Octlantis is a just-discovered underwater city engineered by octopuses

The gloomy octopus, lonely no more in Octlantis. (Scheel et al.)

Gloomy octopuses—also known as common Sydney octopuses, or octopus tetricus—have long had a reputation for being loners. Marine biologists once thought they inhabited the subtropical waters off eastern Australia and northern New Zealand in solitude, meeting only to mate, once a year. But now there’s proof these cephalopods sometimes hang out in small cities.

In Jervis Bay, off Eastern Australia, researchers recently spotted 15 gloomy octopuses congregating, communicating, dwelling together, and even evicting each other from dens at a site the scientists named “Octlantis.” The international team of marine biologists, led by professor David Scheel of Alaska Pacific University, filmed these creatures exhibiting complex social behaviors that contradict the received wisdom that these cephalopods are loners. Their study was published in the journal Marine and Freshwater Behavior and Physiology (paywall).

The discovery was a surprise, Scheel told Quartz. “These behaviors are the product of natural selection, and may be remarkably similar to vertebrate complex social behavior. This suggests that when the right conditions occur, evolution may produce very similar outcomes in diverse groups of organisms.”

The mystery of Octopolis

It’s not yet clear what led to the creation of Octlantis or if these sorts of congregations are common.

At least one other gloomy octopus site was found recently, though; it was discovered in 2009, not far away in Jervis Bay, and named Octopolis. At that time it was considered a total anomaly. Researchers believed that the cephalopods gathered there because an unidentifiable human object happened to have formed a central point that the cephalopods surrounded with dens. The unknown artifact was a single object about 30 cm long, heavily encrusted, possibly made of metal. The site has been observed for seven years now, and at any given time, there are somewhere between two and 16 octopuses there.

In Octlantis, however, there is no similarly mystifying human object to explain the gloomy octopus congregation.

Gritty city life

Like any urban environment, Otocopolis and Octlantis can be tough places to live. Citizens must be scrappy. The company and food are abundant but all the activity in the cities also attracts predators, including sharks.

There’s also a lot of aggression apparently, although the researchers can’t yet explain why. Gloomy octopus males seem to spend a great deal of time chasing each other out of dens. Scheel is hesitant to speculate about what exactly this behavior means. “We are still studying this,” he said.

Lonely no more?

Gloomy octopuses aren’t the only supposedly solitary cephalopods to have been spotted interacting socially in the last decade.

Scheel believes that octopus behavior probably hasn’t changed in that time. Rather, humans’ ability to observe the behavior has. Today more divers are in the water with cameras and better technology to quickly communicate findings amongst divers and scientists.

However, that doesn’t mean cities like Octopolis and Octlantis are super common. “Congregations such as these probably occur wherever shelter is limited to small patches of habitat, and food is plentiful,” he posits. But the marine biologist does suspect the findings show gloomy octopuses have been socializing for a very long time. “Most commonly, the gloomy octopus seems to den by itself,” Scheel writes. “For these complex behaviors to occur, I think that they must encounter one another and interact regularly over generations, even if at any time there are more octopuses living a solitary life than interacting consistently throughout every day.”

{ https://qz.com/ }

18-09-2017 om 18:51 geschreven door peter  

LAWSUIT REVEALS THE NSA RECEIVED 29 “EXTRATERRESTRIAL MESSAGES” FROM SPACE, A LONG TIME AGO

18-09-2017 om 18:16 geschreven door peter  

18-09-2017 om 17:31 geschreven door peter  

IN BRIEF

Scientists thought Planet 9 might be an exoplanet captured by the Sun in its early days, but new mathematical applications have proven that the likelihood of planet-swapping for the potential new solar sister is near zero. This raises the question: how could the big planet have gotten so far out there?

NO STRANGE WANDERER

Planet 9 probably isn’t from another star, according to researchers from the UK and Switzerland. According to a paper on the Cornell University Library archive, while previous studies show how planet-sized objects can be captured during the early evolution and dissolution of stellar nurseries, it seems several constraints reduce the probability of interstellar planet-swapping to a near-zero value, in the case of Planet 9.

Not long ago, scientists like Alexander Mustill of Lund University observed unusual orbital characteristics of several objects in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt — a cloud of frozen objects beyond the orbit of Neptune — and hypothesized the presence of an interstellar interloper; essentially, a (former) exoplanet snatched up by the Sun’s gravitational forces soon after it was born, roughly 4.5 billion years ago.

Roughly 20 times the mass of Earth, this ninth planet’s effects on other distant bodies would place it in an eccentric elliptical orbit, up to 60 degrees off the solar orbital plane. If confirmed, Planet 9 is estimated between 150-350 AU away. That’s at least 150 times farther from the Sun than the Earth.

It’s difficult for a massive planet to form so far from the interior of a new solar system, where most of the mass accumulates into planets. Consequently, some speculated that Planet 9 may have been captured, or “stolen” from another star in the Sun’s salad days.

At present our Sun is in a low-density stellar environment betwixt the spiral arms of our galaxy. But since planet formation occurs almost immediately (on a cosmic timescale) after a star is born, when the sun was born — in one of the denser, stellar-nursery sectors of the galaxy — it was in close proximity with other stars and their newborn planets.

A RAUCOUS STELLAR NURSERY

In their paper, the authors set out to determine whether a significant fraction of stars can capture free-floating planetary-mass objects (FFLOPs) in original, star-birthing environments where orbits are close enough to allow our young Sun to pilfer Planet 9.

They found that the number of planets pulled away from wide and fragile orbits is independent of the total mass of a star-forming region. Put another way: common sense suggests more people meet up in a city than a small town, even by brute force of statistics. But if humans were stars, and dates were planet-swaps, Twin Peaks would see as many meetups as New York City. (Though there aren’t that many Dale Coopers.)

Indeed, the fraction of planets expected to be swapped depends on the initial bulk velocity of their stellar nursery (i.e., the speed and direction of a whole group of newborn stars). The researchers found that FFLOPs are twice as likely to swap in looser, unbound regions of stars undergoing rapid expansion than in regions tight enough to collapse into a star cluster.

In contrast, planets swapped in tight-knit star clusters are more likely to have had bulk velocities that placed their trajectory in the neighborhood where Planet 9 could be swept up. That means that there was a good entry window for Planet 9 to be swapped, but it would have been one of the most rare and improbable kind.

(EXO)PLANET 9: A F(F)LOP HYPOTHESIS

Considering both dense and loosely packed stellar groups together, the scientists found the number of candidate planets that meet the conditions necessary for Planet 9 to be where we think it is is extremely low; around 5-10, from an initial population of 10,000 FFLOPs.

The authors of the study concluded that only 1-6 percent of planets are snatched by stars in star-forming sectors, in the regions with a significant population of FFLOPs. This means the probability of Planet 9 being a step-planet of interstellar swapping is almost zero, much lower than the estimate provided by Mustill et al.

The authors explained their differing conclusion as a result of alternate mathematical methods of calculating initial star velocities, and the absence of the “rogue planet” assumption. However, this raises the question: how could something 20 times the mass of Earth get so far out?

How planets (and their orbits) form in young solar systems remains a big mystery in astrophysics. As with many other things, the initial conditions of planet formation set the cosmic stage for everything to come, influencing the behavior of every other planet in our system. That’s why when spacecraft like Juno map the interior Jupiter, considered the first formed planet in our solar system, we get a peer into the ancient wonders of how our solar system came to be the way it is, and this knowledge will enhance our search for life in the far reaches of the galaxy.

References: 

• Cornell University Library, 
• Futurism, 
• Space.com,  

{ https://futurism.com/ }

18-09-2017 om 15:42 geschreven door peter  

It’s not easy stop microscopic creatures hitching a ride into space. That’s where the Planetary Protection Office comes in, explains Katie Mack.

Artist’s impression of Cassini burning up in Saturn’s upper atmosphere.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH

You’d think it was the name of a superhero, but the Planetary Protection Officer doesn’t wear a cape or work in a secret underground lair. The most devious villains encountered by NASA’s Planetary Protection Office are microscopic creatures that live in pond water and vaguely resemble inflatable bears. Though the office is tasked with protecting Earth from alien threats (for instance, from samples brought home from outer space), its primary purpose is to save the rest of the solar system from us.

Life is messy. It gets everywhere. On Earth, every niche we’ve found where liquid water is even intermittently present is positively teeming with the stuff. Microbes swarm in drops of water, tiny arachnids burrow in your eyelash follicles (sorry), and super-hardy creatures known as extremophiles make their homes in seemingly hostile habitats such as frozen glaciers and deep-sea volcanic vents.

By flourishing so well where we’d least expect them on Earth, these extremophiles give us hope for finding life in the unfriendly conditions of the outer Solar System. But they also present a problem.

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SPACE

With our intrepid microbial menagerie always present, when we humans build and send out a spacecraft to look for life, we risk contaminating the very environment we’re trying to study. Aside from being generally impolite and perhaps setting off an extremely small-scale war of the worlds, contamination like this could make it hard to tell if any life we detect is really alien.

This is where planetary protection comes in. Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty, drawn up by the United Nations’ Office for Outer Space Affairs and to which 107 nations are party, asserts that space exploration should avoid “harmful contamination” of other space bodies. Whenever an agency such as NASA sends a probe out into the universe, non-contamination guidelines require sterilisation procedures appropriate to the probe’s ultimate destination. The rules are significantly stricter for a lander than an orbiter, and even more rigorous if the landing site is thought to have a high chance of hosting life. The Planetary Protection Officer oversees the process.

It can have frustrating consequences for exploration. Planetary protection is part of the reason for NASA plunging its Cassini spacecraft into Saturn’s atmosphere, vaporising it in a blaze of glory. Cassini was never meant to be a lander; but Saturn has moons with liquid water, such as Enceladus, that are considered some of the best bets for the possibility of alien life in the Solar System. If Cassini hadn’t burned up, it might at some point crash into one of those moons, potentially wrecking whatever biosphere that moon might contain.

Similar concerns have prevented anyone from sending landers to regions on the surface of Mars that appear to have intermittent seepage of liquid water, where chances for life might be high. No matter how hard we try to completely sterilise a spacecraft, there’s always some chance a tiny Earth denizen might be clinging on.

Some of those microscopic explorers have proven incredibly hard to get rid of. The tiny tardigrade, also known as a water bear, for example, is an eight-clawed aquatic animal that grows to a maximum length of about one millimetre and sort of looks like a cross between a monochrome panda and an air mattress.

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SPACE

Tardigrades have long been known to survive extreme temperatures, hard radiation and even the vacuum of space. When water isn’t present, they can shrivel up and wait it out in a dormant state for up to a decade, or perhaps – according to some researchers – even centuries.

While tardigrade habitats are usually far from spacecraft labs, it is conceivable one could stick to a shoe or blow around on the breeze; and there may be other tiny extremophiles we haven’t yet catalogued hitching rides into space.

When humans eventually walk on the surface of Mars, sterilising everything will be impossible. It may be that, at that point, all hope of avoiding contamination will be lost.

In the meantime, the Office of Planetary Protection is here to look out for our fellow citizens of the cosmos, even if it does mean we have to say goodbye to our favourite robotic explorers a little sooner than we’d hoped.

{ https://cosmosmagazine.com/ }

18-09-2017 om 15:25 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious light formation appears in the sky above Salt Lake City

• A strange light formation was seen in the sky above Salt Lake City on Saturday 
• Videos taken around 8pm show the lights zooming through the night sky
• According to a NASA expert they were likely caused by a satellite breaking up 

By Abigail Miller For Dailymail.com

A strange light formation was spotted in the sky above Salt Lake City on Saturday night. 

Videos taken around 8pm of the sky above the Utah city show a mysterious scattering of lights flying through the sky.

And while the lights can most likely be explained as a satellite breaking up in orbit - the unusual sight prompted speculation they could be shooting stars or aliens.

A strange light formation was spotted in the sky above Salt Lake City on Saturday night

In one of the videos, one large spot of light soars through the air before it breaks off into several smaller spots of lights. 

A second video, however, shows at least four lights flying through the sky, all a similar size and shape and going roughly the same speed. 

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Based on descriptions, Patrick Wiggins, the NASA Ambassador to UTAH, told FOX 13 that the lights might have come from a satellite that broke up in orbit. 

He told the station he'd been told a satellite could break up Saturday night. 

Based on descriptions, Patrick Wiggins, the NASA Ambassador to UTAH, told FOX 13 that the lights might have come from a satellite that broke up in orbit 

However, people on social media had their own explanations. 

One woman said they were probably just lanterns that went rogue during a Lights Festival in a nearby town.

Others thought the lights could have been aliens. 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

18-09-2017 om 15:14 geschreven door peter  

Is the truth out there? Woman believes her aunt and uncle were abducted by aliens in rural New Hampshire almost 60 years ago

• Author Kathleen Marden's relatives reported UFO sighting in New Hampshire
• Barney and Betty Hill said beings they saw in black uniforms were not human
• They 'found themselves 35 miles away with little memory of what happened'
• 'Ufologist' Mrs Marden spoke in Britain for first time at Yorkshire UFO meeting
• She discussed key evidence she says proves the truth of aunt and uncle's story 

By Sebastian Murphy-bates For Mailonline

An author and researcher whose relatives claimed to be abducted by aliens in one of the most famous UFO stories of the last 60 years says she has key evidence proving extra-terrestrials exist.

Barney and Betty Hill said they saw a UFO as they were driving through rural New Hampshire, USA.

Their niece Kathleen Marden was just 13 at the time but began researching the incident many years later for a biography of the couple.

A pink substance on Mrs Hill's dress and spot marks on the car boot are evidence of the 1961 abduction, the Florida-based writer told the Examiner in her first ever British interview.

The self-proclaimed 'Ufologist' was speaking at the UFO Truth magazine conference in Holmfirth, west Yorkshire, which ran this weekend. 

She said her aunt and uncle were credible witnesses whose story only went public when a journalist breached their confidence. 

'I believe there was an abduction,' she said.

'When I began the investigation I was as unbiased as I could be.

'I did analysis of Betty and Barney’s statement when they were on the (alien) craft, being taken and then released.

'My analysis is that the experience was real.'

Barney and Betty Hill, who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in rural New Hampshire, pictured with their dog Desley

After speeding away from the scene, the couple claim to have found themselves 35 miles south with little memory of how they'd ended up there.

They described details of a disc-shaped ship while under hypnosis, with Mr Hill recalling eight to 10 beings who were 'somehow not human'. 

Mrs Marden said: 'They were dressed in black shiny uniforms...Barney believed they had a plan to capture him. 

'Something started to drop down out of the craft. He ran back screaming to Betty that they had to get out of there or they would be captured.'

Author Kathleen Marden said at the UFO conference that physical evidence confirms her aunt and uncle were telling the truth

The couple sped away from the scene but later found themselves 35 miles further south with little memory of what had happened in the interim period.

Mrs Marden is convinced their account is not a hoax and called on sceptics to scrutinise the evidence.

'The scientists who investigated the case said Betty and Barney were honest and mentally healthy,' she said. 

'They were upstanding members of their community.

'I think people should look at the evidence instead of speculating.'

Read more:

• "I only want the truth." Meet the woman who believes aliens abducted her aunt and uncle - Huddersfield Examiner

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

18-09-2017 om 14:51 geschreven door peter  

UFO SHOCKER: Is this the bottom of a flying saucer hovering over photographer's head?

THIS bizarre picture is the base of a “UFO” snapped by a photographer as it hovered over his head, it is remarkably claimed.

18-09-2017 om 13:53 geschreven door peter  

‘UFO as bright as lightning bolt’ spotted whizzing over Yorkshire Dales

A MYSTERIOUS UFO was spotted flying over a famous railway viaduct – just metres over the heads of terrified onlookers.

By Charlotte Ikonen 

{ http://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

18-09-2017 om 13:38 geschreven door peter  

Couple saw '40 UFOs' hovering over British beach before major military operation

AN ELDERLY couple have told of the bizarre sight of 30 to 40 UFOs hovering outside their home the night before a major military operation unfolded.

18-09-2017 om 13:24 geschreven door peter  

The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week

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.

Farewell, Spacecraft

The Cassini spacecraft has plunged into Saturn, sending back its final communications before burning up in the ringed planet's atmosphere.

And just like that, it was gone.

The final stream of data from Cassini was received at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in southern California. The spacecraft communicated with Earth via the Deep Space Network, a series of telescopes around the world that keep contact with spacecraft that fly beyond the moon. The Deep Space Network is managed from JPL. [Read more about the end of Cassini.]

Intelligent Laughter

What brings together Nobel Prize winners, unconventional research, a mini-opera about incompetence, and not one, but two barrages of paper airplanes? The Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, of course.

Many important questions are asked in the pursuit of science, but here's one that isn't heard very often: Why so serious?

At the 2017 Ig Nobels, held in the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, researchers representing five continents made an appearance to acknowledge the dubious achievement of acquiring an Ig Nobel. [Read more about the funny research.]

One Extreme or the Other?

The story was tailor-made for headlines: The indecipherable Voynich Manuscript that once stumped the best code breakers of World War II had finally been cracked, and it was a simple health-and-wellness guide for medieval women.

Or not. [Read more about the lost language.]

Strange Casualty

 Follow

Preeti Desai @preetalina

Okay, biology twitter, what the heck is this?? Found on a beach in Texas City, TX. #wildlifeid

1:50 AM - Sep 7, 2017

•  1,1141,114 Replies
 
•  7,5037,503 Retweets
 
•  17,49117,491 likes

Hurricane Harvey stranded a mysterious fanged eel on the beach in Texas, leaving the animal to die, rot and bloat. But despite its untimely end, the creature has since become an internet star.

[Read more about the eel.]

Not the Status Quo

A high-status Viking warrior who was thought to be a man turns out to be a woman, a new DNA analysis finds.

One of the graves was that of a presumed Viking warrior, whose remains were buried with a range of warlike weapons. For decades, however, researchers assumed that the burial was that of a high-status male officer. [Read more about the new find.]

SpaceX Videos

Successful rockets are all alike, but every unsuccessful rocket is unsuccessful in its own way.

Get ready for out-of-this-world fiery blasts on "How Not to Land an Orbital Rocket Booster," a new SpaceX blooper reel produced by Elon Musk, the company's founder and CEO.

The conflagrations really are like no other, and Elon insists that they're "just a scratch" or a "rapid unscheduled disassembly" in some cases. [Read more about the bloopers.]

To the Rescue!

Two territorial hippopotamuses foiled a crocodile that tried to wrestle a wildebeest into a water hole, as seen in a dramatic video of the encounter. [Read more about animal superheroes.]

Endangered Peoples

Uncontacted Indians in the Brazilian Amazon, filmed from the air in 2010.

Brazilian authorities are investigating reports that gold miners killed about 10 members of an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon rainforest.

The indigenous rights group Survival International warned that such an attack could mean that a large percentage of the tribe has been wiped out. [Read more about the story.]

War toys

Military brats of ancient Rome probably played soldier to pass the time.

Birley's team discovered the toys after lifting the stone foundations from a more recent renovation of the fort. They found damp, black, oxygen-free soil sealed underneath —good conditions for preserving artifacts. [Read more about the toys.]

Coolin' Off

A new technique pushes the limits of how cold molecules can get to a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero. [Read more about absolute zero.]

Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+.{

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

18-09-2017 om 01:50 geschreven door peter  

Giant, Scorching-Hot Alien Planet Is Darker Than Asphalt

Artist’s illustration showing the exoplanet WASP-12b, which is as black as fresh asphalt in optical wavelengths.

Exoplanets come in pretty much all colors, including pitch black.

The huge, blistering-hot alien world WASP-12b has a reflectance, or albedo, of just 0.064 at most, a new study reports.

"This is an extremely low value, making the planet darker than fresh asphalt!" lead author Taylor Bell, a master’s student in astronomy at McGill University in Montreal, said in a statement. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]

For perspective, the moon's albedo on the same scale is 0.12, and Earth's is 0.37. The icy Saturn satellite Enceladus, the most reflective object in our solar system, clocks in at 1.4, study team members said. (These numbers are the "geometric albedo" of these objects. Another commonly used albedo scale, the Bond scale, goes from 0 to 1.)

WASP-12b lies about 1,400 light-years from Earth. The exoplanet is about twice the size of Jupiter and completes one lap around its star every 1.1 Earth days.

This super-close orbit has made the planet a bizarre and hellish world. The powerful gravitational tug of its parent star has pulled WASP-12b into an egg shape, and temperatures on the planet's dayside reach about 4,700 degrees Fahrenheit (2,600 degrees Celsius), study team members said. (Close-orbiting planets like WASP-12b tend to be tidally locked, always showing the same face to their star, just as the moon always shows its "near side" to Earth.)

WASP-12b has been studied extensively since its 2008 discovery. But Bell and his colleagues took another look in October 2016, investigating the "hot Jupiter" with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph instrument aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The low albedo came as a surprise, Bell said.

"There are other hot Jupiters that have been found to be remarkably black, but they are much cooler than WASP-12b," he said in the same statement. "For those planets, it is suggested that things like clouds and alkali metals are the reason for the absorption of light, but those don't work for WASP-12b because it is so incredibly hot."

Alien Planet Quiz: Are You an Exoplanet Expert?

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It's so hot, in fact, that molecular hydrogen — the familiar H2 — gets broken apart into atomic hydrogen in WASP-12b's skies. The team's work suggests that the planet's atmosphere is mostly atomic hydrogen and helium, and that this composition leads to the pitch-black profile.

WASP-12b is just the second exoplanet to have its albedo measured spectrally in this manner. The other — a fellow hot Jupiter, HD 189733b — appears to be deep blue.

"The fact that the first two exoplanets with measured spectral albedo exhibit significant differences demonstrates the importance of these types of spectral observations and highlights the great diversity among hot Jupiters," Bell said.

Though WASP-12b reflects virtually no light, it does emit some: The planet is so hot that it glows red like molten metal, researchers said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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{ https://www.space.com/ }

18-09-2017 om 01:23 geschreven door peter  

Despite Opposition, METI Will Still Reach Out to Alien Life in 2018

 

NASA

IN BRIEF

Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) intends to send messages into space in 2018 in an attempt to contact alien life. METI president Douglas Vakoch doesn't want fear to slow us down, saying we should build a foundation for future scientists to keep looking.

METI VS. THE WORLD.

Despite the arguments against it proposed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and concerns held by those like Stephen Hawking, scientists from Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) are moving forward with plans to reach out to alien life next year.

METI, an offshoot of SETI comprising those who wish to actively seek out alien life instead of waiting, has been met with substantial opposition to its plans since it was formed. Few are against the idea that alien life exists in our universe, but a significant number have wondered if humanity should be the ones letting other species know we’re here. The concern is that such new life wouldn’t be friendly to us or very understanding, and the interactions could eventually lead to our subjugation or extinction.

Douglas Vakoch, president of METI, isn’t worried about these worst-case scenarios. Speaking with CNET, Vakoch argues that our negative expectations of aliens are not to be taken at face value; just because violence is the first thing we think of, it doesn’t inherently mean it will become reality.

“One of the reasons people are so afraid of METI is that it seems riskier to do something than to do nothing,” he said in the interview. “When we try to evaluate the risks and benefits of an unknown situation where we have little or no actual data, we fall back on the most vivid images that come to mind.”

SPEAKING THROUGH MATH AND PHYSICS

We have come up with ways to communicate with a species hundreds of light-years away that doesn’t speak our language, but there are many challenges to this feat. Aside from the time it would take for a message to travel, there’s the issue that comes with trying to craft a message that, by sight, can be identified as harmless but still be valuable.

Vakoch believes that past messages have tried to cover too many things at once. METI’s messages, however, will focus on math and physics — something SETI agrees with, since math and physics could be the only two things we have in common with any alien life.

It takes a while for things to travel through space, though, so regardless of when new messages are sent, we’re still in for a bit of a wait. People have proposed that alien contact will occur anywhere from within a few years to thousands of years from now. But as long as people hold onto the will to keep trying, Vakoch thinks that perseverance in itself will benefit humanity.

“Many of our most severe problems on Earth today are due to a focus on immediate gratification,” Vakoch said to CNET. “If future generations of SETI researchers are looking for replies to today’s transmissions, committed to a multigenerational scientific project, the very act of continuing to look will be a success in itself, whether or not they ever find life out there.”

References: 

• CNET Android Update,
•  METI

{ https://futurism.com/ }

18-09-2017 om 01:14 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers to send cosmic messages in 2018 to search for aliens

However, many scientists have also expressed concern about the idea as it could lead to the possibility of an alien attack.

By Shubham Sharma

A group of alien searchers is gearing up to send out cosmic messages in 2018 in order to look for the existence of extraterrestrial life, according to a report in CNET.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), which brought a number of alien hunters together, led to the scanning of cosmos with massive radio telescopes, but despite 50-odd years of efforts, we're still looking out for the solid signs of alien life. With the efforts of astronomer Frank Drake, the SETI began in 1960.

Now, a specific group of astronomers within the SETI community has grown tired of waiting and is prepping to send out messages to the unknown, if they exist somewhere in the cosmos. The research group, which calls itself Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligences (METI) International, is working on cosmic messages, hoping to send them out sometime in 2018.

However, the question that arises here is that they will send the messages to where. The cosmos is practically endless and the number of planets in the habitable zone (at the right distance from its host star) is increasing continuously.

Douglas Vakoch, the president of the group, addressed this concern by telling CNET that they will go for nearby stars, specifically those with planets in the habitable zones.

It's also worth noting that they'll have to devise a message which extraterrestrial species could understand easily. There have been some ways in the past – mathematical languages, rudimentary chatbots, music, or pictograms – but METI will specifically focus on maths and physics.

"Some of the most prominent messages of the past have tried to cover everything," Vakoch said. "We're taking the opposite approach. Rather than trying to communicate everything [about math, science, and life on Earth], we are focusing on saying a few things very clearly. For our first messages, we are emphasizing the essentials of math and physics."

The idea of proactively reaching out to the extraterrestrials seems fair, but not many are in favour of the prospect. Why? Because aliens could ATTACK! Many prominent scientists, including Stephen Hawking, believe contacting the unknown could not only lead them to us but also increases the chances of a potential attack if they're hostile.

Still, METI is moving ahead with their plan, looking forward to finding alien life. "One of the reasons people are so afraid of METI is that it seems riskier to do something than to do nothing," Vakoch said. "When we try to evaluate the risks and benefits of an unknown situation where we have little or no actual data, we fall back on the most vivid images that come to mind. But just because the first images of alien contact that come to mind are horrific, that doesn't mean they're realistic."

{ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ }

18-09-2017 om 01:04 geschreven door peter  

{  http://nationalufocenter.com/ }

17-09-2017 om 23:53 geschreven door peter  

Filer’s Files #37 -2017 UFO Reports - PART II

UFO Sightings in the United States

Alabama Light

Ranburne — My wife and I were watching fireworks on July 4^th when we noticed these strange lights doing unnatural things. We videoed them on my iPhone and on her Lg G3 smart phone. We knew this was not an airplane or fireworks or a drone. We were excited and confused so that’s why we documented the event. After several times of it disappearing and reappearing it finally stopped. We were at home and started videoing around 9:00 pm central time. Thanks to MUFON CMS

California Object

Elk Grove — It happened on September 5, 2017, at 7:46 pm, my wife “DJS” has the psychic power to uncloak. Time after time, she has proven to me that she can feel a UFO or even a portal in the sky and take a photo of the UFO that will appear in the photo. In one photo, she actually captured a portal in the sky over Copperopolis. The one that really struck a chord with me was the story of the mysterious eye and her account of an alien abduction. She got the impulse to snap a photo and she captured 3 UFOs in a V formation.

During our investigations together we were connected to the UFOs by using two crystal skulls. She asked the UFO to “power up” and that is exactly what the UFO did and was witnessed by others. Other people who may have had the psychic power to uncloak UFOs were: Ed Walters, and Eduard Albert Meier. My wife “D” has the psychic power to uncloak UFOs and does it have a connection to her alien abduction? Thanks to MUFON CMS

Georgia Triangle

Augusta – On September 1, 2017, a series of photos were taken of a triangle shaped craft over Augusta that could be the US experimental TR-3B;

Thanks to MUFON CMS

Illinois 7 Oval Shaped Objects

Glendale – On August 31, 2017, the witness called and reported his sighting via a voice-mail message. I called the witness and interviewed him later. The witness couldn’t sleep so he took a walk to a gas station about 1.5 miles from his house. He noticed a light hovering to the east. He at first thought it was an aircraft, but realized that it wasn’t because it kept silent, hovering and was too large for an aircraft. He snapped one photo of the oval shaped object that was 250 yards in diameter. There were blinking white, blue and green lights around the perimeter and on the bottom corners. He then noticed seven other similar objects gradually appeared 25 miles from Chicago O’Hare Airport. Upon arrival at the gas station he saw two police officers and they also were observing the sky. One policeman said that the object was an “airbus.” The other officer was baffled. Thanks to William Puckett, Director Http://www.UFOsnw.com

Indiana Object

 Mentone — My deer camera has 4 pictures that look like a rod of light taken on September 8, 2016. They are hours apart and the closest one people say look like a grain auger and the farther away Ones look like glowing rods with a slight bend in them. The confusing part is it looks like it takes off from my neighbor’s house then the next picture it’s above my house. I went and talked to neighbor and now he’s confused. The people in my area are curious to what might have made these forms in the air.

Kansas Lights

Wichita — I was out looking for UFOs when I noticed what looked like a star that was moving real slowly on July 13, 2017. So I tried to record it. The ship had scramblers that made my phone go crazy. After about 45 minutes, I finally manipulated the ships scramblers so I was able to record this massive ship with little ships flying in and around it. We were at my brother’s house in Wichita and it looked like a huge diamond in the sky that scared me. It was like the movie “Independence Day.” It was in the sky for already 5 hours watching earth before we even realized the star was moving. I tried to record, but it wouldn’t let me. Then we noticed ten UFOs all around it and one Lil UFO shoots of in space like Superman. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Massachusetts Orb

Bourne — I was sitting on my deck on September 1, 2017, and saw a giant orange ball of light heading south across sky. I immediately called my husband out when it first appeared and he observed it also. Five minutes later another orange ball flew south across the sky. Neither of us could identify the ball of light. I was able to take two pictures of 2nd sighting. I waited but did not see it again.

Thanks to MUFON CMS

New Jersey Object

Absecon — I awakened at 4:48 am with a feeling of being wide awake and a feeling of gently swaying sensation left to right as I lay in bed on September 8, 2017. I could feel the swaying pressure going from left to right like I was floating on a big wave ever so gently. I had a slight head fog with the feeling of slight pressure building in my head like driving up to the mountains. I got up to see the sunrise in the east and the moon was high in the south western sky. Then I started taking pictures of the moon as some birds were flying,

When I got into my vehicle to drive home I felt like I was in a slight drunk state but did not consume alcohol. I had to force myself to be extra alert when driving. I noticed the object in my picture once I downloaded it into my computer I zoomed in and it does not look like anything I ever saw before. Appears to be black with what looks to be a light of hole in middle. It could be a drone but I just never seen a drone like this before. I saw nothing when I was looking in the direction of the moon. I did feel a slight drugged like feeling a light headed fogginess. Maybe it’s the atmosphere and climatic changes, and magnetic field or gravitational pull that’s doing something to make me feel this way. Thanks to MUFON CMS

New York Disc

 New York City — I was walking, so very happy talking to a friend from California on the phone,
when something told me to take a picture on January14, 2017…..
I noticed a white object on the front, and a flying craft in the back ground. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Pennsylvania Object

Philadelphia — On August 30, 2017, I looked out of my 3rd floor window and saw 8 objects fly over my city from west to east. At first from a distance maybe 1-2 miles I thought they were soaring vultures. Redtails are common but not that many at once so that drew my attention.
I went back to my work the objects were much closer and were not birds but were very smooth looking objects and resembled a manta ray. The way they flew was very controlled and not just with the wind, they would bank and change altitude, dip and bank. I ran back inside to grab my camera to snap two photos before they flew out of sight.

The building that blocked my view so they had to be very low. I looked out of my 3rd floor window and saw about 8 objects fly over my city from west to east. Thanks to MUFON CMS

South Carolina Triangles

Myrtle Beach – I discovered 3 triangle UFOs high resolution photos that I don’t remember taking. In the phone details, it says that I took it through my camera at 8:02 pm on March 27th, 2017. I don’t even know where this church is. My wife and son were at a function that night but we cannot account for where I was. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Texas Triangle

Atoy — I left a friend’s house, headed home, driving the same route I always drive at about 2ish in the morning on June 1, 2017. Not driving fast the sky flashed blue as if lightning flashed but there were no clouds. There was no moon and very little light pollution except for my headlights. What was odd about the light/flash was that it was bluish in color and seemed to flash over the top of my truck. The only thing I can equate it to is when someone is welding, the light that it gives off is not like a lightning flash or other sorts of light fixtures. It flashed for about 3 or 4 flashes, fast but long enough to look up and still see it going on through the windshield. This light lit up the whole sky, like I said, like lightning would have. There was no sound like a rumble of thunder that should have followed if it had been lightning. As I looked up, it moved from the rearview mirror to the steering wheel and disappeared over the trees southwest. It did not move fast, about 30 mph or so. It was triangle shaped on an acute triangle, there were about 6 or 7 lights on my side of the object, The lights lit it just enough to see the object was a dark color but flat colored. The object could have been the shape of a stealth fighter but seemed thicker and longer. It seemed thin as it flew over the road ahead of me. It was 100 yards above me and disappeared about 125 yards in front of me. I was traveling south along F.M. 1210 towards Atoy. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Port Orchard — Working on Pasture fence on my farm on July 23, 2017, I didn’t notice it at the time.

Only after I looked at the game camera footage did I notice it. Perhaps it was a large bird.

We do have Eagles and Canadian geese in the area. It was circular shape and possibly metallic silver. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Worldwide UFO Sightings

Argentina Orb

Ensenada — I tell you that I was in a park with my daughter taking pictures on August 21, 2017, when it occurred to me to take one in the sun seeing that it looked bigger than usual. I didn’t remember it was eclipse of the sun day. When I look at my encounter with the orb that I could only see in the photo or through the camera not to the naked eye, I have serious doubts that it is not the reflection of the camera or the lens. During the days prior to this I always looked towards that same direction as if expecting something. The curious thing is that this same phenomenon happened on August 19, 2017, two days before, I do not know if it disappeared and then I went home without being sure that it is a UFO. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Canada Sphere

Scarborough, Ontario — On Friday, September 1, 2017, I took this series of photographs.

We had a ‘prelude ‘ to the CNE’s Air show at around 1:09 pm today

Thanks to Paul Shishis

Hawaii Red Marks

Kekaha Kauai – I was worried about the red marks that my dad noticed when we are in the living room. He looked at it and wiped with alcohol because he thought it was only a stain from my bed or from my shirt, the alcohol did not remove the marks. What should I do?

Response to Investigator Questions: I live here in the USA in state of Hawaii. We noticed the marks on August 30th, 2017. I don’t have exact time, but my dad noticed it around 7 PM. The night before I got the mark I had two dreams, but I can’t remember them. I was really tired after work and fell asleep around 5 PM naked. I woke up and went into the living room with my parents. I was sitting in the living room and my dad noticed something on my back. I told him maybe it was just dirt. I was so irritated at my dad when he kept telling me about it so I went inside the bathroom and saw this red mark in my back. We took alcohol and cotton to try to wipe it out, but I couldn’t get it out. I know that it’s not a regular mark because it should be fading already. I gave my mom an ice cube and she rubbed it on my back… Ice, alcohol, water couldn’t remove the mark and I have no symptoms and it’s not itchy. I’m got stressed thinking about where I got the red marks, There are similar patterns of articles and pictures on the web. Missiles were launched at around 1 AM that night and I live close by to the base.

Note: I have received several reports of similar “red marks in grid pattern” in the last year few years. The cause of these marks has not yet been determined. Thanks to William Puckett, Director Http://www.UFOsnw.com

Mexico Orbs

During our stay in Mexico City my girlfriend and I visited the Templo Mayor Site and museum. We did not see anything strange that day in the skies of Mexico City. When we returned home from our vacation I downloaded from my girlfriend’s I-phone pictures from that day had white orbs in the sky. This photo was taken by her from inside the Templo Mayor museum. The photo captures glowing disc shaped and orb like objects and a non-glowing disc shaped object hovering above Mexico City. If the picture is magnified you can see the non-glowing dark/grayish disc shaped object.
The glowing object between the domes of the cathedral seems to be to far away to be a reflection of a light from within the museum. The non-glowing disc shaped object does seem to be neither a reflection nor dirt. What are they? Thanks to MUFON CMS

New Zealand Object

I took this picture with my IR camera in the early morning hours on September 3, 2017. I don’t know what it is, but that pic shows what might be a UFO, with a blue orb next to it. Can someone please tell me what this is?  If that’s a blue UFO next to it, then the ufo might be 10 meters across. Then it roughly shows the size of it. Thanks to MUFON CMS

Thailand Light

Bangkok — I was stuck in traffic and since I like watching the sky at Twilight time I saw the light that I thought was a Northern star. I drive home in that direction every day, and never see a single star.

Then I saw it so bright but not moving. It’s also the brightest star I’ve ever seen. I was screaming in my car with shock and happiness. I’m just about to grab my camera and then it disappeared, right in front of my eyes. Thanks to MUFON CMS

UK/Wales Light

Barmouth — Standing on our caravan holiday plot in Talybont, when myself and 3 friends noticed 4 ‘puffy’ like clouds directly in front of us over the sea. My friend’s and I took photos on our camera phones. When checking the photos we noticed the orb quickly and took other photos. The orb was only visible when looking through the camera phone, not with the naked eye. The orb moved in fast upward and downward movements on the phone. A third friend took photos but no orb was visible. We thought it could have been a trick of the light as we were shooting into the sun. After approx 10 minutes we forgot about the orb so don’t know when or if it disappeared. My friend phoned me tonight to say that orbs had been seen over Dyffryn which is a very short walk away. It was very exciting reading the reports on the internet of these sightings and felt I would like to report ours. Thanks to MUFON CMS

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17-09-2017 om 23:23 geschreven door peter  

‘Crashed UFOs’ found in Russia which contain ‘remains of extra-terrestrial beings’

COAL miners in Russia have discovered a strange disc well below the surface which they describe as “crashed UFOs”.

{ http://www.express.co.uk/ }

17-09-2017 om 22:43 geschreven door peter  

UFO that ‘lit up like a bolt of lightning’ SPOTTED during camping trip in Yorkshire

A COUPLE of friends claim to have been mesmerised by a mysterious UFO that was as bright as a "bolt of lightening”, while camping in the Yorkshire Dales.

17-09-2017 om 22:35 geschreven door peter  

For those who like to drive, nothing is quite as inviting as a freshly-applied (and dried) blacktopped road. Do space travelers feel the same way about a completely black planet that is dark enough to disappear and absorbs everything its nearby star shines at it? What fresh hole in space is this? Has an alien civilization invented a planetary cloaking device?

The discovery of the lack of light on the dark exoplanet was announced this week by NASA and the European Space Agency. The obsidian orb is WASP-12b and it was actually discovered in 2008 orbiting WASP-12, a magnitude 11 yellow dwarf star located approximately 1400 light-years away in the constellation Auriga. While WASP-12 is about the size of our Sun, WASP-12b is what NASA calls a “hot Jupiter,” which sounds like an astronaut exclamation (Hot Jupiter, Spock! Who cares if she’s green … she’s gorgeous!”) but is slang for a large (in this case, twice the diameter of our Jupiter), hot, gaseous planet (also called a roaster planet) with a quick orbit – WASP-12b makes its circuit in just 10 days. That makes it so incredibly hot (2600 degrees Celsius on its daylight side) that its star’s pull is able to mold the exoplanet into an egg shape.

Astronomers discover dark past of planet-eating 'Death Star'

An artist’s impression of WASP-12b (NASA)

Astronomers from McGill University, Canada and the University of Exeter, UK, used the Hubble space telescope to observe WASP-12b during an eclipse (theirs, not ours) when it passed behind its sun. Taylor Bell, a Master’s student in astronomy at McGill University and lead author of the report, explains what they saw:

“The measured albedo of WASP-12b is 0.064 at most. This is an extremely low value, making the planet darker than fresh asphalt!”

Hot Jupiter, Taylor! What’s an albedo?

Latin for “whiteness,” albedo is a measurement of reflection. While other colder exoplanets have low albedos due to clouds or surface alkali metals, WASP-12b’s extreme heat means it has neither of these. Its super-low albedo is caused by its super-hot temperature which breaks down its hydrogen molecules into hydrogen atoms, allowing WASP-12b to reflect almost no light – it eats 94% of it. This gives this hot Jupiter a dark red hue, contrasting it to another hot Jupiter, HD 189733b, which has a higher albedo, making it deep blue and causing astronomer Bell to wax philosophically:

“The fact that the first two exoplanets with measured spectral albedo exhibit significant differences demonstrates the importance of these types of spectral observations and highlights the great diversity among hot Jupiters.”

An artist’s impression of a normal hot Jupiter

Does that dark color make WASP-12b an attractive asphalt roadish planet just begging for a landing? Would the first crew to touch down paint white stripes or parking lot lines? Would that make the residents on the cooler side yell “Hot Jupiter! Why didn’t we think of that!”

At 1400 light years away, we’ll probably never know.

{http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

17-09-2017 om 22:23 geschreven door peter  

VIPS WITNESS A 300 FOOT OBJECT THAT TRAVELED 10,000 FEET IN HALF A SECOND, HEADING STRAIGHT FOR THEIR PLANE

17-09-2017 om 22:11 geschreven door peter