Harvard Scientists: There May be an Ancient Earth Inside... Earth

A team of Harvard scientists believe the remnants of an ancient Earth, dating to the time another planet collided with ours to produce the moon, may still be lodged deep within the Earth’s mantle

If you thought it was a trip to see the Earth from space, then wait until you get a load of this: A team of scientists from Harvard University believe that have found evidence that an ancient Earth exists inside the Earth.

 

The team believes that a previously unexplained isotopic ratio from deep within the Earth might be a signal from material from before the Earth collided with another planet-sized body, which led to the creation of the Moon. This might be an echo of an ancient Earth that existed 4.5 billion years ago, prior to the proposed collision.

 

 

The current favored theory says that the Moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth collided with a mass the size of Mars, dubbed “Theia.” 

 

This theory states that the heat generated by the collision would have melted the whole planet before some of the debris spun off to create the Moon.

 

But now, the team at Harvard, led by Associate Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, believe that they’ve found evidence to support that only part of the Earth melted, and that an ancient part still exists within the Earth’s mantle.

 

 

According to Professor Mukhopadhyay: 

 

“The energy released by the impact between the Earth and Theia would have been huge, certainly enough to melt the whole planet. But we believe that the impact energy was not evenly distributed throughout the ancient Earth. 

 

“This means that a major part of the impacted hemisphere would probably have been completely vaporized, but the opposite hemisphere would have been partly shielded, and would not have undergone complete melting.”

 

The team analyzed the ratios of noble gas isotopes from deep within the Earth’s mantle and compared the results to isotope ratios closer to the surface. They found that 3He to 22Ne ratio from the shallow mantle is significantly higher than the equivalent ratio deep within the mantle.

 

 

Professor Mukhopadhyay remarked: 

 

“This implies that the last giant impact did not completely mix the mantle and there was not a whole mantle magma ocean.”

 

Further evidence comes from analysis of the 129-Xenon to 120-Xenon ratio. Material brought to the surface from the deep mantle has a lower ratio than what’s normally found near the surface. 

 

Because 129-Xenon is produced by the radioactive decay of 129-Iodine, the isotopes place the formation age of the ancient section of mantle to within the first 100 million years of Earth’s history.

“The geochemistry indicates that there are differences between the noble gas isotope ratios in different parts of the Earth, and these need to be explained. 

 

“The idea that a very disruptive collision of the Earth with another planet-sized body, the biggest event in Earth’s geological history, did not completely melt and homogenize the Earth challenges some of our notions on planet formation and the energetics of giant impacts. 

 

“If the theory is proven correct, then we may be seeing echoes of the ancient Earth, from a time before the collision,” said Professor Mukhopadhyay.

 

Professor Richard Carlson of the Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism stated: 

 

“This exciting result is adding to the observational evidence that important aspects of Earth’s composition were established during the violent birth of the planet and is providing a new look at the physical processes by which this can occur.”

 

The findings of the team at Harvard coincide with a German team’s findings supporting the theory that the Moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago after a catastrophic collision with a planet-sized mass.

 

Both the Harvard and German teams presented their findings to the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in California.

 

Agartha, anyone?

 

 

 

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{ http://7tales.net/index.php }

02-03-2016 om 18:02 geschreven door peter  

 In theory light and matter are interchangeable, but a practical demonstration was thought to be impossible. Photograph: Lawrence Manning/Corbis

Researchers have worked out how to make matter from pure light and are drawing up plans to demonstrate the feat within the next 12 months.

The theory underpinning the idea was first described 80 years ago by two physicists who later worked on the first atomic bomb. At the time they considered the conversion of light into matter impossible in a laboratory.

But in a report published on Sunday, physicists at Imperial College London claim to have cracked the problem using high-powered lasers and other equipment now available to scientists.

"We have shown in principle how you can make matter from light," said Steven Rose at Imperial. "If you do this experiment, you will be taking light and turning it into matter."

The scientists are not on the verge of a machine that can create everyday objects from a sudden blast of laser energy. The kind of matter they aim to make comes in the form of subatomic particles invisible to the naked eye.

The original idea was written down by two US physicists, Gregory Breit and John Wheeler, in 1934. They worked out that – very rarely – two particles of light, or photons, could combine to produce an electron and its antimatter equivalent, a positron. Electrons are particles of matter that form the outer shells of atoms in the everyday objects around us.

But Breit and Wheeler had no expectations that their theory would be proved any time soon. In their study, the physicists noted that the process was so rare and hard to produce that it would be "hopeless to try to observe the pair formation in laboratory experiments".

Oliver Pike, the lead researcher on the study, said the process was one of the most elegant demonstrations of Einstein's famous relationship that shows matter and energy are interchangeable currencies. "The Breit-Wheeler process is the simplest way matter can be made from light and one of the purest demonstrations of E=mc²," he said.

Writing in the journal Nature Photonics, the scientists describe how they could turn light into matter through a number of separate steps. The first step fires electrons at a slab of gold to produce a beam of high-energy photons. Next, they fire a high-energy laser into a tiny gold capsule called a hohlraum, from the German for "empty room". This produces light as bright as that emitted from stars. In the final stage, they send the first beam of photons into the hohlraum where the two streams of photons collide.

The scientists' calculations show that the setup squeezes enough particles of light with high enough energies into a small enough volume to create around 100,000 electron-positron pairs.

The process is one of the most spectacular predictions of a theory called quantum electrodynamics (QED) that was developed in the run up to the second world war. "You might call it the most dramatic consequence of QED and it clearly shows that light and matter are interchangeable," Rose told the Guardian.

The scientists hope to demonstrate the process in the next 12 months. There are a number of sites around the world that have the technology. One is the huge Omega laser in Rochester, New York. But another is the Orion laser at Aldermaston, the atomic weapons facility in Berkshire.

A successful demonstration will encourage physicists who have been eyeing the prospect of a photon-photon collider as a tool to study how subatomic particles behave. "Such a collider could be used to study fundamental physics with a very clean experimental setup: pure light goes in, matter comes out. The experiment would be the first demonstration of this," Pike said.

Andrei Seryi, director of the John Adams Institute at Oxford University, said: "It's breathtaking to think that things we thought are not connected, can in fact be converted to each other: matter and energy, particles and light. Would we be able in the future to convert energy into time and vice versa?"

{ http://www.theguardian.com/international }

02-03-2016 om 17:49 geschreven door peter  

Dream Chaser: Sierra Nevada's Design for Spaceflight

Dream Chaser, a private spacecraft that looks like a stubby version of the space shuttle, is a concept being tested by Sierra Nevada Corp. based on NASA designs of a 1980s spacecraft prototype.

The spacecraft, which originally was developed by a company called SpaceDev, is among a group of ships that vied for private flights to the International Space Station. NASA funded SpaceX's and Boeing's concepts in 2014 for the last round of Commercial Crew Program development, sparking a formal protest from Sierra Nevada. In 2016, however, NASA selected Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Orbital ATK for anticipated cargo missions to fly between 2019 and 2024. No specific flight awards have been made yet.

Once ready, Dream Chaser will carry up to seven people to the orbiting complex. It will launch vertically upon an Atlas 5 rocket and then, like the shuttle, land on a runway horizontally.

Based on secret Soviet design

Sierra Nevada, founded in 1963, describes itself as having expertise in electronics, avionics and communications systems. The Colorado-based firm has a space systems division that works on areas such as propulsion, small satellites and components for customers.

The spacecraft has a bit of a tangled history. Its design is based mainly on the HL-20 — a NASA spacecraft design from the 1980s that was itself based on a Soviet spacecraft called the BOR-4. But the HL-20 design was never used for space.

SpaceDev resurrected the design. According to Ars Technica, in 2006 the firm signed a licensing agreement with NASA to reuse HL-20 for the Dream Chaser concept.

"We have tried to make it clear that SpaceDev does have plans of our own in terms of human spaceflight, both orbital and suborbital," said Jim Benson, the firm's founding chairman and CEO, in a Space.com 2004 interview.

Despite the agency heritage, SpaceDev failed to get funding under the initial NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) program to fund commercial spacecraft. Benson left SpaceDev in 2006 to found a new space tourism company, but died in 2008 of a brain tumor.

SpaceDev, meanwhile, merged with Starsys Research Corp. and continued work with NASA under a non-reimbursable Space Act agreement in 2007.

That same year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with United Launch Alliance to put Dream Chaser on an Atlas 5 rocket. This entailed some design changes, but the companies were optimistic from the early days that this arrangement would work.

Sierra Nevada purchased SpaceDev in 2008, which added a new space systems business area to Sierra Nevada's divisions.

"The acquisition of SpaceDev ... represents a dynamic expansion of [Sierra Nevada]'s space technology capabilities," stated Fatih Ozmen, Sierra Nevada's chief executive, after the acquisition was finalized in December 2008. 

"We believe that combining SpaceDev's unique technological offerings, manufacturing capabilities and talented team with our existing space business and technology base will allow us to significantly increase our capacity and scalability while better serving our customers and making us a leader in space technology with access to a much wider customer and technology base."

NASA money for development

In August 2012, Sierra Nevada was one of three companies that received money under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) award. CCiCap was the third phase of commercial crew development, and was supposed to help companies in the latter stages of spacecraft work to get their ships ready for flight. Sierra Nevada's contract, which was worth up to $212.5 million, paid out money as the company progressed through certain milestones. 

"We're very pleased today to receive the award from NASA as a recognition of our work. We think the whole program is a very successful public-private partnership," Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada's space systems division, said Aug. 3, 2012, following the CCiCap announcement.

The company also passed several major tests in 2012, most notably a "captive carry" flight test where it rode below a helicopter. The spacecraft did a single glide test in 2013 where it was released from a helicopter and arrived at the runway, only to skid off and cause damage to the vehicle.

"We had a successful approach to the runway. The vehicle flared on cue and the speeds were perfect," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems based in Louisville, Colo., in a Space.com interview in October 2013.

"We hit the centerline exactly where we needed to be. On approach and landing, the left main gear did not deploy satisfactorily," he added. 

NASA protest

In September 2014, NASA announced the next and final phase of the commercial spaceflight program would see SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft funded for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap). The goal is to have the spacecraft ready to fly the International Space Station by 2017.

Sierra Nevada filed a protest Sept. 26, 2014, that temporarily halted work on commercial crew endeavors. The company said that Dream Chaser's technical concept was equally as mature as at least one of the rival companies, and that there were "serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process."

While the U.S. government allowed work to continue on commercial crew, the protest was reviewed by its General Accountability Office. In January 2015, the office said it would rule against Sierra Nevada. 

"GAO disagreed with Sierra Nevada's arguments about NASA's evaluation, and found no undue emphasis on NASA's consideration of each offeror's proposed schedule, and likelihood to achieve crew transportation system certification not later than 2017," part of the statement read.

Sierra Nevada's response said, in part, that the company would continue to look for other customers for its contract. 

"While the outcome was not what [Sierra Nevada] expected, we maintain our belief that the Dream Chaser spacecraft is technically very capable, reliable and was qualified to win based on NASA's high ratings of the space system," the company said in its statement.

In early 2016, NASA announced that Sierra Nevada (along with SpaceX and Orbital ATK) would all be listed as possible providers for cargo missions to ISS between 2019 and 2024. Specific flight awards haven't been made yet. 

"NASA has not yet ordered any missions, but will make a total of six selections from each menu of mission options at fixed prices, as needed," NASA wrote in a statement at the time. "Each task order has milestones with specified amounts and performance dates. Each mission requires complex preparation and several years of lead time."

The company is now working toward doing a second glide test in early 2016, but a firm date has not been released. 

"SNC has made significant structural and systems improvements to the ETA including the composite wings and aeroshells," Sierra Nevada wrote in October 2015. "SNC also invested heavily in maturing the spacecraft orbital avionics, guidance navigation and control, the flight software, and employed a number of new processes, all of which will be used on the orbital vehicle as well."

The NASA contract also triggered a $36 million investment by the 22-nation European Space Agency. Once the agreement is signed, ESA will begin work building the first flight model of the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM), which Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser Cargo System will use to attach itself to the space station. 

Additional resources

• Sierra Nevada Corp.: Space Systems
• NASA: Commercial Crew & Cargo

{ http://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 17:38 geschreven door peter  

The JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

The Primary Mirror

An Overview

One of the James Webb Space Telescope's science goals is to look back through time to when galaxies were young. Webb will do this by observing galaxies that are very distant, at over 13 billion light years away from us. To see such far-off and faint objects, Webb needs a large mirror. A telescope’s sensitivity, or how much detail it can see, is directly related to the size of the mirror area that collects light from the objects being observed. A larger area collects more light, just like a larger bucket collects more water in a rain shower than a small one.

Webb Telescope's scientists and engineers determined that a primary mirror 6.5 meters (21 feet 4 inches) across is what was needed to measure the light from these distant galaxies. Building a mirror this large is challenging, even for use on the ground. A mirror this large has never before been launched into space!

If the Hubble Space Telescope's 2.4 meter mirror were scaled to be large enough for Webb, it would be too heavy to launch into orbit. The Webb team had to find new ways to build the mirror so that it would be light enough - only one-tenth of the mass of Hubble's mirror per unit area - yet very strong.

The Webb Telescope team decided to make the mirror segments from beryllium, which is both strong and light. Each segment weighs approximately 20 kilograms (46 pounds). The Webb Telescope team also decided to build the mirror in segments on a structure which will fold up, like the leaves of a drop-leaf table, so that it can fit into a rocket. The mirror would then unfold after launch. Each of the 18 hexagonal-shaped mirror segments is 1.32 meters (4.3 feet) in diameter, flat to flat. (Webb's secondary mirror is 0.74 meters in diameter.)

The diagram above shows the three  different mirror prescriptions that the segments have.

The hexagonal shape allows a segmented mirror with high filling factor and six-fold symmetry. High filling factor means the segments fit together without gaps. If the segments were circular, there would be gaps between them. Symmetry is good because there need only be 3 different optical prescriptions for 18 segments, 6 of each (see above right diagram). Finally, a roughly circular overall mirror shape is desired because that focuses the light into the most compact region on the detectors. A oval mirror, for example, would give images that are elongated in one direction. A square mirror would send a lot of the light out of the central region.

Once in space, getting these mirrors to focus correctly on faraway galaxies is another challenge. Actuators, or tiny mechanical motors, provide the answer to achieving a single perfect focus. The primary mirror segments and secondary mirror are moved by six actuators that are attached to the back of each mirror piece. The primary mirror segments also have an additional actuator at its center that adjusts its curvature. The telescope's tertiary mirror remains stationary.

Lee Feinberg, Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. explained, "Aligning the primary mirror segments as though they are a single large mirror means each mirror is aligned to 1/10,000th the thickness of a human hair. What's even more amazing is that the engineers and scientists working on the Webb telescope literally had to invent how to do this."

Watch the the actuators being attached to the back of a telescope mirror in this "Behind the Webb" video:

These diagrams show the back of the mirrors and the actuators.

One further challenge is to keep Webb's mirror cold. To see the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe, astronomers have to observe the infrared light given off by them, and use a telescope and instruments optimized for this light. Because warm objects give off infrared light, or heat, if Webb's mirror was the same temperature as the Hubble Space Telescope's, the faint infrared light from distant galaxies would be lost in the infrared glow of the mirror. Thus, Webb needs to be very cold ("cryogenic"), with its mirrors at around -220 degrees C (-364 degree F). The mirror as a whole must be able to withstand very cold temperatures as well as hold its shape.

To keep Webb cold, it will be sent into deep space, far from the Earth. Sunshields will shade the mirrors and instruments from the Sun's heat, as well as keep them separated from the warm spacecraft bus.

Here is an animation of how light travels through the telescope. JWST is what is known as a three mirror anastigmat. In this configuration, the primary mirror is concave, the secondary is convex, and it works slightly off-axis. The tertiary removes the resulting astigmatism and also flattens the focal plane. This also allows for a wider field of view.

How Did NASA Come Up With These Ideas?

NASA set out to research new ways to build mirrors for telescopes. The Advanced Mirror System Demonstrator (AMSD) program was a four-year partnership between NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the US Air Force to study ways to build lightweight mirrors. Based on the ASMD studies, two test mirrors were built and fully tested. One was made from beryllium by Ball Aerospace; the other was built by Kodak (formerly ITT, now the Harris Corporation) and was made from a special type of glass.

A team of experts was chosen to test both of these mirrors, to determine how well they work, how much they cost and how easy (or difficult) it would be to build a full-size, 6.5-meter mirror. The experts recommended that beryllium mirror be selected for the James Webb Space Telescope, for several reasons, one being that beryllium holds its shape at cryogenic temperatures. Based on the expert team's recommendation, Northrop Grumman (the company that is leading the effort to build Webb) selected a beryllium mirror, and the project management at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center approved this decision.

Why Beryllium?

Beryllium is a light metal (atomic symbol: Be) that has many features that make it desirable for Webb's primary mirror. In particular, beryllium is very strong for its weight and is good at holding its shape across a range of temperatures. Beryllium is a good conductor of electricity and heat, and is not magnetic. (At left is a picture of a marble-sized piece of Beryllium)

Because it is light and strong, beryllium is often used to build parts for supersonic (faster-than-the-speed-of-sound) airplanes and the Space Shuttle. It is also used in more down-to-Earth applications like springs and tools. Special care has to be taken when working with beryllium, because it is unhealthy to breathe in or swallow beryllium dust.

How and Where the Beryllium Mirrors Were Made

The James Webb Space Telescope's 18 special lightweight beryllium mirrors have to make 14 stops to 11 different places around the U.S. to complete their manufacturing. They come to life at beryllium mines in Utah, and then move across the country for processing and polishing. In fact, the mirrors make stops in eight states along the way, visiting some states more than once, before journeying to South America for lift-off and the beginning of their final journey to space. Explore an interactive map showing the journey of the mirrors.

The beryllium to make Webb's mirror was mined in Utah and purified at Brush Wellman in Ohio. The particular type of beryllium used in the Webb mirrors is called O-30 and is a fine powder. The powder was placed into a stainless steel canister and pressed into a flat shape. Once the steel canister was removed, the resulting chunk of beryllium was cut in half to make two mirror blanks about 1.3 meters (4 feet) across. Each mirror blank was used to make one mirror segment; the full mirror is made from 18 hexagonal segments.

Once the mirror blanks passed inspection, they were sent to Axsys Technologies in Cullman, Alabama. The first two mirror blanks were completed in March 2004.

Axsys Technologies shaped the mirror blanks into their final shape. The process of shaping the mirror starts with cutting away most of the back side of the beryllium mirror blank, leaving just a thin "rib" structure. The ribs are only about 1 millimeter (about 1/25 of an inch) thick. Although most of the metal is gone, the ribs are enough to keep the segment's shape steady. This makes each segment very light. A beryllium mirror segment is 20 kilograms in mass. (A full primary mirror segment assembly including its actuator is about 40 kg.)

The front surface of each blank was smoothed out and shaped properly so that it will be ready for its final position in the large mirror.

This movie shows the mirror blanks being made at Brush Wellman and shaped at Axsys.

Mirror Polishing

Once the mirror segments were shaped by Axsys, they were sent to Richmond, CA, where SSG/Tinsley polished them.

SSG/Tinsley started by grinding down the surface of each mirror close to its final shape. After this was done, the mirrors were carefully smoothed out and polished. The process of smoothing and polishing is repeated until each mirror segment is nearly perfect. At that point, the segments travel to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville (MSFC), Alabama for cryogenic testing.

Since many materials change shape when they change temperature, a test team from Ball Aerospace worked together with NASA engineers of Marshall Space Flight Center’s X-ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) to cool the mirror segments down to the temperature Webb will expericence in deep space, -400 degrees Farenheit (-240 degrees Celsius).

Cryogenic testing of the primary mirror segments began in at Marshall's XRCF by Ball Aerospace in 2009.

 

The change in mirror segment shape due to the exposure to these cryogenic temperatures was recorded by Ball Aerospace Engineers using a laser interferometer. This information, together with the mirrors, traveled back to California for final surface polishing at Tinsley.

This short video shows part of the mirror polishing process. The mirrors' final polish was completed in June of 2011.

You can learn more about how the mirror segments are polished in this "Behind the Webb" video podcast:

Gold Coating

Once a mirror segment's final shape is corrected for any imaging effects due to cold temperatures, and polishing is complete, a thin coating of gold is applied. Gold improves the mirror's reflection of infrared light.

Some Technical Details: How is the gold applied to the mirrors? The answer is vacuum vapor deposition. Quantum Coating Incorporated did the coatings on our telescope mirrors. Essentially, the mirrors are put inside a vacuum chamber and a small quantity of gold is vaporized and it deposits on the mirror. Areas that we don't want coated (like the backside and all the mechanisms and such) are masked-off. Typical thickness of the gold is 1000 Angstroms (100 nanometers). A thin layer of amorphous SiO2 (glass) is deposited on top of the gold to protect it from scratches in case of handling or if particles get on the surface and move around (the gold is pure and very soft).

This Behind the Webb video is about mirror coating:

Below is the engineering design unit primary mirror segment (flight spare) coated in gold by Quantum Coating Incorporated. Photo by Drew Noel.

After the gold coating was applied, the mirrors once again traveled back to Marshall Space Flight Center for a final verification of mirror surface shape at cryogenic temperatures. The mirror segments are now complete - they will soon travel to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The secondary mirror, now completed, went through a similar process - here it is after being gold-coated by Quantum Coating Incorporated.

In this video, you can follow the mirror's journey from rough ore to precisely reflective, gold-coated segments:

02-03-2016 om 17:28 geschreven door peter  

How to find alien life: Researchers reveal the 'biosignature' that could help us spot extraterrestrials 

• Findings will be useful with the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018
• Will interpret light from exoplanets by looking for specific 'biosignatures' 
• Large O4 signature could mean atmosphere has too much oxygen for life
• Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide also mean low probability of life

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Past research has found that some planets create oxygen without the presence of biological organism , which has caused experts to believe this other worlds can sustain life.

But new findings will help determine the difference between life and the illusion of life, by identifying 'biosignatures' in the atmosphere of exoplanets.

Researchers believe this can be determined by studying the spectra features of light that is seen in the planet's atmosphere as it transits.

New findings will help determine the difference between life and the illusion of life, by identifying 'biosignatures' in the atmosphere of exoplanets. Researchers believe this can be determined by studying the spectra features of light that is seen in the planet's atmosphere as it transits

'Recently proposed mechanisms for developing abiotic O2/O3 in terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres would produce spectral discriminators that are potentially identifiable with future telescope observations, including James Webb Space Telescope,' reads the study published by the University of Washington in the journal arXiv.

HOW TO SPOT BIOSIGNATURES AND IMPOSTORS? 

The first scenario suggests the star's ultraviolet light causes carbon dioxide to break down, which releases oxygen atoms to create O2 and will also produce an enormous amount of carbon monoxide as well. 

'So if we saw carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide together in the atmosphere of a rocky planet, we would know to be very suspicious that future oxygen detections would mean life,'Edward Schwieterman, from the University of Washington, said.

The second is starlight breaks down atmospheric water vapor and splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, which then go in different directions.

The hydrogen floats out into space and the oxygen lingers in the atmosphere, which produces numerous O4 and O2 molecules.

'Certain O4 features are potentially detectable in transit spectroscopy, and many more could be seen in reflected light,' Schwieterman said.

'Seeing a large O4 signature could tip you off that this atmosphere has far too much oxygen to be biologically produced.'

'These discriminants are more detectable than O2 or O3 in transmission observations.'

The James Webb Space Telescope is set to be released sometime in 2018 and the University of Washington believes this new model will help 'rule out false positives in the search for life beyond Earth.'

Experts have hope that this device will be able to detect 'biosignatures' on planets far beyond our own solar system and rule out the false positives.

For example, oxygen on Earth is a 'biosignature', but even though it can be found on other planets it does not mean there is life.

Venus has both oxygen and carbon dioxide, but its atmosphere is too hot and acidic to sustain life - showing oxygen is a false positive.

'We wanted to determine if there was something we could observe that gave away these 'false positive' cases among exoplanets,' said lead author Edward Schwieterman, a doctoral student in astronomy.

'We call them 'biosignature impostors' in the paper.

'The potential discovery of life beyond our solar system is of such a huge magnitude and consequence, we really need to be sure we've got it right — that when we interpret the light from these exoplanets we know exactly what we're looking for, and what could fool us.'

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Previous studies have shown that other planets create oxygen 'aboitically' or not from a living organism.

This has been found in planets that orbit low-mass stars, which are much smaller and dimmer than Earth's sun.

WE COULD FIND ALIEN LIFE IN THE NEXT 10-20 YEARS, CLAIMS NASA 

There at least 200 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy – and now Nasa officials claim we could be on the verge of finding life on one of them.

During a talk in Washington earlier this month, the space agency announced that humanity is likely to encounter extra-terrestrials within a decade.

'I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years,' Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for Nasa, said.

'We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.'

Jeffery Newmark, interim director of heliophysics at the agency, added: 'It's definitely not an if, it's a when.'

'We are not talking about little green men,' said Stofan. 'We are talking about little microbes.'

The announcement has been prompted by the recent discovery of water by Nasa in surprising places.

Jim Green, director of planetary science at Nasa, noted that a recent study of the Martian atmosphere found 50 per cent of the planet's northern hemisphere once had oceans a mile deep. 

The first scenario suggests the star's ultraviolet light causes carbon dioxide to break down, which releases oxygen atoms to create O2 and will also produce an enormous amount of carbon monoxide as well.

'So if we saw carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide together in the atmosphere of a rocky planet, we would know to be very suspicious that future oxygen detections would mean life,' Schwieterman said.

The second is starlight breaks down atmospheric water vapor and splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, which then go in different directions.

For example, oxygen on Earth is a 'biosignature', but even though it can be found on other planets it does not mean there is life. Venus (pictured) has both oxygen and carbon dioxide, but its atmosphere is too hot and acidic to sustain life -- showing oxygen is a false positive.

The hydrogen floats out into space and the oxygen lingers in the atmosphere, which produces numerous O4 and O2 molecules.

'Certain O4 features are potentially detectable in transit spectroscopy, and many more could be seen in reflected light,' Schwieterman said.

'Seeing a large O4 signature could tip you off that this atmosphere has far too much oxygen to be biologically produced.'

https://youtu.be/4gvPl3qWZIM

https://youtu.be/y9Z2GbFJWmo

'It's one thing to detect a biosignature gas, but another thing to be able to interpret what you are looking at, said Victoria Meadows, UW professor of astronomy and principal investigator of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

'This research is important because biosignature impostors may be more common for planets orbiting low-mass stars, which will be the first places we look for life outside our solar system in the coming decade.' 

The James Webb Space Telescope (pictured) is set to be released sometime in 2018 and the University of Washington believes this new model will help 'rule out false positives in the search for life beyond Earth. Experts have hope that this device will be able to detect 'biosignatures' on planets

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-03-2016 om 17:15 geschreven door peter  

Details on the Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group

A partnership between the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and NASA is in place "to develop guidance to prepare for any potential impact of our planet by a large natural object."

A Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group (PIERWG) Charter was signed in August 2015 and is now available for public viewing here. 

The Charter notes that "the risks are inherently unique and there are currently no national policy covering this particular threat."

Spelled out in the Charter is the framework for the structure and processes of an interagency team focused on preparation for a predicted or actual impact of an asteroid or comet that could affect the United States or its territories.

The Charter details the roles, responsibilities, and membership of the PIERWG.

Coordinating agencies

The objective of the PIERWG provides a forum for affected U.S. Departments and Agencies to develop the essential information and recommendations needed by senior leadership to make informed decisions to respond to the “unique challenges” of an impending NEO impact.

PIERWG coordinating agencies include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Homeland Security-Science and Technology, as well as Department of Defense, and the Department of State’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology.

Approving the document is Damon Penn, Assistant Administrator of the Response Directorate of FEMA and NASA’s James Green, Director of the Planetary Science Division.

In early January, NASA announced the establishment of a Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) created to coordinate U.S. agencies and intergovernmental efforts to respond to future near-Earth objects that threaten Earth.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin's 2013 book "Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration" published by National Geographic with a new updated paperback version released in May 2015. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS

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{ http://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 16:54 geschreven door peter  

First version of this article was originally published on January  22, 2015

A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com – With the discovery of the crucial, though, unexpected link between space and time, Einstein realized that these two things could no longer be thought of as separate things.

They are fused together and form the continuum (manifold) of space-time, viewed as a four-dimensional vector space.

Suddenly, he realized something unbelievable, namely that our understanding of past, present and future and the sharp difference we see between them – may only be an illusion.

“The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion,” he said.

At first, he wasn’t particularly thrilled with the unified spacetime idea and dismissed new four-dimensional geometry propose

d by Hermann Minkowski, as “superfluous” pedantry but he eventually accepted the idea and so must we.

As Arthur Schopenhauer expressed, “the most insignificant present has over the most significant past the advantage of reality” and such a belief cannot be so easily dismissed.

Naturally, this illusion – our understanding of past, present and future – is very convincing for us, but it’s still an illusion, we live with every day, every moment, continuously.

Centuries ago, St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the world’s most influential thinkers was also occupied with the phenomenon of time and space.

“How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet?” he asked.

“As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.”

Essentially the same question we are pondering today.

Most of us are convinced that reality means the events of the present moment.

It’s our fundamental belief since we were children because the only we understand is the reality of the moment.

We divide time into past, present and future and it seems essential to our experience of reality – our reality – as anything, says Paul Davies, a Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

But what if our perception of time and space has simply deceived us?

Much of what we thought we knew about our universe-that the past has already happened and the future is yet to be, that space is just an empty void, that our universe is the only universe that exists-just might be wrong, says famous physicist Brian Greene.

In our day-to-day lives, we experience time as a continuous flow. But it can also be useful to think of time as a series of snapshots, or moments, and every event can be thought of as the unfolding of moment, after moment, after moment.

And “if we picture all these moments, or snapshots, line them up, every moment here on Earth, every moment of Earth orbiting the Sun, and every moment throughout the entire universe, we would see every event that has ever happened or will ever happen, from the birth of our universe at the Big Bang, some 14-billion years ago; to the formation of stars in the Milky Way galaxy; to the creation of Earth, four and a half billion years ago; to the time of the dinosaurs; to events happening on Earth today, like me working in my office,” Greene explains.

Don’t you have a strange feeling that someone out there is so incredibly advanced technologically that he can observe all those movements (snapshots) in the entire universe when they take place simultaneously?

And when we seriously consider the simple but essential concept of “now we begin to understand that both past and future must be real because they could be your now, which means past, present and future – are all equally real and all exist.

Moreover, they exist all at once.

Written by A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer

Copyright © MessageToEagle.com – All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of MessageToEagle.com

source:

Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality

{ http://www.messagetoeagle.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 16:39 geschreven door peter  

02-03-2016 om 16:26 geschreven door peter  

Why Are UFOs Shutting Down Our Nuclear Missiles?

{  http://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 15:57 geschreven door peter  

Mac's UFO News - February 2016 (Season 4 Episode 2)

02-03-2016 om 15:42 geschreven door peter  

Triangle UFO Top Secret TR-3B Astra Video 1

02-03-2016 om 15:26 geschreven door peter  

Triangle UFO Top Secret TR-3B Astra Video 1

02-03-2016 om 15:15 geschreven door peter  

"Astronautentweeling brengt missie naar Mars dichterbij" - HLN.be

Bron: AD.nl

NASA: "Het is weer een stap op weg naar Mars.’’

De Amerikaanse astronaut maakte tijdens zijn jaar in de ruimte regelmatig selfies. © ap.

Astronaut Scott Kelly landt woensdagochtend om vijf uur na een jaar in de ruimte weer op aarde. Tijdens zijn verblijf in het International Space Station kletste de Amerikaan niet alleen met president Obama, maar was het vooral belangrijk om veel data te verzamelen. Kelly (48) en zijn identieke tweelingbroer Mark (die heeft een snorretje) vormen namelijk samen de prestigieuze NASA Twin Study.

Dunnere botten

Scott Kelly gaf zichzelf de griepprik. © ap.

Smolders: "Als je een tijd in de ruimte bent, verslappen je spieren fors.'' Je botten worden ook steeds dunner. Elke maand in de ruimte verlies je 1,5 procent aan botmassa. "Door veel te trainen, kan je dat wel een beetje tegengaan, maar de eerste uren op aarde ben je nog niet in staat om op je eigen benen te staan. Dat zie je ook altijd bij een astronaut die landt: die wordt in Kazachstan opgevangen door een groep mensen, op een soort strandbed gelegd en weggedragen.'' 

Maar op Mars staat er niemand om astronauten op te vangen. Daar moeten ze op eigen kracht aan de slag gaan. "De zwaartekracht op Mars is ongeveer de helft van die op aarde. Met kunstmatige zwaartekracht kunnen de astronauten er lichamelijk wel op worden voorbereid, maar het blijft een ingewikkelde kwestie'', vertelt Smolders.

Propaganda

Kelly en de bloem die hij tot bloei liet komen in de ruimte. © ap.

Toch zijn er ook sceptici. Ruimtevaartdeskundige Luc van den Abeelen bijvoorbeeld, denkt dat NASA de reis van de tweeling vooral gebruikt als propaganda. "Als je puur wetenschappelijk kijkt, is een onderzoek met slechts twee proefpersonen natuurlijk niet zo best.'' En er zijn wel wat meer wetenschappelijke wenkbrauwen gefronst: Zo eet aardbewoner Mark bijvoorbeeld geen astronautenvoer, zoals zijn zwevende broer. 

Van den Abeelen vermoedt dat het NASA hoogstwaarschijnlijk meer om geld te doen is. "Ze zijn de Amerikanen en de toekomstige president aan het opwarmen om meer budget vrij te maken voor hun onderzoeken. Dat vind ik prima hoor, maar om nou te zeggen dat dit een grote stap in de richting van Mars is...'' 

Maar toch... zo'n ruimtereis en alle tweets, foto's en filmpjes die Scott Kelly naar aarde stuurt, blijft iets magisch om te volgen, vinden beide mannen. Van den Abeelen: "Ondanks mijn scepsis blijf ik groot fan. Het is bovendien toch fantastisch als je bedenkt dat de eerste man of vrouw die straks in 2030 op Mars nu al op aarde loopt, of kruipt.''

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

02-03-2016 om 14:43 geschreven door peter  

Scott Kelly en Mikhail Kornienko weer op aarde na 340 dagen in ISS - HLN.be

  Bron: Belga

VIDEO Drie astronauten, onder wie de Amerikaan Scott Kelly en de Rus Michail Kornienko, zijn weer geland op de aarde na hun verblijf in het internationaal ruimtestation ISS. Kelly en Kornienko verbleven 340 dagen in de ruimte, om er experimenten uit te voeren met het oog op een eerste bemande trip naar Mars.

© afp.

Scott Kelly en Michail Kornienko zijn de eersten die dubbel zo lang als gewoonlijk in het ISS hebben gewoond en gewerkt. Ze kwamen samen met hun collega Sergej Volkov om 05.27 uur Belgische tijd, zoals verwacht, aan in Kazachstan met hun Sojoez.

Het was al de vierde missie voor Kelly, die bovendien een interessant studieobject is, aangezien hij een tweelingbroer heeft. Wetenschappers van NASA hebben zijn gezondheidstoestand vergeleken met die van zijn broer Mark, een voormalige astronaut, om de veranderingen te analyseren in het lichaam te onderzoeken die worden veroorzaakt door ruimtereizen. Volgens NASA ging het om het eerste onderzoek bij twee mensen met dezelfde genen in verschillende ruimtelijke omstandigheden.

In Kazachstan zal Kelly nu tests ondergaan om te bekijken welk effect de lange ruimtereis op zijn lichaam heeft gehad.

De absolute recordhouder in de ruimte is de Russische arts Valeri Poljakov. Hij heeft 438 dagen onafgebroken in het Russische ruimtestation Mir gewerkt.

02-03-2016 om 14:33 geschreven door peter  

Meteor Or UFO Seen Over Scotland On Feb 29, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News

Date of sighting: February 29, 2016
Location of sighting: Scotland

A glowing object shot across the night sky in Scotland a few nights ago, which might or might not be a meteor. It was caught on security cams and car cams and shined more powerfully than the sun itself. If an alien were to enter Earths atmosphere, appearing like a meteor is what a higher intelligence being would do. Meteors have tails, this has none. 
Scott C. Waring
www.ufosightingsdaily.com

RT News states:
A suspected meteor lit up the sky over Scotland on Monday. Local residents took to social media to discuss possible causes of a flash of light seen in the early evening.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 14:16 geschreven door peter  

Australian Weathercam captured strange spherical object in the sky over Brisbane

A guest camera in the Australian Weathercam Network, owned and operated by North Brisbane Data Recovery captured a rare phenomenon, what looks like a spherical object surrounded by clouds, in the sky over Brisbane, Australia on February 29, 2016.

At first glance it looks like it just cloud forming or a reflection of the sun or camera, but as the phenomenon appears out of nowhere and turns slowly into a circular shape we may wonder whether it is cloud forming/reflection or it is something like a second sun, an ‘invisible’ planet or a decloaking object?

  

02-03-2016 om 14:08 geschreven door peter  

Major bolide explodes over Scotland - Video

Many people have reported a major bolide sighting over Northern Scotland during the evening of Mon 29-Feb-2016.

The fireball appears to be an unknown/undetected meteor/meteorite, turned night in to day for a few seconds and produced one or more sonic booms in the atmosphere.

Jenni Morrison was driving home from work on the A944 from Westhill to Alford at 6.45pm when she spotted the fireball light up the sky.

She told Sky News: "I thought what the hell was that! My son said it was a meteorite. It was like a light switch going on and off.”

"I knew it wasn't lightning and it was kind-of scary and amazing at the same time."

There are several dashcam and security camera recordings of the event.

02-03-2016 om 14:05 geschreven door peter  

ientists discover 8000-year-old hand prints in ancient cave were NOT made by humans

Anthropologists probing the discovery of tiny 8000-year-old hand prints in the eerie Egyptian Cave of Beasts say they were not made by human hands.

Explorers stumbled across the tiny hand imprints after unearthing more than 5000 images carved into the stone in Egypt's southwest border with Libya 14 years ago.

A study of the hand prints show that not only are they not human - but that they are believed to belong to tiny lizards.

The cave, which is also known as Wadi Sura II, has been the focus of study for Emmanuelle Honoré of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research for years.

She said she was stunned when she saw the shape of the small prints. "They were much smaller than human baby hands, and the fingers were too long," she told National Geographic.

The scientists took measurements of the stencils and compared them to those of newborn human infants under a year, including newborn premature babies that were 26 to 36 weeks old. But came to the startling conclusion that the prints were not human and instead were created by lizards.

But while Honoré is sure the prints were made by tiny crocodiles or lizards - she is unsure of the reason why they are there. Or why any civilization would want to draw or use the legs of animals on their cave walls.

Even though the fingerprints are interesting, the figures depicted are much more interesting.

A closer look at the several images show besides many different human-like species also human looking lizard creatures.

I have highlighted three figures: Two human-like species and a human-like lizard creature or reptilian humanoid.

Reptilian or Reptoid is a word mixed from reptilians and humanoids and are human looking lizard creatures. It is said that these reptilians are living inside the earth.

The dessert is the world's largest and is the size of Western Europe and goes from Egypt into Libya, Sudan and Chad. It is one of the driest places on earth - but wouldn't have necessarily been so when the images were made - since there would have been water to sustain life.

  

02-03-2016 om 14:02 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Triangular Objects Spotted Over Newcastle, UK (Photos)

(Before It's News)

Two unknown objects flying in formation over Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

Witness states: I was driving on the A19 and it was a sunny clear day and blue skies on January 11, 2016 when I noticed which I thought was a military aircraft very high altitude making big swooping turns it had a contrail so I took a picture of it on my Iphone.

I then took a second picture of it and then carried on driving and just watched it until I could no longer see it I then continued to my destination and thought nothing of it.

Second Picture.

It was then I got home and was scrolling through my pictures and on the second picture I took I noticed on the far right of the picture there was something which looks like a twin diamond shape or triangle with a sort of faint contrail coming from it which I did not see on the day I took the pictures.

I have added the two original pictures for you to take a look at to see if anybody can figure them out.
 

I am a very open minded person however this could be something completely rational but it seems very strange that I did not notice it at the time of taking the pictures of the military craft?

Hopefully somebody can explain what this was. Mufon case 74879.

Note: Could it be the infamous TR3B, a craft as shown in the image below or is it a type of craft of unknown origin?

Image craft bottom right is the new secret B-21 Stealth bomber. The US Air Force has unveiled the first image of its next-generation bomber. The all-black plane has a distinctive, zigzagging shape and a low profile designed to make it hard to spot on radar.

According to Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James the new stealth bomber has yet to be built, but she provided the world with the first glimpse of the project using an artist’s rendering. 

Thanks http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/

Check out more contributions by Jeffery Pritchett ranging from UFO to Bigfoot to Paranormal to Prophecy

02-03-2016 om 13:58 geschreven door peter  

Pilots Close Encounter Over Ontario Canada

(Before It's News)

02-03-2016 om 13:30 geschreven door peter