de Europese INTEGRAL gammastraling-satelliet en is dus nog niet bevestigd. “Zelfs als het signaal van Fermi vals alarm is, zouden we tijdens toekomstige LIGO-gebeurtenissen altijd moeten kijken of er lichtsignalen mee gemoeid zijn, ongeacht of het nu gaat om de fusie van zwarte gaten,” vindt Loeb. “De natuur kan ons altijd verrassen.”

Bronmateriaal:

"LIGO's Twin Black Holes Might Have Been Born Inside a Single Star" - Harvard Smitsonian Center for Astrophysics

{ http://www.scientias.nl/ }

Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan, with the Saturn V rocket at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, looks back in the new documentary "The Last Man on the Moon,” opening on Feb. 26, 2016.

Credit: Mark Craig/Last Man on the Moon

As the new documentary "The Last Man on the Moon" opens, the camera pans across a crowd at a rodeo until it finds an older gentleman taking his seat.

The man, clad in a cowboy hat, padded vest and dark blue jeans with a large-buckle belt, doesn't stand out from those around him. Nothing about his appearance suggests he is a member of one of the most exclusive fraternities in all of human history.

In fact, as that scene was shot, only one person, out of the thousands surrounding him, recognized Gene Cernan.

"Just one — the man sitting next to him," said Mark Craig, director of "The Last Man on the Moon," which is openingin select U.S. theaters on Friday (Feb. 26).

Craig's film seeks to address that.

"It is basically the epic tale of one man's part in mankind's greatest adventure with quite a few laughs and tears along the way," Craig told collectSPACE.com. "We don't just dwell on the past, but see plenty of Cernan's life today, and what he shares with us on a personal level is more than any other moonwalker has ever done previously." [Watch the Trailer for "The Last Man on the Moon"]

Cernan, suffice to say, isn't just another face at the rodeo. Though he aspired to and now owns a Texas ranch, a fact that the film not just points out but features, Cernan is one of just 24 men to have flown to the moon, one of just three to have done it twice, and the last out of only 12 astronauts to leave his bootprint on its surface.

A naval aviator, Cernan was chosen as a NASA astronaut in 1963. He flew three times to space as a member of the Gemini 9A and Apollo 10 crews and commander of Apollo 17, the latter the final manned mission to land on the moon in December 1972.

"The Last Man on the Moon" recounts that history, as other documentaries have, but in doing so injects Cernan's own unique perspective on his journey.

"It wasn't just his story, but the way he told it that made a real impact," commented Craig, referencing Cernan's 1998 autobiography, which shares the same title and served as the initial inspiration for the film.

Five years in the making, "Last Man on the Moon" uses on-site shoots to bring Cernan back to the time and places where he made history. He visits the dormant launch pad where he left Earth for the moon, the museums where his spacecraft are on public display, and the Arlington National Cemetery, where some of his fellow astronauts were laid to rest.

"Every one of the film's locations had special significance for both Gene and for us on the small film crew, but in very different ways," Craig recalled. "The derelict launch pad at the Cape certainly stirred some strong feelings for Gene, and that in turn affected us on the crew. And how could a visit to Arlington [cemetery] not leave a powerful and vivid impression?"

The one location the filmmakers could not take Cernan – back to space ("We would love to have taken him back to the Taurus-Littrow valleyon the moon," Craig remarked) – is represented by archival NASA footage, where available, and Hollywood-style recreations, where not.

**Movie poster for the new documentary "The Last Man on the Moon,” opening Feb. 26, 2016.**
**Credit: Mark Stewart Productions**

"Very little footage of Gene's Gemini spacewalk exists. As it was such a defining and dramatic moment in his story, we needed to bring it alive for the audience so that they could see and understand his tremendous difficulties," said Craig of the re-staged EVA. "As for Apollo 10, it was the first time Gene left the planet Earth and headed way out someplace where that few had ever been before. There is some great on board archive footage, but very little of that conveys the vastness and majestic spectacle of space."

"I was partly inspired by Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' and wanted to intercut the real footage with the visual effects to keep it feeling big, real and emotional," he described.

Other voices add to that emotion. In addition to Cernan's own recollections, the movie features new interviews with Apollo astronauts Alan Bean, Charlie Duke, Dick Gordon and Jim Lovell, as well as flight directors Gene Kranz and Chris Kraft. Cernan's first wife, Barbara, and current wife, Jan appear, as do his children and grandchildren including his daughter Tracy whose initials he left on the moon.

Although only implied on screen, the film's title, "The Last Man on the Moon," is something Cernan struggles with to this day. While Neil Armstrong will always be the first man, Cernan doesn't relish having carried the title of "last" for so long. It is that message, among others, that Cernan – and Craig – hope the public takes away from the documentary.

"Gene delivers a number of powerful messages in the film. I would rather audiences see and hear these in the context of his story than reveal them here," Craig said. "But I think if you were old enough to remember the age of Apollo you will have some surprisingly strong emotions stirred up. And if you were born after or are too young to remember, then I believe that a major chapter in history will be brought alive by a remarkable individual who was there in the thick of it all."

"We are lucky that he has the courage, wit and honesty to share it with us in such a human way."

"The Last Man on the Moon," produced by Mark Stewart Productions, opens in select U.S. theaters and is available concurrently on video-on-demand services including Apple iTunes, on Friday (Feb. 26). It will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 26. For more information, see thelastmanonthemoon.com.

Watch the trailer for "The Last Man on the Moon" at collectSPACE.com.