NASA TO ANONYMOUS: NO, WE DON’T HAVE EVIDENCE OF ALIENS

28-06-2017 om 21:08 geschreven door peter  

Why were the RAF ordered to ignore mysterious lights seen floating over Skegness for SEVEN hours?

BY ELAINE DAVIES

File photo. A UFO was spotted over Skegness in 1996 and the RAF were 'told to ignore it'

Mysterious lights were seen in the sky over Skegness for seven hours - but the RAF were ordered to ignore it, files have revealed.

The incident happened over the Skegness coast on October 5, 1996, and lights were reported in the sky for a period of seven hours - both by police and the public.

Now "Britain's X Files" show the object was spotted on a military radar but the RAF were told to ignore it after it was “overruled at the highest level”.

A report by the Sun claimed an unnamed government official criticised the former Defence Secretary Michael Portillo for the military's "absolute shambles" of a reaction.

The letter, which is typed on House of Commons headed paper, said: "I am very concerned about an incident that occurred off the Anglian Coast recently, involving a visual unidentified flying craft sighting which was correlated by various different military radar systems.”

It added that it was "incredible" that "no aircraft were scrambled when an uncorrelated target was picked up so close to the coast” and that “this raises serious issues about the way in which we police the UK’s Air Defence Region”.

The letter also questions why RAF Coningsby was over-ruled when it wanted to scramble aircraft to the scene.

It added: "The RAF is supposed, or so I believed, to be keeping a watchful eye on activity in the UK, but seem to have no idea what is going on.

“Do they have standard procedure for these incidents? They had enough time to think about it, because the object was on our radar for upwards of seven hours!

“While I am interested in finding out what was seen, my primary concern stems from the absolute shambles that such events seem to cause.”

Documents outlining the investigation into the incident concluded that several phenomena were to blame for the red, white and blue flashing lights that were seen above the horizon.

They are also named in the documents as a "celestial source".

The official file on the incident said: "The prolonged sighting of stationary coloured flashing lights reported by the Skegness Police on 5 October 1996 had no significance for the integrity of UK airspace and no associated air vehicle was detected by civil or military radars.”

The documents are part of 15 files that have been published by the National Archives. Three are still yet to be published.

The documents have not been digitised and can only be viewed at the National Archives in Kew, West London.

{ http://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/ }

28-06-2017 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

Project Blue Book Origins — Part 1 of 3

By Cheryl Costa

 

Columnist Cheryl Costa begins a three-part series of articles on Project Blue Book.

Back on May 25 of this year, a news item in Variety magazine announced that famed director Robert Zemeckis had teamed up with A&E to produce a 10-episode drama series about Project Blue Book for the History Channel. For those unfamiliar with Blue Book, it was an Air Force’s effort from 1952 to 1969, charged with the responsibility to investigate reports of Unidentified Flying Objects. Let’s take brief a look at the convoluted origins of Project Blue Book.

PROJECT SIGN

During World War II numerous bomber crews reported seeing luminous balls and discs in their air space while flying missions. These unknown high performance flying objects became known as “foo fighters.” The Army Air Force’s investigative effort into foo fighters was very first by intelligence officers into the mysterious topic of UFOs.

In 1947, the Air Force separated from the Army and became a branch onto itself. That same year, Air Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Field received orders to direct the Technical Intelligence Division to conduct a classified inquiry into UFOs. The principle reason was that the Air Force had taken a keen interest in UFOs because they had been frequently observed near various sensitive military facilities in the Southwest. In addition, during June and July of that year, UFO reports came in from over 38 states and were widely reported in the press.

Under pressure to come up with answers, Major General L. C. Craigie, director of Research and Development for the Air Force, directed the establishment of a research group code named Project Sign.

After eight months of interviewing highly credible witnesses, conducting investigations and analyzing the data, it was time to report some findings. The Technical Intelligence Division at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in concert with personnel from Project Sign, decided to author the Estimate of the Situation document.

By all accounts the top secret document allegedly concluded that some of the UFOs were of extraterrestrial origin. These conclusions did not sit well with Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, who was reported to have rejected the Estimate of the Situation findings. It is alleged that all copies of the report were subsequently destroyed.

PROJECT GRUDGE

It’s been my observation that military generals who aren’t happy about the performance of a unit or perhaps the results of a project frequently clean house of at least key command personnel, and sometimes there’s a clean sweep within the ranks.

General Vandenberg, being less than happy or confident with the results of Project Sign, ordered a massive change in personnel. The replacement staff had a new set of operating principles; simply that all these UFO reports could be explained in realistic and conventional terms. The new unit was renamed in February of 1949 with a new code name: Project Grudge.

It was the Project Grudge team that established the cultural perspective that UFOs were:

1. Misinterpretations of various conventional objects.
2. A mild form of mass-hysteria and war nerves.
3. Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetuate a hoax or to seek publicity.
4. Psychopathological persons.

The Project Grudge team also put forth the concern that an enemy could release strange aerial objects, augmented with psychological propaganda. The effect of an enemy action like this, they proposed, could be used to generate mass hysteria. The Pentagon’s Office of Psychological Warfare confirmed this notion of psychological warfare to induce war nerves and mass fear among the civilian population.

As a secret UFO investigation military entity, Project Grudge didn’t do much better than Project Sign in getting to the bottom of the UFO phenomena. The unit only lasted about eight months. In the final report of their UFO investigations, it listed UFO sighting reports totaling 273. Despite Project Grudge’s policy that UFOs are just misidentified conventional objects, hysteria, war nerves, hoaxes and deranged persons, their final report listed 23 percent, or 63 cases, as “unidentified.”

If you are interested in joining a monthly UFO discussion group in the Onondaga County area, drop Cheryl an email at Blogger@CherylCosta.com. If you have a UFO sighting to report, you can use either one of the two national database services: nuforc.org or mufon.com. Both services respect confidentiality. Follow me on Twitter @American_Skies.

Attention, Central New York residents: Join a monthly MUFON-sponsored speakers presentation and discussion group in Syracuse. Regularly held the last Saturday of the month, it runs from April 29 through October 28, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m, May Memorial, 3800 E. Genesee St. Plenty of off-street parking is available.

{ https://www.syracusenewtimes.com/ }

28-06-2017 om 20:49 geschreven door peter  

Orlando witness reports object hovering over building

A Florida witness at Orlando reported watching a cylinder-shaped object silently hovering over a nearby building, according to testimony in Case 84126 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The witness was driving along Conway Road near the Judge Road intersection when the object was observed hovering over a nearby building.

(Credit: Google)

The witness was driving along Conway Road in Orlando, heading north from Tradeport Avenue at 9:12 p.m. on June 1, 2017, when the incident began.

“This is a common area that planes are landing in, so seeing lights in the sky approaching us was very normal to see,” the witness stated.“I drive down this street almost daily around the same time, so am used to seeing certain sights along the way.”

While approaching a red light at Judge Road, the witness and a sister noticed planes approaching them when one looked out of place.

“I joked about how it could be a UFO because of how odd the flight pattern and lights were. We both kept steady on it; I watching while trying to pay attention to the cars in front of me. It approached us closer and closer and we both got nervous because it was the size of a plane hovering over the building off to the right side of us, maybe 50feet or less away from where we were.”

The two watched as the object hovered over a building, with lights flashing, with no sound.

“We waited to see if we were seeing things, if it was actually moving and maybe we didn’t see the movement for whatever reason. No movement, still hovering over the building and flashing lights. About 10-15 seconds after we realized it was not a plane and that we were in fact seeing a giant object hovering over a building next to us, it disappeared.”

The witness could hear so sound coming from the object. Pictured: Conway Road near the Judge Road intersection.

(Credit: Google)

The witness pulled off to the side of the road to see if the lights appeared anywhere.

“Nothing. The area was clear, its path had no obstructions, yet it was nowhere to be seen. So where could it have possibly gone? The rest of the way home, 15 minutes total, we talked about what to do next. Tell someone? File a report? Keep it to ourselves? We are definitely sure of what we saw. This was not normal and definitely not a plane.”

Florida MUFON Field Investigator Robert Andrews investigated this case and closed it as an Unknown UAV.

“In speaking with the witness,” Andrews stated in his report,“she said the sky was clear (no low hanging clouds) and she did not observe any smoke or other anomalies in the area. She remains quite certain that she saw ‘something’ that seemed to be hovering over the buildings with white and blue lights, but has no idea of what it may have been.

“I also considered that maybe there were low clouds and the light reflecting from the ground or overhead aircraft caused an optical illusion for the witness. However, I did not find any evidence to support that theory.

“The location of these building in relation to the airport flight path and the very low altitude of planes normal landing approach would seem to rule out the likelihood of any commercial or private aircraft flying through this area except as in a landing approach.

“The only other plausible scenario is that the witness viewed reflections from street lights, landing aircraft and interior lights of her vehicle reflecting unusual images on the windows of her car. I could not duplicate this occurrence, but I believe other MUFON cases contain many instances of this occurring.

The object seemed to disappear and the witness was unable to find it again. Pictured: Conway Road near the Judge Road intersection.

(Credit: Google)

“According to FlightRadar24.com, there were five planes flying over these buildings for landing at 9:04, 9:07, 9:08, 9:09 and 9:21 p.m. This is consistent with the witness estimate of 9:12 p.m. for her sighting.

“Witness said she was fairly certain of the time – plus or minus a few minutes.While I was there, I observed the same landing pattern – planes one to two minutes apart.

“If there had been an aerial obstruction – these planes would have been directed to 17R, which is parallel and about two miles east of runway 18L. While there, I observed planes landing on both runways. Planes landing on the other runway cannot be seen except farther out on their approach because of terrain and distance.”

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.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

28-06-2017 om 20:39 geschreven door peter  

26 juin 2017 : conférence de Jacques Vallée, Paris, FRANCE

{ http://dossiersinexpliques.blogspirit.com/ }

28-06-2017 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

28-06-2017 om 20:03 geschreven door peter  

The hunt for EXTRA DIMENSIONS begins: ESA approves gravitational wave-chasing spacecraft for 2034 - and it could help us find parallel universes

• Ripples in the fabric of space and time are called gravitational waves
• ESA has approved a trio of gravitational wave hunting satellites for 2034
• The satellites will orbit the sun in a triangular formation while firing lasers
• Gravitational waves will make tiny changes to the distances between the lasers
• An extra dimension would change the way gravitational waves stretch space 
• If these changes can be detected, it could help discover an extra dimension

By Harry Pettit For Mailonline

The existence of parallel universes within an unseen dimension has long been one of the universe's biggest 'what ifs'.

Now the European Space Agency (EA) has approved a mission that will hunt for gravitational waves - mysterious space-time disturbances that could finally prove the existence of extra dimensions.

Physicists think that unknown dimensions could cause ripples through reality by modifying these gravitational waves.

Since gravity is likely to occupy all dimensions that exist, its waves are a promising way to detect unknown dimensions.

Scroll down for video

The LISA mission (artist's impression), now scheduled for 2034, will be made up of three identical satellites separated by 2.5 million km (1.5 million miles) in a triangular formation. The craft will follow Earth in its orbit around the sun while firing lasers between one another

In search of these waves, ESA has now given its Laser Interferometer Space Antenna mission (LISA) the green light for 2034 after decades of development and delays.

'I think there's a mixture of super-excitement and "at last",' Professor Mark McCaughrean, ESA's senior adviser for science & exploration, told New Scientist.

'We're finally over the starting line – it's great.'

LISA will be made up of three identical satellites, separated by 2.5 million km (1.5 million miles) in a triangular formation, that will follow Earth in its orbit around the sun.

The three craft will beam powerful lasers between one another as they search for ripples in space-time caused by gravitational waves.

The LISA satellites will read how these waves warp space by detecting tiny changes in the distances the laser beams travel.

Gravitational waves are often created by by celestial objects with very strong gravity, such as pairs of merging black holes.

The primary targets for LISA's observations will be merging supermassive black holes, Professor McCaughrean said, in a bid to better understand the powerful celestial bodies.

This is not the first time that scientists have delved into the origins of gravitational waves. 

Earlier this year, researchers suggested that gravitational waves could also be evidence of an unseen, extra dimension.

The LISA satellites (artist's impression) will read how gravitational waves warp space by detecting tiny changes in the distances the laser beams travel

While scientists don't yet have the technology to prove this, by 2034 LISA could provide a route to testing ripples in space-time for evidence of parallel universes.

Speaking to New Scientist last month, Gustavo Lucena Gomez, who is leading a study into extra dimensions at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany, said: 'If there are extra dimensions in the universe, then gravitational waves can walk along any dimension, even the extra dimensions.'

Gravity is weaker than other fundamental forces, and experts have long wondered whether this is because some of it is escaping into an extra dimension.

The German team set out to calculate how an extra dimension would affect gravitational waves, and found two strange effects – extra waves at high frequencies, and a change in how gravitational waves stretch space.

As gravitational waves move through an extra dimension, the researchers found that they should generate a 'tower' of extra gravitational waves with higher frequencies.

But observatories are currently unable to detect frequencies that high, and instead focus on lower frequency gravitational waves.

Unknown dimensions could cause ripples through reality by modifying gravitational waves - changes in the space-time fabric. Since gravity is likely to occupy all dimensions that exist, its waves are a promising way to detect unknown dimensions (artist's impression)

Physicists think that unknown dimensions could cause ripples through reality by modifying gravitational waves - changes in the space-time fabric. These waves can also be triggered by two colliding planets or black holes (artist's impression)

This could make spotting the gravitational wave towers a challenge.

But detecting the change in how gravitational waves stretch space could be easier, according to the researchers.

Dr Lucena Gomez said: 'If extra dimensions are in our universe, this would stretch or shrink space-time in a different way that standard gravitational waves would never do.'

Gravitational waves stretch space as they ripple through the universe a bit like a rubber band – the ellipse gets longer in one direction and shorter in the other, before returning to its original shape.

The targets for LISA's observations will be merging supermassive black holes in a bid to better understand the powerful celestial bodies (artist's impression) but it could eventually be used to test ripples in space time for signs of an extra dimension

The existence of parallel universes within an unseen dimension has long been one of the universe's biggest 'what ifs' (stock image)

But an extra dimension could add another way for gravitational waves to stretch space, called a breathing mode.

In the same way that lungs expand as you breathe, gravitational waves cause space to expand and contract, in addition to stretching.

Dr Lucena Gomez said: 'With more detectors we will be able to see whether this breathing mode is happening.'

Dr Emilian Dudas, from the Ecole Polytechnique in France told New Scientist: 'Extra dimensions have been discussed for a long time from different points of view.

'Gravitational waves could be a new twist on looking for extra dimensions.'  

Read more:

• Gravitational waves could show hints of extra dimensions | New Scientist
• ESA approves gravitational-wave hunting spacecraft for 2034 | New Scientist

{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/}

28-06-2017 om 19:57 geschreven door peter  

28-06-2017 om 19:41 geschreven door peter  

Opportunity images show ET presence on Mars?

Streetcap1 believes he has found strange objects in images NASA's Mars Opportunity rover took in 2005. He wonders whether these objects are extraterrestrial or not.

The first image shows something something what looks like an alien craft, while the second image appears to show a white Martian object in the distance.

As usually there is much discussion on social media on these objects.

The white Martian object could be an alien, a humanoid, while something bigger standing behind the humanoid. Explanations for the object in the first image vary from an alien craft to a Mars vehicle with begs, etc.

Without doubt, many images captured by the Opportunity and the Curiosity have already shown overwhelming evidence of past and present ‘intelligent’ life on Mars but if we take a closer look at the two objects depicted in the 2005 images it’s clear that it has nothing to do with aliens, humanoids or any kind of alien craft or vehicle.

It turns out the kind of alien craft is just a part of the Lander Shell (heat shield) of the Opportunity while the white Martian object is a reflection of sunlight on another part of the Lander Shell.

Above images were taken by the Opportunity in 2005 (SOL 319 to SOL 344) and show besides the heat shield, several other parts of the Lander Shell as well as some mechanical parts reflected by sunlight.

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

28-06-2017 om 19:34 geschreven door peter  

NASA, PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS FORMATION OF UFOS FROM THE STS-100 MISSION

UFO hunters have experienced a resurgence of interest in one of the most bizarre UFO mysteries of the past few decades. Space watchers and UFO enthusiasts have been putting renewed pressure on the space agency NASA to open up about the photograph they took on the STS-100 mission in 2001 which appears to show a number of UFOs traveling in formation in the vicinity of the International Space Station.  

The mysterious image initially appeared on NASA’s online archives of photographs taken in the course of various space travel missions, but it was swiftly deleted from the image bank once individuals began to question what was depicted in it. The space agency has a history of deleting potentially compromising images that appear to show UFOs in this solar system which has led to many people arguing that the space agency is attempting to cover up the existence a highly intelligent alien civilization which operates in close proximity to Earth.

While the image caused quite a storm at the time, most people within the UFO hunter community forgot about it as the years went by. However, there has been renewed interest in the peculiar image owing to the Black Vault, a UFO website, which has reviewed the case recently. Workers for the Black Vault focussed on the claims made by skeptics who suggested that the UFOs in the image were actually nothing more than a photographic anomaly caused by long exposure of moving objects or multiple images laid on top of one another. Researchers at the Black Vault attempted to disprove this explanation by demonstrating how images actually look when space debris is caught on long exposure or when several photographs are laid on top of one another. The images that they produced looked nothing like the mysterious photograph which was taken by NASA cameras of the UFO formation back in 2001.

This is not the first time that NASA has come under pressure, to tell the truth about unusual images captured in the course of their exploration missions. However, if history is a guide, the space agency will maintain a stony silence about these images which they tend to prefer to cover up as much as they can.  

Originally published by:

http://ewao.com/2016/08/18/alien-hunters-want-nasa-explain-formation-ufos/

RELATED ARTICLES

• Alien Hunters Want NASA To Explain This ‘Formation Of UFOs’
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{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

28-06-2017 om 19:24 geschreven door peter  

THIS IS NASA'S RESPONSE TO ANONYMOUS' ALIEN DISCLOSURE CLAIM

When the online collectivist group Anonymous released a new video this week claiming that the space agency NASA was imminently about to announce the discovery of extra-terrestrial life in this universe, it generated a huge amount of excitement for space watchers all over the world. Unfortunately, according to the space agency, the claims made by Anonymous in this viral video is simply incorrect.

NASA CLAIMS THAT ANONYMOUS’S ALIEN ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO IS FALSE 

"Contrary to some reports, there's no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life, "said Robert Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science in a tweet published this week, putting an end to the speculation that the space agency was on the cusp of making a major announcement about the discovery of extra-terrestrial life.

The announcement by NASA came as no surprise to many people who deemed the video released by Anonymous to contain false information from the outset. Many observers pointed out that the video actually contained no information about the supposed discovery of extra-terrestrial life and instead relied heavily on Zubuchen’s own comments at a Senate hearing when he claimed that, "We are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented discoveries in history.” However, these claims were taken out of context by Anonymous. Zurbuchen was referring to NASA’s work in the long-term rather than speaking of an imminent discovery.

But even though this information was false, those who are keenly awaiting the announcement that NASA has discovered extra-terrestrial life may not have to wait for too long. Most of the astronomers and scientists working for the space agency believe that they will be able to announce the discovery of alien life in the space of the next ten to thirty years. Scientists working for the agency are particularly excited about the potential of next-generation hardware such as the James Webb Space Telescope which will be fully operational in the course of the next few years. It is hoped that the incredibly powerful telescope will be an essential tool to allow scientists to discover life far away from planet Earth.

ANONYMOUS BELIEVES NASA IS POISED TO ANNOUNCE DISCOVERY OF ALIENS  

RELATED ARTICLES

• Kepler NASAs telescope has found an alien Megastructures?!
• 100,000 Signatures In 30 Days Are Needed For A White House Response

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

28-06-2017 om 19:15 geschreven door peter  

New Faction Book Touches UFO Sighting Over Wellington, Author Says

New York Times bestselling author Steve Alten claims he spotted something bizarre in the sky over Wellington. He says he saw about a dozen objects in saucer shape with amber lights on the bottoms flying along State Road 7 from south to north. The objects were going in staggered pairs about a thousand feet in the air and moving whisper quiet, according to Alten.

Alten believes he witnessed a series of UFOs in the night sky in 2013. He has been researching about it ever since, culminating the creation of a fiction book Undisclosed. His extensive research on UFOs and aliens has made him convinced that extraterrestrials exist.

Alten is known for his books centring around the fictitious survival of the giant prehistoric shark called Megalodon. He reveals that his latest novel is based on what he believes are facts, so he prefers to call it as faction instead of fiction. The book cover features flying saucers over a farm with the tagline “We’ve been lied to…”

Alten describes what he witnessed that night. He says that eight to twelve lights were flying in staggered pairs approaching less than a thousand feet above State Road 7 from the south. Alte says that the lights were far too silent and smooth to be helicopters and planes.

When the lights passed overhead, Alten could see the outline of saucer-shaped vessels. Alten who was driving the car with his wife parked the car, stood and watched them. Both of them were left stunned as the lights moved north through a cloudless night sky. The UFOs then quietly faded pair by pair.

>> Amazon link for the book <<

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

28-06-2017 om 18:59 geschreven door peter  

Wildlife Photographer Captures A UFO

Seeing and photographing animals popping out from nowhere is not new to wildlife photographer Ken Rice. However, something unusual suddenly appeared when he was out shooting photos on Saturday. His camera lens captured something he has never seen before. He could not explain the thing that came out of nowhere. Rice is a resident in Oshawa and was at the marsh area close to the General Motors of Canada headquarters situated on Colonel Sam Drive when he noticed the strange object off in the distance at around 7:45 p.m. on 17th June.

Rice said that he was walking back to his car and spotted something that popped out all of a sudden far away in the sky. He first thought that it was a big turkey vulture, so he decided to take a photo of it as it hovered, remained there for a minute and went away.

When Rice got home, he took a closer look at the image. However, he has no idea what could be the object.

The object was faster and too high for a balloon, according to Rice. He called the unknown aerial thing as UFO since he could not identify the object and no one could give an explanation after he posted the photo on Facebook.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

28-06-2017 om 18:56 geschreven door peter  

Triangle-shaped UFO filmed over Israel, 2017

There isn’t much details about this video. I found it on Youtube today and all I know is that this triangle UFO was recorded over Israel recently.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

28-06-2017 om 18:53 geschreven door peter  

Daytime UFO caught on tape over Indian Shores, Florida 17-Jun-2017

This strange object was filmed flying in the sky above Indian Shores in Florida. This was filmed on 17th June 2017.

Witness report:

 Bright white sphere appears in self photos, it is in various positions on pics.

I was in Indian Shores, Florida taking pics of myself w/ ocean behind me, it was daytime. I did not see object at that time, only when I saw pics
later at home after uploading to pc. The object was very bright white
round sphere. I was standing in same spot mostly, but the object in the pics
seems to have moved a number of times. It shows up on my right side, my left, and high over my head. I use the Sun as the reference point.

When I zoom in on pic, the light shows a little red and green on opposite
sides. So that makes me think its not a planet. And not a star, cause they
don’t move like that. Anyway, there are other anomalies around the sun, that
could be a photo mess up, I can’t tell exactly why those colors are there.
But the video explains what may have caused it, maybe a photo expert can tell what it is or isn’t. I’m sending this just for the record. The white sphere is the reason I’m sending this. Thankx

Author (source: MUFON)

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

28-06-2017 om 18:47 geschreven door peter  

Some Of The World’s Top Scientists Met Recently To Discuss How To Find Alien Life

A remarkable meeting of minds took place in California last month on April 20 and 21. Stanford University was the scene for the second annual Breakthrough Discuss, where scientists from a variety of fields came together to tackle arguably the greatest question we have ever faced – are we alone in the universe?

The event was part of Breakthrough Initiatives, a bold program started by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner to spark advancements in the search for life. This includes searching for alien signals via Breakthrough Listen and potentially traveling to Proxima b, the closest exoplanet to Earth, with Breakthrough Starshot.

The idea of Breakthrough Discuss was not only to talk about these ventures, but also to explore the broader search for life. This includes finding potentially habitable worlds around nearby stars like the TRAPPIST-1 system and more recent discoveries relating to Enceladus. There were also discussions on the possibility of finding signals from aliens, known as the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

“I’m just so delighted with this meeting,” Jill Tarter from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, told IFLScience. “We want to know what our place in the universe is. Are we part of something that’s quite common, or are we totally separate and unusual and unique?”

^{A panel discussion at the event. Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience}

Breakthrough Discuss began with a series of talks on red dwarf stars and their potential for hosting life. The idea has come to the fore recently, particularly with places like TRAPPIST-1 40 light-years away found to have multiple rocky planets in orbit. Red dwarfs are the most numerous stars in our galaxy, and their relative dimness compared to our Sun makes it easier to see and study the planets in orbit around them.

It’s still not clear if a planet in orbit around a red dwarf can be habitable; the stars are temperamental and prone to flaring. But they are undoubtedly attractive targets, and they may be some of the best places to look for life. Just the other day, a new planet was found around the red dwarf LHS 1140b, also about 40 light-years away, which has been heralded as a great place to look.

Guillem Anglada-Escudé from Queen Mary University of London gave the keynote talk of the conference, discussing how he and his team were going to study the nearest red dwarfs for planets. We already know Proxima Centauri 4.2 light-years away plays host to at least one – Proxima b – and it may have more. Now, Anglada-Escudé and his team will shift their focus to Barnard’s Star 6 light-years away, and other nearby red dwarfs, as part of a new project called Red Dots to find nearby planets. We should know by the end of the year if there’s anything there.

“We want to get more science done, look for more planets,” Anglada-Escudé, who was recently named one of Time’s 100 most influential people, told IFLScience. “You never know what’s there until you look for it.”

^{Anglada-Escudé presents his research at Breakthrough Discuss. Jonathan O’Callaghan/IFLScience}

Finding these planets is only the first part, though. A number of scientists are now investigating what techniques we can use to work out if they have any life on them. Direct imaging of the surfaces will be next to impossible, so instead we’ll need to examine the atmospheres of the planets by studying the light that comes through them from their host star.

Most of the work in this area focuses on a handful of molecules such as oxygen and methane, but in total there are 1,500 molecules that could be useful. Huge upcoming ground-based telescopes – known as Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) – like the upcoming Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii and the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile will help in this endeavor, as will NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

“I’m very excited about the planets around low mass stars,” Sir Martin Rees, the UK Astronomer Royal, told IFLScience. “And I think it’s very good to realize that the next-generation race to build giant ground-based telescopes is going to open up the possibility of getting real spectroscopic data on the nearest planets.”

The field has changed dramatically in just a few years. In 2009, when NASA launched its Kepler Telescope, we still weren’t sure how common planets were around other stars. Now we know of thousands, and we’re honing in on some that could be habitable. Every star is now thought to host at least one planet on average, and likely many more.

And the question of finding life is the driving factor of it all. We’ve got no idea if life like that on our planet is common, or if we’re a rare gem in a dead universe. We may be able to answer that question inside our own Solar System, with places like Enceladus and Europa looking like they may have the necessary conditions for life. But exoplanets carry an almost equal allure.

“It’s an amazing time to be involved in the search for life,” Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University in New York, told IFLScience. “This is the first time in human history we have the means to do it, and if we get really lucky and find life starts everywhere, we could actually have the proof that we’re not alone in hand pretty soon.”

^{Enceladus looks like a great bet for life in our Solar System. NASA/JPL-Caltech}

The idea that life might be common in the universe has also driven SETI for decades, with early pioneers like Frank Drake in 1960 suggesting we might be able to hear signals from advanced civilizations around other stars. SETI has struggled for funding over the years, but Milner’s injection of $100 million ensures the search will continue for at least 10 years as part of Breakthrough Listen.

“We’ll take funding from any source we can,” said Tarter. “If we discover a signal, or if we discover life beyond Earth, that information is not coming to California, it’s coming to the planet. These kinds of scientific explorations should be international and global.”

Truth be told, it was somewhat of an odd marriage seeing SETI discussed alongside more grounded science at Breakthrough Discuss. The prospect of finding a signal from an alien civilization is still far-fetched; in six decades of searching, we’ve found nothing. It’s often said that if we don’t look we’ll never know, but SETI remains somewhat fanciful.

“I’m working on the search for life on other planets, planets orbiting alien suns,” said Kaltenegger. “And at this conference, it’s the most conservative thing that’s being talked about!”

That’s not to say there might be nothing out there, and it might well be worth the search. Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center, presented the first scientific results from the first year of the Breakthrough Listen project, on which he is also the lead. While nothing was found, this is one of the most extensive searches to date. If it draws a blank after a decade, well, that may force a rethink.

“At what point do we give up on SETI?” a panel of experts at Breakthrough Discuss was asked. “Not any time soon,” replied Tarter.

^{TRAPPIST-1 may have three potentially habitable worlds. NASA/JPL-Caltech}

And then there was the grand finale, the discussion about actually sending a spacecraft to a planet around another star. This project, called Breakthrough Starshot, was announced in April 2016 to considerable fanfare. Using a giant laser on Earth, a small chip with a massive sail would be accelerated to one-fifth the speed of light, reaching Proxima Centauri – and thus Proxima b – in just 20 years.

Breakthrough Discuss, however, highlighted just how difficult such a proposal might be. One attendee told IFLScience that they thought the project was now less likely to happen that it was a year prior, based on the huge number of challenges that have become apparent.

One is actually firing the laser at the spacecraft in the first place, laid bare by Zac Manchester from Harvard University in a fascinating talk titled “How to ride a laser beam”. He pointed out that the force of the laser hitting a flat sail could send it spiraling off course, so it may be necessary to use a spherical sail to stay on track for Proxima. This itself presents new challenges that have yet to be solved, such as how to spread the force of the laser over the whole sail.

Even if the spacecraft gets there, sending data back is also a huge issue. The chip at its center will be barely a gram in weight, with the sail mere atoms thick. Thus there will be no room for an antenna to transmit data – including images of the planet – back to our planet. Some novel ideas include using the sail itself as a giant antenna, although we don’t yet know if this is possible.

^{Will Starshot get off the ground? Breakthrough Initiatives}

And even if we get there, the flyby will be extremely brief. René Heller from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany said in a talk how, after 20 years of travel, the flyby would last just a matter of seconds. He instead proposed using Proxima’s companion stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, to slow down the spacecraft and enter orbit around Proxima b, something that would return much more data at the cost of a much longer mission. We’ve covered this interstellar roundtrip idea before if you want some more information.

But even if Starshot never gets off the ground, it is at least inspiring some critical thinking in the area of interstellar travel that has not been explored before. Even materials science stands to benefit, with Heller showing off a small piece of graphene that could be used to develop giant sails for traversing the Solar System and beyond.

And Yuri Milner himself seems anything but disheartened, explaining his ethos in a fascinating but sadly off-the-record discussion with IFLScience and other journalists. He remains committed to the cause though, and clearly wants to be part of a discovery that makes life on another planet a possibility, whether that’s humanity or an alien race.

“Breakthrough Discuss boldly demonstrated that we stand on the precipice of making one of the most amazing discoveries in the history of humanity,” Siemion told IFLScience.

For every speculative fantasy, the conference remained mostly grounded in science. If we are to discover we are not alone, the people who’ll find out were very likely here.

Source www.iflscience.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

28-06-2017 om 00:21 geschreven door peter  

NASA Poised to Discover Alien Life –“We are On the Verge of Making One of the Most Profound Discoveries in History”

“Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are specifically searching for evidence of alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented, discoveries in history,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate during the recent congressional hearing of the committee on ‘Advances in the Search for Life,’ on April 29th.

Zurbuchen reported that NASA’s recent advances, such as the discovery of hydrogen in Saturn’s moon Enceladus and the Hubble team’s promising results from the oceans of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, are promising signs that we’re closer than ever to discovering evidence of alien life. Zurbuchen has been involved with several NASA science missions — Ulysses, the MESSENGER spacecraft to Mercury, and the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE).

Here are key excerpts from Zurbuchen’s profound testimony at the April 29 hearimng:

“Now, with NASA missions like the Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, we have discovered more than 3,400 exoplanets,with billions more just waiting to be revealed in our galaxy alone. This February, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope team announced the discovery of seven Earthsizedplanets, the most ever, found around a single star, called TRAPPIST-1. Three of theseplanets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water. This system of seven rocky worlds – all of them with the potential for water, a key to life as we know it – is an exciting discovery in the search for life on other worlds.

“The TRAPPIST-1 system is just 39 light years away and its discovery tells us that there is plenty of planet making material in our little corner of the solar system, indicating that finding Earth-like planets may actually be closer to us than we originally thought. Future study of this planetary system could reveal conditions suitable for life. Since the initial observations, the follow-on findings for TRAPPIST-1 (and exoplanets in general) are occurring almost weekly, but the best is yet to come.

NASA’s Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler Space Telescopes will continue to help astronomers plan for such 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.

“The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission will also launch next year, to survey the entire sky for nearby exoplanets, and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), launching in the mid-2020s, will directly image exoplanets and study their atmospheric chemistry for the first time using reflected light from their stars.

“NASA is studying mission concepts even beyond these near-term missions for the 2030s that would further explore and characterize the bounty of possible habitable Earth-like planets. These mission concepts include the Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission and the Large Ultraviolet/Visible/Infrared Surveyor, which would operate from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared like Hubble and WFIRST, and the Origins Space Telescope, which would operate from the mid-infrared to the far infrared like the James Webb telescope.

“For astrobiology, the key thing to remember is that answering the fundamental question of “is there life out there?” will require scientific breakthroughs from many different science fields, including ones that are not currently engaged in this exciting endeavor. This, however, demonstrates the nature of great research: it’s not just about answering questions that have been asked in the past, it is about finding entirely new questions that will have impact for a long time to come.”

Above is the video of the April 29th hearing. Fast forward to 22:00. The hearing will surveyed recent breakthroughs in a variety of fields that contribute to astrobiology, such as the continued discovery of exoplanets and research efforts to understand life’s origin on Earth and in the lab.

Source www.dailygalaxy.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

28-06-2017 om 00:14 geschreven door peter  

We Haven’t Found Extraterrestrial Life, Says NASA

Yesterday we brought you the rather odd news that hacking group Anonymous thought NASA was going to announce they’d found intelligent alien life.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense hopefully quickly realized there was nothing to this story. And note, it probably wasn’t even the “official” Anonymous group, if there is such a thing. But for good measure, NASA has come out and debunked it anyway.

“Contrary to some reports, there’s no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life,” Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said on Twitter.

“Are we alone in the universe? While we do not know yet, we have missions moving forward that may help answer that fundamental question,” he added in another tweet.

Of course, if you’re one to believe alien conspiracy theories, you’re probably not going to believe this statement from Zurbuchen. So take our word for it that this is all just some weird baloney spread by some guy or girl claiming to be part of Anonymous.

Zurbuchen is right, though. Whether we’re alone in the universe is still an open question. But we’re getting closer to answering it. In our own Solar System, we’ve found a few places – oceans under the surface of Europa and Enceladus, for instance – that might be good places for microbial life.

Elsewhere, we’re finding more and more planets that could be habitable. In the coming years, we’re going to be able to study the atmospheres of some of these planets, and hopefully find out if they have any biosignatures.

And there are also several searches underway for intelligent alien life. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been looking for signals for decades. More recently, the Breakthrough Listen project – funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner – has also joined the hunt.

The fact is, though, that we simply haven’t found anything yet. There’s no NASA-funded project looking for intelligent life, so if we did stumble across a signal, it would be one of the two aforementioned private endeavors.

That we haven’t found any life is a bit of a quandary, known as the Fermi Paradox. Planets seem to be pretty abundant in the universe, so why haven’t we found any other life yet? The answer is either we’re alone, or we haven’t looked hard enough yet.

No intelligent aliens are going to be making their way undetected into the Solar System anytime soon, though. If an alien ship does arrive on our doorstop, we’ll probably know about it. For now, we’re alone – and that’s kind of terrifying in its own right.

Source www.iflscience.com

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

28-06-2017 om 00:07 geschreven door peter  

{ http://nationalufocenter.com/ }

27-06-2017 om 23:40 geschreven door peter  

Filer’s Files #26 – 2017 Kepler Finds 4,034 Exoplanets - PART II

27-06-2017 om 23:28 geschreven door peter