Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
14-09-2016
Meteorite extracted from hole in Argentina, Sept 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Meteorite extracted from hole in Argentina, Sept 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News
Date of discovery: Sept 2016 Location of discovery: Gancedo, Argentina News source:
This is an awesome find in Argentina. This meteorite was found this week and fell about 4,000 years ago. Made of iron and nickel, its extremely heavy, which makes it near impossible to burn up in the atmosphere as it falls. Meteors like this pass Earth every day, some of them are 20-100X its size, but most pass the distance of our moon, while others pass between Earth and our satellites in orbit. Makes you wonder if the NEO (Near Earth Object) gov organisation will tell us or not if a big one is about to come. Scott C. Waring
News states: Some meteorites are so big they need a name. Meet the Gancedo meteorite, a gigantic space rock extracted from the ground over the weekend using heavy machinery. It was found near the village of Gancedo in Argentina in an area known as Campo del Cielo ("Field of Heaven"). Ancient miracle meteorite saved from Australian outback 'Sword of Heaven' katana blade forged from meteorite Campo del Cielo is rife with iron meteorites estimated to have fallen around 4,000 years ago. What makes Gancedo unusual is its massive size, with a weight estimated at around 68,000 pounds (31,000 kilograms). News organization Compacto Nea posted a video of the meteorite extraction on YouTube Monday. It was a complicated affair requiring excavation equipment, chains, cables and plenty of heavy lifting to remove it from its impact crater. Parts of the iron meteorite have a rusty orange hue. The largest meteorite ever uncovered sits in southern Africa. The Hoba meteorite is estimated to weigh more than 132,000 pounds (60,000 kilograms). It's so big, it hasn't been moved and is now a tourist site. Argentinian news source Norte says the Gancedo meteorite is the second largest ever discovered.
Famous Author Says Aliens Have Something To Do With Cattle Mutilation
Famous Author Says Aliens Have Something To Do With Cattle Mutilation
Jeering public and skeptical authorities buried UFO sightings, disclosed Ben Mezrich, an acclaimed author of books that were the base for Oscar winner movies “The Social Network,” and “21.”
Flashing lights and mysterious movies are creating waves and catching attention virtually everywhere as UFOs are becoming the eye candy. However, believers appear to be lesser in number when compared to disbelievers. Every time an apparent alien being observed in the skies, there is always a debate of whether they are indeed UFOs or just birds and ordinary aircraft.
Ben Mezrich latest book “The 37th Parallel” could likely make waves in the UFO community. According to Mezrich, cattle mutilation is one of many pieces of evidence about aliens.
He wrote that there had been more than ten thousand horses and cows have been found without life and mutilated over the past seventy years. These mutilated animals usually left lying on their sides with organs being removed through what Mezrich describes as precise, circular wounds.
Most mutilated animals have missing lungs, tongues, eyes, and hearts. And, according to Mezrich, this isn’t even the worst part. Nearly all carcasses have been recovered completely drained of blood, Mezrich wrote.
Michio Kaku: ‘This Has To Be An Alien Super Structure!’
Michio Kaku: ‘This Has To Be An Alien Super Structure!’
Well respected Top Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku believes that the recent announcement about a potential Alien Super structure being found next to a star “1,500 light years away” could actually be “the biggest story in the past five-hundred years!”
He also believes that has to be proof of an advanced Alien civilization.
We recently posted an article about this very same subject (please click here) and it now appears that many leading figures are getting behind this exciting theory, that there is a potential ‘Alien superstructure’ around star KIC 8462852″ which was first discovered in 2009.
Michio Kaku who has written many intriguing books and appeared on many TV shows with his exciting views on things, appears VERY excited about this latest discovery!
KIC 8462852 (pictured), located 1480 light-years away, and has produced a series of bizarre light fluctuations researchers have not been able to conclusively explain.
“This could be the biggest story in the past five-hundred years,” Michio Kaku explained.
Kaku said went on to say that “this star is breaking all the rules” and that “we would have to rewrite astronomy text books” to think anything different.
“Basically if a planet eclipses a Mother Star, goes in front of the Mother Star, starlight drops maybe one percent at maximum–however starlight has been dropping at twenty-two percent,” Kaku explained.
“There is a colossal, humongous, object of some sort blocking the starlight from this star. We’ve ruled out all of the usual suspects; rouge planets, comets, asteroids” and the only thing left is an ‘alien superstructure’ of some type.
“We’re talking about what’s called a Type Two Civilization that could build a gigantic [Dyson Sphere] sphere possibly bigger than Jupiter to absorb starlight, to produce energy and is right out of science fiction.”
U.I.P SUMMARY – Kaku went on to state the below which makes some extremely valid points and puts our very own existence in the Universe very much into perspective:
We here on Earth are “what’s called a Type Zero Civilization” because “we get our energy from oil and coal.”
“Type one would be like Buck Rodgers” and imagine we are talking Type II. Next we are going to focus our radio-telescope to see if we can eavesdrop” on them, Kaku said.
We want to “see if there is any regular radio emissions from that planet.”
KIC 8462852, located 1480 light-years away, and has produced a series of bizarre light fluctuations researchers have not been able to conclusively explain.
@MailOnline
I recently read an interesting article about the different civilizations out there, which really does make you think about how far behind we probably are from other ‘older’ more advanced species out there in deep space (and possibly other dimensions).
Please have a read of the below about the Kardashev Scale:
The Kardashev Scale
The scale was initially made in 1964 by the Russian astrophysicist, Nikolai Kardashev (who was searching for signs of extraterrestrial life within cosmic signals). It has 3 base classes, each with an energy usage level: Type I (10¹⁶W), Type II (10²⁶W), and Type III (10³⁶W).
Other astrophysicists have prolonged the scale to Type IV (10⁴⁶W) and Type V (the energy accessible to this kind of civilization would equal that of all energy accessible in not just our cosmos, but in all universes and in all time-lines).
These additions reflect both energy access as well as the amount of knowledge the civilizations have access to.
Initially, it is significant to note that the human race is not even on this scale yet. Since we still sustain our energy requirements from dead plants and animals, here on Earth, we are a poor Type 0 civilization (and we have a LONG way to go before being promoted to a type I civilization).
Kaku inclines to believe that, all things taken into concern, we will reach Type I in 100 – 200 years time. But what does each of these classes really stand for in literal terms?
A Type I title is a given to species who have been capable of harnessing all the energy that is obtainable from a nearby star, collecting and storing it to meet the energy demands of a growing population.
This means that we would need to increase our current energy production over 100,000 times to reach this status. Though, being capable of harnessing all Earth’s energy would also mean that we could have control over all natural forces.
Human beings could control volcanoes, the weather, and even earthquakes! (At least, that is the impression.)
These types of achievements are hard to believe, but compared to the advances that may still be to come, these are just basic and basic levels of control (it’s completely nothing comparative to the abilities of societies with higher rankings).
The next step up – a Type II civilization – can harness the power of their whole star (not just converting starlight into energy, but controlling the star). Numerous methods for this have been suggested. The most popular of which is the hypothetical ‘Dyson Sphere.’
This device, if you want to call it that, would include every single inch of the star, collecting most (if not all) of its energy output and transporting it to a planet for later use.
Instead, if fusion power (the mechanism that powers stars) had been mastered by the race, a reactor on a truly enormous scale could be used to fulfill their requirements. Nearby gas giants can be utilized for their hydrogen, gradually drained of life by an orbiting reactor.
What would this much energy mean for a species? Well, nothing known to science could wipe out a Type II civilization.
Take, for instance, if humans lived long enough to attain this status, and a moon sized object arrived our solar system on a crash course with our little blue planet – we’d have the capability of vaporizing it out of existence.
Or if we had time, we could move our planet out-of-the-way, totally dodging it. But let’s say we didn’t want to move Earth… are there any other options? Well yes, since we’d have the ability to move Jupiter, or another planet of our choice, into the way – pretty cool, right?
So we’ve gone from having control over a planet, to a star, which has resulted in us harboring enough “disposable” energy to fundamentally make our civilization immune to extinction.
But now, onto Type III, where a species then becomes galactic traverses with knowledge of everything having to do with energy, resulting in them becoming a master race.
In terms of humans, hundreds of thousands of years of evolution – both biological and mechanical – may result in the populations of this type III civilization being extremely different from the human race as we know it.
These may be cyborgs (or cybernetic organism, beings both biological and robotic), with the offspring of regular humans being a sub-species among the now-highly advanced society. These completely biological humans would possibly be observed as being disabled, poorer, or unevolved by their cybernetic colleagues.
At this stage, we would have developed colonies of robots that are proficient of ‘self replication’; their population may upsurge into the millions as they spread out across the galaxy, inhabiting star after star.
And these being might build Dyson Spheres to encapsulate each one, making a huge network that would carry energy back to the home planet. But extending over the galaxy in such a manner would face numerous difficulties; namely, the species would be constrained by the laws of physics. Chiefly, light-speed travel.
That is, except they develop a working warp drive, or use that spotless energy cache to master wormhole teleportation (two things that remain theoretical for the time being), they can only get so far.
Artistic interpretation of Advanced Alien structures in deep space
Kardashev believed a Type IV civilization was ‘too’ advanced and did not go beyond Type III on his scale. He thought that, confidently, this would be the extent of any species’ capability. Many think so, but a few believe there is a further level that could be achieved.
(I mean, surely there is a limit?) Type IV civilizations would almost be capable of harnessing the energy content of the whole universe and with that, they could traverse the accelerating expansion of space (additionally, advance races of these species may live inside supermassive black holes).
To previous methods of producing energy, these kinds of feats are considered impossible. A Type IV civilization would require to tap into energy sources unknown to us using strange, or currently unknown, laws of physics.
Type V. Yes, Type V might just be the next possible advancement to such a civilization. Here beings would be like gods, having the knowledge to manipulate the universe as they please. Now, as I said, humans are a very, very long way from ever reaching anything like this.
But it’s not to say that it cannot be achieved as long as we take care of Earth and each other. To do so, the first step is to preserve our tiny home, extinguish war, and continue to support scientific advances and discoveries.
All of the above shows how potentially far we are behind the rest of the Universe! Like us guys always state here at U.I.P “In an infinite Universe, comes INFINITE possibilities!”
These are exciting times – but how much are they ‘truly’ going to tell us about!?
Source info on the Kardashev Scale – Article Originally Published on FQ2Q Author: Joe Garland Source idea: Independent online – via U.I.P.
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Russia “UFO’s are real and we know how to Summon them!”
Russia “UFO’s are real and we know how to Summon them!”
Russians have claimed that they can predict when UFOs will appear and that they can even willingly summon them. They claim that UFO activity is increased when large scale weapons testing is taking place and have been measuring UFO activity by doing so. According to Vasily Yeremenko, a Major General of FIB in reserve, academician of the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement:
“We can say that we learned to summon UFOs in Vladimirovka. To do this, we dramatically increased the number of military flights and movement of the equipment. If the intensity on our side increased, UFOs appeared with the probability of 100 percent.”
The Russians have come to three main conclusions:
Modern science is not yet able to identify such phenomena.
The UFOs could be US or Japan surveillance drones.
The UFOs could be extraterrestrial activity.
According to Svobodnaya Pressa, a news website, the Russian Navy have now declassified records of encounters with unidentified objects that technologically surpass anything ever built by humanity.
A special Navy group headed by Deputy Navy Commander Admiral Nikolay Smirnov collected information on reports of unidentified objects, delivered by submarines and military ships.
According to Vladimir Azhazha, a UFO researcher and former Navy officer:
“Fifty percent of UFO encounters are connected with oceans. Fifteen more – with lakes. So UFOs tend to stick to the water.”
According to one report, a nuclear submarine on a combat mission detected six unknown objects pursuing them. After failing to lose the objects, the captain ordered the submarine to surface – the objects followed, departed from the water and flew away at high speed.
In 1982 a group of military divers training at Baikal saw a group of humanoid beings dressed in silvery suits. Despite the divers trying to catch them, three of them died whilst the other four were injured.
According to Captain 1st rank Igor Barklayof Navy Intelligence:
“Ocean UFO’s often show up wherever our or NATO’s fleets concentrate. Near Bahamas, Bermudas, Puerto Rico. They are most often seen in the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the southern part of the Bermuda Triangle, and also in the Caribbean Sea.”
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Robot Life on Mars! Meet the Machines Exploring the Red Planet Today
Robot Life on Mars! Meet the Machines Exploring the Red Planet Today
By Hanneke Weitering, Staff Writer-Producer
Credit: The Viking Project/NASA
Mars: Home of the Robots
Mars may be a barren desert with no alien life (that we know of), but the Red Planet certainly isn't lifeless. Thanks to Earth's ambitious space programs, several robotic scientists explore the Martian surface as well as its skies. Read on to find out about all the spacecraft that are actively exploring Earth's neighboring planet.
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter has been circling the Red Planet since 2014. The spacecraft is studying Mars' atmosphere to help scientists figure out how the planet transitioned from a world that holds water to a barren, desert wasteland. So far, MAVEN has revealed that particles emanating from the sun, or solar wind, stripped Mars of its atmosphere. Additionally, data from MAVEN suggests that about half of Mars' atmosphere may have been lost to interstellar clouds of gas and dust. When Mars still had all of its atmosphere, the planet was warm enough to retain liquid water. Today, the planet is much colder and drier. [Photos: NASA's MAVEN Mission to Mars]
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Odyssey
NASA's Odyssey spacecraft has spent more than 15 years orbiting Mars, and the craft continues to hold the record for the longest Mars mission duration in history. The spacecraft arrived at Mars orbit in 2001, where it has been searching for evidence water and ice on the Red Planet. The orbiter's full name is 2001 Mars Odyssey, after a famous novel written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1968 titled "2001: A Space Odyssey." With high-power cameras on board, Odyssey keeps a close watch on the Martian weather conditions, like dust storms that could potentially damage rovers on the ground. [Mars Odyssey: Pictures from Longest Mars Mission]
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at Mars in 2006 with a mission to search for evidence that water previously existed on the planet. The orbiter bears the most powerful camera and spectrometer of any spacecraft at Mars. MRO's six science instruments study the atmosphere and the Martian surface while searching for possible underground deposits of water and ice. These instruments allow MRO to monitor the daily weather on Mars. MRO's camera also scopes out the Martian surface for potential landing sites for future Mars missions. [Latest Photos from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter]
Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell.
Opportunity (& Spirit)
NASA's twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, launched back to back in the summer of 2003 and landed on Mars by parachute in January 2004. These two robotic geologists both found evidence of ancient Martian environments that contained water and were potentially habitable. Unfortunately, Spirit got stuck in a sand dune and ran out of power in March 2010. But Opportunity is still roving, and it now holds the record for the longest-running Mars rover ever — both in terms of time and distance covered. The rover is beginning to show its age with memory problems, but it's still exploring the Red Planet nonetheless. [Latest Mars Rover Photos from Opportunity & Spirit]
Credit: ESA, C. Carreau
Mars Express
The European Space Agency (ESA) sent its Mars Express orbiter out to the Red Planet in 2003. It was the first time the ESA sent a spacecraft to explore another planet. Mars Express brought along a lander, named Beagle 2, but the little spacecraft didn't survive its plunge down to the surface. Mars Express carried on without its partner, however. The spacecraft made its first discovery before even getting settled into Mars orbit, spotting water ice on the planet's south pole. Just a few weeks later, Mars Express foundmethane on Mars — a sign of active geological processes deep inside the planet, and possibly methane-burping microbes living underground. [Photos: Red Planet Views from Europe's Mars Express]
Credit: ISRO
Mars Orbiter Mission
India's first interplanetary spacecraft joined the party on Mars in 2014. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as Mangalyaan (meaning "Mars craft" in Sanskrit), arrived at Mars orbit just two days after NASA's MAVEN orbiter. Officials with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have said that the mission was primarily a technology demonstration, but MOM is still doing plenty of science as it whizzes around the Red Planet. The craft's small,15-kilogram (33 lbs.) payload contains five scientific instruments, including a color camera, for studying Mars' atmosphere. The spacecraft's mission was originally planned to end after six months, but the little orbiter is still going strong. MOM could even last long enough to meet its little sister, Mangalyaan 2, which is scheduled to launch in 2020. [India's First Mars Mission in Pictures]
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
A spacecraft graveyard
Mars is littered with dead spacecraft. Some of their missions ended as planned, while others ran out of power, got stuck on Mars' terrain or were demolished in not-so-smooth landings. About a dozen spacecraft have died on Mars. Pictured here is NASA's Phoenix lander, which died when it ran out of power during a winter dust storm in 2008. Find out more about the lifeless spacecraft on Mars in this gallery: Mars: The Spacecraft Graveyard.
Elusive Planet? See Mercury at Its Best This Month
Elusive Planet? See Mercury at Its Best This Month
By Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist
On Sept. 28, Mercury will rise at 5:30 a.m. local time, well before the sun, and shine brightly against the predawn sky. The planet will be at its maximum angle away from the sun on this date. The waning crescent moon will sit about 10 degrees above the planet; the duo is shown here at 6 a.m.
Credit: Starry Night Software
Mercury has a reputation for being hard to spot. Indeed, the planet is known in some circles as the "elusive planet."
I've used this nickname before in our Space.com forum, and it perfectly captures the general feeling about this rocky, little world. In his book "The Solar System and Back" (Doubleday, 1970), the famed scientist and author Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) argued that Mercury "is hardly ever visible when it is truly dark."
Mercury "will be seen only near the horizon in dawn or twilight, amid haze and sun glare," Asimov added. "I suspect, in fact, that many people today (when the horizon is dirtier and the sky much hazier with the glare of artificial light than it was in centuries past) have never seen Mercury." [10 Strange Facts About Mercury (A Photo Tour)]
From this description, I get the distinct impression that Asimov may never have laid eyes on Mercury. And yet, beginning on Sept. 19, people living north of the equator will have a great opportunity to view the planet in the early morning sky. On that day, the solar system's smallest planet will begin a three-week stretch during which it will be readily visible to anyone who has a clear and unobstructed view of the eastern horizon and is out looking about 45 minutes before sunrise.
On Monday (Sept. 12), Mercury moved through inferior conjunction — when the planet passes between Earth and the sun — and entered the morning sky. Mercury will quickly move out of the glare of the sun in subsequent days and will brighten rapidly.
Dual identity
In the pre-Christian era, Mercury actually had two names, as skywatchers then did not realize the planet could alternately appear on one side of the sun and then the other. Mercury was called Mercury when in the evening sky but was known as Apollo when it appeared in the morning. It is said that the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras pointed out in the fifth century B.C. that Apollo and Mercury were one and the same.
In old Roman legends, Mercury was the swift-footed messenger of the gods. The planet is well-named, for it is the closest world to the sun and therefore the fastest-orbiting: Mercury travels at an average speed of 108,000 mph (174,000 km/h) and completes one orbit every 88 Earth days.
Interestingly, the time it takes Mercury to rotate once on its axis is 59 days, so all parts of the planet's surface experience periods of intense heat and extreme cold. Although Mercury's mean distance from the sun is just 36 million miles (57.9 million kilometers), the planet experiences by far the greatest range of temperatures: from 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius) on Mercury's dayside, all the way down to minus 280 degrees F (minus 173 degrees C) on the planet's nightside.
Photograph of Mercury via the American spaceonde MESSENGER - Foto: NASA
"Surprisingly easy"
kaanse ruimte
Mercury is called an "inferior planet" because its orbit is nearer to the sun than the Earth's. Therefore, Mercury always appears from an Earth-bound vantage point to be in the same general direction as the sun (as Asimov indicated).
After Monday (Sept. 12), Mercury rises before the sun for the rest of this month and will be surprisingly easy to see from Sept. 19 through Oct. 11. All you have to do is look low above the eastern horizon during morning twilight, about 45 minutes before sunrise. Mercury will appear as a bright, yellowish-orange "star."
Mercury will be at its greatest elongation (or greatest angular distance) west of the sun on the morning of Sept. 28. Greatest elongation will occur only 110 minutes after Mercury reaches perihelion (its closest point to the sun in space), so the planet's angular separation on this date is the minimum possible at a greatest elongation: just 17.85 degrees from the sun. (Your fist held at arm's length measures about 10 degrees across.)
Yet for observers in midnorthern latitudes, this elongation in the dawn sky is nearly vertical, placing Mercury due east and rising 90 minutes ahead of, and directly above, the sun. Mercury will rise as dawn breaks on Sept. 28 and shine at magnitude -0.4, making this the planet's best morning apparition of 2016. (Negative magnitudes represent brighter objects on the astronomers' scale; for comparison, Saturn's maximum brightness is magnitude 0, while that of Sirius, the Dog Star, is about -1.)
Mercury, like Venus and the moon, appears to go through phases. When Mercury makes its first appearance on Sept. 19, the planet will appear as a slender crescent, just 11 percent illuminated. At its greatest elongation, nine days later, Mercury will appear half-illuminated, and the amount of its surface illuminated by the sun will continue to increase thereafter. By Oct. 11, Mercury will be 91 percent illuminated. So although it will begin to turn back toward the sun's vicinity after Sept. 28, Mercury will continue to brighten steadily, which should keep it in easy view for another couple of weeks. [Visible Planets, September 2016: When, Where & How to See Them]
This view shows Mercury's north polar region, colored by the maximum biannual surface temperature, which ranges from hotter temperatures in red to lower temperatures in purple. Image released March 16, 2015.
A visit from the moon and Jupiter
On Sept. 29, skywatchers will get a bonus: The slender sliver of a waningcrescent moon, just 2 percent illuminated by the sun, will slide just over a degree to the lower left of Mercury. Once again, look low to the east about 45 minutes before sunrise for Mercury shining like an amber jewel to the upper right of the lunar sliver. Binoculars will enhance the view.
Mercury starts October still readily visible, approaching magnitude -1, surpassing the brilliance of every star in the sky with the exception of Sirius (the brightest of all stars). But the planet will also be getting noticeably lower in the dawn twilight. At the same time that Mercury is going down, Jupiter is coming up.
When October opens, Jupiter can be seen low in the east, midway through the morning twilight. But each morning thereafter, the king of planets rises earlier and climbs higher in the east. Finally, on the morning of Oct. 11, the biggest and smallest planets will rise side by side, separated by only 0.75 degrees, with Jupiter on the right and Mercury on the left. Look for them 5 degrees above the horizon about a half hour before sunrise.
That will be Mercury’s grand finale; thereafter, it will disappear into the glare of the sun.
This view of Mercury shows two craters. The one on the left has a sharp rim for about one-quarter of its circumference (at the right side).The other three quarters consist of a broad terrace, created by slumping and inward movement of material, the cause of which is unknown. Image released March 9, 2015.
Editor's note: If you have an amazing skywatching photo you'd like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y. Follow us @Spacedotcom,Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Ancient Aliens – Russia’s Secret Files History Channel, Season 11 Episode 12 12th August 2016
Russia is a vast country, spanning over 6 million square miles of some of the most rugged terrain on Earth, much of which is uninhabited and largely unexplored. It is also the home of ‘cosmism’ — a belief that human civilization originated in the cosmos and is destined to return to space. But many believe the rise of communism led to a wall of secrecy surrounding ancient and modern extraterrestrial contact in Russia. Ancient astronaut theorists suggest that otherworldly visitations predate the establishment of the Russian nation, and point to the ancient settlement at Arkaim as evidence–a centuries-old megalithic site that, like Stonehenge, is oriented along astronomical lines. In addition, tiny metal coils and springs recovered 30 feet beneath the Ural Mountains may indicate the presence of advanced technology on Earth thousands of years ago.
There’s No Up: New Study Reveals That The Cosmos is Completely Directionless
There’s No Up: New Study Reveals That The Cosmos is Completely Directionless
Andrew Pontzen and Fabio Governato/Flickr
IN BRIEF
Researchers have determined that it's almost certain that our Universe is not expanding in one preferred direction. This closes the debate on whether the Universe is really homogeneous and reinforces our standard model of cosmology as never before.
DIRECTIONLESS UNIVERSE
Every day, we are learning more about our great and wonderful Universe (like that it’s actually a lot smaller than we thought, for example). But underneath all of that is one rather solid fact: that the Universe is expanding, and it’s expanding everywhere, and it’s expanding ever faster. The key to all of this is that the distribution and expansion are equal all over—that things are roughly homogeneous.
However, one idea seeks to shatter that homogeneity. It’s known as the anisotropic hypothesis, where the Universe is expanding along a preferred axis or direction. That idea, if proven, would shatter all the models we have built of the expansion of the known universe and put our standard model of cosmology into question.
What principle would cause the cosmos to have a specific direction? Ultimately, we don’t know. However, if true, this idea could provide solutions to Einstein’s field equations (specifically, it lends weight to the Bianchi models).
But before we get to the viability of the idea, let’s back up a bit.
The anisotropic hypothesis was born when it was realized that galaxies and star clusters are scattered randomly. If the Universe was so homogeneous and isotropic, then why is matter not evenly distributed, why is star system formation random?
This theory was strengthened back in the 2000s, when NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) spacecraft found strange ‘bumps’ in the universe’s background radiation. In fact, astronomers have found a place where these ‘cosmic bumps’ line up so much that they called it the “axis of evil.”
All of these contrarian finds spurred researchers from the University College London in the UK to look at the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in order to see whether the anisotropic hypothesis actually holds up.
Now, it seems that the anisotropic/isotropic debate may be coming to a close.
The cosmos has no special direction that might be used to define a universal "up," according to a new study.
PUT TO THE TEST
The team probed the CMB for evidence that the Universe expands at different speeds along different axes, or whether gravitational waves distorted the Universe, stretching it in one direction and compressing it in another. Cosmologists breathed a collective sigh of relief when the study of the Universe’s background radiation showed (seemingly once and for all) that the cosmos is expanding everywhere uniformly, just as our models predicted.
An isotropic (A) and anisotropic (B) Universe. Science
The study used a supercomputer to search for these patterns in the utter randomness of the CMB. They determined that there is one-in-121,000 chance that the Universe is heading in a preferred direction. This is the most conclusive study of its kind to date, and it seemingly puts a lid on the question once and for all, proving that it’s just one aimless ride for all of us.
There’s no direction. There’s No preferred place…which may be less than stellar for the Bianchi models, but it’s good for our standard model of cosmology.
NASA Scientist Claims Space Mining is Possible With Today’s Tech
NASA Scientist Claims Space Mining is Possible With Today’s Tech
Concept image of a harvester for Deep Space Industries.
Foster + Partners
IN BRIEF
A new report explains how the world is ready for space mining. A fraction of NASA's budget investing over the next few decades would have the ability to transform Earth's industry.
A SELF-SUSTAINING INDUSTRY
Former NASA researcher and current University of Central Florida professor Dr. Phil Metzgerpresented a proposal stating that mining and manufacturing outside of our planet is currently possible with the technology we have today, and it would be advantageous to Earth, as well (as opposed to a money drain).
Surprisingly enough, the biggest challenge to humanity taking this next step isn’t money or the lack of technology. According to Dr. Metzger, “The main challenge for this concept, is neither technology nor cost but simply convincing people it is realistic.” He estimates making this goal a reality would take up about 3-12% of NASA’s budget each year for the next few decades.
Image credit: Dassault Systèmes
Space mining of the moon and nearby asteroids would allow for greater access to hydrogen, carbon, silicon, metals, and other materials that may be overmined on this planet. Metzger’s vision does not involve launching entire mining and manufacturing infrastructures to these distant bodies. Fortune reports, “He projects that only 12 tons (<11 tonnes) of initial assets on the Moon could build themselves out into 150 tons (136 tonnes) of equipment (close to the amount that has been deemed necessary for a lunar colony) using local resources.” This method is referred to as a Self-sufficient Replicating Space Industry (SRSI).
MORE THAN MINING
The Earthly benefit of a SRSI is far more inclusive than just industrial gains. Space mining and manufacturing will also ease some of the burden current mining practices put on the planet. Taking resources from space will help to keep from depleting the limited resources left.
Some space mining critics claim an economic focus of such a plan would take important funding and attention away from scientific pursuits. However, Metzger also explains that there are more celestial bodies near Earth than we would ever have funding to reach. Bringing along industrial interests could multiply the monetary resources dedicated to space study. This way, mining in space can benefit humans both economically and scientifically.
Boston Dynamics has just released a video of its Atlas robot balancing on a piece of wood. Just like a regular human, you can watch it shift, shake, and move to stay on the beam.
One of the primary challenges with bigger robots is making them move without falling over. Big, human-sized robots either can’t walk at all, or they walk like a one-legged man having a seizure. Balance, stability, grace—these are the things we have yet to see in a humanoid robot.
Now, we may finally have a contender. Boston Dynamics has been working on the Atlas robot, and it looks like it can balance on a piece of wood as well as any person can.
In the video, we can see Atlas balancing on a thin piece of wood for thirty seconds. But its not just the balancing part that’s awesome—its seeing a robot move, shift its weight, and react like an actual person.
Notably, its original specs were meant to make it humanoid. It has a height of approximately 1.8 meters (6 feet) and a weight of 150 kg (330 pounds). It’s also fairly robust—it’s made of aircraft-grade titanium and aluminum with blue LED lights mounted inside its chest.
Remarkably, its reaction when it finally loses to gravity even mimics how a person would when taking a tumble, twisting its torso in the opposite direction.
A black hole weighing around 140 million Suns, will be sucked up by the most massive black hole known in the universe—the OJ 287—weighing around 18 billion Suns. The violent impact caused by this collision will unleash a power that will rival 20,000 supernovae explosions in the same spot.
10,000 years into the future, mankind will witness what may be the most spectacular devastation in our entire existence. Proven to be inevitable, two massive black holes are set to have the ultimate collision of all time.
One of these black holes weighs around 140 million suns. Massive, right? Think again. Its competitor, the OJ 287, is determined to be the most massive black hole in the known universe—weighing around 18 billion Suns. That’s about 130 times bigger than it’s contender! Quite the bully don’t you think?
The smaller one currently orbits the OJ 287, on its way to being sucked up. As mentioned earlier, the smaller black hole has no chance of escape. Energy leaches away from the binary orbit, bringing the pair closer together and making each cycle around the behemoth a little shorter than the last.
When black holes merge, the bigger one either banishes the smaller one out of its galaxy or eats it up like a midnight snack. In this case, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the U.S. has offered us a mini preview of the event.
In the end, the violent impact caused by this collision will unleash a flood of ultraviolet radiation, releasing as much energy as 20,000 supernovae explosions in the same spot.
This Eerie New Drone Comes With Spider-Like Grasping Arms
This Eerie New Drone Comes With Spider-Like Grasping Arms
Prodrone
IN BRIEF
A Japanese company first revealed their newest drone model. The upgrade will give the flying machine a set of arms built to lift up to 10 kg.
The proliferation of drone technology has certainly been beneficial to users, albeit whileannoying some others. One manufacturer is about to start producing the next evolution of the technology.
At the InterDrone show in Las Vegas, Japanese drone manufacturer, Prodrone claims that the PD6B-AW-ARM is “the world’s first dual robot arm large-format drone.” Prodrone has taken its previous PD6B-AW model and upgraded it with 5-axis grasping arms. It can carry up to 10 kg (22 lb). The PD6B-AW-ARM also has a stabilizing feature that balances the aircraft while the arms carries and moves stuff around.
Image credit: Podrone
The drone will have an maximum flight time of up to a half-hour per charge. The drone can also clock in with forward speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph) and fly up to an altitude of 5,000 m (16,404 ft) This likely doesn’t account for the extra force of lugging its cargo. Grabbing and lifting isn’t all the arms can do. As New Atlas reports, “Along with the obvious grasping and carrying of cargo, the company’s suggested uses…also include attaching or joining items, cutting cables, flicking switches, delivering lifesaving buoys, or retrieving hazardous materials.”
The company has yet to announce a release date for the upgraded drones. Pricing is also forthcoming.
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NASA’s Curiosity Captures Astonishingly Detailed Photos Of Mars
NASA’s Curiosity Captures Astonishingly Detailed Photos Of Mars
NASA
IN BRIEF
NASA just released detailed colored images of Mars like never before. The agency plans on releasing more photos as Curiosity explores more of our Earth's neighbor.
NASA spent a fortune on the Curiosity rover — and it’s a good thing they didn’t hold back on the on-board camera. The agency just released incredibly detailed photos of Mars that make us feel like we’re there.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
“Curiosity’s science team has been thrilled to go on this road trip through a bit of the American desert Southwest on Mars,” shared Ashwin Vasavada, a Curiosity project scientist.
The images captured by the rover were snapped just last September 8. They show sharp and colorful photos of the Murray Buttes region, inside the Red Planet’s giant Gale crater.
According to Vasavada, the Curiosity scientists learned that ancient sand dunes in Mars were “formed and were buried, chemically changed by groundwater, exhumed and eroded to form the landscape that we see today.”
The photos released are just teasers. NASA plans to show us more as Curiosity explores extensive mountains and rockier terrains. If they keep this up, it might not be long before we have a full view of our sister planet.
Nieuwe metingen hebben het bestaan bevestigd van drie door onder meer astronomen van de Luikse universiteit ontdekte exoplaneten bij dwergster TRAPPIST-1. Dit meldt astronomie.nl op gezag van het vakblad Astrophysical Journal Letters.
In mei meldde een team onder leiding van wetenschappers van de ULg drie levensvatbare exoplaneten te hebben gevonden.
De astronomen ontdekten het planetair systeem met de TRAPPIST-robottelesoop in het Chileense La Silla. De drie planeten draaien rond een ster die veel kleiner, kouder en roder is dan onze Zon. Het hemellichaam, 2MASS J2062928-0502285 alias TRAPPIST-1, is nauwelijks iets groter dan "onze" Jupiter. Dergelijke ultra-koude dwergsterren komen in onze Melkweg zeer frequent voor, meer dan sterren die op onze Zon gelijken. Voorheen waren er rond dergelijke dwergsterren geen planeten gevonden.
De planeten zouden qua afmetingen en samenstelling veel overeenkomsten vertonen met de Aarde.
Ter bevestiging hebben Amerikaanse astronomen met een speciale camera op de Gemini South Telescope, eveneens in Chili, gezocht naar de aanwezigheid van een mogelijke begeleider van TRAPPIST-1. Als die op kleine afstand gezelschap zou hebben van een tweede dwergster - dat zou een rode of een bruine dwerg kunnen zijn -, zouden de eerdere metingen misschien te verklaren zijn door diens aanwezigheid en gedrag.
Maar het nieuwe onderzoek geeft aan dat TRAPPIST-1 geen dubbelster is. Nu het bestaan van een begeleidende dwergster is uitgesloten, is de laatste mogelijke twijfel rond de ontdekking van de drie "Belgische" exoplaneten weggenomen, luidt het.
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VIDEO: Is hindoegod Shiva een buitenaards wezen?
VIDEO: Is hindoegod Shiva een buitenaards wezen?
Bij de stad Aurangabad in de Indiase staat Maharashtra bevinden zich de grotten van Ellora. Grot 16, beter bekend als de tempel van Kailasa, is gewijd aan hindoegod Shiva.
De tempel is twee keer zo hoog als het Parthenon in Athene. Archeologen vermoeden dat het bouwwerk van boven naar beneden uit de rotsen is gebeiteld. Sommige historici hebben gezegd dat er tijdens de bouw in totaal 400.000 ton rots is verwijderd. De tempel zou in slechts 18 jaar zijn gebouwd.
“Zelfs met de technologieën die vandaag de dag beschikbaar zijn, is zoiets niet mogelijk,” zegt oprichter van Phenomenal Places Praveen Mohan.
Moeilijk te geloven
Ingenieur A.V. Srinivasan vindt het moeilijk te geloven dat de tempel in slechts 18 jaar is gebouwd. “Zelfs nu is dat moeilijk voor te stellen. Op basis van de hoeveelheid rots die is weggehaald zou je verwachten dat het hele proces ongeveer een eeuw in beslag heeft genomen,” zegt hij.
Een ander opmerkelijk feit is dat de honderdduizenden tonnen rots die verwijderd zouden zijn nergens zijn teruggevonden, aldus professor Deepak Shimkhada van de Claremont School of Theology. “Waar is al dat materiaal gebleven?” vraagt hij zich af.
Machine
Mohan wijst erop dat in de Veda’s wordt gesproken over een machine waarmee rots letterlijk kon worden veranderd in lucht. Onder de grotten van Ellora bevinden zich tunnels die volgens de lokale autoriteiten leiden naar een enorme ondergrondse stad.
Sommige theoretici menen dat deze oude stad ooit een buitenaardse basis was en dat de Indiase god Shiva een buitenaards wezen is.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system and is known for the absolute hellish conditions that exist on it.
With its acid thunderclouds, its atmosphere which is a mixture of poisonous sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide, atmospheric pressure that would crush your bones, and above all, the absence of water, it is one of the most uninviting places in the entire solar system.
However, some scientists insist this was not always the case, and they have mounting evidence that Venus was once habitable.
Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York created models of what Venus may once have looked like, considering the speed at which it may have rotated and how much sunlight it received. Their research suggests that planet Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures anywhere between 2.9 billion and 715 million years ago.
As per Michael Way, a researcher at GISS, “Many of the same tools we use to model climate change on Earth can be adapted to study climates on other planets, both past and present. These results show ancient Venus may have been a very different place than it is today.”
Scientists consider that Venus might once have been habitable, having a similar atmosphere to Earth’s and flowing water on its surface. Although Venus has an ozone layer, owing to the runaway greenhouse effect and the lack of a magnetic field, the temperature of the planet increased rapidly, and water disappeared. Its atmosphere got thicker and trapped heat, and eventually led to the hellish Venus of today.
Nidhi Goyal
Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. You can also find Nidhi on Google+.
Fire Tornadoes (Image Courtesy UMD http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/sites/umdrightnow.umd.edu/files/cover_figure_1_2.jpg)
Nearly Soot Free Combustion
Nearly everyone has seen the out-of-control “fire tornadoes” or “fire whirls” thought to have been made worse and more intense by global climate change. Scientists have been thinking for years about how these “fire whirls” might be used for constructive purposes.
Now a group of scientists has developed a high-efficiency, low-emissions combustion process it calls “blue whirls.” A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) details the findings.
When the team studied “fire whirls” over oil-contaminated water, they stumbled upon what could become a highly efficient, nearly soot free method of cleaning up oil spills. Another type of flame, known as a yellow flame, produces significantly higher emissions and is more turbulent.
For more pictures & videos of blue whirls, visit UMD.
The following video of the blue whirl is provided by UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering.
David Russell Schilling
David enjoys research and writing about cutting edge technologies that hold the promise of improving conditions for all life on planet earth.
Here, an image from the Grolier Codex, a Mayan text that researchers now say is authentic.
Credit: Justin Kerr
The authenticity of the Grolier Codex has been disputed for the last four decades. A group of researchers who revisited the rare Maya text now argue that there's no way it could be a forgery.
If the 800-year-old Grolier Codex is indeed authentic, it would be the oldest known paper manuscript from the Americas, and one of just four Maya codices that are known today.
The calendar spans 104 years, meaning the codex could have been used by at least three generations of calendar priests or "day-keepers," the authors of the new study wrote. For the Maya, Venus was an omen for unfortunate events, and the different cycles of the planet were linked to particular gods—most of whom are depicted in the Grolier Codex as dangerous, holding weapons like spears, darts and knives used for beheading.
Shady provenance
When it surfaced in the 1970s, the codex was eyed as a possible forgery. Those suspicions arose in part because of the manuscript's shady collecting history; it was not discovered by archaeologists, but looters, who sold it to a Mexican private collector JosuéSáenz in the late 1960s.
Sáenz presented what many scholars thought was an outlandish story about how he had acquired the manuscript. He said he was taken in a light plane to a remote airstrip in an undisclosed location in the Mexican state of Chiapas. There, the looters allegedly showed him the codex —along with other Maya artifacts, including a wooden mask and a child's sandal—and told him that the objects had been found in a cave.
According to the research consortium Trafficking Culture, Sáenz allowed archaeologist Michael Coe to display the text at theGrolier Club in New York (hence the name of the codex) where it gained international attention. It then apparently sat for years in the basement of the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology.
"It became a kind of dogma that this was a fake," study researcher Stephen Houston, an archaeologist at Brown University, said in a statement. "We decided to return and look at it very carefully, to checkcriticisms one at a time."
Evidence of authenticity
Coe, Houston and two other researchers have just published their 50-page reassessment of Grolier Codex in the journal Maya Archaeology.
Among the supporting evidence they present are radiocarbon dates that show the manuscript dates back to the 13th century. This would suggest the text was created toward the end of the early post-Classic period (A.D. 900–1250), when both Chichen Itza in Yucatan and Tula in Central Mexico were falling into decline, and the authors say that the Grolier Codex contains imagery similar to what's been found at those two archaeological sites.
Skeptics had previously argued that a hoaxer could have created a forgery using genuinely ancient Maya paper. But the researchers also argue that the codex bears features that Mayanists in the 1960s didn't fully understand, and so a forger wouldn't have been able to create such features. The manuscript, for instance, contains images of deities that hadn't yet been discovered, the authors write, and some of the paintings are rendered in a pigment known as "Maya blue," which hadn't been accurately synthesized in a lab until the 1980s.
"A reasoned weighing of evidence leaves only one possible conclusion: four intact Maya codices survive from the pre-Columbian period, and one of them is the Grolier," the authors wrote.
The three other Maya codices —which are much longer and in better condition than the Grolier Codex —are the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex and the Paris Codex, each named after the city where the text is housed. It's not that the Maya didn't produce many written records. But many texts were written on organic material like strips of paper made from the inner bark of fig or mulberrytrees, and they likely disintegrated under the wet conditions of Central America. Still, others were deliberately destroyed by European Christians who saw the manuscripts as heretical works.
Some book burnings were even described in colonial accounts that would make any historian's heart sink. For example, one 16th-century Spanish Franciscan friar named Diego de Landa wrote about finding a large number of Maya books that contained "nothing in which there was not superstition and lies of the devil," so, he and his fellow missionaries burned them all, which the Maya, unsurprisingly, "regretted to an amazing degree."
This artist’s concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft in orbit above the moon. LADEE scientists announced the discovery of a ring of tiny dust particles around the moon in 2015; now, scientists have discovered even smaller dust particles around Earth's largest satellite.
Credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry
The moon is shrouded by an unstable cloud of "nanodust" kicked up by cosmic impacts, and lit up by sunlight, a new study finds.
Similar clouds of teeny dust particles may envelop other airless bodies, researchers say.
Airless space objects such as the moon are surrounded by tenuous layersknown as exospheres, which are made of particles gravitationally bound to those bodies. Unlike the particles of thicker atmospheres, like that of Earth, which regularly collide with each other, those in exospheres rarely collide.[The Moon: 10 Surprising Facts]
The particles in exospheres may originate in part from the way airless bodies are worn down by their environment — for example, by meteoroid impacts or storms of high-energy particles from the sun. As such, analyzing exospheres can shed light on these "space- weathering" events.
Last year, researchers reported that the probe had detected a permanent asymmetric exosphere made of dust particles as small as 300 nanometers, or billionths of a meter in diameter, about the same width as a wavelength of orange light. The particles in this exosphere are not permanently aloft — rather, forces acting on the moon's surface sporadically kick up a certain amount of dust, said study co-author Amanda Cook, a lunar scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California.
Now, scientists analyzing LADEE data have found evidence in the exosphere of much smaller nanodust that is nonetheless dense enough to detect via the sunlight it scatters. And this smaller-grain dust appears to come and go with meteoroid streams.
"We weren't actually looking for a fluctuating exosphere," Cook told Space.com. "It's just something that came out of the data."
The researchers examined two sets of data from the shadowed side of the moon, which yielded the best conditions for low-light observations. One set of data was taken near the peak of Quadrantid meteoroid stream impacts to the moon in January 2014, whereas the other set was captured three months later during a time of relatively weak meteoroid activity.
During the meteoroid stream, the spacecraft saw scattered sunlight, which is consistent with dust grains less than 60 nanometers wide. Less such light was detected during the quieter period.
This artist's concept shows the lunar dust exosphere surrounding the moon, discovered by the LADEE spacecraft. That discovery was announced in 2015. The craft's trajectory around the moon is also shown.
Credit: University of Colorado Boulder/Daniel Morgan/Jamey Szalay
A changing nanodust cloud
The nanodust cloud may envelop the moon and vary over space and time, depending on meteoroid impact rates, the researchers suggest.
"This result is exciting because if the detected signal is indeed originating from nanodust, then there seems to be much more of it than we expected to see, by several orders of magnitude," study lead author Diane Wooden, a lunar scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, told Space.com.
Increasingly, observations of other airless bodies in the solar system, such as the asteroids and Mercury, "indicate that very small particles are present in their exospheres as well," Wooden said.
Future study of these small dust grains could reveal details about the meteor showers, solar flares or the solar wind that propelled them, Wooden said, as well as details about magnetic anomalies on planetary surfaces.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.