Kan een afbeelding zijn van hond

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.

Carl Sagan Space GIF by Feliks Tomasz Konczakowski

X Files Ufo GIF by SeeRoswell.com

1990: Petit-Rechain, Belgium triangle UFO photograph - Think AboutIts

Ufo Pentagon GIF

ufo abduction GIF by Ski Mask The Slump God

Flying Sci-Fi GIF by Feliks Tomasz Konczakowski

Season 3 Ufo GIF by Paramount+

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    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.
     

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    Rondvraag / Poll
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    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.

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    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...
    23-03-2017
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.NAVAL OFFICER: REPTILIANS AND NORDICS ARE HIJACKING MANKIND

    NAVAL OFFICER: REPTILIANS AND NORDICS ARE HIJACKING MANKIND

    A retired U.S. Navy NCO declares that he saw silver UFOs and an entrance to an UNDERGROUND BASE in the SOUTH POLE operated by humans and aliens in Antarctica A US Navy flight engineer has seen SILVER UFOs moving in the skies of Antarctica and a large (literally a large hole) of access to an UNDERGROUND BASE existing in Antarctica and occupied in collaboration by ETs and humans. 
     
    Antarctica has long been considered one of the most mysterious places on earth. It is therefore not surprising that numerous "conspiracy theories, claims, and reports" have been proposed over the years, attempting to explain some of the many puzzling occurrences on the most isolated continent on Earth. For years, people have stated that Antarctica is one of the most protected places on Earth for a good reason. 
     
    What do you think? Is there anything strange about Antarctica? Is Antarctica only an isolated, frozen continent? Or is there something more puzzling about this place, as many conspiracy theorists claim? 
     

    http://7tales.net/ }

    23-03-2017 om 17:18 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.US NAVY COMMANDER REVEALS GENUINE UFO PICTURES

    US NAVY COMMANDER REVEALS GENUINE UFO PICTURES

    Photographs of UFOs circled through the media last week as U.S. Navy Commander turned whistleblower decided that now was the time to release classified information, mostly photographs which would serve as confirmation of UFO existence. 
     
    Photos of a UFO launch and several others were produced last week by Navy Commander Graham Bethune. The photos date back to 1989 and are shocking as they make the rounds through the media. Bethune is currently retired and felt that the truth was more important than his U.S. Military standing and reputation. 
     
    AMAZING UFO PHOTOGRAPHS LEAKED BY U.S. MILITARY WHISTLEBLOWER
     
     
    Bethune claims that the photos came from a close friend of his. This friend, who requests and maintains anonymity, sent the photos to Bethune, claiming that he rendezvoused with another form of intelligence and took these photos then. At that moment, the photos were taken on September 27, 1989. 
     
    The location of the photos was somewhere around Nashville, Tennessee. Reportedly, the photos are of a theatrical reenactment, including real alien spacecraft. Strong circular columns of light come down from the craft as it appears to be either taking off or landing. 
     
     
    The story behind the is that the photographer was driving just outside of Nashville, through an unknown rural area of town, looking to take pictures of the night sky on July 14, 1989. Behind a line of trees, the photographer saw a light, which appeared to be active and moving. So, at about 9: 00 PM he stopped his car and took two models of a camera from his trunk. One was a Canon AE-1, and another was a Canon T-90.
     
     As a professional photographer, he moved toward the mountain and line of trees to see a better view. From there, he took the recently released stunning photographs. He projects that he was six miles away but still got amazing shots. In the end, he used the rest of his film to take these photos. The National UFO Center believes these photos to be genuine, as the film shows a central discharge for taking off. The individual credited with the photos still stays anonymous, and the photos are still investigated and studied to this day. 
     
     
     

    23-03-2017 om 17:15 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ guide and SpaceX Easter Eggs: Alien technology, side missions and other points to remember

    ‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ guide and SpaceX Easter Eggs: Alien technology, side missions and other points to remember

    MassEffect.com
    Game photo of "Mass Effect: Andromeda" fromMassEffect.com.  
    MassEffect.com

    If latest reports are to be believed, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” is full of SpaceX Easter Eggs. While a group of daring pioneers to travel outside the galaxy, the game never forgets those who are pioneering such journeys in the real world. It lovingly references ESA and SpaceX among others.

    Humans will discover alien technology on Mars in the year 2148, as per the game. This technology will rapidly enhance the technology of the humans in turn. Mankind will soon reach to the edge of solar system and to a galaxy beyond. As per a codex in the game, all this is possible because of the pioneering space exploration company SpaceX. Players will find a “SpaceX Model” in Ryder’s cabin on the Tempest. The model looks very similar to Falcon Heavy. This SpaceX rocket will become the most-powerful in the world.

    ESA also gets it own shout-out in the game. ESA, along with the theoretical Lowell City, are a big player in “Mass Effect: Andromeda.” Players will be surprised to see some of the space missions in the game have already been carried out in the real world. The game includes past missions such as ExoMars and also planned missions like JUpiter ICy moons Explorer or “Juice” and Mercury explorer BepiColombo, reports Gizmodo AU. “Mass Effect’s” timeline shows that humans will establish first colonies in Mars by the year 2103.

    However, in real life, NASA aims to achieve this goal as early as 2030. Meanwhile, there are certain things every player should keep in mind while playing the BioWare game. A player’s action on each planet has long-lasting effects. Turning on vaults and monoliths expands the area one can explore over time. This opens up new side missions and locations. Players can visit certain planets multiple time and some they can’t visit at all. Unless Suvi tells about an anomaly, players can simply orbit and scan them.

    According to Polygon, “Mass Effect: Andromeda” players can argue with crewmates without affecting the finality of the mission. A lot of conversations and missions in the game end with a binary choice. Selling ones salvage is important when hunting for the perfect weapon and armour. Players will tend to collect tons of stuffs from containers and fallen enemies. Selling them will give extra cash. Players can also go back to a particular part of the game and redo their skills.

    “Mass Effect: Andromeda” players generally tend to focus only on one skill tree. It is okay to do so early on in the game. But as the game progresses, other skills should not be ignored. Players should not get too much involved in side missions. Instead, they should have an evening just for these missions to earn XP and AVP points.

    23-03-2017 om 17:08 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Alien in 'Life' Raises Some Philosophical Questions for Humanity, Director Says

    Alien in 'Life' Raises Some Philosophical Questions for Humanity, Director Says

    The new science-fiction-horror movie "Life" centers on a bloodthirsty alien life-form, but the film's director, Daniel Espinosa, told Space.com that viewers shouldn't be too quick to cast the alien as a villain. 

    The film begins when a dormant, single-celled life-form is discovered on Mars and is brought to the International Space Station to be studied. A group of astronauts manages to revive the creature — nicknamed "Calvin" — only to see it grow rapidly in size, intelligence and strength. Soon, Calvin escapes its captors and realizes it can gain sustenance from their bodies. 

    Is Calvin's behavior vindictive, or is it a natural response to being a test subject? Does the creature behave any differently from the way humans have behaved and treated one another throughout our shared history? Espinosa thinks Calvin's behavior should prompt humans to do some self-reflection. [Best Space Movies in the Universe]

    "For me, Calvin is not malicious," Espinosa told Space.com. "He is only reacting." 

    What would happen if humanity were to encounter an alien species? That's a question that science-fiction movies have explored for about as long as science-fiction movies have been around. These flicks often explore how humanity might cope with an aggressive alien species, or how humans might end up being the aggressors. Espinosa said Calvin's behavior in "Life" is perhaps no different from that of any other animal in a similar situation. Perhaps the problem is not with Calvin, but with how his captors treat him. 

    Astronauts contend with an alien life-form on the International Space Station in the science-fiction movie
    Astronauts contend with an alien life-form on the International Space Station in the science-fiction movie "Life."
    Credit: Sony Pictures/CTMG Inc.

    "I think we have to think about … how we as a human species have reacted when we encounter the unknown," Espinosa said. "I mean, if you look into the history of the human species and how we have encountered new territories and new peoples, we have not been open-minded and gentle."

    "I truly believe that space could make us better. It could unite us," Espinosa continued. "But we have to get to a place where we are willing to [do] a bit of self-reflection [about] mankind's history."

    Actor Ariyon Bakare plays scientist Hugh Derry, who awakens Calvin and watches him grow. Despite Calvin's horrible behavior, Derry can't help but love this creature. [The Scariest Space Movies in the Universe]

    "I thought it would be like when you go in for that first [pregnancy] scan and you see your baby: It was like I was a father to this great discovery," Bakare told Space.com. "And yet, like a child in the teenage years, [the life-form] can become exceptionally unruly. But you still love them. Then, it became a dilemma between my rational mind and my irrational mind — yes, I know we've got to destroy this thing, but this is also the greatest discovery ever! And we've got to contain it; we've got to look after it; we've got to teach it."

    Bakare brought up an interesting question: If a life-form is hostile toward humanity but only because the life-form is acting on its instincts, can the two species ever respect each other? Or would that scenario erode any possible trust?

    Astrophysicists and people who are looking for signs of intelligent civilizations in the universe have also discussed whether an alien species with the technology to visit our planet would be more likely to be peaceful or hostile. Astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan said he thought such a civilization would be totally peaceful. Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has said he thinks it's more likely they'll be conquerors — similar to the Europeans who colonized the Americas and nearly wiped out the native populations in the process. If humans discover a kind of life that we can initially dominate, will we treat it with respect or dominance? 

    "Life" is first and foremost a horror movie (and viewers should be aware that the flick earns its "R" rating from some gory and disturbing scenes), but there's some philosophy to be found in it as well. It's contributing a few words to a discussion that's been going on in science-fiction movies for decades.  

    "Life" debuts in theaters nationwide on Friday, March 24.

    Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.

    Follow us @SpacedotcomFacebook and Google+.

    Original article on Space.com.

    http://www.space.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 16:59 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Tiny Folding Robots Could Explore Alien Worlds (Video)

    Tiny Folding Robots Could Explore Alien Worlds (Video)

    Future NASA robots exploring Mars and other alien worlds may be even more productive, thanks to a pocketful of tagalong minirovers.

    NASA engineers are developing the Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER), a lightweight, origami-inspired bot capable of flattening itself out, squeezing into tight spots and clambering up steep slopes. (You can see the PUFFER in action in this video.)

    PUFFERs could eventually scout out promising locations and explore places that are off-limits to the bots' parent rovers, project team members said. [Amazing Mars Photos by NASA's Curiosity Rover (Latest Images)]

    NASA’s Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER) was inspired by an origami design. This little robot could be used as a scout for larger rovers, going places that would be risky or hard to reach.
    NASA’s Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER) was inspired by an origami design. This little robot could be used as a scout for larger rovers, going places that would be risky or hard to reach.
    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    "They can do parallel science with a rover, so you can increase the amount you're doing in a day," Jaakko Karras, PUFFER's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "We can see these being used in hard-to-reach locations — squeezing under ledges, for example."

    Karras came up with the basic idea behind PUFFER's body while experimenting with origami designs, NASA officials said. He and his colleagues swapped out paper in favor of printed circuit boards like those in ordinary smartphones.

    "The circuit board includes both the electronics and the body, which allows it to be a lot more compact," PUFFER team member Christine Fuller, a mechanical engineer at JPL, said in the same statement. "There are no mounting fasteners or other parts to deal with. Everything is integrated to begin with."

    PUFFER originally had four wheels, but the design evolved into a two-wheel variant whose wheels could be folded over the body, allowing the little rover to crawl as well as roll. PUFFER also features a tail for stability, a high-resolution "microimager" camera and solar panels on its belly. (PUFFER can flip over when its batteries need a recharge.)

    A prototype of NASA’s PUFFER robot crawls under a ledge during field testing. The robot’s small size and foldable body allows it to wedge itself into small spaces.
    A prototype of NASA’s PUFFER robot crawls under a ledge during field testing. The robot’s small size and foldable body allows it to wedge itself into small spaces.
    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    The project team has already built a PUFFER prototype and put it to the test. Over the past 18 months, NASA officials said, PUFFER has performed field tests in Big Bear, California; a ski resort in Grand Junction, Colorado; and on Antarctica's Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on Earth.

    PUFFER isn't ready to fly just yet, the officials said. The team's planned next steps include incorporating scientific instruments, such as gear that can identify carbon-containing organic molecules, and giving the robot more autonomy. (PUFFER can currently be controlled remotely via Bluetooth.)

    The robot will also probably get bigger before it's ready to blast off. Future planetary-exploration versions may be about the size of a bread box, NASA officials said.

    "Small robotic explorers like PUFFER could change the way we do science on Mars," Karras said. "Like [the small Mars rover] Sojourner before it, we think it's an exciting advance in robotic design."

    Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @SpacedotcomFacebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

    http://www.space.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 16:46 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.7,000 Underground Gas Bubbles in Siberia Are About to Burst
    Yamal crater siberia pingo permafrost methane

    7,000 Underground Gas Bubbles in Siberia Are About to Burst

    Though the phenomena is a mystery, scientists are fairly certain of the culprit: climate change.

    Jacqueline Ronson

    In Siberia, Russian scientists have mapped out 7,000 dirt-covered mounds, which have mysteriously taken shape in the otherwise flat tundra landscape. Some of them are slowly filling up with pressurized carbon dioxide and methane, and some of them are on the verge of exploding.

    The finding was reported last week by TASS, a Russian news service, and comes after several giant craters suddenly surfaced on the Yamal Peninsula in the Kara Sea in 2014. Size estimates vary, although one of the craters is believed to be at least 300 feet across and maybe twice as deep.

    The origin story behind the craters is shrouded in mystery, and the theories being floated are questionable at best. Initial reports stated that villagers heard an explosion from 60 miles away, and at least one person saw the sky light up (these accounts are unverified). Early speculation pointed to meteorites, secret military testing, and of course aliens.

    The most credible hypothesis is less sinister. Carolyn Ruppel of the U.S. Geological Survey posited to National Geographic that a geological formation called a pingo collapsed suddenly, releasing a mass of natural gas that had been trapped under pressure below. It didn’t explode or burn up in flames; the gas bubbled to the surface as if it was in a pot of very thick simmering stew.

    This version of events is supported by satellite imagery that shows pingos at the sites where the craters are now found. A pingo is a round hill that forms over a mound of icy soil, occurring in places where shallow permafrost lakes have drained away. The soil directly under a permafrost lake is not frozen, kept warm instead by the liquid water above. But when the lake drains, this pocket of soil freezes, and since ice takes up more space than water it bulges into a mound.

    When the permafrost that makes up a pingo melts, it can collapse away into a crater, although before these examples in Siberia they were not known to form in such a dramatic way. But climate change could make this phenomenon a lot more common.

    Permafrost is soil that is frozen year-round, and typically, it’s been that way for thousands of years. The frozen ground traps methane, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere. As the Arctic warms in response to climate change, though, permafrost is melting. It creates a feedback loop, since the melting permafrost releases greenhouse gases which contribute to more global warming.

    Normally, the gases unlocked from the permafrost simply seep out of the ground and into the atmosphere. But in this part of Siberia, this isn’t always happening seamlessly, and deposits are accumulating underground.

    Take these air pockets found recently in the same region underneath a field. These, too, are the result of methane released from permafrost below, and it seems that a thick mat of roots and grasses is slowing the gases so that they accumulate under the soil faster than they seep out. This is creating cushiony pockets that look very fun to jump on.

    If the ice that makes the structure of a pingo melts and drains away, this could become a perfect reservoir for trapped gases beneath the soil to gather. As pressure builds up below and soil destabilizes from above, conditions ripen for the whole system to collapse in a very large belch.

    What exactly happened when these craters formed is still a bit of a mystery, and scientists continue to investigate. And yet, the Russian government would rather be prepared the next time a giant chunk of earth suddenly falls away, releasing a large volume of flammable and potentially explosive gas.

    That’s why they’re mapping the pingos across the landscape, although it’s yet unclear which are still frozen solid and which may be accumulating a store of pressurized methane. Once it’s known which mounds are dangerous, it will be possible to drill into them and release the gas before it blows. Which is too bad, really — in the name of science it would be a lot more interesting to wait and witness the cratering event first hand.

    Photos via Siberian Times / YouTube

    Jacqueline Ronson is a science writer based on Vancouver Island, Canada. Before that she lived way up in Whitehorse, where she reported for the Yukon News. These days she likes to talk to smart people about the future of the planet, ride her bicycle, play her banjo, and frolic.

    WHAT'S NEXT

    https://www.inverse.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 16:37 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:Diversen (Eng, NL en Fr)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Franse astronaut maakt adembenemende foto's vanuit ruimtestation - HLN.be

    Franse astronaut maakt adembenemende foto's vanuit ruimtestation - HLN.be

    Bron: Twitter

    © Twitter.

    VIDEO De Franse astronaut Thomas Pesquet (39) vertrok 120 dagen geleden op ruimtemissie naar het internationaal ruimtestation ISS en daar neemt hij al enkele maanden magisch mooie foto's van onze aarde. Hij deelt de beelden op Twitter en laat iedereen meegenieten.

    Pesquet vertrok in november vorig jaar naar het ISS en kwam daar op 20 november aan, samen met een Amerikaanse en een Russische collega. Ze blijven er zes maanden en zullen honderden wetenschappelijke experimenten uitvoeren. Pesquet is de jongste astronaut ooit van de Europese ruimtevaartorganisatie ESA en de tiende Fransman in de ruimte.

    Lees ook

    http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/961/Wetenschap/ }

    23-03-2017 om 16:27 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:HLN.be - Het Laatste Nieuws ( NL)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Incredible New Map Reveals Secrets of Earth's Magnetic Field

    Incredible New Map Reveals Secrets of Earth's Magnetic Field

    Earth’s magnetic field affects the planet’s climate, tectonic shifts, gravity, and even its rotation. However, its most important function is deflecting harsh solar radiation and particles that could upend our very existence here. Up until now, technology wasn’t advanced enough to allow scientists to fully map the magnetic field, but, thanks to the European Space Agency’s Swarm mission, they finally have a more complete understanding.

    The Swarm satellites are three spacecraft launched into Earth’s orbit — two in low elevation, one in high — in 2013 to survey the magnetic field, better understand the planet’s evolution, and measure the electric field in the atmosphere. After three years of collecting data, scientists were able to create the highest resolution map of the magnetic field to date.

    “We had a very high volume of data and good coverage of Earth’s lower elevation,” Dhananjay Ravat, a geophysicist at the University of Kentucky who helped ESA complete the map, tells Inverse. “We took a different approach and also used data from the lower altitude CHAMP satellite, which helped us to achieve 250 km wavelength in resolution, which was not possible before.”

    With the map, scientists can essentially peer 1,800 miles into Earth’s molten iron outer core, which generates the magnetic field and sends currents to magnetized rocks in the upper lithosphere — the rocky surface we dwell on.

    The findings show that the magnetic field isn’t evenly distributed across the planet. In some places, there are higher deposits of iron and nickel, both highly magnetized elements. For example, in the Central African Republic, the field is sharper and stronger than anywhere else on the planet, possibly because of a meteorite that hit Earth 540 million years ago.

    “The meteorite could have been made of iron and nickel and those fragments could have impacted the planet making it highly magnetized in that area,” explains Ravat.

    The map shows how the magnetic field seems to spike in the Central Africa Republic, scientists believe this may be because of a meteorite that struck the planet 540 million years ago.
    The map shows how the magnetic field seems to spike in the Central Africa Republic, scientists believe this may be because of a meteorite that struck the planet 540 million years ago. 

    Another interesting aspect of the map is that it shows the stripes on the sea floor. Those stripes are believed to be caused by shifts in the magnetic field. About every 700,000 years, the poles reverse, meaning the pointer on your compass would face south when it used to face north. This theory is evident in the stripes, which, as Ravat explains, are caused by rock formations that grow in the direction of the magnetic field and shift when the field shifts.

    “These stripes are symmetric with the mid-oceanic ridge and can really only be seen from high altitudes or some satellites,” Ravat says. “They tell us about how the Earth’s magnetic field behaved in the past, that is why this map is so important, it’s a continuous record of 200 million years.”

    This animation shows how the stripes are continuously formed on the sea floor.
    This animation shows how the stripes are continuously formed on the sea floor. 

    The next step for the scientists is to collect data during the solar minimum, a time when the 11-year solar cycle is at its least active. Ravat says during this time there will be less radiation from the sun, and the satellites will be able to generate even higher quality maps.

    Photos via ESA

    WHAT'S NEXT

    https://www.inverse.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 14:34 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Hubble Finds a Star Missing Since the Middle Ages
    Orion Nebula

    Hubble Finds a Star Missing Since the Middle Ages

    Medieval Europe wasn’t the only place in the universe marred by war during the Middle Ages. In the 1400s, there was a celestial battle raging in the night sky. A group of stars were fighting for their gravitational territory in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, which ended in at least three of them being hurtled off into the galaxy without so much as a clue as to where they went. Though two drifting stars had been found in the 90s, it wasn’t until 2015 that astronomers identified the third star and could finally confirm the location of the original event, thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope.

    In results published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Monday, the research team details learning how the rogue star, which they are calling “Source-X,” had moved significantly compared to Hubble images taken in 1998, judging that it must be moving at 130,000 mph. With that information they were able to trace Source-X back to the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, near the center of the Orion Nebula complex, about 1,300 light-years away — the same location where they had also traced back two other runaway stars.

    star orion nebula
    The motion of the newly discovered runaway star in the Orion Nebula.

    Those stars, which go by the names Source I and Becklin-Neugebauer (BN), were both found in the ‘90s. BN traveled at about 60,000 mph, while Source I was moseying along at 22,000 mph. But, without Source-X, astronomers really couldn’t pinpoint where they had come from.

    hubble orion nebula
    A Hubble close-up view of the stars is shown at top right. The birthplace of the multi-star system is marked "initial position." Two of the stars — labeled BN, for Becklin-Neugebauer, and "I," for source I — were discovered decades ago. Source I is embedded in thick dust and cannot be seen. The third star, "x," for source x, was recently discovered to have moved noticeably between 1998 and 2015, as shown in the inset image at bottom right. Source x is traveling at an unusually high speed of 130,000 miles per hour, which is 30 times faster than the velocity of most stars in the nebula. 

    Now, after wrangling all three, scientists can point to the exact time and location of the event, giving them very rare evidence of a star cluster tearing apart.

    “The new Hubble observations provide very strong evidence that the three stars were ejected from a multiple-star system,” lead researcher Kevin Luhman, a professor at Penn State University, said in a press release. “Astronomers had previously found a few other examples of fast-moving stars that trace back to multiple-star systems, and therefore were likely ejected. But these three stars are the youngest examples of such ejected stars.”

    Luhman says the stars are probably only a few thousand years old and still show remnants of their pre-natal disks, which are rings of dust that spin rapidly around a star while it is forming.

    This remarkable discovery is helping scientists understand how young star clusters eventually duke it out for their place in the galaxy, which they believe happens when two stars get too close and form so much pressure that they push out all of the stars in the cluster in a cosmic explosion.

    Astronomers are eager to hunt for more runaways drifting through the Milky Way once the James Webb Telescope launches in October 2018 to further understand how these events unfold.

    Photos via NASA, ESA, and K. Luhman, NASA, ESA, K. Luhman, M. Robberto, NASA, ESA, M. Robberto

    WHAT'S NEXT

    https://www.inverse.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 14:24 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.VIDEO. Admirez cet incroyable survol de Mars

    VIDEO. Admirez cet incroyable survol de Mars

    Un photographe finlandais a assemblé des images prises par la sonde MRO en un spectaculaire film qui donne l'impression de survoler la planète Rouge en rase-mottes.

    Survol de Mars

    Image extraite du film du photographe Jan Fröjdman, qui a assemblé les images de la planète Mars capturées par la sonde MRO

    ©JAN FRÖJDMAN /NASA

    Jan Fröjdman est un photographe amateur finlandais. C'est aussi un passionné d'espace, et un utilisateur habile des logiciels de montage et d'effets spéciaux. Fasciné par les images de la planète Mars, prises par la caméra HiRise montée sur la sonde Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), le photographe a décidé de les sublimer. Il s'est attelé à la tâche de collecter de multiples clichés de plusieurs zones pour les assembler. Résultat : un film de 4 minutes 30 qui donne l'illusion de survoler la surface de la planète Rouge de si près que le relief des dunes et des collines nous apparaît très nettement.

    Recréer cette impression de relief à partir d’images capturées par une caméra mono-objectif (et donc pas prévue pour tourner en 3D) a nécessité un travail de fourmi. Le photographe explique avoir dû prendre pour chaque cliché des milliers de points de repère au sol (plus de 33.000, chiffre-t-il) afin que la succession des images se déroule de manière fluide. Et comme chaque image a été capturée avec un angle différent, cet effet de relief est alors naturellement recréé au fil des images qui se succèdent. "Cela m’a pris trois mois à temps plein pour réaliser ce film" estime le photographe. Ce dernier précise toutefois que son travail est plus artistique que scientifique. Les couleurs notamment, qui ont demandé un gros travail d’étalonnage, ne sont pas conformes à la réalité. Ce qui n’enlève absolument rien à la fascinante beauté de ce film.

    23-03-2017 om 14:11 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:références - MAGONIE (Fr)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Alien mothership? HUGE circular shadow floats past ISS in remarkable NASA footage

    Alien mothership? HUGE circular shadow floats past ISS in remarkable NASA footage

    AN alien mothership was filmed floating past NASA’s International Space Station, conspiracy theorists have claimed.

    The bizarre footage shows part of the space station looking out onto a black nothingness.

    For no apparent reason, the dark outlook begins to get lighter as some sort of circular object floats past.

    It continues to get lighter and lighter as the shadow is lifted.

    The mysterious shape floating in front of the ISS

    YOUTUBE/STREETCAP1

    BIZARRE: A huge circular shape floated past NASA's International Space Station

    Man woken by disturbing ALIEN noises from frozen lake

    In his caption to the video, he pointed out he wasn’t for certain saying it was a “huge mothership or any sort of alien spacecraft” but that it “certainly looks unusual”.

    Alien enthusiast Streetcap1 posted the footage to his YouTube channel on Saturday (March 19).

    As he watched the mysterious shape move past, he said: “You see a big shadow coming across the picture.

    “Look at that – what on Earth can that be?”

    Are aliens at WAR on the moon?

    But some of his loyal fan base did reach the conclusion it was proof of extraterrestrial life.

    “OMG, a mothership,” one user wrote.

    Another added: “Some f***** up s*** is going on out in space and it’s slowly becoming known. Be aware I’m pretty sure more events are still to come.”

    The ISS

    YOUTUBE/STREETCAP1

    TRANSFORM: The footage originally just showed darkness in front of the ISS

    Other followers suggested it could have been the filter in the camera moving out of screen, or simply the sun’s light coming around.

    But one viewer pointed out: “The background is completely obscured by whatever that large object is.

    "How can it be a shadow or an eclipse?”

    It comes after another strange video surfaced claiming to show alien crash sites on the moon.

    And there are some that believe alien bases still exist on the moon.

    http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

    23-03-2017 om 13:25 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Glowing UFOs Over Durham, England On March 22, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.

    Glowing UFOs Over Durham, England On March 22, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.


    Date of sighting: March 22, 2017 (???)
    Location of sighting: Durham, England

    This is a fantastic video of UFOs over Durham yesterday. There person used an old night vision camera that had its date settings wrong, so the exact date is still unknown. I have seen lights like this here in Taiwan once. It was very similar in most ways, but there were more of them, and they were traveling from one horizon to the other, but when they saw us they looped over my family at midnight as we walked home. These are energy beings. They acted alive and highly aware of the people who were watch from the ground. 

    Scott C. Waring

    Eyewitness states:

    Saw some strange lights in the sky to north from Durham England, they where around every night for a month last year. Recorded with infared hunting scope hence the poor quality of recording. They really were stunning. Il be honest the moment the camera shuffled at 55 sec mark, it got real close, and did spook me. Thought i would share so they can be identified.

    http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 12:38 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:LATEST ( UFO ) VIDEO NEWS ( ENG)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.UFO In Blue Sky Takes Color Of White Clouds, March 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.

    UFO In Blue Sky Takes Color Of White Clouds, March 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.



    Date of sighting: March 22, 2017
    Location of sighting: Unknown

    This is a great capture of a cloud color UFO that moves away from the camera. The person didn't state their location, but we can see that the UFO has a shape that is very similar to those of the glowing diamond UFOs seen over England three weeks ago. 

    Scott C. Waring

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

    23-03-2017 om 12:34 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:LATEST ( UFO ) VIDEO NEWS ( ENG)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.A Genius Boy Says Humans Live Eternally – Martians Still Live In Underground Cities

    A Genius Boy Says Humans Live Eternally – Martians Still Live In Underground Cities

    indigo children

    A boy who lives in the town of Zhirinovsk of Volgograd region in Russia made his parents worried about his fascinating talents. Named Boris Kipriyanovich or Boriska, the boy was born on January 11, 1996, and since the age of 4, he has been visiting Medvedetskaya Gryada, a well-known anomalous zone near the town. It appears that Boris needs to visit the mountain regularly to get his energy needs.

    Boriska’s parents, who are known to be nice, educated, and hospitable people, don’t know how others will perceive Boriska when he grows up. The parents say they would be happy to talk to an expert regarding how to raise their wunderkind.

    His doctor mother noticed that as a baby boy, he could hold his head in only 15 days after his birth. Four months later, he could utter the word “baba” and soon after, he could speak simple words. He had no difficulties reading newspaper headlines at one year and a half. And at two years old, he began drawing and learned painting six months later. He started his kindergarten at the age of two. Tutors noticed right then the genius boy’s language skills, different memory, and remarkable quick-wittedness.

    The parents witnessed that Boriska not only got knowledge from the outer world, but also through strange channels. They saw the boy reading unknown details from somewhere.

    The mother said that no one has ever thought his son, but he told them specific facts about Mars, planetary systems, and alien civilizations.

    When the boy turned two years old, space started to become the permanent item of his stories. According to Boriska, he used to live on Mars and added that the planet is still inhabited until now, but in underground cities after the planet lost its atmosphere due to a mammoth catastrophe.

    The boy also claimed that he used to fly from Mars to Earth to do research. He further claimed that he used to pilot a spaceship during the Lemurian civilization. He said that the Lemuria died because they stop to develop themselves spiritually and eventually broke their planet’s unity.

    The boy told his parents after reading Ernest Muldashev book titled “Whom We Are Originated From” that Lemurians were nine meters tall and lived 70,000 years ago. He also recollected pyramids and shrines when reading Muldashev’s second book “In Search of the City of Gods.” The boy said that ancient knowledge is not under the Great Pyramid of Cheops, but under another pyramid, which has not yet been discovered. He stated that human life would change when the Spinx is opened, which has opening mechanism behind the ear, but he could not remember exactly.

    Boriska, who is one of the so-called Indigo children, said that he has no fear of death as they live eternally.

    He also revealed that Martians mostly breathe carbon dioxide. Though he came from Mars, he breathes oxygen when in a human body, but he stressed that it causes aging.

    When asked by specialists about the reason human-made spacecraft often crash as they approach the Red Planet, he replied that Martians destroy stations containing harmful radiation through transmitting special signals.

    Indigo children start to appear on Earth as a token of the coming major transformation of the planet.

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

    23-03-2017 om 12:29 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:LATEST ( UFO ) VIDEO NEWS ( ENG)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Sleeping Their Way to Mars

    Sleeping Their Way to Mars

    For astronauts on long space voyages, the safest way to travel may be in induced hibernation.

    SpaceWorks
    SpaceWorks, a NASA contractor, has proposed Mars transports and studies of “induced torpor” for their passengers. 
    (SpaceWorks)
    Some day, astronauts packed into rocketing tin cans bound for other planets may be protected from radiation and space sickness by having their metabolisms depressed to a fraction of their typical rate. They’ll hibernate like bears as they hurtle through space for months at a time. Perhaps they’ll sleep in white coffin-like pods, as the cryo-preserved astronauts in futuristic fantasies like 2001: A Space OdysseyAlien, and Avatar did.

    More likely, though, astronauts and space colonists will learn a few tricks from dehydrated snails, which survive for a year or more ingesting nothing; giant pandas subsisting on low-calorie bamboo; leeches that survive a liquid nitrogen bath; children who have been submerged in frozen ponds yet can still be resuscitated; or skiers buried in an avalanche and brought back to life ever so slowly, reborn from a super-cooled, dreamless state.

    Scientists call this phenomenon “torpor-induced hibernation.” Once considered outlandish, torpor induction—the old term was “suspended animation”—is under serious study for long-duration spaceflight.

    This interest is due in part to advances in low-temperature surgery, but also to an increased understanding of cases like one documented in 1995 in the journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. A four-year-old boy fell through the ice of a frozen lake in Hanover, Germany. A rescue team pulled him out but could not resuscitate him in the field. His pupils were fixed and dilated, and he remained in cardiac arrest a full 88 minutes. Upon admission to the hospital, his core body temperature was 67.6 degrees Fahrenheit, a sign of severe hypothermia.

    Twenty minutes later, as doctors worked to warm the boy’s chest cavity, the ventricles of his heart started contracting. Ten minutes after that, his heart resumed normal sinus rhythm. The boy made a full recovery and was discharged two weeks later. His doctors believed the icy lake had rapidly cooled his body to a state of protective metabolic torpor, preserving all vital organs and tissues while reducing the need for blood oxygen—in effect, saving the boy’s life. Cases like this are “exactly why we think that very deep hypothermia can allow our patients to survive,” writes Samuel Tisherman, director of the Center for Critical Care and Trauma Education at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in an email. “The key is cooling the brain either before blood flow stops or as soon as possible after blood flow stops. The colder [it gets], the longer the brain can tolerate not having blood flow.”

    Therapeutic hypothermia has become a part of surgical practice. Experimental procedures with cooling started as early as the 1960s, mostly in cardiac and neonatal cases. Babies were placed in cooling blankets or packed in ice and even snow banks to slow circulation and reduce oxygen requirements before heart surgery.

    Today, physicians use moderate hypothermia (roughly 89 degrees) as a staple of care for some newborns in medical distress, such as those born premature or suffering from fetal oxygen deprivation (hypoxia). The babies are treated with cooling caps for 72 hours, which lower their metabolism just enough to reduce tissue oxygen requirements and allow the brain and other vital organs to recover.

    By the same token, surgeons apply cooling and metabolic suppression to patients who’ve suffered various physical traumas: heart attack, stroke, gunshot wounds, profuse bleeding, or head injuries resulting in brain swelling. In emergency situations, anesthetists can insert a cannula—a slim tube—into the nose that feeds cooling nitrogen gas directly to the base of the brain. In one experimental therapy, surgeons insert a cardiopulmonary bypass cannula through the chest and into the aorta, or through the groin and into the femoral artery. Through these tubes, they infuse cold saline to reduce core body temperature and replace lost blood. Once the trauma surgeon has control of bleeding, a heart-lung machine restarts blood flow and the patient is given a blood transfusion.

    “If you get cold fast enough before the heart stops, the vital organs, particularly the brain, can tolerate cold without blood flow for a time,” Tisherman explains. He is performing a clinical trial of this cold saline replacement technique in critically injured trauma victims in Baltimore, and he expects the study will last at least until the fall of 2018 and possibly later. The ensuing hypothermia rapidly decreases or stops blood flow for an hour or so, cutting oxygen requirements and giving surgeons time to repair critical wounds and then, ideally, warm the patient back to life.

    The Torpor Enigma

    Today, some in the aerospace community are looking to medically induced hypothermia and the resulting metabolic stasis as a way to save space and mass, along with freight, fuel, food, and frustration on the months-long flights to Mars or more distant planets. The studies are just beginning. One challenge is medical: What’s the best method for putting healthy astronauts into torpor? Even though therapeutic hypothermia is well understood in operating rooms, keeping people in deep space chilled and sedated for weeks, months, or years on end is an entirely unknown area of inquiry. Some scientists studying hibernation in animals suggest that other means of suppressing metabolism would be better: Specialized diet, low-frequency radiation, even the use of proteins that trigger hibernation in animals like bears and Arctic ground squirrels, which can regulate their metabolic rates safely and, in most cases, reversibly.

    Astronaut Scott Kelly
    Astronaut Scott Kelly inside the Soyuz simulator at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow in March 2015. Kelly spent a year aboard the International Space Station being observed for the long-term effects of spaceflight on the human body, in anticipation of long spaceflights. 
    (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

    Another obvious hurdle is funding. How much will NASA prioritize research into metabolic stasis, both animal and human, when exploratory budgets are being reduced? Pete Worden, former director at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and now the executive director of Breakthrough Starshot, says that with NASA’s emphasis on synthetic biology and the ability of organisms to survive and function in exotic environments like Mars, “it’s probably inevitable that the hibernation area is going to get funded.”

    That optimism is hardly universal. “People are frustrated,” says Yuri Griko, a Moscow-trained NASA radiobiologist and lead senior scientist in Ames’ space biosciences division. “When Sputnik was put up in space in 1957, our generation was so excited, so inspired, and we believed that we’d be on Mars in the millennium. But…we’re still not on Mars. It’s personal for people like me because we expected to be much more progressed than we are right now.”

    Griko acknowledges that metabolic suppression research is in limbo itself. He began at NASA in 2005 after spending five years at the biotech outfit Clearant, Inc., using ionizing radiation to inactivate pathogens in therapeutic blood products, transplant organs, and commercial biopharmaceuticals. NASA then invited Griko to research ways to protect astronauts from space radiation. It turns out that metabolic suppression is one of the most effective mechanisms nature provides.

    When animals go into hibernation their bodies survive radiation without significant damage to their cells. Griko believes metabolic suppression mitigates radiation-induced damage by reducing biochemical processes and excessive oxidative stress. Hypoxia—lower oxygen consumption—is one possible explanation for the radio-protective effect: In hypoxia, production of oxygen free radicals and hydroxyl radicals is reduced. Because ionizing radiation releases free radicals causing cell damage, suppressing metabolism and oxygen consumption appears to do the reverse: it reduces normal cell death and prolongs healthy cell life.This protective effect is even more pronounced at lower temperatures.

    Griko speculates that hibernation may also protect animals from the muscle atrophy and bone loss people typically experience in microgravity. Humans who eat a balanced diet while confined to bed rest for 90 days lose a little more than half of their muscle strength, Griko says. But bears that consume nothing and are confined to their dens for the same length of time or slightly longer lose only 25 percent of muscle strength and exhibit no signs of bone loss. He notes that animals capable of hibernation—tortoises and pocket mice—haven’t been flown in space in decades.

    NASA did not fund his request for flight experiments involving hibernating animals. His current research is limited to surveys of existing hibernation studies, along with his own laboratory work on stasis in mice, leeches, and snails. Griko proposed a 2015 international conference on torpor that would have brought together the world’s hibernation experts to discuss deep-space applications. NASA declined to fund it, though Griko still hopes to raise the money.

    “There are significant barriers to torpor research if we’re serious about going farther in space,” says Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander who spent 193 days in orbit between October 2004 and April 2005. Animal research is a particularly sticky problem, one that has landed NASA in the crosshairs of animal-rights groups before. “Even research on simple primates starts getting people up in arms,” he says.

    The Two-Planet Solution

    Jason Derleth, a program executive with NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts in Washington, D.C., sees reason to hope. Under Derleth’s watch, NIAC has awarded two innovation grants since 2013, supporting one company’s detailed plans for torpor-enabled Mars transfer habitats. The project leader, SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc., of Dunwoody, Georgia, about 20 miles north of Atlanta, is an aerospace design contractor for NASA and the Department of Defense and has done work in the development of tiny CubeSat satellite constellations. But it’s torpor that’s captured the imagination of SpaceWorks president and chief operating officer John Bradford.

    “I’ve asked myself for 15 years how to engineer materials, structures, and propulsion systems to enable a mission to Mars and its moons,” he says. Bradford is a Ph.D. aerospace engineer who has led several NASA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Air Force Research Laboratory projects designing military spaceplanes.  He was also a consultant on the 2016 science fiction film Passengers, wherein Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt played interplanetary settlers who wake from hibernation early. “We’re not in the vein of an Apollo mission anymore—no more ‘flags and footprints,’ ” he says. “We need to become a two-planet species.”

    Arctic ground squirrel
    Though the Arctic ground squirrel hibernates for two-thirds of the year, it experiences only minor bone and muscle loss. University of Alaska neuroscientist Kelly Drew is studying the animal, hoping to extend her findings to humans. (© 2005 Lesa Hollen and Leone Thierman)

    Bradford’s engineering and medical team used the first of those NIAC grants, issued in 2013, to design a compact zero-gravity, rigid-structure habitat based on the International Space Station crew module designs. The habitat featured closed-loop oxygen and water production systems, direct access to the Mars ascent and descent vehicles, and support for a crew of six, all of whom would be kept in torpor for the entire six- to nine-month Mars journey.

    The proposed medical treatment relies on using techniques similar to the ones surgeons perfected to induce hypothermia. For example, cooling nitrogen gas could be fed to astronauts via nasal cannula, lowering brain and body temperatures to between 89 and 96 degrees—close enough to normal to maintain torpor without overcooling the heart or increasing the risk of other complications. Cooling tends to decrease the body’s ability to clot, Tisherman says. He has also noted that patients who are cooled to mild levels of hypothermia—93 degrees—for 48 hours or more have more infections than uncooled people.

    In the SpaceWorks habitat, robotic arms in the module would be programmed to carry out routine chores, manipulate astronaut limbs, and check body sensors, urine evacuation lines, and chemical feeds. Robots would administer electrical stimuli to astronauts’ muscles to maintain tone, along with sedation to prevent a natural shivering response. The astronauts would also receive total parenteral nutrition, in which all nutrients—electrolytes, dextrose, lipids, vitamins, etc.—are administered via liquid through a catheter inserted in the chest or the thigh. SpaceWorks outfitted TPN supplies in the experimental module to last 180 days; should the habitat be required for a prolonged Martian stay, the module would have another 500 days’ worth of nutrition.

    In all, the SpaceWorks Mars Transfer Habitat reduced total habitat mass, including consumables, to 19.9 tons (low-Earth-orbit weight). By comparison, NASA’s TransHab habitat, with consumables specified in the agency’s Mars Design Reference Architecture 5.0, weighs 41.9 tons. That’s a 52 percent decrease in mass. Compared with the NASA model, SpaceWorks was able to shrink total habitat consumables by 70 percent.

    NIAC officials were intrigued. “SpaceWorks made an interesting proposal,” Derleth says. “People have been studying torpor for medical applications. But no one as far as we could find is actually doing an engineering study of what cryo-sleep or torpor would actually do to the architecture of a mission.”

    In 2013 NIAC awarded SpaceWorks a Phase 1 grant of $100,000 to develop a rough torpor-enabled architecture for exploration-class missions—those with four to eight crew members heading to Mars or its moons. But the agency balked at the idea of putting all crew members in torpor for the entire journey. What about medical or spacecraft complications? How long could astronauts stay under without psychological or physical damage? What if some complication required their premature awakening? What about the slow waking and warming times to get the astronauts out of hibernation?

    These questions sent the SpaceWorks team back to work. They designed a crew habitat for torpor that would keep at least a few astronauts awake on a rotating basis for piloting and interventions (as in the 1968 movie 2001, in which two crew members of the Jupiter-bound spacecraft Discovery remain awake while the others sleep).

    Then Bradford’s team moved further. Designing three interconnected habitat modules for a 100-passenger “settlement class” Mars mission—colonists, in other words—the team produced a spacecraft and habitat that departed completely from anything in NASA’s plans. The SpaceWorks settlement-class craft includes two compact, rotating habitat modules, each accommodating 48 passengers in torpor. Rotation at varying speeds would produce artificial gravity to mitigate astronauts’ bone loss.

    But in the bolder “sentry mode” proposal, a separate habitat module would accommodate four care-taking astronauts on duty throughout the mission. One or more could be rotated with others in torpor to keep crews fresh.

    “You get 80 percent of the benefits by cycling through the hibernating crew and waking some up, rather than turning out the lights on everybody for six months,” Bradford says. Spacecraft accommodating settlers in torpor would be lighter, which would enable much greater velocities, shorter voyages, and, possibly, more efficient radiation shielding because of the radio-protective effect of metabolic stasis. Further, Bradford says, hibernating astronauts wouldn’t experience motion sickness, a common problem on the International Space Station.

    SpaceWorks has designed concepts for a “settlement-class Mars Transfer Habitat” that include two chambers, each carrying 48 colonists in torpor. Their pods would revolve around a central axis to generate artificial gravity, minimizing bone and muscle deterioration. 
    (Artwork by Mark Elwood and Nathan Kreuzman, Copyright 2016, SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc.)

    Sleep Like a Bear

    But what would torpor in space feel like? Not like being frozen dead in cryogenics, then being revived, according to Doug Talk, an obstetrician and SpaceWorks consultant who has used therapeutic hypothermia to treat oxygen-deprived babies. “[Cryogenics] has had zero success with that,” Talk says. “The human body isn’t meant to be frozen; it’s mostly water, and when water expands [as it does when it freezes], it produces cellular damage.”

    More likely, astronaut torpor will be like coma, a state hovering between dreamless sleep and semi-conscious awareness. “Coma patients display cycles of brain activity that alternate between seeming wakefulness and non-REM sleep,” Talk explains. Even though coma patients are unable to move, their brains remain active and even responsive to outside stimuli, including verbal commands.

    Bears experience hibernation in similar ways; their core temperature drops only a few degrees (similar to the mild-hypothermia temperature range in humans), while their metabolism drops 75 percent. Bears in northern climates can remain in torpor for seven to eight months without eating or drinking, and pregnant female bears will give birth to their young and nurse them even while in hibernation.

    “Someone in torpor will act like the bear does,” Talk theorizes. “They’ll cycle through non-REM sleep and being awake. And like bears when they finally wake up, they’ll be sleep deprived.”

    In May 2016, NIAC approved a second phase of the SpaceWorks project, this time releasing $250,000 to extend first-phase engineering, operational, and medical research plans. “Phase 1 projects have proven that what they’re talking about is real,” Derleth says. “We’re very happy to see Dr. Bradford’s progress.”

    In addition to habitat engineering refinements, the SpaceWorks team initially proposed a two- to three-week hibernation test with a small number of healthy pigs. Pigs, like humans, are natural non-hibernators; therefore their physiological responses to torpor induction will offer better clues to what humans may expect than studies of mice or snails, obviously. Derleth says agency regulations prevented NASA from funding the pig study.

    So SpaceWorks submitted an alternate proposal: to research existing metabolic suppression experiments comprehensively in order to establish a near-term road map for technology development, including more-methodical animal research leading to human trials. This summer, NIAC will conduct a mid-term review of SpaceWorks’ progress and determine whether to award them an additional $250,000.

    “We continue to believe that live-subject research will be necessary to advance this torpor technology toward longer durations,” SpaceWorks founder and CEO John Olds wrote in a follow-up email. “That step may require private sponsors.”

    Regardless of who pays for it, testing with animals can be difficult to do because it continues to raise ethical questions.

    “I think NASA is right: Slow is the way to go,” says Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. While there’s enthusiasm for suspended animation for long durations in space, NASA doesn’t need any more troubles from animal rights activists, in his opinion.

    “Pigs are somewhat physiologically similar to humans, so pigs are a reasonable animal model for testing,” says Caplan. “Though it’s fair to say to critics: The number of pigs involved in this kind of study wouldn’t amount to one’s week’s breakfast for the average American.”

    The Human Factor

    Sci-fi movies and novels have romanticized torpor, Caplan says, suggesting humans could move in and out of that coma-like state without difficulty. That might not be the case.

    The humans in which torpor will first be tested will be unusual people—most likely test pilots, Caplan predicts. “These people take risks every day; they understand the physiological risks because they test jets and know many colleagues who have died. I’ve had astronauts tell me they’ll enroll in any experiment just to get into space. Our job is to rein them in.”

    Science fiction
    Science fiction has long portrayed hibernation as a means of enduring travel across astronomical distances. In the 1986 movie Aliens, a squad of Marines sleep through the entire three-week flight to planet LV-426. (TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORP.)

    Human trials would be an unprecedented step. No one has ever tried to use hypothermia to suppress the metabolism of a person who wasn’t severely sick or injured, much less super-healthy astronauts.

    “We’ve had lots of healthy people who have volunteered for long-term torpor experiments,” Talk says. “There’s a pent-up demand for people who want to punch out of life for six months. I’m sure the FDA wouldn’t approve of that.”

    Meanwhile, Talk has invited two experts on therapeutic hypothermia—Alejandro Rabinstein, the medical director of the neuroscience intensive care unit at the Mayo Clinic, and Kelly Drew, a University of Alaska Fairbanks neuroscientist investigating animal hibernation—to join SpaceWorks’ research team. Drew and other scientists at the University of Alaska’s Institute of Arctic Biology are studying the hibernation patterns of endothermic animals like hedgehogs, Arctic ground squirrels, and bears. Their hope is to find the key to a healthy hibernation state—and the signaling cascade in the brain that induces it—that could be adapted to human astronauts without side effects.

    The Arctic ground squirrel, for example, cools itself to 32 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. No scientist understands exactly what triggers its hibernation, although a particular brain and muscle receptor—the A1 adenosine receptor—appears to make the squirrel grow cold and sleepy, only to emerge with minimal bone and muscle loss eight months later.

    “Adenosine is a neuromodulator that plays a role in sleep and in reducing brain excitability,” Drew says. “It’s ubiquitous in animal brains.” She has induced hibernation in Arctic ground squirrels by using a drug to stimulate their A1 adenosine receptors. Drew can also wake squirrels up from hibernation by using another drug to block the same receptor.

    But the signaling cascade and genetic makeup of humans are far more complex and difficult to decipher.  Adding to the complexity of the task is the fact that not all hibernators hibernate the same way.

    The only primate known to do it, Madagascar’s fat-tailed dwarf lemur, spends seven months a year in torpor, mostly in hot weather; it survives by consuming fat stored in its tail. Low metabolic rates in animals do not require low body temperatures.

    Meanwhile, Rabinstein, who plans to help SpaceWorks evaluate mild hypothermia to induce torpor, says the techniques that work in an ICU might not be so reliable in space.

     “The fact that little children have ‘drowned’ and survived in ice ponds and lakes is remarkable and has given us hope,” he says. “But can we transform this [understanding of deep hypothermia] into a more mild degree of hypothermia and allow people to tolerate it for a longer period of time and get away with it, without psychological or physiological stress? We have to see, but we think there is a chance.”

    http://www.airspacemag.com/}

    23-03-2017 om 01:35 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.10 weird little aliens you can find right here on Earth

    10 weird little aliens you can find right here on Earth

    The strangest creatures already live among us

    Sure, we'd all love to traipse over to Europa and go hunting for alien lifeforms. But in the meantime, we can enjoy the weirdos that already live right here on Earth. Here are 10 of our favorite Earth-dwelling aliens—organisms so strange they seem otherworldly.

    immortal jellyfish

    Wikimedia Commons

    The ocean is full of immortal beings

    Well, biologically immortal at least. Turritopsis dohrnii starts out as a little larvae but eventually settles down and forms a colony of identical polyps. Eventually, the polyps break up and form a horde of independent, sexually mature jellyfish that like to snack on other medusae. When those jellyfish get old or sick, they're able to revert back into child-like polyps and breed entirely new colonies. This growth and regression can theoretically continue forever, making the species essentially immortal. Tell me that isn’t extraterrestrial.

    You're already doing their work, dummy

    Wikimedia Commons

    You're already doing their work, dummy

    “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary," the genus Corvus totally took advantage of me. Ok, so that’s not exactly how Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven" actually goes, but it could be, because crows, ravens, rooks, and jackdaws are totally playing you. Considered some of the smartest animals of Earth— on par with many non-human primates—these black birds make tools like wire hooks and even set nuts in front of our tires so they can later retrieve the meat when our cars crack them. Admire all you want, but they never promised they came in peace.

    You wish you were

    Wikimedia Commons

    You wish you were "blind" like this bat

    Even the coolest vampire myths have got nothing on real bats. Let’s just list out the basic facts: they’re the only mammal capable of flight; a brown bat can eat 1,000 mosquitoes in a single hour, and they don’t even need to be thanked for it; they can live in communities up to a million in number; the largest bats have wingspans of 6 feet, which is taller than the average American man; and, with lifespans up to 30 years, they live way longer than most mammals their size. And that doesn’t even cover their coolest feature—echolocation. By sending out sonar into the darkness they can effectively “see” through the night, because solid objects in their path send back echoes. Small echoes might be a bug, ready to eat, while larger echoes might indicate a tree these guys need to avoid. I’m just saying, that would be a great tool on another planet, maybe one that never sees sunlight

    Avoid eye contact and back away slowly

    Wikimedia Commons

    Avoid eye contact and back away slowly

    These deep sea creepers get a bad rap—and I’m not here to absolve them. Anglerfish live in near total darkness, they have big heads and truly incredible underbites, and the females glow thanks to bioluminescent bacteria on the end of a tiny probe growing out of their foreheads. But the anglerfish’s strangest feature is its parasitic mating strategy. The male sinks his teeth into the female and in return, she slowly absorbs him. His eyes disappear into her abdominal wall, and then the rest of him follows, until all that is left are his testes, which the female wears like a statement necklace. Oh, and she wears as many as six of these testicular trophies at a time. Stay safe, my friends.

    You... BEE!

    Wikimedia Commons

    What's the buzz

    Bee’s knees are actually cooler than we originally thought, as new research suggests they really can bend it like Beckham. Scientists trained bees to play soccer, and the bees who showed the most prowess were those that watched other bees play before trying it themselves, implying a capacity for social learning. And that’s not all, folks. They recognize human faces. They also somehow know how to determine the shortest flight path between flowers. And each bee is specially suited to its role in the hive community, while still sporting an individual identity. Of all the animals on this list, bees would likely make the most benevolent overlords. But there's still the matter of those stingers...

    a tardigrade

    Wikimedia Commons

    The strangest thing

    These deceptively cute “water bears” are actually super strong. Enamored of their resilience, scientists have been pushing them to their limit for centuries—and though they are not limitless, they’re still pretty impressive. Tardigrades can survive a few minutes at over 300 degrees Fahrenheit and a few days at negative 300 degrees. They can survive the vacuum of open space for a week and a half as well as the pressure cooker of the Mariana Trench. Once, a tardigrade even bounced back to life after 30 years spent frozen. It promptly gave birth and lived to see many generations of its family prosper.

    Platypus

    Wikimedia Commons

    Platypus phone home

    What even is a platypus? It’s like a collage made by a child asked to design an alien using Earthly animal body parts. Take a beaver’s tail, duck’s bill and feet, and an otter’s fur, mix it all together and you get a platypus. Oh, and give the males a poisonous spur in their little webbed foot. And then make the females lay eggs, but also nurse her young after they hatch. They’re definitely a great candidate for the most alien-y animals on Earth, but based solely on their scattered physiology, it seems doubtful they'll get organized enough to stage a coup. See also: the pangolin.

    army ants

    Wikimedia Commons

    Do not take me to your leader

    Army ants get stuff done. The colony is divided between blind—but terribly efficient—workers; big-jawed workers that move goods and protect the nest; a breeding class of males; and the queen around which they all revolve. These clear “careers” allow the unit to build a nest out of only their bodies, work together to kill and consume hundreds of thousands of individual prey (other ants, wasps, larvae) each day, and protect millions of the queen’s eggs. Imagine what humans could do with this kind of hive mind—for better or worse (but probably worse).

    mantis shrimp

    Wikimedia Commons

    I ain't afraid of no shrimp

    When humans look at a mantis shrimp, they see the tiny creature's beautiful rainbow shell. What a mantis shrimp sees when it looks in the mirror is hard to determine, because where we have only three receiving cones in our eyes, the mantis shrimp has sixteen. They're seeing colors we can't even imagine. But for all their beauty, they're total monsters, and boy, are they good at being bad. The shrimp can move so fast the water around their prey actually boils—so hot, when the bubbles collapse, they emit a blast of light—making it easy to pick apart the prey and feast. Hopefully, they won't turn on us before we've learned to use their own skills against them, as researchers are currently working to translate their understanding of the mantis shrimp into the development of military technology.

    The original desalination plant

    Wikimedia Commons

    The original desalination plant

    Penguins are cute, sure, but they're not typically lauded as innovators. But these flightless birds have a special supraorbital gland on their foreheads that gives them a power humans have been lusting over for decades: they can remove sodium chloride from the seawater they ingest. Penguins, it turns out, need freshwater, but they're not likely to get it, as they tend to live in salty waters. So they've developed a super-kidney that takes the salt out of a penguin's bloodstream and secretes it back into the ocean through its bill. It doesn't turn saltwater into freshwater directly, as some urban legends have suggested, but it's an impressive tool nonetheless.

    23-03-2017 om 01:09 geschreven door peter  

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    Categorie:Diversen (Eng, NL en Fr)
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Three new chances for life out there

    Three new chances for life out there

    A new discovery could change how we see ourselves in the universe

    Seven new exoplanets were discovered several weeks ago by a Belgian team of astronomers in the Atacama desert in Chile. These discoveries were made with the help of NASA telescopes but were not first discovered by NASA.

    The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) was used to discover the incredibly cool dwarf star named Trappist-1. This star is right in our backyard, being only 40 light years away.

    An illustration shows the possible scene on the surface of the planet called TRAPPIST-1f.

    According to Jerome Fang, an astronomy instructor at Orange Coast College, the discovery was made when the planets orbiting Trappist-1 passed in front of it.

    “So these are seven planets found around the star, Trappist-1. They were detected by watching the star they go around. They can actually see the planets go in front of the star, and that makes the star slightly dimmer,” Fang said.

    All the planets orbiting this star are similar to Earth in size and mass, experts say. Only three of them are the right distance from Trappist-1 which makes them likely to have water, spelling the potential for life in the Trappist-1 system.

    “These planets are all similar to the Earth in terms of how big they are, how much mass they have. And three of them are, yes, they’re the right distance from the star that they could have liquid water on the surface, which makes them maybe habitable,” Fang said.

    The reason this discovery is so important is because this is the largest number of temperate, Earth-sized planets that have been discovered to date. The Trappist-1 system, while it has many differences, is very similar to our solar system.

    “I guess the unusual thing with that is that there are seven Earth-like planets. Most of them will tend to be a little larger, and not that they haven’t found a few that are sort of similar to the Earth in size, mass, maybe. But seven in one system is pretty unusual I’d say,” Nicholas Contopoulos, an astronomy instructor at OCC said.

    One big difference is that all seven planets orbit very close to their star, all closer than Mercury orbits the sun. The reason three of them are still theorized to have water and be hospitable for life is because the planets all orbit an incredibly cool dwarf star.

    Illustration of the TRAPPIST-1 star and its seven planets

    The TRAPPIST-1 planets are snuggled close enough to their dim, red star to potentially have liquid water on their surfaces.

    Today, astronomers aren’t sure if these planets have water. They aren’t sure if the radiation from Trappist-1 has stripped the planets of their atmospheres, or if this star is still relatively young and hasn’t stripped much of the planets’ atmospheres.

    “We don’t actually know definitively what’s on the surface because we can’t tell. We hope that the composition of these planets is similar to the Earth’s. We think they’re rocky. That’s about all we can say. Beyond that we can’t say if there’s an atmosphere, I don’t think we know that. We can’t say that they have moons because moons are impossible to find. Just bare-boned, we kind of know they’re like the Earth,” Fang said.

    Despite all these advances and discoveries in the field of astronomy, financial support toward the sciences is being cut from the federal budget.

    “They’re certainly withdrawing funds from science related content, like EPA is going to be defunded. Basically the military is going up $54 billion so they’re going to find the money somewhere. So I think they’re just taking it from things that they don’t feel are necessary,” Contopoulos said.

    Some instructors believe that NASA is too important to continue to cut from the federal budget.

    “Studying astronomy with NASA and all that is giving us a sense of perspective, like how do we fit into this crazy thing we call the universe. It puts into perspective maybe the issues we deal with. I talk to students and they tell me, ‘hey, our problems don’t seem so big when we study things that are out there.’ A lot of the greatest successes in NASA is because we put in the money. So if we’re taking away money that just makes the chances of doing something great and amazing even less likely,” Fang said.

    Recently private industry is filling in the gaps where NASA isn’t able to from a lack of funding. SpaceX announced recently that it will send two private citizens on a trip around the moon before the end of next year. Its CEO, Elon Musk, has even discussed plans to colonize Mars in the future.

    “I guess what’s different this time is you’re looking at private industry doing a lot, not that it didn’t do that before, but it’s not just NASA anymore. It’s sort of more private industry, where before NASA was sort of the head,” Contopoulos said.

    Although the astrophysics as an industry isn’t as popular as it used to be, some students claim that the industry is expected to pick up in the near future.

    “If anything, the space engineering industry is growing and it’s about to experience a really big boom probably within the next 10 years,” Garrett Prechel, a 30-year-old physics major said.

    OCC’s Astronomy Club is filled with students of all majors ranging from physics and astronomy to even art and childhood education. The students, however, have the same positive sentiment toward astrophysics.

    “It is concerning to have a government that doesn’t support it but at the same time you can’t rely on them for everything. Things will change eventually. The work has a lot more meaning than some people telling you that it’s not worth funding,” Junell Brown, an 18-year-old astrophysics major said

    One faculty adviser to the club stresses the importance of advancing in the realm of science and  continuing to learn about the world in a scientific manner.

    “Anytime a country or a civilization diminishes the curious component, you endanger the strength of that civilization because that’s kind of what drives this curiosity. You’re trying to find your place in the cosmos. By understanding that and the fundamentals, we can better understand our purpose. We don’t have all the answers, and we definitely need science to push a civilization forward. If you diminish that you’re kind of cutting yourself at the legs, and just going, ‘well, things will just work out.’ Well they don’t, and I think that’s a dangerous path,” Contopoulos said.

    http://www.coastreportonline.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 00:49 geschreven door peter  

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    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.7 Alien 'Earths' May Be Swapping Life via Meteorites

    7 Alien 'Earths' May Be Swapping Life via Meteorites

    Tiny life-forms can move easily between these recently described planets, according to a study of the travel times between worlds.

    An illustration shows the possible scene on the surface of the planet called TRAPPIST-1f.

    The discovery of alien life would be revolutionary. But what if we uncovered it on two—or even seven—planets all orbiting the same star?

    That’s the tantalizing possibility offered by the cosmic grouping called TRAPPIST-1, where seven Earth-size worlds circle a star roughly 39 light-years away. According to a new study, those planets are packed so tightly around their stellar host that the seeds of life could be hopping between them with ease.

    The study, conducted by Manasvi Lingam and Abraham Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is based on a theory known as panspermia, which in turn is based on the fact that planetary debris can be swapped between the worlds in our solar system. This is especially true for neighboring rocky planets—for instance, asteroid strikes have sent fragments of Mars crash-landing onto Earth.

    Panspermia takes this a step further and suggests that life could catch a ride on that debris, hitchhiking from one planet to the next. It might sound wild, but recent research shows that some extreme forms of life can survive conditions akin to an interplanetary journey. Some scientists even argue that the seeds of life on Earth could have come from Mars.

    In the TRAPPIST-1 system, all seven planets are nestled within a region that’s more than 20 times smaller than the distance between Mars and Earth. Such close proximity raises the tantalizing possibility that panspermia could take place in this system with ease.

    The TRAPPIST-1 planets are snuggled close enough to their dim, red star to potentially have liquid water on their surfaces.

    PLAYING HOPSCOTCH

    Now, Lingam and Loeb have calculated that exact probability. Comparing the TRAPPIST-1 planets to Earth and Mars, they found that the travel time between one planet and the next is shorter by a factor of a hundred. This boosts the chance that life can survive such a harrowing journey. They also found that the likelihood of one planet’s debris landing on another is larger by a factor of 20 or so.

    Altogether, the possibility that life can play hopscotch from one planet to the next is a few thousand times higher among the TRAPPIST-1 worlds than the possibility that it did the same from Mars to Earth.

    “In a single planetary system, like TRAPPIST-1, the interchange of bacterial life is almost inevitable,” says the University of Buckingham’s Chandra Wickramasinghe.

    Even better for the imagined aliens, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets can potentially host life, given the right conditions.

    Three of the worlds orbit in the star’s habitable zone, the region where they receive the perfect amount of heat for liquid water to flow on their surfaces. The rest of the worlds are temperate, meaning they might be equally warm if they have the right internal temperatures and atmospheric blankets.

    “We might find forms of life that survive under conditions that we haven't anticipated,” says Loeb. “That's why it's exciting. We shouldn't have any prejudice, but should look at all seven planets in TRAPPIST-1.”

    BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND

    Of course, right now there’s no direct evidence that panspermia happens in our solar system or beyond. And some astronomers are doubtful that hitchhikers could survive such a traumatic journey.

    First, the building blocks of life would have to endure extreme heat and pressure from the impact that spewed them into space. Out in the open void, they would be subjected to harsh ultraviolet radiation from their host star for potentially millions of years. Finally, they would once again face blazing temperatures as they fell from the sky and crash-landed in yet another violent impact.

    “The poor organism would be fried twice and would be radiated by ultraviolet photons,” says Brice-Olivier Demory of the University of Bern, a co-author on the study that announced the TRAPPIST-1 discovery last month.

    Amaury Triaud, a University of Cambridge astronomer who also co-discovered the TRAPPIST-1 planets, is on the fence: “I'm a skeptic about this,” he says. “But I also have to remind myself that life has managed to survive in extreme conditions.”

    Bacteria have persevered inside nuclear reactors and on the outer rim of the International Space Station. Tardigrades—tiny water-dwelling invertebrates that look like chubby bears—have endured the vacuum of space for up to 10 days. And organisms frozen in Antarctic ice for centuries have been revived in labs. (Also see “Weird Life Found Trapped in Giant Underground Crystals.”)

    VIEW IMAGE

    An illustration shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planets might look like from Earth if we had a powerful enough telescope.

    Wickramasinghe also points out that not every cell flung between worlds needs to survive: “It's like throwing seeds in the wind,” he says. “Most are destined to be destroyed. But a very few could take fruit—and that's all that's needed.”

    Already, the discovery team is planning to turn the Hubble Space Telescope toward the seven siblings, along with the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope, due to launch in 2018. If the TRAPPIST-1 planets have atmospheres, these powerful instruments will be able to discern some of the molecules in the air and potentially find the fingerprints of life.

    Should astronomers find signs of life on one planet, that will motivate them to scour its neighbors for similar signatures—even if the search comes up empty-handed at first. And if they find a match, it will suggest that the planets are indeed swapping life.

    “That’s a golden opportunity to study panspermia,” Loeb says.

    And if they find the right evidence, that would imply life doesn’t necessarily have to start over again on each new planet. Instead, it might spread like wildfire throughout a planetary system—and maybe even the cosmos.

    Follow Shannon Hall on Twitter.

    http://nationalgeographic.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 00:39 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Categorie:ASTRONOMIE / RUIMTEVAART
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Reynolds, Gyllenhaal take on aliens in Life

    Reynolds, Gyllenhaal take on aliens in Life

    A-listers Ryan Reynolds (far left) and Jake Gyllenhaal lead the cast of sci-fi blockbuster Life.
    A-listers Ryan Reynolds (far left) and Jake Gyllenhaal lead the cast of sci-fi blockbuster Life.
    PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

    LOS ANGELES Eight decades after Flash Gordon hinted that aliens might not have humans' best interests at heart, mankind still risks destruction in the movies to make contact with extraterrestrial life.

    From Frederick Stephani's 1936 big-screen serial through the US$1.2-billion Alien franchise to last year's Independence Day: Resurgence, the heroes of more than 500 space invasion films have been lining up to die in new and inventive ways.

    This year's first sci-fi blockbuster is Life, a claustrophobic game of cat-and-mouse between the crew of the International Space Station and a rapidly evolving life form that caused extinction on Mars and now threatens all life on earth.

    Set in the near future, Daniel Espinosa's breakneck-speed thriller hits theatres on Friday with an international cast led by A-listers Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds.

    "The script, pacing-wise, was blistering and terrifying. I mean, when I was reading it, you get to a couple of moments in the script, I was legitimately anxious, which is a very good sign," Gyllenhaal said.

    The film reunites Reynolds with his Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, although this white-knuckle suspense horror is short on the snarky humour that marked the 2016 superhero movie.

    "There's nothing scarier than something that's just trying to survive and knows a little more than you do," Reynolds said at the world premiere at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, last Saturday.

    "I think people love that and people love a claustrophobic thriller too. Hitchcock started doing it and now it's been around forever."

    Comparisons with Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror Alien - in which a deadly extraterrestrial stalks the crew of a spaceship - are inevitable, especially when Alien: Covenant, the sixth instalment in the iconic series, is fast approaching.

    "I can see why people will compare it with Alien, but science fiction came from an old idea of noir cinema. I wanted my movie to play into that old American tradition," Espinosa said.

    "Another big difference is the time, the era, when Alien was made. It was a post-atomic age when everyone was very much looking into the future. Young people today live in such a chaotic world that they don't think so much about what might happen in the next 10 years, let alone 100 years."

    The point of Life, said Espinosa, was to make a thriller that would be entirely plausible today - a rover discovering a single-cell organism on Mars and bringing it back to the International Space Station, only for it to grow powerful and turn hostile.

    In keeping with the "science reality" approach, the production team consulted British geneticist Adam Rutherford, who has published influential books on the use of genetic modification to make new life forms.

    Espinosa worked with Rutherford to create an entirely original being made up of cells that can each perform any bodily function, and is structurally superior to humans.

    The Life crew created a shape- shifter creature that adapts to its environment and can mimic whatever it comes into contact with, growing ever bigger, stronger and more threatening.

    "We don't think that a life form would survive on the surface of Mars. The atmosphere is too thin and it would be sterilised by ultraviolet radiation," Rutherford said.

    But he managed to come up with an idea for a creature that had survived for millennia by protecting itself from the Red Planet's harsh conditions. "The idea was that the alien has been in hibernation, protected from the radiation beneath the surface of the planet," he said.

    Early reviews have been mixed, with the Hollywood Reporter predicting that the "underwhelming" movie may "suffocate in the anticipatory atmosphere surrounding Alien: Covenant".

    Other critics have been kinder, however, pointing to its lean directing and refreshingly multicultural cast boosted by actors: Japanese Hiroyuki Sanada, Briton Ariyon Bakare and Belarusian Olga Dihovichnaya.

    "Life is a thrill when it's smart, but it's even more exciting when the characters are dumb - which is ultimately a paradox the film wears proudly, to the possible extinction of the human race," concluded Variety magazine.

    AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

    http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore }

    23-03-2017 om 00:30 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
    Klik hier om een link te hebben waarmee u dit artikel later terug kunt lezen.Watch Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Control a Giant Mech Robot

    Watch Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Control a Giant Mech Robot

    Watch Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Control a Giant Mech Robot
    Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos piloted a giant "mech" robot at the 2017 Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) conference.
    Credit: Jeff Bezos/Twitter

    Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos got to live out every 6-year-old's fantasy when he got behind the controls of a giant "mech" robot.

    The Verge reports that Bezos tried out the 13-foot-tall (4 meters) robot yesterday (March 19) at his company's private Machine Learning, Home Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration (MARS) conference. Video of the bot, developed by Hankook Mirae Technology in South Korea, first surfaced in December in promotional clips. Live Science was skeptical of the robot's existence and functionality at the time. 

    But the new video reveals that the robot does, indeed, exist. However, it's far from clear how much the mech (a term for piloted, humanoid robots) can really do. Bezos flails the arms around using controls in the robot's torso cockpit, but the robot does not take any steps and is tethered to the ceiling, presumably for safety reasons. [The 6 Strangest Robots Ever Created]

    The robot does not pick anything up in the video, either, which is notable because its developers say that one of their goals is to create piloted robots for real-world jobs, like cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was damaged in 2011 when a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. So far, none of the footage of the mech has shown it manipulating objects. The massive bot also runs on external power, which means that, so far, it's unable to work untethered.

    Such limitations could be overcome. Roboticists have already developed robots that can navigate uneven terrain, including Boston Dynamics' intimidating "Big Dog" and the bipedal "Atlas" humanoid robot. Atlas can open doors, lift boxes and even right itself when pushed, and operates with an internal power source. Those bots are much smaller than the giant mech Hankook Mirae is trying to develop, however, and don't present the same safety challenges as a piloted robot. According to Hankook Mirae's website, the mech robot, nicknamed Method 2, weighs a minimum of 1.6 tons.  

    A designer affiliated with Hankook Mirae, Vitaly Bulgarov, told Live Science in December that the giant mech has been under development for several years and is a prototype made to show off particular technologies, like the human-machine interface that controls the arms.

    In that case, the mech may never be used for more than demonstration purposes, while the individual technologies used to make it might be redirected to more practical designs.

    Whatever the ultimate function of the robot, it certainly taps into human fantasies of what robots should be. Mechs like the Method 2 design appear in the 2009 film "Avatar" as well as in "Starship Troopers" (1997) and in "Pacific Rim" (2013). The character of Ripley (played by actress Sigourney Weaver) also uses one in the classic sci-fi film "Aliens" (1986), which Bezos referenced during his ride in Method 2.

    "Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?" Bezos quipped.

    Original article on Live Science.

    http://www.livescience.com/ }

    23-03-2017 om 00:22 geschreven door peter  

    0 1 2 3 4 5 - Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen)
    Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )


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