Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
07-08-2017
This 3D-Printed Human Heart Can Do Everything a Real One Can
This 3D-Printed Human Heart Can Do Everything a Real One Can
The artificial heart imitates a human heart as closely as possible
Photo: ETH Zurich
IN BRIEF
Soft robotics and 3D printing have allowed a team of researchers from Switzerland to develop an artificial heart that works like the real thing. This proof of concept design was successfully tested in the lab, but it may take a while before it will be ready.
Scientists have been developing artificial hearts for quite some time now. However, many of the current designs are unfortunately clunky, which presents difficulties in successfully integrating them into human tissue. To approach this issue, a team of researchers from ETH Zürich decided to take a cue from the biological human heart.
Instead of using separate parts, the Swiss team, led by Nicholas Cohrs, 3D-printed an artificial heart using a soft, flexible material. The material was molded into a single part (or a “monoblock”) which allowed the team to design a complex inner structure complete with pumping mechanisms able to be triggered by silicon ventricles. This method imitates a realistic human heartbeat.
“[O]ur goal is to develop an artificial heart that is roughly the same size as the patient’s own one and which imitates the human heart as closely as possible in form and function,” Cohrs said in a press release. The team successfully tested this artificial heart, pumping blood-like fluid at human body-like pressures. The team published their research in the journal Artificial Organs.
However, this design is still a proof of concept, which means it’s yet to be ready for actual implantation. The materials used are, as of right now, unable to last more than half an hour or some few thousand heartbeats, though that could vary a bit depending on a person’s heart rate. It’s a limitation the team will continue to work on, as new materials and design improvements advance. Once perfected, this design could potentially improve the lives and health of around 26 million people worldwide who suffer from various heart conditions.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
De Voyagers: al bijna veertig jaar onderweg naar het onbekende
De Voyagers: al bijna veertig jaar onderweg naar het onbekende
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Geen enkel ruimtevaartuig wist het zo ver te schoppen als Voyager 1 en Voyager 2: de sondes die al bijna 40 jaar op weg zijn naar het onbekende.
Op 20 augustus is het precies 40 jaar geleden dat NASA de ruimtesonde Voyager 2 de lucht in slingerde. En een paar weekjes later, op 5 september, gaan de herinneringen terug naar diezelfde 5 september in 1977, de dag waarop Voyager 1 het luchtruim koos. Al bijna veertig jaar vliegen de ruimtesondes rond. En daarmee zijn het niet alleen de langst werkende ruimtesondes ooit. De ruimtesondes breken ook alle records als het gaat over de afstand die ze tot op heden hebben afgelegd: geen enkel ruimtevaartuig heeft het zo ver geschopt als Voyager 1 en Voyager 2. Eerstgenoemde sonde bevindt zich inmiddels op een slordige 21 miljard kilometer afstand van de aarde. En Voyager 2 is bijna 18 miljard kilometer van ons verwijderd. Op die enorme afstand van de aarde snellen beide sondes met een onvoorstelbare snelheid van zo’n 48.280 kilometer per uur voort, in een omgeving waar nog geen enkele door mensen gebouwde sonde ooit geweest is. Bijna veertig jaar nadat deze baanbrekende missie begon, blikken we terug. En kijken we vooruit. Want de Voyager-missie is nog lang niet voorbij.
Op weg In 1977 worden Voyager 1 en Voyager 2 op weg gestuurd. De sondes moesten langs de vier buitenste planeten van het zonnestelsel scheren die op dat moment op één lijn stonden. NASA hoopte dat de beide sondes het zo’n vijf jaar vol zouden houden en een beter beeld konden geven van de twee gasreuzen Jupiter en Saturnus en de ijsreuzen Uranus en Neptunus. De sondes gingen op weg en deden in de decennia die volgden de ene na de andere ontdekking. Voyager 1 ontdekte de eerste buitenaardse actieve vulkanen (op Io, de maan van Jupiter) en de eerste buitenaardse bliksemschichten (op Jupiter). Voyager 2 bracht ondertussen als eerste ruimtesonde ooit de ringen van Jupiter, Neptunus en Uranus in beeld. En samen vonden de Voyagers bewijs voor de aanwezigheid van een oceaan op Jupiters maan Europa. Ook ontdekten de sondes samen meer dan 20 maantjes rond de gas- en ijsreuzen die ons zonnestelsel rijk is. In zekere zin maakten de Voyagers ons zo nog nieuwsgieriger naar het verhaal van deze planeten en hun manen. Het mondde uiteindelijk uit in de Galileo-missie (naar Jupiter) en de Cassini-missie (naar Saturnus).
De interstellaire ruimte Langzaam maar zeker begon wel duidelijk te worden dat de Voyagers meer in hun mars hadden dan het bestuderen van de gas- en ijsreuzen. Deze sondes konden (letterlijk) veel verder gaan. In november 1980 verlaat Voyager 1 Saturnus en zet koers naar een gebied waar nog geen enkel ruimtevaartuig ooit is geweest: de ruimte tussen de sterren. In augustus 1989 zet ook Voyager 2 koers richting de interstellaire ruimte. Het wordt een reis die geduld vereist. Pas in 2012 bereikt Voyager 1 – als eerste ruimtesonde ooit – de interstellaire ruimte. Voyager 2 is er nog altijd niet: de sonde zal de interstellaire ruimte naar verwachting ergens in de komende jaren pas bereiken.
Op deze afbeelding zijn de locaties van Voyager 1 en Voyager 2 in 2005 aangeduid. Op dat moment was Voyager 1 de heliosheath binnengedrongen, dit is het gebied waarin interstellair gas en de zonnewind zich mengen. In 2012 zou Voyager 1 de heliopauze achter zich hebben gelaten en de interstellaire ruimte zijn binnengegaan. Die claim – neergelegd door NASA – werd de eerste jaren regelmatig door onderzoekers in twijfel getrokken. Niet zo heel gek, want we zijn nog nooit in de interstellaire ruimte geweest, dus hoe weet je dan precies dat je er bent? Vervolgonderzoek wijst er echter sterk op dat Voyager 1 in augustus 2012 de interstellaire ruimte heeft bereikt. Overigens wil dat niet zeggen dat Voyager 1 het zonnestelsel verlaten heeft. Sinds de jaren zestig stellen de meeste onderzoekers dat de grens van het zonnestelsel nog voorbij de Oortwolk ligt. In dat gebied begint de zwaartekracht van andere sterren dan onze zon de boel te domineren. Het duurt nog zo’n 300 jaar voordat Voyager 1 de binnenrand van de Oortwolk bereikt en mogelijk zelfs 30.000 jaar om het randje ervan te bereiken. Dus officieel heeft Voyager 1 het zonnestelsel nog niet verlaten. Omdat velen er een andere definitie van zonnestelsel op nahouden (het gebied nabij de zon waarin de planeten zich ophouden) kan er echter wel eens wat verwarring ontstaan. Vandaar dat onderzoekers liever niet stellen dat Voyager 1 het zonnestelsel heeft verlaten, maar spreken van een aanwezigheid in de interstellaire ruimte.
Vanzelfsprekend valt er ook in een gebied waar nog geen enkele ruimtesonde ooit is geweest genoeg te ontdekken. Zo blijkt uit data verzameld door Voyager 1 dat kosmische straling in de interstellaire ruimte veelvuldiger voorkomt dan in de omgeving van de aarde. Het suggereert dat de heliosfeer (het gebied waarin de zonnewind de overheersende stroom van deeltjes is) dienst doet als een soort schild en de planeten in het zonnestelsel beschermt tegen straling.
VOYAGER GOLDEN RECORD
Aan boord van de Voyagers bevindt zich een grammofoonopname met daarop beelden en geluiden die een aardig beeld geven van het leven op aarde. De plaat kan gezien worden als een soort tijdcapsule. Maar misschien ook wel als een soort visitekaartje, mochten aliens de Voyagers ooit onderscheppen.
Probeer je het eens voor te stellen Het is lastig om je een voorstelling te maken van het gebied waarin de Voyagers nu rondzwerven. Het moet er vooral heel eenzaam zijn. De sondes hebben de planeten van ons zonnestelsel inmiddels ver achter zich gelaten. En geen van beide sondes zal de komende 40.000 jaar nog in de buurt van een ster komen. Ze haasten zich door een relatief lege ruimte voort. Hun camera’s zijn – bij een gebrek aan energie en objecten om te fotograferen – al in 1989 (Voyager 2) en 1990 (Voyager 1) uitgeschakeld. “Het is heel donker op de plek waar de Voyagers nu zijn,” vertelt NASA hierover. “Hoewel je met de camera’s nog steeds enkele heldere sterren en planeten zou kunnen zien, kun je die sterren en planeten vanaf de aarde met amateur-telescopen nog beter bekijken.” Er mag dan in de omgeving van de Voyagers weinig te zien zijn: dat betekent niet dat de sondes zich hoeven te vervelen. Ze hebben tal van instrumenten aan boord waarmee ze allerhande metingen kunnen uitvoeren. Zo krijgen we gaandeweg een beter beeld van de omstandigheden in (en op het randje van) de interstellaire ruimte.
Nieuwe ontdekkingen Maar wat kunnen we na veertig jaar Voyager-missie nog verwachten? Nou, een heleboel. Zo lijkt het een kwestie van tijd voor ook Voyager 2 de interstellaire ruimte bereikt. Tegen die tijd zullen beide Voyagers baden in materie afkomstig van andere sterren. “We kunnen niet zeggen welke ontdekkingen nog op Voyager wachten,” stelt onderzoeker Ed Stone. “Niemand kon alle details die Voyager 1 heeft gezien, voorspellen. Dus we verwachten nog meer verrassingen.”
Het roept natuurlijk een interessante vraag op. Want hoelang gaan de oude Voyagers dit kunstje nog volhouden? Het houdt toch een keertje op, zou je denken. En dat is ook zo. Grootste bedreiging voor beide sondes is een tekort aan energie. Naar verwachting zullen onderzoekers in het volgende decennium het ene na het andere onderzoeksinstrument aan boord van de sondes uit moeten schakelen om energie te besparen. Tegen 2030 zal de koek echt op zijn en het laatste onderzoeksinstrument stilvallen. Maar daarmee is de reis van de Voyagers nog niet over. Zij zullen koers houden en nog lang nadat de mensheid ze al is vergeten met een snelheid van meer dan 48.000 kilometer per uur door de Melkweg vliegen.
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
By Live Science Staff
Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.
Alaska's Hidden Dangers
A so-called seismic zone off the coast of Alaska could trigger deadly tsunamis like the one that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, a new study finds.
Major tsunamis often result at the shallow portions of subduction zones, the areas where one of the tectonic plates that make up Earth's surface dives below another. These crash zones are dangerously active, and these tectonic interactions can cause the world's biggest earthquakes and worst tsunamis. [Read more about the dangers.]
Self-Destruct?
This molecule will disappear in 10, 9, 8…
The secret behind these self-destructing molecules is that they would require a tiny input of energy to stay in their useful form — without it, they … poof. [Read more about the vanishing ink.]
Finding a Cause for Scary Situations
While driving and accelerating in his car, a patient in France suddenly had a bizarre sensation. He felt like he was outside his car, looking in at his physical self, which was still at the wheel.
Maya Elzière, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Hôpital Européen in Marseille, France, and co-author of the study, enlisted patients who had experienced a range of issues, from recurrent vertigo and tinnitus to infections in the ear. Among these patients, 14 percent reported out-of-body experiences, compared with only 5 percent of healthy people without vestibular disorders who said the same. [Read more about out-of-body experiences.]
Evidence of Giants
The supposed remains of Sa-Nakht, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt, may be the oldest known human giant, a new study finds.
Prior work suggested that the skeleton of the man — who would have stood at up to 6 feet, 1.6 inches (1.987 meters) tall — may have belonged to Sa-Nakht, a pharaoh during the Third Dynasty. Previous research on ancient Egyptian mummies suggested the average height for men around this time was about 5 foot, 6 inches (1.7 m), said study co-author Michael Habicht, an Egyptologist at the University of Zurich's Institute of Evolutionary Medicine. [Read more about the giant.]
Sleeping Dragon
The remains of a 110-million-year-old tank-size dinosaur — so well preserved that a museum preparator said it looks like a statue of a sleeping dragon — show that this fearsome creature was covered in armor and spikes. But despite this natural "chain mail," the dino needed to camouflage itself from potential predators, according to a new study.
Mitchell's careful preparation unveiled a black sheath covering parts of the 3,000-lb. (1,360 kilogram) specimen. This sheath, researchers suspected, contained remnants of the dinosaur's skin. [Read more about the camouflaged dino.]
Ancient Fidget Spinner?
A 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifact that looks just like a fidget spinner and that a museum labeled as a "spinning toy" for 85 years is actually — unexpectedly — an ancient weapon, curators told Live Science.
The artifact dates to between 2000 B.C. and 1800 B.C. and was made in the ancient site of Tell Asmar, located in present-day Iraq. When researchers first published an analysis of the object, in 1932, they suggested it was a plaything, Kiersten Neumann, a curator and research associate at the Oriental Institute, told Live Science in an email. [Read more about the weapon.]
Forgeries Force Closure
An art exhibit in Genoa, Italy, featuring the works of modern painter Amedeo Clemente Modigliani, recently closed three days ahead of schedule, after suspicions arose that many of the paintings were likely forgeries.
Officials confiscated the contested works after Italian art critic Carlo Pepi filed a complaint with the Carabinieri Headquarters for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC), also known as the "art police," The Telegraph reported on July 14. This highly specialized police force handles criminal activity related to fine art and antiquities, according to a description on the TPC website. [Read more about the accusations.]
Evolution of sexuality
When the world's first flower sprouted about 140 million years ago, it was bisexual, possessing both male and female reproductive parts, according to the researchers who virtually reconstructed the blossom in a new study.
There are many mysteries in plant evolution, and Sauquet and his colleagues were determined to solve one of the biggest ones: what the original angiosperm looked like. [Read more about the first flower.]
Risky Behavior
Firefighters in Ohio were forced to decapitate a pet boa constrictor last week that had latched its teeth onto a woman's nose and wound its serpentine body around her neck, according to news sources. The woman survived, but the incident raises the question: Do boas typically attack the faces and necks of people?
In the incident ,which occurred on July 27, the woman couldn't pry the 5.5-foot-long (1.6 meters) snake off, so she called 911 at 2 p.m. local time. She told emergency workers that she had taken on two boa constrictors as "rescue snakes" the day before and had 11 snakes total in her home, according to audio of the emergency call. [Read more about our unusual attack.]
Ancient Fort
A fort that is more than 1,000 years old, dating back to the time of Alfred the Great, has been unearthed in Scotland, more than 200 years after it was thought to have been completely destroyed.
Almost nothing survives of the mysterious Pictish culture, including the name they called themselves. The Romans first mentioned the Picts, which means "painted people," likely because of their distinctive tattoos and war paint. However, relatively few Pictish writings survive, and much of what historians know about the Picts' early history comes from the accounts of Roman speechwriters such as Eumenius. [Read more about the painted people.]
In 1995, an intriguing documentary was broadcast on TV stations across the United States. It was titled Alien Encounters from New Tomorrowland and supposedly was produced with the sole purpose of promoting Disneyworld’s then-new “ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter” attraction in Orlando, Florida.
Throughout the documentary’s forty-minute run-time, the presenter/narrator, Robert Urich, makes numerous declarative statements to the effect that UFOs are one-hundred-percent real and extraterrestrial in origin. Such statements include: “For nearly fifty years, officials have been documenting routine alien encounters here on earth,” “More than one alien craft crashed and was recovered for secret US military research,” and “Military and scientific leaders will soon release nearly a half-century of official documentation of ongoing alien encounters on earth.”
The majority of the documentary is focused on UFOs and extraterrestrials as a factual reality. The ‘ExtraTERRORestrial’ ride itself receives very little screen-time, and seems like an afterthought. The documentary was aired in only a handful of US cities at seemingly random times on selected dates in February and March 1995 with no notice—an incredibly odd marketing strategy considering its purpose was to promote a major theme park attraction for families.
Since its original limited broadcast in 1995, the Disney documentary has become engrained into conspiracy lore, or, perhaps more usefully, we could say that it has become entrenched into what Lorin Cutts terms The UFO Mythological Zone, which he describes as “the gap between fact and belief, what we see and what we want to see, what we experience and how we interpret it.” Cutts observes that “People are forming highly personalized variations of the one core belief—the belief in a UFO reality. All else is up for individual interpretation via the UFO mythological zone.”
Cutts’ theory certainly applies to Disney’s now legendary UFO documentary. Soon after its original broadcast, many in the UFO community quickly began to speculate that it was a form of “soft Disclosure;” a test of public reaction to a possible future announcement of alien contact. In recent years, rumours have swirled online that the documentary was “lost,” or even “banned” by shadowy forces. This is categorically not the case. It was never lost. It was never banned. It was simply never transferred to video or DVD, and it remained in a state of limbo until a few years ago when someone inevitably decided to upload an original TV recording of the documentary to YouTube. It has since received more than a million views online.
Despite there being no truth to rumors of its suppression, the documentary remains something of an oddity, and the justification for its production remains fuzzy to this day, especially in the context of a related project that was produced in the same year as the documentary, also supposedly intended as a marketing tool for Disney’s “ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter” ride. This tie-in project was a major UFO conference held at Disneyworld in January of 1995, a couple of months prior to the broadcast of the documentary. Titled “UFOs: The Reality of the Phenomenon,” this Disney conference has also since passed into The UFO Mythological Zone.
While researching my book, Silver Screen Saucers, I decided to track down the writer/director of the Disney UFO documentary, Andrew Thomas. He told me I was the only person ever to have contacted him about this curious little production, and he was only too happy to talk about it. I also wanted the inside story of the Disney UFO conference, and how it related to the theme park ride. To this end, I interviewed Don Ecker, the man responsible for organizing the conference for Disney. Like Thomas, Ecker told me that, to the best of his recollection, I was the only person ever to have sought an interview with him on this topic.
This two-part article presents the inside story of Disney’s 1995 UFO documentary and conference, as told by the two men most directly responsible for them respectively: Andrew Thomas and Don Ecker. It also provides some limited speculation as to the possible purpose of these two related projects; be warned, though: in doing so, it skirts around the edges of The Mythological Zone, albeit hopefully without losing its footing and slipping into the sludge.
Before we go any further, in the further interests of maintaining balance, I’d like to point the readers’ attention to another article—an excellent two-parter by David Halperin, which also explores the history and assumed purpose of these very same Disney projects. By reading both my article and Halperin’s, you will hopefully get a full and level history of this curious chapter in UFO lore, though you may still be left scratching your head as to precisely why these curious projects ever were funded in the first place.
I interviewed the documentary’s writer/director, Andrew Thomas, in 2011. Thomas told me how he had been selected by Disney for this project based on his background in reality TV, having been the original producer of the phenomenally successful TV show, Cops. “Making things exceptionally real was the line of work that I was in at the time,” he said. Thomas had also worked for Columbia Pictures as head of special marketing on Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Thomas told me that Disney had requested a documentary “about the history of mankind and aliens. Not a film history, but more of a realistic approach… a special about the history of UFO sightings.” Disney’s only stipulation was that “the last five minutes had to focus on the ride.” Thomas confirmed to me that, instead of giving the documentary network time, Disney’s plan from the outset was to “seed it into independent television stations across the country.”
But why did Thomas’ documentary take such a strong stance in favour of UFO/ET reality? He summed-up his approach as follows:
I figured, instead of asking people to question ‘could it be possible?’ to just adopt the point of view that alien visitation has been going on for 50 years, and everybody’s known about it. I thought it fit with the ultra-realistic nature of the ride that we were eventually trying to promote. I did it kind of naively. I said to myself ‘okay, I’m going to believe everything and I’m going to collect all this stuff and construct what would be a documentary if we all just had a consensus that the UFO phenomenon was real…’ We didn’t make up anything, but it certainly surprised the people at Disney.
Thomas told me he wrote the script in just a few hours while flying back from Florida to his home in Los Angeles. “There was nothing to it,” he said, “it just kind of came out, it was easy.” Furthermore, Thomas told me that he conducted the vast majority his research at the National Archives and stressed that, beyond these archival visits, “there was no direct government contact” on the production. “I didn’t get any special access from anybody,” he said.
Former Disney CEO, Michael Eisner.
These statements from Thomas almost completely dismantle the idea that the Disney documentary was anything other than a promo for a theme park ride. However, there were aspects of the Alien Encounters project that even Thomas considered strange. Disney CEO Michael Eisner took a direct interest in the documentary, personally vetting its content and even filming his own introduction for the piece. Thomas mused:
I thought it was really odd because this was kind of a minor marketing project, but Disney put a lot of weight into it. I mean, Eisner doesn’t have to stop walking down the street to pick up a twenty-dollar-bill—it’s not worth his time. But they had him look through this. And he filmed this intro to the show. He had his own film crew take him out to a sound stage and film his own intro, which I thought was just really surprising.
Also surprising to Thomas was Disney’s inexplicable TV scheduling for the documentary, which he described as “completely counter-intuitive” because “it played on independent stations in the afternoon at like 2 o’clock or 3 o’ clock, or some horrible time when no one would be watching it.”
Why was Michael Eisner so personally invested in what, on the surface at least, was a minor TV marketing project? And why the bizarre and “totally counter-intuitive” TV scheduling for the documentary?
Let us for a moment indulge the popular conspiratorial interpretation of events. If powerful UFO-related interests were involved in the documentary—perhaps having recommended Thomas to Disney knowing what he would produce based on his sophisticated viral work on Spielberg’s Close Encounters—then Thomas himself may have been oblivious to this fact. He would have been a pawn in a much larger game. But this interpretation seems incredibly farfetched, and I put no stock at all in the “acclimation” theory. There’s simply no evidence to support it.
However, there is compelling circumstantial evidence for the theory that Hollywood historically has been exploited as a tool for UFO “perception management”—an agenda more subtle and complex than simple acclimation; one relating to psychological warfare, in which controllable, faith-based subcultures are exploited, cultivated and steered towards various intelligence ends, both foreign and domestic, not necessarily even related to UFOs. Anyone who doubts that popular UFO beliefs have been steered and shaped significantly by intelligence operatives for self-serving ends should make time to prove themselves wrong by reading Greg Bishop’s Project Betaand Mark Pilkington’s Mirage Men.
Certainly, it can be said that the content of the Disney documentary served to strongly reinforce ideas that had thus far been sown into the UFO community by disinformation operatives dating back at least to the early-1980s. Was the documentary intended as a furtherance of these covert efforts to encourage certain misguided and exploitable beliefs within the UFO subculture?
The Disney/UFO connection can be traced back to 1953 when the CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel recommended that the US government make efforts to strip UFOs of their “aura of mystery” through the exploitation of mass media, including television and motion pictures. In this context, the panel highlighted Walt Disney Productions as a potential conduit for its propaganda. The panel’s attraction to Disney made sense given the animation giant’s then firmly established working relationship with the US government: not only was Uncle Walt a trusted friend of President Eisenhower’s chief propagandist, C.D. Jackson, in the early-mid-1950s, he also made numerous propaganda shorts for the US military during WWII and later helped produce films promoting Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” policy, as well as the retrospectively hilarious Duck and Cover documentary, which depicted schoolchildren surviving an atomic attack by sheltering under their desks.
That the Robertson Panel highlighted Disney is also significant because the Panel’s recommendation to debunk UFOs through media channels is known to have been acted upon in at least one instance: the CBS TV broadcast of UFOs: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy? a 1966 anti-UFO documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite. In a letter addressed to former Robertson Panel Secretary Frederick C. Durant, Dr Thornton Page confided that he “helped organize the CBS TV show around the Robertson Panel conclusions,” even though this was thirteen years after the Panel had first convened. In light of this case alone, it seems not unreasonable to speculate that the government may at least have attempted to follow through on the Robertson Panel’s Disney recommendation.
There appears to have been a direct connection between Disney, UFOs, and the military in a case involving the famed Oscar-winning Disney animator, Ward Kimball. While speaking at a conference for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in 1979, Kimball claimed that the USAF had approached Walt Disney himself in the mid-1950s, requesting his cooperation on a documentary that would help acclimate the public to extraterrestrial reality. Kimball knew this because, as one of Disney’s most trusted animators, he was directly involved in the project. In exchange for Disney’s cooperation, said Kimball, the USAF would supply the animation giant with real UFO footage for exclusive use in his documentary. According to Kimball, Disney accepted the deal and began work immediately on the USAF project.
Famed Disney Animator, Ward Kimball.
While Disney waited patiently for the USAF to provide the UFO footage, his animators (Kimball among them) produced conceptual designs of what an alien might look like. However, the offer of the UFO footage was eventually withdrawn, provoking Kimball himself to challenge the official military liaison for the project–a USAF Colonel who told him that “there was indeed plenty of UFO footage, but that neither [Kimball], nor anyone else was going to get access to it.” The project was abandoned and forgotten by all but the few who had worked on it.
Disney has maintained its close historical ties to officialdom over the decades. In 1994, one year prior to the Alien Encounters documentary, Disney worked closely with the Pentagon during the production of In the Army Now (1994). The Pentagon gave this feature-length Army recruitment advert its full cooperation, providing Disney with expensive military hardware and on-set advice from DOD personnel. Disney has also historically been tied to the US arms industry. Between the years 2000 and 2011, Disney directors-board-member John Bryson simultaneously served as a director of the Boeing Company, one of the world’s largest aerospace and defense contractors (selling dreams with one hand, and missiles with the other).
Andy Fickman, director of Disney’s 2009 UFO movie, ‘Race to Witch Mountain.’
More bizarrely, the 2009 Disney UFO movie Race to Witch Mountain appears to have received covert assistance from the CIA. In a highly unusual production arrangement, Fickman claims he and his crew were closely assisted by an active employee of the Agency whose advice extended even to designing the film’s onscreen alien language. Fickman’s advisor—whom he secured through “back door channels”—also recommended that certain UFO-themed content be removed from the script and even accompanied Fickman on a private tour of NORAD’s Cheyenne Mountain facility where they chatted with military top brass. “I don’t think there was anything abnormal about what they were doing,” Fickman told me in 2010, “I just think it was that phone calls were being made and doors were sort of opening.”
All of this is very intriguing, no doubt. But, let’s face it, the above examples of Disney/government cooperation prove nothing at all with regards to the 1995 Disney UFO documentary. Frankly, I would be inclined to disregard the Disney documentary entirely as any kind of intelligence-related project if not for the fact that it was tied closely to another, more baffling Disney UFO project…
In Part Two, I’ll present the inside story of Disney’s now-mythic UFO conference.
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HIDDEN ALIENS: CONCEILING ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS FROM DETECTION
HIDDEN ALIENS: CONCEILING ADVANCED CIVILIZATIONS FROM DETECTION
The most named reason we do not hear from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations is that they are in hiding and have fast resources and technology to conceal their alien presence from others. In this video, we will explore that notion, and examine why an alien civilization might hide and how they would go about doing it.
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THE 4 MOST DOCUMENTED ALIEN ABDUCTION CASES
THE 4 MOST DOCUMENTED ALIEN ABDUCTION CASES
Today, numerous people from all over the world have come forward with clear video and photographic evidence about the UFO phenomenon.
In the past, it was more difficult to provide proof of this most unusual of the phenomenon and all but the most notorious incidents, such as the infamous Roswell crash, have been forgotten.
Fortunately, some UFO researchers have collected some tales about UFO encounters from the recent past which would have otherwise been completely lost.
FOUR UFO ENCOUNTER STORIES THAT THE WORLD ALMOST FORGOT
Kelly Cahill and her husband were driving home in Melbourne in Australia on August 8th, 1993 when they had a terrifying experience which many believe involved an alien craft. As they were driving, the couple spotted a pair of lights shining in the sky. Upon closer observation, they realized that the lights were attached to a round flying vehicle which hovered in the sky momentarily before blasting away in a split second. After a few moments, the car the couple was traveling inside of was suddenly illuminated with intensely bright lights, and they realized that the craft was directly above them. Kelly’s husband picked up the pace and drove quickly in a bid to escape the craft. Fortunately, for the couple, the vessel appeared to lose interest in them and disappeared.
2. BETTY AND BARNEY HILL
The Hills were an ordinary couple from the United States of America who could never dream that they would become witnesses to one of the most unusual UFO encounters of the 1960s. While the couple was traveling to their home in New Hampshire after a weekend outing to Niagara Falls, Betty spotted a bright light moving across the sky. At first, she thought that the object was a falling star, but she quickly realized that it was not as it was moving fairly erratically and growing bigger and brighter. Betty became convinced that the object was a UFO. Her skeptical husband pulled over the car, believing that it was nothing more than a commercial liner. However, he too would quickly become convinced that they had witnessed an alien craft.
3. THE FALCON LAKE INCIDENT
On the 19th of May 1967, prospector Stefan Michalak left his home in Canada and traveled to Falcon Lake. After spending a bit of time getting settled in his hotel room, he began digging on the bay of the lake. He was engrossed in his work when his attention was alerted by the startled noises of several geese nearby. He then looked up and saw two cigar-shaped vessels flashing red and orange lights in the sky. He watched as one of the vessels sank and landed on a rock close to where he was. The other craft then changed color to a dull gray and disappeared into the sky. After a brief moment, the landing craft turned to the same color. After that, a strong smell of sulfur could be detected in the area. No explanation for what happened has ever been offered.
4. THE MAURY ISLAND INCIDENT
A mere two weeks before the Roswell crash in New Mexico, Maury Island in Washington State was the site of a terrifying UFO experience. A man named Harold Dahl who worked on the sea around the area was engaged in one of his usual jobs of gathering wayward logs out of the Puget Sound when he became aware of no less than six doughnut shaped objects flying approximately 2000 feet above his boat. He described these objects as be around 100 feet in diameter with a central hole of around 25 feet. One of the boats descended suddenly and came within only 500 feet of the water before suddenly disappearing.
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Burning Object Releases Escape Pod over Manurewa, New Zealand?
Burning Object Releases Escape Pod over Manurewa, New Zealand?
A strange burning object suddenly stops midair then releases some kind of escape pod has been filmed over Manurewa, New Zealand on July 31, 2017.
UFO-fan who recorded the burning object is quite sure it was not an aircraft reflected by sun rays.
Maybe the object was an aircraft reflected by sun rays but then again, how can an aircraft suddenly stops midair, performing some very strange maneuvers before it follows its trajectory?
Hollywood Actor Opens Up About UFO Experiences For The First Time Ever
Hollywood Actor Opens Up About UFO Experiences For The First Time Ever
American actor Yaphet Kotto, who is known for several film roles, opens up about his UFO experiences. The 77-year-old actor who starred in blockbuster films including alien (1979), The Running Man (1987) and Live and Let Die (1973) talks about it publicly for the first time. Prior to it, he only told his wife, a rabbi and a psychologist.
According to Kotto, his lifelong UFO experiences started when he was a child in his own home. He briefly encountered an entity that was at least five or six feet tall with an elongated head.
Since then, he claimed to have seen unusual things, including a stadium-sized UFO turning upside down, which blotted out the entire sky.
Kotto also described a sighting through meditation wherein a UFO would show up as if by request but did not elaborate further on it.
The actor said that he doesn’t care whether anyone thinks he is delusional. He also added that he has nothing to promote at this time, so his delusion is over.
Mysterious Object Comes Out From What Seems To Be A Portal
Mysterious Object Comes Out From What Seems To Be A Portal
A strange object was allegedly observed coming out of a portal in the sky. While driving home, a couple from Alexandria, Louisiana claimed to have spotted a UFO appearing from a funnel below a circular cloud.
Popular conspiracy theory channel SecureTeam10 uploaded the video online. The narrator says the couple contacted them and described their experience.
According to the report, one of the pair stated that they were driving home when a white doughnut shaped cloud materialised in the sky.
The couple had got a photo of it before it got too dark. Moments later, they pulled into their driveway and got out of the vehicle. They saw the sky had gotten dark brown and noticed the vapour like funnel around the doughnut shaped cloud had started to come down from the centre. At the same time, an oval shaped translucent object that was surrounded by lights appeared at the bottom.
According to the witness, the UFO hovered long enough in the sky for them to take pictures before it disappeared.
Texas-Based Conspiracy Theorist and Famous Author Jim Marrs Dies
Texas-Based Conspiracy Theorist and Famous Author Jim Marrs Dies
Favorite researcher and author Jim Marrs has died at the age of 73 this week. He is known for his research on theories surrounding the assassination of JFK and UFOs. According to the official Facebook page, he had been put on dialysis recently and died of a heart attack on Wednesday.
In late June, the Fort Worth-native posted a note on his official website that he needed to rest from work to address his health issues.
Marrs worked as a Forth Worth Star-Telegram staffer and a police and general assignmen reporter. The conspiracy theorist also had a stint in the Army in Vietnam. When he came back home, he started writing about military and aerospace technology.
Marrs worked as a chief consultant for the Oliver Stone film “JFK” in 1991. His book “Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy” became the basis for the movie. The 1989 book was a New York Times Paperback Non-Fiction Best Seller.
Starting in 1976, he had taught a course on the killing of the president in 1963 at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Every November 22, the anniversary of the assassination, Marrs had been the usual visitor in Dealey Plaza in Dallas talking to fans and the media in front of the so-called Grassy Knoll.
UFOs – are they real? Do aliens exist? Sputnik discussed this with Austrian-based ufologist and radio host Tarek Al-Ubaidi who has interviewed many experts on the elusive creatures from other planets.
NATO Fighters Chased UFOs in Belgian Skies
“Rejecting the UFO phenomenon outright makes no sense. There are a lot of well-documented sightings during the so-called 'Belgian UFO Wave' of 1989-1992 including by military men, police officers and civilian and military pilots,” Tarek said.
In March 1990, Belgian Air Force radar operators at a NATO air surveillance center at Glons saw on their screens three unusual flying objects that had entered the country’s airspace.
A pair of F-16 fighter jets from nearby Beauvechain air base was scrambled to check out what was happening.
However, before the planes were able to close in on the unknown intruders, the UFOs suddenly disappeared from sight at a speed that the pilots said was much faster than what their combat aircraft could muster.
“According to an official statement by Belgian General Wilfried de Brouwer, one of the UFOs increased its speed from 240 kilometers an hour to 1,770 in a matter of just two seconds,” Tarek noted.
UFO Sightings: 95 Percent “False Alarm,” the Rest — “Mindboggling”
“Only about 5 percent of all UFO sightings worldwide can be termed UFO sightings because these flying objects are never identified. The remaining 95 percent turn out to be planes, satellites, meteorites or space junk,” Tarek explained.
“However, the remaining 5 percent are unidentified, and this is really fascinating,” he noted, adding that Britain and France now have documented cases of UFO sightings which have never been explained.
Eyewitnesses and Radar Screenshots “Are Not Always Informative Enough”
“I like interviewing people who have personally observed UFOs or are studying this phenomenon,” said Tarek, who is a certified telecommunications engineers and computer programmer.
He said that radar screenshots are not always reliable because there are ways to “spoof” radars by simulating and sending back reflections of objects, which are not really there.
“Only when I see an UFO optically, as an eyewitness, and also have a radar screen shot can I say that this object really existed,” Tarek said.
“Stories About Aliens” Are Just Part of the UFO Theory
“The mere fact that you have seen a UFO does not mean that those were aliens, or travelers in time. On the one hand we have cases of UFO sightings. On the other, I guess there are hundreds of thousands of theories about UFOs none of which has been proved,” Tarek continued.
He said that some ufologists explain such sightings as paranormal phenomena, something people have encountered for thousands of years, “not only since the 1947 Roswell incident when something fell in a New Mexico desert and we still don’t know what it was.”
Tarek hopes that he will live long enough to get the answer to this question. In the meantime, he keeps working and is preparing a new series of programs on this fascinating subject.
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That Allegheny magic: Where sightings of Bigfoot and UFOs abound
That Allegheny magic: Where sightings of Bigfoot and UFOs abound
On “The X-Files,” getting to the bottom of paranormal activity is easier said than done. When FBI agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder stumble across phenomena that are difficult to explain, they fall back on the mantra that opens every show: “The truth is out there.”
But what if you live in Allegheny County, the region that leads Pennsylvania in reports of UFOs, Bigfoot and other weird sightings? Is the truth “here” instead of “out there”?
According to the National UFO Reporting Center and the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, our little corner of Western Pennsylvania is abuzz with unexplained paranormal phenomena. Allegheny County has had 315 UFO sightings compared with Bucks County, a suburb of our cross-state rival Philadelphia, at 216 sightings over the years.
As for Bigfoot, there have been six sightings of the primordial beast in Mercer, Cambria and Clearfield counties over several decades, according to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.
That may not sound like much, but the rival Keystone Bigfoot Project charts neighboring Westmoreland County ahead of Allegheny County with 113 Bigfoot sightings compared with Allegheny County’s 43.
Fayette County rounds out the region with 36 Bigfoot sightings according to the KBP. Explaining the discrepancy in reported sightings by two Bigfoot organizations is to delve into the even deeper mystery of how reports of mythical creatures are gathered in the first place.
Given the ubiquity of smartphones, the greatest mystery of all is why it remains so difficult to get clear, indisputable images of UFOs, Bigfoot or any other unexplained phenomena. The truth could very well be out there, but it would make every skeptic’s life a lot easier if proof were somewhere out there, too.
Marrs, 73, who worked as a Star-Telegram reporter between 1968 and 1980, didn’t just write about John F. Kennedy. He also authored books about everything from UFOs to population control.
Marrs also taught courses on the JFK assassination and UFOs at the University of Texas at Arlington before retiring in 2007.
In a 2003 Star-Telegram article, Marrs said lawyers, teachers, even an official with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had taken his classes
“They, like myself, have a natural and, I think healthy, questioning attitude about all this,” Marrs said. “What I tell people is, ‘Don’t come here expecting me to have all the answers.’”
But Marrs left no doubt that he believed that humans weren’t the only intelligent life in the universe.
“There’s definitely something out there in the air,” he said. “But I don’t think there’s anything to fear here.”
Marrs was born Dec. 5, 1943, in Fort Worth. He earned a degree in journalism from North Texas State (now the University of North Texas) and attended graduate school at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. In recent years, he had been a fixture on the overnight talk show Coast to Coast, and he also appeared on Alex Jones’ Infowars.
His wife, Carol, said they met on a blind date while going to college in Denton. They have been inseparable since that first date.
“I just remember how funny he was,” Carol Marrs said. “I don’t think about the conspiracy part, although he was an excellent teacher. His mission in life was to pursue the truth.”
While he was known for all of his publications, Marrs was also an avid Civil War re-enactor and a World War II history buff.
“He had his own cannon and, on the Fourth of July, we would fire it off,” Carol Marrs said. “You can do that when you live in the country. But he was almost a pacifist. He didn’t believe we should be in a war unless you were defending your home.”
Among his books were “Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy,” which reached The New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list. Other titles include: “Alien Agenda” (1997); “Rule by Secrecy” (2000); “The Terror Conspiracy Revisited” (2007); “The Rise of the Fourth Reich” (2008); “The Trillion-Dollar Conspiracy” (2010); “Our Occulted History” (2013); “Population Control” (2015); and his last book, “The Illuminati” (2017).
Survivors include two daughters, Cathryn Lafitte and Jayme Castle, as well as three grandchildren.
A private service is planned, according to Alexander’s Midway Funeral Home in Springtown, but Carol Marrs said the family is planning a gathering at their Wise County home next month.
In the future, parts of the world will become so hot and humid that healthy adults sitting in the shade will die within a matter of hours. It’s hard to imagine, and yet that’s where Earth’s climate is headed, perhaps sooner than expected.
New research, published Wednesday in Science Advances, found that 75 percent of the population of South Asia will experience extremely dangerous heat waves by 2100 if no action is taken to fight climate change. Four percent will experience unsurvivable heat — that’s 69 million people at today’s population level.
The Indus and Ganges river valleys, spanning southeast Pakistan, northern India, and Bangladesh, have a disastrous combination of a densely populated, vulnerable population and extreme, humid heat. In these parts of the world, extreme heat is already frequent and deadly. A 2015 heat wave that covered large parts of India and Pakistan killed an estimated 3,500 people.
While most climate change studies look only at temperature, this one uses a different measure that accounts for the impact of humidity on the ability of humans to cool themselves off through sweating. It’s called wet-bulb temperature, and it measures how hot the air would be if cooled through the evaporation of water until it reaches 100 percent humidity.
When humans sweat, that moisture evaporates into the air, which transfers heat energy away from the skin. However, when the wet-bulb temperature reaches the temperature of the skin, at about 95 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes impossible for heat to move away from the body in this way. Even if enough sweat could be produced to bring the surrounding air to 100 percent humidity, the air would still be hotter than the skin, and no energy would leave the body. Previous research has estimated that a healthy human could survive a maximum of six hours in these conditions — which means find a cooler spot, or die.
A wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees has never been recorded, but parts of the world have hit 89 degrees, which is already extremely dangerous to any human who is exposed to it for more than a short period of time. The hottest wet-bulb temperatures in the world are found in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, in the northern parts of South Asia, and in Eastern China.
This study focused on South Asia — defined as the countries of Pakistan, Indian, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka — because here there is a coincidence of very high wet-bulb temperatures and a dense population of relatively poor, rural people. That makes this the most vulnerable part of the world to future deadly heat waves.
If there’s a glimmer of hope, it’s that the researchers found a very significant difference in outcome if the world bands together to aggressively fight climate change. With concerted action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, none of South Asia would surpass the unsurvivable threshold by 2100, although 55 percent of the population would still be exposed to extreme wet-bulb temperatures of 88 degrees or higher.
In any case, humans living in very hot and humid parts of the world will be forced to adapt. That will mean air conditioners for those who can afford it and, likely, communal cool spaces for emergencies. At the most extreme, we may see mass migrations of climate change refugees away from regions of the world that have become literally unsurvivable.
Abstract
The risk associated with any climate change impact reflects intensity of natural hazard and level of human vulnerability. Previous work has shown that a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C can be considered an upper limit on human survivability. On the basis of an ensemble of high-resolution climate change simulations, we project that extremes of wet-bulb temperature in South Asia are likely to approach and, in a few locations, exceed this critical threshold by the late 21st century under the business-as-usual scenario of future greenhouse gas emissions. The most intense hazard from extreme future heat waves is concentrated around densely populated agricultural regions of the Ganges and Indus river basins. Climate change, without mitigation, presents a serious and unique risk in South Asia, a region inhabited by about one-fifth of the global human population, due to an unprecedented combination of severe natural hazard and acute vulnerability.
Antieke bouwstenen van ons zonnestelsel gevonden in de asteroïdengordel
Antieke bouwstenen van ons zonnestelsel gevonden in de asteroïdengordel
Tim Kraaijvanger
Astronomen hebben een groep stokoude planetoïden gevonden in de asteroïdengordel tussen Mars en Jupiter. Deze antieke objecten zijn bijna net zo oud als het zonnestelsel.
Onderzoeker Marco Delbo en zijn collega’s schrijven in een paper in het wetenschappelijke vakblad Science dat zij een nieuwe familie van donkere planetoïden hebben ontdekt. Het gaat om minstens honderd exemplaren die uit de tijd van het ontstaan van het zonnestelsel stammen. Zeventien objecten zijn groter dan 35 kilometer, waarvan enkele bijna honderd kilometer groot zijn.
De wetenschappers denken dat planeten groot zijn geboren. “We denken dat stofwolken lokaal samentrokken, waardoor kleine planeten ontstonden”, zegt Joseph Masiero van NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in een interview met New Scientist. “Deze rotsachtige planeten hadden een grootte van ongeveer honderd kilometer.” Planeten zijn dus niet heel langzaam geboren als het resultaat van botsingen tussen planetoïden. “In dat geval zouden we immers veel meer kleinere planetoïden zien.”
“De nieuwe familie van planetoïden heeft nog geen naam, omdat we nog niet weten welke planetoïde de moeder is”, zegt astronoom Kevin Walsh. “Deze familie is namelijk ontzettend oud en is vier miljard jaar geleden ontstaan, nog voordat de gasplaneten hun huidige banen bereikten. Toen de gasplaneten migreerden, had dit een grote invloed op de planetoïden in de asteroïdengordel (Late Heavy Bombardment, red.). Het is heel goed mogelijk dat de moeder van deze groep inmiddels al is gesneuveld.”
De astronomen gebruikten een nieuwe techniek om de familie te vinden. Ze keken hiervoor naar bestaande data en gingen op zoek naar planetoïden aan de randen van bekende families. Het onderzoeksteam wil deze techniek nu gebruiken om de hele asteroïdengordel te analyseren. Wie weet leren we zo nog meer over planetoïden en het ontstaan van het zonnestelsel.
Spectaculaire storm ontdekt op de evenaar van Neptunus
Spectaculaire storm ontdekt op de evenaar van Neptunus
Caroline Kraaijvanger
De storm is zo’n 9000 kilometer lang (oftewel bijna net zo lang als de aarde breed is!).
Maar niet alleen de omvang van de storm is bijzonder. Ook de locatie ervan is uniek. De storm bevindt zich namelijk in een gebied ter hoogte van de evenaar van Neptunus. “Normaal gesproken is dit gebied heel rustig en zien we heldere wolken alleen op de gematigde breedtes, dus dat we zo’n enorme wolk op de evenaar zien, is spectaculair,” aldus onderzoeker Ned Molter.
Keck Molter en collega’s zijn erin geslaagd om de storm met behulp van het W.M. Keck Observatory vast te leggen. De storm is ongeveer 9000 kilometer lang en werd tussen 26 juni en 2 juli aanzienlijk helderder. “In het verleden hebben we af en toe wel zeer heldere wolken op Neptunus gezien, maar meestal op breedtes nabij de polen,” legt onderzoeker Imke de Pater uit. “Nog nooit hebben we een wolk gezien op of zo dicht bij de evenaar, ook hebben we nog nooit zo’n heldere wolk gezien.”
Afbeelding: N. Molter / I. de Pater / UC Berkeley / C. Alvarez / W. M. Keck Observatory.
Vortex Hoe de storm precies is ontstaan, is niet duidelijk. Mogelijk bevindt zich op deze plek, diep in de atmosfeer een vortex. Wanneer gassen in deze vortex omhoog klimmen, koelen ze af. En als ze maar voldoende afkoelen, kunnen ze condenseren en wolken vormen. Die wolken op Neptunus bestaan niet uit waterdamp, maar uit methaan.
OVER NEPTUNUS
Geen enkele planeet (planeet X even buiten beschouwing gelaten) is verder van de zon verwijderd dan de ijsreus Neptunus. De planeet doet er maar liefst 160 jaar over om een rondje rond de zon te voltooien en de seizoenen duren er zo’n 40 jaar. Het weer op Neptunus is stormachtig. Zo is de ijsreus de winderigste planeet in ons zonnestelsel, met winden die snelheden tot wel 1600 kilometer per uur weten te bereiken.
Seizoensgebonden De vortex klinkt als een aannemelijke verklaring, maar dat is niet helemaal zo. “De grote vortex bevindt zich in een gebied waar de lucht over het algemeen daalt in plaats van opstijgt,” stelt De Pater. “Bovendien zou een langdurig standhoudende vortex recht boven de evenaar natuurkundig lastig te verklaren zijn.” Dus onderzoekers zijn nog niet helemaal overtuigd van de vortex. Maar hoe zou de storm dan kunnen zijn ontstaan? Het systeem kan ook een enorme wolk zijn, ontstaan door convectie. Iets soortgelijks hebben we eerder op andere planeten gezien, zoals in 2010 op Saturnus. Maar ook die verklaring is niet helemaal bevredigend, omdat de onderzoekers dan zouden verwachten dat de wolk in een week tijd enigszins is uitgesmeerd en niet langer zo compact is als de storm op Neptunus. “Dit laat zien dat er extreme drastische veranderingen optreden in de dynamiek van Neptunus’ atmosfeer en misschien is dit wel een seizoensgebonden gebeurtenis die maar eens in de paar decennia ontstaat,” stelt De Pater.
De astronomen hopen de storm in de toekomst vaker te kunnen observeren. Ze zijn benieuwd hoe het deze door de tijd heen vergaat.
Simulaties suggereren dat Venus in haar jonge jaren een vrij ondiepe oceaan herbergde.
Het is vandaag de dag lastig voor te stellen dat Venus ooit water bezat. De planeet is anno 2017 gloeiendheet en kurkdroog. Toch kan dat in de prille beginjaren van de planeet wel eens anders zijn geweest, zo schrijven onderzoekers in het blad Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
Simulaties De onderzoekers baseren zich op computersimulaties. Tijdens deze simulaties verkenden ze verschillende omstandigheden waar Venus in haar beginjaren mee te maken kan hebben gehad. En sommige van die omstandigheden resulteerden in het ontstaan van een – weliswaar ondiepe – oceaan.
Best aangenaam Eerder onderzoek toonde al aan dat Venus – waar het nu gemiddeld zo’n 480 graden Celsius is – in het verleden best een aangename planeet moet zijn geweest. Dankzij de slome rotatie van de planeet zou deze ook in staat moeten zijn geweest om een dik wolkendek te ontwikkelen en handhaven dat voor de nodige verkoeling en aangename oppervlaktetemperaturen zorgde.
Condenseren Als dat wolkendek er werkelijk is geweest en voor voldoende verkoeling heeft gezorgd, dan moet waterdamp in de atmosfeer zijn gaan condenseren en op het oppervlak plassen hebben gevormd. Hoeveel water Venus moet hebben geherbergd om oceanen te kunnen maken, is onduidelijk. Dat is namelijk van verschillende factoren afhankelijk. Als er in de jonge jaren van Venus net zoveel CO2 in de atmosfeer zat als nu, dan zou de planeet slechts 10 procent van het water dat in de aardse oceanen huist nodig hebben gehad om een oceaan te maken.
Maar onder iets andere omstandigheden had de planeet zeker 30 procent van de hoeveelheid water in de aardse oceanen nodig gehad.
Kortom: in theorie kan de jonge Venus dus een oceaan hebben gehad. Maar ja, hoe was dat in de praktijk? Dat is koffiedik kijken. Daar kunnen we namelijk pas achterkomen als we een kijkje op het oppervlak van de planeet nemen. En dat is – met het oog op de extreme temperaturen en de zwavelzuurregens – niet direct gemakkelijk, noch aantrekkelijk. En dus blijft het voorlopig bij simulaties en speculaties.
Gloeiendhete stratosfeer ontdekt rond een enorme exoplaneet
Gloeiendhete stratosfeer ontdekt rond een enorme exoplaneet
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Overtuigend bewijs gevonden voor een stratosfeer rond WASP-121b, een hete Jupiter met een atmosfeer die zo warm is dat je er ijzer in kunt koken.
Onderzoekers ontdekten de stratosfeer – een laag in de atmosfeer waarin de temperatuur stijgt naarmate je hogerop komt – met behulp van ruimtetelescoop Hubble. Met de telescoop spotten ze gloeiende watermoleculen in de atmosfeer van WASP-121b. “De stratosfeer van WASP-121b is zo heet dat deze waterdamp kan laten gloeien en die wetenschap vormde de basis voor onze analyse,” vertelt onderzoeker Drake Deming.
OVER WASP-121B
WASP-121b bevindt zich op zo’n 900 lichtjaar afstand. Het is een gasreus, net als bijvoorbeeld Jupiter, maar dan veel groter en zwaarder. WASP-121b staat heel dicht bij zijn ster en heeft maar 1,3 dagen nodig om een rondje rond die ster te voltooien. Door de geringe afstand tussen de ster en WASP-121b is de bovenzijde van de atmosfeer van WASP-121b gloeiendheet: zo’n 2500 graden Celsius, oftewel warm genoeg om ijzer te laten koken.
Verschillende golflengten Om meer te weten te komen over de stratosfeer van de planeet keken de onderzoekers hoe de helderheid van de planeet veranderde in verschillende golflengten van licht. Waterdamp in de atmosfeer van een planeet gedraagt zich in reactie op verschillende golflengten van licht, afhankelijk van de temperatuur van het water, op zeer voorspelbare wijze. Bij lagere temperaturen houdt waterdamp het licht dat van onderaf komt, tegen, maar bij hogere temperaturen gaan de watermoleculen gloeien. “Toen we Hubble op WASP-121b richtten, zagen we gloeiende watermoleculen, die erop wijzen dat de planeet een sterke stratosfeer heeft,” vertelt onderzoeker Tom Evans.
Overtuigend bewijs Het is voor het eerst dat gloeiende watermoleculen zijn ontdekt. En daarmee hebben we het meest overtuigende bewijs voor de aanwezigheid van een stratosfeer rondom een exoplaneet in handen. “We hebben ontdekt dat deze hete Jupiter een stratosfeer heeft, een kenmerk dat we bij de meeste van de planeten in ons zonnestelsel zien,” vertelt onderzoeker David Sing. Zo heeft ook de aarde bijvoorbeeld een stratosfeer. In deze stratosfeer zorgt ozon ervoor dat ultraviolette straling van de zon blijft hangen, waardoor de temperatuur van deze atmosferische laag hoger uitvalt. Op andere planeten in ons zonnestelsel wordt de stratosfeer weer op andere manieren opgewarmd. In de stratosferen van Jupiter en Saturnus’ maan Titan is daarbij een hoofdrol weggelegd voor methaan.
Zoals gezegd stijgt de temperatuur in een stratosfeer naarmate je hoger in die stratosfeer komt. In de stratosfeer van de planeten in ons zonnestelsel is het temperatuurverschil tussen de onder- en bovengrens van de stratosfeer niet enorm schokkend (doorgaans kleiner dan 100 graden Celsius). Anders is dat in het geval van WASP-121b, waar de temperatuur in de stratosfeer met zo’n 1000 graden Celsius stijgt. “We weten nog niet wat deze dramatische opwarming veroorzaakt,” stelt onderzoeker Nikolay Nikolov. Vervolgonderzoek moet uitwijzen welke stofjes de stratosfeer van WASP-121b zo warm maken. Daarbij kan in de toekomst wellicht ook een beroep worden gedaan op ruimtetelescoop James Webb. De zeer krachtige en gevoelige telescoop is uitermate geschikt om atmosferen van planeten hier ver vandaan te ontleden.
Eindelijk een animatie die klimaatverandering écht duidelijk in beeld brengt
Eindelijk een animatie die klimaatverandering écht duidelijk in beeld brengt
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Ontdek in nog geen minuut dat klimaatverandering een feit is en werkelijk iedereen ermee te maken heeft.
Talloze papers zijn erover vol geschreven: de opwarming van de aarde. En hoewel onderzoeksgegevens onomstotelijk aantonen dat het een écht en wereldwijd probleem is, kan het voor ons leken toch nog best lastig zijn om er grip op te krijgen. Want wat merken we daar in Nederland nu heel concreet van? Zoveel is er toch niet veranderd? En als we al een verandering zien, vragen mensen zich vaak hardop af in hoeverre die dan geassocieerd moet worden met klimaatverandering. Kortom: klimaatverandering is best ingewikkeld.
Trend Maar een nieuw animatie geeft je wat meer grip op de zaak door in beeld te brengen hoe de jaarlijkse gemiddelde temperatuur zich in landen wereldwijd tussen 1900 en 2016 ontwikkeld heeft. Te zien is dat de temperaturen misschien niet elk jaar een stapje hoger uitvallen, maar in plaats daarvan een beetje variëren. Temidden van die variaties openbaart zich echter een duidelijke trend: de landen worden stuk voor stuk warmer. En niet zo’n klein beetje ook.
NASA De prachtige en ontzettend heldere animatie is het werk van Antti Lipponen, onderzoeker aan het Finse Meteorologische Instituut. Hij maakte de animatie op basis van gegevens verzameld door NASA.
De conclusies De belangrijkste conclusies die je op basis van deze animatie kunt trekken? De aarde warmt op. En elk land op aarde heeft ermee te maken. En daarmee is het dus een probleem van ons allemaal. En ons aller opdracht om dat probleem op te lossen. Sommigen kijken daarbij hoopvol naar het Parijse klimaatakkoord, maar dat is nog altijd niet veel meer dan een serie beloftes. Bovendien trekken onderzoekers ernstig in twijfel of het in dit stadium überhaupt nog mogelijk is om de in het Parijse klimaatakkoord beloofde beperking van de opwarming te bewerkstelligen.
Onderzoekers staan op het punt geheime kamer te vinden in Grote Piramide. Wat gaan ze aantreffen?
Onderzoekers staan op het punt geheime kamer te vinden in Grote Piramide. Wat gaan ze aantreffen?
Experts denken op het punt te staan een verborgen ruimte te ontdekken in de Grote Piramide van Gizeh. Dat schrijft de Daily Mail.
Met behulp van infrarood thermografie zoeken archeologen van het project ScanPyramids naar verborgen kamers in de piramide.
De Grote Piramide is 146 meter hoog en was duizenden jaren lang het grootste door mensen gemaakte bouwwerk.
Exacte locatie
“Alle apparaten die we gebruiken zijn ontworpen om de locatie van de ruimte te vinden,” zei Mehdi Tayoubi van ScanPyramids.
“We weten dat er tenminste één is, maar we proberen de exacte locatie te achterhalen,” voegde hij toe.
Sommige archeologen hopen de geavanceerde technieken te gebruiken om de begraafplaats van de legendarische koningin Nefertiti te vinden.
Op zoek
Een Britse egyptoloog, Nicholas Reeves, gelooft namelijk dat haar resten verborgen zijn in een geheime kamer in de tombe van Toentanchamon.
Een team van de Polytechnische Universiteit van Turijn is nu van plan op zoek te gaan naar de resten van Nefertiti. Het onderzoeksteam wil echter niet veel kwijt over de zoektocht.
Vorig jaar zei de Egyptische minister van Oudheden Mamduh al-Damati dat de kans dat zich achter de graftombe van farao Toetanchamon twee geheime kamers bevinden 90 procent is.
Big bang
Hij baseerde zijn uitspraak op nieuw radaronderzoek dat was uitgevoerd door Japanse experts.
De Egyptische minister van Toerisme Hisham Zaazou liet zich toen al enthousiast uit over de mogelijke ontdekking van een geheime kamer achter de tombe van Toetanchamon.
Hij sprak van ‘de ontdekking van de 21e eeuw’ die ‘voor een big bang zal zorgen’.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
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