The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
25-03-2017
Disc UFO over New Jersey was ‘football field’ size, claims witness
Disc UFO over New Jersey was ‘football field’ size, claims witness
A New Jersey witness at Lakehurst reported a 2014 incident where a disc-shaped object the size of a “football field” moved overhead and then quickly moved away, according to testimony in Case 82734 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The object was seen hovering over Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst.
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The witness was driving home from work on December 10, 2014, when the incident began.
“At the end of this one long, hilly road, you come to a four way stop,” the witness stated.“Diagonally, there is a large, empty field. And beyond that is the base. Once I got to the stop sign there was another car in front of me and we simultaneously saw something in the sky and hit the brakes immediately in the middle of the road.”
The object was as large as a football field.
(Credit: Google)
The witness described the object.
“There were 12 or more lights lined up in an oval shape larger than a football field. It could have been much bigger if it was further way. Similar to the Phoenix Lights. I just found that real quick as an example. But the oval shape was more pronounced. The ring or halo of lights were almost tilted on an angle. The lights lit up in a row. The oval sped up quicker and quicker until it vanished completely without a trace. The reason why I decided to write about this now is because I was driving past that field the other day and realized you can see stars everywhere in the sky, except for where those lights were above the base.”
The object moved away very quickly.
Pictured: Lakehurst, NJ. (Credit: Google)
Lakehurst is a borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, population 2,654. Lakehurst Maxfield Field, sitting just north of the city, is the naval component of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a United States Air Force-managed joint base headquartered approximately 25 miles (40 km) east-southeast of Trenton in Manchester Township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. It is primarily the home to Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division Lakerhurst, although the airfield supports several other flying and non-flying units as well.
New Jersey MUFON Chief Investigator Ken Pfeifer is investigating. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
Euclid: ESA's Search for Dark Matter & Dark Energy
Euclid: ESA's Search for Dark Matter & Dark Energy
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
An artist's concept of the ESA's Euclid misssion to study dark energy.
Credit: ESA/C. Carreau
Euclid is a mission planned by the European Space Agency (ESA) that aims to learn more about the parts of the universe we can't see — specifically, dark energy and dark matter. These form most of the universe and are thought to be responsible for phenomena such as the acceleration of the universe's expansion.
Euclid is expected to launch in 2020 from French Guiana aboard a Soyuz rocket. It will take roughly 30 days for Euclid to make its way to its planned location in space, which is a gravitationally stable area known as a Lagrange point. Euclid will be at L2, which lies about a million miles from Earth but in the opposite direction of the sun. At this point, with the Earth, moon and sun behind it, a spacecraft can get a clear view of deep space.
As a survey mission, Euclid will last at least six years and cover 15,000 square degrees of sky. Its survey will be performed as a "step and stare," meaning that the telescope will do measurements on about 0.5 square degrees of the sky at a time.
Euclid history
The ESA's current guideline for science missions is called Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. In 2007, a proposal process for Cosmic Vision resulted in two missions that were intended to measure the geometry of the universe: DUNE (Dark Universe Explorer) and SPACE (Spectroscopic All Sky Cosmic Explorer.)
DUNE was supposed to image the sky across a wide field to study dark energy and dark matter. Its primary measurement method was weak gravitational lensing. SPACE was supposed to create a 3-D evolutionary map of the universe across 10 billion years, by measuring galaxy redshifts and spectra. However, after an assessment study those two missions were combined into one: Euclid. (Euclid is named after an Ancient Greek mathematician who is sometimes called the "father of geometry.")
In 2011, ESA selected Solar Orbiter and Euclid as the first two of its medium-class or M-class missions, among several proposals. Solar Orbiter is expected to launch in 2018, and Euclid in 2019.
In 2013, NASA signed a memorandum of understanding with ESA to provide 20 detectors for Euclid's near-infrared instrument. NASA also nominated 40 U.S. scientists to join the Euclid consortium, which builds the instruments and will later parse the mission's science data. Later that year, Italy's Thales Alenia Space was selected as prime contractor for the mission. Euclid passed its preliminary design review in 2015, and the first parts of the flight hardware — four detectors for the visible imager – were delivered to ESA in early 2017.
Euclid science
We can only see a fraction of the known universe. Ordinary matter makes up about 4 percent, while dark matter makes up 20 percent and dark energy makes up 76 percent. Understanding more about dark matter and dark energy could help scientists, for example, learn why the universe is accelerating in its expansion. There is not enough "ordinary" matter to account for the acceleration.
Euclid will show scientists more about the dark universe. One of its main goals is to accurately map galaxy redshift, which occurs when an object moves away from us. The light shifts to the red end of the spectrum, as its wavelengths get longer. If an object moves closer, the light moves to the blue end of the spectrum, as its wavelengths get shorter. The mission will look back to galaxies that formed as early as 10 billion years ago, or more than double the solar system's age. In its prime mission, Euclid will map about half of the sky.
Specifically, Euclid's detectors are supposed to conduct two cosmological probes. One will study weak gravitational lensing, which happens when a concentration of matter bends light as light travels toward the observer. This is useful for mapping dark matter and for inferring dark energy by measuring how much galaxy images are distorted by the lensing.
The other probe will study baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO), which measures the spatial distribution of galaxies. Across very large scales, galaxies tend to cluster in pairs separated by a standard distance. This standard distance is linked to sound waves in plasma (supercharged gas) from the early universe; the sound waves propagated from dark matter halos, or concentrations of dark matter associated with galaxies. BAOs are therefore a standard ruler to measure the universe's expansion, and dark energy as well.
Euclid's science will be performed by two instruments, and the spacecraft's 1.2-meter mirror will split light between them for analysis:
A visible imager (VIS), which will include dozens of charge-coupled devices specially formulated for the mission. ESA said the devices will include high efficiency, low noise and good radiation tolerance. The field of view of VIS is a little larger than the area covered by two full moons.
The Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP), which will provide near-infrared photometry of galaxies. The aim is to combine NISP's and VIS's observations to show the galaxy redshift observed by Euclid.
The overall goals of Euclid (in ESA's words) are:
Investigate the properties of the dark energy by accurately measuring both the acceleration as well as the variation of the acceleration at different ages of the universe;
Test the validity of general relativity on cosmic scales;
Investigate the nature and properties of dark matter by mapping the 3-dimensional dark matter distribution in the universe;
Refine the initial conditions at the beginning of our universe, which seed the formation of the cosmic structures we see today.
Other dark-matter missions
Dark matter is still a relatively young science, but there have been some observations by other space missions to assist with Euclid's work.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope launched in 2008. One of its science goals is to look at dark matter, specifically by probing phenomena such as excess gamma-rays from the Milky Way's center. In 2014, NASA announced that the excess emission seen in that area "is consistent with some forms of dark matter." In 2017, observations of the nearby Andromeda Galaxy revealed the same phenomena.
Other space missions have glimpsed dark matter, even though it wasn't in their primary missions. One example is a 2015 study of 72 galaxy cluster collisions that used data from both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. At the time, scientists said the study helped set limits on the nature of dark matter. "Astronomers can map the distribution of dark matter by analyzing how the light from distant sources beyond the cluster is magnified and distorted by gravitational effects," the Harvard University Chandra X-Ray Observatory page said in a press release.
Hubble also performed a survey that helped map out the distribution of dark matter in the universe, NASA said in a 2007 press release.
ESA's Gaia mission launched in 2013 to create the most accurate map of star locations in the sky. It is thought that charting their movements will reveal more information about the nature of dark matter, and how it influenced the universe's history.
Possible planets of the Gliese 581 system, superimposed on a picture of our own solar system to compare orbital distances.
Credit: National Science Foundation/Zina Deretsky
Gliese 581c is a super-Earth planet that was discovered in 2007. It resides in the Gliese 581 system, which at 20 light-years from Earth is relatively close to our planet (in celestial terms). While early research suggested that Gliese 581c may have liquid water on its surface because it resides in its star's "habitable zone," more recent research suggests it may have a Venus-like environment.
Discovery
The existence of Gliese 581c was announced in 2007 in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The paper was led by Stephane Udry, an astronomer at Geneva Observatory. Gliese 581c was one of two super-Earth planets his team found, both at the edge of the star's habitable zone.
Gliese 581c was found using the radial-velocity method, meaning that it was detected through tugs on its parent star. The instrument that made the discovery was the HARPS spectrograph on a 3.6-meter telescope managed by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. (HARPS is one of the more prolific planet-hunting instruments available to astronomers today.)
At the time, the researchers said Gliese 581c is "the known exoplanet which most resembles our own Earth" because it was only five times the mass of our planet. (Subsequent searches have found many planets much closer to our Earth's mass.)
While Gliese 581c was classified as Earth-like, the researchers cautioned that actual conditions on the planet may be very different than our own. The surface temperature, for example, would depend on the composition and thickness of the atmosphere. The atmosphere also determines how much light is reflected off the planet, and the magnitude of the greenhouse effect.
The parent star of Gliese 581c, called Gliese 581, is an M-class dwarf star. It's cooler than the sun, which means its habitable zone would be closer in than our own solar system. M dwarfs are favored for planetary searches because they are dimmer, meaning that planets passing across the star would be easier to see. There also is a smaller relative size between the planet and the star, making their gravitational effects more obvious.
Characteristics and habitability
Researchers examining Gliese 581 have had different opinions over the years about how many planets were there; one example was the discovery of Gliese 581g in 2010. Signatures of the planet did not show up in independent searches, and today most astronomers in that field consider that the planet does not exist.
Not knowing the number of planets exactly makes it difficult to determine the radius of Gliese 581c. The planet has not been seen directly passing across the face of its star, so astronomers can only learn about its characteristics from Gliese 581c's influence on other planets and the star. The radius would in turn determine such matters as whether the planet is closer to an Earth-like planet (with a smaller atmosphere) or closer to a Neptune-like planet (with a much thicker atmosphere).
Gliese 581c takes about 13 days to orbit its parent star. (By contrast, Mercury's orbit around our much larger sun takes about 88 days.) Because Gliese 581c is so close to its star, a common belief is that the planet is tidally locked. This means that as it orbits, the planet always keeps the same side toward the sun. This phenomenon is common among moons of Jupiter and Saturn in our own solar system. Earth's moon is also tidally locked to our own planet.
If a planet is tidally locked, this means that one side (the star-facing side) is always warmer than the other side (which always faces away from the star.) Any considerations of habitability would have to take this into account. The only firm example of a habitable planet that we know of – our own Earth – has a regular day-night cycle in most areas of the planet, except the poles. Over billions of years, lifeforms have adapted to this cycle. It's unclear how life would survive in an area of perpetual day or perpetual night, but studies are ongoing.
A 2007 follow-up paper in Astronomy and Astrophysics, led by Werner von Bloh at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, suggested that Gliese 581c is too hot to support life because it is so close to its parent star. This means that the planet may have more of a Venus-like environment, with an extremely hot surface and a runaway greenhouse effect under a thick atmosphere. This was confirmed in a 2011 study in Astronomy and Astrophysics led by Y. Hu, who is with Peking University's laboratory for climate and ocean-atmosphere studies.
While Gliese 581c has not been discussed much in scientific literature in recent years, astronomers are working more generally to improve their models of planets that are close in to their parent stars. An example is a 2013 article published in the journal Nature, in which a team led by Jeremy Leconte examines the conditions under which runaway greenhouse effects happen on Earth-like planets. This line of research is receiving increased attention again after the discovery of Proxima Centuari b, a potentially habitable planet just four light-years from Earth, in 2016.
Dwarf Planet Ceres' Water-Ice Deposits Tied to Its Changing Tilt
Dwarf Planet Ceres' Water-Ice Deposits Tied to Its Changing Tilt
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
Ceres' northern hemisphere, when the axial tilt is 2 degrees — the minimum experienced by the dwarf planet during its trips around the sun. Regions that remain in shadow are shown in blue. The illumination shown is for the northern solstice, which is when the north pole is most illuminated.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
The location of newfound water-ice deposits on Ceres is linked to wild swings in the dwarf planet's tilt over the eons, a new study suggests.
Ice on Ceres — the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — survives in permanently shadowed regions that don't receive sunlight. But these regions change drastically over a period of just 24,500 years, researchers determined.
Ceres' tilt relative to the plane of its path around the sun changes tenfold, from 2 degrees to about 20 degrees, in that time. The dwarf planet's current tilt, also known as obliquity, is 4 degrees; by contrast, Earth's tilt (which is responsible for the seasons) is 23.5 degrees. [Amazing Photos of Dwarf Planet Ceres]
"We found a correlation between craters that stay in shadow at maximum obliquity, and bright deposits that are likely water ice," study lead author Anton Ermakov, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a NASA statement. "Regions that never see sunlight over millions of years are more likely to have these deposits."
The last time Ceres reached its maximum tilt was 14,000 years ago. When the tilt of Ceres is at a minimum, which is close to the conditions happening right now, there are large portions of the dwarf planet — roughly 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometers) — that don't receive direct sunlight, most of which are near the poles, study team members said.
This animation shows how the illumination of Ceres' northern hemisphere varies with the dwarf planet's axial tilt. Shadowed regions are highlighted for tilts of 2 degrees, 12 degrees and 20 degrees.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
But when Ceres' tilt gets closer to 20 degrees, the regions protected from sunlight diminish to just 0.4 to 4 square miles (1 to 10 square km). Those regions that remain in shadow even during maximum obliquity could be the same areas that maintain surface ice, the researchers said.
The new study used data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting the 590-mile-wide (950 km) Ceres since March 2015, to take measurements of the dwarf planet's shape and gravity, and to try to reconstruct its history. It focused on polar craters and looked at how the shadowing shifts in these regions as Ceres' axial tilt changes.
The researchers found that, in the northern hemisphere, only two of the persistently shadowed regions that exist today will still be dark when Ceres reaches a 20-degree tilt. Both regions have bright deposits today, which could indicate water ice. Two persistently shadowed regions are also present in the southern hemisphere, and one of those regions has a bright area, the researchers said.
In 2016, a study that analyzed Dawn data indicated that there is bright material in 10 craters on Ceres. Dawn's Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer determined that one of these regions contains water ice.
Ceres isn't the only spot in the solar system known to have permanently shadowed regions on its surface; Mercury and Earth's moon also have these zones. However, Ceres has much more variability in its tilt because it is not stabilized by the sun (as Mercury is) or a planet (as Earth's moon is), the researchers said.
While scientists believe that Mercury and Earth's moon both received most of their surface water from small, impacting asteroids and comets, there is more debate regarding Ceres. The European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory detected a tenuous water atmosphere around the dwarf planet in 2012 to 2013. This means that the ice could come from water falling back from Ceres' atmosphere, scientists have said, though the stuff could also come from small impactors.
"The idea that ice could survive on Ceres for long periods of time is important as we continue to reconstruct the dwarf planet's geological history, including whether it has been giving off water vapor," study co-author and Dawn deputy principal investigator Carol Raymond, also of JPL, said in the same statement.
The new study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
'Life' Brings Alien Terror to the International Space Station
'Life' Brings Alien Terror to the International Space Station
By Hanneke Weitering, Staff Writer-Producer
No science-fiction movie that takes place at the International Space Station has been quite as terrifying as "Life," a new space thriller that comes out in theaters today (March 24).
In the film, a Mars sample-return mission delivers the first proof of alien life to a group of astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS). What is at first a harmless, single-celled organism sealed inside a box in the lab grows bigger, stronger, smarter and bloodthirsty. When it breaks out of its container and comes after the astronauts, all hell breaks loose. ['Life' Movie Brings Terrifying Space Thrills (Photo Gallery)]
The all-star cast who play the astronauts in "Life" do not disappoint. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a doctor who has spent more than 473 days aboard the ISS. Rebecca Ferguson plays a microbiologist whose job it is to protect everyone at the station and on Earth from possible contamination by the alien. Ryan Reynolds plays the role of a spacewalk specialist and provides some necessary comedic relief to this gruesome story.
The plot of "Life" is a bit of a mashup between the movies "Gravity" and "Alien." Just like in the "Alien" saga, the extraterrestrial in "Life" (which is nicknamed Calvin after school children on Earth won a naming contest) is out to kill every living thing aboard the spacecraft — in this case, the ISS. As the astronauts fight for their lives, they demolish the ISS. Though Calvin is the reason for their panic, the astronauts create more problems trying to kill it.
At times, the astronauts do things that would be considered foolish in real life, such as using fire to try to kill Calvin. (Starting fires is strictly forbidden at the ISS.) However, watching Ryan Reynolds blast flames at an octopus-like monster while chasing it around the ISS was worth the slight technical inaccuracy.
Astronauts find the first proof of life on Mars in a sample brought to the space station. The creature, which they named Calvin, seems harmless at first before growing into a bloodthirsty monster.
Credit: Sony Pictures/CTMG Inc.
While the film is more of a horror flick than a science-driven narrative about extraterrestrial life and the International Space Station, there's plenty of real space science throughout the story to keep even hard-core space geeks entertained. The ISS is accurately and brilliantly rendered, and space-savvy viewers may recognize some of its features, such as the Canadarm robotic arm, the Cupola window and the docked Soyuz crew capsules.
Despite the superb acting and production that went into the making of this film, the story left me feeling a bit unsettled and unsatisfied near the end. For a group of highly intelligent astronauts at the space station, the astronauts made a lot of bad decisions that only make matters worse. I would have expected better from a group of trained professionals with "the right stuff." Then again, it's hard to guess how astronauts in the real world would deal with a situation as crazy as this. After all, they are still humans.
Overall, the film is worth a watch for anyone who's into space, horror, or both. But if you're expecting a heroic story of six brave astronauts who save the day, you might be disappointed with the ending.
"Life" is rated R (for violence, gore, terror and profanity) and opens in theaters nationwide today (March 24).
Breaking the 'Speed Limit': Simulation Shows Monster Black Holes' Rapid Growth
Breaking the 'Speed Limit': Simulation Shows Monster Black Holes' Rapid Growth
By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer
The massive black hole shown at left in this drawing is able to rapidly grow as intense radiation from a galaxy nearby shuts down star-formation in its host galaxy.
Illustration Courtesy of John Wise, Georgia Tech
They grow up so fast: A new simulation shows how supermassive black holes could have gotten so large, so quickly in the early universe — by taking a shortcut via a star.
Supermassive black holes form the cores of many galaxies, including the Milky Way, and researchers have found evidence of them dating to very early in the universe's history. In fact, seemingly too early — supermassive black holes take a long time to form, and researchers have been searching for explanations of how they were able to grow so massive (several billion times the sun's mass) within the first billion years after the Big Bang, surpassing their apparent "speed limit" on growth.
According to a new simulation, black holes can only grow so fast, but stars can expand to incredible size even faster in certain conditions before collapsing down into a black hole. That way, the energetic galactic centers can form earlier than expected. The researchers also explained their simulation in a new video.
"It turns out that while supermassive black holes have a growth speed limit, certain types of massive stars do not," Joseph Smidt, a researcher at the theoretical design division of Los Alamos National Laboratory and the first author on the new work, said in a statement. "We asked, what if we could find a place where stars could grow much faster, perhaps to the size of many thousand suns; could they form supermassive black holes in less time?"
A massive, extremely energetic black hole system called a quasar grows as it accretes material in a new simulation.
Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory
The researchers compared their models to the most distant known energetic galactic center, called a quasar, and one of the most massive of those objects, which is also ancient, to see whether that method could have quickly grown them to full size. If ultralarge stars are born in the right environment — one with the ideal combination of rapidly incoming material and local conditions — they could indeed collapse and form quasars of that mass and age, the researchers found.
The simulation also ended up accurately modeling star formation and other phenomena that happen around black holes, the distribution of galaxy densities, gas temperature changes and ionization, the researchers said in the statement.
A new simulation from Los Alamos National Laboratory suggests how supermassive black holes might have formed extra quickly in the early universe.
Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory
"This was largely unexpected," Smidt said. "I thought this idea of growing a massive star in a special configuration and forming a black hole with the right kind of masses was something we could approximate, but to see the black hole inducing star formation and driving the dynamics in ways that we've observed in nature was really the icing on the cake."
The new work has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, and it is currently available online at arXiv.org.
What is needed for life on another planet?IBTimes UK
Former Nasa astronaut Alan Bean has said he does not think an advanced alien civilisation has ever visited Earth – because if they had they would have made contact.
Bean, now 85, was the fourth man to walk on the Moon with the Apollo 12 mission. In an interview with news.com.au, he said there is little doubt in his mind that we are not alone in the universe – with billions of stars and planets orbiting them, statistically speaking, life must have evolved on some of them.
However, he does not think they have ever been to Earth – and suggests a few reasons why: "I do not believe that anyone from outer space has ever visited the Earth. One of reasons I don't believe they have been here is that civilisations that are more advanced are more altruistic and friendly – like Earth, which is better than it used to be – so they would have landed and said 'we come in peace and we know from our studies you have cancer that kills people, we solved that problem 50 years ago, here's the gadget we put on a person's chest that will cure it, we will show you how to make it'.
"Just like some day, say 1000 years from now, when we can go to another star and see a planet, that's what we would do because we will know how to cure cancer, cure birth defects, so we would teach them."
Discussing what other habitable exoplanets – and the aliens on them – might be like, Bean said it would depend on how long life has had to emerge. "Maybe some of them are like our life was 100,000 years ago, and some of them are like we are now, and there are probably some out there that are a 10,000 years in the future from where we are now," he said.
What would alien life be like?IStock
The potential for finding alien life took a step forward recently with the discovery of the Trappist 1 star system 40 light years away. This star was found to have seven planets orbiting it – three of which appear to be in the "habitable zone" – where it is not too hot or cold for liquid water to exist.
Over the coming years, scientists will be able to better identify planets with the potential to host life with the launch of the James Webb Telescope. This is due to launch next year and will be able to study the atmospheres of exoplanets, providing the opportunity to identify the building blocks of life.
Artist impression of what it would be like to stand on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f.NASA/JPL-Caltech
As well as missions to Mars and Alpha Centauri (our closest neighbouring star), space agencies across the world are planning to return to the Moon. The ESA, for example, hopes to build a lunar base in the coming decades.
Speaking about what it was like to land on the Moon, Bean said: "It was hard to believe (we) were 235,189 miles from home. I never heard any astronaut say that he wanted to go to the Moon so he would be able to look back and see Earth.
"We all wanted to see what the Moon looked like close up. Yet, for most of us, the most memorable sight was not of the Moon, but of our beautiful blue and white home, moving majestically around the sun, all alone in infinite black space."
On the future of space travel, he added: "Humans can do a lot of amazing things. President Kennedy said we were going to go to Moon by the end of the decade [1960s]. It was an impossible dream and human beings got behind the whole idea and planned and worked to achieve it."
A pod of the London Eye is silhouetted against the MoonToby Melville/Reuters
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Europa: Our best shot at finding alien life?
Europa: Our best shot at finding alien life?
By Paul RinconScience editor, BBC News website, The Woodlands, Texas
Image copyrightNASA/JPL-CALTECH/SETI INSTITUTEImage captionEuropa holds a vast, salty ocean beneath its fractured ice shell
After two decades of development and "heartbreak", scientists are on the verge of sending missions to explore the ocean world of Europa. Could this be our best shot at finding life elsewhere in the Solar System?
Orbiting the giant planet Jupiter is an icy world, just a little smaller than Earth's moon.
From a distance, Europa appears to be etched with a nexus of dark streaks, like the product of a toddler's chaotic scribbling.
Close up, these are revealed to be long linear cracks in the ice, extending in some cases for thousands of kilometres. Many are filled with an unknown contaminant that scientists dub the "brown gunk". Elsewhere, the surface is tortured and irregular, as if massive slabs of ice have drifted, spun and flipped over in slush.
Jupiter's immense gravity helps generate tidal forces that repeatedly stretch and relax the moon. But the stresses that created Europa's smashed up terrain are best explained by the ice shell floating on an ocean of liquid water.
"The fact that there's liquid water underneath the surface which we know from previous missions, in particular from the magnetometer observations made by the Galileo spacecraft as it flew past [in the 1990s], makes it one of the most exciting potential targets to look for life," says Prof Andrew Coates of UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, UK.
Europa's briny deep might extend 80-170km into the moon's interior, meaning it could be holding twice as much liquid water as there is in all of Earth's oceans.
Image copyrightNASA/JPL-CALTECHImage captionEuropa Clipper will make at least 45 flybys of the jovian moon during its primary mission
And while water is one vital prerequisite for life, Europa's ocean might have others - such as a source of chemical energy for microbes. What's more, the ocean may communicate with the surface through a number of means, including warm blobs of ice from below rising up through the ice shell. So studying the surface could provide clues to what's going on in the ocean.
The first is a flyby mission called Europa Clipper that would likely launch in 2022. The second is a lander mission that would follow a few years later.
Dr Robert Pappalardo, from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is Clipper's project scientist.
"We're really trying to get at Europa's potential habitability, the ingredients for life: water, and whether there's chemical energy for life," he tells me. "We do that by trying to understand the ocean and the ice shell, the composition and the geology. And mixed into those is the level of current activity at Europa."
Clipper carries a payload of nine instruments, including a camera that will image most of the surface; spectrometers to understand its composition; ice-penetrating radar to map the ice shell in three dimensions and find water beneath the ice shell; and a magnetometer to characterise the ocean.
However, since the Galileo spacecraft provided evidence for an ocean in the 1990s, we've learned that Europa isn't one of a kind.
"One of the most amazing and significant discoveries of the past decade or so in planetary exploration is that you can't swing a dead cat in the outer Solar System without hitting an ocean world," says Clipper's programme scientist Curt Niebur, from Nasa headquarters in Washington DC.
At Saturn's moon Enceladus, for example, ice from a subsurface ocean gushes into space through fissures at the south pole.
The saturnian satellite could also get a dedicated mission in the 2020s, but Dr Niebur believes Europa stands out: "Europa is much larger than Enceladus and has more of everything: more geological activity, more water, more space for that water, more heat, more raw ingredients and more stability in its environment."
But there's something else that marks the moon out: its neighbourhood. Europa's orbital path takes it deep into Jupiter's powerful magnetic field, which traps and speeds up particles.
The resulting belts of intense radiation fry spacecraft electronics, limiting the durations of missions to months or even weeks. That said, this radiation also drives reactions on Europa's surface, yielding chemicals called oxidants. On Earth, biology exploits the chemical reactions between oxidants and compounds known as reductants to supply the energy needed for life.
However, the oxidants made on the surface are only useful to Europan microbes if they can get down into the ocean. Fortunately, the process of convection that pushes warm blobs of ice upwards might also drive surface material down. Once in the ocean, oxidants could react with reductants made by seawater reacting with the rocky ocean floor.
"You need both poles of the battery," explains Robert Pappalardo.
Image copyrightNASAImage captionArtwork (not to scale): Europa in cross-section, showing processes from the seafloor to the surface (Europa Lander Study 2016 Report)
For scientists like Dr Pappalardo, the impending missions are the realisation of a two-decades-long dream. Since the first Europa mission concepts were drawn up in the late 1990s, one promising proposal after another has been thwarted.
During the noughties, the US and Europe even pooled resources on a mission that would have sent separate spacecraft to Europa and Jupiter's larger ice moon Ganymede. But the plan was cancelled amid budget cuts, with the European part evolving into the Juice mission.
"I don't think there's been a Europa mission over the past 18 years that I have not either had my fingers in or has not passed under my eye," says Curt Niebur.
"It's been a long road. The road to launch is always a rocky one, and it's always full of heartbreak. We've experienced that more than most on Europa."
Exploring Europa is costly - though no more so than other Nasa "flagship" missions such as Cassini or the Curiosity rover.
There are inherent engineering challenges, such as operating within Jupiter's radiation belts. Spacecraft instruments need to be shielded with materials such as titanium metal but, says Dr Pappalardo, "you can only shield them so much because they have to be able to see Europa".
So to keep Clipper safe, Nasa is going to stray from the rulebook somewhat. "The assumption always was: Galileo flew past Europa, so the next mission has to be an orbiter. That's just how we do business," says Dr Niebur. But rather than orbit Europa, Clipper will instead reduce its exposure to mission-shortening radiation by orbiting Jupiter, and make at least 45 close flybys of the icy moon over three-and-a-half years.
"We realised we could avoid those technical challenges of orbiting Europa, make the mission much more achievable and still get the science we want if we fly past it a lot," says Clipper's program scientist.
The strength of sunlight near Europa is about a 30th of what it is at Earth. But Nasa decided it could power Clipper with solar panels rather than the radioactive generators some other outer planet missions have used. "All those years of study forced us to burn away our pre-conceptions and get us to really focus on reality, not on our wish-list... to focus on the best science," says Curt Niebur.
In 2011, following the cancellation of the US-European mission, a National Research Council report restated the importance of exploring the icy moon. Even so, Nasa remained wary because of the cost.
Image copyrightNASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONAImage captionFour views of Europa's surface from the Galileo mission, clockwise from top left: (1) disrupted ice crust in the Conamara region; (2) crustal plates, which are thought to have broken apart and "rafted" into new positions; (3) reddish bands; (4) an impact structure about the size of Hawaii
But the support on Capitol Hill has been pivotal. A Europa venture has bipartisan backing, and in Republican Congressman John Culberson - the chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over Nasa's budget - the mission has had a unique champion.
The 60-year-old Texan lawmaker has been entranced by Europa ever since observing it through the Celestron 8 telescope he bought himself as a high school graduation present. Over the last four years, the subcommittee he chairs has channelled money to scientists working on Europa, even when the space agency's chief wasn't asking for it.
Generous investment means that much more of the technical work has been completed on Clipper than is normal for a mission at its stage (phase B) in the Nasa project cycle. The lander is at an earlier stage of development, called pre-phase A, but a report on the mission's science value was discussed at a workshop here at the LPSC.
The lander has received no funding in the President's 2018 budget request for Nasa. But Dr Jim Green, director of planetary science at the agency, tells me: "That mission in particular is tremendously exciting, because it tells us the science we have to do from the surface of a moon that's really hard to get to.
"We still have quite the process to go through, do the due diligence, understanding the kind of measurements we need to make. Then we'll work with the administration in the future at the right time to see if, budgetarily, we can move forward with it."
Some innovative Europa lander concepts have been proposed over the last two decades, reflecting the scientific bounty to be had by touching down. Dr Geraint Jones of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory has worked on one concept called a penetrator.
"They haven't been flown in space before, but it's a really promising technology," he explains. A projectile deployed from a satellite hits the surface "really hard, at about 300m/second, about 700 miles an hour", exposing pristine ice for analysis by onboard instruments, which could be designed to withstand the impact.
By contrast, Nasa's forthcoming lander would put down softly with the help of the Sky Crane technology used to drop the Curiosity rover safely on Mars in 2012. During the touchdown, it will use an autonomous landing system to detect and avoid surface hazards in real time.
Clipper will provide the reconnaissance for a landing site. "I like to think of it as finding that right oasis, where there might be water close to the surface. Maybe it's warm and maybe it has organic materials," says Bob Pappalardo.
The craft would be equipped with a sensitive instrument payload and a counter-rotating saw to help get at fresher samples below the radiation-processed surface ice.
"The lander is all about hitting the freshest, most pristine sample possible. One way to do that is to dig deep, another way is going to where there is some kind of eruption on the surface - like a plume - that's dropping very fresh material onto the surface," says Curt Niebur.
In recent years, the Hubble telescope has made tentative observations of plumes of water-ice erupting from beneath Europa, much as they do on Enceladus. But there's no point in the lander going to the site of a decades-old eruption, it would need to visit the location of a much more recent plume.
So scientists need to understand what's controlling these geysers: for example, Clipper will determine whether the plumes are correlated with any hot spots on the surface.
Image copyrightNASA/JPL-CALTECHImage captionNasa's Europa lander could determine whether there was or is life on the jovian moon
Earth's seas are teeming with life, so it can be hard for us to contemplate the prospect of a sterile, 100km-plus deep ocean on Europa. But the scientific threshold for detecting life is set very high. So will we be able to recognise alien life if it's there?
"The goal of the lander mission is not simply to detect life [to our satisfaction], but to convince everyone else that we have done so," Dr Niebur explains. "It does no good for us to invest in this mission if all we create is scientific controversy."
Thus, the lander's science definition team came up with two ways to address this. First, any detection of life has to be based on multiple, independent lines of evidence from direct measurements.
"There's no silver bullet; you don't do one measurement and say: 'aha, eureka we've found it'. You look at the sum total," says Dr Niebur. Second, the scientists have come up with a framework to interpret those results, some of which might be positive, while others negative: "It creates a decision tree that marches through all the different variables. Following all these different paths, the end result is: yes, we've found life, or no we haven't," he says.
At the lander workshop here at the LPSC, Nasa's Kevin Hand described the process as "biosignature bingo". Now, the team will have to see if the scientific community is persuaded.
Curt Niebur explains: "I want to have that discussion now, today, years before we launch so that we can all be focused on analysing the data once we land."
Daniel Espinosa’s highly anticipated sci-fi thriller, Life, isn’t just 2017's answer to Alien—it’s much scarier. Unlike most movies in the genre, Life is terrifying because it taps into legitimate concerns about contaminating Earth that even NASA, ESA, and other space agencies haven’t entirely figured out—the fear that in our longing to discover alien life, we bring something back to our planet that could destroy it.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Life follows a team of astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as they struggle—and mostly die—trying to contain a hostile Martian life form. The baby alien, which is nicknamed “Calvin,” feasts on tasty human flesh to satiate its hunger, though there may be some sort of sadistic thrill involved, too. For what it’s worth, Calvin looks like an angry head of lettuce, which unintentionally provides comic relief during the gruesome death scenes. At some point, you can’t help but root for the guy.
Fans of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain or H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds are already familiar with the particular brand of terror known as backward contamination; basically, it’s the idea that we—the humans—act as vessels for dangerous hitchhikers, unintentionally bringing a deadly bug back to Earth. This could lead to contamination and, in the worst case scenario, complete annihilation of the human race.
For this reason and its converse, forward contamination—in which humans bring something dangerous to another planet—NASA has its own office of planetary protection, which is committed to “promot[ing] the responsible exploration of the solar system” and “ensur[ing] that we take prudent precautions to protect Earth’s biosphere in case life does exist elsewhere.” The name is a bit misleading, considering it’s not much of an office: there’s only one person in the entire department, Dr. Catharine Conley. We’ve reached out to Conley and will update this post if and when we hear back.
From a planetary protection standpoint, it’s difficult to gauge how well the crew from Life did in their efforts to contain Calvin, simply because there’s currently no protocol in place on how to handle extraterrestrial life. The crew members pretty much have free reign to handle Calvin as they see fit, even if that means implementing dubious measures like electrocuting the shit out of him. Spoiler alert: this does not end well.
Image: Sony Pictures
But this might not be far from how such an encounter would actually go down, which is even scarier than fiction. According to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute—an organization that searches for extraterrestrial life—crew members aboard the ISS probably wouldn’t have stuck to backwards contamination protocol, even if there was one in place.
“In the case of Mars, if you brought a rock back, you’d keep it in a box and you’d make sure it was handled carefully, like potentially dangerous material,” he explained. “But if you were on the ISS...could you single-handedly decide to shock it with 2,000 volts and see what it’d do? I suspect they could do that, since NASA doesn’t try and remote control these guys all together.” That said, seeing as alien life would be the most groundbreaking discovery in human history, it’s fair to surmise there’d be lots of communication with NASA over how to handle it. Whether the astronauts would adhere to the agency’s advice is a different story.
Shostak noted that the real scientific flub in the film is assuming—like so many sci-fi thrillers do—that an alien would want anything to do with us at all, nevermind eat us.
“This guy’s biology is nicely attuned to eat humans, even though he’s probably have never encountered a human before,” he said. “That’s pretty much like you going to Mars and starting to eat the dirt and the rocks and figuring you’ll get your nutrition that way.”
In short, we’d probably make a pretty unappetizing meal for an alien life form. Meanwhile, things that can actually kill us are already all around us.
“There’s this idea that extraterrestrial lifeforms can make us sick, it’s the working Andromeda Strain idea,” Shostak said. “It’s kind of weird, because you think of the kinds of things that do make you sick—bacteria and viruses—they’ve been sharing an evolutionary path with you for four billion years. They know all about what’s in your body that they need—these guys won’t.”
Image: Sony Pictures
Life is not just another movie about doom in space—it’s about the quiet, and inexhaustible anxiety we carry with us no matter where we go.
There’s a deeper terror lurking in Life—one that grows out of our quixotic longing to find life beyond Earth. Calvin is a tangible fear, but he also represents the loneliness that latches onto us and, over time, consumes us. This sort of anxiety no doubt is exacerbated if a person is watching Earth from about 249 miles above it—so close to everyone they love, and yet hundreds of miles out of reach. Whether it’s Dr. David Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal) tearfully reading the lines from his childhood favorite book, Goodnight Moon, or mechanic Rory Adams (Ryan Reynolds) remarking on how much he misses his dog, it’s evident that all the characters in Life are reaching for the world they left behind. With Calvin, who literally attaches himself to people and eviscerates them from the inside-out, the film forces us to question whether or not we’re alone in the universe, but more importantly, why our own loneliness causes us to self-sabotage.
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This composite image from live transmissions acquired by NASA’s International Space Station cameras shows two objects moving across and above Earth. To watch the full sequences of the objects gliding from left to right, check out the second video in the story below.
For years, UFO hunters have waged an ongoing battle with NASA, the United States’ space agency. Armed with nothing more than an internet connection, anyone can spend hours on end, searching for unexplained objects that might fly through the view finder of one of several HD video cameras mounted on the International Space Station.
There are numerous examples over several years of where ISS watchers claim to have seen, recorded and posted YouTube videos of UFOs, hoping to convince the public that alien ships often visit the ISS.
Media outlets like CBS, International Business Times and Australian news site news.com.au have reported on accounts of NASA’s purported conspiracy to keep the idea of aliens near the space station away from the public. Drudge Report’s archive includes stories related to NASA UFO conspiracies dating back to at least 2002.
In the following clip, European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti demonstrates how to operate ISS window shutters. According to YouTube channel secureteam10, she’s missing some alien ship maneuvers taking place right outside the window.
Secureteam10 positions itself as an “underground” research team that exposes the truth about extraterrestrial and UFO coverups.
When The Huffington Post reached out to NASA regarding recent video captures of alleged UFOs at the ISS, an agency spokesperson sent us this statement:
No unidentified objects in the popular sense have been seen from the International Space Station. Reflections from station windows, the spacecraft structure itself or lights from Earth commonly appear as artifacts in photos and videos from the orbiting laboratory.
The YouTube UFO chasers get riled up over statements like that, while competing with each other to come up with the ultimate UFO smoking gun visual evidence.
They don’t even like it when individual astronauts express skeptical views about UFOs originating from far away planets or dimensions, as was obvious during the video above. That same YouTuber was critical of statements made in 2016 to HuffPost by veteran American astronaut Tom Jones.
“Astronauts have not seen any evidence of alien life,” Jones said at the time. “Reports of unidentified flying objects in images returned from the shuttle or [space] station have turned out to be ice crystals, drifting orbital debris, lightning flashes, or meteors streaking through the dark atmosphere below. So far, our search for extraterrestrial life ― and other civilizations in space ― has turned up no proof of alien civilizations.”
These types of UFO stories rarely show up in mainstream or non-tabloid publications, a strong indication of a credibility problem here.
This February video from YouTube channel Blast A shows several instances of supposed UFOs photographed by ISS cameras.
Depending on your personal beliefs about all of this, if you’ve got some spare time and want to try your luck at seeing a UFO ― or just see some cool footage from space ― check out the ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment.
There’s no prize involved, except for maybe seeing something that could be the ultimate answer to the ultimate question: Are we alone in the universe?
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Cloud Atlas Now Online: See All the Bizarre Formations Around the World
Cloud Atlas Now Online: See All the Bizarre Formations Around the World
By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor
A volutus, or roll cloud, photographed in Szprotawa, Poland. This type of cloud was just added as a new species in the 2017 International Cloud Atlas.
Credit: WMO International Cloud Atlas/ Miroslav Cichanowicz
A dramatically turbulent cloud formation called asperitas and the bizarrely cylindrical roll cloud are among the newest additions to the international handbook for cloud identification.
The World Meteorological Organization has released a new, digitized version of its "International Cloud Atlas," the global reference book for meteorologists and skywatchers alike. It's the first update for the atlas since 1987 and the first version to be fully web-based. The release also marks a red-letter day for amateur enthusiasts in the Cloud Appreciation Society, who get the satisfaction of seeing the asperitas cloud that they discovered become an official scientific category.
"It is a new classification of cloud, with a chaotic, turbulent appearance, that was proposed by the Cloud Appreciation Society back in 2008, based on photographs sent to us from members all around the world," the organization posted on its blog. "It is a classic example of citizen science, in which observations by the general public, enabled by the technology of smartphones and the Internet, have influenced the development of this most official of classification systems." [Gallery: The Craziest Clouds Ever]
Clouds 101
The cloud atlas' classification system is not for the faint of heart. There are 10 basic "genera" of clouds, most of the names of which would be familiar to schoolchildren: cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, altocumulus, altostratus, nimbostratus, stratocumulus, stratus, cumulus and cumulonimbus.
Within each genera are species, which describe the internal structure of the shape of clouds. A lenticularis cloud, for example, is a flattened pancake shape that looks a bit like a giant UFO. Each type of cloud can only have one species, but the same species types are present in multiple different genera of clouds.
An image of a photometeor halo included in the new International Cloud Atlas. Halos are caused by light reflecting or refracting off tiny ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, according to the Atlas.
Credit: WMO International Cloud Atlas/Claudia Hinz, DMD
Next, the classification system includes varieties of clouds, which describe the clouds' transparency and arrangement. A single cloud can have multiple varieties, except in the case of opacus (opaque) clouds varieties and translucidus (translucent) varieties, which are mutually exclusive: One doesn't let any sun through, and the other does. [See Photos of a Various Cloud Types]
Thus, a standard cloud identification might look something like "altocumulus stratiformis translucidus perlucidus undulates" — an altocumulus cloud arranged in a thin sheet (stratiformis) that is translucent to sunlight, has small gaps allowing blue sky to show through (perlucidus) and which has wavy features (undulates).
New forms
The cloud atlas update doesn't alter any of the basic classifications for clouds, but it does add several new twists. The roll cloud, known as the volutus, is defined as a new species of cloud. These horizontal, cylindrical clouds form where descending cold air pushes warm, moist air upward. Under the right wind conditions, the atmospheric turbulence condenses into a tubular cloud that seems to roll across the sky.
An undulating asperitas cloud, photographed at Shorewell Park in Tasmania, Australia, at 7:48 a.m. local time on Feb. 20, 2004.
The atlas also adds five new "supplementary features" to its classification system. Supplementary features are unusual parts of, or attachments to, clouds. The wave-like undulations of the undersides of clouds, dubbed "asperitas," are among these new features. Another is "cavum," known colloquially as a hole-punch cloud because the cloud has a large circular gap through which the sky can be seen. A "cauda" is a horizontal feature that extends like a tail from a cloud. "Fluctus" features are wave formations that look like something a cartoon surfer would ride; they're commonly known as Kelvin-Helmholtz waves and are caused by wind shear. Finally, "murus" features, or wall clouds, are familiar to any storm chaser for their role in the formation of tornadoes.
The other main changes to the atlas are the addition of a new accessory cloud, or a cloud that accompanies another, larger cloud, and the establishment of five new special clouds, which describe unusual cloud formation circumstances. The new accessory cloud type is called "flumen" and describes a low cloud associated with severe supercell storms.
The five new special clouds are: cataractagenitus, describing clouds that develop from the spray of large waterfalls; flammagenitus, describing clouds formed under the influence of wildfires; homogenitus, describing clouds formed by human activities, such as airplane contrails; silvagenitus, describing clouds formed under the influence of moisture from respiring trees; and homomutatus, describing clouds originally made by humans that gradually transform into more natural-looking forms, like a contrail that eventually spreads in the wind.
The cloud atlas is available online and will be official unveiled today (March 23) for World Meteorological Day.
US Military's 'Gremlin' Program Lets Pilots Launch and Snag Drones in Midair
US Military's 'Gremlin' Program Lets Pilots Launch and Snag Drones in Midair
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer
An artist's depiction of what the small surveillance drones might look like.
Credit: DARPA
The U.S. military is developing a fairy-tale-inspired "Gremlin" program that aims to launch and retrieve drones in midair.
"Gremlins" are a swarm of drones that can be deployed from a manned aircraft, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the U.S. military charged with developing new and innovative technologies for the nation's war fighters. The Gremlin program will allow aircraft pilots to launch the drones as needed, and call them back to the transport plane while both are still in flight.
DARPA announced the Gremlin concept in 2015, when the agency called for proof-of-concept designs for the first phase of the project.
"The Phase 1 program showed the feasibility of airborne [drone] launch and recovery systems that would require minimal modification to the host aircraft," Wierzbanowski said in a statement. "We’re aiming in Phase 2 to mature two system concepts to enable ‘aircraft carriers in the sky’ using air-recoverable [drones] that could carry various payloads — advances that would greatly extend the range, flexibility, and affordability of [drone] operations for the U.S. military."
Phase 2 research will focus on completing designs for full-scale Gremlin drone demonstrations. The program will eventually move to Phase 3, which will result in one full-scale system demonstration that includes the airborne launch and recovery of multiple Gremlins.
DARPA is currently scheduled to conduct flight tests for the program in 2019.
US Military's 'Gremlin' Program Lets Pilots Launch and Snag Drones in Midair
US Military's 'Gremlin' Program Lets Pilots Launch and Snag Drones in Midair
By Kacey Deamer, Staff Writer
An artist's depiction of what the small surveillance drones might look like.
Credit: DARPA
The U.S. military is developing a fairy-tale-inspired "Gremlin" program that aims to launch and retrieve drones in midair.
"Gremlins" are a swarm of drones that can be deployed from a manned aircraft, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the U.S. military charged with developing new and innovative technologies for the nation's war fighters. The Gremlin program will allow aircraft pilots to launch the drones as needed, and call them back to the transport plane while both are still in flight.
DARPA announced the Gremlin concept in 2015, when the agency called for proof-of-concept designs for the first phase of the project.
"The Phase 1 program showed the feasibility of airborne [drone] launch and recovery systems that would require minimal modification to the host aircraft," Wierzbanowski said in a statement. "We’re aiming in Phase 2 to mature two system concepts to enable ‘aircraft carriers in the sky’ using air-recoverable [drones] that could carry various payloads — advances that would greatly extend the range, flexibility, and affordability of [drone] operations for the U.S. military."
Phase 2 research will focus on completing designs for full-scale Gremlin drone demonstrations. The program will eventually move to Phase 3, which will result in one full-scale system demonstration that includes the airborne launch and recovery of multiple Gremlins.
DARPA is currently scheduled to conduct flight tests for the program in 2019.
Records of unexplained objects in the sky date back to the early 1900’s, when a large aircraft moved over downtown El Paso and then flew away. The same is true today. Reports of several sightings of UFO’s in the Borderland have gone up in recent months. The evidence is shown in hundreds of amateur video uploaded to YouTube. We went through many of them and found the top five. Check them out below.
1. Alien Cube Appears Over El Paso
2. Triangle UFO Appears Over El Paso and New York
3. Fast Moving Orbs Over El Paso
4. Three Orbs Appear Over the El Paso Sky
5. Strange Lights over Horizon City
About the author: Ceasar Torres
Ceasar is a photographer and writer for elpaso411.com. He may be reached at ceasart@elpaso411.com
An artist impression of how the UFO looked to the witness.
Investigators from the US-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) were left baffled by the sighting of the triangular formation said to have drifted over Dauphin, Pennsylvania, in the US.
The case has intensified the mystery of a baffling rise in so-called triangle UFOs reported across the US.
And, it comes after Express.co.uk reported on two other sightings that had video footage of the alleged UFOs.
In the latest case, the witness was driving at about 8.30pm last month when they saw the bizarre sight overhead incident occurred.
In a report to MUFON, the world's largest organisation dedicated UFO and other paranormal research, the man said: "My attention was drawn to a triangular object in the sky quickly flying toward me.
“It was low and had a couple of alternating, brightly flashing, white lights with a red light.
"There were several other smaller, flashing white lights that outlined the shape.
“I was drawn to watch it, so I stopped in the middle of the road.
Mysterious Triangle UFO Filmed at Night by Car Driver in Florida - FindingUFO
"When I looked up through my sunroof, I could see it had a metallic-like appearance, but it wasn’t smooth, and an irregular light pattern.
"It quickly started a slight ascension, made a quick 90-degree direction change and simply disappeared.
"The entire event was only a couple of minutes in duration. It happened so quickly, it was difficult to take pictures.”
Pennsylvania MUFON state section director Julia Weiss investigated the sighting, but was left stumped, and had to close the case as an Unknown.
Roger Marsh, MUFON director of communications, said: "Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made."
In December Express.co.uk revealed there had been a rise in reports of the mysterious UFOs to MUFON, which keeps a global database of alleged UFO and alien sightings.
MUFON
A MUFON CGI image taken from the description in another reported triangle UFO sighting.
Triangular UFO craft with glowing lights hovers over San Diego
MUFON receives hundreds of similar reports each year, with numbers seemingly on the rise.
The reports are often eerily similar, leading to speculation the bizarre UFOs could be REAL.
Many reports tell of a triangle shape, defined by a series of lights, which are said to be in some cases as big as a football field, moving slowly and silently across the sky.
Some believe they are alien craft, while others think they are top secret test craft created by the US Government at mysterious air bases like Area 51 in the Nevada desert.
Scott Brando runs website ufoofinterest.org which exposes hoax UFO sightings.
He is sceptical any unexplainable sightings have been made.
The expert says many triangle UFO sightings can be explained as aircraft and military flares.
He told Express.co.uk: “The Phoenix lights were explained with two different events. The first was the flight of five planes in V-shape formation.
"This is what the witness saw in that day.
"The second event was the launch of military flares over Estrella mountains."
He said of the Belgian UFO Wave: "The Belgian UFO wave began as a normal sighting (some lights in the sky) and then spread virally, but it took more time because at that time the media coverage had no internet like now."
Referring to triangle UFOs generally, he added: “About other similar sightings I'd like to see some reports by MUFON, however many formation of sky lanterns or the launch of skydivers Golden Knights were often mistaken for UFOs.”
The UFO was said to have hovered over the nuclear plant two days running.
Papers released under freedom of information laws describe reports by a former security officer at the power plant describing the strange incident.
The unnamed officer worked at the Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville, Nebraska, according to the files released by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
The incident was described as an “unidentified flying object violating the protected area at the station”.
According to the documents, the report was only received by the former employee in June 2010.
The report said: "An unidentified flying (UFO) object violated the protected area at Cooper Nuclear Station between 1986 and 1989, but the event was not reported to the NRC as required.
"The CI [confidential informant] described an event that occurred during his employment as a security officer.
"He was employed there from 1986 through 1989 and did not remember specifically when during that time the event occurred.
"While posted at the intake structure one night, he observed an 'unidentified flying object' fly down the Missouri River about 150 feet in the air and hover in front of the intake.
New evidence released on Rendlesham Forest UFO incident
An unidentified flying object violated the protected area at Cooper Nuclear Station between 1986 and 1989, but the event was not reported to the NRC as required.
Declassified report
This matches the description of the alleged TR-3B triangular UFO, which some conspiracy theorists claim is a secret US spy craft developed using reverse engineered alien technology taken from crashed flying saucers.
It was also reportedly silent and a third of the size of the reactor building.
He the called the security room and most officers on shift reportedly saw it.
The report addedL "These individuals included (names reacted), all of whom still work at the plant today.
"After hovering there for a few minutes, the UFO exited the protected area and returned back up the river to the north as it had the previous night.
"The CI said that he never saw the UFO at the plant again after that evening."
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Ceres' rotatie-as blijkt aan grote veranderingen onderhevig
Ceres' rotatie-as blijkt aan grote veranderingen onderhevig
Caroline Kraaijvanger
In de laatste drie miljoen jaar liep de axiale variatie van de dwergplaneet uiteen van 2 tot wel 20 graden, zo suggereert nieuw onderzoek.
De rotatie-as is de denkbeeldige as waar dwergplaneet Ceres omheen draait. Die denkbeeldige as maakt een hoek met het omloopvlak (het vlak van Ceres in de baan om de zon). Als een rotatie-as loodrecht op dat omloopvlak staat, wordt gesproken van een axiale variatie van 0 graden. Staat de rotatie-as op het omloopvlak (zoals in het geval van Uranus) dan is de axiale variatie 90 graden. De rotatie-as van de aarde staat een beetje schuin op het omloopvlak en heeft een axiale variatie van 23,45 graden.
Veranderingen Op dit moment heeft dwergplaneet Ceres een axiale variatie van 4 graden. Maar dat is in het recente verleden nog wel anders geweest, zo schrijven onderzoekers in het blad Geophysical Research Letters. In de afgelopen drie miljoen jaar zijn er perioden geweest waarin de axiale variatie van de dwergplaneet tussen de 2 en 20 graden lag. En zelfs in de laatste 24.500 jaar is de axiale variatie aan grote veranderingen onderhevig geweest. De laatste keer dat de dwergplaneet een axiale variatie van zo’n 19 graden had, was 14.000 jaar geleden.
Hier zie je het noordelijk halfrond op het moment dat dit maximaal door de zon belicht wordt en Ceres een axiale variatie van 2 graden heeft. De gebieden die zich continu in de schaduw bevinden, zijn met blauw aangegeven.
Dawn De onderzoekers trekken die conclusie op basis van waarnemingen van ruimtesonde Dawn die momenteel rond Ceres cirkelt. Dat de stand van de rotatie-as door de jaren heen zo veranderd is, schrijven de onderzoekers toe aan gasreuzen Jupiter en Saturnus. Hoewel deze honderden miljoenen kilometers van Ceres verwijderd zijn, oefent hun zwaartekracht toch invloed uit op de dwergplaneet.
Hier zie je opnieuw het noordelijk halfrond op het moment dat dit maximaal door de zon belicht wordt, maar nu heeft Ceres een axiale variatie van 12 graden. Je ziet dat een veel groter gebied door de zon beschenen wordt. De gebieden die zich continu in de schaduw bevinden, zijn met blauw aangegeven.
Kraters Het onderzoek naar de axiale variatie van Ceres is belangrijk, omdat de stand van de rotatie-as van invloed is op het waterijs dat de dwergplaneet herbergt. Dat ijs kan alleen standhouden op plekken die geen zonlicht zien. Je moet dan met name denken aan de schaduwrijke kraters. Wanneer de axiale variatie klein is, zijn er relatief grote gebieden op Ceres aan te wijzen die nooit zonlicht ontvangen (denk bijvoorbeeld aan de polen). Die gebieden beslaan samen een oppervlak van zo’n 2000 km2. Anders wordt het als de axiale variatie toeneemt. Er zijn dan veel meer kraters in de poolgebieden die direct zonlicht ontvangen. De gebieden die nooit zonlicht zien, beslaan dan samen nog maar zo’n 1 tot 10 km2.
Hier zie je opnieuw het noordelijk halfrond op het moment dat dit maximaal door de zon belicht wordt, maar nu heeft Ceres een axiale variatie van 20 graden. Nu zijn er nog maar twee kraters die continu beschaduwde gebieden herbergen.
Voor zover we nu weten, zijn er drie hemellichamen in het zonnestelsel die permanent in de schaduw gelegen gebieden hebben: Mercurius, de maan en Ceres. Aangenomen wordt dat Mercurius en de maan het ijs dat in die gebieden rust cadeau kregen tijdens inslagen. Hoe Ceres aan ijs komt, is nog niet duidelijk.
Kraters die langdurig geen zonlicht zien, worden ook wel ‘cold traps’ genoemd, omdat ze zo koud en donker zijn dat vluchtige stoffen (substanties die gemakkelijk verdampen) die in deze kraters terechtkomen daar eigenlijk niet meer uit kunnen ontsnappen. Vorig jaar maakten onderzoekers bekend dat ze in tien van deze ‘cold traps’ helder materiaal hebben ontdekt en in zeker één van deze cold traps lijkt dat heldere materiaal ijs te zijn. Tijdens dit onderzoek keken astronomen hoe het ‘cold traps’ vergaat als de stand van de rotatie-as van Ceres verandert. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat er op het noordelijk halfrond slechts twee cold traps zijn die zelfs bij een axiale variatie van 20 graden nog in de schaduw liggen. Beide gebieden bevatten vandaag de dag heldere afzettingen. Op het zuidelijk halfrond zijn er ook twee cold traps die zelfs bij een axiale variatie van 20 graden standhouden en één ervan herbergt heldere afzettingen
Hubble ziet supermassief zwart gat dat verbannen is uit het galactische centrum
Hubble ziet supermassief zwart gat dat verbannen is uit het galactische centrum
Tim Kraaijvanger
Astronomen hebben een supermassief zwart gat ontdekt dat uit het galactische centrum van het verre sterrenstelsel 3C186 is geworpen. Dit sterrenstelsel staat acht miljard lichtjaar van de aarde.
Het is voor het eerst dat astronomen een superzwaar zwart gat zien dat op een grote afstand verwijderd is van het centrum van een sterrenstelsel. Normaal gesproken blijft een supermassief zwart gat zitten waar die zit: midden in een sterrenstelsel.
Je kunt supermassieve zwarte gaten vergelijken met die praatgrage buurman op je verjaardagsfeest: je komt er niet makkelijk van af. Om een supermassief zwart gat ter grootte van het object in 3C186 te verbannen is de hoeveelheid energie van honderd miljoen supernova’s nodig. Je begrijpt wel dat het voor een sterrenstelsel onmogelijk is om honderd miljoen sterren tegelijkertijd te laten ontploffen. Daarom wijzen onderzoekers naar een andere oorzaak: zwaartekrachtsgolven.
Quasar Op beelden – gemaakt door de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop – is een heldere quasar te zien in het sterrenstelsel. Een quasar is de actieve kern van een jong sterrenstelsel. Het gaat hierbij om een actief zwart gat dat veel energie produceert. Deze quasar bevindt zich niet in het centrum van 3C186, maar op een afstand van 35.000 lichtjaar van de kern. Wetenschappers berekenden dat het supermassieve zwarte gat met een snelheid van 7,5 miljoen kilometer per uur de kern verlaat.
Zwaartekrachtsgolven Wie of wat kan hiervoor verantwoordelijk zijn? Astronomen vermoeden dat het is gebeurd onder invloed van zwaartekrachtsgolven. Deze zwaartekrachtsgolven kunnen ontstaan zijn toen twee massieve zwarte gaten in het centrum samensmolten. Mogelijk vond deze gebeurtenis 1,2 miljard jaar geleden plaats, toen twee sterrenstelsels op elkaar botsten. De twee zwarte gaten cirkelden om elkaar in het nieuwe samengestelde sterrenstelsel en produceerden flinke zwaartekrachtsgolven. Omdat de zwarte gaten niet even zwaar waren, werden de zwaartekrachtsgolven niet mooi in alle richtingen verdeeld. Uiteindelijk smolten de zwarte gaten samen en zorgden de asymmetrische gewichtsverdeling en de ongelijke verdeling van zwaartekrachtsgolven ervoor dat het zwarte gat direct werd verstoten.
Bestaan zwaartekrachtsgolven wel? Ja! Vorig jaar is voor het eerst een zwaartkrachtsgolf opgevangen van twee zwarte gaten. Wetenschappers beschouwden de ontdekking van zwaartekrachtsgolf GW150914 nu al als één van de hoogtepunten van dat jaar. De vondst van zwaartekrachtsgolven is ontzettend belangrijk, schrijft Scientias-redacteur Pascal van der Aa. Door te kijken naar zwaartekrachtsgolven, kunnen we ontzettend veel leren over zwarte gaten, neutronensterren, supernova’s en de oerknal.
Nieuwe beschadigingen ontdekt op een wiel van Marsrover Curiosity
Nieuwe beschadigingen ontdekt op een wiel van Marsrover Curiosity
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Na bijna 16 kilometer op Mars te hebben afgelegd, is het profiel op het middelste wiel aan de linkerzijde van de Marsrover op twee plaatsen gescheurd.
Dat blijkt uit foto’s die Curiosity eerder deze maand van zijn eigen wielen heeft gemaakt. Te zien is dat het profiel op het middelste wiel aan de linkerzijde van de rover op twee plaatsen kapot is gegaan. Beide beschadigingen moeten recent zijn ontstaan: op de foto’s die Curiosity eind januari van zijn wielen maakte, zijn de beschadigingen nog niet te zien.
De wielen Curiosity heeft zes wielen die ongeveer 50 centimeter groot zijn. Ze zijn gemaakt van aluminium. Op de wielen rustten zigzag-lijntjes die ongeveer 7,5 millimeter uitsteken. Deze dragen het gewicht van de rover, voorzien de rover van grip en voorkomen dat deze omkukelt op ongelijk terrein. En op één van de zes wielen zijn die zigzag-lijntjes nu dus op twee plekken kapot.
Levensduur Wat betekenen de beschadigingen voor de missie van Curiosity? Een onderzoeksprogramma op aarde suggereert dat een wiel als het profiel op drie plaatsen kapot is, over de helft (op zo’n 60 procent) van zijn leven is. Curiosity heeft op dit moment zo’n 16 kilometer in de benen. Dus zelfs als er nu een derde beschadiging bij zou komen, zou het wiel nog wel wat kilometers kunnen maken. Vooralsnog lijkt Curiosity dan ook prima in staat om de gebieden die deze nog op Mars zou moeten bestuderen, te bereiken. “De zes wielen kunnen nog lang genoeg mee om het voertuig naar alle geplande bestemmingen te brengen,” bevestigt projectmanager Jim Erickson.
Op de voorgrond zie je het middelste wiel dat beschadigd is. Boven op het wiel zie je duidelijk dat de zigzag-lijn doorbroken is.
Afbeelding: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.
Onderzoek NASA houdt de wielen van Curiosity sinds 2013 nauwlettend in de gaten. In dat jaar moest men vaststellen dat de wielen veel sneller beschadigden dan verwacht. Besloten werd om de rover te ontzien door routes met veel scherpe stenen te mijden. In die tijd werd ook een onderzoeksprogramma op aarde gestart om te achterhalen wat verschillende beschadigingen – waaronder beschadigingen aan het profiel – betekenen voor de levensduur van de rover.
NASA benadrukt dat de beschadigingen aan het profiel niet als een verrassing komen. In augustus is het alweer vijf jaar geleden dat Curiosity op Mars landde en de rover heeft al zo’n 16 kilometer afgelegd. Het belangrijkste missiedoel heeft Curiosity reeds behaald: de rover heeft vastgesteld dat dit deel van Mars ooit omstandigheden kende die gunstig waren voor eventuele microbiële levensvormen op Mars. Momenteel doet Curiosity onderzoek naar Mount Sharp: een uit laagjes opgebouwde heuvel in het hart van de Gale-krater. Om de nieuwe missiedoelen die in het kader van dat onderzoek gesteld zijn, te behalen moet de rover nog zo’n 6 kilometer rijden.
Amerikaanse atoomtesten nu gewoon op YouTube te bekijken
Amerikaanse atoomtesten nu gewoon op YouTube te bekijken
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Jarenlang lagen ze stof te vergaren in kluizen, maar nu zijn ze voor iedereen te bewonderen: beelden van atoomtesten die de VS tussen 1945 en 1962 uitvoerde.
Meer dan 200 atoomtesten voerde de VS tussen 1945 en 1962 uit. En al die testen zijn met behulp van meerdere camera’s vastgelegd. Het resulteert in ongeveer 10.000 filmpjes. Jarenlang waren ze topgeheim en lagen ze – letterlijk – stof te vergaren in diverse kluizen in de VS. Maar daar is nu verandering in gekomen. Onderzoekers van het Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory hebben de beelden opgespoord, deels geanalyseerd en een aantal van de filmpjes op YouTube gezet.
Bijna vergaan Het is een enorm project dat al zo’n vijf jaar loopt. In die periode hebben de onderzoekers zo’n 6500 van de 10.000 filmpjes teruggevonden. Ongeveer 4200 van deze filmpjes zijn gekopieerd en daarmee gered van de tand des tijds. “Je kunt azijn ruiken wanneer je de blikken (waar de filmpjes in bewaard worden, red.) opent en dat is één van de nevenproducten van het ontbindingsproces dat deze films ondergaan,” legt onderzoeker Greg Spriggs uit. “Wij weten dat deze films op het punt staan om zo ver te vergaan dat ze niet meer te gebruiken zijn. De gegevens die we nu verzamelen moet in digitale vorm bewaard worden, want hoe goed je deze films ook behandelt en hoe goed je ze ook opslaat, ze zullen vergaan. Ze zijn gemaakt van organisch materiaal en organisch materiaal vergaat.”
Analyse De teruggevonden beelden zijn niet alleen van de ondergang gered, maar worden ook opnieuw geanalyseerd. Inmiddels hebben deskundigen zo’n 400 tot 500 van de filmpjes opnieuw bestudeerd.
Afschrikken En een deel ervan is nu dus op YouTube beland. Waarom? Spriggs hoopt dat de beelden een afschrikwekkende werking hebben en eraan bijdragen dat de kernwapens nooit gebruikt gaan worden. “Het is echt ongelofelijk hoeveel energie er vrijkomt,” vertelt hij. “Wij hopen dat we nooit meer een atoomwapen hoeven te gebruiken. Ik denk dat wanneer we de geschiedenis ervan kennen en weten hoe krachtig deze wapens zijn en hoe groot hun vernietigende kracht is, mensen misschien niet bereid zijn om ze te gebruiken.”
Spriggs en collega’s zullen nog wel even zoet zijn met dit onderzoeksproject. Naar schatting duurt het nog zeker twee jaar voor de resterende beelden in digitale vorm zijn opgeslagen. En waarschijnlijk hebben de onderzoekers nog wel iets meer tijd nodig om de beelden te analyseren. Terwijl het onderzoeksproject vordert, zullen nog meer beelden worden vrijgegeven.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
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