Are planets like those in 'Star Wars: Rogue One' really out there? NASA plans to find out

In the "Star Wars" universe, ice, ocean and desert planets burst from the darkness as your ship drops out of light speed. But these worlds might be more than just science fiction.

Some of the planets discovered around stars in our own galaxy could be very similar to arid Tatooine, watery Scarif and even frozen Hoth, according to NASA scientists. Sifting through data on the more than 3,400 confirmed alien worlds, scientists apply sophisticated computer modeling techniques to tease out the colors, light, sunrise and sunsets we might encounter if we could pay them a visit.

Some of these distant worlds are even stranger than those that populate the latest Star Wars film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story." And others are eerily like the fictional planets from a galaxy far, far away.

Planets with double suns

Tatooine

A real planet in our galaxy reminded scientists so much of Luke Skywalker's home planet, they named it "Tatooine." Officially called Kepler-16b, the Saturn-sized planet is about 200 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The reality of its two suns was so startling, George Lucas himself agreed to the astronomers' nickname for the planet.

"This was the first honest-to-goodness real planetary system where you would see the double sunset as two suns," said Laurance Doyle, an astrophysicist with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute and Director of the Institute for the Metaphysics of Physics, who discovered the planet using NASA's Kepler space telescope.

A person on Kepler-16b would have two shadows. In a storm, two rainbows would appear. Each sunset would be unique, because the stars are always changing their configuration. Building a sundial would require calculus.

Astronomers have discovered that about half of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are pairs, rather than single stars like our sun. So while Kepler-16b aka Tatooine is probably too cold and gaseous to be home to life, or a hopeful desert farm boy, it's a good bet that there might be a habitable Tatooine "twin" out there somewhere.

Desert worlds

Jakku, Jedha

George Lucas has a fondness for desert planets, and at least one NASA scientist thinks he's on the right track.

"Desert planets are possible. We have one right here in our solar system in Mars. We think desert planets elsewhere could be even more habitable than Mars is," said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, an astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

He likes Lucas' proliferation of arid worlds because he believes it might reflect the galaxy we live in.

"The recurring theme of desert worlds in 'Star Wars' is really interesting, because there is some research that shows that these would be likely habitable worlds to find," said Domagal-Goldman, who is, among other things, a climate scientist.

Desert worlds are not only a very real possibility, but they are probably very common, he said. They could be hot, like Tatooine and Jakku, or cold, like Mars and Jedha in "Rogue One."

"The lack of water on a desert planet might be what makes it more habitable. Water amplifies changes to climates and can cause planets to end up being really hot like Venus, or really cold like Europa," said Domagal-Goldman.

Ice planets

Hoth

There is a world named Hoth in our galaxy—an icy super-Earth discovered in 2006. It reminded scientists so much of the frozen Rebel base they unofficially nicknamed it after the planet that appears in "The Empire Strikes Back." The planet's scientific designation is OGLE 2005-BLG-390L, after the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) that found it.

Our galaxy's Hoth is too cold to support life as we know it. But life may evolve under the ice of a different world, or a moon in our solar system. On Earth, it's been found inside volcanoes, deep ocean trenches, even the frozen soil of Antarctica.

NASA is currently designing a Europa mission to look for life under the crust of Jupiter's icy moon Europa. And Saturn's moon Enceladus also contains an underground ocean that could harbor alien life.

Ocean worlds

Kamino, Scarif

For the scientists who characterize exoplanets, the most important planet to study is Earth-the only known planet with life. And life on Earth began in the ocean.

"We need Earth climate science to help us understand planetary habitability and the potential diversity of life on exoplanets," said astrobiologist Nancy Kiang, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. As an astrobiologist, her job is to model the kind of plant life that might exist on planets around other stars—also known as exoplanets.

We haven't confirmed the existence of ocean worlds like the perpetually rainy Kamino in "Attack of the Clones," or worlds with oceans, like the beachy Scarif from "Rogue One." But we have found frozen ocean worlds in our solar system, in the moons Europa and Enceladus.

We may even be able to glimpse an ocean on an exoplanet in the not-so-distant future.

"Ocean glint can be detected over large distances," said Victoria Meadows, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

Such a glint was first observed reflecting from the liquid methane seas on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.

Forest worlds

Endor, Takodana

Both the forest moon of Endor, from "Return of the Jedi," and Takodana, the home of Han Solo's favorite cantina in "The Force Awakens," are green like our home planet. But astrobiologists think that plant life on other worlds could be red, black, or even rainbow-colored.

A few months ago, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory announced the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, a planet only 4 light-years away from Earth, which orbits a tiny red star.

"The star color would be peachy to the human eye," Meadows said. "And the planet would appear dark purple to light purple, looking at it from a spacecraft." From the surface of Proxima b, the sky would appear to be periwinkle.

The light from a red star, also known as an M dwarf, is dim and mostly in the infrared spectrum, as opposed to the visible spectrum we see with our sun. The planet also doesn't have sunrises or sunsets like Earth: one side always faces its sun.

"If you have photosynthetic organisms, they would always get fixed amounts of light all the time. It would be a permanent sunset around the planet. You would see a gradation of color," Kiang said.

Just as seaweed changes color from green to dark brown as you dive deeper into the ocean, plants on a red dwarf planet may brilliantly change color from the day side to the night side.

And that could mean rainbow plant life.

Inhabited worlds

Just about any 'Star Wars' planet

In the "Star Wars" universe, Lucas and company envision scores of worlds bustling with intelligent beings. In our galaxy, we know of only one such world so far-Earth. But NASA exoplanet scientist think we have a fighting chance of finding life beyond our solar system.

The next few years will see the launch of a new generation of spacecraft to search for planets around other stars. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will attempt to determine what's in the atmospheres of other planets. Then, in the next decade, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will bring us images of exoplanets around sun-like stars.

That's one step closer to finding life.

"The idea of life on other planets resonates with people on a very personal level," Doug Hudgins, NASA's program scientist for exoplanet exploration, said of the "Star Wars" films' enduring popularity. "They portray this image of a universe that is teeming with life."

"We are at our heart explorers," he said. "We want to know what's out there. Through the imaginings of George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry, we get to feel for a bit of time like we really can go out and explore the stars."

 Explore further: Tatooine worlds orbiting two suns often survive violent escapades of aging stars

{ http://phys.org/ }

16-12-2016 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

HADDEN DE MAYA'S HET MISSCHIEN TOCH GOED?  ( VIDEO )

{ http://niburu.co/ }

16-12-2016 om 21:10 geschreven door peter  

Neon Red UFO Seen At Space Station On Live Cam, Dec 14, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: December 14, 2016
Location of sighting: Earths orbit at Space Station

One type of anomalies that have been seen around the space station almost daily is the rainbow colored objects that appear for a split second and then are gone. The move incredibly fast, and act like tiny fist sized drones that have AI. I say they have AI, because they move incredibly fast, yet often stop in front of the camera and then shoot away. Just as this one did. I have seen yellow, green, purple, blue and even pink and red. Each time the object has a definite shape, but is different in shape each time. Sometimes its egg shaped, other times is a square or rectangle shaped object. I have to agree with Streetcap1 who caught this...it is a UFO and it acts alive...probably AI micro drones created by aliens to be less intrusive on the space station and the astronauts. They are so small and fast, astronauts wont even notice them. But they always glow a neon color on video. A few times, I saw them by the hundreds.
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com }

16-12-2016 om 20:49 geschreven door peter  

Neon Red UFO Seen At Space Station On Live Cam, Dec 14, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: December 14, 2016
Location of sighting: Earths orbit at Space Station

One type of anomalies that have been seen around the space station almost daily is the rainbow colored objects that appear for a split second and then are gone. The move incredibly fast, and act like tiny fist sized drones that have AI. I say they have AI, because they move incredibly fast, yet often stop in front of the camera and then shoot away. Just as this one did. I have seen yellow, green, purple, blue and even pink and red. Each time the object has a definite shape, but is different in shape each time. Sometimes its egg shaped, other times is a square or rectangle shaped object. I have to agree with Streetcap1 who caught this...it is a UFO and it acts alive...probably AI micro drones created by aliens to be less intrusive on the space station and the astronauts. They are so small and fast, astronauts wont even notice them. But they always glow a neon color on video. A few times, I saw them by the hundreds.
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com }

16-12-2016 om 20:49 geschreven door peter  

UFO Falls From Sky Over Queensland, Australia On Dec 14, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Dec 14, 2016
Location of sighting: Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

A UFO was caught this week on video over the town of Toowoomba and its clearly not a meteorite. The object has a controlled reentry, where a meteor would be moving 50X the speed of this UFO. At first, I thought this could be the Russian cargo ship sent to the space station that failed...crashing to Earth, however that took place on Dec 1, 2016. This object has a controlled fall, its slow, even for something thats crashing to earth. This does move and looks like a UFO. It looks like it didn't land to far away. An expedition to find out if its still there should be made. 
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states:

In Newtown, Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia, one could observe in the sky on 14.12.2016, as a very bright light, very slowly fallen to the ground. Astronomers say that it can not be a meteor or comet because the sink rate is too slow.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

16-12-2016 om 20:44 geschreven door peter  

Interesting footage of Orbs flying over Ukranian city

Here’s a new footage that was just submitted to me by a reader. It shows a bright objects making maneuvers in the sky. This was seen and recorded over Poltava in Ukraine on Tuesday, 13th December 2016.

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

16-12-2016 om 20:22 geschreven door peter  

Fireball Plummets to Earth Way Slower Than A Meteor

Witnesses went mystified after seeing a mysterious fireball UFO falling to Earth. The unusual thing was observed dropping from the sky above Newtown, Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia. The fireball even seen moving sharply to the right and then left as it was falling.

Newtown resident Rod Bishop captured the event on video.

The witness claimed that he spent 18 years in the army barracks and is an amateur astronomer, so he knows very well about aircraft. The mysterious thing he just captured on video made his jaw drop, according to the witness.

Some viewers of the video are wondering why alien spacecraft went to Toowoomba.

However, astronomer professor Jonti Horner believes the light is not a meteor or fireball because it looks too slow to be one. For him, it is also too slow to be a bit of space junk returning to Earth and burning up in the atmosphere.

Horner thinks it is the International Space Station. He explains that the ISS is brighter than the brightest stars and moves quite slow, making them quite spectacular.

Though it ‘s hard to tell the identity of the strange thing in the blurry video, Jonti stresses that’s the most likely explanation to him as an astronomer professor.

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

16-12-2016 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

A Man Wonders If He Saw A UFO Or Just Flashing Lights In Las Vegas

Las Vegas has its share when it comes to unusual objects in the sky, from explainable to unexplainable involving what are called UFOs.

Recently, another strange sighting was recorded on video. Out for an evening stroll, Robert Jones stunned to see strange lights hovering in the sky on Thursday. Jones said he just arrived at Cornerstone Park when the sighting took place. He could not figure out where the lights were coming.

Jones said the lights filled up the entire sky.

He saw orange colored lights floating in an upward motion and disappearing. He could not rule out military operations, but he wanted to know if it was indeed explainable as he was searching for an answer online.

He first thought they were balloons or even aircraft, but he saw them with a solid color and without warning lights.

He claimed that he looked on social media and asked Nellis Air Force base if they were from them, but Nellis replied they had no idea what they were.

The video has been keeping all the viewers guessing, just like many other videos and photos taken over Las Vegas sky.

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

16-12-2016 om 20:06 geschreven door peter  

UFO secret: Operation HighJump

UFOs, NAZIs and ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD

In 1947 Admiral Richard E. Byrd commanded 4000 troops and a fleet of war ships and airplanes on the legendary “Operation Highjump” expedition to the South Pole. What was supposed to be an eight month mission was cut short after only eight weeks. Stories of underground Nazi bases, Alien UFOs and an occult race to find a secret passage to a hidden Atlantian realm beneath the ice are all explored in detail in this fascinating fact-filled program. The final conclusions are both shocking and amazing.

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

16-12-2016 om 20:02 geschreven door peter  

UFOs caught on tape over Buenos Aires, Argentina 13-Dec-2016

These unidentified flying objects were recorded in the sky above Buenos Aires, Argentina. This happened on 13th December 2016.

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

16-12-2016 om 19:28 geschreven door peter  

Huge orbs flying over Chicago Heights, Illinois 13-Dec-2016

Check out this UFO sighting that happened east of Chicago Heights, a city in Cook County, Illinois. This was filmed on Monday, 13th December 2016.

Witness report:

 3-5 Orange lights. Size of orbs were like distant street lights in the sky. Moving precisely, not with the wind.
My girlfriend and I were picking her kid up from gymnastics, in Frankfort, IL, and started heading north on Laraway rd. It was a full moon so we were looking at it casually, and then observed 5 orange lights near each other toward the east. We thought to ourselves those “planes” are really close to each other, but then thought planes don’t fly that close to each other; or emit a solid orange lights. Normally they pulse a tiny white and red light.
On our way home we couldn’t stop gazing upon the lights, we were fixated trying to figure out what they were. They weren’t moving in any specific direction just kind of motionless. Then one light noticeably went to the left, and another to the right, and then disappeared. Then there were three left.
We thought Chinese lanterns because of the color. But that means the lights would move with the wind or move in a general direction, which they didn’t, and even Chinese lanterns start to dim over time and distance. These were noticeable bright orange lights. Once we hit Route 30 we started heading East, traveling toward the lights.
We started in Frankfort and ended up about 10 miles East (past Chicago Heights). Over that course of time the lights formed a triangle formation, vertical line, horizontal line, and staggered vertical line, and then went to two lights. It went to two lights after it formed a perfect triangle.
When it became two lights they seemed to create distance from each other, and close back up. They again formed a vertical and horizontal line, and when they were in the lines they moved simultaneously and in unison; keeping a perfect distance from each other moving down, up, left, and right (slowly but precisely).
When the lights were vertical, the one on the bottom moved to the left of the other one (while the other one remained motionless) and then slowly disappeared (within 3 seconds). Then approximately a minute later the last light disappeared.
We turned around because we were in a bad area. So then we started heading west, the direction we just came from, and my girlfriend told me to look behind us and see if I could see anything. Sure enough there were 3 lights again in a vertical line.
Still gives me goosebumps thinking about it and writing this out.

Author (source: MUFON)

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

16-12-2016 om 19:24 geschreven door peter  

Curiosity Delivers New Evidence That Life Could Have Thrived on Mars

NASA

IN BRIEF

• NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered boron on Mars, marking the first time that this element has been found on the Red Planet.
• Evidence of chemical complexity suggests that Mars had a long, interactive history with water, improving the chances that life existed on the planet for a lengthy period of time.

GALE CRATER CURIOSITIES

Ever since NASA’s Curiosity rover made its historic landing inside Mars’ Gale Crater in August 2012, its study of the composition of rocks in the area has led researchers to the conclusion that life could’ve been present at some point during the Red Planet’s history. Studies done by other rovers have also arrived at a similar conclusion, with evidence suggesting Mars had a “wet era” during which life — even microbial life — could’ve survived.

A recent discovery supports these claims. The Curiosity rover’s study of different rocks over the Gale Crater’s elevational range of about 200 meters (650 ft) covers a timespan of roughly tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years. Throughout this period, the environment in the crater, which supposedly cradled an ancient Martian lake, was continually changing, but not enough to preclude life from existing.

The newest evidence of this ancient life on Mars is Curiosity’s discovery of boron, marking the first time that this element has been found on the Red Planet.

“We are seeing chemical complexity indicating a long, interactive history with the water. The more complicated the chemistry is, the better it is for habitability,” John Grotzinger, Curiosity team member and geologist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, explained in a press release. “The boron, hematite, and clay minerals underline the mobility of elements and electrons, and that is good for life.”

WHERE THERE IS WATER…

Based on observations by Curiosity, the ancient lake in the Gale Crater was initially composed of fresh water (neutral-pH water). It became slightly acidic over time, and saltier still a little later.

This all happened over a period of millions of years, as the crater’s lake went through periods of drying out and then filling up again as groundwater rose. Despite these changes, Grotzinger believes that the area remained mostly habitable, as some forms of microbial life could’ve been sustained by groundwater during the lake’s dry spells.

If the conditions on ancient Mars were largely similar to those on Earth, where there is water, there is a great chance that life could exist, as well. The abundant traces of silica, which is excellent at preserving microbial life on Earth, found in Curiosity’s samples could aid future life-hunting missions on Mars. “I think this is a tremendously exciting discovery,” said Grotzinger.

With more missions to Mars in the works, hopefully it is just one of many to come.

References: 

• Space.com, 
• NASA JPL

{ https://futurism.com/ }

15-12-2016 om 22:38 geschreven door peter  

It Turns Out, Finding a Habitable Alien World May Be Rather Difficult

 

 

nasa.gov

IN BRIEF

• Proxima b's proximity to its star raises its chances of having liquid water on its surface, but also means it could be exposed to frequent superflares.
• If the planet's atmosphere were slightly thinner that Earth's, or its magnetic fields were weaker, Proxima b would be exposed to extinction-level superflares.

EXOPLANETS AND SUPERFLARES

An artist's impression of what Proxima b, a planet orbiting the star nearest to Earth's sun, might look like.

Credit: ESO

The discovery of Proxima b orbiting the Earth’s closest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, gave hope to a possible habitable exoplanet relatively near our system — just 4.2 light years away. Because Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, it isn’t as hot as our Sun. This means Proxima b orbits nearer to its star than the Earth does the Sun in order to maintain a certain temperature.

It turns out this proximity could be a problem, according to researcher Dmitra Atri. Although Proxima b lies within the habitable (or goldilocks) zone, which raises its chances to have liquid water on its surface, Atri believes it isn’t enough to consider Proxima b habitable. As past studies have shown, exoplanets like Proxima b could be exposed to frequent superflares from their stars.

Atri, a scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Seattle, ran computer simulations to figure out just how much flares affect exoplanets. Specifically, the simulations modeled the possible interactions of protons released during flares to a planet’s atmosphere. The models considered the various factors that affect just how much radiation flares could deliver, including atmospheric thickness, magnetic field strengths, and the strength of the flares themselves.

UNDERSTANDING THE WORLDS AROUND US

“I would say that it is too premature to call Proxima b habitable,” Atri explained to Space.com. “There are many factors that would decide whether such a planet can sustain a biosphere. More data will help clarify the situation.”

Atri’s models revealed that Proxima b could survive these superflares if its atmosphere and magnetic fields were similar to Earth’s. If, however, its atmosphere was even just slightly thinner or its magnetic fields were weaker, Proxima b would be exposed to extinction-level superflares. The survival of life on Proxima b depends, it would seem, on just how Earth-like this exoplanet really is. Atri’s work was published in the Monthly Notices Letters of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Studies like this reveal more detail about the worlds surrounding us. Recent technological developments and discoveries made by the various existing space exploration devices allow us to create more accurate computer models. With the coming of even better technology in the next couple of years, we may be able to finally confirm whether or not these so-called other Earths are truly habitable.

References: 

• Space.com, 
  • Monthly Notices Letters of the Royal Astronomical Society

{ https://futurism.com/ }

15-12-2016 om 22:28 geschreven door peter  

This Concept Plane Flies from L.A. to Sydney in Only 3 Hours

Nathaniel Mott

It takes about 15 hours to fly between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. A concept plane called Paradoxal could make the trip in just three hours — all it has to do is fly to the edge of Earth at hypersonic speed and slow back down for a safe landing.

Paradoxal’s design was published Sunday by a nonprofit organization from Montreal called Imaginactive. The group comes up with concepts for new vehicles — a bike ripped straight out of Tron and a lighter-than-air vehicle called Medusa among them — and shares them online so they can “grow, evolve, and inspire people” to make them a reality.

Imaginactive announced that, in addition to its ability to cut a trip down to one-fifth the time, Paradoxal would also use cameras to provide a live video feed as it approaches space and let people “experience weightlessness for one brief minute” when it begins its descent. The whole flight is supposed to be faster and more fun than current treks.

Paradoxal would rely on Rim-Rotor Rotary Ramjet Engines designed by researchers at Quebec’s Université de Sherbrooke and cooling tech patented by NASA. The engines would allow the plane to reach hypersonic speeds; the cooling system would ensure the aircraft could handle the resulting temperatures without issue.

Imaginactive’s concept is part of efforts to rethink air travel. One of the biggest areas of interest lies with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. These would allow companies like Uber to introduce on-demand services where people could travel around a city in aerial vehicles, for example, instead of being limited to ground-based transport.

DARPA, the military’s research arm, is also experimenting with VTOL aircraft. The hope is that these vehicles would make air travel quieter, more efficient, and less dependent on the sprawling runways today’s planes require. They would also make it easier for military operations to be conducted in places where traditional aircraft can’t be used.

Others are trying to make aircraft more energy conscious. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said before that he wants to create an electric VTOL plane, though he hasn’t said whether that’s something he’s currently working on, and Alaska Airlines flew a plane across the country in November using a biofuel harvested from wood.

A rendering shows Paradoxal in flight.

Paradoxal wouldn’t tackle those problems. Imaginactive said it requires about 6,000 feet of runway to land — roughly the same as a Boeing 747 commercial airliner — and is unlikely to use renewable energy sources. But it does promise to make travel far more convenient, which could be enough for people who just want to spend as little time in the air as they can.

Inverse reached out to Imaginactive to learn more about Paradoxal’s design and whether or not it expects others to make the concept a reality in the future. We’ll update this post if the nonprofit responds. In the meantime, though, one can dream about somebody making air travel a less horrendous experience for everyone who wants or needs to take a trip.

Photos via Imaginactive

• 

  How to Sleep on a Plane
• 

  The TSA's YouTube Series Wants to "Increase Awareness," but Nobody's Watchin
  

• 

  How Airships Like the Airlander 10 Could Replace Cargo Planes in Just Yearsg
• { https://www.inverse.com/ }

15-12-2016 om 22:13 geschreven door peter  

SHOCK CLAIM: 'Secret military base discovered after fresh UFO activity near Roswell'

UFO investigators are investigating claims a secret US military base has been discovered near UFO mecca Roswell in New Mexico.

15-12-2016 om 21:52 geschreven door peter  

Could it be a part of a UFO? Villagers are left baffled after a mysterious object fell from the sky leaving a burning crater

• Villagers in north-west China said they saw an object falling rapidly on Monday
• The object apparently landed with a loud bang and a crater was found burning 
• No object had been spotted in the hole, but police have found objects nearby
• Web users are guessing what the object could be, with some suggesting UFO

By JULIAN LUK FOR MAILONLINE

Resident in a Chinese village were left baffled after an unknown object had apparently fallen from the sky and left a big hole on the ground.

They said the object landed on the top of the mountain with a loud bang on December 12 in Zhangjiapan village, Shaanxi Province, reported People's Daily Online. 

The crater was burning when some residents rushed over but mysteriously no object was reportedly found in the hole. Some people have linked the incident with a UFO.

 Mystery: A crater was created after an unidentified object had apparently fallen from the sky

The crater reportedly measured one metre long (3.2 feet) and 50 centimetres wide (1.6 feet). 

The police of Fugu county, which manages the village, said they had found objects that might be related to the incident in three locations, according to HSW.cn.

All of the locations were in the south-western part of Fugu county.

Among them, one was a large metal ring, said the police. Letters and numbers could be seen marked on the surface.

The ring is thought to have fallen at high speeds and crashed into the rooftop of a house.

The police said all the objects had been sent to experts for tests. 

No injuries have been reported.

Baffled: The crater, in China's Zhangjiapan village, was burning when the villagers found it, however no object had been seen in the hole, according to local reports

Police said they had found objects that might be related to the incident in three locations. The above pictures show two of them

QQ.com posted a video on December 13, which was thought to be taken by an eyewitness.

The clip shows fire burning in the crater, however no solid object can be seen in the crater.

A villager, surnamed Zhang, told a reporter of HSW.cn that he heard a deep sound in the sky at around 1pm on Friday.

He looked up and saw an object rapidly falling towards the mountain, the villager said.

'[It] made a loud bang when it hit the ground. Then it started burning. The dry grass nearby was quickly set aflame,' Zhang added. 

The police of Fugu County also found a large metal ring in the surrounding areas of the crater 

The ring is thought to be related to the loud bang apparently caused by an unidentified object

Letters and numbers can be seen marked on the surface of the metal ring found by the police

The mysterious incident has attracted thousands of comments from Chinese netizens on QQ.com, a major portal in China. 

Many are guessing what the object could be, with some suggesting it could be a part of a UFO.

'It must have fallen from a crashed alien spacecraft,' one such person wrote while another one said 'the ring looks like the door of a UFO cabin'.

'It must have been the wheel of an alien's vehicle,' another user suggested.

A web user asked: 'Are they parts of Shenzhou 11 spacecraft?'

'It probably came from a failed time-traveller,' another user commented.

A fourth user, apparently terrified by the incident, said: 'I will look to the sky while I am walking.'

The fire has been put out by the villagers. 

The incident is being investigated by the police. 

{

15-12-2016 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

UFO 'caught on camera arriving through wormhole?' - viral video sparks ALIEN debate

A VIDEO allegedly showing a UFO arriving to Earth through a "plasma beam" has sparked a major online debate about what it actually could be.

15-12-2016 om 21:21 geschreven door peter  

The science behind that odd noise in Spokane Valley

SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. – Early Wednesday many of you reached out to KREM 2 News wondering what an odd sound was that woke many up in Spokane Valley overnight.

Was it a UFO? Some kind of train? A whale, as some of us joked? Not quite. It turns out the sound was coming from road graders that were plowing snow and ice at the Valley Mall.

It looked and sounded like some kind of hokey setup shot to a movie about alien invaders or monsters.

Robin Clayton wrote to us “Sounded like a tuba playing on a loud speaker.”

Julie Queszada said “Maybe a yeti??”

Lynsey Betz kept it simple, “it’s aliens, people.”

The answer though, lies in the temperatures. We asked our own Briana Bermensolo to help us crack the case.

“It really all comes down to how sound moves through the air, through the molecules, and the temperature of the air,” she said. “Is the air hot, or is it cold?”

Bermensolo said that is why we were hearing the weird sound.

Here is another explanation. Normally, when it is not this cold out, sound waves will travel faster and bend upwards from hot air on the ground.

When it is really cold though, it is the opposite. The layer of cooler air is closer to the ground and warmer air is covering it from above. As the sound waves travel upwards, they are bent by the warm air and directed back towards the ground. The difference in temperature causes this.

So thus, sound seems to travel further on colder days and you could be hearing all kinds of sounds from a distance.

(© 2016 KREM)

{ http://www.krem.com/ }

15-12-2016 om 20:54 geschreven door peter  

Aliens and UFOs get top spot at close encounters meeting at Byron Bay in 2017

Nigel Gladstone, Hornsby Advocate

BELIEVING in alien life is scientifically acceptable but saying little green men visit Earth is one small step too far for many humans.

Pennant Hills residents Mick Turner and Kathryn Hand believe we have had visitors and are organising a party in Byron Bay to celebrate all things ET — the Close Encounters Conference — on January 15 and 16.

“It’s still a taboo subject. But people should be able to talk about it openly,” Mr Turner said.

“There is a UFO sighting reported every six minutes,” Ms Hand said. “People want to talk about sightings and their beliefs.”

Ms Hand was an executive PA at Westpac Bank until she was 40, when she decided to follow her passion for the metaphysical and quit her job to become a past-life regression hypnotherapist.

“Although we are having a bit of fun dressing up, we do take the subject very seriously,” Ms Hand said.

“I’m interested in knowing about the consciousness that exists on other planets and how they interact with us on earth.

“I don’t expect everyone else to take on my point of view but I want people to be comfortable to talk about it.

“I’m not a nuts and bolter, I’m coming at it from a consciousness point of view.”

Strange object in sky

Australian Skeptics spokesman Tim Mendham said he’s “disappointed” there was still no credible evidence for aliens visiting earth.

A UFO? Video captures strange object near Ohio

“There are a lot of claims but no evidence that you can rely on,” Mr Mendham said. “Obviously it’s mostly a hobby interest and is fraught with frauds and fakes.

“Skeptics have no problem with the concept of life elsewhere in the universe, which is scientifically established.

“It’s not about that, it’s about (evidence of) beings visiting earth.”

A CSIRO spokesman contacted by the Advocate said there was no evidence “as yet” of interstellar visitation.

The Close Encounters conference keynote speakers are: Mary Rodwell — Founder of Australian Close Encounter Resource Network, Dr Bob Davis (USA) — neuroscientist / author; and Rosemary Ellen Guiley (USA) — researcher / author on paranormal subjects.

{ http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal }

15-12-2016 om 20:39 geschreven door peter  

If Extraterrestrial Life Is Out There, There's A Good Chance We'd Be Able To Eat It

(Photo by Thos Robinson/Getty Images for Madame Tussauds)

What are the chances of alien life being biologically compatible with us? originally appeared on Quora: the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.

Answer by Dave Consiglio, chemistry and physics teacher, on Quora:

The chances of alien life being capable of growing in the same soil is nearly 100%. Safe for us to eat, also nearly 100%.

Every nutrient that autotrophs need are achiral—they aren’t “handed.” Things like ammonia, water, carbon dioxide. These chemicals would be the building blocks of life on many worlds, and they are the same everywhere. If an alien world had plants, chances are they’d do fine in our dirt. Our atmosphere might not have the correct ratio of gases, and our sun might not spit out the correct spectrum of light for optimal growth, but chances are there would be some creatures that could survive here.

Now, could we eat them? Sure! But remember, we can also eat sand. That doesn’t make it nutritive. The odds that we would be able to extract nutritional value from the food is far closer to 0% than 100%. There’s a nearly infinite array of molecules that alien beings might use to store energy, build body structures, etc. Nearly all of those would be completely indigestible by humans.

So, could you eat an alien plant? Sure. Would you starve to death anyway? Probably. Might it make you sick? Possibly. Could it grow here? Probably.

The same is true in reverse, by the way—alien animals would almost certainly be incapable of digesting Earth plants and animals.

More questions:

• Extraterrestrial Life: If NASA's Deep Space Network is so powerful then why can't we get signals from aliens?
• Space Exploration: What are five odd or generally unknown facts about outer space?
• Science: How can one build a spaceship that can pass right through the sun?

{ http://www.forbes.com/ }

15-12-2016 om 20:20 geschreven door peter