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 Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
25-04-2017
Ta-ta to Titan! Cassini makes its last close flyby of moon as it prepares to crash into Saturn as its 'grand finale'
Ta-ta to Titan! Cassini makes its last close flyby of moon as it prepares to crash into Saturn as its 'grand finale'
On April 22, Cassini made its closest approach with Saturn's moon Titan
On April 26, Cassini will make the first of 22 dives through an unexplored gap
It will dive through the 1,500-mile-wide gap between Saturn and its rings
Researchers hope to collect the first-ever samples of Saturn's atmosphere
Cassini's mission will officially terminate on September 15, in a planned plunge
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has made its final flyby of Saturn's massive moon Titan, collecting data on the hydrocarbon lakes and haze-enshrouded surface of the alien world.
On April 22, the spacecraft made its closest approach to Titan at a speed of about 13,000 miles per hour, marking the beginning of its 'Grand Finale.'
This encounter will cause Titan's gravity to bend Cassini's orbit, pulling it slightly in so that it can begin its final set of 22 dives between Saturn and its rings, before plunging into the planet on Sept 15.
Scroll down for video
This unprocessed image of Saturn's moon Titan was captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its final close flyby of the hazy, planet-sized moon on April 21, 2017
CASSINI'S 'GRAND FINALE'
Cassini has circled Saturn for 13 years since reaching its orbit in 2004, spearheading remarkable discoveries about the ringed planet and its icy moons – but now, it's running low on fuel.
On April 22, the spacecraft will transition into its grand finale orbits, taking one last close flyby of Saturn's massive moon Titan.
Then, Titan's gravity will bend Cassini's flight path, causing the orbit to shrink until it passes between the planet and the inner edges of its rings.
Then, on April 26, Cassini will make the first of 22 dives through an unexplored gap before it ultimately plunges through the skies of Saturn to end its mission as 'part of the planet itself.'
Cassini's mission will officially terminate on September 15, after a planned plummet through Saturn's atmosphere.
And, all the while, it will transmit data from several instruments until the signal is finally lost.
The spacecraft made its 127th and final close approach to Titan on April 21 at 11:08 p.m. PDT (2:08 a.m. EDT on April 22), passing at an altitude of about 608 miles (979 kilometers) above the moon's surface.
Cassini transmitted its images and other data to Earth following the encounter.
Scientists with Cassini's radar investigation will be looking this week at their final set of new radar images of the hydrocarbon seas and lakes that spread across Titan's north polar region.
The planned imaging coverage includes a region previously seen by Cassini's imaging cameras, but not by radar.
The radar team also plans to use the new data to probe the depths and compositions of some of Titan's small lakes for the first (and last) time, and look for further evidence of the evolving feature researchers have dubbed the 'magic island'.
'Cassini's up-close exploration of Titan is now behind us, but the rich volume of data the spacecraft has collected will fuel scientific study for decades to come,' said Linda Spilker, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
It marks the beginning of the 'thrilling final chapter' of Cassini's life, twenty years after it left Earth.
The craft has circled Saturn for 13 years since reaching its orbit in 2004, spearheading remarkable discoveries about the ringed planet and its icy moons – but now, it's running low on fuel.
"With this flyby we're committed to the Grand Finale," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL.
"The spacecraft is now on a ballistic path, so that even if we were to forgo future small course adjustments using thrusters, we would still enter Saturn's atmosphere on Sept. 15 no matter what."
Cassini will dive through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its rings.
NASA/ JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
THE CASSINI MISSION
Since it left earth in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has been touring the system with an up-close study of the planet, its rings and moons.
During its journey, Cassini has made dramatic discoveries, including a global ocean within Enceladus and liquid methane seas on Titan.
Before Nasa's Cassini probe captured the most detailed images of Saturn ever seen, it dropped its companion Huygens on the planet's largest moon, Titan.
After nearly 20 years in space, the mission is drawing near its end because the spacecraft is running low on fuel.
In a captivating video released earlier this month, the space agency revealed a glimpse at Cassini's 'grand finale.'
On April 26, Cassini will make the first of 22 dives through an unexplored gap before it ultimately plunges through the skies of Saturn to end its mission as 'part of the planet itself.'
Cassini's mission will officially terminate on September 15, after a planned plummet through Saturn's atmosphere.
And, all the while, it will transmit data from several instruments until the signal is finally lost.
In the months leading up to this dramatic conclusion, though, the craft will carry out a plan that is 'in many ways, like a whole new mission,' according to NASA.
Cassini will dive through the 1,500-mile-wide (2,400-kilometer) gap between Saturn and its rings.
'No spacecraft has ever gone through the unique region that we'll attempt to boldly cross 22 times,' said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Twenty years after leaving Earth, NASA's Cassini spacecraft is set to embark on the 'thrilling final chapter' of its life. The craft has circled Saturn for 13 years – but now, it's running low on fuel
'What we learn from Cassini's daring final orbits will further our understanding of how giant planets, and planetary systems everywhere, form and evolve.
'This is truly discovery in action to the very end.'
Researchers first decided the craft would terminate its mission in this way back in 2010.
In the months leading up this this dramatic conclusion, though, the craft will carry out a plan that is 'in many ways, like a whole new mission,' according to NASA. On April 26, Cassini will make the first of 22 dives through an unexplored gap
Its terminal orbits over the next five months will bring it closer to Saturn than ever before.
As the craft 'repeatedly braves this unexplored region,' it will investigate the origins of the rings and the nature of the planet's interior, the video explains.
This weekend, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make a close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, collecting data on the hydrocarbon lakes and haze-enshrouded surface of the alien world. And, this will be its last
'This planned conclusion for Cassini's journey was far and away the preferred choice for the mission's scientists,' said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
'Cassini will make some of its most extraordinary observations at the end of its long life.'
According to NASA, the researchers hope to collect the first-ever samples of Saturn's atmosphere and particles coming from the main rings.
On top of this, the craft will obtain the closest views yet of Saturn's clouds and inner rings.
Scientists made the final checks on the space probe's command list ahead of its finale, and uploaded them on April 11.
'Based on our best models, we expect the gap to be clear of particles large enough to damage the spacecraft,' said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL.
'But we're also being cautious by using our large antenna as a shield on the first pass, as we determine whether it's safe to expose the science instruments to that environment on future passes.
TITAN: EARTH'S 'TOXIC TWIN'
Aside from Earth, Titan is the only place in the solar system known to have rivers, rainfall and seas - and possibly even waterfalls.
Of course, in the case of Titan these are liquid methane rather than water on Earth.
Regular Earth-water, H2O, would be frozen solid on Titan where the surface temperature is -180°C (-292°F).
With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere.
Because Titan is smaller than Earth, its gravity does not hold onto its gaseous envelope as tightly, so the atmosphere extends 370 miles (595km) into space.
With Titan's low gravity and dense atmosphere, methane raindrops could grow twice as large as Earth's raindrops.
'Certainly there are some unknowns, but that's one of the reasons we're doing this kind of daring exploration at the end of the mission.'
On April 22, the spacecraft will transition into its grand finale orbits, taking one last close flyby of Saturn's massive moon Titan.
Then, Titan's gravity will bend Cassini's flight path, causing the orbit to shrink until it passes between the planet and the inner edges of its rings.
As the spacecraft plummets into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15, it will keep its antennas firing toward Earth as long as possible, sending back important data.
'Cassini's grand finale is so much more than a final plunge,' said Spilker.
'It's a thrilling final chapter for our intrepid spacecraft, and so scientifically rich that it was the clear and obvious choice for how to end the mission.'
A new book, U.F.O. Sightings Desk Reference, looks at the statistics behind UFO encounters – and analysis of 121,036 eyewitness accounts in America suggests the encounters are increasing in number.
Authors Cheryl Costa and Linda Miller Costa analysed sightings reported to UFO groups such as Mufon and Nuforc.
UFO sightings are not dying off – in fact, the opposite is true, at least in North America, where sightings rose to 11,868 nationwide in 2015 from 3,479 in 2001." data-reactid="21" style="text-align: justify;">And contrary to popular myth, UFO sightings are not dying off – in fact, the opposite is true, at least in North America, where sightings rose to 11,868 nationwide in 2015 from 3,479 in 2001.
An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. UFOs are often identified after their sighting. Sometimes, however, UFOs cannot be identified because of the low quality of evidence related to their sightings.
Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2).
During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).
‘We’re doing scientific research. What’s crazy is not being willing to look at research,’ says Cheryl Costa.
UFO lobbyist Stephen Bassett, founder of the Paradigm Research Group, said, ‘With this compendium, Cheryl and Linda Costa have reminded the public and the media the extraterrestrial phenomenon continues unabated.’
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity
Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor
Einstein's equation E = mc2 shows that energy and mass are interchangeable.
Credit: Nikitina Olga/Shutterstock
The theory of special relativity explains how space and time are linked for objects that are moving at a consistent speed in a straight line. One of its most famous aspects concerns objects moving at the speed of light.
Simply put, as an object approaches the speed of light, its mass becomes infinite and it is unable to go any faster than light travels. This cosmic speed limit has been a subject of much discussion in physics, and even in science fiction, as people think about how to travel across vast distances.
The theory of special relativity was developed by Albert Einstein in 1905, and it forms part of the basis of modern physics. After finishing his work in special relativity, Einstein spent a decade pondering what would happen if one introduced acceleration. This formed the basis of his general relativity, published in 1915.
History
Before Einstein, astronomers (for the most part) understood the universe in terms of three laws of motion presented by Isaac Newton in 1686. These three laws are:
(1) Objects in motion (or at rest) remain in motion (or at rest) unless an external force imposes change.
(2) Force is equal to the change in momentum per change of time. For a constant mass, force equals mass times acceleration.
(3) For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
But there were cracks in the theory for decades before Einstein's arrival on the scene, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1865, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated that light is a wave with both electrical and magnetic components, and established the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). Scientists supposed that the light had to be transmitted through some medium, which they called the ether. (We now know that no transmission medium is required, and that light in space moves in a vacuum.)
Twenty years later, an unexpected result threw this into question. Physicist A.A. Michelson and chemist Edward Morley (both Americans at the time) calculated how Earth's motion through this "ether" affected how the speed of light is measured, and found that the speed of light is the same no matter what Earth's motion is. This led to further musings on light's behavior — and its incongruence with classical mechanics — by Austrian physicist Ernst Mach and French mathematician Henri Poincare.
Einstein began thinking of light's behavior when he was just 16 years old, in 1895. He did a thought experiment, the encyclopedia said, where he rode on one light wave and looked at another light wave moving parallel to him.
Classical physics should say that the light wave Einstein was looking at would have a relative speed of zero, but this contradicted Maxwell's equations that showed light always has the same speed: 186,000 miles a second. Another problem with relative speeds is they would show that the laws of electromagnetism change depending on your vantage point, which contradicted classical physics as well (which said the laws of physics were the same for everyone.)
This led to Einstein's eventual musings on the theory of special relativity, which he broke down into the everyday example of a person standing beside a moving train, comparing observations with a person inside the train. He imagined the train being at a point in the track equally between two trees. If a bolt of lightning hit both trees at the same time, due to the motion of the train, the person on the train would see the bolt hit one tree before the other tree. But the person beside the track would see simultaneous strikes.
"Einstein concluded that simultaneity is relative; events that are simultaneous for one observer may not be for another," the encyclopedia stated. "This led him to the counterintuitive idea that time flows differently according to the state of motion, and to the conclusion that distance is also relative."
Famous equation
Einstein's work led to some startling results, which today still seem counterintuitive at first glance even though his physics is usually introduced at the high school level.
One of the most famous equations in mathematics comes from special relativity. The equation — E = mc2— means "energy equals mass times the speed of light squared." It shows that energy (E) and mass (m) are interchangeable; they are different forms of the same thing. If mass is somehow totally converted into energy, it also shows how much energy would reside inside that mass: quite a lot. (This equation is one of the demonstrations for why an atomic bomb is so powerful, once its mass is converted to an explosion.)
This equation also shows that mass increases with speed, which effectively puts a speed limit on how fast things can move in the universe. Simply put, the speed of light (c) is the fastest velocity at which an object can travel in a vacuum. As an object moves, its mass also increases. Near the speed of light, the mass is so high that it reaches infinity, and would require infinite energy to move it, thus capping how fast an object can move. The only reason light moves at the speed it does is because photons, the quantum particles that make up light, have a mass of zero.
A special situation in the universe of the small, called "quantum entanglement," is confusing because it seems to involve quantum particles interacting with each other at speeds faster than the speed of light. Specifically, measuring the property of one particle can instantly tell you the property of another particle, no matter how far away they are. Much has been written about this phenomenon, which is still not fully explained in terms of Einstein's conclusions.
Another strange conclusion of Einstein's work comes from the realization that time moves relative to the observer. An object in motion experiences time dilation, meaning that time moves more slowly when one is moving, than when one is standing still. Therefore, a person moving ages more slowly than a person at rest. So yes, when astronaut Scott Kelly spent nearly a year aboard the International Space Station in 2015-16, his twin astronaut brother Mark Kelly aged a little faster than Scott.
This becomes extremely apparent at speeds approaching the speed of light. Imagine a 15-year-old traveling at 99.5 percent the speed of light for five years (from the astronaut's perspective). When the 15-year-old gets back to Earth, according to NASA, he would be only 20 years old. His classmates, however, would be 65 years old.
While this time dilation sounds very theoretical, it does have practical applications as well. If you have a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver in your car, the receiver attempts to find signals from at least three satellites to coordinate your position. The GPS satellites send out timed radio signals that the receiver listens to, triangulating (or more properly speaking, trilaterating) its position based on the travel time of the signals. The challenge is, the atomic clocks on the GPS are moving and would therefore run faster than atomic clocks on Earth, creating timing issues. So, engineers need to make the clocks on a GPS tick slower, according to Richard Pogge, an astronomer at Ohio State University.
The clocks in space tick faster, according to Physics Central, because the GPS satellites are above Earth and experience weaker gravity. So even though the GPS satellites are moving and experience a seven-microsecond slowing every day because of their movement, the result of the weaker gravity causes the clocks to tick about 45 microseconds faster than a ground-based clock. Adding the two together results in the GPS satellite clock ticking faster than a ground-based clock, by about 38 microseconds daily.
Special relativity and quantum mechanics
As our knowledge of physics has advanced, scientists have run into more counterintuitive situations. One is trying to reconcile general relativity — which describes well what's going on with large objects — with quantum mechanics, which is best used for very small things (such as uranium atom decay). The two fields, which excellently describe their individual fields, are incompatible with one another — which frustrated Einstein and generations of scientists after him.
"Relativity gives nonsensical answers when you try to scale it down to quantum size, eventually descending to infinite values in its description of gravity. Likewise, quantum mechanics runs into serious trouble when you blow it up to cosmic dimensions," an article in The Guardian pointed out in 2015.
"Quantum fields carry a certain amount of energy, even in seemingly empty space, and the amount of energy gets bigger as the fields get bigger. According to Einstein, energy and mass are equivalent (that's the message of E=mc2), so piling up energy is exactly like piling up mass. Go big enough, and the amount of energy in the quantum fields becomes so great that it creates a black hole that causes the universe to fold in on itself. Oops."
There are several ideas to overcome this (which are beyond the scope of this article), but one approach is to imagine a quantum theory of gravity that would have a massless particle (called the graviton) to generate the force. But as physicist Dave Goldberg pointed out in io9 in 2013, there are problems with that. At the smallest scales, gravitons would have infinite energy density, creating an unimaginably powerful gravity field. More study will be required to see if this is possible.
A new study examines space-travelling amino acids that could play a role in extraterrestrial life, writes Andrew Masterson.
A micrograph of a crystal formed from cysteine, an amino acid commonly found in terrestrial life.
IMAGES ETC LTD / GETTY
Amino acids extracted from meteorites will soon be tested to see if they are capable of playing a role in extraterrestrial life.
Amino acids – organic compounds based on amine and carboxyl molecules – are the fundamental building blocks of proteins that, in turn, are the basis of all life on Earth. Astrobiologists have long assumed that the most likely types of extraterrestrial life would also arise from a similar amino-acid-protein system.
Extraterrestrial conditions.
CLAIRE MAMMOSER
An extraterrestrial system, however, would not necessarily use the same amino acids – alone or in combination – as those used on this planet.
“They might use amino acids that are known to us but not used to make proteins on Earth,” says Claire Mammoser of Valparaiso University.
With this in mind, Mammoser has recently finished testing 15 amino acids – some used in earthly biology and others not – to see how they might stand up to the rigours of other planetary environments.
With conditions on Mars, Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Europa in mind, Mammoser and colleagues subjected the amino acids to extreme variations in temperature, pH, ultraviolet and gamma radiation. They recorded the resilience, or lack of it, in each sample, as well as its ability to perform key functions, such as bind to liquid water.
“Our main goal with this research is to see if there are structural characteristics of some amino acids that lead to a higher stability in extraterrestrial conditions,” says Mammoser.
The results of the experiments were presented this week at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting in Chicago.
The next phase of the research involves conducting the same battery of tests on genuine extraterrestrial amino acids extracted from meteorites. The team will also experiment with novel amino acids created in a number of “origin of life” experiments, some dating back to the 1950s.
A Kickstarter campaign wants you to help find aliens
A Kickstarter campaign wants you to help find aliens
By Dyllan Furness
An artist's illustration of Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars. More planets orbiting two stars have been found since Kepler-16b’s discovery.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle)
In February, a team behind NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope announced a historic discovery -- seven Earth-sized planets in a nearby solar system, three of which orbit the star's habitable zone. It was the largest haul of potentially habitable planets around a single star, exciting scientists and the public alike about the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life.
"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said the associate administrator of the agency's science mission directorate, Thomas Zurbuchen.
Now, astronomers at the Planet Foundation want your help observing nearby exoplanets in search of life, seeking support via a Kickstarter campaign launched this week. They're building a series of telescopes 10,000 feet up on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
"We're trying to take this academic endeavor of finding signs of life on nearby exoplanets and open it up to the general public," Kevin Lewis, who works on the campaign, told Digital Trends.
Split into three phases -- each set to expand the telescope a bit more than the last -- the PLANETS (polarized light from atmospheres of nearby extraterrestrial systems) Telescopes are specifically designed for observing exoplanets with features like advanced polishing and ultrathin mirrors. These technologies make the PLANETS telescopes unique by reducing glare from stars and making the features of the exoplanets -- including bio-signatures, geological formations, and maybe even technological signals -- more visible, according to the campaign.
The first phase is about half done, with completion estimated around 2019.
Planets Foundation
"We've spent all of our scientific history trying to understand what our place in the universe is," said Jeff Kuhn, a board member for the PLANETS Foundation. "The reason for doing science is perspective -- to know how big the universe is … We can't think of any question more important than discovering that, in fact, we're not the only civilization or we're not the only form of life in the universe."
Recognizing that many people offer support in exchange for a reward, the PLANETS Telescope team have developed the ExoCube, a 3D map of our neighboring exoplanets adorned by a sphere representing one of these celestial bodies. The maps and spheres are available on Kickstarter for pledges of $140. With a month left to go, the campaign has earned over $18,650 toward its $20,000 goal.
A roadside collection of alien dolls and toy UFO saucers is seen next to a roadside residence neat Jacumba, California, United States REUTERS/Mike Blake
There isn't much of a plan for what we'd do if we heard from aliens, according to the man probably most likely to make contact with them.
Andrew Siemion, scientific director of the Breakthrough Listen project, has said that he spends just a few minutes each day thinking about how he would announce if the project actually found alien life. Breakthrough Listen is a huge plan funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, which is picking through potential signals sent to Earth to find one that could be a message from aliens.
“Maybe for five or 10 minutes right before I go to bed, I think about what we might do if we actually found a signal,” he said in an interview with PRI. “It’s very difficult to predict how the world would react to that. But personally, I think it would be a very positive reaction. I think it would be a very unifying moment.”
That is in line with most guidance – and there is only guidance, since no rules for announcing alien contact or replying to it have ever been written into international law. The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has a set of protocols for those involved in the search for extraterrestrial life – which stipulate that anyone who finds a signal should make the world aware, and shouldn't respond to it – but those are only protocols, and nobody could be prosecuted for breaking them.
As such, once a signal is found, it is unlikely that scientists would be able to stop someone with the right equipment from broadcasting a message. That is despite continuing warnings from people like Professor Hawking, and raging debate among scientists and others about whether we should ever actually speak to aliens.
But even if someone did make contact, it's unlikely that anyone alive would actually get to experience any kind of conversation – or see the wiping out of humanity that Professor Hawking warned would come.
The nearest potentially habitable world outside our solar system is Proxima b, which is a mere 4.2 lightyears away but probably doesn't actually contain any life. Even if it did, each message would take 4.2 years to send and the same time to get back – limiting any conversation – and without unimagined technologies, it would take many years for any alien life to actually arrive on Earth.
On the wall of his office in the FBI building’s basement, Special Agent Fox Mulder of the TV series The X-Files has a UFO poster that proclaims: I WANT TO BELIEVE.
The sentiment is widely shared, even among numismatists, who are generally a rather skeptical bunch.
The “Alien” Coin
In October 2016, several British tabloids published a photograph of a silver coin of uncertain size with a Greek inscription[1]. The coin portrait depicts a gaunt draped bust resembling a so-called “Grey alien”[2]. Grey aliens are extraterrestrial humanoids associated with contemporary UFO mythology.
The source of the image is credited to the UFO web site mysteriousearth.net, where discovery of the coin is ascribed to a “group of people who worked on the renovation of a house in southern Egypt”[3].
It is clearly a hoax. The lack of any attribution (weight, dimensions, date, image of the reverse, etc.) raises the level of suspicion to an astronomical level.
My first impression is that this was a real coin or medallion extensively tooled in order to turn the portrait of a ruler or deity into the likeness of an alien - like an elaborate “hobo nickel”[4]. Hobo nickels are American five-cent pieces that have been carved and tooled, often with great skill, into novel or startling forms. The craft became popular during the Great Depression (1929 – 1939) among “hobos”, (homeless itinerant workers who had a lot of time on their hands).
The Plot Thickens
Why would anyone create such a fantasy coin? My first thought was that the object was a deliberate forgery intended to deceive gullible collectors, but on reflection it became clear that no serious collector would be taken in by such an obviously tooled fake. Could it have been the creation of UFO enthusiasts, attempting to fabricate evidence for “Ancient Astronaut” theories?
A little research revealed that it's not even a real artifact, but a heavily retouched (“photoshopped”) image of an actual Roman medallion in the famous collection of the Cabinet de Médailles in Paris. The hoax was uncovered by computer scientist Ralf Bülow[5], as credited by author Jason Colavito on his web site[6].
The very rare original medallion depicts Dionysus, god of wine and abandon. The other side (technically the obverse) bears an idealized portrait of Antinous, the beloved young companion of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Antinous, about 18 years of age, drowned in the Nile River in 130 CE. Hadrian was distraught, and had the youth declared a god, raising temples in his honor throughout the Roman East--notably in his birthplace, Claudiopolis or Bithynion in the province of Bithynia (now Bolu, Turkey). This is where the medallion was struck.
The image of the medallion seems to have been taken from a web site dedicated to Antinous[7], who has become something of a hero for gay history. The blue fabric background is a dead giveaway that the original photograph was a museum display case. A determined image search turned up a sharper image on Wikipedia with the fabric background “shopped” out[8].
The digital trail led to a Brazilian UFO site[9], where I learned (thanks to good Portuguese translation on my web browser) that the hoax image came from DesignCrowd, an Australian graphic design crowdsource web site. In April 2011, DesignCrowd conducted a “Coin of the Realm” contest, challenging graphic designers to create images of celebrities on coins[10].
A user with the handle “Kryptomaniacle” submitted a previously created image just 20 minutes before the contest closed, identifying the portrait as “The historically obscure Grapnok; largely responsible for three of the Seven Wonders of the World.” The submission won third place. Technically “Grapnok” was not a “celebrity” and bent the contest rules, as Kryptomaniacle admitted in a subsequent message.
It was not a hoax; it was a playful, creative joke. The hoax developed when the tabloids took the image and turned it into a clickbait UFO story.
The “UFO” Jetons
To further confuse the situation, the same “Egyptian” find was given as the source of some 17th-century French jetons bearing images of disk-shaped objects floating in the clouds. Jetons are (mostly) copper or brass tokens, typically 20 to 28 mm in size, produced in thousands of different designs across Europe from the 13th to the 17th centuries. They were originally used in accounting and computation (like the beads of an abacus). They also served like poker chips or “play money” in games. They were not coins, and were not struck by official mints, but they are highly collectable and sometimes confused with coins.
A 1648 jeton from the Burgundy region of France appears to show a UFO hovering over a rocky pine forest. But when the image is rotated into the proper orientation (based on the reading of the Latin motto (which translates ”It resisted a few, but was overcome by many”), it shows a shield being held up against a storm of arrows coming down from the clouds. This is a very conventional allegorical image with no extraterrestrial implications.
A more challenging example is a 1656 copper jeton that very clearly shows a disk with a central spindle floating above a landscape. The enigmatic Latin motto Opportunus Adest translates as “It arrives at a fortunate time.” The designs of jetons were frequently reworked and modified, and a white metal copy shows a floating object that is not at all saucer-like, but might be a Baroque-style parade shield.
The idea of shields that fall from the sky as divine gifts or tokens of protection is very ancient.
According to legend, in the time of Numa Pompilius (second king of Rome, lived 753–673 BCE) a bronze shield, the ancile, fell from heaven[11]. Numa had 11 identical replicas made (to protect the identity of the real one), and established a priesthood--the Salii, or leaping priests--to care for them, and to carry them in procession on special occasions.
This famous story was part of a classical education, and would have been familiar to the early modern Europeans who used jetons. The elaborately fluted steel shields that came into use in the 16th century often bear a remarkable similarity to modern images of UFOs. A spectacular example is a 1594 Dutch jeton[12], showing the hand of God reaching down from heaven to interpose a symbolic shield of divine protection between the Netherlanders and the Spanish Army. There is no historical evidence that any extraterrestrial spacecraft were involved.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Diamond UFO Seen Over San Fernando Valley, California On April 8, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Diamond UFO Seen Over San Fernando Valley, California On April 8, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 8, 2016 Location of sighting:West San Fernando Valley, California, USA
This beautiful UFO was seen over California last week and its the same UFO that has been seen around the world. Its a rotating six sided diamond shape craft. It stays in place for up to a hour, then leaves fast. It makes you wonder, what kind of species uses this marvellous craft, and what intel are they gathering? Scott C. Waring
UFO Beam Seen From Passanger Jet Over Spain On April 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Beam Seen From Passanger Jet Over Spain On April 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 2017 Location of sighting: Spain 4,000 feet up in the air, this long dark object was seen poking through a cloud. It may be a beam or transporter that is sending down supplies into an underwater base and the UFO may be hidden in the clouds above it. These lucky passengers got to see it, even if its only for a few seconds. Its enough to change how you see the world. Not only are we not alone on Earth, we have never been alone on this planet. Aliens have lived here in secluded areas below the surface for over 10,000 years. Scott C. Waring Video states:
If you see some strange things flying in the air while traveling through the airplane, what questions will arise in your mind? A similar incident has happened recently, in fact, whenever a person travels in air, he sees the beautiful scenes of the sky window, but have you ever thought that, if you were in Hawaii If you see something different from the outside of the ship's window, how would you feel? In an airplane from Spain to England, a passenger got to see something similar, which he was able to see. In fact, this passenger had seen a pillar blown between the clouds. Due to which she got a little nervous, but only after she was caught, she caught that scene in her camera soon. Many people say that, in fact, this is the warning light from the oil terminal, so some people say that it can be a scratched in the seat window. This passenger says that on seeing from four thousand feet, this hammer looked like a big pillar of iron.
Mysterious ‘Underwater Wall’ That Circles The ENTIRE Planet Found On Google Earth (Video)
Mysterious ‘Underwater Wall’ That Circles The ENTIRE Planet Found On Google Earth (Video)
A mysterious video posted on YouTube claims there is a supermassive wall located beneath Earth’s oceans, encompassing the entire planet.
This mysterious wall, found by a YouTube channel called ‘Flat Earth Arabic’ claims the massive wall tens of thousands of miles across beneath the ocean.
In the distant past, UFO enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists have found countless unexplained things on Google Earth. From pyramids to mysterious towers, petroglyphs, and even sunken cities, Google Earth has unleashed the imagination of people around the globe.
Not long ago we reported about a supposed discovered just off the coast of Mexico—12°8’1.5″N, 119°35’26.4″W—where a researcher discovered a humongous underwater pyramid. Among the many structures that are said to remain hidden beneath the ocean, ‘researchers’ have found things that—supposedly—challenge everything we know about our history.
Last year, a teenager using Google Earth ‘discovered’ what researchers are calling one of the largest, previously unknown ancient cities belonging to the Maya.
In similar ways, researchers all around the globe have been hunting for Pyramids and lost structures that have eluded experts for decades.
Last year we reported about a complex of structures that stretch for a staggering 76 miles at its furthest points.
The formations found off the coast of Baja California include mysterious tube-like constructions that are roughly 2.4 miles in width. Given the curious shape and distinguishable lines, many believe these are just some of the many underwater structures on our planet.
However, these new claims go beyond anything we’ve probably ever come across.
This wall’s sheer size and its adherence to linearity indicate it is not a natural formation to many. In fact, many people are convinced that due to the numerous discoveries made across the globe which completely contradict history as we have been taught in school, something like this is entirely possible. After all—they say—Earth is millions of years old and we are begging to uncover evidence that suggests many ancient civilizations inhabited Earth in our planet’s long history.
BUT, HOLD ON A SEC, THIS CAN’T BE A WALL, RIGHT?
Zooming in on the provided coordinates you clearly see what seems to be a MASSIVE structure. But who could have erected such a wall? If it really is an artificial structure, how old is it? What was its purpose?
Many disagree and don’t believe we are looking at an actual wall. In fact, there even might be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the enigmatic finding.
What if we are looking at a Google Earth glitch?
Due to the fact that Google Earth uses different images while ‘mapping the planet’, it isn’t uncommon to encounter parts of the map that just didn’t quite match perfectly, resulting in a MASSIVE wall that encompasses the entire planet.
One of the most likely explanations for this ‘impressive find’ is that we are looking at a digital seam in the mapping of the Poles.
SATELLITE IMAGE STITCHING ERROR?
Image stitching or photo stitching is the process of combining multiple photographicimages with overlapping fields of view to produce a segmented panorama or high-resolution image.
Commonly performed through the use of computer software, most approaches to image stitching require nearly exact overlaps between images and identical exposures to produce seamless results.
Image stitching is widely used in today’s world and was used in the satellite images we are seeing on Google Earth.
A lot of things can have played a role in creating such an effect. Illumination, point of view, reference, and many other things may have played a crucial role in this massive error. One of the most likely reasons for the seam appearing could be the background changing between two images for the same continuous foreground.
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO BELLOW:
What are we looking at there? A Supermassive wall as the above video claims? Or just another glitch in the image processing techniques in Google maps?
detailed imaging With Cassini (inset), scientists now have data about the size, temperature, composition and distribution of Saturn's rings.
photo credit: NASA
The sci-fi blockbuster Oblivion gave us a glimpse of life in 2077 on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, after the Earth was devastated by an extraterrestrial attack. But how far from reality is this? Going by Cassini-Huygens’ findings, perhaps it’s not too far! Cassini-Huygens is the first unmanned spacecraft to orbit Saturn, a spectacular ringed planet in our Solar System. Launched on October 15, 1997, it set out to discover the planet and its satellites, up-close. In its 20 long years, the spacecraft has revealed many fascinating facts about Saturn, its rings and moons, including some clues about the possibility of life.
However, Cassini-Huygens will soon draw a close to its eventful life in September 2017.
In the first seven years of its journey, the spacecraft hovered around Venus, flew past Mars, manoeuvred through the asteroid belt and slid past Jupiter, before finally entering Saturn’s orbit on July 1, 2004. Its last leg started on April 22, 2017. After sailing past Titan, it will criss-cross Saturn’s equator 22 times, and finally sink into Saturn. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the agency controlling the spacecraft, its thrusters have run out of fuel, forcing the inevitable death.
Scientists at NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, started the groundwork on Cassini-Huygens back in 1980s. Named after two Italian astronomers, Giovanni Cassini, who studied Saturn’s rings, and Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan, the spacecraft has two parts — the Cassini orbiter that orbits Saturn, and the Huygens probe that landed on Titan. Since Saturn is so far away from the Sun, it is infeasible to harness solar rays as a power source. Hence, Cassini-Huygens is powered with limited-period plutonium radioisotope electric generators that generate electricity like a nuclear power plant.
While Cassini was in orbit around Saturn, it detached Huygens to descend on Titan on December 25, 2004. Huygens, after falling freely for 20 days, entered the history books as the first robotic probe to land on a satellite of another planet. It captured every detail of Titan's atmosphere and surface, and sent it to NASA’s Deep Space Network until its batteries drained up.
A closer look Saturn, with its majestic rings and enigmatic moons, is a jewel in our Solar System. It is the second largest planet after Jupiter and is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its diameter is approximately nine times that of the Earth, and it is 95 times more massive than the Earth. It is also the only planet in the Solar System that is less dense than water. Until recently, these were the only facts about Saturn that we knew. Cassini-Huygens has tremendously increased our understanding of the planet.
With numerous up-close observations, it has pointed out many earth-like features on Saturn. We now know that Saturn has numerous ‘jet streams’ that spew water vapour and heat into the atmosphere, of which the hexagonal jet stream in the north pole is one. Photographs by Cassini have revealed the magnificent symmetry of this stream and has shown this to be a long-lived phenomenon.
Cassini has captured glimpses of ‘lightnings’ and ‘hurricanes’ in the Saturnian atmosphere, and has studied the seasonal ‘Great White Storm’ — a once-in-30-years phenomenon (one Saturn year equals 30 Earth years). It has also studied Saturn’s auroras, atmospheric composition, the swelling of its outer atmosphere, and the planet’s rate of rotation (one Saturn day equals 10.5 Earth hours), even correcting previous values by six minutes. By the end of its life, Cassini would have orbited Saturn 293 times.
The system of rings around Saturn is expansive and bright, and hence, easily visible through a telescope.
Named alphabetically based on when they were discovered, the rings consist of numerous icy rocks ranging from the size of a grain of salt to the size of a mountain. With Cassini, scientists now have data about the size, temperature, composition and distribution of Saturn’s rings. It has studied the interactions between rings and moons, and has recorded instances of some moons stealing particles from a ring, or throwing particles into a ring.
Saturn’s equinox, when sun rays strike the rings on the edges, provides the perfect opportunity to capture intricate details and features of the rings. Cassini has used this occasion to observe previously unknown or poorly understood phenomena like the ‘spokes’ in the rings, and finger-like radial features that rotate with the rings. Images captured during equinox also show that in places, Saturn’s rings are far less smooth than was thought.
Saturn has 62 known moons and numerous moonlets. Though early missions like Voyager and Pioneer provided a rough sketch of Saturn’s moons, it was poorly understood. Cassini has discovered seven new moons and revealed how each moon is unique and sharply different from the others. With high-resolution, close-up images of some of the moons captured during fly-bys, we now know that most of these moons have cratered surfaces, some contain atmospheres and large amounts of ice, hinting at the possibility of life.
The most remarkable contribution of this spacecraft is the exploration of Titan. When Cassini flew by Titan, it saw beyond the orange haze of methane clouds, and revealed the presence of huge ‘lakes’ and ‘seas’ of liquid hydrocarbons (like methane and ethane). After Cassini landed on Titan, it revealed that Titan actually has a climate system like Earth, with a ‘water cycle’, where liquid hydrocarbons evaporate to form clouds, and later precipitate as rain. There was also evidence of an internal, liquid ocean beneath Titan’s surface, likely composed of water and ammonia.
Microbial life Cassini also helped answer the reason behind Enceladus being the brightest object in the Solar System. It showed that beneath the icy crust of Enceladus, there may be an underground ocean, from which water vapour and ice particles frequently erupted. Subsequently, it detected water, carbon dioxide and various hydrocarbons, the presence of a unique chemistry and internal heat - the right composition to support life. This excited scientists looking for life, proclaiming Enceladus to be one of the ‘most likely places in the Solar System to host alien microbial life’. This discovery also gave a peek into how our Earth might have been before life originated.
Cassini has provided us with an intimate understanding of Saturn and has opened up a treasure trove of information. It has solved several intriguing mysteries and answered long standing questions about the Saturnian system. But, can life exist on Saturn? Cassini-Huygens’ vital clues have kept scientists pondering over that, while it begins its final journey to become one among Saturn’s specks of dust.
(The authors are with Gubbi Labs, a Bengaluru-based research collective)
Conspiracy theorists claim the Nazis experimented with UFO technology secretly in Antarctica.
Now conspiracy theorists claim to have found evidence of an alien base on Smyley Island, off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, on Google maps
They believe this peculiar object, around 500-metres long, near the Antarctic could be an underwater alien base.
Theories about secret bases in the Antarctic have circulated for years – with one conspiracy detailing that the Nazis had secret bases in the southernmost continent which they used to experiment on captured UFOs during WWII.
The new object was spotted on Google maps by website UFO Sightings Hotspot which has revealed its "findings".
The unusual object has been described as a "large body of ice sheered off of the side of the continent".
GOOGLE
A close up of the object UFO experts claim could be an alien base.
"The shapes and forms from this iceberg look very different if we compare it with all the different shapes and forms of tabular and non-tabular icebergs."
The website added: "I'm not an iceberg expert but this object is really peculiar and looks like a vessel disguised as an iceberg.
"It looks out of place."
But UFO sceptic Scott Brando said: "I don't see any mystery, it just looks like ice."
“Although the search has not yet detected a convincing signal from extra-terrestrial intelligence, these are early days”
Andrew Siemion
The campaign was funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and is backed by celeb scientist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Scientists remain pessimistic over the signals after a number false alarms – but described them as “significant events” while admitting they may have caused by human interference.
Signals from space are thought to be one of the best ways to track down aliens from outside our Solar System.
GETTY
ALIEN SIGNALS: Scientists are probing 11 'significant' events from space
Andrew Siemion, director of the University of California, Berkeley's SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Centre, said: "Although the search has not yet detected a convincing signal from extra-terrestrial intelligence, these are early days.
"The work that has been completed so far provides a launch pad for deeper and more comprehensive analysis to come.”
He added: “We were able to determine that they were most likely due to radio frequency interference.”
Researchers only began the project in 2015 and remain hopeful they will solve the mystery of alien life.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Vergeet Alpha Centauri: laten we Sirius bezoeken!
Vergeet Alpha Centauri: laten we Sirius bezoeken!
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Hoewel de ster veel verder weg staat dan Alpha Centauri is de reisduur aanzienlijk korter.
Dat stelt een internationaal team van onderzoekers in dit fascinerende paper. Als de ruimtecapsule vandaag de aarde zouden verlaten, zou deze zich zo rond 2086 in een baan rond de ster kunnen nestelen.
Alpha Centauri Precies een jaar geleden kwamen Stephen Hawking en Yuri Milner met een fantastisch idee op de proppen. Ze stelden voor een ruimtesonde te sturen naar de sterren die het dichtst bij de aarde staan: het Alpha Centauri-systeem. Die ruimtesonde zou hooguit 20 jaar over de reis mogen doen. Het betekent dat deze zich met een snelheid van 60.000 kilometer per seconde door de ruimte moet haasten. Onmogelijk? Nee, zo stelden Hawking en Milner. Ze stellen voor een ruimtevaartuig te bouwen dat niet meer weegt dan een vel papier en vastzit aan een flinterdun zeil dat aangedreven wordt door gigantische laserstralen. Gaandeweg zal het zeil – dat in feite dus aangedreven wordt door licht – een steeds hogere snelheid krijgen. In theorie een fantastisch idee dat het inderdaad mogelijk maakt om Alpha Centauri binnen 20 jaar te bereiken.
Laserstralen drijven het zeil – met daaraan de ruimtesonde – voort.
Waar zit de rem? Maar Hawking en Milner hadden één ding over het hoofd gezien: de rem. Want hoe gaan we dit ruimtevaartuig – dat door de laserpulsen een steeds hogere snelheid krijgt – in de nabijheid van Alpha Centauri af laten remmen? Eerder dit jaar bogen Duitse onderzoekers zich over die vraag en ze stelden voor om de straling van de sterren in Alpha Centauri te gebruiken om de sonde af te remmen. Die aanpak heeft echter één nadeel: de reis naar Alpha Centauri gaat veel langer duren. In plaats van 20 jaar zal het – onder meer door de lange remtijd van de sonde – een slordige 146 jaar duren voor de sonde zich in een baan rond Proxima Centauri (ongetwijfeld de meest interessante ster die Alpha Centauri rijk is) kunnen nestelen. En daarmee wordt het briljante plan van Hawking en Milner voor de ongeduldige sterveling toch wat minder aantrekkelijk, of niet?
Sirius. Foto: Hubble / ESA / Akira Fujii.
Sirius Misschien moeten we onze blik dan ook op een andere eindbestemming richten, zo stellen wetenschappers nu. In hun paper opperen ze het plan om Sirius te bezoeken: de helderste ster aan onze nachthemel. Deze ster staat bijna twee keer verder weg dan Alpha Centauri, maar zouden we in minder dan de helft van het tijdsbestek dat nodig is om Alpha Centauri te bereiken, kunnen bezoeken. Berekeningen wijzen uit dat de reis naar Sirius ‘slechts’ 69 jaar in beslag zou nemen. Het heeft alles te maken met de helderheid van Sirius. De ster is zo’n zestien keer helderder dan Alpha Centauri en kan het ruimtevaartuig dus veel sneller af laten remmen.
Technologische ontwikkelingen Ook dit is in theorie een fantastisch plan. Toch hoeven we er niet op te rekenen dat het op korte termijn werkelijkheid wordt. Want er zijn nog wel enkele hobbels te nemen. Zo zullen we eerst in staat moeten zijn om een groot, maar flinterdun zeil te ontwikkelen dat bestand is tegen de extreme omstandigheden in de ruimte en zoveel mogelijk licht reflecteert. Maar, zo benadrukken de onderzoekers, naar de componenten waaruit zo’n zonnezeil kan bestaan (bijvoorbeeld grafeen) wordt momenteel veel onderzoek gedaan. Dus met een beetje geluk kan het wilde idee binnen enkele decennia werkelijkheid worden.
En daarmee komen de interstellaire ruimtereizen langzaam maar zeker binnen handbereik. Naast Sirius A – met een reistijd van zo’n 69 jaar – zouden we bijvoorbeeld ook een bezoekje kunnen brengen aan Vega (167 jaar reistijd) of Fomalhaut A (221 jaar reistijd). Laatstgenoemde ster zou een machtig interessante eindbestemming zijn: de ster bezit een exoplaneet, een stofschijf en wordt vergezeld door twee andere sterren, waarvan eentje ook een stofschijf bezit.
A new study of the water plume emanating from Saturn's moon Enceladus revealed a potentially habitable environment.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This week, scientists revealed a heat source and food supply that could nourish organisms living under the ice on Saturn's moon Enceladus; a "Star Trek" fan platitude was disproved by math; and three space fliers returned to Earth. Here are our picks for the best space stories of the week.
Enceladus has food for life
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus is looking more and more habitable. New results show that beneath the moon's icy crust, Enceladus likely has hot water vents, like those on Earth. In addition, the subsurface ocean contains molecules that are a common food source for bacteria on Earth. The finding could have major implications for the search for life beyond Earth. [Full Story: Potential Energy Source for Life Spotted on Saturn Moon Enceladus]
Airborne laboratory
Two refit bomber aircraft that have been repurposed for NASA's Airborne Science program will be put to use during the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse. A group of scientists will fly instruments aboard the high-altitude planes in order to get above Earth's atmosphere and study the outer layers of the sun that become visible when the moon blocks the sun's central disk. [Full Story: Refit Bomber Aircraft Will Help Scientists Study the Total Solar Eclipse]
Plumes on Europa?
Jupiter's moon Europa may be spraying plumes of water into space, according to new observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. For the second time, Hubble has detected what may be a water-vapor plume spewing skyward from the moon's icy surface. If the finding is confirmed, it could influence the design of NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which is set to launch in the 2020s. [Full Story: Giant Water Plume Detected Again onJupiter Moon Europa]
Trek math
A mathematical analysis of the original "Star Trek" TV series reveals the red shirts do not, in fact, have a higher likelihood of dying.
Credit: Paramount/Everett Collection
There's an adage about "Star Trek" episodes that says crewmembers in red shirts are more likely to die. That's not so, according to a mathematician who applied his skills to analyzing various aspects of the show, such as how the mating habits of Vulcans are similar to those of cicadas. In other Trek-related news this week, winners were announced for a contest to make a portable medical diagnostic tool like the tricorder from the "Star Trek" universe, and a line of "Star Trek"-themed fragrances was announced. [Full Story: Redshirts Aren't Likeliest to Die — and Other 'Star Trek' Math Lessons]
No bathrooms on New Shepard space trips
Jeff Bezos addresses a crowd at the 33rd annual Space Symposium in April 2017. Bezos discussed details of Blue Origin's space tourism flights aboard the New Shepard suborbital vehicle.
Credit: Space Foundation/Tom Kimmel Photography
Last week at the 33rd annual Space Symposium, Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos revealed more details about his private spaceflight company's space tourism vehicle, New Shepard. Bezos said the company, Blue Origin, was not planning to equip the New Shepard vehicles with bathrooms or any means of containing vomit, because the rides to space will last only about 14 minutes. [Full Story: No Bathrooms, No Barf Bags: What Blue Origin's Space Tourists Can Expect]
Solar engineering
Could humans combat the effects of climate change by shooting aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight? A Harvard-run experiment will test the technology that might be necessary for the controversial approach. [Full Story: Harvard Researchers Are Preparing to Geoengineer the Atmosphere]
Jupiter's great cold spot
Looking back through 15 years of observations, scientists have identified a massive cold spot that forms in Jupiter's atmosphere adjacent to the planet's vibrant auroras. The cold spot disappears and reappears over time, which is partly why scientists haven't seen it before. [Full Story: Surprise! Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too]
Space travelers return to Earth
One NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts safely returned to Earth early Monday (April 10). The passengers flew home aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule and landed in Kazakhstan, after spending 173 days in space. Following the departure of NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough from the station, Peggy Whitson, the first female astronaut ever to command the station, took up the post of commander once again. [Full Story: Space Station Crew Returns to Earth Safely on Soyuz Capsule]
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
By Live Science Staff
Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.
Mini weavers
The largest loom of the four looms (left) is 33 inches long, 10 inches wide and 20 inches high (85 by 26 by 50 centimeters).
Credit: Tao Xie; Copyright Antiquity Publications Ltd.
Tiny wooden figurines have stood upright "weaving" at appropriately sized looms for more than 2,100 years in a Chinese tomb containing the remains of a middle-age woman, a new study finds.
It's unclear when and where the first looms were developed, but archaeologists have found ancient looms parts at a variety of sites. [Read more about the tiny looms.]
Pretty arty
Showing a bit of creativity on your online dating profile could make you appear more attractive to potential dates, a new study suggests.
The findings suggest that "creativity can enhance your attractiveness both as a potential date and as a potential social partner [or] same-sex friend," said study author Christopher Watkins, a lecturer in psychology at Abertay University in Scotland. [Read more about the connection.]
Dismantling democracy
Neil deGrasse Tyson says that when people who deny science rise to power that is a recipe for a complete dismantling of our democracy.
Credit: NG Studios
Renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson urges Americans to become more scientifically literate in a short video he posted yesterday (April 19) on his Facebook page.
Tyson, who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, the author of several books and a star of TV and radio, has been speaking for years against the troubling decline of basic science knowledge in America. [Read more about the effects of science denial.]
Most interesting genome
Sandy Maliki, a pure desert dingo and winner of the World's Most Interesting Genome competition, will have her DNA decoded.
Credit: Barry Eggleton/Pure Dingo
Meet Sandy the dingo, owner of the world's most interesting genome.
Sandy's DNA could offer researchers insight into the process of domestication, according to project leader Bill Ballard, an evolutionary biologist at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). [Read more about dingo genome.]
New place to search
An artist's illustration of the view from exoplanet LHS 1140b, which orbits an M dwarf star about one-fifth the size of the sun. The planet could be a prime target for follow-up studies in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.
Credit: M. Weiss/CfA
A newly discovered planet around a distant star may jump to the top of the list of places where scientists should go looking for alien life.
Thousands of exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars other than the sun in the last 20 years. Many of those planets meet some of the basic requirements for hosting life as we know it — they're rocky like Earth (rather than gaseous, like Saturn or Jupiter) and they sit in the habitable zone of their parent star. LHS 1140b meets those initial requirements. [Read more about the fascination.]
Funerary complex
The tomb complex contains the remains of numerous coffins, skeletons and assorted artifacts.
Credit: Photo courtesy Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities
Several mummies and more than 1,000 figurines have been discovered at an ancient cemetery located at Luxor in Egypt, archaeologists reported.
Researchers discovered a labyrinth of tunnels and chambers containing the remains of mummies and assorted human remains, as shown in photos released by the ministry. Additionally, a "collection of ushabti figurines carved in faience, terracotta and wood was also unearthed," in the tomb complex, the ministry said in the statement. [Read more about the mummies.]
Maneaters
Lt. Colonel John Patterson in 1898, with one of the Tsavo man-eaters that he shot.
Credit: The Field Museum
Their names were "The Ghost" and "The Darkness," and 119 years ago, these two massive, maneless, man-eating lions hunted railway workers in the Tsavo region of Kenya. During a nine-month period in 1898, the lions killed at least 35 people and as many as 135, according to different accounts. And the question of why the lions developed a taste for human flesh remained a subject of much speculation.
To unravel the century-old mystery, the study authors examined evidence of the lions' behavior preserved in their teeth. Microscopic wear patterns can tell scientists about an animal's eating habits — particularly during the last weeks of life — and the Tsavo lions' teeth didn't show signs of the wear and tear associated with crunching big, heavy bones, the scientists wrote in the study. [Read more about the lions' rampage.]
Webby shroud
A transparent layer of spider webs covers the grass in a New Zealand park.
Credit: Tracey Maris/Storyful
Visitors to a New Zealand park recently found the grass blanketed not by flowers, but by silk webs produced by what appeared to be thousands of tiny spiders.
Initially, Maris thought the silk nets were unoccupied, she said. But as she and her family explored the webs' outer perimeter, they noticed that there were "little black things on top" — spiders, numbering in the thousands. [Read more about nature's odd blanket.]
Strange substance
Force equals mass times acceleration.
Credit: Shutterstock
Scientists have created a new superfluid that has a negative mass, meaning that if it's pushed to the right, it accelerates to the left and vice versa.
The newly created material with negative mass is a type of Bose-Einstein condensate, in which individual atoms move as one object, the scientists wrote in the new study. [Read more about bizarre superfluid.]
Rise in experimentation
Could a component of marijuana keep cravings at bay for heroin users?
Credit: Roxana Gonzalez/Shutterstock.com
Just over half of American adults have tried marijuana, and 14 percent use it regularly, a new survey finds.
The numbers are similar to those reported by the polling agency Gallup, which has found that although only 4 percent of Americans said they had tried pot in 1969, the number rose to 44 percent by 2015. [Read more about pot statistics.]
By Héctor Escalante ovnivenezuelagrupo.blogspot.com
A luminous body, elongated and light in color, was photographed on December 15 while moving over the skies of the city of San Carlos, Cojedes State, in central Venezuela.
After six in the afternoon, William Escobar was in the garage of his mother's house, when he noticed the presence of a planet shining in the sky, so he took his cell phone to capture the extraordinary scene with the camera .
"I'm fond of astronomy, and I wanted to take the photo of Venus that looked pretty nice," he said. But as he held up the cell phone pointing up at the sky, a reflection in the distance attracted his attention. "I know it was something, because with my eyes off the phone I saw something happen very fast," he warns, but I was still doubtful.
Shortly afterwards, as he reviewed the images, William found a response to his uneasiness, discovering surprisingly that the opaque flash, almost unnoticed, had been recorded on his mobile device, and that it was not a simple reflection, it had a defined shape.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Vreemde structuren ontdekt op de maan. Toont deze studie aan dat dit het werk van buitenaardsen is?
Vreemde structuren ontdekt op de maan. Toont deze studie aan dat dit het werk van buitenaardsen is?
Leden van de Society for Planetary SETI Research (SPSR) hebben in het Journal of Space Exploration een studie gepubliceerd over opmerkelijke objecten in een krater op de achterkant van de maan.
Deze objecten bevinden zich in de krater Paracelsus C en zijn mogelijk kunstmatig van aard, wat zou betekenen dat ze daar door buitenaardsen zijn geplaatst.
Er zijn al veel boeken geschreven over bouwwerken op de maan, denk aan Somebody Else is on the Moon (George Leonard) en We Discovered Alien Bases on the Moon (Fred Steckling).
Omvang
Het nieuwe onderzoek heeft betrekking op foto’s die vanuit Apollo 15 en de Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter zijn gemaakt van raadselachtige objecten in de krater.
Op het eerste gezicht lijkt het te gaan om ‘muren’ of ‘torens’ op het maanoppervlak.
De structuren zien er heel anders uit dan de rotsen die in de krater worden gevonden, aldus de onderzoekers.
Ze merken op dat het met behulp van computersoftware mogelijk moet zijn om de omvang van de objecten te schatten.
Interessante antwoorden
De onderzoekers vragen zich af of de objecten kunstmatig zijn. En zo ja, wanneer zijn ze gemaakt en door wie?
Ze wijzen erop dat een maanrover zeer interessante antwoorden zou kunnen geven op deze vragen.
“Wij zijn van mening dat dit gebied in Paracelsus C in de toekomst nader bestudeerd zou moeten worden vanuit de ruimte en met behulp van maanrovers,” concluderen ze.
Uitgegraven
Eén van de onderzoekers, Mark Carlotto, toont in onderstaande video enkele van de vreemde structuren in de krater.
De bodem rond de structuren is niet vlak, maar lijkt te zijn uitgegraven door een onbekend mechanisme, natuurlijk of kunstmatig.
TAKING IN THE SIGHTS? The UFO was spotted near one of the world's most famous landmarks
A beam of light can be seen shining above the Statue of Liberty in New York.
And close-ups of the image shows the light being emitted by a round-like object.
UFO SIGHTINGS DAILY
SPOTTED: Is this a UFO hovering over the Statue of Liberty?
The picture was taken on board a boat passing through the Hudson River last Wednesday afternoon.
The person who took it had not discovered the unusual object until looking back on their pictures later that day.
Posted on several UFO recording websites, one expert said: “If you had been an alien and needed to see a number of the American tradition, what would you need to see? The Statue of Liberty in fact.
UFO SIGHTINGS DAILY
SHINING LIGHT: It appears and object is emitting the flash of light
“Well, typically people assume equally to aliens in that side of curiosity and locations. I am form of amazed that one thing so massive might simply hover over New York and never even be intercepted by USAF jets.”
Scott Waring, of UFO Sightings Daily, added: “It simply goes to indicate how previous tech most army radars are immediately.”
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
UFO Rectangle Craft Seen Over The Boston Area Mountains, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Rectangle Craft Seen Over The Boston Area Mountains, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Oct 16, 2016 Reported today
Location of sighting: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Source: MUFON #83313 This UFO was seen over the Boston area back in October, but was reported today. It had a typical metallic color from what the eyewitness states and as you can see from the enlarged focused close up below, it is a rectangle shape. Remember, alien craft can be any size, shape and weight. You can make it out of 24K solid gold, because with the element 115 and the alien magnetic propulsion system...physics goes out the window, or should I say, across the sky. To learn more about such propulsion, just go to youtube and search, "Bob Lazar, Area S4, Interview." Scott C. Waring
Eyewitness states:
While driving north on Rte 93 heading towards Boston Massachusetts,just beyond the LNG gas tanks in Dorchester, I looked up at one of the skyscrapers And noticed a large square/rectangular object hovering off to the left of it Over Rte 93. It was approximately 9:30am, and traffic was moving slowly. I had witnessed something similar in 2013, in the same general area, and knew I had to try to get a picture of it this time. It appeared to be pewter colored and dull. It seemed to hover for a bit then slowly start to move towards the east. I eventually lost sight of it when I entered the tip O'Neal tunnel.
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...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
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.
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.
Tesla to double the number of its electric car...
How to blind an AI: Researchers warn patterns could be used...
IBM's Watson AI to help Wall Street firms catch rogue...
Be careful with your Galaxy S8! Tests find Samsung's new...
The idea of shields that fall from the sky as divine gifts or tokens of protection is very ancient.
