Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
13-01-2017
Drone claims rejected by Isle of Wight UFO man
Drone claims rejected by Isle of Wight UFOman
By James Woolven
James Ward said the footage of a UFO over Lake was evidence of alien life.
VIDEO
UFO footage filmed by an Isle of Wight man has made headlines around the world.
James Ward, 22, of Lake filmed the mysterious sighting on January 2 and the video went on to be featured around the globe.
"It was really cool. I didn’t expect it to get national attention," James said.
James said seeing his video on national media outlets was an 'overwhelming experience’.
James, a full-time carer, filmed the sighting outside his home in Lake.
Some have dismissed the sighting as a drone but James said the behaviour of the object ruled out that possibility.
The footage has sparked the interest of UFO hunters and alien enthusiasts nationwide but James does not consider himself an enthusiast.
"I just looked up and saw this light and thought 'I better film this’, so I took my phone out," James said.
The video shows unidentifiable lights in the sky.
"I was mesmerised. It looked like a typical round UFO space craft.
"Before, I was 50/50 about whether there was life out there but this to me now is 100 per cent proof they exist.
"The sighting has made me believe."
It's not the first time the Island has been at the centre of strange goings on.
The first detailed event to be reported on the Island was at the former Cowes Airport on July 27, 1950.
Ex-RAF pilot Capt Jessop spotted a Gloster Meteor jet sweeping south at 8,000ft, followed by a brilliant white oval-shaped light above it at 20,000ft, scorching across the sky, as he taxied his own aircraft on the runway.
"It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s speed was fantastic — doing at least 2,000mph," he said.
Ryde. July, 1961
Clare Taylor, of Ryde, with her mother, reported a UFO sighting in July 1961. Miss Taylor, who was interviewed on local television, described the UFO as a 'disc craft’, which they saw hovering low over trees as they looked out towards The Solent just after midnight.
It began with a row of lights above the horizon, rapidly getting nearer, which Miss Taylor and her mother initially believed was the Saunders-Roe N1 hovercraft on trials.
The UFO was uncommonly silent and it eventually hung almost at eye level over trees.
Miss Taylor said she could see its dome-like structure, lit up by a row of five porthole lights, which, from its underside, emanated a red, furnace-like glow, which lit up the tops of the trees, before it flew off at 'vertiginous’ speed.
"One moment it was there and the next instant it was going away in the direction from which it came, like a shooting star," she said.
She said all that remained in its wake was an expanding, luminous ring of smoke, leaves and debris that rose and hung above the trees for several minutes.
Niton. Autumn, 1964
On one autumn morning in 1964, a Niton farmer reported a large, mysterious 5ft hole in his field — its sides clean and sharp, which bent sharply and dropped a further 10ft, without evidence of any vehicle being around it, said investigators.
It was as though the mass of dirt and stones had been sucked cleanly from the ground by a device suspended above the hole.
Investigators came to the conclusion a UFO may have been dropped low enough to collect a sample of earth.
Whippingham. July 1967
Experts in the paranormal descended on Whippingham in July 1967, after two boys saw a 37ft-wide UFO flying low, which had then hovered near their school.
During a six-week investigation, civil aviation officials said they were 'at a loss’ as to what caused a 12ft swathe of flattened barley, where the boys said the object had been, together with other puzzling crop formations from the scene down to the River Medina, almost a mile away.
Adgestone. 1975
Farmer Tom Reynolds was stunned to see a brightly lit and silent object, 100ft long and 30ft wide, appear very low over his buildings at Adgestone Farm one evening in 1975. He claimed it travelled towards Brading, at a height no more than 150ft, before it dipped down and disappeared from view.
Ryde. Spring 1976
In Ryde, at another former airfield, there was another unusual but detailed night sighting in the spring of 1976.
It was just after 10.30pm when former Royal Navy serviceman David Spicer and his wife noticed a strange, bright light, silent and triangular in shape, hanging 2,000ft above the airport tower.
As they puzzled over what it could have been, it made a sudden movement and rocketed into a vertical climb.
At the top of the climb, the UFO — a black mass with red lights around its perimeter — hovered momentarily before it banked and flashed back towards the startled couple, who claimed it bore no similarity to conventional aircraft but flew in a controlled manner.
Godshill. September 1976
In September 1976, Pan estate residents saw and heard the hum of a formation of grey, oval discs in broad daylight.
Nurse Shirley Rimmer, an eyewitness who saw the objects suddenly accelerate away over houses, said: "The sound was incredible — like deep thunder. It was terrifying. The whole area trembled as though an earthquake had hit us. The sound was like the chiming of church bells."
Fellow witness, Tim Woodward, said: "The roar as they passed overhead shook my house so violently I dashed outside to see what was happening.
"From the garden, I saw five discs streaking towards Godshill at lightning speed. They stopped and held station over Godshill for a few moments before shooting off out to sea."
Shanklin. December 23, 1993
There was an independent probe into UFO sightings after reports of UFO's in the Shanklin area. Mainland investigators of the paranormal called for Island witnesses. Among them was Christopher Harrington of the Havant-based Southern Paranormal investigations, who said there had been a number of reports of sightings over the Island from people living on Hayling Island.
Across the Island. October 13, 1996
On October 13, 1996, three Island residents came forward to record their sightings of what was seemingly the same UFO.
At 5.30am, a woman reported seeing a large, glowing orange light from her Shanklin home, heading towards The Solent.
An hour later, Richard Cattle, who was in Hunnyhill, Newport, saw a large, silent, pulsating ball of white light.
Interviewed at the time, he said: "It appeared on the horizon north of me. At first, I thought it was a planet still visible in the morning light, but soon dismissed the idea when it drew nearer. It passed over the Island from north west to south east at high altitude.
"I discovered two other people I had never met before, one from Ryde and the other, Shanklin, saw the same object that morning."
Mr Cattle, of Niton, has been documenting UFO phenomena over the Island ever since, weeding out the genuine witnesses.
"Over the years, I’ve looked at the UFO enigma on the Island. For some reason, certain areas are more prone to strange objects in the sky than others, particularly the kite-shaped UFO and white triangle that makes a ghostly appearance in our skies now and again," he said.
Across the Island. January 28, 2008
The last 'big’ sighting over the Isle of Wight came in January 2008, in which a number of Islanders spotted strange lights in the night sky from a silent, low-flying, brightly lit craft.The County Press first ran a story after former RAF technician, Frank Webb, reported his sighting over Newport, when walking along Terrace Road with his wife.
"I saw these very bright lights coming towards us, from east to west. They were unusually bright. It had no engine or landing lights and it wasn’t losing height, so it had got its power from somewhere."
Others came forward and the County Press was inundated with calls.
Among them was Barry Holland, who was cleaning at Calbourne Classics, near Shalfleet.
He said: "I’m not saying it was little green men from Mars but it was an object in the sky I couldn’t identify."
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“NASA vindt lichamen van aliens en vliegende schotel op Mars”
“NASA vindt lichamen van aliens en vliegende schotel op Mars”
Een opzienbarend bericht in een Russische krant: NASA-wetenschappers zouden tijdens het bestuderen van foto’s vreemde objecten hebben aangetroffen op Mars die lijken op een vliegende schotel en lichamen van aliens.
Toen de wetenschappers inzoomden zagen ze duidelijk twee hoofden en een borstkas, aldus de krant Pravda.
Het zou onmogelijk zijn om scherpere foto’s te maken, aangezien de Marsrover de locatie waar de vreemde objecten zijn gevonden alweer heeft verlaten.
Primitieve wezens
Wetenschappers van de Russische Academie van Wetenschappen geloven daarnaast dat de kans groot is dat er nog primitieve levensvormen zijn op Mars, met name rond de polen.
“We gaan er mogelijk oases vinden waar nog steeds primitieve wezens leven, die zich daar miljarden jaren geleden hebben ontwikkeld,” zei Igor Mitrofanov van het astronomische instituut RAS.
De aanwezigheid van waterijs in de Marsbodem wijst op de mogelijkheid van leven, aldus de wetenschapper.
Methaan
Daarnaast zou methaan in de atmosfeer van de rode planeet een biologische oorsprong kunnen hebben.
Verwacht wordt dat er resten kunnen worden gevonden van organismen die Mars meer dan 3,5 miljard jaar geleden bewoonden, toen de planeet een dichtere atmosfeer had, zo schrijft de krant.
Sante Fe witness recalls disc UFO near ground level
Sante Fe witness recalls disc UFO near ground level
A New Mexico witness at Santa Fe recalled a UFO encounter from the late sixties when a disc-shaped object hovered under six feet off the ground near his family’s mobile home park, according to testimony in Case 81404 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The witness was 11 years old when he saw the hovering disc. Pictured: Santa Fe, NM.
(Credit: Google)
The witness believes it was late 1966 or early 1967 when the incident occurred.
“The weather was cold, but no snow,” the witness stated.“I lived with my Mom and Dad. Dad was overseas. I lived outside the city limits of Santa Fe in a mobile home park with my mom.”
The witnesses’ Mom decided to go to the drive-in theater which was about half a mile west of the trailer park on the road to Albuquerque.
“We saw the movie and left to go home, late at night, yet a lot of traffic was going both ways. Mom got into the left turning lane to enter the park and had to wait for a lane to be clear. I was sitting directly behind her and was looking at the tree line alongside the mobile home park where the six-foot cyclone fence was. Then I spotted it.”
With all of the traffic surrounding him, the witness rolled his window down to get a good look at the object.
The object was between 18 and 24 feet long. Pictured: Santa Fe, NM.
(Credit: Google)
“Just about 100 feet away I saw a hovering saucer in the shadow of the pine trees that were along the fence line on the west side of property. The reflection of the object could be seen from the road. It was a bright moon so through the trees light was hitting the craft. The pine trees were casting a shadow and it was in it hovering above the ground, but I could still see it because the moon lit up the field behind it.”
The witness was able to see a dark looking hovering craft.
“It had an arm of some sort pointing and extending to the back of the trailer, but not touching it. There was no sound coming from it at all. It was 18 to 24-feet-wide. It hovered four to six feet off the ground and I saw blasts of blue-red-orange-yellow short flames coming from ports around the mid-section of it.”
The witness described the ports.
“These ports were evenly spaced around the furthest section, a little lower of its mid-section. Round and about six to eight inches in size. The flames came out from left to right and seemed to go around the craft because there were bright flashes of light continuing as long as I could see it on the ground on the other side. It wasn’t light. It was flames. Because the next time I saw the same ports facing me, the fire was a little different each time. I saw it was a hole where the flames came out of each time.”
The entire event lasted about five minutes.
“I played in this area all the time. It was an empty field with 3-foot-tall dry grass. Directly under the craft the grass was moving violently back and forth, but outside the craft the tall grass wasn’t moving at all. I could make out small lines that went around one side and met up with the other. This was a saucer-like object, thicker on the bottom and with some sort of dome on the top.”
The witness was very disturbed by what he was seeing.
The witness described ports around the object that were round. Pictured: Santa Fe, NM.
(Credit: Google)
“It may have been great to finally see one, but I was only 11 years old. My mom didn’t know what it was, but she saw it. Saw the lights, saw the grass moving and it hovering above the ground. We spoke about it a couple of times, but she ended the conversation as soon as I started it. My father finally returned from overseas and I couldn’t talk about it again until the day he opened the newspaper to the “Living” section of The New Mexican newspaper and there was a picture of a UFO going over a farmer’s barn in the Santa Fe area that a farmer took and turned over to the paper. It was the same UFO that I saw, exactly, but taken during daylight hours.”
The witness told his father that this is what he saw and the photo was proof.
“I clipped it out of the paper and saved it in my mother’s scrap book, but it too has disappeared as well the paper. I never ever forgot and now that I’m 62 years old, I thought it time to tell my story of what we saw. My family has died and all I have is this memory of what was seen that night. I have a drawing, but it’s difficult to figure out how to send it even though I have a B.A. degree in social science. Get back with me if there’s more you can find out what I saw. I appreciate it.”
New Mexico MUFON Assistant State Director John Fegel investigated and closed this case as an Unknown. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
UFO Over Hills Of Peru Causes Awestruck Crowd On Facebook, Jan 11, 2016, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Over Hills Of Peru Causes Awestruck Crowd On Facebook, Jan 11, 2016, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: January 11, 2017 Location of sighting: Ocuviri District, Peru News Source:Inexplicata This is a fantastic video of a cloud orb moving about. Cloud orbs are usually soft looking like a cloud, but can move at great speeds. Often seen darting from cloud to cloud, this particular type of UFO is thought to be an alien drone or an undiscovered biological life form. Scott C. Waring Inexplicata states: Perú: Strange Object Recorded Over the Ocuviri District - a UFO? The images caused some fear among local residents. A camera employed by a resident of the Ocuviri District, Province of Lampa, Puno (Perú) raised doubts yet again as to whether we are alone in the universe. The object was taken on the morning of January 1, 2017 at approximately 7:00 a.m.. The image shows an unidentified flying object (UFO) in the Puna skies. The images caused some fear among local residents, who at first thought they were looking at an airplane, but dismissed the hypothesis after seeing it was motionless. It should be noted that the object appeared a few days after the earthquake that occurred in the district. Some locals noted that these sightings are in some way related to the tremor. Video is on Facebook, click here to watch the video on Facebook.
The green area of the UFO is the outer edges of the craft, the dark center is not a hole, but a window area or solid area that can be turned clear for observations. The photo below shows the clear area on top of the UFO in the Rocca Pia, Italy case that lasted for decades. This new video makes me think the aliens below the castle atRocca Pia are becoming interactive with humans again. This is good news. Scott C. Waring-Taiwan
Eyewitness states on Facebook:
UFO sighting of 9/1/2017 at about 19.38 hours. I don't know what was and what it is to call it but it is very strange. I was always in the company of my girl Angelica Scupola. Here's the video you do your considerations and especially tell me what I saw.
5 mind-boggling Moon mysteries that science cannot explain
5 mind-boggling Moon mysteries that science cannot explain
With a diameter of about 3,476 kilometers the Moon is a quarter the size of Earth, all other moons in our solar system orbit their planets around the equator, our moon does not, and there are lunar rocks that have been found to contain PROCESSED METALS such as Brass, Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237.
Simply put, Earth’s moon is one of the most mysterious objects in our solar system. It is considered a ‘weird’ celestial body due to its numerous physical qualities which scientists are unable to explain, and due to the fact that it is the most unique object in the solar system, incomparable to any other moon found to date.
In fact, the moon is so unique that Dr. Robert Jastrow, the first president of NASA’s Commission of Lunar Exploration called the moon “the Rosetta Stone of the planets.”
To get an idea just how weird the moon is, we only have to take a look at a quote by Robin Brett, a scientist from NASA who stated, “It seems easier to explain the non-existence of the Moon than its existence.”
But what makes the moon so weird?
It’s big. In fact, it is huge. With a diameter of about 3,476 kilometers the Moon is a quarter the size of Earth. Except for Pluto and Charon, this is the largest known proportion between a moon and its parent body among the numerous objects of our system.
It has a weird orbit that’s so unique scientists have not been able to find it anywhere else in the solar system. It turns that all other moons in our solar system orbit their planets around the equator. Our moon does not, and orbits Earth at an inclination of five degrees. The moon has a precise altitude, course, and speed, allowing it to “function” properly in regards of planet Earth. Simply put the Moon should not be where it is currently.
The Moon is almost an Earth. The composition of our natural satellite is similar to that of Earth, unlike most other moons. Who are clearly different from their parent planets.
If the above details did not catch your attention, there’s more.
There are some lunar rocks that have been found to contain PROCESSED METALS such as Brass, Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237. These elements have NEVER been found to occur naturally. Uranium 236 is a radioactive nuclear waste which is found in spent nuclear and reprocessed Uranium. More interestingly, Neptunium 237 is a radioactive metallic element and a by-product of nuclear reactors and the production of Plutonium.
These mysterious lunar characteristics have led Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcerbakov from the Soviet Academy of Science to write an article in the 1970’s about the moon called “Is the Moon the Creation of Alien Intelligence?”
Furthermore, Dr. Harold Urey, Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry said he was “terribly puzzled by the rocks astronauts found on the moon and their Titanium content. The samples were unimaginable and mind-blowing since researchers could not account for the presence of Titanium.
In other words, our Moon does not share any characteristics with other moons found in our Solar System. If that isn’t strange enough, consider that from any point on the surface of our planet only one side of the Moon is visible.
Phoenix Lights 20 years later: UFO witnesses take the stage at UFO conference in February
Phoenix Lights 20 years later: UFO witnesses take the stage at UFO conference in February
It has been 20 years since the UFO sighting that has had Arizona buzzing ever since the incident took place in March of 1997. Over 1000 witnesses reportedly came forward, including former Arizona Governor Fife Symington. Several of the witnesses who experienced the most spectacular sightings will be sharing what they saw on-stage at the International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills on February 18, 2017.
The ‘Phoenix Lights’ sightings were reported by thousands of people, both as a triangular formation and stationary lights. Phoenix City Councilwoman Frances Barwood says she personally spoke with over 700 Phoenix-area residents who claimed to have seen a large object float silently over the city. Symington, Arizona’s governor at the time, made light of the sightings in 1997, however, he now claims to have seen the UFO himself and says he does not think it was from this planet.
According to Fox News, Symington said, “I’m a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I’ve ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people. I don’t know why people would ridicule it”
Fife Symington discussing his UFO sighting on CNN.
(Credit: CNN)
Symington first admitted to seeing the object during an interview with filmmaker James Fox. Fox had provided Symington with testimony from several witnesses who were disappointed with the way Symington dealt with the incident in 1997. Symington then admitted to Fox he had also seen the object, and he agreed it was unworldly. Symington then went on to discuss his sighting with CNN and other news outlets.
Fox will be presenting at the International UFO Congress, and will share footage of his interview with Symington, he says, he has not shared publicly before. Fox has also arranged to have several of the witnessed he spoke with, all of whom had a spectacular view of the strange object that cruised over Phoenix that fateful night, join him on-stage during his presentation to share their experiences with the audience.
UFO researchers, local Arizona UFO investigators and local UFO filmmaker Dr. Lynne Kitei will also be discussing their findings regarding the Phoenix Lights UFO event, and putting the sighting in perspective in relation to alleged UFO sightings throughout history.
Scientists, former military officers, authors and UFO researchers will also be discussing UFO sightings and related topics at the International UFO Congress this year. For a full list of speakers and their topics, visit UFOCongress.com.
About the International UFO Congress
The International UFO Congress is presented by OpenMinds.tv, an Arizona based organization dedicated to the dissemination of information related to UFOs and the search for extraterrestrial life. The conference was established in 1991 and is held annually. The event holds the Guinness World Record for the largest UFO conference in the world. It features presentations by scientists, academics, authors, researchers, experts, and those who have experienced paranormal or anomalous phenomena from all over the world. It also provides a forum to discuss experiences and findings. The event has over 20 Speakers, a Film Festival, and scores of vendors. Topics generally covered are UFO sightings, alien abduction, UFO crashes, crop circles, paranormal experiences, governmental UFO secrecy and much more.
A mysterious new video has emerged which conspiracy theorists believe may show a UFO in the sky over Italy.
An unusual bright green spherical object, which changes shape and colour in the four minute video, was caught on camera in Salento this week.
It is unclear what the object is, but the video is said to be completely genuine, untampered footage.
Scroll down for video
A mysterious new video has emerged which conspiracy theorists believe may show a UFO in the sky over Italy. An unusual bright green spherical object, which changes shape and colour in the four minute video, was caught on camera in Salento last night
LINKS BETWEEN CONSPIRACY, NARCISSISM AND SELF-ESTEEM
Over the course of three online-based studies, researchers at the University of Kent showed strong links between the belief in conspiracy theories and these psychological traits.
The results showed that those people who rated highly on the narcissism scale and who had low self-esteem were more likely to be conspiracy believers.
However, while low self-esteem, narcissism and belief in conspiracies are strongly linked, it is not clear that one - or a combination - causes the other.
But it hints at an interesting new angle to the world of conspiracy and those who reinforce belief.
The video was posted on Facebook by Lucio Margiotta, a music teacher at the Music Academy of Salento, who saw the light in the sky at around 8pm local time.
Mr Margiotta said: 'UFO sighting of 9/1/2017 at about 19.38 hours. I don't know what was and what it is to call it but it is very strange.'
In the film, a bright white, spherical object can be seen in the sky, which appears to change shape, size and colour.
At one point it turns a bright green colour, and becomes a ring, similar to a smoke ring.
Finally, the ball splits into two, before quickly fading away.
The video was shot on a smartphone at maximum (x8) zoom, and Mr Margiotta said that no filters or effects were applied.
It is unclear what the object is, although the fact that it was filmed on a smartphone suggests that the rings may be a result of autofocus, distorting the image.
Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, told MailOnline: 'It is noteworthy that the distant light only turns into a halo when Lucio Margiotta zooms in on it, which suggests that the autofocus system of the camera is distorting the light to produce this unusual effect.
'It would be interesting to know if the witnesses saw this light turn into a halo, or whether they just saw a distant light.'
In the comments on the Facebook video, others have suggested that the phenomenon may be Venus.
Emy Negro said: 'was Venus ... the highest peak of visibility of this planet goes from 19:30 to 20:00 ... if there is little haze is more visible.
'The circle you saw was merely caused by the zoom of your camera...you were trying to focus and the image distorted.'
But others were convinced that it was a sign of alien life, such as John Martin, who said: 'They visit me at my home on a regular basis. They are the sphere beings.
'If you speak to them as friends and wave, they often will respond with a bright flash.'
While some are convinced that flying saucers exist, most sightings turn out to be man-made objects such as weather balloons or satellites, or down to natural phenomenon like ball lightening or meteors.
In the film, a bright white, spherical object can be seen in the sky, which appears to change shape, size and colour
What have pulsars, quasars, dark matter and dark energy got in common? Answer: each of them took the discoverer by surprise. While much of science advances carefully and methodically, the majority of truly spectacular discoveries in astronomy are unexpected.
Many of our telescopes are built to discover the known unknowns: the things we know we don't know, such as identifying the stuff that makes up dark matter.
But the real breakthroughs are the unknown unknowns. These are the things we don't even suspect are out there until we accidentally find them.
In other words, we had a question about something that we knew about, and we thought Hubble could answer the question. Most of the other discoveries are unknown unknowns: we didn't know what they were until we stumbled across them.
Consider pulsars. They were discovered in the 1960s when a bright young PhD student in the UK, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, was studying the twinkling of radio waves by electrons in space (a known unknown).
She noticed odd bits of what she called "bits of scruff" on her chart recorder, and realised they were something much more startling than mere tractor interference, and thereby discovered pulsars — an unknown unknown — for which her supervisor Antony Hewish won the 1974 Nobel prize for physics.
So how did she make that discovery?
Apart from being a bright, persistent, open-minded student, Bell Burnell was also observing the universe in a way in which it had never been observed before. By looking at rapid changes in the radio waves, she was observing the universe using a parameter — in this case short timescale observations — that hadn't been used before.
Other discoveries happen when people observe with a different parameter, such as faintness, or area of sky, that hasn't been observed before. Together, these parameters make up our parameter space.
Most major astronomical discoveries seem to happen when somebody observes a new part of parameter space; observing the universe in a way it hasn't been observed before.
This new way might consist of looking more deeply, or with better resolution, or on a larger scale, or maybe just seeing much more of the universe. Extending any of these parameters into their unexplored regions is likely to lead to an unexpected discovery.
Right now several next-generation telescopes are being built, boldly going where no telescope has gone before. They will significantly expand the volume of observational parameter space, and should in principle discover unexpected new phenomena and new types of object.
For example, CSIRO’s A$165-million ASKAP telescope, now nearing completion, is exploring several areas of uncharted parameter space, with an excellent chance of stumbling across a major unexpected discovery that could shake the scientific world.
But will we recognise it when we see it? Probably not.
Bell Burnell discovered pulsars by laboriously sifting through all her data, and noticed a tiny anomaly that didn't fit her understanding of the telescope.
How much data?
If Bell Burnell were observing with ASKAP, she would have to sift through about 80 petabytes of data a year, from a machine that is so complex that nobody truly understands every bit of it. Sorry, not even Bell Burnell's brain is up to the task of sifting through that amount of data.
We cannot possibly examine all that data by eye. So the way we do our science is that we decide on the scientific question we are asking, and turn it into a data query.
We then mine the database looking for those bits of data that will answer our question.
This is a very efficient way of answering the known unknowns. Sadly, it is useless at finding the unknown unknowns. We only receive answers to the questions that we ask, and not to the questions that we didn't know we ought to ask.
Now remember the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction/fantasy series by author Douglas Adams? When a giant computer, Deep Thought, found the answer to "life, the universe, and everything" to be 42, another, even bigger, computer had to be built to find out what the actual question was.
So can we design a machine, or a piece of software, to replicate Bell Burnell's brain in detecting unknown unknowns but working comfortably with petabytes of data and unbelievably complex telescopes?
WTF into the unknowns
I think we can, and we've already started the project WTF, which stands for Widefield ouTlier Finder, with the progress so far published just last month. The WTF machine will sift through the petabytes of data, searching for something unexpected, without knowing exactly what it's looking for.
The trick is to use machine learning techniques, where we teach the software about all the things we know about, and then ask it to find things we don't know about.
For example, it might plot a graph of radio brightness against optical colour. On that graph, it would find a cluster of quasars grouped together, another cluster of galaxies like the Milky Way, and so on.
Maybe it will find another cluster of objects that we didn't expect and didn't know about. Our puny brains couldn't make more than a small dent into all the possible graphs that need to be plotted, but WTF will take these in its stride.
This process won't be easy. At first, WTF will probably turn up things we forgot to tell it, and it will also find radio interference and instrumental artefacts.
As we gradually teach it what these are, it will start to recognise truly new objects and phenomena. More significantly, it will start to learn new things from the data that are made invisible to our brains by their sheer multidimensional complexity, but will be grist to the mill for WTF.
We expect WTF to become smarter than us, able to find those rare discoveries buried in the data. Perhaps WTF may even win the first non-human Nobel prize.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com.
Air Force's Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Wings by 600 Days in Orbit
Air Force's Mysterious X-37B Space Plane Wings by 600 Days in Orbit
By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist
An Air Force X-37B robotic space plane is shown after it landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The fourth mission of the program is now underway and just passed 600 days in Earth orbit.
Credit: USAF/Boeing
The U.S. Air Force's mysterious X-37B space plane has now spent 600 days in Earth orbit on the vessel's latest mission, and is nearing a program record for longest time spent in space.
The robotic X-37B lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 20, 2015, kicking off the program's fourth space mission (which is known as Orbital Test Vehicle-4, or OTV-4).
If the uncrewed spacecraft spends 74 more days aloft, it will break the duration record set during OTV-3, which touched down in October 2014. [The X-37B's Fourth Mystery Mission in Photos]
But it's unclear how long OTV-4 will last, or just what the X-37B is doing as it circles Earth; most details about the space plane's missions and payloads are classified.
The first OTV mission began on April 22, 2010, and concluded on Dec. 3 of that year, following 224 days of orbit. OTV-2 lifted off on March 5, 2011, and landed on June 16, 2012, after 468 days in orbit.
The record-setting OTV-3 mission chalked up nearly 675 days in orbit, circling Earth from Dec. 11, 2012, until Oct. 17, 2014.
All three previous OTV missions have come down to Earth at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but that may change for OTV-4's landing, whenever it occurs.
Heading for Florida?
Progress has been made on consolidating X-37B space plane operations, including the use of NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida as a landing site for the robotic space plane.
A former KSC space-shuttle facility known as Orbiter Processing Facility-1 (OPF-1) was converted into a structure that will enable the Air Force "to efficiently land, recover, refurbish and relaunch the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)," according to representatives of the aerospace giant Boeing.
X-37B vehicle development falls under the control of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems in El Segundo, California, which is Boeing's center for all space and experimental systems and government and commercial satellites.
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is leading the Department of Defense's OTV initiative, by direction of the under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics and the secretary of the Air Force.
Fleet size
To date, only two reusable X-37B vehicles have been confirmed as constituting the space plane fleet. The current OTV-4 mission is the second flight of the second X-37B vehicle built for the Air Force by Boeing.
The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane waits in the encapsulation cell of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle on April 5, 2010, at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida. The vehicle launched on the first X-37B mission on April 22, 2010.
Credit: U.S. Air Force
The military space plane looks like a miniature version of NASA's retired space shuttle orbiter. The X-37B is just 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 9.6 feet (2.9 m) tall, and has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.6 m). For comparison, the space shuttles were each 122 feet (37 m) long, with wingspans of 78 feet (24 m).
The X-37B has a payload bay about the size of a pickup truck bed that can be outfitted with a robotic arm. It has a launch weight of 11,000 lbs. (4,990 kilograms) and is powered in orbit by gallium arsenide solar cells with lithium-ion batteries.
Payloads aboard
Some payloads aboard the OTV-4 craft have been previously identified.
For example, Aerojet Rocketdyne has said that its XR-5A Hall Thruster had completed initial in-orbit validation testing aboard the X-37B space plane. Also on board is a NASA advanced-materials investigation.
Such test-bedding of equipment is one of the main purposes of OTV missions, along with the development of reusable-spacecraft technologies, Air Force officials have said.
"It remains a very useful way to test out things," Winston Beauchamp, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space, told Space.com last September during an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) meeting in Long Beach, California.
When asked about adding more X-37Bs to the nation's fleet, Beauchamp said that the current number of vehicles meets the Air Force's needs.
Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel six-part series, "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Published on Space.com.
ROUTINE FLIGHT BECOMES BIZARRE AS PILOTS ATTEMPT COMMUNICATION WITH UFO
ROUTINE FLIGHT BECOMES BIZARRE AS PILOTS ATTEMPT COMMUNICATION WITH UFO
Today’s UFO news focuses on a bizarre UFO sighting off the Atlantic Coast of the United States, where two commercial pilots attempted to communicate with a UFO by using the lights of their aircraft, according to a report filed with the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), and one pilot believes that they succeeded in doing so. The two pilots, who for obvious reasons given the history of UFO news reports, have chosen remain anonymous. Their UFO report outlines a 10-minute sighting that occurred off the coastline nearest to Atlantic City, New Jersey, during a routine flight from New York to Miami the day after Christmas.
The details included in the report are both professional and appear to be highly reliable. The pilots describe the altitude of their aircraft, the weather, and a detailed report about how the UFO appeared to them. Like many other UFO reports over the last two months, this UFO disappears.
“At first sight the light was approximately at our 1 o’clock position. It moved to 12, 10, 11, back to 12. At that time, the light appeared to move North, then south at a pretty rapid rate. Or I would describe it as closer and further from our position as the size seemed to get larger and smaller. The light ended in the 1st position and then moved out east and once at our 10 o’clock position disappeared.”
In this description, the pilots are clearly establishing a fast-moving UFO, as earlier in the report the pilot commenting established that his aircraft was moving at Mach 0.80. In civilian terms, the pilots are traveling at over 600 miles per hour. That means that the UFO in this news report is moving at a rate of speed that likely exceeded Mach 1, or breaking the sound barrier, many times in order to close the distances both toward and away from the commercial airliner. At this point, the pilot who was captain on this flight turns the report from interesting to astonishing.
“The other pilot stated he could see an orange/red flash in between the white flashes. We did flash our lights at it a few times, and the other pilot believes it flashed back in sequence; I felt the return flashes were probably coincidental, but possible. The flashing didn’t really appear to have any pattern. The whole incident lasted a minimum of 10 minutes.”
The pilots saw the UFO at roughly the same time as two subsequent events later that week. [Image by mscornelius/iStock]
It’s important to establish a key point regarding this UFO news. A commercial pilot’s experience is invaluable, but that pilot’s conclusions about a UFO are just as subject to confirmation bias as anyone else’s. Is the captain filing this UFO report seeing random light flash responses, or is the second pilot seeing patterns where none exists? Two human beings that operate at a high level of situational awareness are watching the same object, and both are seeing entirely different realities. That makes this UFO news more interesting and raises other questions.
The uncertain shape of the craft and the red and orange colors do mimic those UFO news stories. However, unlike the other reports, these pilots were observing a craft at high altitudes instead of on the ground so it is hard to know without more specific details about the UFO sightings from the ground. But the witness in Texas did note altitude changes with the UFO he observed.
That disagreement strengthens the veracity of this report by acknowledging the differences in experience, but it also begs a question. Does the disparity also serve to validate the probability that a UFO was moving along the New Jersey coastline? Neither pilot is in dispute that a UFO was moving at extraordinary speeds and with fast changes in altitude and direction. Two highly trained observers of the sky are unable to identify a craft moving in front of them, which is worthy of the news coverage alone, but could this also be a UFO that is similar to the news in the states of Washington and Texas a few days later?
The uncertain shape of the craft and the red and orange colors do mimic those UFO news stories. However, unlike the other reports, these pilots were observing a craft at high altitudes instead of on the ground so it is hard to know without more specific details about the UFO sightings from the ground. But the witness in Texas did note altitude changes with the UFO he observed.
It would be fascinating to get further details on why the second pilot perceived communication in the flashes. Did two commercial pilots communicate with a UFO? Hopefully, further research will clarify that exciting possibility.
The six most blatant alien hoaxes – and the people who fell for them
The six most blatant alien hoaxes – and the people who fell for them
A flying object becomes very exciting when no-one can identify it.
But once alien hunters realise they’ve been fooled by a flying frisbee or mugged off by a model spaceship, the whole thing feels a bit silly.
Here are six of the most audacious hoaxes – and the reasons why some people were fooled by them.
1. The Adamski images
George Adamski claimed to have been visited by Nordic aliens, writing three books about his experiences.
Later analysis showed the UFOs in his films and photographs were cobbled together using lightbulbs or other bits and bobs.
Although Adamski was labelled a hoaxer, he continued to peddle strange stories throughout his life, claiming aliens lived on most planets in the solar system.
Nonetheless, his images of cigar shaped motherships and strange craft flying in formation are among the most famous in UFO history.
2. Crop Circles
A complex crop circle formation at Monument Hill, Wiltshire (Photo: Barcoft Media)
Strange patterns have appeared in fields for decades, but the most famous outbreak of crop circles happened in England during the 1980s and 90s.
When two “jovial con-men in their sixties” stepped forward to claim responsibility in 1991, the cereal scam appeared to have been exposed.
“They called us ‘superior intelligence’ and this was the biggest laugh of all,” said David Chorley, who claimed to have pulled off the stunt with his chum Doug Bower.
Cereologists – people who believe crop circles were created by paranormal activity – gave the pair a frosty response, questioning how two elderly chaps could make the stunning patterns.
Scientists might not think crop circles are created by aliens, but a thriving community of cereologists beg to differ, suggesting ET is sending messages by squashing down farmer’s prize plants.
3. Alien Autopsy
This is perhaps the most famous hoax of all and supposedly shows the autopsy of a grey alien who crashed to earth.
The film was released in 1990 by a London-based entrepreneur called Ray Santilli and was marketed as bona fide footage of an extraterrestial who crashed at Roswell.
But it was later exposed as a hoax, after allegedly making its owner a tidy sum.
The footage was broadcast in more than 30 countries and is one of the best-known attempts to fool the public with a faux-alien.
4. The Great Moon Hoax
A lithograph of what an astronomer ‘saw on the moon’
We think of alien scams as a 20th century phenomenon, but this stunt happened way back in 1835 when an American paper called The Sun claimed to have observed life on the moon.
A story was fabricated about illustrious astronomer Sir John Herschel spotting bat-like humanoids, unicorns, beavers and bison on the lunar surface.
Sir John was initially amused by the scam, but later grew sick of being asked about the hoax throughout his life.
Circulation of The Sun skyrocketed after the moon hoax – and it never issued a retraction.
5. War of the Worlds
You’re Welles out of order: Reporters quiz director after War of the World panic
In October 1938, American radio listeners were sent into a panic when a CBS radio bulletin announced that Martians had launched an invasion.
Of course, the fake news program was actually a dramatisation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, directed and narrated by Orson Welles, and wasn’t meant to be a hoax.
But American public was already keyed up, used to hearing breaking news about Hitler’s annexation of German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia.
Many tuned in late without hearing an introduction which revealed the show to be a drama, making them believe aliens really were massing for an attack.
Mass hysteria then ensued and although newspapers have been accused of talking up the extent of the panic, there is no doubt Welles put the willies up a huge number of Americans – before the rest of the world laughed at them.
6. McMinnville UFO photographs
One of the McMinnville UFO photographs
The first of Oregon farmer Paul Trent’s two photos of a supposed “flying saucer,” May 11, 1950.
These incredible photos are still controversial, with some describing them as a “UFO-model-hanging-by-a-string” scam and others claiming they depict a genuine alien craft.
Tyey were snapped in 1950 by farmer Evelyn Trent, who spotted a “slow-moving, metallic disk-shaped object heading in her direction from the northeast”.
She shouted to her husband, who took a photograph which has been discussed ever since.
The pair insisted the photographs were real until they died and initial examinations of the images suggested they had not been tampered with.
Subsequent research claimed to have detected evidence of a thread of string in the snap, although no-one has yet fully answered the question of whether the McKinville UFO was real or fake.
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UN OVNI FAIT UN VIRAGE DEVANT ISS
UN OVNI FAIT UN VIRAGE DEVANT ISS
Date de l’observation: 5 janvier 2017 Lieu de l’observation: A bord de l’ISS
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan: Cette vidéo incroyable a été prise par un astronaute équipé d’une GoPro alors qu’il effectuait une sortie dans l’espace. La GoPro était directement relié à un stream en direct sur internet.
Comment je sais que c’est un ovni?
Observez bien la façon dont cet objet effectue un virage parfait à 180 degrés abruptement, ce mouvement est impossible dans l’espace et sur Terre un F16 serait incapable de le reproduire. L’objet savait qu’il allait trop se rapprocher de la station spatiale et qu’il allait être visible donc il a fait demi tour et s’est taillé. Aucune météorite et aucun outil perdu dans l’espace ne peuvent effectuer un tel virage tout en accélérant.
C’est donc une vidéo incroyable à partager absolument… Les extraterrestres nous observent 24h/24, 7j/7…
Does US have a secret space programme? Probe as more than 100 triangle UFOs spotted
Does US have a secret space programme? Probe as more than 100 triangle UFOs spotted
EXCLUSIVE: INCREASED sightings of bizarre "triangle UFOs" have fueled speculation the US is involved in a secret space program and witnesses are seeing test craft being flown.
The intensity of sightings had led the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) to probe the reason behind the apparent increase.
US-based MUFON is the world's biggest organisation dedicated to UFO research, and it keeps a global database of alleged sightings, which is crammed with reports of the so-called triangle craft.
Many UFO buffs and conspiracy theorists believe the triangles are genuine craft in the sky.
Some believe they are flown by aliens, while many conspiracy theorists believe the US Government has a secret "black project" space program to develop these spy craft that can even travel into space.
There are suggestions billions of dollars from US defence budgets cannot be accounted for and are funnelled into these secret projects, but there is no hard evidence to back up the theory.
MUFON has made no comment on who may be behind such craft, if they exist, but does believe the triangles could be intelligently controlled.
Roger Marsh, MUFON director of communications, said in an article on the website: "MUFON receives a steady stream of triangle reports, including cases where the object is under 500 feet – offering the witness a rather close-up opportunity to inspect what appears to be a manufactured and intelligently controlled ship that makes no sound and can move into and out of an airspace quickly like no known craft.
A manufactured and intelligently controlled ship that makes no sound and can move into and out of an airspace quickly like no known craft.
Roger Marsh
That probe was unable to establish what the sightings were, but MUFON continues to examine an increased level of reports.
Mr Marsh added: "Since this brief study, MUFON has received 91 additional triangle cases worldwide that have closed as unknowns; where 66 of those cases occurred between May 22 and December 22, 2016 – and 59 of that final set occurred within the US."
He said the triangle UFO was the second most-reported shape in recent years, with as many seen as standard discs.
The most witnessed is a sphere shape, he said.
A UFO buff, only going by the name of Cliff, posted on the MUFON website the organisation needs to sift out hoax images and up investigations into genuine pictures.
MUFON
A witness sketch of a triangle UFO they claimed to see in the USA.
"The triangle UFO is my favourite shape to report on for several reasons.
"MUFON receives a lot of reports of this shape, and the witness testimony is some of the most compelling where the craft is silent and very close to the ground – often just skimming the tops of homes and businesses or local tree tops as it meanders along – and then just as quickly as it appeared – it moves away incredibly fast until it’s a mere speck of light in the distance."
Mr Marsh investigated triangle UFO sightings between January and May 2016, with colleagues director of strategic projects Richard Hoffman, director of research Robert Powell, and archivist Cassidy Nicholas.
He said: "I think for 2017, MUFON should aggressively pursue a two directional approach, using Mr Marsh's report of these collected cases from 2016 to:
"1, aggressively further investigate these mentioned cases as a collection; I think there might be some overlooked, yet binding similarities, linking each case--as they are, I believe, to be indeed GENUINE incidents.
"2, from the plethora of photographs of this enigmatic UFO, MUFON needs to CALL OUT THE FAKES AND THEIR SOURCES.
"I believe the closer look efforts Mr Marsh has made into these 15 cases are close to discovering at least one, hopefully many, answers regarding the sightings of the black triangle UFO."
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WATCH: ‘UFO’ filmed on ISS camera is ‘AMAZING evidence ALIENS are watching us’
WATCH: ‘UFO’ filmed on ISS camera is ‘AMAZING evidence ALIENS are watching us’
UFO hunters are claiming they have evidence aliens are watching humans on the International Space Station after spotting what they believe is a craft hurtling past an astronaut’s live camera.
The footage, showing a “UFO” spinning 180 degrees at speed, is the latest in a string of alleged sightings caught on NASA livestream cameras on the International Space Station (ISS).
Many of the earlier films have been dismissed by sceptics and hoax busters as anything from a reflection on the camera lens.
But committed UFO investigators, who are convinced aliens in space craft are investigating human presence on the ISS, claim this one cannot be talked down.
How do I know this is a UFO? Watch and see how this does a perfect 180 degree turn in the sharpest possible way that even an F16 could not match.
Scott C Waring
"It knew that it was coming too close and might come into view, so it did a quick U turn by doing an upside-down 180 degree turn and returned to where it came from.
"No meteor or lost tools could do a 180 degree turn and accelerate while doing it.
"Excellent evidence that the space station is not only being visited, but is under the 24/7 watchful eyes of aliens...as well as UFO researchers."
But UFO hoax buster Scott Brando, who runs website ufoofinterest.org, tracked down the original footage and found it had been heavily zoomed in to make the object look bigger.
The original footage was actually filmed during a space walk by astronaut Terry Virts on February 25 2015.
Mr Brando concluded the object seen doing the flip was just an ice particle - something that has previously triggered claims of UFOs in NASA space footage.
He told Express.co.uk: "I found it is old footage from ISS Expedition 42.
"The video was taken by US astronaut Terry Virts during two spacewalks.
"It's just a small piece of debris, a small ice particle that's all."
The Chile-based Very Large Telescope needs a "new pair of sunglasses" to detect exoplanets in the star system Alpha Centauri. The Stephen Hawking-backed Breakthrough Initiatives will provide the funding for the upgrade.
( J.L. Dauvergne and G. Hüdepohl | European Southern Observatory )
The world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, the Very Large Telescope ,will get an upgrade to search for planets in the Solar System's neighboring star system, the Alpha Centauri.
The European Southern Observatory, which operates the telescope facility, and the Breakthrough Initiatives program agreed that the latter would fund an upgrade to the observatory's instrumentation.
The observatory will in turn search for exoplanets in the nearby Alpha Centauri. Such planets are potential targets for the miniature spacecraft that may eventually be launched by the Breakthrough Starshot initiative.
Breakthrough Initiatives
The Breakthrough Initiatives is a program backed by physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner to search for extraterrestrial life in the universe. It was revealed last year that Hawking and Milner plan to send a fleet of nano spacecraft to Alpha Centauri.
The Breakthrough Starshot project, hailed as among the most ambitious space projects ever, plans to use an Earth-based giant laser to push the fleet of interstellar space probes to nearly the speed of light.
Very Large Telescope Upgrade
The Breakthrough Initiative and ESO agreement is for the program to fund the modification of the VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared instrument that is mounted at the VLT. The aim of the upgrade is to sharpen the observatory's ability to hunt planets that may possibly support life around the nearby stellar system.
Challenges In Detecting Exoplanets
Detecting a potentially habitable planet is enormously challenging because the brightness of the host star in the planetary system where the planet resides tends to overwhelm the relatively dimmer planets in the system.
Making observations in the mid-infrared wavelength range reduces the brightness gap between the orbiting planet and the host star. The host star, though, is still millions of times brighter compared with the planet that needs to be detected, and this poses challenges to VLT's existing mid-infrared instrument VISIR.
Giving VLT A New Pair Of Sunglasses
Breakthrough's answer to this would be to give VISIR an upgrade, a new hardware that will include adaptive optics that would counter the distortions of light passing through the Earth's atmosphere. It is comparable to giving the observatory a new pair of sunglasses to reduce the blinding light coming from the host star of a planetary system.
"The new hardware includes an instrument module contracted to Kampf Telescope Optics (KTO), Munich, which will host the wavefront sensor, and a novel detector calibration device," Breakthrough Initiatives said in a statement.
Coronagraphy For Hunting Potential Planets
The upgrade would allow VLT to employ the technique known as coronagraphy that would reduce the stellar light and reveal possible signal coming from potential exoplanets.
"Multi-star high-contrast imaging opens up a huge diversity of star systems, and Alpha Centauri in particular," Ruslan Belikov, from NASA's Ames Research Center, explained during a presentation at the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 6. "If you wanted to detect Earth 2.0 around the nearest sun-like star to us, then this technology is required."
The Breakthrough Initiatives will fund the large fraction of the technologies and development costs while ESO will provide the necessary observing capabilities and telescope time.
The Chile-based Very Large Telescope needs a "new pair of sunglasses" to detect exoplanets in the star system Alpha Centauri. The Stephen Hawking-backed Breakthrough Initiatives will provide the funding for the upgrade.
( J.L. Dauvergne and G. Hüdepohl | European Southern Observatory )
The world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, the Very Large Telescope ,will get an upgrade to search for planets in the Solar System's neighboring star system, the Alpha Centauri.
The European Southern Observatory, which operates the telescope facility, and the Breakthrough Initiatives program agreed that the latter would fund an upgrade to the observatory's instrumentation.
The observatory will in turn search for exoplanets in the nearby Alpha Centauri. Such planets are potential targets for the miniature spacecraft that may eventually be launched by the Breakthrough Starshot initiative.
Breakthrough Initiatives
The Breakthrough Initiatives is a program backed by physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian tycoon Yuri Milner to search for extraterrestrial life in the universe. It was revealed last year that Hawking and Milner plan to send a fleet of nano spacecraft to Alpha Centauri.
The Breakthrough Starshot project, hailed as among the most ambitious space projects ever, plans to use an Earth-based giant laser to push the fleet of interstellar space probes to nearly the speed of light.
Very Large Telescope Upgrade
The Breakthrough Initiative and ESO agreement is for the program to fund the modification of the VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared instrument that is mounted at the VLT. The aim of the upgrade is to sharpen the observatory's ability to hunt planets that may possibly support life around the nearby stellar system.
Challenges In Detecting Exoplanets
Detecting a potentially habitable planet is enormously challenging because the brightness of the host star in the planetary system where the planet resides tends to overwhelm the relatively dimmer planets in the system.
Making observations in the mid-infrared wavelength range reduces the brightness gap between the orbiting planet and the host star. The host star, though, is still millions of times brighter compared with the planet that needs to be detected, and this poses challenges to VLT's existing mid-infrared instrument VISIR.
Giving VLT A New Pair Of Sunglasses
Breakthrough's answer to this would be to give VISIR an upgrade, a new hardware that will include adaptive optics that would counter the distortions of light passing through the Earth's atmosphere. It is comparable to giving the observatory a new pair of sunglasses to reduce the blinding light coming from the host star of a planetary system.
"The new hardware includes an instrument module contracted to Kampf Telescope Optics (KTO), Munich, which will host the wavefront sensor, and a novel detector calibration device," Breakthrough Initiatives said in a statement.
Coronagraphy For Hunting Potential Planets
The upgrade would allow VLT to employ the technique known as coronagraphy that would reduce the stellar light and reveal possible signal coming from potential exoplanets.
"Multi-star high-contrast imaging opens up a huge diversity of star systems, and Alpha Centauri in particular," Ruslan Belikov, from NASA's Ames Research Center, explained during a presentation at the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 6. "If you wanted to detect Earth 2.0 around the nearest sun-like star to us, then this technology is required."
The Breakthrough Initiatives will fund the large fraction of the technologies and development costs while ESO will provide the necessary observing capabilities and telescope time.
A growing concern for offshore races is the danger of UFOs – unidentified floating objects. While on occasion it is a collision with a marine mammal, it is too frequently a result of items not meant for the sea – timber, trash, or worse, shipping containers.
Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said the mine was found January 10 by a security vessel at the edge of the Gode Wind 2 offshore wind farm in Germany.
The mine will be towed to shore where it is expected to be detonated on a sandbank of the River Jade. The plan to detonate the mine at sea was cancelled due to weather conditions, the Command for Maritime Emergencies said.
Even now, over 70 years later, more than 2,000 tons of unexploded munitions are uncovered on German soil every year. Before any construction project begins in Germany, from the extension of a home to track-laying by the national railroad authority, the ground must be certified as cleared of unexploded ordnance.
Do we need to be sweeping the race courses now too?
The Spiral-tailed Monkey is just one of the many immense and mysterious ‘geoglyphs’ in Peru’s desert. The Nazca Lines strongly suggest the existence of ancient aliens on earth. (Photo: Naked Science/Youtube)
In 2012, a survey by the National Geographic found that 77% of the Americans believe that intelligent beings outside our planet not only exist, but also already come into contact with human beings. Disclaimer: this article may be sympathetic to the belief of alien visitation, but it does not boldly claim that sapient extraterrestrial beings actually exist, let alone live among humanity. All of the top 5 alien sites on earth just seem too strange to comprehend.
1. Nazca Desert, Peru
In the vast desert of Peru, several centuries old geoglyphs marked the terrain depicting recognizable images. Among them include a spider, a monkey, a dwarfish human, and a hummingbird - all of which drawn on land at an immense scale only visible from bird's eye view. Arguably, the most misunderstood of the images is the 'anachronistic' airplane landing pad stretching a distance of several miles.
2. Easter Island, Chile
The flat and elongated faces of the Moai statues located in Chile's Easter Island continue to baffle visitors. Each one of these colossal stone heads erected firmly on the ground proved an unsolved (definitively) engineering puzzle - leaving the average people to speculate on 'ancient alien' knowledge being responsible.
3. Giza, Egypt
It is not so much as the engineering marvel which made the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx a subject of 'ancient alien' speculation, but rather the curious placement of the structures. The coordinates of these monuments not only map the Orion constellation, mathematicians even decode a sophisticated calendar counting 50,000 years per segment.
4. Tiwanaku, Bolivia
The ruins of Puma Punku continue to baffle even the advanced engineers of contemporary times. With each stone weighing about 800 tons, it is plausible to question how most of these stone blocks resemble a level of stone carving theoretically achievable with powered precision tools - while these ruins were built centuries ago.
5. Nevada, USA
If there is any other place on earth that seems to suggest alien existence on earth, it is the infamous Area 51 in Nevada. This classified US Air Force facility is believed to be an asylum for extraterrestrials in our present time. Although the nearest town attracts visitors, the armed soldiers stationed at the base are authorized to use deadly force against intruders.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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