The art of alien worlds: NASA reveals how it creates its incredible exoplanet artist's impressions

By CHEYENNE MACDONALD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

If you close your eyes and imagine a planet far from our own, chances are there’s already a well-formed picture waiting in your mind – is it barren, with cracks cutting through the surface, or is it covered in sprawling oceans?

In many ways, our visions of alien worlds are shaped by the artists who breathe life into troves of scientific data, piecing together the most plausible depiction of their landscapes.

A pair of artists known for their breathtaking concept images of exoplanets, including the recently discovered Trappist-1 system, have revealed a bit of insight on the extensive process of creating visualizations that both captivate the public and satisfy scientists’ stipulations. 

As the experts explain, the job comes with ‘a lot of responsibility’ as they transform numbers and ‘squiggles on charts’ into believable representations of real planets.

Visualization scientist Robert Hurt of Caltech’s IPAC center, and multimedia producer Tim Pyle have together created some of NASA’s most memorable images based on data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and other observatories.

‘Our artist’s concepts are going to be the public face for some of these objects,’ Pyle explained in a recent video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, acknowledging at the significance of the task.  

The images can’t just be pretty – they also have to show the planet’s environmental conditions as accurately as possible.

Take Trappist-1, for example.

‘The properties that we come away with from this kind of observation include the diameters of the planet, its orbital period,’ Hurt explained.

‘Whether it’s likely to be tidally locked,’ Pyle added, ‘which will say something about what the planet probably looks like.’

‘If it’s less dense than the Earth, it might have more volatiles, like water on it, which is why two of the Trappist planets were shown as water worlds,’ Hurt said.

‘If it has a higher density than Earth, then it’s probably a little more rocky.’

In the case of Trappist-1d, for example, the artists explain their depiction was initially turned down for its inaccurate portrayal of liquid water on the ‘dayside’ of the planet.

According to the scientists, the water is more likely to be found on the dark side instead.

Situations such as this often lead to compromise, Hurt explained.

In the end, they created an image that better represented the data, but also included more water on the scientists would expect.

Not only do artist concept images help the public get a better understanding of what the conditions could be like on faraway worlds, but the experts say they also act as a ‘visual history’ of the evolution of science.

‘If you go back and you look at the whole history of space art and science based illustration, reaching back many, many decades, you have a visual history, a visual record of our evolving understanding,’ Hurt said.

‘The art is as much a historical record of our changing understanding of the universe as the textbook that we write.’ 

Source: NASA

Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

For those who have followed the story since the discovery of the nearby Trappist-1 system, which is known to contain seven Earth-sized planets, and three which even fall within the habitable zone, the handful of concept photos have become embedded in our minds when imagining what they might look like.

One, in particular, shows a breathtaking look at the jagged protrusions and liquid water that could exist at the surface of Trappist-1f. 

The artists work with scientists to ensure that their concept images are headed in the right direction.

And, if something isn’t right, scientists will reject that version. 

Imagine standing on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f. This artist's concept is one interpretation of what it could look like

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed a new exoplanet discovery: the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water–key to life as we know it–under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.

“This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.”

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius. Because they are located outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets.

This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets’ diameters, masses and distances from the host star.

Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, named for The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile. In May 2016, researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system. Assisted by several ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of these planets and discovered five additional ones, increasing the number of known planets in the system to seven.

The new results were published Wednesday in the journal Nature, and announced at a news briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated.

Based on their densities, all of the TRAPPIST-1 planets are likely to be rocky. Further observations will not only help determine whether they are rich in water, but also possibly reveal whether any could have liquid water on their surfaces. The mass of the seventh and farthest exoplanet has not yet been estimated–scientists believe it could be an icy, "snowball-like" world, but further observations are needed.

"The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1 are the first Earth-size planets that have been found orbiting this kind of star," said Michael Gillon, lead author of the paper and the principal investigator of the TRAPPIST exoplanet survey at the University of Liege, Belgium. "It is also the best target yet for studying the atmospheres of potentially habitable, Earth-size worlds."

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star–classified as an ultra-cool dwarf–is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system. All seven of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary orbits are closer to their host star than Mercury is to our sun. The planets also are very close to each other. If a person were standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky.

The planets may also be tidally locked to their star, which means the same side of the planet is always facing the star, therefore each side is either perpetual day or night. This could mean they have weather patterns totally unlike those on Earth, such as strong winds blowing from the day side to the night side, and extreme temperature changes.

Spitzer, an infrared telescope that trails Earth as it orbits the sun, was well-suited for studying TRAPPIST-1 because the star glows brightest in infrared light, whose wavelengths are longer than the eye can see. In the fall of 2016, Spitzer observed TRAPPIST-1 nearly continuously for 500 hours. Spitzer is uniquely positioned in its orbit to observe enough crossing–transits–of the planets in front of the host star to reveal the complex architecture of the system. Engineers optimized Spitzer’s ability to observe transiting planets during Spitzer’s “warm mission,” which began after the spacecraft’s coolant ran out as planned after the first five years of operations. 

"This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations," said Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. "Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets.”

Following up on the Spitzer discovery, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has initiated the screening of four of the planets, including the three inside the habitable zone. These observations aim at assessing the presence of puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres, typical for gaseous worlds like Neptune, around these planets.

In May 2016, the Hubble team observed the two innermost planets, and found no evidence for such puffy atmospheres. This strengthened the case that the planets closest to the star are rocky in nature.

"The TRAPPIST-1 system provides one of the best opportunities in the next decade to study the atmospheres around Earth-size planets," said Nikole Lewis, co-leader of the Hubble study and astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope also is studying the TRAPPIST-1 system, making measurements of the star's minuscule changes in brightness due to transiting planets. Operating as the K2 mission, the spacecraft's observations will allow astronomers to refine the properties of the known planets, as well as search for additional planets in the system. The K2 observations conclude in early March and will be made available on the public archive.

Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler will help astronomers plan for follow-up studies using NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, launching in 2018. With much greater sensitivity, Webb will be able to detect the chemical fingerprints of water, methane, oxygen, ozone, and other components of a planet's atmosphere. Webb also will analyze planets' temperatures and surface pressures–key factors in assessing their habitability.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center, at Caltech, Pasadena, California. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at Caltech/IPAC. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about Spitzer, visit:

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/​

The images are not intended to imply that what’s shown is exactly what those planets are like, Pyle explained.

But, they do aim to ‘illustrate almost the whole breadth of what would be plausible.’

‘For the public, the value of this is not just giving them a picture of something somebody made up,’ said Douglas Hudgins, a program scientist for the Exoplanet Exploration program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

‘These are real, educated guesses of how something might look to human beings.

‘An image is worth a thousand words.’

{ http://www.nasa.gov/ }

08-06-2017 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

An alien invasion. Pixababy.

Scientists have all kinds of reasons why aliens won’t try to fly to Earth and enslave humanity. Even so, the US Military has a backup plan, just in case. Two Air Force teams, the 26th Space Aggressor Squadron (26th SAS) and the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron (527th SAS), are tasked with protecting assets in space, developing strategies to secure US space-based interests, and plans that involve deflecting extraterrestrial invaders. Both are based in Colorado.

The hostile invasion scenario may not be their topmost concern. Space is big, after all. We’ll probably see any shifty aliens coming from far off, and have time to prepare for their arrival. Instead, protecting our satellite infrastructure is their utmost priority. The US, more than any other country, has come to rely on a system of satellites. Consider driving somewhere you’ve never been before without GPS. Scary, I know.

The GPS system contains a network of 31 satellites, which are owned by the US government and run by the US Air Force. Take one out and navigation goes bye-bye. It isn’t just civilians who rely on it, but the US military itself. Without GPS, US forces lose their battlefield advantage, having to revert to older forms of communication and navigation.

GPS Satellite Constellation. National Air and Space Museum, The Smithsonian Institute.

It isn’t just that but civilian life is set back decades. Bank transactions, stock prices, weather reports, air traffic control, and in some cases, even traffic lights are reliant on satellite infrastructure. Executive director of the Office of Space Commerce, Ed Morris, recently authored a disturbing report, outlining the repercussions of an attack on our satellite system. He wrote, “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.”

Because of this, Defense Department advisor, Peter Singer, contends that the next war will begin in space. North Korea or a non-state actor getting their hands on a rocket is one scenario. However, the immediate threats are Russia and China. Tensions with these countries have ramped up lately.

Both have assets that can take out US satellites. China has the "Shiyan.” Using its robotic arm, it can grab a satellite, and fling it out of orbit. The Middle Kingdom is also developing lasers, electro-magnetic rail guns, and high-powered microwaves to disrupt satellite systems. Russia meanwhile has the "Kosmos 2499." This device can approach a satellite and disable or destroy it. In light of these developments, US officials are beginning to take space-based warfare seriously.

In 1982 the US Air Force Space Command was created. Today, it has 134 locations globally, employs 38,000, and has an annual operating budget of nearly $8.9 billion. The Pentagon’s space budget in total is $22 billion. Those in the 50th space wing, a group of over 8,000 men and women, are in charge of monitoring the skies. They have no actionable capabilities, for now.

Tech. Sgt. Steven St. John, 527th Space Aggressor Squadron. U.S. Air Force.

In 2015, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work recognized the growing threat to the country’s assets in orbit. He said that the US had to become "ready to do space operations in a conflict that extends into space." The aggressor force was born.

Captain Christopher Barnes is the chief of training for 26th SAS. He told 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.”

One tactic they’re trained in is “brute force jamming.” Here, satellite networks send signals that make transmitted messages garbled to those who may be listening in. SAS also runs simulations on how to respond to land-based and space-based threats. Right now, their weapons systems are in the conceptual stage. Plans are being made to allow for defensive and even offensive capabilities.

These include utilizing the US Navy’s Laser Weapons System (LAWs). One is already aboard the USS Ponce, stationed in the Persian Gulf. LAWs can shoot down projectiles, light aircraft, and drones, as well as jam enemy communications and monitoring systems.

Another possible candidate is the X-37b—a secretive space drone. Some military watchers consider it capable of espionage, and it’s possibly equipped with defensive or even offensive capabilities. In addition to these efforts, the US is also collaborating with allies, through the Multinational Space Collaboration effort, to build up mutual defense systems.

To learn more about the US Air Force’s Space Command, click here: 

{ http://bigthink.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 23:18 geschreven door peter  

The 40-Year Old Mystery of the “Wow!” Signal Was Just Solved

by Tom Ward

Credit: Joel Tonyan

Harvard College Observatory/Science Photo Library/Getty

Wow! — Messages From Space

In 1977, the sound of extraterrestrials was heard by human ears for the first time — or so people at the time thought. The Wow! Signal was detected by astronomer Jerry Ehman using Ohio State University’s Big Ear radio telescope. It is a radio signal detector that, at the time, was pointed at a group of stars called Chi Sagittarii in the constellation Sagittarius.

When scanning the skies around the stars, Ehman captured a 72 second burst of radio waves: He circled the reading and wrote “Wow!: next to it, hence the signal’s name. Over the last 40 years, the signal has been cited as evidence that we are not alone in the galaxy. Experts and laypeople alike believed that, finally, we had evidence of alien life.

However, Professor Antonio Paris, of St Petersburg College, has now discovered the explanation: A pair of comets. The work was published in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences.

These comets, known as  266P/Christensen and 335P/Gibbs, have clouds of hydrogen gas millions of kilometers in diameter surrounding them. The Wow! Signal was detected at 1420MHz, which is the radio frequency hydrogen naturally emits. Notably, the team has verified that the comets were within the vicinity at the time, and they report that the radio signals from 266/P Christensen matched those from the Wow! signal.

Other Extraterrestrial Communications

While this discovery is a disappointment to alien enthusiasts everywhere, as the Wow! Signal is the strongest signal we have ever received from space, it is a testament to our ability to accurately interpret signals and sounds from the cosmos. This gives us hope in our attempt to decode the hundreds of “strange, alien” signals coming from other stars that have been observed recently.

We have several weapons in our cosmic detection arsenal, most of which are used by the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI). Their main means of detection is using radio-telescopes, and their most ambitious project to date has been ‘Project Phoenix’;  the “world’s most sensitive and comprehensive search for extraterrestrial intelligence.”

The Wow! signal was detected as coming from a region of space close to the M55 galaxy cluster close to the constellation Sagittarius (illustrated), but new research suggests the signal may have been produced by two comets, undiscovered at the time, passing through our own solar system in front of the region 

New research has traced the path of two comets - 266P/Christensen and P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs) - and found they were in the right region of the sky at the time the signal was received. Astronomers claim the large hydrogen clouds enveloping the comets could have produced the radio waves

(stock image of comet pictured)

Astronomers are hoping to build a 10ft (3m) radio telescope (pictured)  to search the area of the sky where the Wow! signal came from as two comets pass close to the Earth to prove if they were the source of the signal

For this project, they used three of world’s biggest radio telescopes: the Parkes radio telescope in Australia (210 feet in diameter), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia (140 feet in diameter), and Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (the world’s largest at 1,000 feet in diameter). They have also built The Allen Telescope Array with financial backing from Paul Allen.

While the technology for detecting alien messages is remaining relatively static, ideas for communicating better with our own satellites is advancing rapidly, with possibilities including communicating by a laser beam and establishing a space satellite network.

References: Phys, Planetary Science , The Guardian , SETI

{https://futurism.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

Satellite dish view at night with milky way in the sky.

(Shutterstock.com/sdecoret)

After 40 Years Of Study, Scientists Know Origin Of A Mysterious Space Signal

ANDREW FOLLETT

Energy and Science Reporter

A scientist claims to have debunked what’s considered the best evidence of intelligent alien life, presenting findings that an undiscovered comet produced a 1977 deep space radio signal.

An April study published by Dr. Antonio Paris from St. Petersburg College in Florida found that the mysterious signal likely came from a hydrogen cloud surrounding a comet.

Dr. Jerry Ehman first detected the 72-second “WOW!” signal through a radio telescope in August 1977. The signal was so bizarre and potentially alien that Ehman circled the signal on a readout and scribbled “Wow!” next to it because it matched no known celestial object.

Paris noted that the two comets “P/2008 Y2(Gibbs)” and “266P Christensen” had been in the same part of the sky as the “WOW!” signal. Paris discovered a similar radio signal when the comets reappeared in the night sky from November 2016 through February 2017.

The comets’ movements likely explains why scientists were unable to detect the “WOW!” signal in previous years. Paris points out the comets had only been discovered in 2006, and therefore were not accounted for during most searches for the “WOW!” signal.

Scientists previously thought the “WOW!” signal was some of the strongest evidence of a technologically-advanced alien civilization.

The signal was transmitted at a frequency that happens to be the same frequency as hydrogen. Scientists with the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) long suspected an alien civilization would use that frequency to transmit its location since hydrogen is the most common element in the universe.

Scientists often speculate that mysterious signals from deep space could be from aliens, but the source is often found to be some unknown stellar phenomenon.

In 1967, for example, a graduate student in astronomy found an usual pulsing radio signal predictable enough to be a sign of intelligent life. Astronomers nicknamed the signal LGM-1, for “little green men.”

Some believed that they had detected a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, but it turned out to be the first pulsar.

Follow Andrew on Twitter

Send tips to andrew@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tags: Florida, Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence

{ http://dailycaller.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 22:50 geschreven door peter  

UFO sightings without rational explanation in and around Cley Hill near Frome

The sightings have been outlined in a new book called Haunted Skies Wiltshire

BY JAMES WOOD

There have been several UFO sightings over Cley Hill without a rational explanation, an expert has said.

Steve Wills, a UFO researcher and investigator from Warminster, has seen anomalies in the skies around Cley Hill that he cannot explain.

Mr Wills contacted Somerset Live after watching a video we obtained, purporting to show a strange streak of light circling over the National Trust owned hill.

The light has since been revealed to have been created by a stunt plane belonging to nearby acrobatics group AeroSparx.

Speaking about the video, he said: “I think there is an explanation for this. It’s a local stunt pilot called Tim Dews who flies over the Longleat area and other parts of Warminster using pyrotechnics while doing loop the loops and barrel rolls.

“It looks very odd to the uninitiated. The truth is out there just not this time.”

Although he can explain this particular video, Mr Wills believes there have been numerous sightings over Cley Hill and even in Frome that he thinks cannot be rationally explained.

He said: “I have investigated UFO sightings previously within that area and have uncovered a number of cases and sightings that don’t have a rational explanation."

Mr Wills is a contributor to the recently released book Haunted Skies Wiltshire which covers a large number of sightings in and around Cley Hill including Frome.

He shared some of these sightings with Somerset Live. The following is credited to Haunted Skies Wiltshire.

1887: Red ‘disc’ seen over Frome

On March 17, 1977 at Frome (five miles north-west of Warminster) a large red ‘disc’ was seen in the sky, at 9.57pm. The same phenomena was also reported from Tetbury and Gunnersbury.

1965: UFO seen over Norridge Wood

At 6.35pm on October 30, schoolboy Alan Ward from Manor Gardens told of having seen an object in the sky, between Norridge Wood and Cley Hill.

“It turned and flew back again through the sky. It was like a fried egg – a white disc with a golden dome.”

1972: Orange light seen in the sky

On June 17, during the evening a large orange light was observed in the sky above Cley Hill, which was seen to drop down and rise upwards three times, creating an impression it was going to land.

Haunted Skies Wiltshire is out now 

(Photo: Haunted Skies Wiltshire)

1975: UFO over Cley Hill

Gary Lanham – a UFO researcher from Birmingham, with a wealth of information decided to visit Cley Hill, Warminster in 1975. He went with a group of friends, hoping to see something himself, rather than relying on what had been published in the press.

“By about 10.30pm the temperature had dropped, so we prepared some soup while looking out over the Wiltshire landscape, towards Frome, still partially illuminated by the rays of the setting sun.

"As darkness settled, I watched the occasional aircraft moving overhead and in the distance the eerie intermittent light flashes from a distant train. On an impulse I turned around, facing east, and saw a large blue coloured light that appeared to ‘blink on’ just hanging in the sky.

"I shouted out to the others and we watched as it shot off across the sky, disappearing from our view behind a hill. Within seconds or so, the same or identical light ‘blinked on’ again, exactly in the same area of sky where we had first seen it.

"This sequence of actions was repeated at five second intervals, before it performed an amazing manoeuvre.”

1976: UFO display over Warminster

David Kingston, a former RAF serviceman – whom we spoke to over the years – told seeing something highly unusual, while ‘sky watching’ for UFOs on Cley Hill, Warminster, during the summer of 1976.

“I saw three separate orbs (approximately six feet in diameter) of coloured light, weaving around and above us for some three hours, on the top of Cley Hill. On occasion, they would merge into a single globe and then separate again.”

Suddenly one of the orbs descended to some thirty feet above us, and then flew down into a field at the base of Cley Hill.

This crop circle was spotted near Cley Hill recently

1980: UFO over Frome

At 10.35pm Steven Dayman-Johns and his wife, Julie, were travelling back home to Frome in a 1973 Datsun Cherry car, along Ridgway Lane when Julie brought her husband’s attention to a white object that she saw moving through one quarter of the car’s windscreen, before coming to a halt in the sky.

Steven stopped the car and, after switching off the headlights, stood on the sill of the car and sighted the object in the sky – which had no definite outline but appeared to have a darker ring running around its top.

After a few minutes, he got back into the car and continued his journey, keeping the object under observation – until it suddenly moved away at phenomenal speed, towards Wanstrow, emitting a faint light from its front and rear.

Steve decided to make his way to higher ground, and drove to the end of Ridgway Lane to the T-junction, being overtaken by a motorcycle, who sounded his horn several times at them. They turned left at the junction and pulled into a lay-by, about 150 yards from the junction.

After getting out they looked across the sky but couldn’t see the object, although they noticed a whitish glow on the horizon in the shape of an upturned letter ‘U’.

Their curiosity now aroused even further, they got back into the car and drove to where they had originally seen the object – along Ridgway Lane.

More detail on this account can be found in Haunted Skies Wiltshire.

2015: UFO sighted over Frome – Was it under escort or attack?

We (Haunted Skies Wiltshire) were contacted by Mr Duncan McDine – owner of a shop situated in Trowbridge. He told us of an incident while on the way home with his brother, one early evening, near Frome.

They found the road blocked by police and, looking upwards, saw an object resembling a full moon, but ten times larger, with something apparently hanging from it. At this point an army helicopter was seen moving through the sky with its sides open and soldiers carrying machine guns.

“One of the most memorable things for me was the way that it moved. It seemed to play tricks on your eyes. It is quite hard to explain. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it before. It then headed away towards the direction of Warminster.”

Following the sighting, Duncan made some enquiries with the media but nothing had been reported.

Have you ever seen UFOs in Somerset or Wiltshire? Get in touch using james.wood@westgaz.co.uk

{ http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/ }

07-06-2017 om 22:37 geschreven door peter  

Roswell’s Legendary “Memory Metal”

 Nick Redfern

When it comes to the Roswell affair of July 1947, there are numerous issues, theories and ideas for what happened. Or, for what didn’t happen. One of the issues that very often surfaces – in relation to the nature of the recovered debris – is that which concerns the so-called “memory metal” reportedly found at the site. Those who are of the opinion that aliens met their deaths on the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico on that fateful and fatal day suggest that the memory metal can only have been extraterrestrial in nature. But, is that really the truth? Well, it very much depends on who you ask and who you believe.

Major Jesse Marcel, who everyone – believers and doubters – acknowledges was at the crash site, said decades later: “I saw a lot of wreckage but no complete machine. It had disintegrated before it hit the ground. The wreckage was scattered over an area about three quarters of a mile long and several hundred feet wide. I was pretty well acquainted with most everything that was in the air at that time, both ours and foreign. I was also acquainted with virtually every type of weather-balloon or radar-tracking device being used by either the civilians or the military. What it was we didn’t know. We just picked up the fragments…it certainly wasn’t anything built by us.” You can find Marcel’s statement in the Bill Moore-Charles Berlitz book of 1980, The Roswell Incident.

1960s-era polyethylene hot air balloon

Mack Brazel was the rancher who found the wreckage. Some say he found far more than that. Maybe a body or two. Possibly several. Brazel’s son, Bill, would later say that the debris found on the Foster Ranch was “…something on the order of tinfoil except that [it] wouldn’t tear…You could wrinkle it and lay it back down and it immediately resumed its original shape. Quite pliable, but you couldn’t crease or bend it like ordinary metal. Almost like a plastic, but definitely metallic in nature.” It’s a quote that appears in Bill Moore’s 1981 report, The Roswell Investigation: New Evidence, New Conclusions, which was published in the July-August 1981 edition of Frontiers of Science. For many, it is statements like those of Major Marcel and Bill Brazel that are among the most important of all – and particularly so when it comes to the issue of what really came down on the ranch. But, there are other possibilities.

The U.S. Air Force has offered the following words on the matter of the memory metal: “As early as May 1948, polythene balloons coated or laminated with aluminum were flown from Holloman AFB and the surrounding area. Beginning in August 1955, large numbers of these balloons were flown as targets in the development of radar guided air-to-air missiles. Various accounts of the ‘Roswell Incident’ often described thin, metal-like materials that when wadded into a ball, returned to their original shape. These accounts are consistent with the properties of polythene balloons laminated with aluminum. These balloons were typically launched from points west of the White Sands Proving Ground, floated over the range as targets, and descended in the areas northeast of White Sands Proving Ground where the ‘strange’ materials were allegedly found.”

Mylar

Of course, if there had been secret, pre-1948 flights (maybe one in the summer of 1947, in New Mexico…) then that might well have led people who were unacquainted with the new polythene balloons coated or laminated with aluminum to assume they were seeing something extraordinary. On a similar path, back in 2004, a well-respected Australian researcher, Keith Basterfield, was given a fascinating account which suggested that what came down on the Foster Ranch was a device of the military and not the product of aliens. Keith revealed that, according to his source, “…gigantic balloons were being flown in the stratosphere to drop craft fitted with retrorockets and a drogue chute.”

Keith added that when just such a craft came down on the ranch, “The authorities were very concerned that the rancher had hidden souvenirs from the wreckage. The balloons were of chrome plated cellophane to reflect the heat. The experiments were conducted at night so balloons would not explode in the daylight.” Not only that, according to Keith’s informant, the experiment in question had people on-board. Guinea-pigs would be an accurate term – which echoes the theories presented in my books Body Snatchers in the Desert and the newly-published The Roswell UFO Conspiracy.

Of course, none of this proves that aliens didn’t crash outside of Roswell in forty-seven. On the other hand, however, the idea that the memory metal was extraterrestrial needs further evidence before such a claim can be considered fact.

 TAGS: history, Memory Metal, Roswell, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-06-2017 om 22:12 geschreven door peter  

Giant hole on Mars could be work of aliens, researchers say

Credit: Securyteam 10, Youtube

A giant hole on Mars has scientists baffled and some UFO researchers are theorizing it could be the work of extraterrestrials.

In a video obtained by conspiracy theorist Youtube channel SecureTeam 10, a deep depression in the surface of Mars has astronomers questioning what it is.

Tyler Glockner, who runs SecureTeam 10, said the hole is estimated to be hundreds of feet across. The rocky terrain of Mars -- which like Earth, has polar ice caps -- does not account for what the depression is, Glockner added.

The images come courtesy of NASA's Mars reconassiance orbiter, which has been exploring the planet.

Below is the video in its entirety:

NASA has given several possibilities of what could have caused the hole, including meteorites, lava tubes, ancient floods and volcanoes. But conspiracy theorists have other ideas.

'ALIEN TANK' FOUND ON THE MOON, UFO HUNTERS SAY

Glockner said the hole shows artificial characteristics, noting that it looks as if it has been hollowed out. Glockner added that the hole could also be an entrance of an underground civilization.

SecureTeam 10, which has nearly 900,000 YouTube subscribers, often runs conspiracy theory-based videos. The organization describes itself as the "source for reporting the best in new UFO sighting news, info on the space cover-up, and the strange activity happening on and off of our planet."

{ http://www.foxnews.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 21:14 geschreven door peter  

Na meer dan 40 jaar: Chinees ruimteschip zal opnieuw stalen van de Maan naar Aarde brengen - HLN.be

Bron: Belga

De Chinese Maanlander Chang'e-3. 

© ap.

Een Chinese sonde wordt het eerste ruimtetuig in meer dan veertig jaar dat stalen van de Maan naar onze planeet zal brengen, zo heeft het officiële persbureau Xinhua gemeld van op een conferentie in Peking.

Beelden van de eerste Chinese - onbemande - Maanlanding. 

© reuters.

Nog dit jaar moet de onbemande Chang'e-5 landen op de natuurlijke satelliet van de Aarde. Dat zal gebeuren in het gebied van de Mons Rumker, genoemd naar de Duitse astronoom Karl Rumker, aldus Liu Jizhong, een directeur van het Chinese ruimtevaartbureau. De lancering is voorlopig voor november gepland. Het ruimteschip moet met monsters van de Maan naar onze planeet terugkeren, een primeur voor de Chinese ruimtevaart.

Apollo
De Sovjetrussische Loena-24 was in 1976 het laatste ruimtetuig dat Maanstalen naar de Aarde bracht. Er is toen slechts 170 gram ingezameld. Het bemande Amerikaanse Apollo-programma leverde tussen 1969 en 1972 meer dan 360 kilo aan Maanstenen op.

Achterkant
Volgend jaar zal China ook proberen om als eerste ooit een sonde te laten landen op de achterzijde van de Maan. Dat zal het werk zijn van de Chang'e-4. Die was reserve voor de Chang'e-3 die in 2013 de eerste Chinese - onbemande - Maanlanding heeft uitgevoerd.

Peking plant ook een bemande Maanlanding, binnen vijftien tot twintig jaar. Volgens de eerste Chinese astronaut en vicedirecteur van het bemande ruimtevaartprogramma Yang Liwei zal het "niet lang duren" eer daarvoor toestemming en financiering is.

Lees ook

• NASA geeft uitleg over haar spectaculaire nieuwe missie naar de zon
• Mysterieuze planeet TRAPPIST-1 onthult wat van zijn geheimen
• Uitstel voor eerste vlucht van ruimtecapsule die ooit mensen naar Mars moet vervoeren

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

07-06-2017 om 21:06 geschreven door peter  

HUGE UFO COMING OUT OF AWESOME LIGHTNING STORM

Just Breathtaking uploaded to his Facebook account a footage taken from an unknown location, which shows awesome lightning strikes in a thunder storm. Could it be debris? Maybe, but while other objects flying in and around the clouds… the black object moves along a straight path while leaving the cloud formation.  

Although the possibility of alien life is restricted to planets a light-years away from Earth, the huge frequency of witnesses involving sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs / UFOs) around the world raises two Hypotheses: or et's are already here, or millions of videos, photos and reports of the phenomenon are deceptions practiced by mentally disturbed individuals.

If the second option is true, then it stands to reason that more than half of the 7 billion human beings are totally crazy, influential or liars.

However, based on the notion that aliens are watching us, as is believed by influential individuals in the space and technology industry, such as the owner of Space X, Elon Musk, or astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step on the moon, it is reasonable to accept certain photos And films of the phenomenon as true.  

Original video:

https://www.facebook.com/220681291781494/videos/220822561767367/

RELATED ARTICLES

• Lights in Mexican Storm May be UFO Recharging on Lightning
• Watch: Lightning Storm Over Italy Reveals UFO Behind Aircraft 

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

07-06-2017 om 20:52 geschreven door peter  

A COMPLETELY NEW TYPE OF UFO HAS BEEN CAPTURED IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

A type of UFO that has never been seen before has been found and captured on film numerous times in Puerto Rico. Joshua P. Warren, the lead researcher said that he believes it to be a living organism and he has given it the name of Organic UFO or OUFO.

UNKNOWN FLYING OBJECT CAPTURED FLYING AROUND AIRPORT AT 120MPH

Homeland Security footage has been leaked online after it was filmed in 2013 and it shows what seem to be flying objects that are very strange and are slightly saucer shaped. The objects were seen around the Rafael Hernandez Airport, where they were flying at speeds of around 120mph. 

The object was seen for around three minutes and it dipped down into the Atlantic Ocean and was seen traveling just under the surface of the water at a speed of about 95mph. Mainstream scientists have analysed the video and deemed it authentic. The forage along with the results has been published on the internet in an independent and very detailed 162 page report.

OBJECT SEEMS TO APPEAR WHEN REQUESTED

RELATED ARTICLES

• Indian Vedas Reveals The Bermuda Triangle Mystery
• A Ship Reappears in the Bermuda Triangle 90 Years After it Disappeared

Warren said that he thinks they are living organisms as they are not too well structured like a machine would be and they seem to interact with human beings in a new way and they seem to appear when requested to do so.

Part of the detailed report says that on 25 April 2013 around 9.20pm local time an object that was unknown flew across the runway of the airport in Puerto Rico at low altitude and this caused the delay of a commercial aircraft. It was said that there was no transponder signal alerting the tower and no communication had been made with the tower. It was only picked up on an infrared video by the US Customs and Border Protection aircraft. The thermal video has since been verified to be authentic.

The analysis from the video revealed an object that was not like any natural or man-made object and careful evaluation was made of it. The movement, properties and even the possibility of a hoax were ruled out.

REPORT CONCLUDES OBJECT IS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN

The object was said to be around three to five feet in length and it traveled between 40mph and 120mph with a median speed said to be around 80mph. One of the characteristics that were found to be significant was the fact that the object was able to travel at fast speed through the water and that speed did not vary when it impacted the water. On average it traveled at 82.8mph under the surface but did reach up to 95mph. After entering the ocean it did split into two separate parts for a brief time and then re-emerged, both of the parts kept the same speed when moving in water and air. The conclusion of the report was that the object is of unknown origin and no explanation can be given for there being an object that is capable of traveling at 90mph under the surface of the water with minimal impact on entering the water, be capable of separating into two objects and then merge or of flying without navigational lights in a residential area. The full PDF report of the unknown flying object can be found below and it does make interesting reading for ufologis

http://media.wix.com/ugd/299316_9a12b53f67554a008c32d48eff9be5cd.pdf

RELATED ARTICLES

• Crystal Pyramid May Hold Secret to the Bermuda Triangle
• A Pyramid Made Of Crystal Was Found In The Bermuda Triangle

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

07-06-2017 om 18:30 geschreven door peter  

Return of Warminster Thing? Bizarre sighting near UK 'UFO capital' causes alien frenzy

INCREDIBLE footage of a bizarre UFO near Britain's 'alien capital' of Warminster has sent ET chasers into a frenzy.

07-06-2017 om 18:18 geschreven door peter  

Alien mystery solved: It was just gas

07-06-2017 om 12:07 geschreven door peter  

Here's a UFO that hung out near Brainerd, Minnesota for a while [VIDEO]

 by Mike Mullen in News

Aliens came to planet earth and decided to visit Brainerd, maybe.

Highways 210 and 371 come together in Brainerd, a north-central Minnesota town, population roughly 13,000.

For those who haven't visited -- do; it's nice! -- Brainerd is perhaps best known recently as the setting for some of the major events in the movie Fargo. And boy oh boy, chief Maggie Gunderson would've had herself a heckova time gettin' her head around this video that showed up on Youtube last week.

The five-minute clip was uploaded by SuspectSky, which claims to feature "the best sightings, analysis, and thought-provoking research" on unidentified flying objects (UFOs). SuspectSky's bio adds it is "Always critical, always vigilant," so, pretty much like your mom.

This particular video is said to have been shot at the Highway 210/371 junction, and cars zoom right on through the shot continuously. That leads to lots of ambient noise, though not enough to drown out the eerie music SuspectSky has piped in to give our UFO video the full effect.

"This single bright object soon becomes several," reads a white script that shows up on the screen. In fact, it does: Two lights, then three, then four. When our videographer/driver's car system announces, "GPS signal lost," the caption reads, "GPS Signal Lost." This is some of that "best analysis" they'd promised.

That GPS signal is one of several plot twists in this UFO sighting. Note when SuspectSky says the triangle shaped pattern in the sky "appears to try to make a diamond." As if the attempt failed. As in, aliens traveled through light years of space to reach earth -- Brainerd, Minnesota, specifically -- and then couldn't figure out how to turn on their headlights. 

Do not skip the comments under this video. "they are here...just watching us...����������," reads one. "They always have been," reads another. "They are doing more than just watching us - I assure you," reads a third. "To me it looks like military flares as when one disappears then another one will appear at a higher level and come down"-- hey, who let that guy in here? That is clearly not the "best" analysis we demand on real UFO videos. Like this one.

{ http://www.citypages.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 11:36 geschreven door peter  

A RARE GLIMPSE INTO NIKOLA TESLA’S COMMUNICATION WITH EXTRATERRESTRIALS

Few people know that in 1899, while working at his Colorado Springs laboratory, he announced that he had received extraterrestrial radio signals. The scientific community thought he was nuts, and in fact, cosmic radio signals didn’t even exist at the time. One can easily imagine how alone and misunderstood Tesla must have felt.

The Black Knight Satellite

It’s known as the “Black Knight Satellite,” and although it wasn’t confirmed by scientists until 1932, Tesla discovered it in 1899 while in his Colorado Springs laboratory, hearing strange rhythmic sounds on his radio receiver. The confirmation in 1932 gave birth to the field of radio astronomy, which is now used to decode and detect messages from distant stars and other mysterious celestial sources. Tesla writes:

I can never forget the first sensations I experienced when it dawned upon me that I had observed something possibly of incalculable consequences to mankind. I felt as though I were present at the birth of a new knowledge or the revelation of a great truth. Even now, at times, I can vividly recall the incident, and see my apparatus as though it were actually before me. My first observations positively terrified me, as there was present in them something mysterious, not to say supernatural, and I was alone in my laboratory at night; but at that time the idea of these disturbances being intelligently controlled signals did not yet present itself to me.

The changes I noted were taking place periodically, and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me. I was familiar, of course, with such electrical disturbances as are produced by the sun, Aurora Borealis and earth currents, and I was as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to none of these causes. The nature of my experiments precluded the possibility of the changes being produced by atmospheric disturbances, as has been rashly asserted by some. It was some time afterward when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to an intelligent control. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another. . . . I was not merely beholding a vision, but had caught sight of a great and profound truth. (source)(source)

Tesla believed that the signals he was picking up on were from Mars.  Here’s another statement he gave on what he found:

Others may scoff at this suggestion…[of] communicat[ing] with one of our heavenly neighbors, as Mars…or treat it as a practical joke, but I have been in deep earnest about it every since I made my first observations in Colorado Springs… At the time, there existed no wireless plant other than mine that could produce a disturbance perceptible in a radius of more than a few miles. Furthermore, the conditions under which I operated were ideal, and I was well trained for the work. The character of the disturbances recorded precluded the possibility of their being of terrestrial origin, and I also eliminated the influence of the sun, moon, and Venus. As I then announced, the signals consisted in a regular repetition of numbers, and subsequent study convinced me that they must have emanated from Mars, the planet having just then been close to the earth. (source)

According to the American Physical Society Physics, Tesla concluded that these signals, or this strange unnatural object they originate from, was indeed extraterrestrial, or an effort to “communicate with Earth by alien beings.”

This was one of multiple incidents in which Telsa intercepted what he thought were intelligent signals from space. He states that even the simplest form of communication (such as the interchange of numbers) could represent a form of intelligible transmission from extraterrestrials.

When I came across that information, I instantly thought about this NSA document, which is one example of strange messages that come from space, as elaborated on below.

Today, we know for sure that these signals are of extraterrestrial origin, but it’s assumed that they are radio waves from planets, comets, stars, or galaxies — not ‘ET.’

More than 30 years after the confirmation in 1932, a graduate student by the name of Jocelyn Bell noticed some strange data coming from her telescope at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO). After a few weeks, she noticed that the signal being produced could not have originated from any known natural source, and she (and her team) ruled out every conceivable explanation, such as multiple sources of human interference, other radio astronomers, radar reflected off the moon, orbiting satellites, television signals, and more. Nothing could explain these strange signals.

She eventually published a paper in the scientific journal Nature, despite the fact that the source of the sound, though they knew it to be artificial, had not been determined.

These announcements caused quite a commotion at the time, and today it is common for strange signals, determined to be coming from ‘non-natural’ sources, to be detected. But who knows what they are?

Just last year, strange radio wave flashes from far outside of our Milky Way galaxy (or in it) had scientists completely confused; you can read more about that here.

I just want to make it clear that this type of stuff is always going on.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 01:15 geschreven door peter  

NEXT STORY IS THIS EXTRATERRESTRIAL? EARTH RECEIVES STRANGE “RADIO BURSTS” FROM SPACE

Strange radio wave flashes from far outside of our Milky Way galaxy (or in it) have scientists completely confused. Since 2001, telescopes have been picking up on what are referred to as fast radio bursts (FRBs). Only a total of ten have ever been detected, with the most recent one occurring just a few months ago. The bursts last just a few milliseconds and then explode with just as much energy as our Sun releases in a month, which is extremely huge, and again, very confusing and mysterious.

The burst of 2014 was the first one in history that was caught in action by the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. The others were found by examining data after the bursts had already arrived on Earth. Again, these bursts have astronomers very confused, as no one knows what causes them. What scientists do know is that their source most likely has to be small, because they occur in such a short span of time. They are also only approximately a few hundred kilometers across, so that rules out any stars as being the culprit.

It’s not only the fact that astronomers are completely clueless, but as a new scientist points out:

“The weird part is that they all fit a pattern that doesn’t match what we know about cosmic physics.”

Michael Hippke at the Institute for Data Analysis In Neukrichen-Vluyn, Germany, and John Learned at the Univeristy of Hawaii in Manoa, have not ruled out the possibility that these bursts come from somewhere within our galaxy. They determined this by calculating how far the bursts have travelled, a technique known as “the dispersion measure.”

“Each burst covers a range of radio frequencies, as if the whole FM band were playing the same song. But electrons in space scatter and delay the radiation, so that higher frequency waves make it across space faster than lower frequency waves. The more space the signal crosses, the bigger the difference, or dispersion measure, between the arrival time of high and low frequencies – and the further the signal has travelled.” (source)

(You can view the paper that was published on the most recent burst, in the list of sources at the end of the article)

As a result of their calculations, they believe that the source is much closer to home, from a group of objects within our Milky Way galaxy that are emitting shorter-frequency radio waves after higher-frequency radio waves.

It’s also interesting to note that all 10 of the detected bursts since 2001 have dispersion measures that are multiples of 187.5. This is both fascinating and unexplainable, and they are suggesting that this line-up of the dispersion implies five sources for the bursts that are all at regularly spaced distances from Earth.

According to their research, there is a 5 in 10,000 probability that this type of line-up is a coincidence, and that it is “very, very hard to explain.”

What could the sources of these signals heading towards Earth be? Are they some unidentified cosmic objects? Is it human, manmade technology? Or is the question not what, but who? If the natural explanations don’t seem to fit, the researchers have concluded in their paper that “an artificial source (human or non-human) must be considered.”

“These have been intriguing as an engineered signal, or evidence of extraterrestrial technology, since the first was discovered,” -Jill Tarter, former director of the SETI Institute in California. “I’m intrigued. Stay tuned.”

The search for extraterrestrial life continues to be a very hot topic, and the questions concerning “ET” are continuing to grow with the discovery of microbial life in space, as well as water – don’t forget about  the discovery of many potential Earth-like planets. On top of that, we have a lot of evidence supporting the idea that intelligent extraterrestrial life has been visiting our planet for a very long time. 

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 01:11 geschreven door peter  

Calvin Parker tells his story of Pascagoula's famous UFO incident 40 years later

Charles Hickson of Gautier, Miss., famous for a claimed UFO abduction in 1973, has died in Ocean Springs at the age of 80. In this file photograph, Hickson is seen posing with a drawing depicting a UFO.

(Pat Sullivan)

PASCAGOULA, Mississippi -- Charles Hickson never regretted the notoriety that came his way after he told authorities he encountered an unidentified flying object and its occupants 40 years ago on the banks of the Pascagoula River. Until his death in 2011, Hickson told his story to anyone who would listen.

But Calvin Parker Jr., the other man present for one of the most high-profile UFO cases in American history, has never come to terms with what he still says was a visit with gray, crab-clawed creatures from somewhere else. He says the encounter on Oct. 11, 1973, turned his life upside down.

"This is something I really didn't want to happen," Parker told The Associated Press as the 40th anniversary of the encounter approached.

Parker was unnerved by initial crush of unwelcome attention, with newsmen and UFO enthusiasts overrunning Walker Shipyard, where he and Hickson worked. He tried to dodge the spotlight for decades, moving frequently before returning to Mississippi's Gulf Coast in recent years.

The incident made headlines, sparked a wave of UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record. Skeptics ranged from the deputies who first interviewed the men to an author who sought to poke holes in the story, and Parker himself has had conflicting thoughts about whether he was visited by aliens or demons.

See the Mississippi Press' 1973 coverage of the incident: 

Mississippi Press 1973 coverage Part 1.pdf

Mississippi Press 1973 coverage part 2.pdf

Parker, now 58, was 18 when he went fishing with Hickson on a tranquil Thursday night after work.

As they dangled their lines without much luck, the two said a UFO with blue lights swooped down. They told of a zipping noise made by the object.

Hickson, then 42, said three creatures with leathery gray skin and crab-like claws -- he thought they were robots -- took them by the forearms and levitated them aboard the craft. He said something that looked like a large floating eye appeared to examine him.

Parker says he was conscious but paralyzed.

"They gave a thorough, I mean a thorough, examination to me just like any doctor would," he said.

And then they were back on the shore, where it all began. The UFO was gone and Parker said they tried to collect themselves. Hickson needed three shots of liquor from a bottle in his car to calm his nerves before deciding to report what happened.

At the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, deputies initially suspected both men were drunk. Then-Capt. Glenn Ryder, who still works for the sheriff's office, said he laughed at the report, but met with the men. Parker and Hickson stuck to their story.

After the formal interview, deputies left Hickson and Parker together in a room with a hidden tape recorder, hoping to catch them in a lie.

"Me and the other investigator got up and left to let them talk, to see if they were going to say, 'Well, we got them fooled,' but they didn't," Ryder said. "They were really concerned."

On the tape, Hickson tells Parker, "It scared me to death too, son. You can't get over it in a lifetime. Jesus Christ have mercy."

"I don't know what happened to them," Ryder said. "I wasn't there with them, but I know you don't fake fear, and they were fearful. They were fearful."

The next afternoon, the story was splashed across the front pages of newspapers in Pascagoula and Gulfport. Overnight, Pascagoula became a magnet for news reporters and UFO investigators.

Widespread interest in UFOs began in the 1940s with an incident at Roswell N.M., in which UFO enthusiasts believe the government got its hands on a crashed UFO and alien bodies. The government spent decades denying it.

In the 1960s, interest flared anew with a series of reports, including the purported alien abduction of New Hampshire couple Betty and Barney Hill in 1961. The widespread attention to the Pascagoula encounter set off a new round of reports.

In south Mississippi, hundreds of reports overwhelmed authorities in the two weeks after the Hickson-Parker encounter.

There were hoaxes and humor too. A Long Beach, Miss., taxi driver told police a being with pincers tapped on his window, a story he admitted days later was fake.

A Mobile, Ala., television station said it would record a UFO appearance predicted by a psychic between Mobile and nearby Pascagoula. Roughly 1,000 cars converged on the spot, where nothing happened.

An Ocean Springs alderman proposed an ordinance making it illegal to operate a UFO at more than twice the speed of light on U.S. 90, the coast's main drag. Mayor Tom Stennis voted against the ordinance, joking he didn't want to discourage tourism.

UFO skeptic Philip Klass believed Hickson and Parker's report was a hoax. In his book "UFOs Explained," he noted Hickson changed some details of his story and claimed a polygraph operator whose test Hickson passed wasn't up to the task. Parker later passed a lie detector test himself.

Hickson would go on to appear on talk shows, give lectures and interviews, and self-publish a book in 1983 titled "UFO Contact at Pascagoula." He reported three more encounters in 1974, and said the aliens communicated to him that they were peaceful.

"The only thing he wanted to do was let everybody know we were not alone," said Eddie Hickson, his son. "He didn't care if you believed him or not. If you wanted to listen, by gum, he'd tell you."

"He could never understand why he was chosen," the younger Hickson added. "But he never once told me that he wished it had never happened. Never."

Parker said the intrusions by curiosity seekers have become less frequent over the years, but have never really let up. "You don't never have no privacy," he said.

Parker married later in 1973 and eventually took oil industry and out-of-state construction jobs to escape the attention.

"By the time you get somewhere and they figure out who you were, I'd just go," he said. "I'd just go find another job somewhere."

Parker attended some UFO conventions, and was once hypnotized by Budd Hopkins, a noted UFO investigator. He briefly tried to capitalize on his story in 1993 by starting a Louisiana company called UFO Investigations where he and partners would produce television segments on the subject.

Parker moved to Moss Point in 2006 and in 2010 suffered a stroke that limited him physically. He's on disability aid now, but sometimes boats by the site of the encounter when he goes fishing. He said that just recently he met a woman at a gas station who already knew who he was.

"I'm always recognized," he said.

There's no historical marker on the river bank noting the encounter, and stores don't sell UFO souvenirs. But local people remember -- though often with skepticism and jokes.

For his part, Parker said he's had conflicting thoughts over the years about that night in 1973. At one point, he wasn't even sure the creatures were aliens. They might have been demons, he said.

"I'm a firm believer in God and where there's good, there's bad," Parker said.

In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 photo, Calvin Parker, Jr., stands in the area where he and fellow Mississippian Charles Hickson were allegedly abducted by aliens on Oct. 11,1973, on the banks of the Pascagoula River in Pascagoula Miss. The incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this Oct. 11, 1998 file photograph, Charles Hickson, of Pascagoula, Miss., stands where he and fellow Mississippian Calvin Parker, Jr. were allegedly abducted by aliens on Oct. 11,1973, on the banks of the Pascagoula River in Pascagoula Miss. The incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record. Hickson co-wrote a book about the experience and spoke openly to reporters about the abduction, while Parker kept a low profile over the years. (AP Photo/Mississippi Press, William Colgin, File)

In this 1973 file photograph, Charles Hickson of Pascagoula, Miss., stands on the west bank of the Pascagoula River, close to the site where he claims he and Calvin Parker Jr. were abducted by aliens. (AP Photo/Mississippi Press, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2001, file photo, Charles Hickson reads a page from a book he co-wrote about UFOs in Gautier, Miss. When Hickson and Calvin Parker told the world in 1973 they were abducted by aliens while fishing on the Pascagoula River, few people believed them. Hickson, 80, died in Sept. 2011. (AP Photo/The Mississippi Press, 

FILE - In this Oct. 18, 1973 file photograph taken in Gautier, Miss., Charles Hickson, left, and Calvin Parker Jr., of Pascagoula, Miss., recount the experience of their alleged abduction by aliens from the banks of the Pascagoula River where they were fishing. (AP Photo/Mississippi Press, Gary Holland, File)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013 photo, Calvin Parker, Jr., poses for a photograph at his home in Moss Point, Miss. Parker and fellow Mississippian Charles Hickson were allegedly abducted by aliens on Oct. 11,1973, on the banks of the Pascagoula River in Pascagoula Miss. The incident made headlines, sparked UFO sightings nationwide and became one of the most widely examined cases on record. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Calvin Parker, Jr., stands in the area where he allegedly was abducted by a UFO along with fellow Mississippian Charles Hickson, on the banks of the Pascagoula River Oct. 11,1973, making international headlines, in Pascagoula Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

{ http://www.gulflive.com/ }

07-06-2017 om 00:27 geschreven door peter  

MAYBE THE ALIENS AREN’T HIDING, THEY’RE SLEEPING, WAITING FOR THE UNIVERSE TO GET BETTER

  

by Matt Williams

When you consider that age of the Universe – 13.8 billion years by our most recent counts –  and that which is “observable” to us measures about 27.6 billion light years in diameter, you begin to wonder why we haven’t found signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence (ETI) beyond our Solar System. To paraphrase Enrico Fermi, the 20th century physicists who advanced the famous Fermi Paradox – “where the heck are all the aliens?”

Naturally, Fermi’s Paradox has attracted a lot of theoretical explanations over the years – which include ETI being very rare, humanity being early to the Universe, and the aliens being extinct! But a new study by a team of scientists from the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) offers a different take on this age-old paradox. According to their study, the key to answering this question is to consider the possibility that the aliens are engaged in “aestivation”.

Essentially, aestivation is a prolonged state of torpor that organisms enter into during a particularly hot or dry period. Similar to what hibernating animals do during the winter, this state is designed to keep creatures alive until more favorable conditions emerge. And when applied to the cosmos, this concept could explain why one of the key things astronomers have been looking for – i.e. activity – has been lacking.

The study was led by Anders Sandberg, a research associate to the Oxford Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics, the Oxford Center for Neuroethics, and the James Martin Research Fellow at FHI. Cryptically titled, “That is Not Dead Which Can Eternal Lie: the Aestivation Hypothesis for Resolving Fermi’s Paradox“, their study considers the possibility that advanced alien civilizations might be difficult to find because they are sleeping right now.

This is not the first time Sandberg has addressed questions arising out of the Fermi Paradox. In a previous study, he and Stuart Armstrong (also a research associate with the EHI and one of the co-authors on this study) extended the Fermi Paradox to look beyond our own galaxy, addressing how more advanced civilizations would feasibly be able to launch colonization projects with relative ease (and even travel between galaxies without difficulty).

In the end, they concluded that civilizations from millions of galaxies should have been able to reach us by now, which only serves to bring the Fermi Paradox into greater focus. If these early civilizations are around, why are they not visible to us? The reason for this, they claim in this new study, has to do with the thermodynamics of computation.

According to this basic rule, the cost of a certain amount of computation is proportional to the temperature it generates. For some time, astronomers and cosmologists have been aware that the Universe is steadily cooling down over the time. Not only is star formation in galaxies slowly dying out over the course of billions of years, but even the cosmic background radiation is becoming colder.

Artist’s conception of city lights on an alien planet. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

As such, it makes sense that ancient and advanced civilizations would want to wait for cooler conditions to prevail. Sandberg explained to Universe Today via email:

“The core idea is that if advanced civilizations mainly or solely care about computation, then it is rational for them to wait until the Universe is much older than now. The reason is that the energy cost (which will eventually limit how much computation you can do) is proportional to temperature, and this means that the far future is vastly more hospitable than the hot present. If this were true, we have a nice explanation for the apparent absence of big old civilizations. It would also lead to observable consequences: a reduction in processes that waste resources they would want in the late eras.”

Timing is a key feature to this hypothesis. Much like the theory that humanity may have arrived early to the Universe, this theory states that the lack of detection has to do with species being in different places in their biological/technological evolution. In this case, the aestivation period of early civilizations has coincided with the subsequent rise of humanity as an space-faring and technologically-adept species.

Herein lies another reason why ancient civilizations might want to take a cosmic nap. Given how long life needs in order to emerge – humanity took roughly 4.5 billion years to get to where it is today – then it stands to reason that ancient civilizations might want to skip ahead a few eons in order to let new races emerge.

Ever since it was first announced in 2015, there has been speculation as to what could account for the dimming of KIC 8462852.

Credit: SentientDevelopments.com

“There is an entropy cost to irreversible logical operations, including error correction,” said Sanders. “So unless there is some magical energy source or entropy sink, if you want to do as much computation as possible you should wait until the cosmic background radiation levels off. In addition, civilizations may want to go to the future if they want to meet other, independently evolved civilizations. If intelligence is rare in time and space but aestivates to the far future, then it will meet there.”

Of course, the aestiation hypothesis (much like the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox) is based on a few assumptions about what ETI would be capable of. These include:

1. There are civilizations that mature much earlier than humanity.
2. These civilizations can expand over sizeable volumes, gaining power over their contents.
3. These civilizations have solved their coordination problems.
4. A civilization can retain control over its volume against other civilizations.
5. The fraction of mature civilizations that aestivate is non-zero
6. Aestivation is largely invisible.

In other words, the hypothesis assumes the existence of civilizations that are more advanced than humanity which is based on the notion that they have had billions of years to develop elsewhere in the Universe. These civilizations would be higher on the Kardashev Scale (between Level II and III) by now, meaning that they had evolved to the point where they could harness the energy of entire star systems and perhaps even galaxies.

Also, it assumes that these civilizations would have become space-faring races that had expanded to occupy parts of the cosmos that lie well beyond their own star systems. Ultimately, those civilizations that have chosen to become dormant would therefore be invisible to us since they are not currently traveling between stars and galaxies, smashing up planets to create megastructures, or consuming entire stars for fuel.

You know, the kind of stuff we think mega-civilizations would do. Which naturally raises the question, how might we be able to detect such civilizations at rest? To this, Sandberg has a few possible suggestions, ones which ETI-hunters may want to heed:

“Look for galaxies that either move out of the way of galaxy collisions or towards big clusters by ejecting mass or energy in one direction, or have an unusually low number of heavy blue-white stars, or otherwise avoid losing gas to interstellar space. Or, try launching a self-replicating space probe to pave the universe and see if somebody stops you.”

As with all things having to do with aliens and ETI, a measure of guess-work is required here. And some would naturally argue that it is also possible that advanced civilizations are not subject to the same limitations we humans are, which would limit our ability to speculate here. In the end, we humans are required to theorize about what we don’t know based on what we do – aka. the “low-hanging fruit” approach.

The findings reported in the study were also the subject of a talk that took place at the second annual meeting of the UK SETI Research Network (UKSRN), which took place on September 11th and 12th, 2014, at Birkbeck College in London.

Further Reading: arXiv

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-06-2017 om 23:42 geschreven door peter  

Chinese Scientist May Have an Explanation for Ball Lightning

 Paul Seaburn

Ball lightning has been blamed for more UFO sightings than weather balloons and for more ghost sightings than reflections. Part of the problem is that, like UFOs and ghosts, no one can really explain ball lightning either. That may change with a new theory from a Chinese scientist that could explain how these sometimes tiny luminous balls form and how they can seemingly pass through walls to float inside houses and even airplanes.

While called “lightning” because it generally appears during thunderstorms, ball lightning doesn’t act like conventional lightning. It’s spherical, often small and is visible longer than a lightning bolt. Photographs of it are rare, attempts to recreate it in a lab are futile and stories about sightings can border on the unbelievable.

An ‘amazing’ recreation of ball lightning appearing in a room

Enter H.C. Wu, a researcher at the Institute for Fusion Theory and Simulation (IFTS) and Department of Physics at China’s Zhejiang University. In his paper published recently in Scientific Reports, he claims to successfully explain many of the reported but unsubstantiated characteristics of ball lightning.

Wu’s theorizes that ball lightning begins when a bolt of conventional lightning hits the ground or an object and accelerates electrons, causing them to release microwave radiation. This radiation then charges the air around it, forming a “spherical plasma bubble” that envelops and traps the radiation. That spherical plasma bubble is ball lightning.

Ball lightning or UFO?

This may explain outdoor ball lighting, but what about the luminescent floating orbs reportedly seen indoors and in airplane cabins? Wu claims that the electrons are moving at nearly the speed of light, which allows them to pass through walls and the metal skin of planes. Really?

He also postulates that the microwave radiation produces chemicals that cause ball lightning’s reportedly foul smell (plausible) and they give it the explosive powers often reported just prior to the smell (like an egg in a microwave?).

Ball lightning, orb or something else?

Wu’s study proposes a number of ways ball lightning might be created in a lab but – in case any kids with access to electricity and microwaves read Scientific Reports – warns that ball lightning is “an alarm signal of the existence of ultrastrong microwaves and abundantly hazardous electrons near the ground or aircraft.”

Is this a sufficient explanation for ball lightning? Does it clear up any UFO, glowing orb or ghost sightings for you?

That’s what I thought.

 TAGS: ball lightning, glowing orb, Lightning, natural world, orb, orbs, Science, storm, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-06-2017 om 23:17 geschreven door peter  

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-06-2017 om 23:09 geschreven door peter  

Another Astronaut Reveals Belief in Space Aliens

 Paul Seaburn 

If there was one group of people who you’d think would have a good idea if space aliens existed or not, it would be astronauts. You’d probably think that most of them believe in aliens and you’d probably be right, even if they don’t admit it publicly. The list of out-of-the-NASA-closet alien believers just grew by one after former astronaut Leroy Chiao spoke this week to students at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, and had this to say:

I think there’s all kinds of life out there, including intelligent life, but the reason we haven’t found each other is because of vast distances.

Dr. Leroy Chiao on the ISS

Dr. Chiao has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and became an astronaut in July 1991. He’s spent a total of 230 days in space on four separate missions, including his last one in 2004-5 as commander of Expedition 10 on the International Space Station. While he believes there’s life on planets other than Earth, he showed where his heart is on that mission by becoming the first person to vote in a US presidential election while in space. What political party do you think an astronaut who believes in ETs belongs to?

I don’t think anyone flies into space without some form of fundamental introspection about what life is about. For me, I was surprised how much more beautiful it is than what the pictures show. It looks very peaceful and nice, and intellectually I knew there was war, famine and conflict down there and that dichotomy was hard to reconcile. It makes you stop and think, and it gave me that perspective of what’s important in life.

That didn’t help much. This comment may be a little more revealing:

I believe that at some point, life on Earth will die out, either from natural causes, or from our own doing.

Those who follow ufology know that the late astronaut Edgar Mitchell, the sixth person on the moon, believed not only in UFOs and aliens but in government cover-ups of information about them. Gordon Cooper, an original Mercury astronaut, claimed he witnessed UFOs in 1951 over Germany and saw flying saucers at a secret air base. Deke Slayton, an astronaut and director of flight crew operations, says he also saw a “saucer” UFO in 1951 and Alan Bean, another of the 12 moonwalkers, believes aliens are out there but we haven’t been contacted yet due to the great travel distances required.

Deke Slayton

With all of those high-level supporters in the astronaut field of the existence of alien life somewhere in the universe, does this exclusive group have any non-believers? Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space and a commander of the ISS like Dr. Chiao, ansered that question in an interview:

I don’t know of any astronauts who think we’re alone in the universe.

Well, that settles it. Now, who do you think Dr. Chiao voted for in the 2004 presidential election?

 TAGS: alien, alien life, life on other planets, nasa, ufo

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-06-2017 om 23:03 geschreven door peter