Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS.
ON 06/04/2024 MORE THAN 1.951.050
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
22-04-2017
WERELDBEROEMDE GRONINGSE UFO BOVEN ITALIË GEZIEN
WERELDBEROEMDE GRONINGSE UFO BOVEN ITALIË GEZIEN
Precies twee jaar geleden ging een foto van een bijzondere UFO, gemaakt door de Groninger Harry Parton, de wereld rond.
Het was een unieke opname en nu lijkt het erop dat hetzelfde object is gefotografeerd boven het noorden van Italië.
UFO liefhebbers zullen zich het voorval van enkele jaren geleden nog wel kunnen herinneren, maar voor hen die het niet meer weten, hierbij, uit een eerder artikel, wat er in Groningen gebeurde:
Perton is een Groninger die nogal nuchter blijft onder dit soort dingen en denkt dat de vreemde foto te maken heeft met lichtval of iets dergelijks, wat best zou kunnen.
Echter, ook internationaal is deze foto niet onopgemerkt gebleven en zijn er mensen die zich afvragen of we hier de eerste echte afbeelding hebben van een portaal naar een andere dimensie.
Opeens flitste er iets. Ik dacht eerst mijn toestel, maar de flitskap stond niet omhoog. Ook zat er geen druppel op mijn lens. Ik besloot dat het een bliksem moest zijn geweest. Maar thuis zie ik wat vreemds op een van de foto’s die ik aan het eind van het bomenlaantje maakte.
We zijn nu twee jaar later en iemand maakte op 3 april 2017 een vergelijkbare foto, maar nu in het noorden van Italië.
Perton is geen sterrenkundige, dus heeft hij voor de zekerheid Theo Jurriëns (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) ook nog ingeschakeld. 'Hij belde met het KNMI en die zei dat het een drone was. Maar dat vind ik vreemd. Want wie laat nou zo'n kostbare drone tegen onweer aanvliegen?'
En ongetwijfeld zal het object uit Italië worden geclassificeerd als een nieuw soort drone wolk door onze weerexperts.
According to the Unruh effect, an accelerated observer sees empty space heat up.
lkuni/iStockphoto
Artist Mark Rademaker's concept for the IXS Enterprise, a theoretical interstellar spacecraft.
Credit: Mark Rademaker/flickr.com
IN BRIEF
The Unruh effect has been heavily debated for the past forty years. Canadian researchers believe that they can prove the theory using currently available particle accelerators and electromagnets.
Forty years ago, Canadian physicist Bill Unruh made a surprising prediction regarding quantum field theory. Known as the Unruh effect, his theory predicted that an accelerating observer would be bathed in blackbody radiation, whereas an inertial observer would be exposed to none. What better way to mark the 40th anniversary of this theory than to consider how it could affect human beings attempting relativistic space travel?
Such was the intent behind a new study by a team of researchers from Sao Paulo, Brazil. In essence, they consider how the Unruh effect could be confirmed using a simple experiment that relies on existing technology. Not only would this experiment prove once and for all if the Unruh effect is real, it could also help us plan for the day when interstellar travel becomes a reality.
To put it in layman’s terms, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity states that time and space are dependent upon the inertial reference frame of the observer. Consistent with this is the theory that if an observer is traveling at a constant speed through empty vacuum, they will find that the temperature of said vacuum is absolute zero. But if they were to begin to accelerate, the temperature of the empty space would become hotter.
According to the theory of the Unruh effect, accelerating particles are subject to increased radiation. Credit: NASA/Sonoma State University/Aurore Simonnet
This is what William Unruh — a theorist from the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver — asserted in 1976. According to his theory, an observer accelerating through space would be subject to a “thermal bath” — i.e. photons and other particles — which would intensify the more they accelerated. Unfortunately, no one has ever been able to measure this effect, since no spacecraft exists that can achieve the kind of speeds necessary.
For the sake of their study – which was recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters under the title “Virtual observation of the Unruh effect” — the research team proposed a simple experiment to test for the Unruh effect. Led by Gabriel Cozzella of the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT) at Sao Paulo State University, they claim that this experiment would settle the issue by measuring an already-understood electromagnetic phenomenon.
Essentially, they argue that it would be possible to detect the Unruh effect by measuring what is known as Larmor radiation. This refers to the electromagnetic energy that is radiated away from charged particles (such as electrons, protons or ions) when they accelerate. As they state in their study: “A more promising strategy consists of seeking for fingerprints of the Unruh effect in the radiation emitted by accelerated charges. Accelerated charges should back react due to radiation emission, quivering accordingly. Such a quivering would be naturally interpreted by Rindler observers as a consequence of the charge interaction with the photons of the Unruh thermal bath.”
Diagram of the experiment to test the Unruh effect, where electrons are injected into a magnetic field and subjected to lateral and vertical pulls. Credit: Cozzella, Gabriel (et al.)
As they describe in their paper, this would consist of monitoring the light emitted by electrons within two separate reference frames. In the first, known as the “accelerating frame,” electrons are fired laterally across a magnetic field, which would cause the electrons to move in a circular pattern. In the second, the “laboratory frame,” a vertical field is applied to accelerate the electrons upwards, causing them to follow a corkscrew-like path.
In the accelerating frame, Cozzella and his colleagues assume that the electrons would encounter the “fog of photons”, where they both radiate and emit them. In the laboratory frame, the electrons would heat up once vertical acceleration was applied, causing them to show an excess of long-wavelength photons. However, this would be dependent on the “fog” existing in the accelerated frame to begin with.
In short, this experiment offers a simple test which could determine whether or not the Unruh effect exists, which is something that has been in dispute ever since it was proposed. One of the beauties of the proposed experiment is that it could be conducted using particle accelerators and electromagnets that are currently available.
On the other side of the debate are those who claim that the Unruh effect is due to a mathematical error made by Unruh and his colleagues. For those individuals, this experiment is useful because it would effectively debunk this theory. Regardless, Cozzella and his team are confident their proposed experiment will yield positiveresults.
Project Starshot, an initiative sponsored by the Breakthrough Foundation, is intended to be humanity’s first interstellar voyage. Credit: breakthroughinitiatives.org
“We have proposed a simple experiment where the presence of the Unruh thermal bath is codified in the Larmor radiation emitted from an accelerated charge,” they state. “Then, we carried out a straightforward classical-electrodynamics calculation (checked by a quantum-field-theory one) to confirm it by ourselves. Unless one challenges classical electrodynamics, our results must be virtually considered as an observation of the Unruh effect.”
If the experiments should prove successful, and the Unruh effect is proven to exist, it would certainly have consequences for any future deep-space missions that rely on advanced propulsion systems. Between Project Starshot, and any proposed mission that would involve sending a crew to another star system, the added effects of a “fog of photons” and a “thermal bath” will need to be factored in.
The Flying Eye, an expensive $75,000 drone, is the first of its kind to shoot 360-degree video in 6K and live stream broadcast-quality video from a range of 5 miles.
Your flying car might finally be on the way as the all-electric, two-seater Lilium Jet took its first test flight this week. Lilium Aviation's prototype consumes around 90 percent less energy than drone-style aircraft and could be the transportation mode of the future.
THE LILIUM JET
If you’ve been begging the universe for a flying car for your entire life, you may soon be able to stop asking (sort of). This week, Germany-based company Lilium Aviation took its new all-electric, two-seater vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype for its first test flight. The jet was piloted remotely during the tests, but its creators say the vehicle’s first manned flight will happen soon.
Thirty-six separate jet engines mounted on 12 movable flaps on the Lilium Jet’s 10-meter-long wings power the craft. The flaps point down at take-off to provide vertical lift, and then they tilt gradually into a horizontal position for forward thrust. Lilium says that its electric battery enables the aircraft to reach a maximum cruising speed of 300 kph (183 mph) and achieve a range of 300 kilometers (183 miles), all while it “consumes around 90 percent less energy than drone-style aircraft,” according to a recent press release.
POWERED BY RENEWABLES
The startup plans to build a five-passenger version of the jet eventually, and Lilium envisions its product being used in an on-demand capacity in dense, urban areas — the Uber of flying cars (though Uber itself is working on its own flying model). Patrick Nathen, co-founder and head of calculation and design for Lilium Jet, told The Verge that the company’s ultimate goal is to make the technology accessible for everyone, replacing expensive ground taxi trips in urban areas with flights at a fraction of the cost.
Although electric-powered aviation is not yet highly developed, this prototype’s design makes it far more efficient in terms of power consumption than other electric aircraft. And although electric cars with the same 1,000-pound batteries used in this aircraft are typically limited to a range of about 482 kilometers (300 miles) per charge, Nathen says that’s enough for their jet.
This jet and virtually all other innovative vehicles in development right now will run on renewables. This is more than a trend — it is simply the way of the future. Tesla vehicles will soon be as affordable as standard vehicles, and their semi trucks and pickups are on the way. This kind of electric-powered aircraft is the next step in truly getting clean energy off the ground while leaving fossil fuels in it.
Astronomers have discovered a strange phenomenon previously thought to be uncommon. At the center of two dwarf galaxies were found supermassive black holes even larger than the one in the Milky Way. This could help explain the origin of galaxies and the universe.
RIDDLED WITH HOLES
The universe can be thought of as one big, continuously expanding space. An interesting theory about this expansion assumes that the universe could’ve spawned from a singularity — not the technological kind — similar to way that black holesare said to be the origin of galaxies.
There’s much about the formation of galaxies and black holes that we don’t understand yet, let alone the very origins of the universe, but scientists continue to explore and evaluate this interesting theory. Now, a new study published in The Astronomical Journalis providing us with more clues about how black holes operate in the cosmos.
Not long ago, supermassive black holes (SMBH) were thought to be found only in bigger galaxies, like the Milky Way. Then, a team of astronomers from the University of Utah found a SMBH at the center of an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy, which they concluded must be an uncommon occurrence. But now the team has found SMBH at the centers of two other dwarf galaxies named VUCD3 and M59cO.
Image credit: University of Utah
Not only were these SMBH spotted in more dwarf galaxies, but they are even larger than the Milky Way’s SMBH, called Sagittarius A (which is about 4 million times the mass of the sun). “It’s pretty amazing when you really think about it,” lead researcher Chris Ahn said in an interview for a University of Utah press release. “These ultra-compact dwarfs are around 0.1 percent the size of the Milky Way, yet they host supermassive black holes that are bigger than the black hole at the center of our own galaxy.”
AN ORIGIN STORY
Having SMBH at the center of these dwarf galaxies could explain why they were found to be more massive than scientists expected when considering just their stars. In the case of VUCD3, its black hole was 13 percent of the galaxy’s total mass, while the M59cO’s black hole accounted for 18 percent of its total mass. In comparison, the Milky Way’s SMBH makes up less than 0.01 percent of the galaxy’s total mass.
In addition to providing insight into these specific galaxies, this discovery can also help us understand how other galaxies came to be. “We still don’t fully understand how galaxies form and evolve over time,” Anil Seth explained in the press release. “These objects can tell us how galaxies merge and collide.”
The study also shows that dwarf galaxies aren’t just star clusters. They could be younger versions of bigger galaxies like the one we call home.
“We know that galaxies merge and combine all the time — that’s how galaxies evolve. Our Milky Way is eating up galaxies as we speak,” Seth went on to say. “Our general picture of how galaxies form is that little galaxies merge to form big galaxies. But we have a really incomplete picture of that. The ultra-compact dwarf galaxies provide us a longer timeline to be able to look at what’s happened in the past.”
Ever since studies started suggesting that chemical reactions between water and rock on Saturn's moon Enceladus could provide enough energy in the water to feed microbial life, scientists have been searching for proof that the right sort of reactions really do occur.
And during its last dive through the icy plumes that Enceladus erupts into space in October 2015, the Cassini spacecraft has finally managed to find it – in the form of molecular hydrogen. The finding, published in Science, means the moon can now be considered highly likely to be suitable to host microbial life. In fact, the results should undermine the last strong objection from those who argue it could not.
Enceladus is a small (502km in diameter) moon with an icy surface, a rocky interior and an ocean of liquid water sandwiched between the two. Cassini discovered back in 2005 that Enceladus is venting water into space, in the form of plumes of ice crystals escaping from cracks in the surface. For a decade, Enceladus was the only icy moon where this was known to happen, but plumes have recently been found on Europa, too, a larger icy moon of Jupiter.
Cassini's discovery led to it being re-tasked to fly through Enceladus's plumes. There, in addition to water, it was able to identify traces of methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, simple organic molecules and salts.
Cutaway view inside Enceladus, showing where hot water and rock interact below the ice.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Eventually, in March 2015, it detected microscopic particles of silica. By then, the composition of the plumes showed almost every sign that ocean water had reacted chemically with heated rock – altering the minerals of the rocky silicate seabed while the water became rich in chemicals.
Presumably, the ocean water is drawn into the rock, becomes heated, reacts chemically, and escapes back up to the ocean via "hydrothermal vents." These exist on the floor of the Earth's oceans, too, where the chemically charged water supports a rich ecology of microbes and other, more complex, life forms – requiring no sunlight.
The only missing evidence of water-rock chemical reactions in Enceladus was molecules of hydrogen, which should be released as a byproduct of the water-rock reactions. Searching for hydrogen was a key goal of Cassini’s final and closest dive through the plumes.
The new study unveils how hydrogen was detected during the frantic half-minute when Cassini was about 120km above the surface of Enceladus, whizzing through a plume at 8.5km per second. This was achieved by operating the mass spectrometer (an instrument which knocks electrons off chemical substances and sorts them based on their mass-to-charge ratio) in a special mode. It admitted plume material directly into the instrument's detection chamber to avoid the possibility of hydrogen being generated by plume-water reacting with the metallic components of the instrument itself.
The astrobiology
Hydrogen is of immense significance, because its presence along with hot water and rock would enable simple microbes to make a living. When dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with dissolved hydrogen, it produces methane and water. This chemical reaction releases energy that organisms can use to drive their metabolism. There are many kinds of "methanogenic" organisms at deep sea hydrothermal vents on Earth that do this. Now that we know Enceladus has all the necessary ingredients for this to happen, we are lacking only the proof of life itself.
For that we will need a purpose-built mission, such as the Enceladus Life Finder (ELF). This would collect and analyse any complex organic molecules in the plumes. It is hard to imagine a more important goal for solar system exploration than establishing whether a habitable environment, such as the warm bottom of Enceladus's ocean, actually does host life.
Enceladus's south polar plumes, as seen by Cassini November 30 2010.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Enceladus is a long way from Earth. If we were able to prove that it hosts life, it would be highly likely that such life had originated there, independently of life on Earth. That would be a crucial discovery. It would provide evidence to suggest that our galaxy is teeming with life, because if life began independently on two different bodies in our solar system, then surely it also got going on many of the potentially habitable planets that we are now finding around other stars.
Enceladus is a tiny world, and the amount of available energy and nutrients is small. Few scientists therefore expect it to host an ecosystem consisting of more than simple microbes. The much larger Europa, if it has life too, is a better prospect.
How Cassini will end, on September 15, 2017.
Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech
However, to protect Enceladus from the slightest risk of contamination by any terrestrial microbes that accidentally hitched a ride on Cassini, the craft will not be allowed to become a derelict object that might eventually crash onto its surface. Instead, the mission is facing its "grand finale," a series of 22 orbits in which it will pass spectacularly between Saturn and its innermost ring. This will end with Cassini burning up in Saturn's atmosphere.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Space.com.
The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The 330-foot-wide (100 meters) radio dish is searching for possible signals from intelligent aliens as part of the $100 million Breakthrough Listen project.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
STANFORD, Calif. — A $100 million search for intelligent aliens has come up with some intriguing leads but has revealed no evidence of E.T. so far.
Observations of nearly 700 stars by the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia revealed no compelling signs of alien civilizations, representatives of the Breakthrough Listen project, which led the observations for the E.T. search, announced Thursday (April 20).
Team members also unveiled the GBT's 11 "most significant" observed events but stressed that these hits were probably caused by human technology. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens]
"We were able to determine that they were most likely due to radio frequency interference," Andrew Siemion, director of the University of California, Berkeley's SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Center, said here Thursday during a presentation at the Breakthrough Discuss conference.
The new results are just the beginning for Breakthrough Listen, which billionaire entrepreneur Yuri Milner and a group of scientists, including Stephen Hawking, announced in July 2015. Over the next decade, the ambitious project aims to search the 1 million stars closest to the sun, the 100 galaxies closest to our own Milky Way, and the galactic plane for possible signals of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Breakthrough Listen scientists are starting with an initial target list of 1,709 stars, which the team is observing with three telescopes: the 330-foot (100 meters) GBT radio dish, the 210-foot-wide (64 m) Parkes radio telescope in Australia and the Automated Planet Finder, a 7.9-foot (2.4 m) optical telescope at the Lick Observatory in California.
"This sample of stars is designed to be what we call 'spectral type complete' — it samples stars of every spectral type," Siemion said. "We want to look at as many different types of stars as possible, to leave ourselves open to any possibility that life might emerge [around] one of these stars."
The newly announced results, which the team submitted to The Astrophysical Journal on Thursday, are based on GBT data for 692 of those 1,709 stars. The telescope made about 5,000 individual 5-minute observations, racking up a total of 400 observing hours, Siemion said.
Those observations targeted a band of frequencies that includes the "water hole," a quiet part of the radio spectrum that SETI scientists have long speculated would be a good window for interstellar communication. The water hole lies between the emission band of hydroxyl molecules (OH) and that of hydrogen. Together, hydroxyl and hydrogen form water — hence the name.
"These results represent the most comprehensive and fundamental test of the water-hole hypothesis that's ever been conducted for nearby stars," Siemion said. "This is a classic idea in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence that's been with us for more than four decades."
Breakthrough Listen is part of the Breakthrough Initiatives, which Milner founded in 2015 to look for evidence of life beyond Earth and help spur space exploration. Another program under this umbrella is Breakthrough Starshot, which aims to develop a system that can blast tiny, sail-equipped nanoprobes to other star systems at 20 percent the speed of light using powerful lasers.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
You Won’t BELIEVE What Apollo 11 Astronauts Saw On The Moon in 1969…
You Won’t BELIEVE What Apollo 11 Astronauts Saw On The Moon in 1969…
The crewmen of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission go through their post flight debriefing session on Sunday, July 27, 1969. Left to right, are astronauts Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Neil A. Armstrong, commander. They are seated in the debriefing room of the Crew Reception Area of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC).
What Exactly Did Apollo 11 Astronauts See On The Moon in 1969? In his book “RETURN TO EARTH” Colonel Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. writes the following on pages 223-224;
In the middle of one evening, Houston time, I found myself idly staring out the window of the Columbia and saw something that looked a bit unusual. It appeared brighter than any star and not quite the pinpoints of light that stars are. I pointed this out to Mike and Neil, and the three of us were beset with curiosity. With the help of the monocular we guessed that whatever it was, it was only a hundred or so miles away. Looking at it through our sextant we found it occasionally formed a cylinder, but when the sextant’s focus was adjusted it had a sort of illuminated “L” look to it. It had a shape of some sort — we all agreed on that — but exactly what it was we couldn’t pin down. We asked Houston some casual questions: “How far away is the Saturn third stage?” The response was in the vicinity of six thousand miles. That wasn’t it.
It could possibly have been one of the panels of the Saturn third stage which fly off to expose the LM and cannot be traced from earth. We could see it for about forty-five seconds at a time as the ship rotated, and we watched it on and off for about an hour. We debated whether or not to tell the ground we had spotted something, and decided against it. Our reason was simple: The UFO people would descend on the message in hordes, setting off another rash of UFO spottings back on earth. We concluded it was most likely on of the panels. Its course appeared in no way to conflict with ours, and it presented no danger. We dropped the matter there.
The following is an excerpt from the transcript of the Apollo 11 technical debriefing with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11 July 1969
Aldrin:
The first unusual thing that we saw I guess was one day out or something pretty close to the moon. It had a sizeable dimension to it, so we put the monocular on it.
Collins:
How’d we see this thing? Did we just look out the window and there it was.
Aldrin:
Yes, and we weren’t sure but what it might be the S-IVB. We called the ground and were told the S-IVB was 6,000 miles away. We had a problem with the high gain about this time, didn’t we ?
Collins:
There was something. We felt a bump or maybe I just imagined it.
Armstrong:
He was wondering whether the MESA had come off.
Collins:
I don’t guess we felt anything.
Aldrin:
Of course, we were seeing all sorts of little objects going by at the various dumps and then we happened to see this one brighter object going by. We couldn’t think of anything else it could be other than the S-IVB. We looked at it through the monocular and it seemed to have a bit of an L shape to it.
Armstrong:
Like an open suitcase.
Aldrin:
We were in PTC at the time so each of us had a chance to take a look at this and it certainly seemed to be within our vicinity and of a very sizeable dimension.
Armstrong:
We should say it was right at the limit of the resolution of the eye. It was very difficult to tell what shape it was. And there was no way to tell the size without knowing the range or the range without knowing the size.
Aldrin:
So then I got down in the LEB and started looking for it in the optics. We were grossly misled because with the sextant off focus what we saw appeared to be a cylinder.
Armstrong:
Or really two rings.
Aldrin:
Yes.
Armstrong:
Two rings. Two connected rings.
Aldrin:
Yes.
Collins:
No, it looked like a hollow cylinder to me. It didn’t look like two connected rings. You could see this thing tumbling and, when it came around end-on, you could look right down in it’s guts. It was a hollow cylinder. But then you could change the focus on the sextant and it would be replaced by this open book shape. It was really weird.
Aldrin:
I guess there’s not too much more to say about it other than it wasn’t a cylinder.
Collins:
It was during the period when we thought it was a cylinder that we inquired about the S-IVB and we’d almost convinced ourselves that’s what it had to be. But we don’t have any more conclusions than that really. The fact that we didn’t see it much past this one period — we really don’t have a conclusion as to what it might have been, how big it was, or how far away it was. It was something that wasn’t part of the urine dump, we’re pretty sure of that.
Enlarge/ A screen grab from a Chilean Navy video showing an odd signature in the infrared.
CEFAA/YouTube
The Ars Files casts a skeptical eye on developments in the UFO community. Is the truth out there? Maybe. Maybe not. But we try to find it here.
Early on the afternoon of November 14, 2014, a Chilean Navy pilot and a technician were flying their helicopter along the coast when they saw something strange. They were going north at an altitude of 1.4km in a twin-engine Airbus Cougar when something appeared in the sky and matched their velocity of 130 knots.
As part of the flight, which took place west of Santiago, the helicopter's technician was testing the thermal imaging properties of an infrared FLIR high-definition camera. Naturally, he turned the camera on the unidentified object. After several minutes the pilot and technician observed the object make two distinct discharges of some type of liquid, or gas, which produced a very hot signal captured by the infrared imager. The technician captured nearly 10 minutes of video, which shows both visible and infrared camera views.
After this sighting, the Navy turned the video over to the the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, known as CEFAA. This is the Chilean government group that investigates UFO sightings, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. On Friday, after a study by scientists, military officials, and even some photo analysis experts from France, the committee released its conclusion.
"The Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, comprised of leading scientists, analysts, and aviation technicians, after an extensive study of the case, determined that it was a UAP, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon," the agency stated in a news release.
Full video from the Chilean helicopter
A US-based journalist who investigates UFOs, Leslie Kean, has interviewed some of the principals and had access to the case files. She provided more details about the incident in a report for the Huffington Post, which she characterized as a "groundbreaking UFO video."
We're not ready to go that far, but the infrared video is intriguing. According to Kean, the French analysts explained the sighting as a medium-haul aircraft on approach to the Santiago airport, with the heat signals due to waste water being dumped from the cabin. The Chilean committee dismissed this explanation, however, because the "plane" in question was not seen on primary radar. (As he observed the object, the Chilean pilot radioed an air traffic control along the coast and another at Santiago, both of which failed to observe a plane on radar. Nor was any aircraft in the vicinity cleared for a landing at Santiago.) Moreover, the plume of heated material does not fall as one would expect water or other material to do at an altitude of about 1km above the surface.
Other hypotheses included falling pieces of space debris, which might possibly release compressed gases at a lower atmosphere, as well as a bird, flying insect, drone, parachute, hang glider, or some kind of hoaxed video. Those hypotheses were ultimately dismissed.
The significance of this sighting is that it was made by credible Navy officers, lasted nearly 10 minutes, and involved observation in both the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. While this falls far short of providing any evidence of aliens, it nonetheless is well documented and worthy of additional consideration, if only because the explanation might reveal some kind of new US military stealth technology.
Mars is a dry, cold deserted wasteland with an atmosphere so thin, liquid water is unable to exist on the surface.
However, alien hunters claim to have found evidence that the Red planet may have once been lush with green vegetation – 'the petrified remnants of a Martian tree'.
In an image snapped by the Curiosity rover on Sol 164, some have suggested there is an ancient tree stump that stands about three feet high, which they say means a variety of plants 'either existed or still exist' on Mars.
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alien hunters claim to have found evidence that the Red planet may have once been lush with green vegetation – 'the petrified remnants of a Martian tree'.
WHY WE SEE ODD THINGS ON MARS
Pareidolia is the psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimulus.
It is a form of apophenia, when people see patterns in random, unconnected data.
There have been multiple occasions when people have claimed to see religious images and themes in unexpected places.
On the red planet, one of the most famous is the 'face on Mars' spotted by one of the Viking orbiters in 1976.
This was later proven to just be a chance alignment of shifting sand dunes.
The sighting was first published to YouTube by Paranormal Crucible, which was spotted on Thursday – but NASA released the image in March.
'This object definitely looks out of place and in my opinion could be the petrified remnants of a Martian tree,' the alien hunter and YouTuber shared in the video description.
'Object is around 3 feet in height, and with numerous discoveries of plant and animal life on mars, it would be logical to assume, that a variety of tree either existed, or still exists on this enigmatic planet.'
NASA explained that the image was taken by the Mastcam onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 1647 in March.
Although it may be just one of the many rocks found on the Red Planet, conspiracy theorists believe it could prove that life was present at some point.
'It is a good assumption since NASA themselves said Mars was Earth-like when a solar explosion hit the planet, stripping the atmosphere and oceans from the surface, well-known Martian researcher Scott C Warning shared on UFO Sightings Daily regarding Paranormal Crucible's discovery.
If trees still existed on Mars, it would need a good source of water to survive – which another conspiracy theorist claimed to have seen in NASA images last year.
In a video posted on YouTube, he claimed to have found evidence of lakes of standing water surrounded by trees on the surface of Mars in images taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor.
In an image (pictured) snapped by the Curiosity rover on Sol 164, some have suggested there is an ancient tree stump that stands about three feet high, which means a variety of plants 'either existed or still exist' on Mars
Using images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera on the Mars Global Surveyor, Will Farrar, who runs the channel from his home in from Salisibury, Maryland, said he believed they showed an abundance of water that could support alien life.
In the description for the video, Will Farrar, who runs the channel, said: 'We now have more than five or six very good shots from the air that seem to show frozen or warm water lakes sitting on the Martian surface.
Although it may be just one of the many rocks found on the Red Planet, conspiracy theorists believe it could prove that life was present at some point
'This has never been addressed by NASA since we are still looking for these 'minuscule' traces of life and water. I ask you to use your judgement on this one. What does this look like to you?'
Mr Farrar does not seem to be alone in thinking the footage shows lakes and trees - many people have commented on the video agreeing with him.
If trees still existed on Mars, it would need a good source of water to survive – which another conspiracy theorist claimed to have seen in NASA images last year. He claimed eto have found evidence of lakes of standing water surrounded by trees on the surface of Mars
Ted Cox posted: 'How did they let this one get through? They look like tree lined lakes to me.'
Another user, M Brontë, speculated about what else it could be, posting: 'This totally looks like liquid...water, mud, mercury pools...I don't know but definitely a liquidy substance here.'
NASA originally posted this image online, which alien-hunters have claimed showed lakes surrounded by trees
Scientists believe liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars billions of years ago, but it has long since evaporated. Small ice deposits may still exist in some of the craters close to the poles and under the surface. A stock picture of Mars is shown
The video was also promoted on the blog, Ufosightingsdaily.com.
Waring, the editor of the blog wrote: 'It's a bit mind-blowing, but there are lakes on Mars and we now have government evidence to back that up.'
'This is 100 per cent proof that lakes and rivers exist on Mars, which means that fish and water creatures do as well.'
'Water is a main source for animals to exist, so this may also be a big visiting spot from some smaller life forms.'
However, despite the claims, NASA said it has yet to find any evidence for significant levels of liquid water on Mars.
In September, NASA confirmed that 'dark fingers' spotted in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images are likely made by liquid moving across, or beneath, the planet's surface
There is growing evidence that the planet was once rich in liquid water that shaped valleys, canyons and even dried out ocean beds before it evaporated billions of years ago.
There are, however, hopes that water ice may exist in craters close to the poles and perhaps buried deep under the surface in the Martian soil.
Stowaway Bacteria Could Be Even More Contagious in Space Than We Thought
Bacteria samples in NASA's E-MIST balloon experiment.
Credit: NASA
Stowaway Bacteria Could Be Even More Contagious in Space Than We Thought
We need to protect the Universe from ourselves.
PETER DOCKRILL
As if space exploration weren't already hard enough, one of the critical jobs NASA and other space agencies have to manage is preventing the contamination of any alien worlds we visit, by making sure any microbial stowaways hidden on Earth-built spacecraft don't pose a danger to extraterrestrial life.
"If we're sending viable biomass to Mars, we want to make sure we're not going to hit a spot where terrestrial contaminants can start to propagate and take over the environment," microbiologist David J. Smith from NASA's Ames Research Centre told The Atlantic.
Now a study led by Smith has assessed the survival prospects of microbes that manage to hail a ride as far as Earth's stratosphere, and while those prospects aren't necessarily great, concerns over Earth bacteria surviving in space environments certainly aren't misplaced.
To simulate the extremely cold and dry environment of Mars, the team launched samples of a particularly hardy strain of Bacillus pumilus bacteria called SAFR-032 to an altitude of 31 kilometres (19.3 miles) on a scientific research balloon.
NASA/Christina Khodadad
Some 40 million samples of the bacteria were loaded into cartridges on NASA's Exposing Microorganisms in the Stratosphere (E-MIST) balloon to see what chance SAFR-032 would have in a Martian-like environment without a protective atmosphere.
"We sort of had a nightmare scenario and an intentionally high concentration in order to better understand how the bacterial population would respond," Smith told Joshua Sokol at Nature.
In addition to the extreme weather conditions of the stratosphere, at that altitude lifeforms are exposed to fierce levels of cosmic radiation – and that proved to be the most damaging factor for SAFR-032.
After eight hours of exposure to the Sun's ultraviolet light at 31 kms (19.3 miles) high – comparable to the amount of UV rays you'd get on Mars – the vast majority of microbes were obliterated.
"When we got the samples back to the lab a couple of weeks later we saw that there was almost a complete kill," Smith told Shannon Stirone at The Atlantic. "99.9 percent of the entire population was destroyed."
In terms of safeguarding future mission to Mars – or knowing that previous landings, including the Mars rovers, haven't jeopardised potential organisms on the planet – it's being counted as a win.
"Our results predict that most terrestrial bacteria would be inactivated within the first [day] on Mars if contaminated spacecraft surfaces receive direct sunlight," says Smith.
"Let the rovers sunbathe [and] help keep Mars pristine."
But while UV light took care of most of the microbes, it didn't kill them all. Of the 40 million spores sent into the stratosphere, 267 survived.
SAFR-032 has the ability to enter a protective, dormant state – called an endospore – when they encounter physically stressful environments, and 267 of the bugs were able to be awakened from this state after their voyage to the stratosphere.
In some ways, this isn't completely surprising, given that SAFR-032 is known to be highly resistant to UV, and can survive in space (in the shade, at least) for long periods, lasting 18 months in one experiment outside the International Space Station (ISS).
But another concern is that while the E-MIST experiment was specifically intended to expose the bacteria to the Sun's rays, the nooks and crannies of rovers and other spacecraft could enable microbes in other circumstances to hide from UV light in all sorts of dark recesses.
Bacteria samples in NASA's E-MIST balloon experiment.
Credit: NASA
"They are not building these spacecraft for UV microbial death," astrobiologist John Rummel from the SETI Institute, who wasn't involved with the study, told Science.
Experiments with surfaces and structures that more closely resemble actual spacecraft would provide a better estimate of stowaway survival rates, even if they're "not the kind of configurations that microbial ecologists find easy to count," Rummel says.
But the most remarkable part of the findings is that the microbes that did survive the stratosphere showed a number of minor changes in their DNA when compared with control specimens kept on the ground.
It's too early to say how these changes came about, or whether they would influence gene expression, but the researchers acknowledge that it could have been something that influenced their survival in the stratosphere – and perhaps on places like Mars too.
Previous NASA research found that SAFR-032 samples that survived outside the ISS also underwent genetic changes – and their bacterial offspring became even more resistant to UV light.
"[W]hat's particularly interesting," Smith told The Atlantic, "is that those that were alive from the ISS experiment also ended up showing a resistance to antibiotics."
Solving how this all comes together will fall to future research, as the researchers still have a lot of questions.
But while UV light can clearly kill one super-tough Earth bug given enough exposure, it sure doesn't look to be a 100 percent solution just yet.
Onderzoekers van de universiteit van Edinburgh zeggen dat ze mysterieuze inscripties ontcijferd hebben op een stenen pilaar in het oudste tempelcomplex ter wereld. Ze slaagden erin om de symbolen - die 11.500 jaar oud zijn - te matchen met de stand van de sterren en ontdekten dat er toen iets gebeurde wat de loop van de geschiedenis helemaal veranderde.
De wetenschappers publiceerden hun ontdekking in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry. Ze trokken ervoor naar het oude bergheiligdom Göbekli Tepe in het zuiden van Turkije. Toen ze de inscripties van enkele dieren op een pilaar - de 'Vulture Stone' - van dichterbij bekeken, leidden ze af dat die wel eens de inslag van een komeet zou kunnen afbeelden. De dieren wezen daarbij op astronomische symbolen. En die bleken een bepaalde constellatie aan te duiden.
Met een computerprogramma slaagden ze erin om het moment te bepalen dat die precieze constellatie boven Turkije te zien was al die jaren geleden en dat bleek in 10.950 voor Christus te zijn. Het exacte moment dat de temperatuur op aarde omlaag ging tijdens een kleine ijstijd: het 'Jonge Dryas', in de Engelse wetenschappelijke literatuur ook wel de 'Big Freeze' genoemd.
Mammoet De komeet zou dan onder meer verantwoordelijk geweest zijn voor het uitsterven van de mammoet en het ontstaan van de eerste menselijke beschavingen. Dat is een theorie die eerder al werd geponeerd en weer ontkracht nadat een aantal meteoorkraters werden gedateerd in Amerika, waar wetenschappers van denken dat de meteoren daar zijn neergekomen.
Voor de inslag hadden de nomadische jagers in het Midden-Oosten gewoon enkele basiskampen in de grote gebieden vol wilde tarwe en gerst. Maar toen het klimaat veranderde, verdwenen die en moesten ze meer gaan samenwerken en nieuwe manieren zoeken om hun oogst te vrijwaren, onder meer door irrigatie en selectieve kweekprogramma's. En op die manier ontstonden de landbouw en de eerste permanente nederzettingen.
Impact Volgens de onderzoekers uit Edinburgh lijken de inscripties duizenden jaren belangrijk gebleven te zijn voor de mensen van Göbekli Tepe, wat kan wijzen op de enorme impact die de inslag had. "Deze studie samen met de recente ontdekking van een platina anomalie in de bodem in heel Noord-Amerika kunnen maar op één ding wijzen: de inslag van een meteoor", aldus coauteur Martin Sweatman.
Observatorium "Volgens ons was Göbekli Tepe onder meer een observatorium van waaruit de nachtelijke hemel in de gaten werd gehouden", gaat hij verder. "En de pilaar was een gedenkteken voor de vreselijke gebeurtenis. De afbeelding van een man zonder hoofd iets verderop wijst dan weer op de impact van de ramp en het verlies van vele levens."
Credits: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon, J. DePasquale, and Z. Levay (STScI) Acknowledgment: A. Fujii; Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, and UKSTU/AAO; B. Franke (Focal Point Observatory); and M. Mutchler (STScI)
Ever wonder what it'd be like to approach the Milky Way as a stranger from outer space? This new GIF from NASA offers some semblance of an answer. The two galaxies pictured here, NGC 4320 and 4298, are about 55 million light years away from us. But for all that distance, they have that same spiral shape that characterizes our own galactic neighborhood, which NASA describes as "arms of young stars that wind outward from its center" with "a central bulge... surrounded by a faint halo of stars." Narrowing in on them, as the Hubble telescope has here, offers a sense of what it would be like to approach from afar the swirling matter we call home.
An insect rainbow
Elizabeth Garcia USGSBIML
In case you missed it, last week we compiled a list of the world's most weird and wonderful bugs in all their technicolor glory. This mustachioed dude goes by the moniker "Thistledown Velvet Ant," but he's actually a wasp with a painful sting. He's one of nine tiny terrors in our rainbow roundup.
Supernova sighting
ESA/Hubble, NASA
Earlier this week, PopSci's own Sarah Fecht wrote about how a warp in space-time created this amazing image of an exploding star. As a galaxy (in the middle, in blue) passed in front of the supernova, it split the explosion's light into four separate images—and magnified the intensity of the supernova's light 52 times. This image, which is part of a study published in Science, might allow us to measure how quickly the universe is expanding.
Between the rings
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Boy, has NASA had a banner week for space photography. This image, captured by the Cassini spacecraft, shows the tiny twinkle of Earth as seen between Saturn's rings. Though it's too itty bitty to tell from this image (taken 870 million miles from Earth), NASA says we're looking at is the Atlantic Ocean at 1:41 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, April 13. I was on the ground then, blind to Cassini's cosmic circling, and probably dreaming of lowly Earthen sheep. But after seeing this image, I think we'll all be dreaming of uncrewed spacecrafts from here on out.
A cosmic sandwich
Lee et al.
This week, Popular Science also explored new insights into this delightful (though not particularly appetizing) space hamburger. But where's the beef? Well, there isn't any. The patty in this illustration is actually a very young solar system in the midst of development. The cosmic sandwich is helping scientists learn more about how stars and planets form across the universe.
Now in theaters everywhere is the Ridley Scott-produced found footage alien abduction thriller Phoenix Forgotten, which is based on the shocking, true events of March 13th, 1997, when several mysterious lights appeared over Phoenix, Arizona. This unprecedented and inexplicable phenomenon became known as “The Phoenix Lights”, and remains the most famous and widely viewed UFO sighting in history.
We caught up with director Justin Barber who revealed to us his favorite UFO-themed films, which include a few gems and surprises.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Seems like the obvious answer, but still the right one for me. I love the scope, the balance of wonder, fear, and optimism. François Truffaut plays a french UFO scientist? Heaven. The final act is still an unmatched spectacle in cinema. Those five musical notes will haunt my mind for the rest of mylife.
The Abyss Does this count as a UFO movie? I don’t care, it’s close enough. One of my all-time favorite films. The scene where (spoiler) Mastrantonio almost dies is a tour-de-force from everyone in it and Cameron. Saw the movie when I was a kid and that scene was one of the first times I was really moved by cinema.
Contact Like the two above this movie manages to be an emotional drama, and also a cool sci-fi movie. The science in the movie is fascinating but also accessible – in the great Carl Sagan way. You look up at the stars differently after having seen this movie.
Fire in the Sky This movie is just terrifying. In ways the story is thin, it feels like everything in it is just there to support the visceral alien abduction scenes… But it nails the terror of what that might feel like. It’s a great Halloween movie for me. Best title ever also!
Communion This one is a little more psychological, based on a book written by an ‘Abductee’ with Christopher Walken playing the author. It’s not a traditional UFO adventure, but there is one scary scene that still gives me shivers. For that alone, the movie is worth checking out – Peekaboo Grey. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I mean. Bonus points for a film score by Eric Clapton.
Arrival Best new UFO movie I’ve seen lately, for a lot of the same reasons I love Contact. But I love the score, the director’s eye and the realization of the creatures. A great movie for sound, and for acting.
Dark City A non-traditional UFO movie, but it should count as one. These characters are (spoilers) in the grip of an alien force and aboard a giant structure floating in space. It’s like a more gothic, Gaiman-esqu version of The Matrix.
Signs People crap on Signs, but I am Signs defender. I like the idea of an invasion movie from the isolated perspective of this family out in the country. And the scene where Mel Gibson has to cry and eat at the same time lands for me.
Independence Day Seeing this movie in a theater as a high school kid was probably the best day of my life. I saw it like three times. Get up there and whoop ET’s ass! I mean, come on! The Top Gun aspect of it is great, and no matter how cynical Americans become we will always have Pullman’s speech.
Men in Black A slick take on this piece of real UFO folklore. Agent J is like James Bond for nerds. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are amazing together, great gadgets and creatures. I actually really like the third one too!
Honorable Mention: Mars Attacks
Phoenix Forgotten tells the story of three teens who went into the desert shortly after the incident, hoping to document the strange events occurring in their town. They disappeared that night, and were never seen again. Now, on the twentieth anniversary of their disappearance, unseen footage has finally been discovered, chronicling the final hours of their fateful expedition. For the first time ever, the truth will be revealed…
More common than you might think. (Image: Interstellar)
Over 70 percent of our planet is covered in water, and we tend to think that’s a lot. A new study suggests that our world is special in this regard, and that most habitable planets are dominated by oceans that consume over 90 percent their surface area. That may be good for primitive marine life, but not so good for aspiring civilizations.
A new study published in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests that most habitable planets are wet. Like, extremely wet. Using computer models, astronomer Fergus Simpson from the Institute of Cosmos Science at the University of Barcelona found that habitable exoplanets, at least simulated ones, tend to be overrun by water, in most cases accounting for 90 percent or more of the total surface area.
This finding suggests that Earth, with its vast land masses, is unique in the cosmological scheme of things, and that our planetary twin may be harder to find than we thought. What’s more, it may explain why we’ve never made contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence—a conclusion that feeds into the Rare Earth Hypothesis, the idea that Earth-like planets containing complex life are exceptionally rare in the Universe
This USGS picture shows the size of a sphere that would contain all of Earth’s water in comparison to the size of the Earth. It may not seem like much, but our planet is relatively flat, so a little goes a long way. (Image: USGS)
As Simpson notes in his new study, a planet must strike a certain balance if it is to host both extensive land masses and large oceans. Factors controlling this balance include the amount of water on the surface of a planet, the space available to store it, and the presence of dynamic topographical features—from vast ocean basins through to mountain ranges. If the oceans are relatively shallow, and the land altitudes low, the excess water will consume the vast majority of a planet’s surface. Here on Earth, the global topography allows for approximately 29 percent of our planet’s surface area to remain above water. Over the eons, this ratio has remained relatively stable allowing for the emergence of complex terrestrial animals such as ourselves.
Simpson’s new study suggests that Earth is an outlier in this regard, and that most terrestrial planets locked within its host star’s habitable zone (i.e. that cozy niche where liquid water can be retained at the surface) are waterworlds. But if we take a closer look at our planet, we’re actually not too far removed from being completely drenched in water ourselves. As the animation below shows, only a narrow window exists in which large areas of both land and water are present. Consequently, and as Simpson points out in his new study, habitable exoplanets tend to be dominated by water or land.
At least in theory. Simpson’s models aren’t based on observations made of real exoplanets, and are instead best guesses of planetary formation and how much water we can expect to find on these hypothetical worlds.
“I’m a bit puzzled about this paper,” said astrophysicist Sean N. Raymond, who wasn’t involved with the study, in an interview with Gizmodo. “I find studies that extrapolate from N=1 to be interesting but hard to interpret. In this case, there are plenty of unanswered—but relevant questions.”
Most of Earth’s water came via asteroids and comets. (Image: Mark A. Garlick/space-art.co.uk/University of Warwick/University of Cambridge).
Indeed, the question of how planets get their water is still a matter of contention. The prevailing theory is that most of Earth’s water was delivered by asteroids and comets. If that’s the case, then it’s nearly impossible to predict the quantity of water on any given planet. In order for us to be certain, we’d need to know the average amount of water delivered to a planet of our size and location. But every star system is different, featuring varying amounts of asteroids, comets, and water, not to mention neighboring planets that are also sopping up water from the heavens.
“In the ‘classical model’ of terrestrial planet formation, water delivery to Earth is very [random] so it’s reasonable to imagine alternate Earths with over ten times more water,” said Raymond. “However, in our newer models much less water is delivered but the delivery is more reliable.”
What Raymond is talking about is the observation that the inner solar system is water poor, while the outer system is water-rich.
“Water worlds are always beyond what we call the ‘snow line’,” Adam Sarafian, a graduate student at MIT’s Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences department, told Gizmodo. “The snow line existed in the very early Solar System before planets formed. Beyond the line, water could condense as ice, so the bodies in the outer solar system are water rich and the inner solar system bodies are water poor. So we would expect water worlds to exist in the outer solar system and relatively dry planets in the inner solar system.”
Sarafian, who wasn’t involved with the new study, is currently trying to figure out why Earth has so much water and when it got here.
“Recent evidence suggests the inner solar system was likely seeded with plenty of water very early, such that Mars could have looked just like Earth (partly waterworld) soon after it formed,” said Sarafian. “One advantage of looking at planets closer to the Sun, which wouldn’t allow them to be water worlds (because of the snow line) is that the sun provides a lot of energy for life and would allow liquid water on the surface, as opposed to ice.”
Sarafian believes that Simpson’s new study is part of this larger conversation, which is mostly speculation about the best places to look for life.
Waterworld was a shitty movie, but at least it got the science right.
But there are other factors to consider than how Earth got its water, such as how the ocean’s depths are regulated by interactions between the deep ocean and Earth’s mantle. For example, Earth may be unique in that it features unusually deep water basins. More research will be required to determine if this is the case.
Simpson himself factored in some of these effects, and had his test model account for the deep water cycle, erosion, and deposition processes (i.e. the process in which sediments, soil, and rocks are added to a land mass). Despite this, he still found that water is be a prevailing surface feature in most cases. Interestingly, he found that planets with small oceans feature land masses dominated by deserts. Also, large Earth-like planets are almost guaranteed to be waterworlds.
“Larger planets are thought to be more prone to flooding for two reasons,” Simpson told Gizmodo. “One is that if they have the same composition (percentage of water by mass) then their oceans are deeper. The second is that their higher surface gravity makes it harder to have such large surface perturbations [dynamic topological features].”
If Simpson’s conclusions are valid, then it means our planet has struck a fine balance between land and ocean—an observation that may help to explain why our civilization emerged on Earth (despite what some might say, it is highly unlikely that a high-tech, industrial-scale civilization can develop on a world consumed by water). And in fact, Simpson says that anthropic selection effects are at work. That’s a fancy way of saying that Earth is a freaky planet, because if it wasn’t freaky, we wouldn’t be here to see it.
The trouble with the Anthropic Principle, of course, is that it’s untestable. But thankfully, this new waterworld theory is.
“The exciting aspect is that we may not be too far from measuring the atmospheric composition of terrestrial exoplanets,” said Simpson. Indeed, with the next generation of telescopes, including those situated in space, we’ll be able to scan the atmospheres of exoplanets to determine how much water might be on the surface.
In addition, scientists will need to figure out the various ways in which our planet is an oddball, and why. Until then, let’s celebrate the fact that Earth is a weirdo of the Milky Way.
Watch NASA Launch 38 Itty Bitty Satellites to the ISS
Watch NASA Launch 38 Itty Bitty Satellites to the ISS
NASA
LATER TODAY, AN Atlas V rocket will blast off to the International Space Station bearing 7,600-odd pounds of food, water and other sundries to the astronauts on board. Nearly a third of that weight is equipment for science that furthers NASA’s ability to explore space: a capsule that records how spacecraft break up on re-entry, an experiment that tests how fires behave in microgravity, a shiny new LED-powered plant growing habitat.
But also tucked into the spacecraft’s cargo hold are 38 CubeSats, diminutive satellites that are cheaper and easier to assemble than the behemoths rockets usually take into orbit. The ISS is a major launch platform for CubeSats—it has ejected more than 100 small payloads from companies and universities into orbit in the past few years. Those small sats will rely on new launch providers when the ISS retires in less than a decade. But this launch, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, will be business as usual; you can watch the livestream (now also in glorious 3D!) when it starts at 10 am Eastern, with the launch scheduled for 11:11 am.
CubeSats have piggybacked on shuttles to the ISS for a while now, partly because it offers a convenient arrangement. Resupply missions are constant—astronauts need food and water—and the ISS even hosts a dedicated robot arm to shove the boxy satellites into the void. Small sats are cheaper, lighter, and easier to get into orbit than bigger satellites, which decreases the risk of sending them up. So they’re especially useful for scientists looking to develop and test new tech on the cheap. Once they’ve created a new tool, the scientists can just throw their sat on a space-bound rocket and see if it works.
The way CubeSats are constructed—mostly through a process of tinkering and iteration—are just as ad hoc as the way they’re sent to space. “Cubesats are like PCs in the early ’90s—a lot of people are putting together satellite parts by themselves by hand,” says Dong Wu, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard. His project aboard today’s mission is no different. He built a high-frequency sensor that detects signatures from frigid, wispy ice clouds, aptly named IceCube.
NASA
Because of their DIY, maker ethos, CubeSats are also a popular tool for universities. “With CubeSats, the cost to entry has gone away—you don’t have to get educated for a decade to participate in space,” says Glenn Lightsey, a satellite designer at Georgia Tech. Another project on today’s launch is a cosmic background X-ray detector built by a team from Morehead State University. “Two undergrads managed to find a medical imaging X-ray detector off the shelf,” says Ben Malphrus, the project lead and a space scientist at Morehead, “and two other students built the control electronics.” The result is an instrument that might inform the team about the early structure of the universe.
Nowadays, small sats are sort of an afterthought—what people in the industry call “secondary payloads,” squeezed in only when heftier payloads allow. But as CubeSats grow in popularity, they’ll need a more organized way to get them into space. The small space-faring instruments aren’t just useful for science; companies are launching them en masse in “constellations” for remote imaging, communications, and more. In response, new launch providers and facilitators are popping up—players that will only become more important when the ISS retires in 2024.
India’s space agency sent up 104 small sats in a launch this past February, carrying 88 small sats from the company Planet to take images of the Earth. And companies like Rocket Lab and Virgin are building launch vehicles specifically for small payloads—slimmer, cheaper rockets that can drop off small sats in the orbits and altitudes their creators request.
Those providers are supporting a broader push to privatize space. With CubeSats, companies can more easily stake out an extraterrestrial presence. And, to Lightsey, that makes them the most promising way into a bustling space industry. “Commercial development has a way of feeding back on itself,” he says. If access to space is determined by cost, smaller satellites that do the same things as bigger ones allow companies to save money and provide services at a profit.
But for now, many of those companies will still rely on the ISS. That includes companies like Spire, a San Francisco-based space data startup that’s sending up four bread-box sized satellites on the mission. It’ll use its sats to collect information on ship locations and weather conditions, which it then sells to ports, hedge funds, and government organizations like NOAA. The company wants to expand. Hopefully, the small sat industry will grow in kind, so that by the time the ISS retires its sats—and others in the business—won’t be left adrift.
Several astronauts from NASA claimed they had come in contact with aliens, and that alien civilizations have been monitoring us for a long time.
According to the Daily Mail, some important astronauts from #NASA claim they have seen UFOs during space missions. At least four astronauts from NASA — Edgar Mitchell, Gordon Cooper, Deke Slayton and Brian O'Leary — have publicly revealed their belief in #aliens.
Edgar Mitchell — the sixth person on the Moon — believed in aliens
The astronaut Edgar Mitchell was the sixth person on the Moon in 1971 with the Apollo 14 mission. When he came back from the mission Mitchell claimed he experienced an intense spiritual experience. He then devoted his life to prove the existence of alien life. Mitchell also claimed that aliens saved humanity in the past from a devastating nuclear war. The astronaut suggested that the Vatican was hiding the information that an alien race was trying to contact us. Mitchell died on February 4, 2016, before the 45th anniversary of the Moon landing.
Gordon Cooper claimed he saw a UFO
Gordon Cooper was one of seven astronauts selected by NASA for the first space mission — "Mercury Project." "Mercury Project" took place between the years of 1958 and 1963. Its purpose was to send a person into Earth's orbit. During the training, Cooper claimed he saw a #UFO flying over an American base in Germany. The astronaut claims that humanity must prove they can solve their problems peacefully before aliens accept us as universal team members. Cooper suffered from Parkinson's disease at the age of 77 and he died on October 4, 2004.
Deke Slayton also claimed he saw a UFO
Like Cooper, Deke Slayton, who was part of the same project, claimed he saw a UFO in 1951. He described it as a flying saucer that was standing at an angle of 45 degrees. He said he would have taken pictures if he had a camera. Slayton was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1992 and he died in 1993 at the age of 69.
Brian O'Leary also believed in aliens
The astronaut Brian O'Leary was selected for a mission to Mars in 1967, but this mission never took place. O'Leary also had an experience that changed his opinion about aliens. After leaving NASA he became a professor of physics at Princeton University. During this time, he claimed there was a lot of evidence that aliens contacted us. According to O'Leary's statements, alien civilizations have been monitoring Earth for a long time. O'Leary died of intestinal cancer on July 28, 2011, shortly after he was diagnosed with this disease.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Low flying cylinder UFO reported over California
Low flying cylinder UFO reported over California
A California witness at Lincoln reported watching a fast moving, cylinder-shaped object that crossed the horizon in about eight seconds, according to testimony in Case 82671 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The witness was sitting at a northbound stop light at 2:45 p.m. on March 16, 2017, and observed the object moving from the northeast to the northwest at a very high rate of speed.
Witness included this image said to look like the object seen over Lincoln.
(Credit: MUFON)
“Object seemed to be bus size – maybe 1,000 – 1,200 feet up,” the witness stated.“Object crossed 60 percent of our horizon in approximately eight seconds. My wife and I both observed the object – she thought it might be a drone, but we didn’t see any type of propulsion.”
The object crossed the sky at an incredible rate of speed. Pictured: Lincoln, CA.
(Credit: Google)
The witness is familiar with aircraft.
“We’ve lived on numerous Air Force bases and are familiar with most aircraft.”
California MUFON Field Investigator Shelley Goodman closed this case as an Unknown.
“I spoke to both witnesses,” Goodman stated in her report. “They were at the intersection at 110 Lincoln Blvd, Lincoln, CA,when they both saw the object. He described it as something he’s never seen before. He was in the Air Force and knows all about aircraft and how fast they move. This flew through the sky three times faster than any aircraft. In 5-6 seconds, it covered about 60 percent of the horizon flying from west to the northwest. It was underneath the cloud cover, so they could see it clearly. He described it like one of those big propane tanks some people have in their backyard flying through the air. There were no emissions and no noise. When it did run through a cloud, none of the cloud moved. He indicated that it was about 30degrees high in the sky and that if you put your hand up, it would have been about as wide as a fingernail.
There were no emissions or noise from the object. Pictured: Lincoln, CA.
(Credit: Google)
“She described it very similarly – a huge object flying through the sky at a very high rate of speed. She thought, ‘What the hell is that?’ She thought at first that it was a drone, but because of the speed there was no way it could have been. She said that there were no flashing lights like an aircraft would have. She could see the sun hit it, but couldn’t be certain of any type of pattern. After it flew through the sky, it suddenly disappeared.
“Due to the nature of the movements, no natural phenomenon or man-made information applies here.From what was described in the case and after discussing with the witnesses, I’m concluding this case as Unknown – UAV.”
Lincoln is a city in Placer County, California, population 45,837. 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.
An Australian witness at Eungella reported watching and photographing a cylinder-shaped object moving about 500 feet overhead in a straight line without noticeable sound, according to testimony in Case 82637 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
Witness image.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness was outside with his wife and son at 6:50 a.m. on March 14, 2017, when the incident began.
“My son looked up at the sky, pointed and said, ‘moon?’”the witness stated. “My wife and I looked to see what he was pointing at and we saw a white, cylindrical or rectangular object above the clouds and travelling from south to north at a fast rate.”
The witness immediately noted the direction of wind in the area.
“The wind was blowing in the same direction; however, this object did not look like a balloon, but a solid, reflective structure.”
Witness image.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness quickly ran inside the house and retrieved his wife’s tablet, turned the camera on, and zoomed in on the object, managing to take three digital photos and one short video.
“My wife suggested the object might be a glider, but no person was seen and it did not have the shape one would expect to see. This was definitely cylindrical or rectangular in shape. It was also quite high, at least 400-500 feet or more above us, and made no sound or noise we could hear. The object appeared to be quite big, possibly 10-20 feet in length or longer, and was moving in a straight-line. We live in a sparsely populated area with thick rainforest, so this was a strange sight to see. This object was witnessed by me, my wife and son. The entire event lasted not more than 5 minutes before sighting of the object was lost over the trees.”
Eungella is an Australian township nestled on the edge of the Clarke Range at the end of the Pioneer Valley 80 km west of Mackay, and 858 km northwest of Brisbane.
Witness image.
(Credit: MUFON)
MUFON Australia Field Investigator Kent May closed this case as an Unknown.
“The witness submitted directly to me the photographic and video evidence,” May stated in his report. “Unfortunately, the video footage is not good enough to submit, but is kept on file for future reference. Due to the speed of the object the UFO was constantly moving in and out of the video camera view finder. The photographic evidence was uploaded to image detecting websites and the images appear to be genuine. The witness has been cooperative and I find him to be a credible witness. Due to the distance of the object being rather close, no searches where conducted for satellites. There are several other UFO sightings posted over the past years in the same area of Eungella. The submitted sighting was witnessed by the witness, his partner and their child. I have no doubt in believing what the witness saw was described to the best of his ability.”
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.
Death by Asteroid: The Most Likely Ways for a Space Rock to Kill You
Death by Asteroid: The Most Likely Ways for a Space Rock to Kill You
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Artist's illustration depicting a massive asteroid impact on Earth.
Credit: Don Davis/NASA
If you live in fear of an asteroid strike, here's some detail to help flesh out your nightmares.
A killer space rock is most likely to get you via violent winds that fling you against something hard or powerful shock waves that rupture your internal organs, according to a new study.
"This is the first study that looks at all seven impact effects generated by hazardous asteroids and estimates which are, in terms of human loss, most severe," lead author Clemens Rumpf, a senior research assistant at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. [Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (Images)]
Rumpf and his colleagues simulated 50,000 asteroid strikes around the globe using computer models. These artificial impacts involved space rocks 50 feet to 1,300 feet wide (15 to 400 meters) — the size range that hits Earth most frequently, the scientists said.
Then, the team estimated the percentage of deaths caused by each of the seven effects Rumpf referred to: shock waves, wind blasts, heat, flying debris, cratering, seismic shaking and tsunamis.
Wind and shock waves were the most deadly, together accounting for more than 60 percent of all lives lost. (Though these two effects act in concert, wind blasts were far more devastating than shock waves, the study found.) The sizzling heat of an impact was responsible for nearly 30 percent of deaths, and tsunamis took most of the rest.
Each of the other three effects claimed only a tiny sliver of the death toll, according to the study. Flying debris had a maximum contribution of just 0.91 percent, for example; the figures for cratering and seismic shaking were 0.2 percent and 0.17 percent, respectively.
Rumpf and his colleagues also determined that land-based asteroid impacts are about 10 times deadlier than ocean strikes. In addition, they found that space rocks have to be at least 59 feet (18 m) wide to be lethal.
That lower limit is about the size of the object that exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, generating a shock wave that broke countless windows on the ground below. The resulting flying glass shards injured more than 1,000 people but killed nobody.
"This report is a reasonable step forward in trying to understand and come to grips with the hazards posed by asteroids and comet impactors," Jay Melosh, a geophysicist at Purdue University who was not involved in the new study, said in the same statement.
Melosh added that the findings "lead one to appreciate the role of air blasts in asteroid impacts, as we saw in Chelyabinsk."
Astronomers have discovered more than 16,000 near-Earth objects to date. However, that number is just a tiny sliver of the total, which is thought to be in the millions.
Scientists think they've found about 95 percent of the nearby asteroids that could threaten human civilization if they were to hit Earth — behemoths at least 0.6 miles (1 km) wide — and none of these monsters poses a threat for the foreseeable future.
But there are still plenty of dangerous rocks zooming around out there undiscovered. On average, Earth gets hit by an asteroid at least 190 feet (60 m) wide every 1,500 years and by a rock at least 1,300 feet (400 m) wide every 100,000 years, Rumpf said.
"The likelihood of [a serious] asteroid impact is really low," said Rumpf. "But the consequences can be unimaginable."
Researchers around the world are studying ways to prevent asteroid strikes and thereby avoid those consequences. Most incoming space rocks that are detected with decades of lead time could likely be nudged away from Earth using "gravity tractors" and kinetic impactor probes, scientists say. (Gravity tractors would fly alongside a potentially dangerous asteroid for long stretches, whereas kinetic impactors would slam into the space rock.)
But a nuclear bomb may be required to deal with giant asteroids or comets that are discovered just weeks or months before a potential impact.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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