Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
01-04-2016
De allermooiste ruimtefoto's van 2015
De allermooiste ruimtefoto's van 2015
Tim Kraaijvanger
Het jaar 2015 is bijna voorbij. Traditiegetrouw blikken we op Scientias.nl terug en zetten we de tien mooiste ruimtefoto’s van het jaar op een rij. Dit jaar kozen niet de redactieleden, maar de bezoekers van Scientias.nl de tien mooiste foto’s. Duizenden mensen brachten hun stem uit.
We tellen in dit artikel terug van de nummer 10 naar de nummer 1. De foto bovenaan dit artikel is – helaas – net buiten de top 10 gevallen en toont het oppervlak van de dwergplaneet Pluto, waar de New Horizons-ruimtesonde in juli langs vloog.
Wil je één van de tien foto’s instellen als achtergrondafbeelding op je computer, tablet of telefoon? Bij ieder nummer vind je een link naar een versie in hoge resolutie.
10. Buitenaards landschap op komeet 67P
Ooit gedacht dat een komeet er van dichtbij zo uitziet? Wij in ieder geval niet! Op deze foto is het buitenaardse landschap van komeet 67P/C-G zichtbaar. De foto is gemaakt door de Rosetta-ruimtesonde, toen het ruimtevaartuig acht kilometer van het oppervlak van de komeet verwijderd was. Hierdoor zijn kleine rotsblokken duidelijk zichtbaar. Download de foto hier op hoge resolutie.
9. Stellair vuurwerk bij Westerlund 2
De Hubble-telescoop vierde zijn 25ste jaar in de ruimte met deze schitterende foto van Westerlund 2. Dit is een groep met 3.000 jonge sterren. Met het blote oog zouden wij niet kunnen zien wat er zich in deze nevel afspeelt, maar Hubble kan door het donkere stof kijken. De pilaren in de nevel zijn stofzuilen, waarin sterren worden geboren. Iedere pilaar is enkele lichtjaren hoog. Krijg je geen genoeg van deze foto? Hier vind je de hoge resolutie-versie (let op: 7 MB).
8. Duinen op Mars
Voor het eerst worden buitenaardse duinen verkend door een robotwagentje. Curiosity arriveerde eerder deze maand bij de Bagnold-duinen op de noordwestelijke helling van Mount Sharp. De duinen verplaatsen een meter per aards jaar. Het marswagentje gaat de duinen nu nader bestuderen en zal daarna zijn beklimming van Mount Sharp vervolgen. De foto hierboven is een uitsnede van deze foto.
7. Uitbarsting op komeet 67P
Ruim 300 mensen vonden deze foto van een uitbarsting op komeet 67P dé astrofoto van 2015. Helaas voor hen geen eerste plek voor dit kiekje, al is deze foto wel de mooiste Rosetta-foto van 2015. De foto is gemaakt op 29 juli, toen de afstand tussen de komeet en de zon bijna het kleinst was. Hierdoor nam de activiteit flink toe. Hoe het precies werkt staat omschreven in dit artikel. En hier zie je precies hoe de uitbarsting is verlopen (hoge resolutie). Dat is toch mooier dan vuurwerk op aarde?
6. Bergen op Pluto
Eindelijk weten we hoe Pluto eruitziet. Dit jaar scheerde de New Horizons-ruimtesonde langs de dwergplaneet op vele miljarden kilometers van de aarde. Het oppervlak van Pluto is verrassend dynamisch. Op deze foto zien we een fascinerend landschap van bevroren bergen, ijzige vlakten en wolken. De bergen op deze foto hebben een hoogte tot 3.500 meter. Dit uitzicht is vastgelegd op een afstand van 18.000 kilometer van Pluto. Bekijk deze foto ook op hoge resolutie. Is de zesde plek terecht? Misschien niet, want deze foto verdient minstens een podiumplek, maar er zijn nóg mooiere ruimtefoto’s gemaakt dit jaar.
5. Tethys speelt verstoppertje
De maan Tethys speelt verstoppertje en schuilt achter de maan Enceladus. Deze maan is echter veel kleiner, waardoor Tethys makkelijk te spotten is. De twee manen zijn te zien boven de beroemde ringen van de planeet Saturnus. Dit portret is ‘geschilderd’ door de Cassini-ruimtesonde die al ruim tien jaar in een baan om Saturnus draait. In iedere editie van deze jaarlijks terugkerende rubriek is minstens één Cassini-foto te vinden, dus dit jaar weer! De foto staat net in het linkerrijtje en is hier te downloaden.
4. Sluiernevel
Ongeveer 8.000 jaar geleden explodeerde er een ster op een afstand van zo’n 2.100 lichtjaar van de aarde. Sindsdien reist er een schokgolf door het interstellaire gas, waardoor er een flinke nevel is ontstaan: de Sluiernevel. Deze nevel is 110 lichtjaar groot en gefotografeerd door de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop. Hubble kiekte de nevel al eens eerder in 1997. In twintig jaar tijd is de nevel zichtbaar groter geworden, zoals in deze video wordt getoond. Bijzonder dat we de groei van een nevel zo duidelijk op aarde kunnen volgen. We moeten dan direct denken aan het bijzondere object V838 Monocerotis in het sterrenbeeld Eenhoorn. Deze rode veranderlijke hyperreus verloor in 2002 de buitenste gaslagen, die sindsdien uitdijen. De foto van de Sluiernevel opslaan op je computer? Klik hier!
3. De aarde achter de maan
Het brons gaat dit jaar naar deze foto van de aarde achter de maan. Hier kon je niet op stemmen, omdat de foto na de start van de stemronde is verschenen. Omdat we veel mails kregen van bezoekers die graag deze foto kozen als astrofoto van het jaar, hebben we besloten om de foto op de derde plek in de top tien te zetten. Overigens kregen we ook verschillende mails over deze foto – van een ‘dubbel lichtzwaard’ in de ruimte – maar die geven we bij deze een eervolle vermelding. De foto van de aarde achter de maan is gemaakt door de Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter, terwijl het ruimtevaartuig 134 kilometer boven de krater Compton vloog. Als je heel goed kijkt, zie je een deel van Nederland, waaronder de Zeeuwse en Zuid-Hollandse eilanden. Op de website van NASA tref je de grote versie van deze foto aan.
2. De Arendnevel
Eén van de mooiste astrofoto’s van het jaar is in de eerste week van januari al verschenen. Het gaat om de beroemde Arendnevel. De stofpilaren zijn vereeuwigd door de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop. Hoewel de zuilen al in 1995 door deze telescoop zijn gefotografeerd, is de nieuwste foto veel scherper. De telescoop gebruikte namelijk zijn high-end Wide Field Camera 3, die in 2009 op de telescoop is geïnstalleerd. In de pilaren van de Arendnevel worden nieuwe sterren geboren. Deze sterren produceren warmte, waardoor de pilaren in de toekomst langzaam van binnen uit worden vernietigd. Dit zullen wij overigens nooit meemaken, omdat het hele proces tienduizenden jaren duurt. Instellen als achtergrondafbeelding? Even klikken!
1. Pluto in volle glorie
Er kan maar één foto dé astrofoto van 2015 zijn en dat is dit jaar dit prachtige exemplaar. We zien hier de planeet Pluto in volle glorie. De foto is gemaakt door de New Horizons-ruimtesonde. Op de foto is het witte hart van Pluto duidelijk zichtbaar. Dit hart is 1.600 kilometer breed, oftewel even ver als de afstand van Amsterdam naar Barcelona. Het hart wordt Sputnik Planum genoemd: een relatief gladde, bevroren vlakte met een oppervlak dat niet ouder is dan honderd miljoen jaar. Het is een schitterende foto en het benadrukt de grootsheid van de New Horizons-missie. De New Horizons-ruimtesonde stuurt ook in 2016 nog foto’s van Pluto en zijn manen naar de aarde, dus de kans is groot dat we volgend jaar opnieuw foto’s van Pluto tegenkomen in de astrofoto top 10 van 2016. Daarna blijft het even stil totdat New Horizons in 2019 aankomt bij het Kuipergordelobject 2014 MU69.
En Ceres dan? Vorig jaar voorspelden we dat een foto van Ceres in de top 10 van 2016 zou eindigen. Helaas kreeg Ceres niet genoeg stemmen voor een top 10-positie. Misschien komt dit omdat Ceres – qua oppervlak – niet zo interessant is als Pluto. Toch is Ceres geen open boek, want er zijn mysterieuze witte vlekken op het oppervlak van Ceres gespot. Bij deze willen we als redactie Ceres nog wel even noemen, omdat ook de Dawn-ruimtesonde zeer succesvol is geweest in 2015.
Meer mooie ruimtefoto’s zien? Bekijk ook de eerdere editie van de mooiste ruimtefoto’s van het jaar! – Editie 2012 – Editie 2013 – Editie 2014
Jacht naar leven breidt zich uit naar 20.000 rode dwergen
Jacht naar leven breidt zich uit naar 20.000 rode dwergen
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Het SETI-instituut dat op zoek is naar buitenaards leven heeft haar jachtgebied uitgebreid en wel met 20.000 rode dwergen!
Het SETI-instituut is al jaren op zoek naar radiosignalen afkomstig van buitenaardse wezens. Maar die zoektocht – die tot op heden vruchteloos is – was eigenlijk altijd gericht op zonachtige sterren en hun omgeving. Maar nu gaat het instituut het over een andere boeg gooien: SETI richt de pijlen op 20.000 rode dwergen en hun omgeving.
Zonachtige sterren “Rode dwergen hebben in het verleden weinig aandacht gekregen van SETI-wetenschappers,” erkent onderzoeker Jon Richards. “Dat komt doordat wetenschappers aannamen dat andere intelligente soorten zich zouden bevinden op planeten die draaien rond sterren die vergelijkbaar zijn met onze zon.”
Een artistieke impressie van een planeet die cirkelt rond een rode dwerg. Afbeelding: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon (STScI).
Twee redenen Er zijn twee redenen waarom onderzoekers lang dachten dat de omgeving van rode dwergen niet geschikt is voor het ontstaan en in standhouden van (intelligent) buitenaards leven. Beide redenen hebben alles te maken met de leefbare zone rond een rode dwerg. De leefbare zone is een denkbeeldige zone rond een ster. Eventuele planeten in deze zone ontvangen precies genoeg licht en dus warmte van hun ster om ‘leefbaar’ te zijn, dat wil zeggen: vloeibaar water te bevatten. Omdat rode dwergen veel kleiner zijn en minder licht en warmte afgeven dan bijvoorbeeld onze zon, zou je denken dat de leefbare zone rond een rode dwerg smaller is en de kans dat er een leefbare planeet rond zo’n ster draait ook kleiner is. En dan de tweede reden: zelfs als er in die smalle leefbare zone een planeet te vinden is, dan is deze waarschijnlijk toch niet leefbaar, zo stelden onderzoekers. Omdat een rode dwerg weinig warmte afgeeft, bevindt de leefbare zone zich dicht bij de ster. Dat betekent dat ook de afstand tussen een planeet in die leefbare zone en de ster vrij klein is. Zo klein dat de planeet waarschijnlijk een synchrone rotatie kent. Dat wil zeggen dat altijd dezelfde zijde van die planeet op de ster gericht is. Het resultaat: de ene kant van de planeet is gloeiend heet en de ander zijde is veel kouder. Niet direct de beste plek voor het ontstaan en in standhouden van leven.
Oceanen en atmosferen Maar toch gaat SETI nu dus op jacht naar leven nabij rode dwergen. Waarom? Recent onderzoek toont aan dat er op planeten rond rode dwergen leven mogelijk is, zelfs wanneer ze continu dezelfde zijde op die rode dwerg gericht hebben. Zolang die planeten maar oceanen en atmosferen hebben. Die atmosfeer of oceanen kunnen namelijk hitte van de dagzijde (de zijde die continu op de ster gericht is) naar de nachtzijde verplaatsen, waardoor toch een groot deel van de planeet leefbaar is.
Drie planeten rond een rode dwerg. Afbeelding: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Ouder Nu recent onderzoek aantoont dat leven rond rode dwergen helemaal niet uitgesloten is, is dit eigenlijk de beste plek om op zoek te gaan naar intelligent leven. Rode dwergen zijn gemiddeld miljarden jaren ouder dan zonachtige sterren. “Oudere zonnestelsels hebben veel meer tijd gehad om intelligente soorten voort te brengen,” benadrukt onderzoeker Seth Shostak. Bovendien heeft recent onderzoek aangetoond dat ongeveer een zesde tot de helft van alle rode dwergen een planeet bezitten die zich in de leefbare zone bevindt. “Ongeveer driekwart van alle sterren zijn rode dwergen,” legt Shostak uit. “Dat betekent dat wanneer je een groot aantal van deze sterren bestudeert – laten we zeggen de dichtstbijzijnde 20.000 – deze gemiddeld de helft dichterbij staan dan de dichtstbijzijnde 20.000 zonachtige sterren.” En dichterbij betekent dat een eventueel signaal van die sterren en hun omgeving sterker is.
Naar verwachting gaat het onderzoek naar de 20.000 rode dwergen zo’n twee jaar in beslag nemen.
The flyby of asteroid 2013 TX68 is the closest ever predicted Earth approach for an object this large. The 150 feet (45 meters) rock could pass 11,000 miles (17,000km) from Earth on March 5th which is 21 times closer to our planet than the moon, although NASA admits it might also pass nine million miles away as the asteroid’s orbit is highly uncertain (condition code 7) and the distance of its pass is not precisely known at this time experts say.
However, if the asteroid passes at its closest possible distance of just 11,000 miles (17,000 km), the flyby will be an exceedingly close one and If that were the case, the asteroid would come even closer than orbiting communications satellites.
Asteroid 2013 TX68 has an estimated mass of about 130,000 metric tons. The space rock is traveling at about 32,211 miles per hour (51,839 kilometers per hour), relative to Earth.
According to NASA, if an asteroid of a size similar to that of 2013 TX68 were to impact Earth, it would release approximately 2.5 megatons of energy in the atmosphere and would be expected to cause regional devastation.
A comparison to the impact potential of an asteroid the size of 2013 TX68 could be made to the impact of a near-Earth object that occurred in 1908 in Tuguska, Siberia.
Known in the asteroid community as the “Tunguska Event,” this impact of an asteroid just slightly smaller than 2013 TX68 (approximately 100 – 130 feet/30-40 meters across) is believed to have flattened about 825 square miles (2200 square kilometers) of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.
The asteroid was discovered by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 6, 2013, as it approached Earth on the nighttime side. After three days of tracking, the asteroid passed into the daytime sky and could no longer be observed. Because it was not tracked for very long,
Although scientists cannot predict its precise orbit around the sun, they say that it cannot impact Earth during its flyby next month.
Furthermore, it seems cosmic rays are rising rapidly and the Earth is tilting North, which is a physical Pole Shift combined with a magnetic polar shift. In the second video BPEarthWatch explains these developments as well as an analysis of Asteroid 2013 TX68 based on the information given by ESA instead of NASA.
NASA’s Latest Mars Drone is Helping Save Lives on Earth
NASA’s Latest Mars Drone is Helping Save Lives on Earth
A JPL mini methane gas sensor is flight tested on a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) under a project to improve energy pipeline industry safety (Credit: University of California, Merced).
University of California, Merced
IN BRIEF
A drone, originally designed for testing the atmosphere on Mars, is being used by NASA to inspect natural gas pipelines. Test flights will show whether the tech can be used for large-scale monitoring that will contribute to climate change studies.
Inspecting natural gas lines for leaks is a never-ending (and potentially dangerous) job—not for a drone though. To that end, a drone that was originally designed for testing the atmosphere on Mars is being used by NASA to inspect natural gas pipelines.
Methane is not easy to detect. And that’s putting it mildly. It’s a colorless, toxic, and by the time you can detect it (usually by smell), it’s often too late. It’s also devastating to the environment.
Developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, the Open Path Laser Spectrometer (OPLS) is able to detect methane in parts per billion by volume, and it is small enough to be installed in a quadcopter.
University of California, Merced
Currently, the OPLS-equipped drone is undergoing flight tests. The project will also carry out flight tests of fixed-wing drones, which can fly faster and farther than the copter and may be more practical in remote settings.
“These tests mark the latest chapter in the development of what we believe will eventually be a universal methane monitoring system for detecting fugitive natural-gas emissions and contributing to studies of climate change,” says Lance Christensen, OPLS principal investigator at JP
The stolen flying saucer and the secrets of Area 51
The stolen flying saucer and the secrets of Area 51
By Thea de Gallier
A 17-year-old has been arrested for stealing a model spaceship close to the most famous place on earth for alien sightings.
He was caught on CCTV at the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico.
It's believed he had two accomplices who are still on the loose.
The model was taken on 19 March and was later found in pieces just outside Roswell.
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The International UFO Museum and Research Center is not home to any real UFOs. Instead, it houses literature and memorabilia related to the infamous incident of 1947, when a military spy balloon crashed on a ranch just outside the town.
The local paper at first reported that a "flying disc" had crashed, but the air force issued a press release in response saying it was a weather balloon.
Suggestions of a cover-up didn't come until years later, when a group of UFO enthusiasts got hold of documents related to the crash, which they say prove that the object was actually a spacecraft and that alien bodies were recovered.
Image captionMajor Jesse Marcel from the Roswell Army Air Field with debris found 75 miles north west of Roswell in June 1947 - it was later proved to be military kit
A new report came out in 1994 which said the wreckage wasn't, in fact, a spaceship or a weather balloon, but US spying equipment used for picking up Russian radio signals.
Despite most of the "aliens" in the photos that appeared at the height of the conspiracy looking suspiciously like something you might find in Toys 'R' Us, the theories are still going strong.
The truth, say the hardcore believers on the darkest corners of the internet, may be found in Area 51, the secretive military base in the Nevada Desert.
Nobody knows what's really in it. But people have a lot of fun guessing. Here are some of the wilder theories.
Crashed UFOs
Some people think that the whole weather balloon/secret spyware story is nothing more than a cover story, and that what really happened when the Roswell craft crashed was that the wreckage, and the aliens that died in the crash, were taken to Area 51 and hidden.
A New York Times article from 1996 features Glenn Campbell, a man who decamped to a trailer near Area 51 to sell maps of the area to tourists, and believes the government might be hiding UFOs there.
Another common belief is that scientists and military engineers on the base examine alien technology for us to copy on Earth. Basically, Snapchat might have been invented in Space. But probably not.
Image captionBoyd Bushman holds up a photo of an alien being
Real aliens that are definitely not fake
Just before his death in 2013, a man called Boyd Bushman revealed a collection of photos of "aliens", claiming they were taking during his time working at Area 51 as an employee of Lockheed Martin, an aerospace company. But not everyone is convinced that he ever went to Area 51 or that he worked for the firm.
The aliens in the photos look very similar to a cheap plastic toy. Chris Sereda, who calls himself a "spiritual explorer", reckons the toys were placed in supermarkets by the government after the photos were released as some sort of complicated double bluff.
Image captionAn alien model on display inside the museum in Roswell
Petite pilots with abnormal heads
In Annie Jacobsen's 2011 book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, she claimed that the Roswell craft was the result of an evil plan between the Russian dictator Stalin and a Nazi surgeon.
She says the alien bodies allegedly seen by eyewitnesses after the crash were actually "human guinea pigs that appeared to be children" created as part of a Cold War plot to send the US into a panic over an alien invasion threat.
Nuclear bomb testing and spy planes
The Telegraph reported in 2013 that the CIA had finally acknowledged "strange goings on" at Area 51.
A report was released under the Freedom of Information Act, which described the area as an "Atomic Energy Commission test site", and revealed that the U-2 and Oxcart spy planes were also tested there. Jeffrey Richelson, the researcher who got hold of the documents, suggested that the numerous reported UFO sightings around the base were actually the planes.
A fake moon landing
This one's actually true. National Geographic published a list of facts about Area 51, including the revelation that astronauts tested land rovers and life support equipment at the base before their real mission to the moon.
Apparently, there was also a tennis court and a bowling alley to entertain the employees stationed there - or was it so the aliens could keep fit?
Image caption"UFOs are real" but the punctuation is paranormal
Secret railways
Area 51 isn't small - in fact, it's over 23 miles wide. But some conspiracy theorists reckon the real business happens underground.
"A few claim the underground facility has up to 40 levels and that it is attached via underground railways to other sites in Los Alamos, White Sands and Los Angeles," claims darkgovernment.com.
But no-one's ever seen large amounts of concrete and other construction material enter the site.
A gift shop
Reddit user kiver16 did an AMA with his mum's boyfriend, who claims to have been to Area 51. Instead of being concerned with the threat of alien invasion, one poster just wanted to know if they'd be able to pick up a souvenir of their trip to Nevada.
"Area 51 has a gift shop?" Asked Texas_Hog. Kiver16 confirmed that yes, it does, but it's "somewhere outside the gate [and] nothing to do with Area 51."
Could it be our friend Glenn Campbell in his caravan?
And the most elusive things on earth... are they there?
Reddit users have their own ideas about what the US government might be hiding...
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search
FRIGHTENING TRIANGLE CLOSE ENCOUNTER IN MASSACHUSETTS
MARCH 29, 2016 ……….. SOUTH HADLEY MASSACHUSETTS
Witness report: Driving towards the Village Commons in South Hadley, my friend and I could see two bright lights in the sky that kind of looked like head lights. They were just sitting in the same spot for a very long time. We could see them about a half a mile away. As we got towards the center of the village commons, it looked as though the UFO was now over us. The two lights that we had previously seen turned into three very bright lights. As we were freaking out I had climbed into the backseat of the car and stuck my head out the window. I could see the three very bright lights in a triangle shape and as I was looking at them, I could make out the circular shape of the craft. It looked very low and gigantic. Not long after it just sat above us and hovered, it started to move very fast and get far away. At this point, I needed to head home but my friend who witnessed it with me, continued to search for it after I left.
She found it again on 202 in South Hadley and followed it all the way to Memorial Drive in Chicopee. She called me freaking out saying how close she was to it and that she was going to pull over to try and capture a picture. As soon as she parked, she said she was underneath it like we were before, and then the phone started to act up. I started to lose her and eventually our call dropped. She called me back freaking out telling me she captured pictures and a video. I strongly believe that I saw a UFO tonight.
You can watch the video and decide for yourself whether or not you believe my story.
If you’re worried about little gray guys with no hair and amygdaloid eyes, Hillary Clinton wants to help. Last week, in an interview with late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel, Clinton said that she planned to follow up on inquiries made years ago by her husband, and bare what the government really knows about visiting aliens.
The principal question: Are a few such cosmic beings — or at least some of their spacecraft — under wraps at Area 51, Nevada’s creepy, cryptic military facility? Inquiring minds want to know.
Of course they do. But I doubt that Clinton can provide a satisfactory answer.
First, the back story. For decades, surveys have shown that roughly one-third of the populace will raise their hand if asked, “Do you think Earth is being visited by extraterrestrials?” That’s a hundred million Americans, and of course, some of them have political influence. When Bill Clinton was president, the wealthy philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller sponsored, and then promoted, a document that described what was called the best evidence for alien craft. He met with Bill Clinton in 1996, and encouraged him make a deep dive on the subject. Clinton tried to learn if cosmic creatures were warehoused at Area 51, but said he came up empty.
Now we have UFO redux. Hillary is being urged by her campaign manager, John Podesta, to think again. Or at least, to ask again. Podesta, who was Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff and more recently Counselor to President Obama, now chairs Hillary’s campaign. He’s long pushed for disclosure of any government information germane to the UFO question, and for over two decades has made this a minor leitmotif for the Clintons.
So what is Hillary going to do that her husband didn’t? Well, maybe nothing more than to simply look into the subject again. But, Kimmel upped the ante. What if Hillary finds that the government really does have proof of aliens?
“Well, if there is something there,” Clinton responded, “unless it’s a threat to national security, I think we ought to share it with the public.”
In other words, tell it like it is. Clinton is siding with those who clamor for “disclosure,” a code word for the government coming clean and admitting to the public what it really knows about UFOs. The thesis is simple: the question of alien presence will be settled if the feds simply open their files.
But that premise is weak. An extraordinary claim (we’re being visited) is defended with a resort to hidden information. Suppose someone tells you they’ve found a cure for cancer. Would you believe them if they also said that the crucial proof was hidden for decades by a malevolent government?
There’s also a subtle bias in the disclosure approach. The very term implies that there is something to disclose.
But what if there’s not? Things go wrong anyway. In 1970 the Air Force ended Project Blue Book - its investigation of UFOs — saying that it had found nothing of interest in the many reports it collected. Did that put claims of saucer-sailing visitors to bed? No, it merely spawned a conviction that the Air Force investigation was rigged or that the real UFO evidence was in the relatively small collection of unexplained cases.
In 2009, the British Ministry of Defence shuttered its UFO hotline. The number of reported sightings had reached two or three a day, and the burden of dealing with them was considered insupportable. The MOD said that after more than a half-century of taking hotline tips, they had learned nothing of either military or scientific value. They also released tens of thousands of related government documents. Nonetheless, you’re living in dreamland if you think that all members of the British public have now dismissed the idea that Earth is hosting extraterrestrials.
So disclosure is a mirage unless the answer is the right one. If the government’s response to Hillary’s queries is “there’s nothing at Area 51 but military aircraft,” do you really expect that those whose psyches are invested in the alien visitation story are going to buy it?
Not likely. They’re not going to hand over their swords and abandon the idea of aliens on Earth. Given the inherent problem of proving a negative, I doubt they’ll ever come to this conclusion. Ever.
And even if you don’t share my skepticism, note that Hillary’s response to Kimmel had a qualifier as obvious as a circus parade. She said that yes, she’ll share whatever information she finds “unless it’s a threat to national security.”
Even a fourth grader will realize this is a handy excuse to hold back information. Not that she necessarily would. It’s just that any statement saying that there are no alien bodies at Area 51 is immediately suspect. It won’t settle any arguments.
Clinton may just have been kidding around with Kimmel. And on the practical side, given the large number of people who believe that Earth has house guests, maybe this was just a gambit to influence some voters to favor her candidacy.
But one thing you can bet on: Area 51 and its putative store of extraterrestrial paraphernalia isn’t about to become an open book. And for the UFO folks, that might be a good thing. After all, its value isn’t that it actually houses aliens or alien artifacts, but that it might.
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Astronomers Crowdfund Effort to Recreate ‘Alien’ Signal
Astronomers Crowdfund Effort to Recreate ‘Alien’ Signal
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
For 72 seconds in 1977, the Big Ear radio telescope recorded a powerful signal streaming from the area of globular cluster M55 in Sagittarius.
To Ohio State astronomer Jerry Ehman, a SETI volunteer at the time, it seemed like the exact kind of alien message he’d been searching for. Its frequency near the hydrogen line matched a strong range that extraterrestrials might use to communicate over the vast reaches of space.
Ehman circled the signal on a printout and scrawled “Wow!”
Where’s Wow?
Despite many searches, the so-called Wow! signal was never observed again. In the intervening decades, astronomers have ruled out Earthly-origins like a passing satellite, or even nearby asteroids or planets. The lasting unsolved mystery has provided decades of fodder for science fiction writers and late-night alien TV shows.
But an astronomer at Florida’s St. Petersburg College, Antonio Paris, came up with a potential solution earlier this year that doesn’t require aliens. At the time of the Wow! signal, two Sun-orbiting comets — 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs) — were in the same area of sky. Paris believes these dirty snowballs and their hydrogen clouds could be prime suspects.
Another Chance
Luckily for him, Comet 266P/Christensen passes through the same region on January 25, 2017. And on January 07, 2018, comet P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs) will do the same.
Paris hopes to recreate the Wow! signal by aiming a dedicated radio telescope at the region. But his team at the Center for Planetary Science is a little short of cash. They’ve launched a GoFundMe page to help raise the needed funds to purchase and install a 5-meter radio telescope. So far, Paris raised $1,300 of his $12,000 goal.
To learn more about the science, you can read their journal article published in the Washington Academy of Sciences, or pitch in funds through theGoFundMe effort here.
The Solar System has been giving up its secrets to us little by little. From the earliest Stone Age astronomers to today’s Astrophysicists, we march forward in the quest for knowledge and our scientific endeavor has been richly rewarded. We have been treated to unprecedented views of our place in space and our retinue of planets.
We have seen Pluto in amazing detail, a wrongfully demoted planet in my view with 5 moons of its own with a richly varied terrain. We have seen water ice geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, discovered a slushy ocean 100 miles deep on Jupiter’s moon Europa, and witnessed an early Earth environment on Saturn’s moon Titan. These are just a few of our “greatest hits”.
For centuries though we have wondered if there could be a tenth planet out beyond Pluto. Well, the debate was actually settled back in 2005 when a tenth planet, (or ninth if you don’t believe Pluto is a planet), was indeed found. Given the unceremonious temporary name 2003 UB313, the newly-found planet is 97 astronomical units from the Sun.
An astronomical unit or AU as you may know is the distance from Earth to the Sun. In miles an AU is 93 million miles.The newly found planet is 97 times further away. At that extraordinary distance, the feeble light of the Sun takes nearly 13 HOURS to arrive.
Pluto is 40 AU away from the Sun compared to 2003 UB313 and can be seen only in the most powerful telescopes as a tiny dot of light. But Pluto’s gravitational effects on the other planets is measurable and led to its discovery. Even if only by mistake... (read on)
Taking a step back in history lets look for a moment at the discovery of the planets Neptune and Pluto.
Astronomers in the years leading up to 1846 noted that the planet Uranus was not appearing in its predicted positions based on the understanding of the Solar System at that time with consideration given for Newton’s gravitational laws.
Theories suggested that another planet, an 8th planet, was causing the perturbation noticed in the orbit of Uranus. Neptune was later found after a systematic search in the predicted location by Johann Galle at Berlin Observatory in 1846.
In the years leading up to 1905, Percival Lowell, an American Astronomer noticed that yet another object seemed to be causing both Uranus and Neptune to be perturbed in their expected orbits. Something farther out was causing it in his view. Lowell dubbed it “Planet X” and hunted for it unsuccessfully for the remainder of his life.
In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh, a man of slight stature but of incredible intellect, discovered the elusive “Planet X” using Lowell’s prediction algorithms. And thus our 9th planet was found. But interesting to note is that the prediction of Pluto’s approximate location was not based on valid data as it turns out!
Pluto’s mass was lower than predicted and the perturbation to the motions of Uranus and Neptune couldn’t possibly be explained by a planet as small as Pluto. So the discovery of Pluto in that location where Lowell predicted was actually coincidental.
What could cause the unexplained motions of Uranus and Neptune? Many astronomers came to the conclusion that there had to be other more distant objects orbiting the Sun in our Solar System. Theoretically they would have to be traveling in very elongated or eccentric orbits. Others in circular or near circular orbits.
These objects can not only explain the motions of Uranus and Neptune, but also explain why the outer Solar System far beyond Pluto look as it does. Beyond Pluto there is a collection of objects orbiting the Sun on a many thousand year orbit each.
These objects, still within the confines of our defined Solar System are called Trans-Neptunian objects or TNOs. As it turns out, there are several tens of thousands larger TNOs all out in a region known as the Kuiper Belt and many thousands more of the small ones.
The Kuiper Belt is a large band of space in the Solar System starting approximately at Neptune’s distance of 30 AU and extending perhaps out to as much as 50 AU. Within the Belt there are likely millions of comets waiting to be perturbed into the Inner Solar System.But it is the TNOs that are responsible for the misunderstood motions of the outer planets.
The existence of TNOs prompted conspiracy theorists to suggest that there is a “Planet of Doom” heading our way that will disrupt our world and perhaps destroy it. It has been given names such as Nbiru, or Planet X.
While there is no question that another Earth sized planet could lurk in deep space far out in the Kuiper Belt, it is also well known that no such objects are near the Earth presently. The force of its gravity would have belied its presence decades ago via small unexplained perturbations wrought upon the orbits of the other planets.
There haven’t been any. such perturbations that remain unexplained by TNOs. But that doesnt stop those who we refer to as “science free” from saying Nbiru exists and Earth is in imminent danger, perhaps hoping to bring some attempted future postmortem attention to themselves. I have heard every theory it seems,
There is the possibility that a larger body in the Kuiper Belt could eventually be dislodged from its orbit by a passing star or collision and begin the thousands of years trek to the Inner Solar System where it may indeed spell the end for all life on Earth.
There is even the possibility that those waiting for their “Nbiru” might receive satisfaction in the far future if such a planet-sized object is knocked out of the Kuiper belt and sent hurtling toward us. To be fair though its far more likely that an errant asteroid strike will occur long before then or that Yellowstone’s super volcano will erupt.
WAAROM VLUCHTTEN DE OORSPRONKELIJKE MARSBEWONERS? ( VIDEO )
WAAROM VLUCHTTEN DE OORSPRONKELIJKE MARSBEWONERS? ( VIDEO )
Overal op aarde zijn prehistorische afbeeldingen te vinden in grotten of op rotswanden waaruit blijkt dat de aarde getroffen is door een ramp en de bewoners haastig weg zijn gevlucht.
Nu zijn er frappante afbeeldingen ontdekt op Mars waaruit je zou kunnen afleiden dat ook de originele Marsbewoners haastig zijn gevlucht.
In 2012 schreven wij een artikel over hoe het eigenlijk heel duidelijk werd uit allerlei tekeningen van onze verre voorouders in grotten en op rotswanden dat er in het verleden dingen zijn gebeurd waardoor de bevolking niet alleen op de vlucht sloeg, maar ook nog eens naar hoger gelegen gebieden.
Nergens uit onze geschiedenisboeken kunnen wij leren wat die ramp in het verleden heeft veroorzaakt. Stel nu dat het een gebeurtenis was die te maken had met dingen buiten de aarde, dan zouden hier ook sporen van te vinden moeten zijn op andere planeten.
Wij geloven dat de gebeurtenis die onze voorouders deed vluchten naar hogergelegen gebieden alles te maken had met een eerdere passage van het Nibiru zonnestelsel.
Als dat het geval was, zouden de gevolgen daarvan ook te merken zijn geweest op naburige planeten zoals Mars.
Waar het nu op lijkt, is dat er op Mars inderdaad sporen zijn aangetroffen van rotstekeningen die overeenkomsten vertonen met die van hier op aarde. Hierna volgt een rotstekening zoals die is aangetroffen in een grot in Afrika.
En hier volgen enkele afbeelden van wat lijkt op rotstekeningen zoals die op NASA beelden op Mars zijn ontdekt. Ook hier lijkt, net zoals op aarde, sprake van wegrennende/vluchtende mensen.
Wanneer er een passage van de planeet Nibiru en metgezellen plaatsvindt, zal men daar op Mars waarschijnlijk net zoveel last van ondervinden als op aarde.
En waar de mensheid op aarde de gebeurtenissen op aarde heeft overleefd, is dat wellicht op Mars niet het geval geweest of in ieder geval zijn de gevolgen veel dramatischer geweest. Er zijn namelijk ook aanwijzingen dat er op dit moment wel degelijk nog leven op Mars is boven of onder de grond.
Onze voorouders hebben op allerlei manieren geprobeerd boodschappen die de tand des tijds konden doorstaan, door te geven voor toekomstige generaties, wij dus.
Boodschappen die laten zien dat er ooit wel degelijk iets was waarvoor zij haastig moesten vluchten naar hogergelegen gebieden, net zoals de mensen op Mars.
Navolgend nog een deel van het artikel uit 2012:
Uit de vele petrogliefen die wereldwijd zijn aangetroffen blijkt dat men bang was voor iets en dientengevolge vluchtte naar hogergelegen gebieden. Dit vinden we ook terug in de Kolbrin Bijbel.
Zo staat er in het boek Manuscripts (3:6) het volgende:
“De mensen zullen in paniek overal naartoe vluchten. Ze zullen de trompetten horen en de strijdkreet van de Verwoester en zullen hun toevlucht zoeken in de grotten op aarde. Ze zullen verlamd zijn van schrik en de moed zal uit hen stromen zoals het water uit een gebroken kruik. Ze zullen worden opgegeten door de wrekende vlam en de adem van de Verwoester”
Op de volgende foto zie je een rotstekening van mensen en dieren die wegvluchten naar de bergen. Op deze tekening vind je ook iets waar wij nu veel last van hebben: dode vissen.
Iets wat opvalt in bijna al die afbeeldingen is de spiraal en die komt keer op keer terug. Dit komen we straks ook weer tegen in de Kolbrin Bijbel.
Zo staat er in het boek Creation (4:6):
“De ster groeide uit en werd steeds helderder en was indrukwekkend om te zien. Het kreeg horens en het zong en nog nooit had iemand zoiets gezien”
Op de volgende foto zie je de man afgebeeld met horens en weer de spiraal.
Hoofdstuk 5 van het boek Manuscripts, vrij vertaald, gaat als volgt:
Vers 1.
"De Onheilsvorm, de Verwoester genaamd, werd in Egypte gezien en in alle landen daaromheen. Het had een heldere en felle kleur, het veranderde en was onstabiel. Het draaide rond zoals een spoel/spiraal zoals het water opborrelt uit een ondergrondse bron in een poel en iedereen was het erover eens dat het een angstaanjagend gezicht was. Het was niet een grote komeet of een verdwaalde ster, maar meer als een vurig object".
Vers 2.
"Haar bewegingen hoog in de lucht waren langzaam. Het kronkelde rond zoals rook dat doet en het bleef dichtbij de zon wiens gezicht het verborg. Het had een soort bloedachtige roodheid dat veranderde naarmate het haar pad vervolgde. Het veroorzaakte dood en verwoesting als het opkwam en weer onderging. Het veegde over de aarde met een grijze regen van sintels en veroorzaakte pest, hongersnood en andere kwaden. Het beet in de huid van mens en beest totdat ze bedekt waren met zweren".
Vers 3.
"De aarde trilde en had het zwaar, de heuvels en de bergen bewogen en schudden. De met zwarte rook gevulde hemelen bogen voorover naar de aarde en er bereikte een groot gehuil de oren van de levende mensen, tot hen gebracht door de vleugels van de wind. Het was de kreet van de Donkere Meester, de Meester van de Doden. Dikke vurige rookwolken gingen voor hem langs en er was afgrijselijke hagel van hete stenen en vurige kolen.
De Onheilsvorm donderde zwaar in de hemel en er schoten felle bliksemflitsen uit. De waterwegen werden op zichzelf teruggeworpen toen de grond overhelde en grote bomen werden rondgegooid en knapten af als takjes. Toen, een stem als duizend trompetten, werd gehoord boven de wildernis en voor haar brandende adem spleten de vlammen uiteen. Het hele land bewoog, de bergen smolten. De hemel zelf brulde als tienduizend leeuwen in pijn en vurige pijlen van bloed schoten her en der over haar gezicht. De aarde zwol op als brood op de haard".
Vers 4.
"Dit was het aspect van de Onheilsvorm, die de Verwoester werd genoemd, toen het verscheen in die dagen die lang vervlogen zijn. Dit is zoals het staat beschreven in de oude archieven, waarvan er nog maar weinig zijn. Er wordt gezegd dat wanneer het verschijnt in de hemelen boven de aarde, deze zal opensplijten als een noot die geroosterd wordt boven het vuur. Dan zullen de vlammen omhoogschieten door het oppervlak en deze zullen als felle vijanden op het zwarte bloed springen. Het vocht in het land is allemaal opgedroogd, de weiden en de bewoonde plaatsen zullen door de vlammen worden verzwolgen en zullen met alle bomen witte as worden".
Vers 5.
"De Onheilsvorm is als een ronddraaiende bal van vuur die kleine vurige deeltjes in haar spoor rondslingert. Het bedekt ongeveer eenvijfde van de hemel en stuurt kronkelende vingers die lijken op slangen naar de aarde. Ervoor ziet de lucht er angstaanjagend uit en dan breekt het open en uiteen. Midden op de dag is het net zo licht als ’s nachts. Het omvat heel veel vreselijke dingen.
In de oude archieven worden dingen verteld over de Verwoester. Lees ze met een plechtig hart, wetende dat de Onheilsvorm haar eigen tijd heeft en terug zal keren. Het zou dom zijn om hen zonder waarschuwing te laten gaan. Nu zeggen mensen: “Zulke dingen zijn niet voorbestemd in onze dagen”. Moge de grote God boven genadig genoeg zijn om dit toe te staan. Maar, komen zal die dag zeker en zoals in de natuur van de mens ligt, zal deze totaal onvoorbereid zijn".
De tekeningen en de Kolbrin Bijbel vertellen ons wat er eerder gebeurd is. Ook nu leven wij in een tijd van rampen en snel verslechterende omstandigheden op aarde. De aarde trilt en beeft, dieren sterven massaal, het klimaat verandert, honger en oorlog liggen op de loer. Overal ter wereld hoort men vreemde geluiden en veel mensen “voelen” dat er iets staat te gebeuren.
Negeren wij de tekenen en zeggen wij: “Zulke dingen zijn niet voorbestemd in onze dagen?”
(Noot van de redactie: de verhalen over deze Verwoester doet ons denken aan de film Prometheus. Hierin wordt door diegenen die ons creëerden, koers gezet naar de aarde met als doel haar/ons te vernietigen. De "zelfmoord" van de co-maker van deze film, Tony Scott, en de (mogelijk) besloten boodschap in zijn creatie, zouden wel eens dezelfde grondslag kunnen hebben als wat de verzen hierboven ons vertellen.)
A man from Las Vegas, Nevada has caught on camera a bright orb UFO that moves without a sound over mountains near his neighborhood. The UFO reportedly landed at the mountain’s base close to the home of the witness.
Steven Barone uploaded the video, which shows the UFO, to YouTube on March 19, 2016. According to the witness’ account, the UFO on the video was less than two miles from his home when he started recording it.
He managed to record the UFO as it drifted closer to his home. The witness was certain it was not a helicopter or an airplane because it was a bright, glowing orb without structures or engine sounds of known aerial vehicles.
He continued recording the UFO until it went down and eventually landed on the ground close to the mountain. The light of the UFO went off as it approached closer to the ground but still visible on the camera lens as it descended to the base of the mountain because of the moonlight.
Although the witness lost visual of the glowing orb after it landed at the base of the mountain, he continued to observe it until it took off after several minutes on the ground. Barone saw the mysterious aerial thing briefly before it returned to the ground and disappeared again.
The unidentified flying object rose into the air once more after several minutes. As it rose higher, the witness observed two UFOs, this time, flying side-by-side. He watched them until they disappeared into the night. Barone claimed that it wasn’t the first time he saw such mysterious thing over the mountains near his neighborhood in Las Vegas, but it was the first time he encountered a UFO incident that close to his home.
(Illustration, courtesy of Agent D and Agent K of Special Investigative Reports: Part 1: Area 51 and S-4)….Please see their link next to the video on S-4)
Except for some strong imagination, such as this illustration above, THERE IS NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER FOR BOB LAZAR’S ALLEGED S-4 FACILITY BY PAPOOSE LAKE.
Everybody knows that in 1989, with the arrival of Bob Lazar, Area 51 became the ‘de-facto’ alien base story to the believers.
However, Bob Lazar never claimed he worked at Area 51. His claim was that he worked temporarily at a facility he called S-4, allegedly 10 miles south of Area 51, byPapoose Lake. In other words he claimed he worked at S-4, only via Area 51.
Yet, the illusive S-4 (Site 4) is nowhere to be found by Papoose Lake, south of Area 51 except in a “modified” air chart originating from John Lear:
In Nevada, the only recognized Site 4 is in the Electronic Combat Ranges of Tonopah Test Range, Nevada:
In Southern California there is a Site 4 (Northrop Grumman) at the Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale where the B-2A was in development and construction. (Presently operated by Lockheed and Boeing for JSF program):
For those who are into science fiction, here is a short video about the imaginary S-4by Papoose Lake:
1988 and 1989 may have been the beginning of some intentional disinformation campaign launched by part of the DOD/Aerospace industry.
The basis for all this may have been the development of better stealth coating technologies than in the previous years, with the use of better composite materials. It seems to me that the U.S. made certain that none of these technologies went into Russian (as well as Chinese) hands.
It is quite possible that a “laughter curtain” was created linking Are 51 to “aliens” and “alien technologies” as a convenient “cover story”. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING STORY:
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Did Hobbits Live Alongside Modern Humans?
Did Hobbits Live Alongside Modern Humans?
by Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor
A team of researchers prepares for more recent archaeological excavations in the limestone cave called Liang Bua, on the Indonesian island of Flores. Credit: Smithsonian Digitization Program Office / Liang Bua Team
The extinct human lineage nicknamed "the hobbit" for its miniature body may have vanished soon before or soon after modern humans arrived on the hobbits' island home, rather than living alongside modern humans for thousands of years as was previously thought, researchers say.
By using new techniques to date hobbit skeletons and the sediment where they were buried, researchers determined that the "hobbit" species, Homo floresiensis, likely vanished earlier than prior estimates had suggested. Even so, the scientists aren't sure whether modern humans had anything to do with the extinction of the hobbits.
"Homo floresiensis reminds us that human diversity was far greater in the past than it is today," said study co-lead author Matthew Tocheri, a paleoanthropologist at Lakehead University in Ontario. "There were lots of different kinds of hominin species, and some of them shared this planet at the same time as us. But all of these other hominins have gone extinct, and we modern humans are the only ones left. We need to better understand why they went extinct and we survived in order to make better decisions as a species for how we take care of our planet and each other for the future." [See Images of Hobbit Skeleton and the New Excavations]
Dating hobbit fossils
The first hobbit fossils were found in 2003 in Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. Scientists weren't sure what species the fossils belonged to, but they found that the individuals were equippedwith grapefruit-size brains and would have stood just 3 feet (1 meter) tall — hence the "hobbit" moniker. Examination of the fossils suggested that Homo floresiensisbelonged to a unique branch of the human lineage.
But a question remained: Did these hobbits live with their bigger-bodied relatives? Prior work suggested that the sediments in which the hobbit fossils were found were about 12,000 to 95,000 years old. The unexpectedly young ages of the fossils suggested that the hobbits may have survived until long after modern humans reached Australia — and likely other nearby Indonesian islands — about 50,000 years ago.
"This long period of potential overlap was always a puzzle to us, as extinctions seem to follow hot on the heels of modern humans when they arrive somewhere new," said study co-author Richard "Bert" Roberts, a geochronologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia.
Mixing sediment layers
From 2007 to 2014, Tocheri, Roberts and their colleagues conducted new excavations in Liang Bua cave. They found that hobbits used this cave between 190,000 and 50,000 years ago — not until as recently as about 12,000 years ago, which had been suggested previously.
Archaeological excavations at Liang Bua can reach depths of more than 26 feet (8 meters). Credit: Liang Bua Team
"There was no lengthy period of overlap between the two species, as far as we can determine," Roberts told Live Science. "In fact, we don't even know if they overlapped at all."
The researchers exposed parts of Liang Bua cave not seen in the original excavations, revealing that layers of sediment in the cave are not deposited evenly.
"Liang Bua is an amazing site, and incredibly complex, too," study co-lead author Thomas Sutikna, an archaeologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia, told Live Science. "Every year we return to excavate, we learn something we didn't know or realize before." [Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans]
The researchers discovered that the sediment deposits in which the hobbits were found were actually similar in age to ones near the center of Liang Bua cave that the researchers dated as about 74,000 years old. The hobbit deposits were later covered by much younger deposits during the past 20,000 years, making them appear younger than they were.
"Our new excavations and analyses show that the skeletal remains ofHomo floresiensis at Liang Bua are between approximately 100,000 and 60,000 years old, while stone artifacts reasonably attributable to this species range from about 190,000 to 50,000 years old," Tocheri said.
Giant storks, pygmy elephants and dragons
The hobbit was not the only species that suddenly disappeared from the Liang Bua deposits about 50,000 years ago. Vultures, giant marabou storks, Komodo dragons and pygmy Stegodon — an extinct relative of elephants — vanished from the area at about the same time as the hobbit. Possible reasons for this mass extinction include not only the arrival of modern humans, but also volcanic eruptions and climatic shifts, Tocheri said. "More research is clearly needed to document what exactly happened," Tocheri said.
Archaeologists excavate sediment deposits dating to the Holocene (the last 11,700 years of Earth's history) in the Liang Bua cave. Credit: Liang Bua Team
Tocheri noted that the pygmy Stegodon was the only large-bodied herbivore known to live on Flores when the hobbit was alive, "and it was clearly a primary food source for Homo floresiensis, vultures, giant marabou storks and Komodo dragons. If something happened to cause the pygmy Stegodon population to crash," he said, "then it more than likely would have had an adverse effect on these other species." (Previous research suggested that these giant carnivorous storks snacked on hobbits.)
It remains an open question whether hobbits and modern humans ever lived alongside each other.
"The earliest known evidence of modern humans on Flores is from about 11,000 years ago and after, but we do know that modern humans were on other islands in the region around this time and had reached Australia by about 50,000 years ago," Roberts said. "At least for Australia, the weight of evidence points to humans playing a decisive role in the extinction of the giant endemic animals — the 'megafauna' — that once roamed the continent."
Roberts added, "So was Homo floresiensis another casualty of the spread of our species? This is certainly a possibility that we take seriously, but solid evidence is needed in order to demonstrate it. One thing we can be certain of — it will definitely be a major focus of further research."
Take that, Jupiter! The largest planet in the solar system just got whacked by an asteroid or a comet, and some intrepid stargazers have captured the planet's latest collision on camera.
The flash from a new impact on Jupiter (arrow) is seen in this still from a video taken through a telescope by amateur astronomer John McKeon of Swords, Ireland on March 17, 2016.
Credit: John McKeon
Amateur astronomer John McKeon was observing the king of planets by telescope from Swords, Ireland, on March 17 when he captured this stunning time-lapse video of something hitting Jupiter. McKeon was recording the transit of Jupiter's moons Io and Ganymede with an 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and his ASI120mm camera when something struck Jupiter, and he struck cosmic pay dirt.
"The original purpose of the imaging session was to get this time-lapse, with a happy coincidence of the impact in the second, last capture of the night," McKeon wrote in a YouTube video description.
While it's still too early to know exact details on the Jupiter crash, NASA asteroid expert Paul Chodas, who heads the agency's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said there's greater chance that an asteroid, not comet, is the culprit.
"It's more likely to be an asteroid simply because there are more of them," Chodas told Space.com by phone.
It's not yet clear what hit Jupiter, but the impact was also captured by at least one other amateur astronomer — Gerrit Kernbauer of Mödling, Austria — according to Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait, who posted Kernbauer's YouTube video of the impact. According to Plait, the impact occurred at 00:18 GMT, or just after midnight, on March 17.
Kernbauer used a Skywatcher Newton 200/1000 Telescope to capture the Jupiter impact video, which you can see here:
"The seeing was not the best, so I hesitated to process the videos," he wrote in his video description. "Nevertheless, 10 days later I looked through the videos and I found this strange light spot that appeared for less than one second on the edge of the planetary disc. Thinking back to Shoemaker-Levy 9, my only explanation for this is an asteroid or comet that enters Jupiter's high atmosphere and burned up/explode very fast [sic]."
Another view of the bright impact flash on Jupiter (right side of planet), as seen by amateur astronomer John McKeon of Swords, Ireland, is seen in this still from a video captured through a telescope on March 17, 2016.
"From our point of view this simply serves to remind us that impacts in the solar system are real and Jupiter gets more than its fair share of impacts," said Chodas said. "It draws in a lot of asteroids and comets. We are seeing these impact flashes on Jupiter about once a year now, and that’s I believe because of instrumentation."
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in July 1994 created dark clouds on Jupiter, visible even in small telescopes.
Credit: NASA/ESA
While astronomers watched comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's Jupiter crash from Earth, NASA's Galileo spacecraft — which was en route Jupiter at the time — captured stunning images of the collision. The Hubble Space Telescope recorded views of the impacts in different wavelengths, while NASA used its Deep Space Network to track radio disturbances in Jupiter's radiation belt.
Then it happened in again.
On July 19, 2009, Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley noticed a dark spot near Jupiter's southern pole: the telltale bruise from an impact, likely from a rogue asteroid about 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide. It was roughly the size of the ill-fated Titanic cruise ship.
A year later, on June 3, 2010, it happened yet again. This impact was also spotted by Wesley in Australia, as well as by fellow Jupiter-watcher Christopher Go in the Philippines.
The photos from the recent Jupiter impacts show how the planet is under constant surveillance by some die-hard amateur astronomers. "Better and better instruments means Jupiter is being monitored, even by amateur astronomers, much more than it was in the past," Chodas said.
And the planet is about to get another visitor, this one from NASA.
On July 4 of this year, NASA's Juno spacecraft will arrive in orbit around Jupiter to pick up where the Galileo mission (which ended in 2003) left off. The $1.1 billion Juno mission launched in 2011 and is expected to spend at least a year mapping Jupiter in amazing detail.
Editor's note:If you captured a stunning photo of the March 17 impact on Jupiter and you'd like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a story or gallery, send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
This story was updated at 6:10 p.m. ET to include new details from NASA asteroid expert Paul Chodas.
22 Ridiculously Cool Rare Natural Phenomena That Happen on Earth
22 Ridiculously Cool Rare Natural Phenomena That Happen on Earth
Events that are so rare and beautiful that they may seem unbelievable at first but they do happen..for real.
1. Bioluminescence
www.philhart.com
www.solentnews.co.uk
www.philhart.com
The spooky light is created by a chemical reaction called “bioluminescence”, which happens when tiny organisms in the water are disturbed. The photographer put his camera on a very slow shutter speed and threw sand and stones into the water to cause the reaction and capture as much of the blue haze as possible.
2. Supercells
www.someinterestingfacts.net
A supercell is basically a stronger, more tornado-enabled version of a regular storm cell. This is because—much like tornadoes—supercells have the tendency to spin around a lot, but also—and more importantly—because supercells can actually create tornadoes.
3. Volcanic Lightning
www.listverse.com
This cool picture depicts a lightning storm that takes place in the middle of a volcanic eruption. Scientists aren’t 100% sure why this happens, but the primary theory goes that when a volcano erupts, it projects positively-charged debris into the atmosphere. These charges then react with negative charges already present, which results in 1) a bolt of lightning, and 2) a really cool picture.
4. Snow Donuts
www.npr.org
These rare shapes are formed—under perfect temperature conditions only—when a mass of snow either falls or is blown by the wind. If it manages to catch on to some other snow, and gravity or the wind is in its favor, then the new snowball will roll itself in the exact same way we all used to. In this case, though, the middles tend to collapse to create a donut shape, which can end up as tall as 26 inches (66 cm).
5. Fire Rainbows
www.listverse.com
These colorful offshoots are a large halo of refracted light, and despite their nickname, they have nothing to do with either fire or rainbows. They only occur when the sun is at least 58 degrees above the horizon, when there are cirrus clouds in the sky that are filled with plate-shaped ice crystals. The refraction of light is always parallel to the horizon, and because the arcs are so big, only sections of them are ever commonly seen—which is why it can look like certain patches of cloud are on fire
6. Lenticular Clouds
www.en.wikipedia.org
www.bbc.co.uk
www.crystalinks.com
They are stationary lens-shaped and sometimes multi-layered clouds that form at high altitudes. They are formed when moist air is forced to flow upward around mountain tops. Due to their shape, they have been offered as an explanation for some UFO sightings.
7. Auroras
www.travelization.net
Auroras or polar lights are mesmerizing natural light display in the skies of high latitude regions. They are caused when energetic electrically charged particles from solar wind accelerate along the magnetic field lines into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with gas atoms, causing the atoms to give off light. The auroral zone is typically 10° to 20° from the magnetic poles.
8. Fire Whirls
www.quora.com
The fire whirls, fire devil or fire tornado, is a rare natural phenomenon that occurs when a fire, combined by certain air temperature and currents, forms a whirl that rises into the air like a tornado. They can be actual whirlwinds that disengage from the flames, or else can become a vortex of flame. The fire whirl usually occurs during bush fires.
9. Finnish Lapland
www.nownews.com
The picture was taken last winter in Finnish Lapland where weather can include sub-freezing temperatures and driving snow. Surreal landscapes sometimes result, where common trees become cloaked in white and so appear, to some, as watchful aliens or bizarre statues.
10. Sun Dogs
www.en.wikipedia.org
They are massive halos in the sky as a result of light refraction—though in this case, they appear to actually encircle the sun. Sun dogs can be recognized by the two distinctive bright spots on either side of the halo—if these blips are bright enough, it can even look like there are three suns in the sky, all side by side. And the good news is that this happens all the time, all over the world, so you’ll be able to start seeing them if you look closely enough (especially when the sun is low in the sky).
11. Skypunch
www.pinterest.com
A fallstreak hole, also known as a punch hole cloud, is a large circular or elliptical gap, that can appear in cirrocumulous or altocumulous clouds. Such holes are formed when the water temperature in the clouds is below freezing but the water has not frozen yet due to the lack of icenucleation particles. When ice crystals do form it will set off a domino effect, due to the Bergeon process, causing the water droplets around the crystals to evaporate: this leaves a large, often circular, hole in the cloud
12. Frost Flowers
www.en.wikipedia.org
They’re buildups of ice particles around the base of certain plants and types of wood. When the temperature outside the plant is below freezing and the temperature within them is not, then water is pulled to the surface in a process similar to transpiration. This leads to a fragile chain of ice being pushed outward, which ends up forming sprawling, delicate formations.
13. Columnar Basalt
www.listverse.com
The unique formations are a result of lava flows cracking as they cool, in a perpendicular direction to the original flow. Columnar basalt clusters can be found all over the world—and then, naturally, climbed.
14. Penitentes
www.humanunderconstruction.blogspot.com
www.en.wikipedia.org
These spiky fields of ice are called penitentes, and each individual shard can be up to a whopping 4 m high. These intimidating snow structures are formed in high-altitude areas with low humidity, such as the glaciers of the Andes mountains. If the conditions are right, the sun’s rays are so hot that they can actually sublimate fields of snow—meaning that the frozen water vaporizes without ever becoming a liquid. This leads to slight pockets in the ice, which—thanks to their shape—actually end up attracting even more heat.
15. Light Poles
www.hybridtechcar.com
www.planete-revelations.com
This phenomenon is known as ‘light poles’ and it can be seen at nights over the large cities with different colored lights. They can only be seen during very cold weather (the temperature of -20 Celsius degrees or lower is required). Also the wind must not blow fast and there has to be a plenty of tiny ice crystals in the atmosphere.
16. Morning Glory Clouds
www.quora.com
Morning Glory clouds are very rare types of clouds. They can stretch 1,000 kilometers long and occur at altitudes of up to 2 km. Although similar clouds are seen in many places worldwide, the ones over Burketown, Queensland in Australia occur predictably every spring. These tubes and the surrounding air can cause dangerous turbulence for airplanes when clear.
17. Waterspouts
www.apod.nasa.gov
www.letsbewild.com
They’re tornadoes that form over water. Because of this, they don’t pose a major threat unless you happen to be in a boat—but if you are, then watch out, because these things can achieve speeds of up to 305 km per hour. In fact, it’s been speculated that many mysterious shipwrecks—such as those within the Bermuda Triangle—are simply a result of bad luck with waterspouts.
18. Mammatus Clouds
www.indiaonrent.com
Mammatus clouds are cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud. They are formed in sinking air contrary to any other form of clouds that are formed in rising air. There are various hypotheses offered behind the mechanism of its formation.
19. The Hessdalen Light
www.quora.com
Hessdalen Light is an unexplained light phenomenon that occurs in Hessdalen valley of Norway. They were observed over 15 to 20 times per week from 1982 until 1984. Since then, the activity has decreased and now the lights are observed about 10 to 20 times per year.
20. Brinicles
www.listverse.com
When the surface of the sea freezes—such as around the north and south poles—it does so in a way that forces pockets of especially cold and salty seawater to gather on the underside of the ice. This mixture of brine is denser than the seawater below it, and as a result it tends to slowly sink to the bottom. Now, because it’s so cold, the fresher water below the brine actually freezes around it as it falls, which results in a giant icicle under the surface.
21. Earthquake Lights
www.youtube.com
Earthquake lights are unusual luminous atmospheric phenomenon. They are usually reportedly in areas of high seismic activity or volcanic eruptions. They were believed to be myths until they were photographed in 1965 during the Matsushiro earthquake of Japan. It was then that seismologists worldwide accepted of their existence. Earthquake lights are caused by an unknown mechanism. They are either white, blue or multi-spectrum.
22. Ball Lightning
www.library.thinkquest.org
www.csironewsblog.com
Ball lightning is an unexplained atmospheric electrical phenomenon. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter. It is usually associated with thunderstorms, but lasts considerably longer than the split-second flash of a lightning bolt. Many of the early reports say that the ball eventually explodes, sometimes with fatal consequences, leaving behind the odor of sulfur.
Following a report by a witness from Wilmington in Delaware to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) that he sighted and filmed a mysterious pulsating, multicolored, and square-shaped UFO that flew low in the sky, some UFO investigators have pointed out that sightings of square- and related cube-shaped UFOs are very rare indeed and that the latest sighting could have special significance. Some members of the UFO community have also said that square- and cube-shaped UFO sightings are not to be taken lightly because they are often portents and harbingers of evil.
According to the witness of the latest rare sighting in a testimony filed as Case 71063 in the archives of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) — a non-profit organization that documents and investigates claimed sightings of UFOs across the world — the witness and his wife had just left a birthday party in a suburban area of Wilmington on April 15, 2015, and were walking towards their parked car when he looked up and noticed a bright pulsating source of light in the sky.
The light, which appeared above the tree line, was multicolored, according to the witness. It changed color from blue to white and red to orange. The witness said the UFO may have changed colors by rotating its structure. This suggests the UFO may have been a cube.
According to the witness, “As I walked toward my automobile, parked along the street, I noticed a bright and pulsating light to my left about one mile away and at about 40 degrees above the tree line.”
“The object was pulsating and changing color from blue to white to red to orange in a pattern that made it seem to be rotating,” the witness continued.
“The object was pulsating and changing color… in a pattern that made it seem to be rotating.”
The UFO, according to the witness, was moving away from his position. He called his wife’s attention to the mysterious object in the sky.
“It moved slowly with no deviation from its course and moved away from my position toward the north,” the witness added. “I had no idea what this object was and called it to my wife’s attention. I told her that I thought it was a UFO.”
Both witnesses had no idea what the object was, so the reporting witness decided to film it. He was able to film the UFO briefly using his wife’s cell phone.
“I was excited by the object’s presence and immediately ask my wife for her cell phone,” he told MUFON.
“I was able to activate the camera and filmed the object for a brief time. I was only able to magnify the picture near the middle of the sighting and the video is at some points shaky,” he said.
The UFO continued to move away from the witness’s position as he filmed it. The mysterious object eventually disappeared from sight beyond the horizon.
The video (see above) shows the UFO flying in the night sky. It appears as a point source of light at first but after the witness zooms in it appears as a square-shaped source of light in the sky.
Viewers have acknowledged that it is difficult to guess what the UFO might have been, but according to some viewers, it could have been a balloon or a drone.
However, some viewers have commented that the multiple colors of the UFO and the impression that it may have been displaying various colors by rotating suggests it was a cube UFO rather than a square-shaped UFO.
Compared with orb, triangle, and cigar-shaped UFOs, reports of sightings of square-shaped or related cube-shaped UFOs are so rare that occasional reports are often invested with special occult significance by members of the UFO community. Many in the paranormal UFO community view the square and cube shapes as symbols of evil. And strangely, a disproportionate number of sightings of square- and cube-shaped UFOs have been reported in Texas.
The last major reported sighting of a square-shaped UFO was in June 2014 by a witness in Austin, Texas, who reported to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) that he sighted a square-shaped UFO with four lights. According to the witness, in a report filed as Case 57373 in MUFON’s reporting database, the mysterious low-flying UFO had four lights and emitted a continuous low humming sound.
The four lights of the UFO were also of different colors, two red and two yellow.
“There was very little space between the lights, giving the appearance of a compact square,” the witness said.
But with regard to the latest square-shaped UFO sighting, suggestions that it may have been a cube recalls a viral video by UFO hunter Secureteam10 that purported to show a black cube UFO spotted just after midday and filmed over El Paso in Texas in June 2015. The appearance of the alleged black cube UFO had been preceded by “jet black” swirling clouds after it got rather windy.
According to Secureteam10, the swirling black clouds were an “inter-dimensional wormhole.”
And soon, a “massive” cube-shaped UFO emerged from the alleged “inter-dimensional worm-hole manifestation.”
“I am personally at a loss for words because this thing is mind-blowing,” the video narrator, Tyler Glockner, said. “We do not know what it is — is it a craft or an entity from another dimension, is it a probe sent here from a higher intelligence in another galaxy?”
While online debunkers, such as Doubtful News, rushed to declare the footage a hoax, UFO believers argued that because cube-shaped UFOs are very rare, the manifestation of the cube UFO through a “wormhole” was a significant event.
Many concluded that the cube-shaped UFO was a harbinger of evil or the culmination of a hologram R&D research project by the government ahead of the inauguration of the evil Antichrist-led New World Order regime. Some argued that its emergence from a “worm-hole” suggested it could be a scout ship from another dimension arriving ahead of a full-fledged alien invasion of Earth.
The tendency to view sightings of square- or cube-shaped UFOs as harbingers of evil arises from the belief among paranormal UFO investigators that the cube is an occult symbol of the Devil.
Amateur astronomers have captured on camera the moment that an object crashed into Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. Judging from the flash of light recorded by amateur astronomers on March 17, 2016, from a distance of more than 600 million kilometers, astronomers say the object caused a powerful explosion. But while astronomers believe the flash of light was caused by an asteroid or a comet impact, some UFO enthusiasts have declared it was caused by an alien UFO mothership that crashed into the Jovian atmosphere.
The impact event on March 17, 2016, was spotted by amateur astronomer John McKeon of Swords, Ireland, who was able to capture an impressive time-lapse of the impact flash through a telescope.
According to Space.com, McKeon was observing Jupiter through a telescope from Swords in Ireland, and as he filmed the transit of Jupiter’s moons, Io and Ganymede, with an 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an ASI120mm camera, he noticed a momentary flash of light that suggested something had crashed into the Jovian atmosphere.
According to the amateur astronomer in the description of the time-lapse he captured and uploaded to YouTube on March 29, 2016, “The original purpose of the imaging session was to get this time-lapse, with a happy coincidence of the impact in the second last capture of the night.”
Although astronomers have not confirmed what hit Jupiter, they are certain it is not an “alien UFO mothership,” as some conspiracy theorists have suggested, but possibly a comet or an asteroid that got too close to the planet and got pulled in by the planet’s powerful gravitational field.
Astronomer Phil Plait commented on Slate’sBad Astronomy blog that the object couldn’t have been very large. He estimated its size at about a few hundred feet and explained that it generated a massive explosion seen on a telescope more than 600 million kilometers away only because Jupiter has a “ferocious” gravitational pull that accelerates incoming objects tremendously and causes incoming objects to release a huge amount of kinetic energy on impact with the planet’s atmosphere.
Planet Jupiter image taken by Hubble Space telescope [Image via NASA/Wikimedia Commons]
The tremendous acceleration due to gravity means that an object hits the Jovian atmosphere like a rock slamming into a brick wall at great speed. The friction generates heat that triggers a massive explosion observed as a mere flash of light through telescopes on Earth.
“[An incoming object hits] Jupiter with roughly five times the velocity it hits Earth, so its impact energy is 25 times as high.”
Paul Chodas, who manages NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told Space.com that it was likely an asteroid that crashed into Jupiter because as far as NASA astronomers have been able to confirm, there are far more asteroids in our solar system than comets and alien UFO motherships.
“It’s more likely to be an asteroid simply because there are more of them.”
The impact event was captured independently on camera (see YouTube below) by another amateur astronomer from Mödling in Austria.
According to Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait, Gerrit Kernbauer captured a video of the impact event at 00:18:33 UTC on March 17 using a 20-cm telescope. The Austrian’s recording of the brief flash of light ruled out the possibility that Mckeon’s flash of light was an artifact of instrumentation, such as a reflection inside the telescope.
Phil Plait posted Kernbauer’s video of the event to YouTube (see below). The video shows three moons of Jupiter, Europa, Ganymede, and Io. The impact flash appears briefly on the upper right edge of Jupiter’s disc.
Kernbauer explained that he filmed the event using a Skywatcher Newton 200/1000 Telescope. He had apparently also been observing the transit of Jupiter’s moons but was not satisfied with the quality of the images he obtained and thus had not planned to process them until he noticed the flash of light while reviewing the images several days later.
Recalling the famous 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact events, it occurred to him that he may have capture an asteroid or comet impact event.
The Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact events, which occurred between July 16-22 in 1994, were observed through telescopes by astronomers on Earth as a series of light flashes caused by fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slamming into Jupiter. NASA’s Galileo spacecraft approaching Jupiter at the time and the Hubble Space Telescope in low Earth orbit also captured images of the collision.
According to Space.com, dark spots on Jupiter caused by the impacts were visible even through small telescopes.
An Australian amateur astronomer, Anthony Wesley, noticed similar dark spots near Jupiter’s south pole on July 19, 2009, indicating a new impact from an object estimated at about 1,600 feet (500 meters). He noticed another dark spot on June 3, 2010.
On August 20, Masayuki Tachikawa, a Japanese sky watcher, noticed a flash from an impact. On September 12, 2012, Dan Peterson in Racine, Wisconsin, spotted yet another.
According to Chodas, frequent observations of impact flashes on Jupiter alert us to the fact that although the Earth has been spared major impact events in recent years, they are happening regularly in our solar system.
Impact events occur with greater regularity on Jupiter because the planet’s size and massiveness make it a bigger target, and its gravitational pull draws more space objects. We are also witnessing more impact events on Jupiter from Earth due to improved instrumentation.
Is Humanity espousing existence of UFOs? – Elizabeth Tech Day
Is Humanity espousing existence of UFOs? – Elizabeth Tech Day
Michio Kaku (born January 24, 1947) is an American futurist, theoretical physicist and popularizer of science, says is “bound to set the gold standard for UFO research.”
UFOs existence is oblivious
My own thoughts include, what if “they” aren’t (all) from another planet? Even today we have people living at fairly advanced levels, technology-wise, while others remain in the Brazilian rainforest in the Stone Age, seemingly oblivious to our existence. Perhaps they’ve been here for a very long time, and we ourselves are almost oblivious to their existence?
U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly posted a photo overlooking South India on Sunday, Nov. 15. The Twitter photo, showing off a spectacular view of the world from above, immediately became viral as science buffs and UFO enthusiasts spotted a glowing, metallic and cigar-shaped object in its upper right portion.
The 51-year-old astronaut is fond of posting photos on his Twitter page to share his view from the International Space Station. Up to date, the photo currently has 5,000 retweets and more than 8,500 likes.
It didn’t take long for people to spot something odd in the image
In the right upper corner, it appears there is a long object that seems to have lights on either end. UFO enthusiasts quickly jumped on the image, as well as Kelly’s good night wishes, as proof of alien life.
An apparent ‘object’ in the top right hand corner of the image has piqued the interest of UFO hunters such as sonofmabarker. “In the upper right of the photo you can clearly see a large object with two lights on each end. It also appears to be very large and constructed,” he wrote, in a post accompanying a YouTube video on the image.
“Scott Kelly likes to send out photos of the view from the windows of the space station…and they look cool. This one however has a cigar shaped glowing UFO with a metallic body in it. The UFO is about 25 meters long and 150-200 meters away,” wrote Scott Waring of ufosightingsdaily.com.
“It looks like Scott was trying to hint at the existence of aliens. Message received Scott, and thanks,” he added.
The image spread quickly on line, complete with a video from other UFO hunters.
In a blog post on the UFO Sightings Daily website, Scott Waring also weighed in on the image. “Scott Kelly likes to send out photos of the view from the windows of the space station … and they look cool,” he wrote. “This one however has a cigar shaped glowing UFO with a metallic body in it.”
It didn’t take long for people to spot something odd in the image. In the right upper corner, it appears there is a long object that seems to have lights on either end. UFO enthusiasts quickly jumped on the image, as well as Kelly’s good night wishes, as proof of alien life.
“Scott Kelly likes to send out photos of the view from the windows of the space station…and they look cool. This one however has a cigar shaped glowing UFO with a metallic body in it. The UFO is about 25 meters long and 150-200 meters away,” wrote Scott Waring of ufosightingsdaily.com.
“It looks like Scott was trying to hint at the existence of aliens. Message received Scott, and thanks,” he added.
Waring notes that that the mysterious object is about 82 feet long and between 492 and 981 feet away. “It looks like Scott was trying to hint at the existence of aliens. Message received Scott, and thanks.” he added.
Some contend the image is part of a Space Station window and is visible in several of Kelly’s other images. Others said the object is reflection of ISS lights.
The object, of course, may be a reflection in the Space Station’s window, or even a piece of space debris
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, for example, recently warned that too little is being done to remove debris from space,
Yes, according to some hoping to find out if the truth is really out there, Kelly stumbled upon “E.T.” heading home.
In the upper right hand corner of the image, which shows a twinkling Indian peninsula below, two small beams that look a lot like headlights in space shine brighter than the surrounding stars against the black backdrop of space.
So, is it a UFO? Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku is skeptical
“Well, I tell my friends who claim to be abducted by a flying saucer, ‘If you’re in a flying saucer, steal something,'” he told CBS News jokingly. “I don’t care what it is, a pen, a paperweight, anything, so you have bragging rights after you leave the flying saucer, otherwise, you’re empty-handed.”
On the Internet, Kelly’s post became something of an online Rorschach test — what it shows depends on how the viewer perceives it.
Scott Waring, an editor of a blog called ufosightingsdaily.com, wrote that “when an astronaut tweets a photo of a UFO, you can bet people notice it.”
“Scott Kelly likes to send out photos of the view from the windows of the space station…and they look cool,” he wrote. “This one however has a cigar shaped glowing UFO with a metallic body in it. The UFO is about 25 meters long and 150-200 meters away. It looks like Scott was trying to hint at the existence of aliens. Message received Scott, and thanks.”
Kaku suggested the image might be nothing more than a smudge.
“Eyewitness accounts are not enough, even a photograph could be a smudge. It could be a reflection off someone’s windshield, or it could be almost anything,” he added. “That’s why we want something tangible — an alien chip, alien DNA — then the debate is over.”
An object that appears in the right hand corner of an image tweeted by Kelly Thursday is also generating buzz.
NASA hasn’t commented on what the object could be. However, even if Kelly didn’t get proof that something IS out there, he’s still making history. As of Friday, he’s been in space for 237 days, giving him the record for the most total cumulative time spent in space. He’s scheduled to be on the Space Station for a total of 342 days
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Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft breaks solar power distance record
Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft breaks solar power distance record
Technicians work on one of the Juno spacecraft’s three solar panels before launch. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC
NASA’s Juno spacecraft bound for a rendezvous with Jupiter in July has set a record as the most distant solar-powered space probe ever flown.
Juno broke the record previously held by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft Jan. 13 as it flew about 493 million miles (793 million kilometers) from the sun, NASA said in a press release announcing the milestone.
When it enters orbit around Jupiter on July 4, the Juno spacecraft will become the first solar-powered mission to reach the gas giant, beginning 20 months of commissioning and science observations aimed at studying the structure of the planet’s interior and atmosphere.
Juno carries three large solar panels, each one 9 feet wide and 29 feet long, to generate electricity.
Shortly after the mission’s launch in 2011, the solar power system could convert sunlight into 14 kilowatts of energy. When Juno reaches Jupiter, which orbits five times farther from the sun than Earth, the spacecraft must operate on 500 watts.
Half of Juno’s electricity budget goes to its thermal system to keep the spacecraft at a comfortable temperature. The balance goes toward communications, computers, propulsion and operating the probe’s seven scientific instruments and color camera.
All eight probes that previously explored the realm of the solar system now occupied by Juno relied on nuclear power sources, but the U.S. government’s stockpile of space-grade plutonium was diminishing when engineers designed Juno, prompting a decision to build three huge solar panels for the spacecraft.
Juno’s solar panels are arranged in a triangular shape in space. All together, the panels have an area of about 635 square feet, larger than most studio apartments.
Juno’s solar panels consist of 18,698 individual cells, each measuring approximately 3.7 inches by 2.25 inches. The rectangular cells are made of silicon and gallium arsenide.
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A rocket firing will steer the Juno spacecraft into a polar orbit around Jupiter, kicking off about 20 months of science observations comprising more than 30 laps around the huge gas giant.
Juno will initially be captured in a long, egg-shaped orbit that takes 53.5 days to complete one trip around Jupiter. A follow-up maneuver in October will reduce the high point of Juno’s orbit, moving it closer to the planet to allow the craft to complete one lap every 14 days.
That is a change from Juno’s original flight plan, which called for the probe to first go into a 107-day orbit, then switch to an 11-day orbit.
Scientists say the new plan allows Juno to complete a first look at meeting the mission’s science goals, which are centered on Jupiter’s interior, atmosphere and magnetic field, in shorter time than previously anticipated. But it means Juno will need 20 months, five months longer than originally planned, to collect the mission’s full data set.
Besides the challenges imposed by the distance from the sun to Jupiter, engineers had to account for the harsh radiation environment around the giant planet.
Engineers conducted extra testing before Juno’s launch to ensure the solar cells, computers and wiring in the spacecraft’s power and control system can endure Jupiter’s doughnut-shaped radiation belts as it passes as close as 3,100 miles over the planet’s cloud tops, closer than any mission before.
Juno will encounter radiation equivalent to receiving 100 million dental X-rays during its mission at Jupiter.
Juno’s flight computers, avionics and commanding system are wrapped inside a solid titanium box on top of the spacecraft. Known as the vault, the radiation-shielding container is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs nearly 500 pounds fully loaded.
But the solar panels could not be put in the vault, so engineers doubled the thickness of the cover glass over each cell to protect them from radiation. Otherwise, Juno’s solar cells are off the shelf, meeting the same qualification levels required for other space missions.
Engineers expect the solar cells to degrade over time as they are zapped by radiation, but not within Juno’s 20-month primary mission.
Future robotic missions to Jupiter will also employ solar panels, building on technologies demonstrated by Juno.
ESA’s first spacecraft to visit the outer solar system, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, set for launch in 2022 will rely on solar power for its mission to study three of the planet’s largest moons. JUICE will eventually swing into orbit around Ganymede, becoming the first mission to enter orbit around one of Jupiter’s moons.
NASA’s Europa mission, an uncrewed probe in development to repeatedly fly past Jupiter’s most famous moon, will also use solar power generators. Managers chose solar power over nuclear power for the mission in 2014.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
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