Dwarf Planet Ceres Likely Had Ocean Long Ago

Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, is pocketed with cold, dark craters, several of which are layered in ice, raising the prospects that this frigid dwarf planet once had perhaps an ocean's worth of liquid water early in its history when the solar system was still forming.

Scientists from NASA's Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta presented these findings last week at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting in San Francisco.

Dawn began its extended mission phase at Ceres in July, following a visit to the neighboring protoplanet Vesta, and has been sending back copious amounts of data that have allowed mission scientists to create a more intricate picture of the surface and subsurface environments. As the closest dwarf planet to the sun and about a third the size of our moon, Ceres is considered a bridge between the inner and outer solar system and offers a window into the role of water in the evolution of the planets. [Amazing Photos of Dwarf Planet Ceres]

"The Dawn mission is trying to look back in time to the very earliest stage of the solar system. We're interested in what happened right up to when Ceres accreted water and it separated from the granular material," said Carol Raymond, the deputy principal investigator of the Dawn mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"We can't investigate the habitable environment of Ceres other than to look for chemical fingerprints on the surface or shallow subsurface," Raymond added. "We have ample evidence to say the presence of an ocean on the surface was likely."

Raymond said newly published research is supporting the theory that ice separated from rock early on in Ceres' past and formed a rocky core covered by an ice-rich crystal layer that has persisted throughout its history. Water, of course, is an essential ingredient for life as we know it, and finding evidence of water-rich bodies from the distant past can offer clues to where life might have existed in the early solar system.

As a comparison, Vesta, dry and rocky, is more akin to the stony, terrestrial planets that comprise the inner solar system, while Ceres is more akin to icy moons like Europa in the outer solar system, Raymond said. 

Using Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector instrument (GraND), scientists were able to determine that Ceres' poles are abundant in hydrogen, likely in the form of frozen water mixed into the pores of rocky materials, rather than a solid icy layer. The uniformity of the hydrogen layer suggests that the processes that produced it once acted globally across the dwarf planet, researchers said.

In the far northern hemisphere of Ceres, scientists also closely examined several cold, dark craters called "cold traps" and found that bright spots residing there are comprised of ice. Persistent shadowing casts these spots in near universal darkness, making them so chilly at minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 157 degrees Celsius) that very little of the ice would have turned into vapor over the course of a billion years, mission team members said.

Norbert Schorghofer, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, who studied the cold traps, said he's uncertain whether the ice came from Ceres' own ice-rich crust or whether it was delivered from space by impacting bodies, as is believed to have occurred in small ice traps on Earth's moon and on Mercury.

"In any case, Ceres shows us that ice does get caught in these cold traps," he said.

Perhaps the best-known area on Ceres is the 57-mile-wide (92 kilometers) crater Occator, where scientists have discovered the source of the bright spots as highly reflective salts. "The question is, where is the material in this impact coming from?" said Ralph Jaumann, a planetary scientist at the German Aerospace Center. He speculates that the impact that created the crater could have triggered an upwelling of a briny liquid from inside Ceres, which flowed out, froze and then vaporized, leaving behind the salts.

Dawn entered orbit around Ceres in March 2015, reaching its lowest altitude that December at 240 miles (400 km), where it was able to photograph 90 percent of the surface. Dawn is currently on its sixth science orbit at more than 4,500 miles (7,240 km) above the surface, a vantage point that's allowing the measurement of cosmic rays. The main purpose is to eliminate the "noise" radiation from space to allow for more accurate GRaND detector measurements, mission team members said.

This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program. Follow Space.com @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Story posted on Space.com. 

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27-12-2016 om 21:27 geschreven door peter  

Out of This World! The Most Amazing Space Discoveries of 2016

2016 has been a bountiful year for space science. Before the calendar runs out, here's our list of the biggest space stories and events of the past 12 months.

There were monumental new discoveries, including the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, which gives scientists access to a whole new realm of information about cosmic events. This year, scientists also discovered a potentially habitable planet orbiting the star nearest to Earth's sun. 

As always, there were also hurdles and setbacks. The ExoMars mission sent both an orbiter and a lander to the Red Planet, but the lander crashed into the planet's surface before it could begin its science mission. And multiple studies searching for signs of a particle that could explain mysterious dark matter turned up empty. 

As the year winds down, 2016 also leaves us with some tantalizing possibilities for 2017, like the potential observation of a ninth planet beyond Pluto orbiting our sun. But before we look ahead, let's look back. Here are the biggest and best space science stories of 2016.

First-ever direct detection of gravitational waves

In February, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration made physics history when it announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves — ripples that stretch and compress space itself. Albert Einstein showed that space and time are fundamentally linked, so gravitational waves actually pass through the cosmic fabric known as space-time.

The direct detection of gravitational waves opens up an entirely new realm for astronomy because these waves carry information about the objects and events that create them, and this information is not conveyed by any other means. Right now, scientists can study the universe by collecting light from distant objects (and, in some cases, other kinds of particles), but gravitational waves are not created by the same mechanisms that create light. LIGO made two gravitational-wave detections this year (the second was announced in June), and in both instances, the waves came from two black holes swirling around each other and colliding. Those mergers would have been invisible to astronomers were it not for gravitational waves. As LIGO continues to study the sky, scientists are eager to see what other cosmic treasures it uncovers. 

[Further Reading: Gravitational Waves Detected by LIGO: Complete Coverage]

A planet around the nearest star to Earth's sun

The star Proxima Centauri lies just 4.2 light-years from Earth's sun — a stone's throw, cosmologically speaking. In August, scientists discovered a planet orbiting in Proxima Centauri's habitable zone, or the region where liquid water might exist on the planet's surface (and thus boosting the odds that life might have evolved there). This newly discovered planet, dubbed Proxima b, has a minimum mass of about 1.27 times Earth's mass, further increasing the possibility that this planet could be habitable.

Shortly after the discovery was announced, a group called Project Blue started fundraising to build a space telescope with the targeted mission of studying Proxima b and looking for signs of life there. 

In April, the Breakthrough Foundation — whose board members include physicist Stephen Hawking, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and entrepreneur Yuri Milner — announced an initiative called Breakthrough Starshot, which will aim to send a microchip-size spacecraft to another star. With the discovery of Proxima b, the Starshot project organizers announced that they would target this newfound planet, and potentially search for signs of life. The spacecraft would be accelerated with a massive (and expensive) laser system, and would still take about 20 to 25 years to reach Proxima b. 

[Further Reading: New Planet 2016: Complete Coverage of Proxima b's Discovery] 

Ice deposit on Mars is bigger than Lake Superior

A massive ice deposit spanning a region the size of New Mexico was discovered in Mars' mid-northern latitudes. The deposit lies between 3 and 33 feet (1 to 10 meters) below the Red Planet's surface, it's between 50 and 85 percent water (the rest is dirt), and its total volume is about the same as that of Lake Superior, which holds about 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 cubic kilometers) of water. 

The ice deposit could be useful if humans eventually settle on Mars. The region where the deposit was found, called Utopia Planitia, could be easily accessible by spacecraft because it is relatively flat and low-lying. The ice deposit was discovered using the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

[Further Reading: Photos: The Search for Water on Mars]

Hubble spies potential water plumes on Europa

The Hubble Space Telescope has spied what appear to be plumes of water erupting from the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. This icy satellite may harbor a liquid water ocean deep below its surface, and scientists think that ocean could have the right ingredients for life. NASA is currently planning to send an orbiting probe to study Europa in the 2020s.

If Europa is indeed spewing water from its ocean into space, that opens up the door for an orbiting mission to sample the water (without having to drill into the ice or even land) and look for hints of biology there. The Hubble telescope had spotted a plume erupting from Europa in 2012, but that detection seemed like it might have been a rare outlier, because no plume activity was observed in the intervening years.

[Watch This Video for More: Possible Water Vapor Plumes on Europa Spotted by Hubble Again (Video)]

Dark-matter search comes up empty

Four studies released this year came up empty in a search for a particle that could possibly compose the mysterious substance known as dark matter. Although dark matter does not radiate, reflect or block light (and is thus invisible in the traditional sense), dark matter's gravity can bend light, giving scientists the opportunity to detect it. There are various other bits of evidence that indicate dark matter not only exists but is five times more common in the universe than "regular" matter (the stuff that makes up stars, planets and people). 

The first study came from the incredibly sensitive Large Underground Xenon dark matter experiment, which failed to detect signs of a hypothetical particle called a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). The negative results don't rule out WIMPs, but they do put new restraints on the potential characteristics of a WIMP dark matter particle. Two additional searches for WIMPs were conducted using data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which collects high-energy particles from the universe. Those searches also came up empty. A final study looked for signs of another hypothetical particle, called an axion, using Fermi data from one particular galaxy, but it turned up no such evidence. 

[Further Reading: The Search for Dark Matter in Images]

Tabby's Star saga continues

In 2011 and 2013, a distant star known as KIC 8462852 (also known as Tabby's Star) appeared to dip in brightness as seen from Earth. This kind of brightness change can occur when an object such as a planet passes in front of a star, but planets orbit their parent stars on a regular time loop, and the changes in brightness coming from Tabby's Star were highly irregular. In 2015, a hypothesis emerged that captured the public imagination: Maybe an alien civilization had built some kind of megastructure around Tabby's Star, periodically blocking the star's light as seen from Earth. Alternative explanations (all of which seem far more likely) were produced, but there's not enough evidence to fully explain the mystery.

In 2016, the saga of Tabby's Star continued. New evidence suggested that the star's sporadic dimming might have been going on for a century. That makes it unlikely that the source of the dimming is a swarm of comets, but it could also make it unlikely that an alien megastructure is to blame. Further observations revealed that the star not only demonstrated periods of rapid brightening but was apparently decreasing in brightness overall. 

That hasn't discouraged people from investigating the star further. The Breakthrough Listen initiative, which will spend $100 million over the next 10 years to hunt for signals possibly produced by alien civilizations, plans to study Tabby's Star with the 330-foot-wide (100 m) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Astronomer Tabetha "Tabby" Boyajian of Yale University (for whom the star is nicknamed) was part of the team that originally identified the star's irregular behavior. Boyajian and her colleagues collected more than $100,000 through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, and they plan to use those funds to pay for telescope time to study Tabby's Star further. 

[Further Reading: Alien Megastructure? 'Tabby's Star' Continues to Baffle Scientists]

Dwarf planet Makemake has its own moon!

The dwarf planet known as Makemake lies even farther out in the cold reaches of the Kuiper Belt than Pluto, at about 45 times the distance between the Earth and the sun. But it's not alone out there: Earlier this year, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a small moon orbiting Makemake (pronounced MAH-kay-MAH-kay). This miniature companion is thought to be about 100 miles (160 km) wide. (Makemake itself is about 870 miles, or 1,400 km, wide — or a little more than half the diameter of Earth's moon.) Scientists will watch the orbital dynamics of Makemake and its moon to learn more about the dwarf planet, including its density. 

[Further Reading: Dwarf Planet Makemake Has a Moon | Video, Dwarf Planet Makemake: An Icy Wonder in Pictures]

Exciting Developments in 2016:

In addition to the above science results, 2016 gave ys some tantalizing hints about new science we can expect to hear about in 2017 and the years ahead.

Juno arrives at Jupiter

NASA's Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter on July 4, and settled into its unique orbit with the giant planet. The plan was to have Juno make a close approach of Jupiter every two weeks, but a thruster problem forced the probe to stay in a longer orbit and instead make a close approach of Jupiter every 53 days. 

Even though no major science results have been produced by the Juno science team yet, the JunoCam instrument has been sending back stunning images of the Jovian giant, providing an unprecedented look at this gaseous monster. Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton said the images are already providing tantalizing hints about the science that Juno will produce. 

[Further Reading: Photos of NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter]

ExoMars arrives at the Red Planet

The ExoMars mission, a collaboration between the European Space Agency and Russia's Roscosmos, was designed with two parts: an orbiting satellite and a surface lander. But the lander met an early end when the landing technology malfunctioned, causing the probe to crash into the Martian surface. 

But the orbiter remains operational, and it's gathering information that will help inform the next phase of the ExoMars project: sending a rover to the Martian surface. The rover will include a drill that will dig to depths of up to 6.5 feet (2 m) into Mars' dirt and soil. 

[Watch This Video for More: Red But Not Dead - ExoMars Orbiter to Look for Water and Life | Video]

SpaceX plans to visit Mars by 2018

In September, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk delivered a long-awaited speech outlining the company's plans to eventually build human colonies on Mars. But before SpaceX starts sending humans to the Red Planet, it could help serve various science objectives, such as returning dirt samples collected by NASA's Mars 2020 rover (scheduled to launch in 2020). 

In April, Musk announced on Twitter that the company plans to send uncrewed landers to the surface of Mars as early as 2018. Although NASA will offer technical support for SpaceX's first missions to the Red Planet, the agency announced this month that it will not send science equipment on the very first SpaceX missions. Instead, the agency will wait until SpaceX has proved out the technology. 

[Further Reading: SpaceX's Interplanetary Transport for Mars in Images]

'Planet Nine' may lurk beyond Pluto

Early this year, a group of scientists announced that they had found significant evidence to suggest that there is a planet the size of Neptune beyond Pluto, orbiting our sun. The so-called Planet Nine hasn't been observed directly yet, but the movement of other bodies in that outer part of the solar system indicates the presence of a massive body, the researchers said. 

The group, led by Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, produced more evidence later in the year, as they looked at more data tracking the precise motion of small bodies in the Kuiper Belt (the region of the solar system beyond Neptune that is filled with small, rocky, icy bodies). Theories have also emerged about where the planet came from and how it arrived at its distant — and likely very tilted — orbit around the sun. The authors of the paper also have proposed ways that the planet could be spotted by modern telescopes, as well as the general region where they say the planet should be orbiting. Perhaps 2017 will be the year Planet Nine is found.

[Further Reading: Planet Nine: Theories About the Hypothetical Planet]

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS

• The 100 Best Space Photos of 2016
• The 10 Biggest Spaceflight Stories of 2016
• 'Planet Nine': Facts About the Mysterious Solar System World (Infographic)

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27-12-2016 om 21:14 geschreven door peter  

Where to Land on Mars: NASA Makes Progress in Quest for 2020 Rover Site

While it's always difficult to choose just one best landing site on Mars, NASA officials say they have made progress on picking a location for the Mars 2020 rover.

In August 2015, NASA reduced the next Red Planet rover's landing zone from an initial list of 54 locations to eight high-priority sites, said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, in a statement from the agency. Another workshop will take place in February, and as with other Mars landing site workshops.

NASA is also holding workshops for a possible future human landing site mission, which would take place in the 2030s, if the agency's current schedule holds. [NASA's 2020 Mars Rover in Pictures]

Making the choice

Many missions have landed on Mars, and each one has required a precise landing zone that is selected beforehand; typically, those landing zones are chosen because they support each mission's specific objectives. In the case of Mars 2020, scientists are looking for a spot that could have supported life in the ancient past, according to the statement. Specifically, they are looking for a spot that hosted water, such as along an ancient shoreline.

Once the potential mission landing sites for Mars 2020 are narrowed further, NASA will use high-resolution imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to do some scouting of the potential landing sites. This is being done today for potential human missions to Mars, even though that will be decades away.

In the statement, Meyer also paid tribute to the "spectacular" involvement of the broader science community, which helps decide which sites are best for Mars landings. Last week, he gave an update on the site selection process at the American Geophysical Union's annual meeting in San Francisco, along with Alex Longo (a high school student who has proposed landing sites) and Bethany Ehlmann (a scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who works on both the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Curiosity rover).

A workshop in 2015 focused on landing sites for a human Mars mission brought up 47 potential landing sites where NASA would set up a semipermanent base. Crews would then perform exploration in a 60-mile (100-kilometer) radius from that zone. The location will be narrowed with future workshops and reconnaissance, according to the statement.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS

• The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)
• Amazing Mars Photos by NASA's Curiosity Rover (Latest Images)
• Mic'd Up on Mars! 2020 Rover Will Capture Sounds of Red Planet

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27-12-2016 om 20:55 geschreven door peter  

Is er leven op Mars? Het is een vraag die de mensheid al lang bezighoudt. Als het van enkele opmerkzame UFO-spotters afhangt, is het antwoord ‘ja’. Meer nog, met hun jongste ontdekking zouden de bewoners er zelfs soep of cornflakes kunnen eten.

Op de beelden, afkomstig van NASA, is iets te zien dat veel weg heeft van een lepel en dat door fervente UFO-zoekers nu als bewijs wordt aangehaald voor intelligent leven. De rotsformatie in de vorm van een lepel “kan onmogelijk gewoon in de natuur zijn ontstaan”, beweren ze.

Het is de tweede ‘lepel’ die de laatste jaren op Mars werd gevonden. Sommigen zien daarin het bewijs van ontwikkeld leven op de rode planeet. Anderen zijn iets sceptischer en houden het op “Sommige mensen zien een lepel op Mars, anderen zien het gezicht van Jezus in hun theekopje.”

27-12-2016 om 20:43 geschreven door peter  

(VIDEO) US COLONEL SPEAKS ABOUT ROSWELL UFO CRASH: 'CIRCUIT CHIPS, FIBER OPTICS, AND LASERS ARE ALIEN TECHNOLOGY'

{ http://7tales.net/ }

27-12-2016 om 20:23 geschreven door peter  

ALIEN CONTACT? SCIENTISTS HAVE DETECTED NEW ALIEN SIGNALS FROM SPACE!

27-12-2016 om 20:19 geschreven door peter  

MOGELIJK NAZI UFO WAARGENOMEN BOVEN CYPRUS ( VIDEO )

Alhoewel Nazi Duitsland in 1945 formeel de oorlog heeft verloren, zijn er steeds meer mensen van overtuigd dat ze verder zijn gegaan op of onder Antarctica. 

En wanneer de Duitsers op die plaats verder gegaan zijn met de formidabele techniek die ze al voor 1945 bezaten, dan is het goed mogelijk dat ze nu her en der in het luchtruim verschijnen. 

UFO’s zijn er in alle soorten en maten, van de klassieke zogenaamde retro UFO tot de ronde witte of oranje bollen. 

UFO’s die niet zo dikwijls worden waargenomen, zijn de zogenaamde sigaarvormige, die de vorm hebben van een cilinder. 

Afgelopen week is er een zaak ingediend bij Mufon onder nummer 81145 over een foto die al is genomen in 2009 op het eiland Cyprus. 

De fotograaf wilde mooie opnames maken van een berg in combinatie met de maan die ook zichtbaar was, maar op het beeld verscheen ook wat anders.

En dan zie je rechts van de berghelling duidelijk een groot sigaarvormig object:

En wanneer je goed kijkt, zie je boven de sigaarvormige UFO nog een kleinere: 

Natuurlijk is het mogelijk dat het hier een buitenaards schip betreft, maar veel waarschijnlijker is dat we hier te maken hebben met een zogenaamd Andromeda Gerät, compleet met een aantal kleinere UFO’s.

Misschien hebben ze besloten dat ze zich lang genoeg verborgen hebben gehouden en zullen we hun schepen misschien wat vaker zien. 

Voor de volledigheid een deel uit een eerder artikel over de Duitse sigaarvormige UFO. 

Gemakshalve gaat men er vaak van uit dat de vreemde objecten die worden waargenomen aan de hemel van buitenaardse oorsprong zijn. 

Bij velen is niet bekend dat de Nazi's tegen het einde van de Tweede Wereldoorlog al beschikten over moederschepen met daarin kleinere vliegende schotels. 

Het is eigenlijk nog niet zo gek lang dat we steeds meer worden geconfronteerd met vreemd uitziende wolken die fungeren als basis voor in- en uitvliegende UFO's. 

Er is zo langzamerhand genoeg bewijs in de vorm van getuigenverklaringen en beeldmateriaal, dat aantoont dat die vreemde wolken absoluut niet normaal zijn, maar een moederschip verbergen of dienen als dimensieportaal. 

Wanneer we dan teruggaan in de geschiedenis, is het duidelijk dat de Nazi's beschikten over vergevorderde technologieën op het gebied van “vliegende schotels”. 

De eerste stappen op dit gebied in Duitsland werden gezet door een aantal mystieke genootschappen zoals het Vril en Thule genootschap. Voor meer achtergrond informatie hierover verwijzen wij naar eerdere artikelen op deze website, zoals deze. 

Later kwam de ontwikkeling van dit soort ruimteschepen onder supervisie van een speciale afdeling van de SS en zeker is dat de Nazi's tegen het einde van de oorlog vergevorderd waren hierin. Hoever weet eigenlijk niemand precies. 

Met aan zekerheid grenzende waarschijnlijkheid zijn de Nazi's erin geslaagd om een geheime basis/onderkomen te creëren in het gebied wat nu Antarctica heet. Ook hier is door ons al uitvoerig over geschreven in eerdere artikelen zoals hier. 

Feit is dat in 1946 de Amerikaanse “wetenschappelijke” expeditie die bestond uit een complete vloot oorlogsschepen onder leiding van Admiraal Richard Byrd, genaamd Operation Highjump, finaal in de pan werd gehakt toen ze in de buurt van deze basis kwamen. 

Een aanval op deze vloot die door getuigen zoals piloten later werd omschreven als: "vreemde vliegende schotels die plotsklaps opstegen uit de zee en geluidloos dood en verderf zaaiden onder de schepen en de vliegtuigen die probeerden op te stijgen". 

Dit en meer is te zien in de onderstaande Russische video, waarin wordt duidelijk gemaakt dat de Nazi's wel degelijk een geheim onderkomen voor zichzelf hadden gecreëerd op Antarctica. Wat ook een logische verklaring is voor de meer dan honderd verdwenen Duitse U-boten.

De video geeft ook een mooi samenhangend beeld ook over de occulte invloed op deze expedities en op Hitler van allerlei geheime genootschappen.

Wanneer je al het bovenstaande in ogenschouw neemt, is het misschien niet zo vreemd om te veronderstellen dat de wolken/moederschepen die tegenwoordig veelvuldig worden waargenomen, een voortvloeisel zijn van wat de Nazi's hadden bereikt aan het einde van de oorlog. Het lijkt dat de Duitsers samenwerkten met buitenaardsen en met behulp van hun technologie deze UFO's bouwden. Of we tegenwoordig Duitse UFO's of buitenaardse zien, is niet duidelijk. Mogelijk zelfs een mix. Werkten de Duitsers destijds al samen met dezelfde buitenaardsen als Rusland nu en verklaart dat ook de aantrekkingskracht tussen Rusland en Duitsland heden ten dage?

De Duiters hadden een project in de jaren '43-'45 van de vorige eeuw onder de naam Andromedagerät. De Andromeda was een groot sigaarvormig ruimteschip, met binnenin ruimtes waar zich kleinere vliegende schotels bevonden. 

Of dit ruimteschip ooit daadwerkelijk heeft gevlogen is niet zeker, alhoewel er wel enkele foto's zijn waarop dit schip vliegend is afgebeeld, zoals de volgende. 

We zijn inmiddels ongeveer 65 jaar verder sinds het Andromeda ruimteschip is ontworpen. Als de Nazi's ten tijde van de mislukte expeditie van admiraal Byrd al de beschikking hadden over vliegende schotels die geluidloos uit de zee opstegen, en ook toen al beschikten over in ieder geval het ontwerp van de Andromeda dan is het niet onlogisch om aan te nemen dat nu, zoveel jaren later, zij in staat zouden zijn om kunstmatige wolken te creëren met daarin verborgen een moderne versie van de Andromeda. 

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27-12-2016 om 20:14 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious 'disc-shaped' black object filmed flying over medieval fortress sparks UFO probe

The clip, which appears to have been filmed from the Maes in Caernarfon, shows a small dark object floating over the town’s iconic castle

BY STEVE BAGNALL

This is the bizarre UFO spotted hovering over a medieval fortress in North Wales.

The amazing footage shows the disc-shaped object drifting above the fort for at least 40 seconds before disappearing behind one of the turrets.

It was captured on camera in broad daylight last September by Owain Powell and uploaded to the “UFO Alien Sightings” channel on Youtube.

The clip, which appears to have been filmed from the Maes in Caernarfon, shows a small dark object floating over the town’s iconic castle.

Then as the camera zooms in, the object begins to descend slowly before disappearing out of view behind the castle walls.

Read more: World leader 'set to confirm that aliens are visiting the Earth'

By definition a UFO is just that, something in the sky that has not been identified and can very often turn out to be something natural or man made which is hard to make out at a distance.

A similar UFO in 2010 had witnesses claiming to have seen a large triangular craft hovering near Bangor.

It was allegedly up to 200ft wide, had numerous lights and made a noise like a lawn mower before vanishing out of sight, baffling on-lookers.

Unfortunately, there was no photographic evidence or recording but it follows a pattern of weird objects being spotted in the sky.

Many of these have down-to-earth explanations which include balloons, flares, Chinese lanterns, weather phenomena, meteorites, earthly lights reflecting in the skies, or simply hoaxes.

However there are some that continue to baffle.

After years of having a dedicated UFO hotline answer-phone service and e-mail address to record UFO sightings, the Ministry of Defence has now shut these down and no longer investigates sightings which would be an “inappropriate use of defence resources”.

{ http://www.mirror.co.uk/ }

27-12-2016 om 18:14 geschreven door peter  

North Wales X Files: The top 10 spookiest happenings to have hit the region

From UFOs to healing wells and big cats on the prowl, here is our break down of the area's most intriguing mysterie

BYSTEVE BAGNALL

From strange objects seen in the sky, claims of a crashed UFO, big cats on the prowl and monsters in the deep, North Wales has had its fair share of brushes with the extra-normal over the decades

Among the many weird stories the Daily Post has looked at this year, here is our top 10 North Wales X Files:

1. North Wales Big Cats

It was a toss up with the Berwyn Mountains Mystery for the top spot.

But what edges it for big cats is the number of sightings that still continue today, with people still claiming to see large feline creatures stalking the North Wales countryside.

There are also plausible theories to account for the sightings, including big cats being turned loose following the Dangerous Wild Animals Act of 1976, which made it illegal to keep untamed pets, being released by zoos or escaping from captivity.

2. Berwyn Mountains Mystery

Known as the North Wales Roswell incident, this incident in 1974 has generated TV documentaries, numerous articles and books and still remains one of the region’s biggest mysteries.

Brilliant lights seen in the sky and on the mountainside, a loud bang and earthquake, police and emergency services at the scene. What really happened that night on January 23?

Theories have ranged from crashed UFOs to a meteor shower and earth tremor and misidentified poachers on the hillside.

3. North Wales Lake Monster

Our very own answer to the Loch Ness monster, Teggie has allegedly been spotted rising from the depths of Bala Lake, otherwise known as Llyn Tegid.

What gives more weight to this story is the reported sighting of the monster by former lake manager Dowie Bowen in the 1970s. He thought he saw something that was “8ft long, similar to a crocodile”.

Whether there really is anything residing in the depths is up for debate, but lakes and the open sea continue to generate fantastic stories.

READ MORE

North Wales X Files

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4. The Healing power Of St Winefride's Well

The shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France is one of the most famous Christian pilgrimage destinations in the world, with claims it has the power to heal the sick.

North Wales also has its own holy sanctuary - St Winefride’s Well in Holywell - where poorly people have allegedly been cured by its healing waters.

Surviving records of people being "cured" after bathing at the well began in the 12th century and continue to the present day.

In the early decades of the 20th century, newspaper reports covered amazing tales of supposed miracles where the lame could walk and the sick were healed.

5. Weird Object Filmed Over Caernarfon Castle

Another UFO spotted in the sky over Caernarfon Castle.

Here is a recent case, reported on by the Daily Post in 2015.

This time there is video footage to scrutinise leaving viewers to make up their own minds what they think it was.

The footage was captured on camera in broad daylight by Owain Powell and uploaded to the “UFO Alien Sightings” channel on Youtube.

6. Strange Object Over Valle Crucis Abbey

What elevates this strange object in the sky story is the power of the account given by the witness.

“All I could see about 60ft above my head where four huge spotlights and red lights in the middle shaped like a cross. The object hovering over my head was of a diamond shape, the size of a jumbo jet,” said a Colwyn Bay camper who had stayed at the ruined abbey for a dare in 1993.

According to the witness others who saw it were also left shocked.

7. Witchcraft In Conwy

Tales of witchcraft can very often by bracketed into the folklore section of weird phenomena.

However there was tangible evidence something more sinister was going in Conwy during the 80s and 90s which caused concern among police and religious figures in the community.

Churches were being targeted, occult and devil worshipping symbols were being scrawled, with the carcasses of dead animals being discovered that were being linked to the dark arts.

8. John White's Strange Light Over Llannefydd

Weird pulsing lights baffled John White as he watched them over many nights from his home in the rural Denbighshire village of Llannefydd.

In this case he took video footage of the objects which appeared to float through the sky but weren’t stars, planets or meteors.

Stills of the objects were taken from the videos, shot in 2005, which still remain puzzling images now.

9. UFO Over Llandundo School

There have been many reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in the sky over North Wales.

But what makes this sighting of a small “orange and silver flying saucer” over Ysgol Maelgwn, in Llandudno Junction, during 1977 interesting, is not only was it spotted by eight children, it was also seen by their teacher Maureen Williams.

She had no idea what it was and to this day there has been no explanation.

10. Egryn Lights Mystery

Reports of mysteries lights in the sky over this area of Gwynedd date back centuries.

But they crystallised around Mary Jones, a 35 year-old preacher at the centre of a religious Revival movement in the early 1900s at a chapel in Egryn, between Barmouth and Harlech.

Such was the impressive displays of weird lights that seemed to appear around this enigmatic woman it attracted Fleet Street reporters attesting to the bizarre lights, leading an added credence to the mystery.

{ http://www.dailypost.co.uk/ }

27-12-2016 om 18:05 geschreven door peter  

This day in UFO history: The 1980 UFO Landings In Rendlesham Forest

England holds one of the most compelling UFO landing accounts. In late December 1980, invasion of unidentified flying objects over a period of several nights took place in the joint air bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, situated within the vast Rendlesham Forest in late December.

Description of alien beings added to the controversial stories of the twin air bases. The hype took into another level with anomalous radar readings, electromagnetic effects, and surrealistic atmospheric conditions. Professionals, deemed to be credible, have been coming forward revealing their knowledge of the real alien event on the Bentwaters and Woodbridge Air Force Bases.

Uncorrelated object showed on the radar screens at RAF in Norfolk shortly after midnight on December 27, 1980. The thing then suddenly vanished in the area of the Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk. Bentwaters RAF radar also picked up the object.

The bases were allegedly housed a large stockpile of nuclear weapons, and the Woodbridge was the base of the 67th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron.

The radar operator that night, Mal Scurrah, said that they did not have any idea of what they captured on their radar. They checked the air traffic agencies and found out that there should have been nothing in the vicinity at the time. They sent a jet aircraft to investigate, and the pilot reported seeing a dazzling light in the sky in front of them after getting within about a quarter of a mile.

They saw on radar the object was stationary and it moved off in seconds. In just five minutes the UFO reached 90,000 feet and higher, and they had lost it in the radar scope.

The Woodbridge/Bentwaters started their extraordinary events with the sighting of a massive glowing object by three security guards of the twin bases. They followed the lights into the forest with initial thought that it was a commercial or military aircraft that crash landed.

The patrol was stunned to see a saucer-like craft with small beings with large heads suspended by a type of beam from the bottom of the craft. The beings reportedly performing a repair to their craft unaware of the three men watching their activities.

The guards radioed the base headquarters and requested emergency help. Assistance reportedly arrived headed by senior officers of the base. Later, there would be off record reports that they encountered strange anomalies, such as reality-bending, time displacement, and surreal atmospheric conditions.

Some of the senior officers allegedly communicated with the alien beings.

Called out on the second night of the sightings was then the now famous Colonel Halt. The group of Colonel Halt was reportedly one of the groups to chase the glowing UFO in the forest. He made an audio recording of the details of his trek into the woods.

Patrolmen Jim Penniston, John Burroughs, and Larry Warren later co-wrote a book about the incident, titled Left at East Gate.

Other men who were present during the encounter later revealed that there was an underground theater where soldiers were interrogated, sworn to secrecy and threatened. They also revealed that they were shown several films featuring UFO recoveries around the world. It was also reported that an alien being was there in one of the meetings.

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

27-12-2016 om 17:29 geschreven door peter  

The best UFO Videos of 2016

Here are the best UFO videos that were captured in the year of 2016.

1. February 2016; multiple orbs in the sky – Kent, UK

2. 8th February 2016; triangle formation – Dulce, New Mexico

3. 5th April 2016; metallic object – Evora, Portugal

4. 7th May 2016; TR-3B – Huron, California

5. 5th September 2016; unknown lights in formation – Wycombe, UK

6. 16th September 2016; flying disc filmed by police – Bristol Channel, UK

7. 13th October 2016; UFO over stadium – Geneva, Switzerland

8. 6th November 2016; multiple UFOs – Lake Michigan

9. 15th November 2016; bright lights – Tijuana, Mexico

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

27-12-2016 om 17:20 geschreven door peter  

Why Robots Need to be Able to Say ‘No’

Disobeying is good for robots. 

By Matthias Scheutz, Tufts University

Should you always do what other people tell you to do? Clearly not. Everyone knows that. So should future robots always obey our commands? At first glance, you might think they should, simply because they are machines and that’s what they are designed to do. But then think of all the times you would not mindlessly carry out others’ instructions – and put robots into those situations.

Just consider:

• An elder-care robot tasked by a forgetful owner to wash the “dirty clothes,” even though the clothes had just come out of the washer

• A preschooler who orders the daycare robot to throw a ball out the window

• A student commanding her robot tutor to do all the homework instead doing it herself

• A household robot instructed by its busy and distracted owner to run the garbage disposal even though spoons and knives are stuck in it.

There are plenty of benign cases where robots receive commands that ideally should not be carried out because they lead to unwanted outcomes. But not all cases will be that innocuous, even if their commands initially appear to be.

Consider a robot car instructed to back up while the dog is sleeping in the driveway behind it, or a kitchen aid robot instructed to lift a knife and walk forward when positioned behind a human chef. The commands are simple, but the outcomes are significantly worse.

How can we humans avoid such harmful results of robot obedience? If driving around the dog were not possible, the car would have to refuse to drive at all. And similarly, if avoiding stabbing the chef were not possible, the robot would have to either stop walking forward or not pick up the knife in the first place.

In either case, it is essential for both autonomous machines to detect the potential harm their actions could cause and to react to it by either attempting to avoid it, or if harm cannot be avoided, by refusing to carry out the human instruction. How do we teach robots when it’s OK to say no?

How can robots know what will happen next?

In our lab, we have started to develop robotic controls that make simple inferences based on human commands. These will determine whether the robot should carry them out as instructed or reject them because they violate an ethical principle the robot is programmed to obey.

Telling robots how and when – and why – to disobey is far easier said than done. Figuring out what harm or problems might result from an action is not simply a matter of looking at direct outcomes. A ball thrown out a window could end up in the yard, with no harm done. But the ball could end up on a busy street, never to be seen again, or even causing a driver to swerve and crash. Context makes all the difference.

It is difficult for today’s robots to determine when it is okay to throw a ball – such as to a child playing catch – and when it’s not – such as out the window or in the garbage. Even harder is if the child is trying to trick the robot, pretending to play a ball game but then ducking, letting the ball disappear through the open window.

Explaining morality and law to robots

Understanding those dangers involves a significant amount of background knowledge (including the prospect that playing ball in front of an open window could send the ball through the window). It requires the robot not only to consider action outcomes by themselves, but also to contemplate the intentions of the humans giving the instructions.

To handle these complications of human instructions – benevolent or not – robots need to be able to explicitly reason through consequences of actions and compare outcomes to established social and moral principles that prescribe what is and is not desirable or legal. As seen above, our robot has a general rule that says, “If you are instructed to perform an action and it is possible that performing the action could cause harm, then you are allowed to not perform it.” Making the relationship between obligations and permissions explicit allows the robot to reason through the possible consequences of an instruction and whether they are acceptable.

In general, robots should never perform illegal actions, nor should they perform legal actions that are not desirable. Hence, they will need representations of laws, moral norms and even etiquette in order to be able to determine whether the outcomes of an instructed action, or even the action itself, might be in violation of those principles.

While our programs are still a long way from what we will need to allow robots to handle the examples above, our current system already proves an essential point: robots must be able to disobey in order to obey.

Matthias Scheutz, Professor of Cognitive and Computer Science, Tufts University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Photos via Bianoti

{https://www.inverse.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 15:34 geschreven door peter  

Terrifying 'Alien Covenant' Trailer Bursts Forth on Christmas 

It's a straight-up horror movie. 

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 15:27 geschreven door peter  

Here's a Look at What We Learned About Mars in 2016

Amy Thompson

Mars is one of our closest planetary neighbors, making it a popular celestial object for scientists and amateur astronomers alike. For centuries, humanity has been interested in the red planet and its potential inhabitants. Thanks to a fleet of robotic explorers, scientists are able to search for clues to determine whether or not Mars could have hosted life. Here’s a look back at some of the top Martian discoveries of 2016.

1. Mars is Hiding a Secret Stash of Water

Last month, a research team from the University of Texas announced that Mars is hiding a secret supply of water just below its surface. They reported that Utopia Planitia, a region on Mars, is harboring as much water as Lake Superior here on Earth — only difference is the Martian reserves are frozen solid. The ice reservoir is, reportedly the size of New Mexico, is excellent news for future human missions.

2. Meteorites on Mars

In November, Curiosity surprised scientists when it stumbled upon on interesting find: a small metallic meteorite subsequently dubbed “Egg Rock”. While meteorites on Mars are common, this ones smooth surface is not. The data collected will provide details about how meteorites are affected when exposed to the Martian environment for long periods of time, which fits with Curiosity’s newest science goal: to investigate how ancient environmental conditionschanged over time.

Curiosity's view of egg rock. 

3. Mars Once Had an Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere

Mars used to have a lot more oxygen than scientists thought. Curiosity’s ChemCam instrument detected high levels of manganese oxide in rocks that lined the Kimberly region of Gale Crater. This evidence supports the idea that free oxygen once flowed across the Martian surface, during a period when the planet was warmer and its surface was teeming with vast lakes and oceans.

4. Boron and Interesting Chemistry

The Curiosity rover is currently studying an intriguing mountain on Mars that is geologically-speaking very interesting. The data shows that this particular mountain is full of groundwater, which means the rocks could be chemically active, making it a prime location for microbial life. Curiosity also detected its first traces of boron on Mars.

5. Marsquakes Could Have Helped Spawn Life

Earthquakes — which are usually terrifying natural disasters — could have helped foster life on the red planet. A recent study published in the journal Astrobiologyrevealed that earthquakes produce rocks with an abundance of trapped hydrogen. When applied to extraterrestrial worlds, the research indicates that “marsquakes”could encourage the type of hydrogen-rich geology (known as serpentinization) necessary to support life.

6. Sniffing out signs of life

The red planet is going to be a busy place in the coming years as multiple space agencies have their sites set on Mars. This year, the European Space Agency teamed up with Roscosmos to launch the first of two planned Mars missions, dubbed ExoMars. The mission was mostly successful as its Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) successfully achieved Mars orbit, while its lander, Schiaparelli, crashed on the Martian surface.

Unfortunately Schiaparelli failed to land on Mars, but ESA will try again in 2020. 

The next iteration will hopefully have better luck, as it roams the red planet in search of any signs of life — be it extinct or extant. The TGO will analyze the Martian atmosphere, searching for evidences of trace gases, such as methane, which could be indicators of life.

The mission will be roaming around the red planet at the same time as NASA’s next Mars rovers — Mars 2020. The future robot will be a souped up version of the Curiosity rover designed to search for signs of life. It will also have the ability to box up interesting samples to be retrieved at a later time.

NASA's Mars 2020 rover will be a souped up version of Curiosity.

7. SpaceX and Human Missions

We know that NASA is planning its journey to Mars, but the space agency may not be the first to the red planet. In September, SpaceX ignited fans all around the world, when the company revealed its plans for sending humans to Mars via its massive, Interplanetary Transportation System.

SpaceX also has plans of sending its robotic Dragon capsule to the Martian surface to test out technologies needed on future missions. The cargo capsule will also deliver supplies and could ferry cached samples back to Earth.

The ITS will one day transport humans to the red planet. 

Photos via NASA, ESA, SpaceX

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{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 15:16 geschreven door peter  

Feast Your Eyes on a Collection of the 10 Best Space Launches in 2016

Amy Thompson

Rocket launches are awesome. But they are more than just a spectacular show of pyrotechnics, they represent the best of all of us. Tucked inside the each vehicle’s fairing is a payload, designed to carryout a specialized task that will ultimately improve life on Earth. As this year winds to a close, here’s a look at some of the most memorable launches of 2016.

This year we witnessed robotic explorers arrive at two different planets — Mars and Jupiter (although Juno launched in 2011) — marveled as SpaceX and Blue Origin continued to shake up the industry by launching and landing their rockets, and learned how NASA will high-five an asteroid to uncover the secrets of the universe as part of the sent OSIRIS-REx mission.

Across the globe, more than eighty rockets launched this year, enabling a variety of critical missions to get off the ground. While nearly all were successful, there were a few setbacks, including the loss of an x-ray satellite, a Progress supply ship, and a communications satellite — not to mention the destruction of a Cape Canaveral launch pad in the process. But overall, it’s been an incredible year for spaceflight.

1. Jason-3

SpaceX kicked off the year for the United States by launching the company’s final Falcon 9 v1.1, and carrying an Earth-observing satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into orbit. From its orbital perch, the Jason-3 satellite will monitor global sea levels. SpaceX attempted to recover the rocket’s first stage on a floating barge, but one of the landing legs failed to lock into place and the Falcon tipped over, resulting in a massive explosion.

Launch of Final SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 Rocket with Jason 3

2. ExoMars

The first phase in a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) saw the picture-perfect launch of the ExoMars spacecraft. Six months later, when the spacecraft arrived at Mars, its Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) successfully achieved orbital insertion around the red planet, but its Schiaparelli lander encountered a computer glitch and crash landed on the Martian surface. But that’s ok, because the agencies will try again in 2020, with the launch of a life-seeking robot.

Satellite footage from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing the Schiaparelli lander crash site. 

3. CRS 8

The CRS-8 mission is definitely memorable as SpaceX not only resumed cargo deliveries to the International Space Station (ISS), but also proved it had finally mastered landing on a floating platform.

Floating platform? No problem, watch me land. 

4. OSIRIS-REx

On September 8, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft rocketed into space while tucked inside the payload fairing of an Atlas V rocket. It’s tasked with vacuuming up a sample of a carbon-rich asteroid, named Bennu, which is believed to hold clues about the origins of our solar system. Researchers hope to use the samples learn more about how life began.

OSIRIS-REx will collect a sample of the asteroid Bennu using a the TAGSAM.

5. Shenzou-11

Two Chinese astronauts blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi desert, on an unprecedented mission. The duo of Chen Dong and Jing Haipeng embarked on a month-long stay aboard China’s newest space laboratory — the Tiangong-2 — to test systems that will be used on the country’s future space station, which is set to launch in 2022.

6. Blue Origin’s Daring In-flight Abort Test

Blue Origin is one of several companies that dreams of ferrying passengers to and from space. In October they took a major leap towards that goal by proving their New Shepard vehicle can keep passengers safe during an emergency. As an added bonus, the rocket — which had previously launched and landed multiple times — surprised everyone by surviving the ordeal unscathed. Both rocket and capsule will be retired as museum pieces.

Launch, land, repeat

7. Antares Returns to Flight

Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket returned to flight on October 17, following a two-year hiatus. The vehicle was grounded in 2014 after a spectacular explosion rocked the coastal Virginia region, destroying the vehicle and payload and severely damaging the launch site. Bound for the International Space Station, the rocket carried a Cygnus cargo spacecraft to orbit, with over 5,000 pounds of research and supplies inside.

Antares returned to flight on October 17. 

8. Long March 5

On November 6, China just launched its most powerful rocket yet: the Long March 5. This new heavy-lift vehicle carries with it the future of the Chinese space program, as it will be used to hoist a new space station into orbit as well as propel astronauts to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit.

The Long March 5 lifts off on its maiden voyage.

9. Expedition 50 Crew Launch

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson adds a few more notches to her already impressive resume as she and her crewmates — Russia’s Oleg Novitskiy, and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet — blasted off towards the International Space Station on November 17. She is now the oldest woman to fly in space, at the age of 56, and will surpass Jeff Williams’ record for most days in space (Williams has logged 534 days on orbit). She will also be the first woman to command the orbital outpost twice. Their Expedition 50 mission is also a major milestone for the space station as it marks the 50th mission during the station’s lifetime.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls captured this epic view of the Soyuz blasting off.

10. GOES-R

NASA and NOAA teamed up to launch a souped up weather satellite, called GOES-R. NOAA boasts that the satellite will be a real game-changer, and will scan the globe five time faster than current satellites can. By providing four times the spatial resolution, the spacecraft will be able to beam back real-time images of storms as they develop.

The GOES-R weather satellite will help researchers study hurricanes. 

Photos via NASA, SpaceX, CCTV News, Blue Origin, Xinhua, ULA

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{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 15:00 geschreven door peter  

 

'Star Wars'-Obsessed Scientists Name Massive Pre-Human 'Chewie'

Yasmin Tayag

The actor chosen to play Chewbacca in the original Star Wars series was selected for one reason alone: He was 7 feet, 3 inches tall. Over time, the name Chewie has become synonymous with hairy folk with towering builds. The latest to earn the nickname is an ancient human whose 3.7-million-year-old footprints, just discovered in Tanzania, suggest that he was a Wookiee-like giant among his peers.

The footprints, discovered in Laetoli, suggest that the individual who made them was 5 feet and 4 inches tall. This height may not seem especially tall to us massive Sapiens, but for Australopithecus afarensis, the species that Chewie is thought to belong to, it is unprecedented as far as scientists know. The researchers behind the discovery, publishing their findings in the journal eLife, explain that they named the Australopithecus giant after the Wookiee when they realized what his huge feet said about his build.

One set of the footprints found in Laetoli were attributed to an individual nicknamed 'Chewie'.

At 27 centimeters long, Chewie’s footprints are about equivalent to a size 9 men’s shoe bought in the U.S, and the scientists estimate that he weighed about 105 pounds. His footsteps were found in tandem with those of one other Australopithecus individual, whose dimensions were more conventional for his species. These two are thought to be of the same species as Lucy, the notoriously old pre-human skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1974. Lucy, notably, was tiny; at 3 feet 5 inches tall, there’s no doubt she would have looked up at Chewie like some sort of massive alien.

Interpreting the differences in the sizes of Chewie and his counterpart has been controversial. Some scientists believe that they represent evidence that Australopithecus individuals of different sexes varied greatly in size — evolutionary biologists call this “sexual dimorphism” — and that in turn has fed into the theory that males of this species, like Chewie, tended to have harems of multiple smaller, female mates. The theory that early humans subscribed to polygynous, gorilla-style sexual behavior has been contested by other scientists who aren’t convinced that the smaller footprints next to Chewie’s necessarily belonged to a small mate. Arguing that the prints could very well have just belonged to a juvenile male, they assert that more evidence is needed before we can make any definitive judgments about their sex lives.

What we know for sure, however, is that Chewie was a giant among his peers — even among those whose footprints were discovered at the same site 40 years ago. However, whether or not he stayed faithful to a single person, like his namesake, remains to be determined.

Photos via Manzi et al./eLife

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{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 14:30 geschreven door peter  

Mogen moordende robots ontwikkeld worden? Weldra een vraag voor president Trump - HLN.be

Bron: Politico

© ap.

Worden oorlogen in de toekomst beslecht door robots, die autonoom kiezen over leven en dood? Dat is een vraag voor president-elect Donald Trump die weldra moet beslissen of dergelijke technologie ontwikkeld mag worden.

Preventief verbod

Beeld van een 'Stop Killer Robots'-campagne in Londen. © reuters.

Ondertussen gaan er steeds meer stemmen op om de ontwikkeling van dergelijke technologie te verbieden. 

Dodelijke robots "zouden niet zomaar een nieuw wapen in het arsenaal betekenen, het zou ook een nieuwe manier van oorlogsvoeren introduceren", zo schreven negen Democraten uit het Huis van Afgevaardigden aan John Kerry, Amerikaans minister van Buitenlandse Zaken, en defensieminister Ash Carter. Daarom dringen ze aan op een preventief verbod om dergelijke technologie verder te ontwikkelen.

Die vraag wordt gesteund door de overheden van 19 landen, waaronder Mexico, Pakistan, Zimbabwe en Cuba. Ook mensenrechtenorganisaties maken zich zorgen en lanceerden een 'Stop Killer Robots'-campagne. Eerder deze maand werd de zaak besproken op een wapenconferentie van de Verenigde Naties in Genève, maar een verbod blijft voorlopig uit.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

27-12-2016 om 14:15 geschreven door peter  

UFO Caught Over Island Nation Of Cyprus, Great Photo, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: April 19, 2009, but reported today
Location of sighting: Cyprus, Europe
Source: MUFON #81145

This UFO was seen over the island nation of Cyprus back in 2009, but was reported today. The island has a total population of about 1.3 million people and is totally surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea. UFOs are often seen over the ocean and its been long believed that if aliens wanted to hide a base on Earth, under the ocean was the logical decision. At the moment, the only alien base I know of in the Mediterranean is below Rocca Pia, Italy...and belongs to the W56. So it sounds like there are several bases in the Mediterranean.  
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states: 

Picture was taken for the purpose of mountain and moon combination scenery. The object could only be realised right after shooted in LCD display. Several shootings made before this photo but no other objects were found in previous shootings.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 13:44 geschreven door peter  

UFO Shoots Past Passenger Jet Over Seattle, Washington Dec 2016, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Dec 2016
Location of sighting: Seattle, Washington, USA
Source: MUFON #81157

UFOs love anything that flies, and passenger jets are easy targets for alien drones. This UFO was spotted by some passengers, but they barely got a photo before it was gone. If you want to see a UFO and you are near an airport, record video of 50 passenger jets passing overhead and I guarantee you, at least one will have a UFO shoot past it within a few meters, but you must watch your videos of the planes in slow motion often to catch them. 
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states:

We were flying to Seattle when my bud saw his black thing appear in the sky. I was able to snap the picture right before it disappeared about 10 seconds later.

{  http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 13:38 geschreven door peter  

Giant UFO Seen Over Texas During Sunset, Looks Like Second Sun, Dec 26, 2016 UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Dec 26, 2016
Location of sighting:  Grapevine, Texas, USA
Source: MUFON #81155

This is a cloaked UFO that was caught during sunset. You can clearly see that its round like the sun, glowing like the sun and is even the same size as the sun, however its a far distance away, and we know its not a second sun. Some would call this Niburu, but its a UFO hiding above a cloud. The cloud below it is cover for it to hide, but it didn't account for the setting suns angle and the UFOs cloak fails when light bend around the cloak more than 180 degrees. 
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states: 

Was having a drink with a coworker at the top of the Gaylord Texan parking lot when we suddenly Observed something reflecting the Suns light, no idea what it could be. Lasted about 10 minutes then it started to fade away south west.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

27-12-2016 om 13:28 geschreven door peter