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...
27-05-2017
Is A “Breakaway Civilization” Behind The Mysterious Secret Space Program?
Is A “Breakaway Civilization” Behind The Mysterious Secret Space Program?
Richard Dolan author of, UFOs and the National Security State 1&2, and A.D. After Disclosure, came up with the term Breakaway Civilization to describe a separately evolving covert, technically advanced community of people with trillions of dollars of resources siphoned off from our host society. This very autocratic, even fascist elite society uses fear, greed and intimidation even murder, to remain invisible to its host society all under the guise of National Security.
Anything that relates to this Breakaway Civilization is classified Top Secret or above with access by need to know and Special Access Programs (SAPS). While much of the Breakaway Civilization is centered in the United States it has integrated itself into allied governments around the globe. It is what President Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial complex in his farewell speech, just before leaving office, warning that it was breaking away from constitutional controls.
If a person really thinks about it, Special Access on a need to know basis, is how the plantation slave owner controlled his slaves, educating them just enough to do their jobs but no more. To educate them further than need to know would invite rebellion. The old plantation system promoted ignorance among slaves in tandem with methods of control based on fear, intimidation and reward. I think the New World Order (NWO) as envisioned by the Elite Military-Industrial Complex Globalists is no more than a more sophisticated version of old feudal society reintroduced into the modern age.
The NWO’s wage slaves are not controlled by the whip or the withholding of food as in the past, but through the creation and control of paper money and the mass media. Money is created and distributed through private central banks disguised as Federal, in almost every country of the world. Paul Hellyer the Ex-Defense Minister of Canada gave a very good speech called Global Fraud, Global Hope that explains sophisticated mechanism of control and even slips a little ET information into the mix as well.http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23431
I explained in the introduction to this book that there should be nothing surprising about the idea of elite breakaway civilizations. Humanities past is replete with instances where the ruling elite of a society overtly maintains a standard of living and technology in advance of what subjects as a whole have access to. What is different is when such a system becomes covert, and hides behind a guise of National Security, while growing like a cancer to such size that it subverts and corrupts legitimate transparent constitutional governments all around the world.
I am going to provide the reader with evidence that supports the idea that much of this Breakaway civilization’s advanced technology and its super-secret Space Program is based upon reverse engineering extraterrestrial technologies. These advanced exotic propulsion and exotic power technologies have been gained first through extraterrestrial crashes, and soon afterward from what are called Technology Transfer Programs (TTPs), negotiated between different ET civilizations including the Tall Whites and the Greys. Such negotiations imply embassies and ambassadors, in fact Charles Hall states that his female teacher in the 1960s was, “The Ambassadors Daughter”.
This Military Industrial Complex is the real reason the UFO/ET cover up has lasted so long because the corporations involved profit immensely from maintaining a monopoly on ET access or in the suppressing of exotic cheap energy technologies that would put the fossil fuels industry out of business. I call this loosely knit conglomerate of allied special interests the Alien Resource Cartel.
According to aerospace engineer Bill Uhouse and Ben Rich this cartel was spun off of the MJ12 organization in a purge by the Nixon administration in the 1960s. These following quotes from Bill Uhouse material provide fascinating window into how, what he calls the Satellite Government operates. As one can see from these quotes Nixon left a dark imprint upon society in this arena as well. In this early report Bill was called Jarod, but later the ET he worked with was called the Jarod. Bill Uhouse states:
“Understanding how this social structure works is like trying to understand the internal relationships of a tight-knit family in some Asian culture.” “If any area seems dubious, he asks his boss about it, who says either “Okay” or “Let’s hold off on that a while.” For example, his boss said it was okay to mention Nixon as the founder of the Satellite Government, because “Nixon is dead. ” Playing by the rules is very simple for Jarod. He is not working from any rule book or security classification system.”
“Jarod says the satellite government lives by its own laws, completely separate from the conventional government except for an interface with the military. It is not controlled by any other agency, so it does not have to obey the security regulations of other agencies. The fact that Jarod is allowed to speak does seem to imply permission from a higher level than the supervisor, but perhaps a word from management, without any paperwork, is all it takes to make something secret or not secret. Security could be both more intrusive than in any conventional defense program and more informal to those who are used to the structure. Consider the special circumstances….”
“This agency was separated from the rest of the government over 40 years ago. Thus, it would have had an opportunity to evolve in its own way, adapting to the unique requirements of the subject matter.” “The organization is largely composed of older men who have worked with each other for decades. A worker’s supervisor and his security officer are assigned to him for life.”
“The organization is extremely hierarchical, especially given the needs of compartmentalization. A worker reports only to his immediate supervisor, and direct contacts with members of other departments and higher management are rare.” (End)
In my estimation one of the most important documents released by the United States Government is the declassified Wright Patterson 1956 paper on Electogravitics. It’s technical, but it provides a powerful foundation and basis for the technological development timeline to a present day Secret Space Program based on electromagnetic and electrogravitic propulsion and exotic power technologies.
It also includes the names of corporations that became the major players in the Military Industrial Complex. I have included it in its entirety at the end of this chapter so that it is available to the technically inclined, but the lay person can just skip over it and move to Chapter Three if they like.http://www.padrak.com/ine/INE24.html
Many researchers believe that this Secret Space Program and its Space Fleet is capable of not only rapid travel about our solar system with bases on the Moon and Mars, but is deep space capable as well as first was indicated by Ben Rich. This is why there has been no overt return to the moon because in the 1960s NASA became little more than an expensive and dangerous cover and public propaganda operation. Several NASA employee whistleblowers have testified to being involved in airbrushing out any and all images of the ET presence from images of the Earth, Moon, Mars and even space.
There is so much evidence for this Secret Space Program and the Breakaway Civilization in which it is imbedded that I hardly know where to start. Maybe the best place to start would be statements that Ben Rich made in public and in private before he died.
Ben Rich Lockheed’s CEO Admits on Deathbed: ET/UFO Are Real
What he said might be new to many people today, but he revealed the information before his death in January 1995. His statements helped to give credence to reports that the U.S. military has been flying vehicles that mimic alien craft. The article was written by Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Inside the Skunk Works (Lockheed’s secret research and development entity), we were a small, intensely cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers. Our forte was building technologically advanced airplanes of small number and of high class for highly secret missions.”
“We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do.”
“We now have the technology to take ET home. No, it won’t take someone’s lifetime to do it. There is an error in the equations. We know what it is. We now have the capability to travel to the stars. First, you have to understand that we will not get to the stars using chemical propulsion. Second, we have to devise a new propulsion technology. What we have to do is find out where Einstein went wrong.” When Rich was asked how UFO propulsion worked, he said, “Let me ask you. How does ESP work?” The questioner responded with, “All points in time and space are connected? ” Rich then said, “That’s how it works!”
Lockheed “Skunk Works” former CEO knew the Roswell extraterrestrial UFO influenced designs of Testor model kits for Roswell UFO models, and U.S. top secret aircraft. According to a CNI News report by Colorado resident Michael Lindeman, the design information was derived from forensic illustrations and numerous witness testimonies about the Roswell UFO, provided by William L. “Bill” McDonald.
In an e-mail, dated July 29, 1999, apparently addressed to Lindeman, McDonald referenced an excerpt of a discussion with Harold Puthoff, founder of the highly classified U.S. “remote viewing” program. McDonald said: “Well Hal, you asked for it! Now that legendary Lockheed engineer and chief model kit designer for the Testor Corporation, John Andrews, is dead, I can announce that he personally confirmed the design connection between the Roswell Spacecraft and the Lockheed Martin Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs), spy planes, Joint Strike Fighters, and Space Shuttles.
Andrews was a close personal friend of “Skunk Works” CEO Ben Rich — the hand-picked successor of Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson and the man famous for the F-117 Nighthawk “Stealth” fighter, its “half-pint” prototype the “HAVE BLUE”, and the top-secret F-19 Stealth Interceptor. Before Rich died of cancer, Andrews took my questions to him.
1. There are 2 types of UFOs — the ones we build and ones ‘they’ build. We learned from both crash retrievals and actual “hand-me-downs.” The Government knew and until 1969 took an active hand in the administration of that information. After a 1969 Nixon “purge”, administration was handled by an international board of directors in the private sector…
2. Nearly all “biomorphic” aerospace designs were inspired by the Roswell spacecraft — from Kelly’s SR-71 Blackbird onward to today’s drones, UCAVs, and aerospace craft…
3. It was Ben Rich’s opinion that the public should not be told [about UFOs and extraterrestrials] . He believed they could not handle the truth — ever. Only in the last months of his decline did he begin to feel that the “international corporate board of directors” dealing with the “Subject” could represent a bigger problem to citizens’ personal freedoms under the United States Constitution than the presence of off-world visitors themselves.”
Lindeman added that “Bill McDonald received the above information from Andrews from 1994 until their last phone call near Christmas in 1998.” Lindeman also noted “It should also be known that Dr. Ben R. Rich attended a public aerospace designers and engineers conference in 1993 before his illness overwhelmed him in which he stated — in the presence of MUFON Orange County Section Director Jan Harzan and many others that – ‘We’ (i.e., the U.S. aerospace community/military industrial complex) had in it’s possession the technology to “take us to the stars”. See the complete letter in May, 2010 MUFON UFO Journal from John Andrews and the hand written reply from Dr. Ben Rich.
Lockheed Skunkworks Engineer USAF, and CIA Contractor Don Phillips confirms Ben Rich’s statements, “These UFOs were huge and they would just come to a stop and do a 60 degree, 45 degree, 10 degree turn, and then immediately reverse this action”. During the Apollo landing, Neil Armstrong says, “They’re here. They are right over there and looking at the size of those ships., it is obvious they don’t like us being here”. When I was working with the Skunkworks with Kelly Johnson, we signed an agreement with the government to keep very quiet about this.
Anti-gravitational research was going on. We know that there were some captured craft from 1947 in Roswell, they were real. And, yes, we really did get some technology from them. And, yes, we really did put it to work. We knew each other from what we call an unseen industry. We can term it black, deep black, or hidden. The knowledge I have of these technologies came from the craft that were captured here. I didn`t see the craft, nor did I see the bodies, but I certainly know some of the people that did. There was no question that there were beings from outside the planet.
Are these ET people hostile? Well, if they were hostile, with their weaponry they could have destroyed us a long time ago. We got these things that are handhold scanners that scan the body and determine what the condition is. We can also treat from the same scanner.
I can tell you personally that we’ve been working on them. And we have ones that can diagnose and cure cancer. One of the purposes I had for founding my technology corporation in 1998 was to bring forth these technologies that can clean the air and can help get rid of the toxins, and help reduce the need for so much fossil fuel. Yes, it is time. I can tell you personally that it has already started. pp. 375, 383.” (End)
The following is an article I wrote after I first heard the term Solar Warden being used as the alleged code name for the part of the Secret Space Fleet that operates within our solar system. I already had an interest in the Secret Space Fleet and had written material about what I already knew.
Here is an interesting little ti-bit folks, that Vince White our exopolitical poet in residence sent me yesterday that I think deserves sharing. People that have been following my blog know I have discussed this alleged allied space fleet in some of my articles.
Forwarded Message: “Subject: Solar Warden Date: 4/5/2009 Dear Jerry: I have verified a little about the Solar Warden that you asked about some time ago. It is the overall project identification for out Space Fleet Carrier program coming out of Regan’s old Star Wars efforts. We apparently have one or more Space Carriers, like Aircraft Carriers at sea, but in deep space, that supports our Space Patrol efforts and house our American built flying discs that require no fuel and operate on free energy.”
“The STS-58 video clip that was filmed from one of our space shuttles showed such an intercept and that footage was immediately suppressed and resulted in that free video from the shuttles being shut down. Gary McKinnon, the English computer nerd that lived with his mother in London, using a cheap home PC late at night, said that he discovered this project and that he found evidence of three such carriers and their names and numbers and even the names of some of the commanders in those black project files.”
“Now you can see why our government is spending so much money and political clout to extradite that foreign national to our country for trial in our country for silencing and then elimination. One has to wonder how much it took to persuade the English House of Lords to give him up to us. Regards, W” (End)
After I posted the two articles on Solar Warden, Open Minds Forum ( OM) management sent the following to me. It would appear that the code name Solar Warden first surfaced at OM before the Gary McKinnon affair. As far as I know Gary did not know of the name Solar Warden.
“You may come to find the information somewhat shocking and unable to understand as. I pray the Almighty will look out for the inhabitants of this planet as the coming years will bring much misery. I pass on this information in the hope that you, as an unbiased observer, will make sure the public learns the truth.”
“All space programs are a cover that exists to deceive the people of this world. We have a space fleet, which is code named ” Solar Warden.” There were, as of 2005, eight ships, an equivalent to aircraft carriers and forty-three “protectors,” which are space planes. One was lost recently to an accident in Mars’ orbit while it was attempting to re-supply the multinational colony within Mars. This base was established in 1964 by American and Soviet teamwork. Not everything is, as it seems.”
“We have visited all the planets in our solar system, at a distance of course, except Mercury. We have landed on Pluto and a few moons. These ships contain personnel from many countries and have sworn an oath to the World Government, also, known as the Bilderbergers. The technology came from back engineering alien-disc wreckage and at times with alien assistance.” (End)
I think we can begin to build points on a historical timeline from the very strong foundation of the 1956 Declassified Wright Patterson Electrogravitics paper to the present day Secret Space Fleet. One very important point has been presented by Senior Research Engineer Boyd Bushman who worked for Lockheed Martin, Texas Instruments and Hughes Aircraft.
In October of 2011 he provided evidence to investigators in an interview that by 1959 the U.S. government had already reverse engineered an extraterrestrial spacecraft using a nuclear reactor for propulsion! I mean this was three years after the Wright Patterson Electrogravitics paper was published. It should not be hard for the reader to begin to logically create a time line from 1956 to 1959 to the present super-secret space fleet.
There has been speculation and some evidence that the Navy has operational control over the Secret Space Fleet, in a case of fact imitating Star Trek fiction. It is well know that the Navy pretty much has had a monopoly on engineering small compact nuclear reactor power plants for its ships and carriers in its large ocean going fleets. The Navy’s organizational structure is well suited for operating large ocean going fleets. On the other hand the Air Force has experience in the research and development, testing and flying advanced aerospace craft and expertise in aerospace tracking and base support in conjunction with Air Force Space Command.
One would assume that some kind of working arrangement has been worked out over the years between the Air Force and the Navy. As it the fiction movie Avatar, one would expect the Army and Marines to have operational control of ground operations on Secret colonies and bases on the Moon, Mars and even on other solar systems. A second important point on the historical time line to a Secret Space Fleet and it’s off world bases and colonies using exotic electromagnetic propulsion systems with compact nuclear power plants to provide the huge amounts of electrical power necessary, is the Piney Woods Incident, the Cash-Landrum UFO Case that took place in December of 1980.
One can speculate from the revelations of Bob Lazar now backed up to some extent by Boyd Bushman and some material in UFO Crash at Aztec, that alien power plants are not that easy to replicate, so these first craft used electromagnetic and electrogravitic off the shelf power plant technologies.
The Cash-Landrum case has been well researched and has withstood the test of time, and seems to have involved a core meltdown in a super-secret exotic aerospace craft. It was surrounded by military helicopters and it severely irradiated the witnesses involved. The three witnesses sued the U.S. government for damages to their health and the case even went to a Congressional Hearing but the government would not admit responsibility for the incident.
Technological Singularity: Beyond the Event Horizon
While many may not realize, it humanity is a rapidly approaching what is being called a Technological Singularity and I believe the Breakaway Society has already passed beyond that event horizon leading the way for the rest of society to follow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
I and others believe that at the technological singularity boundary the technological rules change just as drastically as the rules of physics change at the boundary of a black hole.http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae251.cfm It is at this Technological Singularity where we begin to rewrite our genome and our external reality giving us superhuman powers and intelligence. In a case of monkey see, monkey do, I believe we are copying this process from covert extraterrestrial contact.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7681252/ns/health-cloning_and_stem_cells
A friend of mine at Open Seti suggested to me after reading my article on genome security that my next article should cover the man in the machine or the concept of human machine hybrids.http://surroundingsignifiers.com/2011/03/13/the-future-of-uxui-and-human-machine-integration/ We need to explore what will happen to us and what will we look like when we no longer interface with our computers through keyboard and mouse but through mind-machine interfaces.
The first step toward a man-machine hybrid as suggested to me by whistleblower Clifford Stone is through a bio-suit loaded with microprocessors and sensors, while the second and final step is integration of these devices into our genetic structure as suggested by Ar Borden. Both individuals claim contact with several ET races. I think the main driver behind the approaching Technological Singularity is extraterrestrial contact.
While this contact is still being hidden from the public it is filtering out into the public domain accelerating our technological development in ways suggested by Col. Corso in his book, The Day After Roswell. This has happened before in our history with the covert release of newly discovered Chinese technology in the 12th and 13th centuries by the autocrats of the day, so as to preserve their control over the masses. (See next section)
I think that many of these extraterrestrial races and civilizations now becoming known to us are already in this technological singularity domain, and by association we are ourselves drawn rapidly into the domain as well. Let’s hope we can handle ourselves in a creative rather than a destructive fashion becoming an asset rather than a liability in this domain. I think that this domain is what the Hopi and other Native Americans have foreseen as the Fifth World as described to them by the Sky People in their past. http://www.mondovista.com/flyingshields/http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_leyenda_hopi21.htm
I think that the extraterrestrials are shepherding us into this technological or evolutionary singularity for better or for worse, but once there our future is for us to decide, if we will take responsibility for our thoughts and actions.
ET’s Ignite a Modern Renaissance Similar to China in Europe 600 Years Ago
I am always interested in discovering historical material that helps to better understand this process of humanities integration into extraterrestrial realities and the nature of information locked up in the Breakaway Society. I stumbled across Gavin Menzies book 1434 in the course of my studies that provide quite a body of evidence suggesting that the European Renaissance was sparked by the overt and covert introduction of advanced Chinese science and technology. This technological transfer from the world’s only real superpower of the period reached its zenith in 1434 when the Chinese fleet that had already explored and mapped the world in 1421 sailed to Italy. http://www.gavinmenzies.net/
I had read Gavin’s first book 1421 years ago, but the evidence he had collected was a bit flimsy and a fishing expedition of sorts, but since then many more historical scholars have become involved all over the world and a huge body of evidence is building supporting his speculations and initial data. (See evidence section http://www.gavinmenzies.net/evidence.asp ) This is causing a complete rewrite of history for the 1300s and 1400s, even interesting the Smithsonian, and gives us a road-map of the process by which contact with a more technologically developed civilization integrates into a lesser advanced hierarchical society on earth.
History seems to be once again repeating itself where global rulers are allowing scientific and technological knowledge from extraterrestrial contact to covertly leak out into the public domain for their own benefit, while at the same time suppressing other knowledge that would weaken their hold on power. This exact same process seems to have happened in Europe when the Chinese leaders make contact with European leaders, who supported at the time, severely distorting the historical record as to where these ideas and knowledge originated.
“On the cover jacket Gavin says, “Florence and Venice of the early fifteenth century were hubs of world trade, attracting traders from across the globe. Based on years of research, this marvelous history argues that a Chinese fleet –official ambassadors of the emperor–arrived in Tuscany in 1434, where they were received by Pope Eugenius IV in Florence.”
“The delegation presented the influential pope with a wealth of Chinese learning from a diverse range of fields: art, geography (including world maps that were passed on to Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan), astronomy, mathematics, printing, architecture, steel manufacturing, military weaponry, and more. This vast treasure trove of knowledge spread across Europe, igniting the legendary inventiveness of the Renaissance, including the work of such geniuses as DA Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo and more.”
This new knowledge uncovered by Gavin Menzies and others clearly shows that learned men with access did not make many of the discoveries attributed to them, but simply copied already existing technological and scientific ideas that had been in use and known in China for hundreds of years. A small part of the huge Chinese fleet sailed to Italy in huge ocean going ships armed with cannon, mortars, exploding bombs, flamethrowers etc. when at the time the European navies were not more that sail and row galleys, armed with archers. One can imagine the shock to the European political and military authorities when they realized they were basically defenseless against such superior military technology. http://www.gavinmenzies.net/pages/evidence-1434/view-chapter.asp?EvidenceID=22
Not only did this spark the Renaissance; it sparked an arms race to catch up militarily with the Chinese very similar to what we have today after the crashes of extraterrestrial spaceships in the 1930s and 1940s. The Chinese after bankrupting themselves building such a huge ocean going fleet along with other excesses fell rapidly into decline while the Europeans rapidly became the world’s technological power. There are many lessons from the past that are as applicable today as 600 years ago.http://www.gavinmenzies.net/pages/evidence-1434/view-chapter.asp?EvidenceID=3
I find it interesting that contact between both humans and extraterrestrials seems to always result in genetic mixing of races. In the 1400s there was also a flourishing slave trade of Chinese slaves mostly young girls to Italy, as many as ten thousand a year. http://www.gavinmenzies.net/pages/evidence-1434/content.asp?EvidenceID=47 This resulted in a genetic mixing in Italy that reminds me of the forced genetic mixing going on between earth humans and certain races of aliens today in what I call the abductee alien slave trade. In both cases the autocratic authorities approved and facilitated such abhorrent forms of human trafficking.
I believe extraterrestrials have ignited a modern global renaissance in science and technology the likes of which has not been seen for 600 years. When the Chinese ignited the Renaissance they were just as alien and technologically advanced in relation to the Europeans as extraterrestrials are to us today. European political, military and religious leaders acted is very similar ways to exploit the technologies involved while at the same time suppressing the real source of the information and other information that would weaken their hold on power.
In both cases the initial cultural shock was quickly replaced with the emotions of fear and greed. In 1434 the military feared the advanced gunpowder weaponry and naval capabilities of the Chinese that quickly sparked a rapid gunpowder arms race and naval buildup that resulted in the European voyages of discovery and colonization. In 1947 the discovery of extraterrestrial weapons and advanced ET space fleets resulted in a rapid space and arms race resulting in a multi trillion dollar secret space fleet.http://exopolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/solar-warden-articles.html The greed side of the equation kicks as economic power figures out how the new information could be exploited for the benefit of the ruling classes at the expense of the lower classes.
In both cases the famous learned men of their time became complicit in cooperating with the ruling classes to suppress certain knowledge and to fraudulently take credit for the inventions and scientific discovers that were not theirs. http://zlandcommunications.blogspot.com/2010/05/carl-sagan-knew-ufos-are-real-confidant.html How this was done 600 years ago is explained in 1434 just as Col. Corso explained how it was done after 1947 in the book, The Day After Roswell.
For those who would study the evidence accumulated in the book 1434 and on the website, it is obvious that Leonardo DA Vinci, Santini, Taccola, Di Giorgio all took credit for inventions and scientific discoveries that were not their own. Just compare the similarity of the illustrations in chapter 16. Furthermore the laws of celestial mechanics http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides3/lost_discoveries3.asp#excerpt credited to Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo were know by the Chinese and used to create a very accurate calendar in 1280 for Kublai Khan (page 23 -28) that was later adopted by the Europeans. This calendar required very complex astrological calculations of the earth’s rotation, varying speeds around an elliptical orbit around the sun, etc. The Chinese had even noticed moons around Jupiter visible to the naked eye in certain locations in China in 364 B.C…
How can we account for such similar political reactions and responses by the authorities of both periods and their learned servants? I think the answer is inherent in autocratic rule that is driven in a large part by fear, deception and greed and is by nature insecure as leaders can fall from power just as quickly as they rise to power. Obviously any democratic or populist countermanding force has been far too weak in both cases to have any significant immediate check on autocratic power and societal exploitation of the technologies involved.
It remains to be seen if the situation will change over the longer term in regards to extraterrestrial knowledge due to democratic disclosure rumblings and extraterrestrial disclosure activities by the ET’s themselves. If the Chinese source for this advanced scientific and technological knowledge in 1434 could be effectively covered up for 600 years, 60 years seems a very short time. But on the other hand just as Chinese advances in printing technology helped to rapidly integrate Chinese advanced knowledge and fuel the Renaissance, so too the Internet seems to be not only uncovering old Chinese-European secrets but now ET secret classified knowledge is being uncovered and distributed to the public.
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De eerste resultaten van de Juno-missie zijn er
De eerste resultaten van de Juno-missie zijn er
Tim Kraaijvanger
Sinds juli 2016 draait de Juno-ruimtesonde om de grootste planeet van ons zonnestelsel. In twee papers in het wetenschappelijke vakblad Science staan dan eindelijk de eerste onderzoeksresultaten. Zij schijnen een nieuw licht op Jupiter.
“Wat we tot dusver hebben geleerd is verbazingwekkend”, zegt hoofdonderzoeker Scott Bolton, Juno’s hoofdonderzoeker. “We zijn veel te weten gekomen over de kern, compositie, magnetosfeer en polen. Daarnaast zijn we veel nieuwe foto’s rijker.”
Forse cyclonen In het eerste paper presenteert Bolton de resultaten van Juno’s scheervluchten over de wolkentoppen. Daaruit blijkt er op de polen van Jupiter heldere, ovale structuren te zien zijn. Deze structuren zien wij niet op de polen van Saturnus. Uit timelapsebeelden blijkt dat de ovalen cyclonen zijn, waarvan sommige exemplaren een diameter van circa 1.400 kilometer hebben.
Cyclonen op de noordpool en zuidpool van Jupiter.
Opwellende ammoniak Daar stopt het niet. Juno heeft de samenstelling van de atmosfeer nabij de evenaar geanalyseerd, toen het ruimtevaartuig over de wolkentoppen vloog. Daaruit blijkt dat ammoniak opwelt uit de diepe atmosfeer en vervolgens gigantische weersystemen vormt.
Sterk magnetisch veld & rotsachtige kern Verder blijkt het magnetisch veld van de gasreus sterker dan verwacht. Nabij de atmosfeer is het veld ongeveer tien keer zo sterk als het aardmagnetische veld, namelijk 7.766 Gauss. Minder verrassend is de kern van Jupiter. Die blijkt – zoals modellen al voorspelden – rotsachtig te zijn.
Magnetosfeer In het tweede paper gaat onderzoeker John Connerney in op aurora’s en de magnetosfeer van Jupiter. Toen Juno op 24 juni 2016 de magnetosfeer van de planeet binnendrong, voelde de ruimtesonde een zogenoemde boogschok. Opvallend is het feit dat het ruimtevaartuig op latere tijdstippen meer schokken te verduren kreeg. Connerney en zijn collega’s vermoeden dat de magnetosfeer op dat moment aan het groeien was.
Aurora’s Tenslotte heeft Juno elektronen gespot die energie afgaven in de Joviaanse atmosfeer, waardoor er grote aurora’s ontstonden. Wetenschappers concluderen dat de verspreiding van deze elektronen anders gaat dan op aarde. Wellicht is de interactie tussen Jupiter en directe omgeving anders dan op aarde.
Een aurora op Jupiter. Rechtsboven een aurora op aarde. De schaal is ongeveer gelijk.
Fantastische foto van mogelijk levensvatbare maan van Saturnus
Fantastische foto van mogelijk levensvatbare maan van Saturnus
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Op het kiekje schittert Enceladus: een maan waarvan gedacht wordt dat deze wel eens leven kan herbergen.
De foto heeft iets mysterieus. We kijken tegen de zijde aan die op Saturnus gericht is en een klein beetje verlicht wordt door het licht dat Saturnus reflecteert. De rechterzijde van de planeet baadt ondertussen in het zonlicht, waardoor de vele breuken en groeven in het kilometers dikke pak ijs goed zichtbaar zijn.
Cassini Ruimtesonde Cassini maakte de foto eind vorig jaar, maar NASA heeft deze nu pas vrijgegeven. Op het moment dat de foto gemaakt werd, was Cassini zo’n 168.000 kilometer van de 504 kilometer grote maan verwijderd.
Foto: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.
Snoepwinkel Enceladus spreekt tot de verbeelding. De maan van Saturnus is bedekt met een kilometers dik pak ijs. Maar onder dat ijs gaat hoogstwaarschijnlijk een vloeibare oceaan schuil. Onderzoekers achten het niet onmogelijk dat in die oceaan leven huist. Recent stelden onderzoekers dat de drie basisingrediënten voor leven – vloeibaar water, een energiebron voor metabolisme en de juiste chemische ingrediënten, te weten koolstof, fosfor, waterstof, stikstof, zuurstof en zwavel) bijna allemaal aanwezig zijn op Enceladus. Onderzoeker Hunter Waite noemde de maan “een snoepwinkel voor microscopisch leven”.
Of er ook echt leven is op de maan blijft onduidelijk. Want Cassini – de sonde die momenteel Saturnus en omgeving bestudeert – is niet in staat om leven op te sporen. Een goede reden om er op korte termijn een ruimtevaartuig naartoe te sturen dat dat wel kan. De ijskap die op de maan rust, heeft een gemiddelde dikte van 18 tot 22 kilometer. Maar op de zuidpool is deze dunner dan vijf kilometer. “Als Enceladus’ ondergrondse zee echt zo dicht aan het oppervlak ligt als deze studie suggereert dan kan een toekomstige missie naar deze maan die uitgerust is met een radarinstrument dat door het ijs heen kan ‘kijken’ de oceaan wellicht detecteren,” aldus onderzoeker Alice Le Gall eerder dit jaar.
Bronmateriaal:
"Slim Crescent of Ice" - NASA De foto bovenaan dit artikel is gemaakt door NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
Social media and local news outlets throughout upstate New York were swamped with reports of strange lights over Lake Ontario on the evening of May 23rd. Just around dusk, a formation of eerie floating lights appeared over the Canadian side of the lake, prompting curiosity from hundreds of local residents.
Many social media users speculated the lights could be drones.
Eyewitness Kate Caven told local Buffalo news station WIVB that residents throughout the Lake Ontario region were perplexed about the source of the lights, which seemed to hover in the air above the lake:
Some people were concerned maybe they were distress signals, but we couldn’t see any boats. And then some people mentioned maybe a meteor shower, but again they weren’t really moving. So that’s pretty much what most people were saying other than UFOs or aliens. I joked around with my friend Matt who was with me, if they were coming to take us, I was ready, that that wasn’t a bad way to go out if I could see an alien.
It sure wouldn’t be, Karen. Shortly after the reports came in, however, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) claimed responsibility for the sighting. According to an RCAF spokesperson, the lights were training flares dropped by a Hercules Model 8 CCC-130H aircraft in the 424th squadron out of 8 wing Trenton, Ontario, who were conducting a search and rescue exercise in the area.
Smoke trails can be seen trailing behind each descending flare.
However, there are some alleged inconsistencies in the RCAF’s story. The RCAF spokesperson’s statement claims the flares were dropped around 9:30 p.m., yet some social media commenters noted that they observed the flares hours earlier. Other commenters noted that the lights appeared to move up and down in the air above the lake. Of course, the mind sometimes sees what it wants to see, and at such a distance, it could be difficult to judge movement.
After the RCAF claimed similar exercises are routine, some residents wondered why flares aren’t a more common sight.
Meanwhile, according to a few sources, the U.S. Coast Guard reportedly initially ruled out basic flares as the source of the phenomenon. However, a quick comparison with images of artillery flares indeed shows a clear resemblance to the Lake Ontario lights. While a government UFO cover-up makes for great headlines, this case is likely exactly what the RCAF says it was.
Artillery illumination rounds are commonly used in military operations.
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De reuzenplaneet Jupiter lijkt anders in elkaar te zitten dan aanvankelijk gedacht. Dat blijkt uit eerste resultaten van de Juno-missie waarover is bericht in de wetenschappelijke vakbladen Science en Geophysical Research Letters en waarover betrokken vorsers van de Universiteit van Luik hebben bericht.
Op 27 augustus 2016 maakte de ruimtesonde Juno een eerste scheervlucht langs Jupiter, de grootste planeet van ons zonnestelsel. Sindsdien gebeurde dit nog vijf keer, en er volgen er nog zeven. Doel is meer te weten te komen over de atmosfeer, het magnetische veld en het inwendige van Jupiter.
De eerste resultaten dateren van die eerste omloop. Anders dan sondes die Jupiter eerder hebben verkend, volgt de in augustus 2011 gelanceerde Juno een baan over beide polen van de planeet. De daarbij gemaakte opnames tonen een chaotisch tafereel van heldere ovale structuren: cyclonen met een diameter tot 1400 kilometer. Van de karakteristieke bandenstructuur die de Jupiteratmosfeer op lagere breedten laat zien, is rond de polen niets meer terug te vinden.
Zelfde weersysteem als op Aarde Thermisch onderzoek van de atmosfeer leerde dat rond de evenaar ammoniak uit de diepte opwelt. Dat duidt op een weersysteem dat wij ook op Aarde kennen: de circulaties waarbij warme lucht bij de evenaar opstijgt en vervolgens richting Noord- en Zuidpool stroomt. Wat zich in het hart van Jupiter afspeelt is echter nog steeds onduidelijk.
Voorts is het magnetisch veld rond Jupiter veel sterker dan verwacht: tien keer zoveel als het magnetisch veld rondom de Aarde. Onderzoek van de hele magnetosfeer leert dat de reuzenplaneet een heel andere wisselwerking met zijn omgeving heeft dan onze planeet.
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Paul Davies puts a brake on the idea of a universe teeming with life
Paul Davies puts a brake on the idea of a universe teeming with life
An artist's conception of what the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f may look like. AP
by Andrew Masterson
Around half a century ago, when NASA's Apollo missions were taking brave men to play golf on the moon, the idea of extraterrestrials was the province of science-fiction authors and acid-tripping dreamers.
How times change. Today, the press is full of stories about planets and moons, near and far, pregnant with the possibilities of life.
We read about abundant hydrogen on Saturn's moon Enceladus, a sign, perhaps, of microbial activity. We note another of Saturn's moons, Titan, likely boasts a subterranean ocean, surely the harbour of something twitching.
Then we thrill to the suggestion that the planet Proxima b, four light years away, could support life if its climate is right. And we wonder, enthralled, about the Trappist-1 system, seven planets orbiting a star 39 light years distant, a couple of which, astronomers tell us, are in just the right orbits to be warm and wet and friendly.
A computer generated image showing Britain's Beagle 2 probe on the surface of Mars. AP/European Space Agency
The expectation now is palpable: surely, within our lifetimes, we will detect at least a bacterium, some weird arsenic-based extremophile by a thermal vent in an underground sea, or a smear of purple anaerobic slime beneath a rock on the edge of a liquid methane lake.
But is this expectation based on solid science, or romance, or a barely sublimated need to assert that we are not alone in a vast and godless universe?
"The change is for no reason that I can put my finger on," says Paul Davies. "I've lived through this pendulum swing. Now the whole scientific community is charging down the direction that holds the universe is teeming with life, and I'm now the voice of caution, saying: 'Hold on, hold on, you have no basis for that belief'."
Davies' objections are not to be lightly dismissed. He is, after all, perhaps the most distinguished astrobiologist alive, not to mention a quantum physicist of such import that two of the field's fundamental constructs bear his name (the Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect, and the Bunch-Davies vacuum state, for those taking notes.)
Based these days at the University of Arizona's Centre for Fundamental Concepts in Science, he is also the head of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Post-Detection Science and Technology Task Group of the International Academy of Aeronautics.
Physicist Paul Davies. Macquarie University
And years ago he used to teach at Adelaide and Macquarie universities. So, even though he lives in the United States and was born in England, we can kind of, sort of, claim him as an Aussie. It's not a sustainable claim, of course, but, he would suggest, it has more evidential weight behind it than the notion that the cosmos is crawling with amoeba-things and all that's left to do is find them.
Back in the '60s, Davies says, most serious astronomers were convinced there were planets throughout the universe, even though technology at the time was insufficient to detect them.
Indeed, in 1961, an astronomer called Frank Drake came up with an equation to predict the probability of intelligent life emerging anywhere in the universe. In his 2010 book, The Eerie Silence, Davies calls it "not so much an equation in the conventional mathematical sense, more of a way to quantify our ignorance".
Seven years later, he maintains that we're still thick.
Apollo astronauts Roger Chaffee, Edward White II and Virgil Grissom who later perished in a fire during a training session inside this Apollo Mission Simulator at Cape Kennedy, Florida, in 1967. NASA/AP
"Nothing has changed except our expectations," he says. "The big unknown is the fraction of planets on which life emerges, and we have no idea what that number is and no way to quantify it because we don't know what the process was. You can't estimate the odds of an unknown process. We know almost no more about it today than we did in the '60s."
The difficulty in all this – and perhaps the only point of consensus among astrobiologists – is that we don't know how groups of molecules, non-living matter, coalesce and combine to become living. What is the animating spark? Or, more prosaically, what is the minimum level of complexity for a living organism?
The main reason for this shortcoming is that the only life we have to study is the stuff found here on Earth. Given that everything, from cholera bacteria to Bactrian camels to Justin Bieber, descended from a single common ancestor, we have a sample size of just one – which is a hopeless number from which to draw generalised conclusions.
Without another evolutionary tree to compare, Davies points out, we have no idea what aspects of Earth life are specific just to our mob, and what aspects are "law-like" – common to all life right across the universe.
Images of the Saturnian system prepared from an assemblage of Voyager 1 views. Fairfax Media
This is very much his field: he is tasked with examining the fundamentals of science (he also advises space agencies, and pursues cancer research, but let's stick to the big picture here).
Lately, this work has been taking him in a fascinating, if controversial, direction. In a recently published paper – a sketch, really, for a book he is working on – he and colleague Sara Imari Walker suggest that the real law-like essential for life to emerge anywhere in the universe is not biology or even chemistry, but information.
The processing of information, the pair wrote, might be the causal agent at the bottom of all life. Things such as water, carbon and DNA might be just local-level stuff, not required by extraterrestrial life forms.
Davies and Walker also make the point that if their assumption is correct then, even if we do encounter alien organisms, we quite possibly won't recognise them. The problem of life, they conclude, might "ultimately not be reducible to known physical principles".
Professor Paul Davies during his Adelaide University days in 1990. Fairfax Media
"That's principles not yet known, rather than principles that can never be known," Davies is quick to point out. "We're open to the suggestion that there may be new physics that will be uncovered by studying biology. That's different to saying that all of biology can be explained by using physics already known."
It is entirely reasonable, he says, to define all living things as information-processing systems. It is also reasonable to define them, as physicists do, in terms of energy and matter and the forces that govern their interactions.
But suggesting the two explanations are simply different ways of expressing the same thing is wrong.
"Where you can't get away with that is with the origin of life," he says. "Because, somehow, out of blind and purposeless forces at the molecular level, somehow out of that sort of melee, an informational system had to emerge."
Probing that mystery, he suggests, is where new physics principles will be found.
Other things, too, may emerge, not the least of which could be a profoundly new discussion around the relationship between science and religion.
Most of Davies' colleagues are atheists, if for no other reason than because physics seems by definition to exclude the supernatural. He himself, however, has long had a subtler, more nuanced position. In his 1992 bestseller, The Mind of God, he suggested that conscious beings manifest self-awareness in the universe and that, thus, "we are truly meant to be here".
The use of the word "meant" occasioned much spirited debate, on the not unreasonable grounds that it implied a creative intention – and a creator, perhaps – buried deep in the workings of the cosmos.
For Davies, however, it is not he but those who work beside him who are falling prey to religious thought – precisely because they believe the universe is teeming with life. "Once we get rid of the idea of miracles, are we happier with the idea of life as a freak accident on one planet alone," he asks, "or are we more comfortable in a universe that is fundamentally bio-friendly?"
It's a critical question, he points out. The odds of inanimate molecules transforming into living matter are gazillions to one. The odds of it happening more than once are gazillions-squared to one, and the odds of it happening billions of times are infinitesimal.
For that to come to pass, there has to be something more, a life-friendly principle at work that rises above brute probability.
"That's a religious position," he says.
"Now, I would feel very comfortable living in such a universe, knowing that we're not the result of some freak chemical quirk. We would know that we're actually deeply embedded in the great cosmic scheme of things – part of the grand cosmic plan, if you like.
"So, for me, the notion that life is intrinsically built into the nature of the universe is deeply pleasing, and close to a religious belief. But that's also the reason that I'm so sceptical."
Paul Davies will be one of the speakers at an event titled Life on Mars: NASA's 2020 Rover Mission, on August 17 at the Sydney Opera House. Tickets on sale now.
A space aggressor operator at the Schriever Air Force Base, ColoradoUS Air Force
A real life Independence Day may not be far away. Only this time there is no defined threat the military is working against, although it is about "extraterrestrial combat".
Space Aggressors is what the US military is calling them, a team of soldiers training at a warehouse near Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Their job is to act like the enemy during mock space battles to help US units prepare for a conflict that may one day extend to outer space.
"We play the bad guys," Captain Christopher Barnes, chief of training for the 26th Space Aggressor Squadron told the Seeker. "We study threats to the space realm, either coming from space or based on land. If we can't directly replicate them with hardware, then we figure out if there's a software solution or some way we can train people to the point where they can fight through them, if they have to, in a conflict," he says.
The elite military unit is being prepared to take on what US calls 'very real' threats from space powers like Russia and China. US intelligence chief Dan Coats recently told a Senate hearing that Russia and China are aggressively pursuing space warfare by building anti-satellite weapons, some of which in future could not only destroy US satellites but may even posses the capability to hit targets on land.
Vice Admiral Charles Richard, deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command, had told a Washington conference in March that "China is developing an arsenal of lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns, and high-powered microwave weapons to neutralize America's intelligence, communications, and navigation satellites."
Captain Barnes said some people think space is the Achilles heel for the US because of its heavy reliance on space assets for most everything, from launching missiles to directing warships across the seas. For instance, any damage to the Global Positioning System -- a group of 31 satellites owned by the US government and operated by their US Air Force -- could make the US military to fall back to outmoded tactics, greatly eroding its technological edge over an enemy.
The army however, stresses that it is not space war yet but like any other unit of the military that has to be ready for any existential threats, a space threat is very real in today's scenario.
"While we're not at war in space, I don't think we could say we're exactly at peace, either," says Vice Admiral Richard. "We must prepare for a conflict that extends into space."
The universe's "most interesting star" just started acting up again.
Known as KIC 8462852, or the WTF star (for "Where's The Flux"), this sun became famous a few years ago for its strange short-lived dips in light output. Its behavior was weird enough that astronomers added "alien megastructures" to the long list of possible explanations for WTF star's changes in brightness. My twitter feed was lighting up this weekend as WTF star started, once again, to show a pronounced diminution.
The excitement over WTF star is, ultimately, about finding evidence for life on other planets. But even without alien megastructures (which are probably not going to be the explanation), WTF star highlights the remarkable range of ways astronomers might be able to find evidence for life on distant planets.
Since we'll be staring hard at thousands of these worlds over the next few decades, each kind of life detection method is exciting in its own right. That's why today I want to introduce you to "The Red Edge" (which, also, just sounds pretty cool).
The story starts with one of space exploration's greatest tragedies.
Back in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during launch, killing the entire crew. The loss was devastating for so many reasons, but one of its consequences was that the Galileo mission to Jupiter was left without a launch vehicle. The plan had been for it to ride a shuttle into space, where a powerful booster would then send it on to a half-billion-or-so-mile ride to the solar system's largest world. In the aftermath of the Challenger disaster, NASA scientists were forced to launch Galileo using a less powerful booster, placing it onto a complicated trajectory that used the gravity of a number of planets to slingshot the spacecraft out to Jupiter. In particular, Galileo first headed inward to Venus and then back to Earth — twice — picking up speed with each gravity "assist." It was during these Earth-return fly-bys that scientists came to the novel idea of viewing our planet as if it were an alien world.
The idea was, in part, Carl Sagan's. As Galileo passed by Earth, it trained its instruments on our planet and recorded the light it reflected from the sun. In this way, scientists could run an experiment to see if Earth's light "signal" could reveal the presence of life.
Of all the features the scientists found in the Earth-light, one of the most important came in the form of a sharp change in our planet's reflectance just past the wavelengths of red light. Reflectance means how much of the sunlight falling on the planet gets bounced back into space. Low reflectance means much of the light is being absorbed, while high reflectance means the opposite. The Galileo data showed that Earth's reflectance depended strongly on the light's color (meaning its wavelength). Most of the light in the visible spectrum was strongly absorbed. But around the wavelength of red light (past a half of a millionth of meter) the reflectance shot up. This wall in the reflectance curve was known from remote sensing studies and was called The Red Edge. In a paper titled "A Search for Life on Earth From The Galileo Spacecraft," Sagan and his co-authors highlighted the planet's absorption and reflection properties as one of four critical pieces of data that confirmed Earth was, in fact, a living world.
But what causes the Red Edge and why might it be a cosmic life-detector? The answer lies within even the most lowly houseplant.
Almost all of the world's vegetation will strongly absorb light in the blue and green parts of the spectrum. Much of this is due to photosynthesis, since these are the wavelengths of light plants absorb to make sugars and power their metabolism. At longer wavelengths, the leaves have no need to absorb sunlight, so they've evolved to reflect this light back into space. So what Galileo was seeing as it flew by Earth was the combined absorbing power of an entire planet's worth of vegetation.
Of course, Sagan and other astronomers knew that what works for Earth may work for alien worlds, too. Maybe we could detect Red Edges in the spectra from other worlds. If so, wouldn't that be proof of alien life and, even better, of full alien biospheres?
Astronomers are now deep in their "exo-planet" revolution. That means they're learning how to probe the light from these worlds in ways that, in principle, mimic what Galileo did for Earth. The crucial difference, of course, is distance. These planets are light-years away. That means we get just a minute fraction of the light they reflect from their stars. Astronomers must be extremely clever in how they go about their searches for exoplanet Red Edges. That's a challenge they're already working to overcome.
One early example of of these efforts is a well-regarded paper from 2005 by Sara Seager and collaborators titled Vegetation's Red Edge: A Possible Spectroscopic Biosignature of Extraterrestrial Plants. The team laid out arguments for how the Red Edge might be detected in light from other worlds. They also made the important case that evolution on any planet might lead to some kind of feature like the Red Edge. As they put it, " ... while extraterrestrial 'light-harvesting organisms' have no compelling reason to display the exact same red edge feature as terrestrial vegetation, they might have similar spectroscopic features at different wavelengths than terrestrial vegetation." Thus a Red Edge of some kind, may, perhaps be universal.
For years now, movies and TV have taught us that the only way to find life in the universe was to directly detect purposeful signals from intelligences on those worlds. With the advent of the exo-planet revolution, a new era has opened. The WTF star raised the issue that we may detect intelligence by the artifacts they leave. Even more important, and more likely, is that we might find evidence of less-evolved forms of life by the imprints they leave on the planet as a whole. The lesson of the Red Edge is that life — even plants — can change planets in ways that might be visible from across the depths of space.
Adam Frank is a co-founder of the 13.7 blog, an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester, a book author and a self-described "evangelist of science." You can keep up with more of what Adam is thinking on Facebook and Twitter:@adamfrank4
Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
HOUSTON -- Houston isn't nicknamed the Space City for nothing! Besides NASA being in our backyard, there's a man in town who calls himself the "Alien Hunter." NewsFix caught up with Darrell Sims who showed us some cool stuff he says came from outer space.
Sims, a private investigator, claims he was once a G-Man and used those skills to uncover alien abductions.
"I come from an intelligence background with the Central Intelligence Agency in covert operations," he explained.
Sims claims to have proof that life really does exist in the Cosmos.
"We have 1950 cases worldwide," he said. "A lady came back with an implant [which] fell out of her eye in front of her boss at her desk and her boss is the one who made sure I got the implant, which I have with me today."
Sims got into the business after he says an alien visited him as a child, and kept coming back until he was 17 years old.
While most recollections of UFO and alien sightings are theoretical, Sims collects and tests physical evidence from those who claim to have had a real alien encounter.
"A lot of these people do not realize if you've, in fact, had a real life UFO event where the entities actually touched you - physically taking you. This sort of thing, abduction, whatever they want to call it.....they leave a physical trace on you in the infrared range," he said.
Black light and infrared are just some of the technologies Sims use to detect traces of alien contact. That technique detects the temperature level on skin and detects a residue that comes from "out of this world."
"Sometimes the alien entity will leave scars, cuts, lumps, bumps on them that make absolutely no sense," Sims said.
Does it sound unreal to you? Well, many of Sims' artifacts are featured in museums around the world, including Slovakia, Japan and Roswell, New Mexico.
"Some of the physical evidence that we've recovered from several abductees, suggests that these entities in fact may be biological and also have a metallic level in their biology," Sims explained.
Sims showed NewsFix a set of spheres he says a young girl sneezed out after an alien came into her room and sprayed something into her nose.
So is this space fact of fiction?
"It doesn't matter what I think, or what anybody thinks. It only matters what we can prove," he said.
So....are you convinced? Are we really alone out here?
We have just the show for these guys: the lone gunmen from the ' X-files' would dig History's UFO drama Blue Book
(Photo: Fox)
If you're into UFOs, History has just the show for you.
The cable network announced Thursday that it's picked up the sci-fi drama Blue Book from executive producer Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future).
Set in the 1950s and '60s, the 10-episode series will follow the as-yet-uncast Dr. J. Allen Hynek, a college professor recruited by the Air Force lead Project Blue Book, their top-secret effort to research and verify cases of UFO sightings. Episodes will mine actual case files, weaving together theories with history.
“Blue Book is inspired by the true covert events of an era in American history shrouded in mystery,” said A&E president Paul Buccieri in a statement. “Robert Zemeckis and the creative team have shaped an incredibly compelling narrative, building upon History's unique, growing brand of fact-based scripted programming.”
“Rarely ha0ve I been associated with a project that is a perfect fusion of historical fact and extraordinary entertainment,” added Zemeckis, who knows a thing or two about that, having directed the 1994 Oscar best-picture winner Forrest Gump, about a developmentally disabled man who stumbles into defining moments of American history.
Blue Book will mark History's fourth scripted series after Vikings, which returns for its fifth season later this year, the Navy SEAL drama Six and the upcoming Knightfall, which traces the history of the medieval military order known as the Knights Templar.
Photos: Arizona UFO witness describes six hovering discs
Photos: Arizona UFO witness describes six hovering discs
An Arizona witness traveling by train through Apache County reported watching and photographing six hovering, “two-story” objects beaming light to the ground level, according to testimony in Case 83376 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
Witness image.
(Credit: MUFON)
The case was reported for the witness – who had the experience on April 14, 2017.
“My mother was traveling through the Arizona desert via train, on her way to Texas,” she stated.“She was unable to sleep due to movement of the train. She said she was looking out of the cabin window and saw a very bright light that became brighter as the train approached.”
The witness saw more than one object.
“She said she then saw six objects hovering side-by-side; close enough to see that each object had two rows of windows. She described them as being ‘two-story.’ She said that they were so bright and that a foggy sort of light was beaming down from underneath each object.”
Cropped witness image.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness attempted to photograph what she was seeing.
“She frantically reached for her cell phone in time to snap a couple of photos. I, myself, have seen some pretty amazing things in the sky that I can only describe as being extraterrestrial, and she was the biggest skeptic until she seen for herself. She was so excited to share this with me. She is not one to exaggerate or seek attention in anyway. She’s a no BS kind of lady. I know what she saw was genuine. She asked that I share with the UFO community. Enjoy.”
Cropped and enlarged witness image.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness included three images with the MUFON report, which was filed on April 27, 2017.
Please be very cautious with UFO photography before investigation analysis is completed. The witness report indicates the objects were a disc shape less than 100 feet away.
MUFON Arizona Field Investigator Kristine Wulf is investigating. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
The weird, loud noises have been heard across several continents, but have now hit the UK, and scientists cannot agree on the reason for the widespread phenomenon.
For the past few years increasing numbers of people have posted online videos of themselves witnessing strange unexplained 'trumpet' noises.
In some cases, the sounds have been accompanied by shaking windows and people being frozen with terror.
The YouTube videos have been uploaded from as far afield as Germany, Ukraine, Belarus, Australian and North America.
But, now a worried resident of Derbyshire has contacted his local paper with concerns.
The reader approached the Derby Telegraph for help after hearing the "strange noise."
They tweeted the paper and police asking for an explanation for "trumpet-like booming sounds" which he heard Riddings, near Alfreton.
GETTY
The noises have been heard across the world with no definitive explanation.
The reader wrote: "Any idea what the strange noise is over Riddings that's been going on and off all day?"
Earlier Calvin Kirlew recorded video of a similar noise in Nottingham.
Derbyshire Police tweeted back that the incident was "intriguing," but the force was bewildered.
Aaron Traylor, from Montana in the US, is one of those to have uploaded recordings of the creepy noises to YouTube and claims to have suffered "vivid nightmares" ever since.
He said: "Since I've been following this worldwide strange sounds phenomenon for some time, the whole 'End of the world' thing popped instantly into my head.
"What if this was one of those sounds? I had my phone ready to capture the next one just in case. Sure enough, five minutes later the sound had returned."
However, level-headed Kimberly Wookey, from Terrace in British Columbia, Canada - who first recorded the odd noises in June 2013 and has since caught the weird sounds on camera a number of other times – dismissed fears the sounds signal the end of the world or the arrival of aliens.
Any idea what the strange noise is over Riddings that's been going on and off all day?
Derby Telegraph reader
She has also ruled out trains or building work, believing the cause of the noises may be "geophysical", such as atmospheric pressure or tectonic plates grinding together.
As yet, there has been no firm breakthrough in attempts to explain the loud 'trumpet' sounds.
Some scientists have said earthquakes can produce sub-audible sounds while lightning creates eerie noises heard through radio emissions.
NASA researchers say the planet does make background noises, but people would usually require radio antennas to pick it up.
Sociology lecturer at the University of Derby and conspiracy theory expert Andrew Wilson told the Derby Telegraph some clips may have been hoaxed, but "such stories have actually been reported for at least 200 years."
He said: "There is an account from an 1804 book called British Mineralogy, in which the author describes going to Yorkshire and hearing noises in the air. The next day, he found evidence of a meteorite a couple of miles away.
"There are a wide range of explanations for these sounds. Most of them are put down to unusual, but natural, phenomena such as subterranean earthquakes, thunder without lightning and falling meteors."
Mr Wilson said, however, conspiracy theories for the mysterious noises have a sociological explanation.
He said apocalypse fears or alien theories come about when scientific explanations are not obvious, as people become desperate for an explanation.
He said: "Conspiracy theories offer a very attractive and simple way of viewing that world. But they are flawed, and over-simplified."
The anonymous air force man claims to have a recording of the operation he alleges involved three other fighter jet pilots.
But he claims to have been sworn to secrecy by the Singaporean government who allegedly told him he will face the death penalty if he speaks a word.
The remarkable claims have been made in a report to the US-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), which is the world's largest organisation dedicated to UFO and alien research.
The alleged whistleblower has given himself the pseudonym John in the report and there is no way of verifying if he is a genuine pilot or not at this stage.
He said in the report filed yesterday: "My life is in critical danger.
GETTY*MUFON
The man claims to be an air force pilot at risk of death for the leak.
"Disobeying a direct order from my superior would cause me the death penalty. I hope you understand how urgent and serious this incident is.
"I will only had over hard copies of the evidence you need to see and not send this over the internet as I am not sure who else is watching."
He claimed to be part of the Republic of Singapore Air Force.
The pilot added: "Just this morning at 5.20am hours Singapore time, we were given orders to scramble our F15s to intercept a strange looking orb that kept on appearing and disappearing on radar by command control.
"This object entered Singapore air space at around 5.20am and was hovering for at least two hours before 7.30am.
"It is difficult to explain, it kept on appearing and disappearing and re-appearing on another part of our air space."
"Disobeying a direct order from my superior would cause me the death penalty. I hope you understand how urgent and serious this incident is.
Alleged whistleblower
He said there were three other pilots were required to "intercept this orb like thing or whatever the hell you want to call it".
He said: "In fact, when we landed at Changi Air Base, we were given orders by command not to reveal this incident to anyone.
"I cannot in good conscience give you my real name over the internet, but give me your number, I will call you directly.
"I have evidence of the chase itself, I am willing to hand this over to you, a recording of the entire incident between air traffic ground control and the four pilots including myself while in pursuit of this orb."
The Singaporean air force does use F15s and the pilot has named a legitimate air base.
MUFON will investigate the claims, but has previously said that it is hit by several hoax reports which come in from all over the world.
Sceptics are not convinced by the report and have suggested if the pilot was concerned for his safety he would not have posted it on a database which can be seen online by anyone anywhere in the world, and would have contacted MUFON directly.
Scott Brando, who runs hoax busting website ufoofinterest.org told Express.co.uk: "This looks like a joke."
Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Investigations Manual, said: "A UFO that is seen for a long time in the same area of sky, generally indicates that it is a star.
"Besides a star we might also wonder if a drone or drones were responsible for this activity, or it is just a hoax report?"
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Multiple Unknown Lights Pictured Over Los Angeles, U.S.A.
Multiple Unknown Lights Pictured Over Los Angeles, U.S.A.
The witness was walking out to their garage and noticing strange lights in the sky. Amazed by what he had seen; he ran inside to get his phone. When he got back out, he saw the lights did not move. He managed to get a photo and send it to a friend. After doing so, he looked up back, but the mysterious lights were not there anymore.
According to the witness, the unusual lights did not fade gradually or drift off. They were just there one moment and suddenly gone, the witness explained.
The witness said that he could not explain the bizarre event and still can’t until today. He tried to get a scientific explanation about it and not jumped quickly to the alien thing, but he just could not explain it.
The witness said that he lost sighting of the mystery lights after he looked away for just a moment.
Cigar-shaped UFO over Stutensee, Germany 11-May-2017
Cigar-shaped UFO over Stutensee, Germany 11-May-2017
Cylindrical UFO sighting was recorded in the sky above Stutensee in Germany on 11th May 2017.
Witness report:
We were on the way to a sportevent (WWE Live in Stuttgart), we drove by car. On the way from Friedrichstal to Blankenloch, we saw an object which did not moved. It just hovered in the air, the object was quite in black and approximately as large as a plane but shaped like a cigarette. I thought it would be a tower but when we were came closer I saw that was not the case. We could see the object for 5 minutes until we were too far away.
Bright & silent craft flying over Eugene, Oregon 23-May-2017
Bright & silent craft flying over Eugene, Oregon 23-May-2017
Check out this UFO video of a bright unidentified flying object that was silently flying across the night sky above Eugene in Oregon. This was filmed yesterday (on 23rd May 2017).
Witness report:
Bright white UFO object 04:50 AM heading from W/NW to S/SE. No noise, straight line, steady brightness. Eugene, Oregon. This is a THIRD sighting of a bright white UFO coming from the same heading at almost the same time.
The Space Aggressor squadrons train other military troops for war in space and determine how to best keep space assets like satellites secure. Although it may sound like science fiction, the threat of extraterrestrial conflict is serious.
U.S. Army Spc. Angel Mendoza, assigned as a space aggressor operator to the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron, Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, secures a helical antenna to a gravel pad Aug. 8, 2016, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
Credit: U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Shawn Nickel SPACE ‘Space Aggressors’ Train US Forces for Extraterrestrial Conflict Elite military units are specializing in mock space warfare, as Russia and China develop anti-satellite weaponry. BY GREG WALTERS MAY 22, 2017
EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONFLICT
Right now, somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of the American West, there are two teams of Air Force specialists preparing to defend America’s interests — in space. They are the 26th Space Aggressor Squadron (26th SAS) and the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron (527th SAS), and their job consists of training the rest of the military for any possible contingency involving extraterrestrial combat and creating strategies to defend the security of any U.S. interests in space.
In other words, they play the role of the bad guys on a potentially intergalactic scale, “attacking” and provoking U.S. troops in mock space battles — as foreign countries and any other hostile power looking to threaten America in space. Space Aggressors train troops to make strategic use of space resources, for example by engaging in “brute force jamming,” which uses satellite networks to transmit signals to make any original message unintelligible to outsiders. However, they also train U.S. forces to fight without space resources, such as GPS and satellite communications, to ensure that they can competently fight using inertial navigation systems, compasses, and maps.
“We study threats to the space realm, either coming from space or based on land,” 26th SAS chief of training Captain Christopher Barnes told Seeker. “If we can’t directly replicate them with hardware, then we figure out if there’s a software solution or some way we can train people to the point where they can fight through them, if they have to, in a conflict.”
The 527th Space Aggressors Squadron and 26th Space Aggressors Squadron emblems are painted side by side on doors inside the Space Aggressors’ facility at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.|US Air Force/2nd Lt. Darren Domingo
SECURITY IN SPACE
Space Aggressors launch simulated attacks and training exercises, but these space “games” are in response to security threats that are very serious. Modern American warfare and defense are almost completely reliant upon our GPS system, which basically consists of a chain of 31 satellites. In recent years, high-ranking officials in the U.S. military have argued that more preparation for space defense is essential, especially in light of the development of anti-satellite weapons in China and Russia. If taking out satellites effectively renders our troops helpless, it is a smart strategy for enemies to adopt.
Furthermore, the threat would stretch far beyond the battlefield, as Ed Morris, the executive director of the Office of Space Commerce, wrote in the report, A Day Without Space: Economic and National Security Ramifications: “If you think it is hard to get work done when your Internet connection goes out at the office, imagine losing that plus your cell phone, TV, radio, ATM access, credit cards, and possibly even your electricity.”
The threat of warfare and aggression in space — and the need to prepare for it — has been broadly recognized all over the world. An international group of lawyers is now drawing up the first body of law to be applied in space. Based largely on existing principles of international law, the work that results from the coalition’s efforts will be called Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS).
How it will apply to Earth’s various nations is as yet undecided, but for it to work, nations like the United States will have to choose to participate. Much like the United Nations, without participation and commitment from member states, international law — whether applied on Earth or in space — is unlikely to prove effective.
NASA has release pictures of an artist's concept of their new Mars 2020 rover. The robot will land on the Red Planet in 2020 to look for evidence of ancient microbial life.
ROVER’S NEW TRICKS
NASA has released pictures of its newest robot scheduled to be sent to the Red Planet in 2020. The images show an artist’s concept of the rover at work on the surface of Mars. The design of the robot has not changed significantly since Curiosity, but this new rover will have a completely different mission than the models before it.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH
The Mars 2020 rover’s mission will be to search for signs of ancient Martian life. Scientists have been discovering more evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet from photographs taken of certain areas on the surface, and the rover will land on that location in search of tangible evidence. “The mission takes the next step by not only seeking signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past but also searching for signs of past microbial life itself,” explains NASA in a statement.
The statement also goes into how the rover will accomplish this. “The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils, and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth.”
NOT FAR BEHIND
Elon Musk’s space travel company SpaceX has its own plans regarding the Red Planet as well. Initial plans are for the company to begin unmanned missions to Mars in 2018 and follow those up by sending humans in 2025. The long-term vision is to colonize Mars to make humanity the first known multi-planetary species.
Unlike the contentious nature of the last space race, NASA does not feel that it is in competition with SpaceX (or any other commercial space organization) to get to Mars first. NASA recognizes the value that private enterprise can have on expediting the innovation necessary to put a human on Mars.
“It’s really important to create, bring some empathy to the table,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said in an interview with Seeker. “There’s a lot of stuff that can be learned by just talking to people.”
Perhaps the Mars 2020 rover will unlock some of the secrets that will make it easier for humans to colonize the planet.
Recently, there has been a re-sparking of interest in the moon. The closest celestial body to our planet could hold some novel benefits for humans such as being cultivated as a jumping-off point for future space travel.
BACK TO THE MOON
Forty-five years have passed since humans last set foot on an extraterrestrial body. Now, the moon is back at the center of efforts not only to explore space, but to create a permanent, independent space-faring society.
Planning expeditions to Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor is no longer just a NASA effort, though the U.S. space agency has plans for a moon-orbiting space station that would serve as a staging ground for Mars missions in the early 2030s. The United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, is planning a lunar fueling station for spacecraft, capable of supporting 1,000 people living in space within 30 years.
Right now all space missions are based on, and launched from, Earth. But Earth’s gravitational pull is strong. To escape Earth’s gravity, a rocket has to be traveling 11 kilometers a second – 25,000 miles per hour!
Any rocket leaving Earth has to carry all the fuel it will ever use to get to its destination and, if needed, back again. That fuel is heavy – and getting it moving at such high speeds takes a lot of energy. If we could refuel in orbit, that launch energy could lift more people or cargo or scientific equipment into orbit. Then the spacecraft could refuel in space, where Earth’s gravity is less powerful.
Those locations would be tricky to mine because they are colder and offer no sunlight to power roving vehicles. However, we could install big mirrors on the craters’ rims to illuminate solar panels in the permanently shadowed regions.
Mining operations on the moon, an artist’s rendering. Sung Wha Kang (RISD), CC BY-ND
Rovers from Google’s Lunar X Prize competition and NASA’s Lunar Resource Prospector, set to launch in 2020, would also contribute to finding good locations to mine ice.
IMAGINING A MOON BASE
Depending on where the best ice reserves are, we might need to build several small robotic moon bases. Each one would mine ice, manufacture liquid propellant and transfer it to passing spacecraft. Our team developed plans to accomplish those tasks with three different types of rovers. Our plans also require a few small robotic shuttles to meet up with nearby deep-space mission vehicles in lunar orbit.
An artist’s rendering of lunar rover concepts. Sung Wha Kang (RISD), CC BY-ND
One rover, which we call the Prospector, would explore the moon and find ice-bearing locations. A second rover, the Constructor, would follow along behind, building a launch pad and packing down roadways to ease movements for the third rover type, the Miners, which actually collect the ice and deliver it to nearby storage tanks and an electrolysis processing plant that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The Constructor would also build a landing pad where the small near-moon transport spacecraft we call Lunar Resupply Shuttles would arrive to collect fuel for delivery as newly launched spacecraft pass by the moon. The shuttles would burn moon-made fuel and would have advanced guidance and navigation systems to travel between lunar bases and their target spacecraft.
A GAS STATION IN SPACE
When enough fuel is being produced, and the shuttle delivery system is tested and reliable, our plan calls for building a gas station in space. The shuttles would deliver ice directly to the orbiting fuel depot, where it would be processed into fuel and where rockets heading to Mars or elsewhere could dock to top up.
The depot would have large solar arrays powering an electrolysis module for melting the ice and then turning the water into fuel, and large fuel tanks to store what’s made. NASA is already working on most of the technology needed for a depot like this, including docking and fuel transfer. We anticipate a working depot could be ready in the early 2030s, just in time for the first human missions to Mars.
To be most useful and efficient, the depot should be located in a stable orbit relatively near both the Earth and the moon. The Earth-moon Lagrangian Point 1 (L1) is a point in space about 85 percent of the way from Earth to the moon, where the force of Earth’s gravity would exactly equal the force of the moon’s gravity pulling in the other direction. It’s the perfect pit stop for a spacecraft on its way to Mars or the outer planets.
LEAVING EARTH
Our team also found a fuel-efficient way to get spacecraft from Earth orbit to the depot at L1, requiring even less launch fuel and freeing up more lift energy for cargo items. First, the spacecraft would launch from Earth into Low Earth Orbit with an empty propellant tank.
Then, the spacecraft and its cargo could be towed from Low Earth Orbit to the depot at L1 using a solar electric propulsion tug, a spacecraft largely propelled by solar-powered electric thrusters.
This would let us triple the payload delivery to Mars. At present, a human Mars mission is estimated to cost as much as US$100 billion, and will need hundreds of tons of cargo. Delivering more cargo from Earth to Mars with fewer rocket launches would save billions of dollars and years of time.
A BASE FOR SPACE EXPLORATION
Building a gas station between Earth and the moon would also reduce costs for missions beyond Mars. NASA is looking for extraterrestrial life on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. Future spacecraft could carry much more cargo if they could refuel in space – who knows what scientific discoveries sending large exploration vehicles to these moons could enable?
By helping us escape both Earth’s gravity and dependence on its resources, a lunar gas station could be the first small step toward the giant leap into making humanity an interplanetary civilization.
Editor’s Note:This story was updated to clarify the distinction between escape velocity and the velocity needed to achieve orbit.
Six hours a day, seven days a week, for four straight months. That's how long radio astronomer Frank D. Drake pointed the 26-meter telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) research facility in Green Bank, West Virginia, towards the heavens, looking for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. He dubbed his efforts Project Ozma, in honor of the Queen of Oz from L. Frank Baum's famed children's book series.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory -
Image: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images
Between April and July of 1960, Drake recorded some 150 hours of tape speckled with radio noise. While no meaningful encoded signals or patterns emerged from those readings, Drake still earned himself a place in history for performing what would become the first scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the modern era.
Since then, research organizations around the world have performed nearly 100 SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) experiments. Even NASA got in on the hunt, working with the SETI Institute between 1988 and 1993, when Sen. Richard Bryan (D - Nevada) introduced an amendment that cut the program's government funding.
"Senators kind of looked at this line item and said, 'Hey wait a minute. Are we are we paying to search for little green men?'" explained Steve Croft, an assistant project astronomer at the UC Berkeley SETI Research Center and researcher with the Breakthrough Discovery project. "That's kind of a laugh factor which has always come along with it."
But as the next generation of telescopes come online, like the upcoming Webb Space Telescope or dedicated planet hunter the Kepler Telescope, the scientific community is beginning to warm to the idea of SETI as not just a valid scientific discipline but an essential one. "I think people are kind of coming around to the idea that SETI as a scientific endeavor is one that's worth pursuing," Croft added. Especially, "when we can answer a scientific question or attempt to answer the scientific question are we alone in the universe?"
The SETI Institute of California is trying to do just that. The 33-year-old organization formed in 1984 with the mission of understanding the origins and nature of life in the universe. It employs 120 staffers, 75 of whom are PhD-level researchers, and conducts research among 22 fields of inquiry over seven branches of research: astronomy and astrophysics, geoscience, exoplanets and exploration, exobiology and SETI.
The SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array -
Image: Reuters
For its SETI efforts, the Institute relies on radio and optical telescopes. On the radio side, the Institute leverages its Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a 42-dish setup located at Hat Creek Radio Observatory, nearly 300 miles Northeast of San Francisco. It can scan 4 octaves of radio frequency and generates roughly 55 TB of data every day. Unlike conventional radio telescopes used for radio astronomy, the ATA scans a broader swath of the radio spectrum, albeit at a lower sensitivity.
The group is also working with Paul Horowitz, a physicist and electrical engineer at Harvard, to develop "all sky all the time optical SETI survey systems" where the ATA would perform wide surveys of the sky while other, more sensitive telescopes -- like the Lick -- would follow up with more focused surveys covering a smaller portion of sky.
For its optical surveys, the Institute splits its time between the UC Berkeley's Lick Observatory and the Harvard Haystack telescope. These telescopes are looking for laser emissions, specifically. These could be from any number of alien sources including communication arrays, weapon tests or transportation (hello, laser sails). "But in any case a monochromatic high-intensity highly focused coherent beam of light would be a fairly indicative sign of technology that could potentially be seen from very far away," Bill Diamond, CEO of the SETI Institute explained.
However, both the radio and optical instruments have noticeable limitations. While humankind is theoretically capable of blasting a laser beam into space that is 10,000 times stronger than the sun, Diamond continued, "there isn't an instrument on Earth that can detect an Earth-like planet with Earth-like leakage of electromagnetic radiation." This leakage refers to the general emission of radio signals a civilization gives off through its various technologies, rather than powerful, highly focused signals intentionally designed to get another planet's attention. And while using overlapping technologies, as in the case of the SETI Institute-Horowitz collaboration, can boost our relative capabilities, it's still not good enough to intercept complex communications that rely on, say, wideband carrier signals.
"We don't want to make too many assumptions about the kind of signals that an extraterrestrial civilization might be sending," Croft said. "It might not be kind of a simple tone. You know a transmission which is a single frequency will have a drifting tone because it is on a planet that's going around a star." [Thanks, Doppler effect - ed] Who knows, maybe Frank Drake did find an alien message in that radio static but it's encoded in a manner that researchers haven't yet been able to identify and decipher. "They might be sending some kind of complicated data; we make all sorts of complicated transmissions ourselves as humans," Croft concluded.
This technological wall has spurned SETI researchers to seek out more effective means of scouring the galaxy. In the case of Berkeley's Breakthrough Listen project, that involved securing a 10-year, $100 million funding grant from Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur, and physicist Stephen Hawking. This money will be used to buy time on two of the world's most powerful telescopes (the Green Bank in West Virginia and the Parkes in Australia).
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope -
Image: John B. Carnett via Getty Images
"We are in a position with the telescopes that we would be able to detect transmissions at a level that is similar to what we ourselves as humans generate," Croft said. "As of right now we're kind of relying on the fact that if civilizations are out there that they're broadcasting to higher power than we are. But we're not very far off being able to detect human-like emissions." Hopefully, as the Square Kilometer Array comes online in Australia and South Africa, that will actually happen.
Over the past 18 months, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative has also teamed with the SETI@Home project, run by a team from UC Berkeley, to process a portion of the data generated each day. SETI@Home launched in 1999 as a means of distributing the computational workload that analyzing dozens of terabytes of radio signal data generated by the Arecibo telescope across hundreds of thousands of personal desktop computers. "Actually Berkeley and the SETI Institute have a long history together," Diamond said. "Berkeley was involved with us in the very early days of developing the Allen Telescope Array, so we go back a long time. "
The program currently only has around 150,000 volunteers (down from a peak of 1.5 million users) and "we're getting back into our problem again in that the telescope can generate far more data than we can analyze with the best sensitivity," said Dr. Eric Korpela, head of the SETI@Home project.
The Breakthrough Listen Initiative has a "pipeline" that divides 1 GHz of spectrum into 3hz channels (330 million in total) that are scanned for potential signals. You want the channels to be as narrow as possible in order to maximize the sensitivity, however, as both the Earth and whatever exoplanet the telescope is looking at move through their respective solar systems, signals tend to "drift" in frequency. "You want to use computer power to correct for that motion," Korpela explained, although the process is incredibly CPU-intensive. But that's exactly what SETI@Home is trying to do.
However, even with the million-odd CPU cores at SETI@Home's disposal, analyzing all that data is still slow going. Its volunteers only account for around 2 percent of the Breakthrough Listen Initiative's analytical power. The program simply doesn't have enough volunteers to keep up with the demand. And the fact that many people have ditched their desktops for mobile devices is not helping either.
"It is an issue that we worry about," Korpela admitted. "We do have an app for Android. The processors that are in a typical phone right now are not comparable with what are in most desktops, but they're certainly better than a processor from 1999." The app is currently running on 22,000 volunteer mobile devices, or around 15 percent of the total base. However, these devices are only contributing 2.3 TFLOP/s of processing, 0.5 percent of the program's total computational power. As such, SETI@Home doesn't face a technological hurdle in accelerating its search for intelligent extraterrestrial life so much as a societal one.
"But given that there are a couple billion Android devices out there," Korpela mused, "there are another 200 petaFLOP/s out there that we haven't tapped yet." The SETI@Home team hopes to garner new interest in their efforts when they release their report from the Breakthrough Listen Initiative this fall.
As for the SETI Institute, its technological roadblocks are being resolved with upgrades -- and lots of them. The research group is looking to expand the number of dishes in the Allen Array from 42 to at least 128 in the near term before eventually growing it to more than 300 dishes. The Institute is also improving the sensitivity of its feeds -- the antennas that take the collected radio signals from the dishes and convert them into digital signals -- as well as their frequency response and converting the whole feed system to run cryogenically. "That improves the signal-to-noise ratio," Diamond explained "since heat generates radio noise." Finally, the Institute is looking to upgrade the antennas' backend to enable them to sample more parts of the night sky -- expanding from current 3-beam system up to 12.
"But even those enhancements probably don't get us to the point of being able to detect Earth-like leakage," Diamond lamented.
That's why the SETI Institute is teaming with IBM to apply the company's advanced machine learning algorithms to the Institute's massive data archive. The Institute is already the only SETI group that performs real-time analysis of its collected signals, using fast Fourier transform to look for narrow-band carrier signals that would indicate a non-natural source. The Apache Spark cluster computing tools, however, "have the ability to extract, if it exists, from patterns that, to us, would otherwise look like radio noise," Diamond said. "It's given us the ability to actually do experiments that we've never been able to do before, including possibly detecting an Earth-like planet that's just emitting leakage."
Essentially, the Institute can point the ATA at a known exoplanet (or system like TRAPPIST-1), measure the star system's radio signature, then wait for the planet to transit behind the sun and measure the system's radio signature again. If there's a significant difference in the readings, that could mean there's something afoot on that exoplanet. The Institute wouldn't necessarily be able to understand what's encoded in the transmission but it would provide strong impetus for other astronomical research groups to follow up with their own observations. This is actually very close to what the Breakthrough Listen Initiative team is doing, albeit with a less sensitive piece of equipment.
And while the SETI Institute (as well as the Breakthrough Listen Initiative and SETI@Home, for that matter) can't say for sure when humanity will find life outside of our own, the group is already cultivating interest in the subject with the next generation. The SETI Institute is sponsoring an IBM hackathon this June -- they're giving teams from around the world access to ATA data as well as to IBM's machine learning tools. The competition will finish up with a live event in San Francisco come August. For now, though, we're still alone (as far as science knows).
Welcome to Tomorrow, Engadget's new home for stuff that hasn't happened yet. You can read more about the future of, well, everything, at Tomorrow'spermanent home and check out all of our launch week stories here.
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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...
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