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 Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
18-09-2017
Time Travel Isn't Possible…Or Is It?
Time Travel Isn't Possible…Or Is It?
By Paul Sutter, Astrophysicist
Could wormholes — a theoretical phenomenon predicted by general relativity — create shortcuts through spacetime and make time travel possible?
Special relativity teaches us that the three dimensions of space and the solitary dimension of time are woven together like a fabric. It's impossible to think of them as separate entities, only a singular unified entity — space-time. We can't think of motion through space without being mindful of motion through time, and vice versa. Left-right, up-down, back-forth and past-future are all on equal footing.
And yet, time does seem a little different. We have complete freedom of movement within space, but we cannot avoid our future. Time seems to have an "arrow," whereas the spatial dimensions are ambidextrous. Given the unity between time and space, it leads to the obvious question: Is time travel, of any sort, possible? Under any circumstances? At all? [How Time Travel Works in Science Fiction (Infographic)]
Many science fiction stories explore humanity's desire to travel back in time. Is such a thing really possible in our universe?
Credit: Universal
Into the future: Sure
Oddly enough, the answer is yes! We cannot avoid moving into our futures, but we can control the rate that we move through time. This is a consequence of another lesson from relativity: Not all clocks are the same.
The speed at which you move through space determines the speed at which you move through time. In the succinct phrase: Moving clocks run slow.
IF you could build a big enough rocket (don't ask me how, that's an engineering problem) to provide a constant acceleration of 1g (9.8 meters per second per second; the same acceleration as provided by the Earth's gravity at its surface), you could reach the center of the Milky Way galaxy — a healthy 20,000 light-years away — in just a couple decades of your personal time.
You could stop for a few hours, have a picnic near Sagittarius A* (the black hole at the center of the galaxy), and then hop back in to your rocket and come back to Earth.
By the time you return you'll be eligible for retirement benefits, if the institution providing those benefits is even around, because while you only traveled for a few decades according to the clock on your ship, about 40,000 years would've passed on the Earth.
Closing the loop
Time is relative, but it still flows in the same direction for everyone. To ask if we can go into reverse is the domain of general relativity (GR) — this is the mathematical language we use to not only understand gravity, but the full connection between space-time and motion.
In GR, we ask a slightly more technical question: Is there any arrangement of matter and energy (the stuff that warps space-time) to permit the existence of closed time-like curves, or CTCs? I know this is jargon but it's a fun phrase to toss around at parties. "Curve" here means a path, "time-like" means you never go faster than the speed of light, and "closed" means it returns to its starting point — in other words, its own past.
So, Oracle of Einstein, are CTCs permitted?
Yes!
Well….
Creators of science fiction love to play with time travel, but is such a thing possible in the real universe?
Credit: BBC
The possibilities are finite
There are about half a dozen known configurations of space-time that allow CTCs, or time travel into the past. For example, Kurt Gödel (of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem fame) discovered that if the expansion of the universe was accelerating (which it is) and the universe is also rotating, CTCs would be allowed and we could travel into our past on a whim.
As far as I can tell, Gödel used this solution to point out to Albert Einstein that perhaps GR wasn't all it was cracked up to be — I mean, come on, shouldn't any self-respecting theory of the natural world avoid such an obviously absurd solution?
But Gödel's point was moot — all observations indicate that the universe is not rotating, so that particular solution does not apply to our universe, and time travel into the past is verboten.
Ah! But what if we were to construct an infinitely long massive cylinder and set it spinning on its axis near the speed of light. It would drag on space-time around it, and certain paths around that spinning cylinder would end up in their own past. Good thing there are no infinitely long massive cylinders in the universe, or we might have to worry.
Wait, I've got one: If you make a wormhole (a shortcut between two distant locations in space-time) and send one end racing off near the speed of light and bring it back, the normal time-dilation effects would put one end in the "future" of the other, so you could waltz right through the wormhole throat and end up in your past. What's that? Wormholes require "negative mass" to exist, and negative mass does not exist in the universe? Well, hmm.
Into the past: Nope
It's the same story every time (pardon the too-hard-to-resist pun). For every scenario we concoct in general relativity to allow CTCs and time travel into our own past, nature finds a way to confound our plans and rule out the scenario.
What's going on? General relativity allows — in principle — time travel into the past, but it appears to be ruled out in every case. It seems like something funny is afoot, that there ought to be some fundamental rule to disallow time travel. But there isn't one. We can't point to any particle interaction at the subatomic level that clearly prevents the formation of CTCs.
The inevitable progression of time from the past to the future resembles another indomitable law of nature: entropy. That's the iron law of thermodynamics that states that closed systems go from ordered to disordered. (This law explains why an egg will never just happen to unscramble itself if you leave it alone long enough). Is time linked to entropy? Maybe, but that's the subject of another article….
In 1947 troffen wetenschappers een 550 miljoen jaar oud fossiel aan. Het mysterieuze dier kreeg de naam Dickinsonia. Maar was het wel echt een dier? Ja, bevestigt nieuw wetenschappelijk onderzoek.
Het fossiel van Dickinsonia costata wordt vaak vergeleken met een luchtbed. Het dier had een flexibele lichaamswand, die kon uitzetten en krimpen. De afgelopen decennia werd er flink gediscussieerd over Dickinsonia. Was het een dier? Een korstmos? Of toch een schimmel?
In een paper in het wetenschappelijke vakblad Proceedings of the Royal Society B. concluderen onderzoekers dat Dickinsonia toch echt een dier was. “Dickinsonia behoort tot de Ediacarische biota”, vertelt onderzoeker Dr Renee Hoekzema van de Oxford universiteit. Deze groep bestaat uit meercellige organismen zonder harde delen, die ruwweg 540 tot 580 miljoen jaar geleden op aarde leefden. “Toch lijken de fossielen van deze dieren niet op andere levende of uitgestorven organismen. Het is een palaeontologisch raadsel.”
Groei De onderzoekers focusten zich op de manier waarop Dickinsonia groeide. Groeide het dier als een organisme of als een schimmel? Eerder onderzoek toonde aan dat Dickinsonia vanuit het kleinste en tevens jongste punt groeide. “Dit blijkt echter niet te kloppen,” beweert Hoekzema.
“Dickinsonia groeide doordat vanuit het midden nieuwe lagen ontstonden, die vervolgens groter werden”, zegt Hoekzema. “Als we gegevens over de groei combineren met informatie over hoe Dickinsonia bewoog en morfologische kenmerken, dan kunnen we alle niet-biologische mogelijkheden uitsluiten.”
Cambrische explosie “Dit onderzoek laat zien dat dieren miljoenen jaren voor de Cambrische explosie al evolueerden”, vertelt medeauteur Dr Alex Liu van de universiteit van Cambridge. Tijdens deze 25 miljoen jaar durende periode nam de diversiteit toe en ontstonden de meeste moderne dierenfamilies, zoals gewervelden, sponzen, geleedpotigen, weekdieren en kwallen.
De Ediacarische biota verdwenen overigens snel. Nieuwe diersoorten veranderden het milieu, waardoor de Ediacarische biota moeilijk konden overleven.
Autonome wapens – ‘killer robots’ die zelf beslissen of ze iemand doden of niet – komen eraan. En de politiek hult zich in stilzwijgen.
Begin dit jaar luidden 116 deskundigen in een open brief – gericht aan de Verenigde Naties – de noodklok. In de brief waarschuwen ze voor de derde revolutie in oorlogsvoering. Na het buskruit en de nucleaire wapens zijn nu de volledig autonome wapens in aantocht. En daar waren de ondertekenaars van de brief heel stellig over. “Zodra ze ontworpen zijn, zullen ze ervoor zorgen dat gewapende conflicten op een grotere schaal dan ooit en veel sneller dan mensen kunnen begrijpen, worden uitgevochten. Het kunnen wapens van terreur zijn, wapens die dictators en terroristen gebruiken tegen onschuldige populaties, maar ook gehackte wapens die zich op ongewenste manieren gedragen.” Ferme taal. Maar er zit geen overdreven woord bij, zo verzekert Koen Hindriks, oprichter en CEO van Interactive Robotics en één van de ondertekenaars van de brief ons. Want de autonome wapens komen er – als we geen actie ondernemen – echt aan.
In de loop “Simpel gezegd moet je dan denken aan machines die zelf kunnen bewegen, dus zonder aansturing van de mens en machines die zelf kunnen schieten,” vertelt Hindriks aan Scientias.nl. “Dus bijvoorbeeld een drone die uitgerust is met wapentuig.” Gewapende drones zijn er natuurlijk al. Maar nu worden ze nog op afstand, door mensen bestuurd. “En wij willen voorkomen dat de mens uit de loop gehaald wordt.”
“MACHINES MOETEN NIET GAAN BEPALEN OP WIE ER WEL OF NIET GESCHOTEN WORDT”
Selectie In theorie zou een gewapende drone al zonder mens uit de voeten kunnen. “Het grootste probleem is echter de kwaliteit van handelen. Zo kan een drone in theorie zelf zijn target bepalen, maar dat gaat dan op basis van beweging en is dus niet heel gedifferentieerd.” In andere woorden: de drone schiet op alles wat beweegt en gaat dus niet eerst rustig na wie er in zijn gezichtsveld loopt en of het wenselijk is dat die persoon wordt neergeschoten. “En daar gaat de brief in feite over,” stelt Hindriks. “Machines moeten niet gaan bepalen op wie er wel of niet geschoten wordt.”
EERDERE BRIEF
De brief van Hindriks en collega’s is een vervolg op een soortgelijke brief die eerder verscheen en voornamelijk ondertekend werd door wetenschappers. Wat de meest recente brief zo bijzonder maakt, is dat de namen van bedrijven die zich bezighouden met robotica en kunstmatige intelligentie onder de brief staan. “Dat maakt direct duidelijk dat deze bedrijven zich in ieder geval niet bezighouden met de ontwikkeling van autonome wapens,” merkt Hindriks op. Zo is Hindriks zelf bezig met het tegenovergestelde van killer robots: sociale robots. “Humanoïde robots die ontworpen zijn om de interactie met mensen aan te gaan.” De robots kunnen bijvoorbeeld ingezet worden in het onderwijs, de verpleging of in kantoren voor de ontvangst van mensen. “Deze robots gaan er echt aankomen, we moeten alleen nog uitvinden welke robot het meest geschikt is voor welke taak.”
Tijdspan Op dit moment lijkt dat ook nog niet aan de orde te zijn, simpelweg omdat we nog geen machines kunnen bouwen die geheel zelfstandig hun doelwitten kunnen selecteren, identificeren en elimineren. Maar dat gaat veranderen. Wanneer? Dat is lastig te voorspellen, stelt Hindriks. “Wij stellen – zeker hier in het westen – hoge eisen aan onze precisie-wapens. Als we die eisen ook aan onze autonome wapens stellen en ze in een onbekende omgeving in willen gaan zetten, kan het nog wel meer dan twintig jaar duren voor we zover zijn. Maar dat betekent dat we in die twintig jaar verschillende stappen moeten gaan zetten waarbij van alles mis kan gaan. Want dit soort technologieën werkt niet van de ene op de andere dag: die moet je doorontwikkelen.”
Zorg Maar het is niet de wellicht door fatale fouten getergde ontwikkelingsfase waar Hindriks zich het meeste zorgen over maakt. “Mijn grootste zorg is dat de autonome wapens in verkeerde handen terecht komen. Hier in het westen gaan we de discussie over deze wapens nog aan. Maar er zijn samenlevingen waarin er – op nationaal niveau, want ik zie terroristische groeperingen zich niet zo snel ontwikkelen tot experts in dit soort technologieën – minder scrupuleus over wordt nagedacht. En hoe houd je daar grip op?”
Voorkomen In het beste scenario hoeft er nergens grip op te worden gehouden en wordt de productie van autonome wapens voorkomen. Maar of het gaat lukken om ervoor te zorgen dat alle landen wereldwijd zich achter zo’n ban scharen? Dat lijkt twijfelachtig. En als autonome wapens in een paar landen toch geproduceerd gaan worden, zal het voor andere landen lastig zijn om achter te blijven. “Over de volgende stap wil je eigenlijk niet nadenken, maar dat is dat je je legers voor moet gaan bereiden op het feit dat anderen deze wapens in kunnen gaan zetten.” Dat kan eigenlijk maar op één manier: door ze zelf ook te omarmen. “En voor je het weet, zit je midden in een wapenwedloop.”
“WE STAAN AAN HET BEGIN VAN EEN DISCUSSIE DIE OP DIT MOMENT NOG TE VEEL VANUIT DE ACADEMISCHE WERELD GEVOERD WORDT”
Net als chemische wapens Maar als een complete ban geen optie is, wat moeten we dan? “Ik denk dat je de autonome wapens op termijn goed vergelijken kan met chemische wapens,” vertelt Hindriks. “De technieken om chemische wapens te maken, zijn redelijk gemakkelijk te achterhalen en in de toekomst zal dat ook voor autonome wapens gelden.” Als het zover komt, moeten we die autonome wapens misschien wel net zo aanpakken als de chemische wapens. “Dat betekent dat je allereerst moet voorkomen dat die autonome wapens er komen. En als ze er toch komen, moet alles in het werk gesteld worden om ze weer op te ruimen.”
Een gewapende drone. Dergelijke drones worden reeds door verschillende landen ingezet, maar als er geschoten moet worden, zijn het nog altijd mensen die – op afstand – op de knop drukken. Afbeelding: Paul Ridgeway / Amerikaanse luchtmacht (via Wikimedia Commons).
De overheid Hoewel nog onduidelijk is hoe we grip gaan houden op de autonome wapens, is wel duidelijk wie hierin een voortrekkersrol moeten spelen: overheden wereldwijd. “Maar het is lastig om overheden te mobiliseren,” weet Hindriks. Daar zijn verschillende redenen voor te bedenken. Allereerst zijn er wereldwijd genoeg andere crises die de aandacht vragen en urgenter lijken dan killer robots die wellicht over enkele decennia pas het levenslicht gaan zien. Daarnaast zullen veel van de technologieën achter de autonome wapens de gemiddelde politicus boven de pet gaan, waardoor de urgentie van dit probleem wellicht wordt onderschat. “We staan aan het begin van een discussie die op dit moment nog te veel vanuit de academische wereld gevoerd wordt,” erkent Hindriks. En dat is ook één van de redenen dat deze open brief de wereld is in geslingerd. “Er moet in de volle breedte het besef komen dat dit eraan zit te komen.”
De meeste landen hebben nog geen standpunt ingenomen over autonome wapens. Het Verenigd Koninkrijk vormt daarop een uitzondering en sprak zich in 2015 al uit tegen een ban. Maar inmiddels is het land – mede door de brief van Hindriks en collega’s – daarop teruggekomen. Het Verenigd Koninkrijk omarmde een week geleden een nieuwe militaire doctrine: wapens moeten altijd onder directe controle van mensen blijven.
De huidige stand van zaken De meeste landen hebben zich nog niet over de kwestie uitgelaten (zie ook het kader hiernaast). De VN lijkt iets meer doordrongen van het dreigende gevaar en heeft een Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems samengesteld. In deze groep zitten deskundigen die onderzoek zullen gaan doen naar robotica en kunstmatige intelligentie en de VN op basis van hun onderzoek kunnen adviseren. Het is hoopvol. Maar met die werkgroep zijn we er zeker nog niet, zo benadrukt Hindriks. Want het is zaak dat ook alle lidstaten in de zorgen van de VN gaan delen. “En dat zien we nu nog niet. Het ene land heeft het hoger op de agenda staan dan het andere.” En zoals gezegd houden veel landen zich in deze discussie afzijdig. En dat terwijl er een grote behoefte is aan een helder standpunt van landen. Zo’n standpunt kan namelijk weer dienen als startpunt voor verdere discussies over manieren om de autonome wapens onder controle te houden.
Enige haast is wel geboden. “Ik denk dat we nog net op tijd aan de bel hebben getrokken.” Want het eerste autonome wapen mag dan nog enige tijd op zich laten wachten: ook een wereldwijde consensus die erop gericht is om grip te houden op deze wapens is er niet van de ene op de andere dag. En dit is duidelijk geen technologische ontwikkeling waarbij je het je kunt veroorloven om achter de feiten aan te lopen…
Bronmateriaal:
Interview met Koen Hindriks Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: Powie / Pixabay
Most of today's scientists agree the universe as we know it started with the Big Bang. But one question still puzzles experts: What happened before that?
For most of history, it was assumed the universe was fixed, running from the infinite past to the infinite future — meaning, the universe always was, and will always continue to be.
But with Albert Einstein's proposed theory of relativity and the rise of quantum mechanics, new ideas began sprouting up everywhere.
Cosmologists Sean Carroll and Alan Guth proposed one theory known as Two-Headed Time. This is similar to the infinite cosmos idea, except the Big Bang happened in the middle.
According to the theory, a distorted mirror of our universe contracted until 14 billion years ago when it eventually reached its minimum size. Then the Big Bang happened, and our universe has been expanding ever since.
Other physicists have suggested we live in a multiverse, in which our universe sprouted from a parent universe and could be one of many.
Another theory is our universe could be the output of a black hole in another universe: The black hole attracts matter, which gushes out a hole at the other end and gives birth to our universe.
Others propose what's known as the Big Bounce. The idea here is one universe collapsed inward and then bounced back to make an entirely different one.
But perhaps there was nothing before the Big Bang, not even time itself. This is the most widely accepted theory, with some well-known supporters, like cosmologists Alexander Vilenkin and Stephen Hawking.
Scientists currently don't have a way to test any of these proposals; today's telescopes can't even see as far back as the Big Bang, let alone what came before it.
Humanity is on the verge of discovering alien life, NASA higher-ups say.
Physicists hope within the next few decades, any of these theories or one that's yet-to-be-discovered might finally help explain how the universe began.
Let's assume for a minute that intelligent extraterrestrials exist and that they're just as curious about the universe as we are. If they were looking for habitable exoplanets, how would they find Earth?
It might be easier than you think. Radio signals have been expanding into space since we first harnessed the technology in the 1900s. We've even purposely broadcast messages directly at other stars in the hopes that aliens are listening. So far, they haven't returned our calls.
And if transmissions don't give us away, our emissions might. Since the mid-1700s, we've been filling the atmosphere with a multitude of greenhouse gases. This pollution could be visible to alien astronomers — in the same way they could detect oxygen in our atmosphere. More emissions would slightly alter our atmospheric makeup, indicating that Earth is habitable and that we're a tech-savvy civilization.
There are also maps to Earth currently gliding through space aboard NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft. If aliens ever intercept and decode it, they'll have a handy set of directions.
Or, extraterrestrials might employ one of our most commonly used methods to find exoplanets — transits. Every time a planet crosses in front of its host star, the star's light dims at regular intervals. One team of researchers plotted out which parts of the sky would have the best view of our solar system and found that out of the thousands of known exoplanets, nine are ideally placed to observe Earth transits.
But even if aliens searching for habitable worlds do happen to spot Earth, it could take upward of thousands of years to make contact.
Astronomers have long searched for life on other planets, but could aliens someday spot our humble terrestrial home? As the SciShow’s Hank Green explains in the video below, this type of encounter looks pretty unlikely. That's because many exoplanets simply aren’t lined up correctly to see any of the planets in our solar system transit the Sun, which is the way Earth-bound scientists often find other planets.
Don’t despair, however, that we won't ever find faraway life: Astronomers went through all of the known exoplanets, and found about 65 of them that are positioned in the right place to see one of the planets in our solar system, including nine that could see Earth. Meanwhile, there may also be 10 nearby Earth-like planets that we can’t see, but from which life forms could see Earth transiting the Sun.
So, who knows? Maybe one day, we'll make contact with a brand-new space species. Until then, we'll keep looking (and wondering whether we're being looked at).
Learn more about our potential to be spotted by aliens, as well as how galaxies get their magnetic fields, by watching the SciShow's video below:
500-Million-Year-Old Creature Looks Like Space Alien in Re-Creation
500-Million-Year-Old Creature Looks Like Space Alien in Re-Creation
By Stephanie Pappas, Live Science Contributor
A dinner-plate-sized sculpture of a pea-sized Cambrian sea creature, Agnostus pisiformis. This trilobite-like creature dates back 500 million years.
Credit: Esben Horn
It looks like a space alien, or maybe a very deformed clam. But really, it's a re-creation of a 500-million-year-old life-form.
New images show a sculpture of Agnostus pisiformis, a now-extinct arthropod that used to live in what is today Scandinavia. These creatures, just four-tenths of an inch (1 centimeter) long when they were alive, are nevertheless known in exact anatomical detail because they've been preserved so perfectly in shale and limestones.
"The incredible degree of preservational detail means that we can grasp the entire anatomy of the animal, which, in turn, reveals a lot about its ecology and mode of life," Mats E. Eriksson, a geology professor at Lund University who commissioned the sculpted re-creation as part of a new paper in the journal Earth-Science Reviews, said in a statement.
According to that paper, A. pisiformis started life as a larva and developed into adulthood by repeatedly shedding and regrowing its hard exoskeleton. Its body was protected by two shields that looked a bit like clam shells when the animal curled up. Little is known about the creature's ocean-going lifestyle, but it probably plucked bits of organic matter out of the water for food. [Photos: Strange, Eyeless Creatures from the Cambrian Period]
An assemblage of real Agnostus pisiformis fossils.
Credit: Per Ahlberg
The odd little critter is also useful to modern scientists as what's called an index fossil. Index fossils are fossils that appear in only a particular time period, so they're used to date layers of rock: If the fossils appear in a rock layer, there's no question about when that layer formed.
Artists at 10 Tons studio in Denmark created the new lifelike sculptures of A. pisiformis. The process was painstaking and involved multiple steps with hand-modeled clay, wax molds and silicon casts. The final sculptures were made with translucent silicon, and each is about the size of a dinner plate — much larger than the real creatures, which makes it easier to see their anatomy. The artists made a partially unrolled sculpture, mimicking the arthropod's likely positioning during swimming, as well as a rolled-up version to show how its exoskeletal shields would have protected it. They also made a model of the creature as it appears under a scanning electron microscope.
Agnostus pisiformis is an index fossil used to accurately date the layers of rocks where it is found. Many well-preserved fossils discovered in shale and limestone enable researchers to reconstruct their anatomy, including soft tissue.
Credit: Esben Horn
The researchers and artists hope their creations will go on display in a traveling exhibit about the bizarre animals of the Cambrian seas. In their paper, they called the period "one of the most exciting times in Earth history." The Cambrian period was the time of the Cambrian explosion, a rapid diversification of life that gave rise to a host of oddball creatures.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind suggested that, while light years and galaxies may separate humble humankind and extraterrestrial life, the universal language of music could transcend such differences. Before the mothership opens its glowing gates in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 classic, its passengers collaborate with human experts on a giddy light and sound symphony.
As the film is re-released in cinemas nearly 40 years later, we seem no closer to making first contact with aliens. But if we did, would music really be the best way to communicate with them?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind was somewhat timely: on September 5, Nasa launched its Voyager programme, which, four decades later, continues to study the solar system. Jonah Katz, a linguistics professor at West Virginia University, tells The Telegraph, “those records were included 'just in case' the probes somehow ended up being discovered by an extraterrestrial; that wasn't the point of the Voyager mission at all”.
Golden Record: Greetings to the Universe contained pictures of life on Earth - such as a woman in a supermarket - as well as music that reflected the diversity of humankind’s creative capabilities. Bach was on there, along with Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky, as well as Azerbaijani folk music and Chuck Berry - a controversial choice at the time as some deemed his song Johnny B Goode to be “adolescent”. (Carl Sagan, the Cornell University academic who chaired the record’s creation, argued that there were “a lot of adolescents on the planet”.)
The discs also came with a diagram of how to play them, in the hope that extraterrestrial life might come across the Voyager spacecraft and discover the record. Two years ago, the contents were uploaded online, so all of humankind could listen to them, too.
In 2008, Nasa beamed a Beatles song towards the North star, but again, this was more for human benefit - a means of celebration of the Beatles' and Nasa's shared anniversaries - than for any aliens.
Nasa engineers installing the 'Golden Record' into Voyager
A couple of years later, scientists from SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, explained at a conference that human art and music would be of far greater interest to alien life than maths or physics, which have previously been used to try and contact aliens.
Douglas Vakoch, the director of interstellar message composition at SETI, said at the time: “If they’re so advanced, we probably can’t teach them about science, but we can tell them what it’s like to be at this precarious point where we don’t know if we’re going to continue as a species.”
But Katz believes that using the fundamentals of mathematics to communicate with aliens is still a better strategy. “[Music] tends to be 'tacked on' to other kinds of messages that represent more fundamental information about the universe and our place in it,” he says. The laws of physics and maths don’t vary between different points of the universe, but the laws of music do. As Katz explains: “There's no particular reason to think that, say, a melody in a major key would be interpretable or pleasant for an alien. The major scales is not even universal across human cultures.”
The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) telescope array in CaliforniaCREDIT: REUTERS
Bearing scales in mind, the chances of the aliens using exactly the same 12-note chromatic - as they do in Close Encounters of the Third Kind - is extremely unlikely. “It would be extremely far-fetched for extraterrestrials to coincidentally stumble across the same pitch collections, using the same 12-note chromatic,” says Katz.
Say, however, that our music was heard by aliens and they managed to make sense of its scale, what could we expect to hear back? Spielberg’s symphony isn’t so unrealistic - theoretically speaking, at least: “We often repeat melodies or harmonies more than once, but alter them in some way on the repetitions,” says Katz. “So maybe if we sent a particular kind of melody or harmonic sequence into space, an alien that 'understands' human music could send back a slightly altered repetition to us to show understanding.”
After that, it’s just a case of waiting to see if they want to invade our planet and turn us into slaves, or not.
Octlantis is a just-discovered underwater city engineered by octopuses
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 ascommon 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.
Evicted citizen of Octlantis. (Scheel et al.)
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
Life in Octlantis. (Peter Godfrey-Smith)
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.
Gloomy posse (each letter indicates an octopus). (Scheel et al.)
In Octlantis, however, there is no similarly mystifying human object to explain the gloomy octopus congregation.
The likely explanation, said Stephanie Chancellor, a study co-author and doctoral student in biological sciences at the University of Illinois-Chicago, in a statement, is that in both Octopolis and Octlantis there were several seafloor rock outcroppings dotting otherwise flat and featureless areas. “In addition to the rock outcroppings, octopuses who had been inhabiting the area had built up piles of shells left over from creatures they ate, most notably clams and scallops. These shell piles, or middens, were further sculpted to create dens, making these octopuses true environmental engineers,” she said.
Gritty city life
Civilization and its discontents. (Scheel et al)
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.
Complex social behavior evolves over generations. (Scheel et al.)
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.”
The picture above represents a broadcast (known as the “Arecibo” message), put together by Carl Sagan and colleagues that was sent into space via radio waves at a special ceremony to celebrate the remodelling of the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Apparently, the received a response, you can read more about that story here. It’s speculative, for sure, but the information below, is not. This article pertains to a real deal document.
Strange signals detected from outer space are becoming quite popular, especially within the past couple of years alone. Here’s one of several studies positing that some of these signals could be from an intelligent extraterrestrial source.
Scientists have discovered six more bursts of radio signals coming from a place in deep space outside our galaxy from where similar signals were detected earlier this year and in 2012. From this specific location, a total of 17 such radio signals have been received, and given their nature, there is also heavy speculation about whether we are being ‘contacted’ by some type of extra-terrestrial life form. You can read more about that here.
This article touches upon an NSA document that was released via a lawsuit. Rumours around the internet say the agency was ordered to declassify the document in 2004, but did not officially release it until 2011, which they did so quietly. Not many details are available about the document, except for the fact that it is real, and published in the NSA database via their technical journal.
“Dr. Campaigne presented a series of 29 messages from outer space…The following article develops a key to these messages.”
A paragraph from the Appendix reads as follows:
“Recently, a series of radio messages was heard coming from outer space. The transmission was not continuous, but cut by pauses into pieces which could be taken as units, for they were repeated over and over again.”
Towards the end of the document, the author states that
“we have penetrated the meaning of basic symbols, and even more important, have learned some of the syntax rules- of the notation, and have caught mistakes in the process. We have a few words for sophisticated concepts, and given more data, with a little labor, we could establish its translation.”
There was no document to be found that actually describes what exactly they found out, and what that translation was.
Quite interesting to say the least.
Keep in mind, this is one of thousands of documents that have been released via FOIA requests, and dozens of global intelligence agencies and governments have now released hundreds of thousands of pages of documents that discuss possible extraterrestrial beings.
For example, here (page 21 & 22) is an FBI document in the form of a memorandum, addressed to “certain scientists of distinction,” to “aeronautical and military authorities,” and to “a number of public officials.”
The document is a letter that was sent to the director of the FBI in Washington from the San Fransisco office, on a matter pertaining to UFOs & extraterrestrials.
“Lt. Colonel (name redacted) of G2 [G2 means army intelligence], San Francisco advised today he has no further information, and that our Seattle office is in possession of all information known by him and is handling the matter at Tacoma, Washington.”
The document goes on to provide a copy of a letter written by someone with “several university degrees” and a former “university department head.”
It contemplates an extraterrestrial presence visiting us.
There is also an important distinction to be made from the UFO phenomenon, and the extraterrestrial phenomena, although there is sufficient evidence to show that, at least in some cases, they are interrelated. That being said, may of of these “UFOs” could be, and probably are, highly sophisticated, black budget (Special Access Programs, human craft).
The existence of UFOs has been officially verified, and thousands of military records show that they are commonly tracked on radar, and perform maneuvers and travel at speeds that no known aircraft can travel. This seems to have started a long time ago, in Germany, and the CIA was keeping tabs.
“A German newspaper recently published an interview with George Klein, famous German engineer and aircraft expert, describing the experimental construction of ‘flying saucers’ carried out by him from 1941 to 1945.”
There are hundreds of cases, and it’s something that still happens today. A quite popular incident comes from Tehran, Iran. This incident occurred on the night of September 18th, 1976. A four page U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and NSA report describes the encounter in detail. Furthermore, both of the pilots involved discussed the event years later.
What happened on this night is an example of what has happened multiple times with regard to military encounters with UFOs. Residents of the city noticed a big bright object in the sky. The airport traffic controller also noticed, “it was an intensely bright object that was not supposed to be there.” The Iranian Air Force was contacted (at the time they were a close ally of the United States, under the rule of the Shah), and they dispatched two F-4 fighter jets to check out the object. The United States took this encounter very seriously; a report of what happened was sent to multiple national security officials and U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, CIA Director.
Both pilots, when approaching the object, experienced weapons systems and electronic failure within their aircraft.
“As the F-4 approached a range of 25 nautical miles it lost all instrumentation and communications. When the F-4 turned away from the object and apparently was no longer a threat to it, the aircraft regained all instrumentation and communications. Another brightly lighted object came out of the original object. The second object headed straight toward the F4.”
Dr. Jacques Vallee, notable for co-developing the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA, and for his work at SRI International on the network information center for ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet, also published a paper in the Journal of Scientific Explorationtitled “Estimates of Optical Power Output in Six Cases Of Unexplained Ariel Objects With Defined Luminosity Characteristics.”
In it is a great shot of one of these “UFOs” snapped by Canadian Military Pilots (see below).
I’d like to point out that, although the existence of UFOs is verified, the fact that these could be operated by extraterrestrials is not. That being said, just as there was a lot of evidence for the UFO phenomenon before all of this declassification, there is still “abundant evidence that we are being contacted.”
– Dr. Brian O’Leary, Ex Nasa Astronaut and Princeton Physics professor.
What points to this fact, is that those directly involved with these sightings, and those who have held some prominent positions, have clearly stated, hundreds of times that some of these UFOs are indeed operated by extraterrestrials.
“This thing has gotten so highly-classified… it is just impossible to get anything on it. I have no idea who controls the flow of need-to-know because, frankly, I was told in such an emphatic way that it was none of my business that I’ve never tried to make it to be my business since. I have been interested in this subject for a long time and I do know that whatever the Air Force has on the subject is going to remain highly classified”
– FormerSenator Barry Goldwater, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee
Whoever is in control or “in the know” with regard to this topic, it’s way above the government, and most likely managed by some sort of “secret government,” atop the “Deep State.”
Given the release of this information within these past few years, those that are mentioned in these files have come forward. One (out of many) examples would be now retired Navy commander pilot Graham Bethune, who held a top-secret clearance. He was a VIP Plane Commander who flew most of the high-ranking officers and civilians from Washington, DC. In his testimony below, he explains how he was flying a group of VIPs and other pilots into Argentia, Newfoundland, when every single person on the plane witnessed a 300 foot object that traveled 10,000 feet straight up in a fraction of a second toward their plane. As you can see from the video below, he has documented the event extensively.
To access the official files pertaining to this particular case, you can visit the government’s ‘Project Bluebook’ files to read them. You can find those links and the files for this case at the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomenon.
In this interview, he states he learned that some of these objects were indeed extraterrestrial, from “the boys upstairs.”
So, as you can see, there is no shortage of information within this realm, in the form of credible sources and documents and statements from credible people. This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.
To learn more about the extraterrestrial phenomena, you can visit the exopolitics section of our website and sift through our heavily soured articles.
NSA ontving 29 buitenaardse boodschappen uit de ruimte. Wat proberen ze ons te vertellen?
NSA ontving 29 buitenaardse boodschappen uit de ruimte. Wat proberen ze ons te vertellen?
In een document van de National Security Agency (NSA) wordt bevestigd dat er al contact is geweest met buitenaards leven.
De Amerikaanse geheime dienst heeft bijna 30 boodschappen ontvangen vanuit de ruimte, zo valt af te leiden uit het document.
Niet alle boodschappen uit de ruimte konden worden ontcijferd. Sommige bevatten een wiskundige formule, terwijl andere bestaan uit andere coderingen. Eén van de boodschappen bevat het periodiek systeem.
Rechtszaak
Het contact tussen de aarde en de ruimte heeft plaatsgevonden via de satelliet Spoetnik van de Sovjet-Unie. De NSA heeft het geheime dossier moeten vrijgeven na een jarenlange rechtszaak.
In oktober 2004 moesten de documenten eigenlijk al worden vrijgegeven, maar het duurde tot april 2011 voordat ze eindelijk beschikbaar waren.
De NSA heeft jarenlang geprobeerd te voorkomen dat dit document naar buiten zou komen. Een rechter oordeelde echter dat dat in strijd is met de wet.
Mysterie
Dr. Howard Campaigne en enkele andere wiskundigen van de NSA moesten de boodschappen ontcijferen.
Hij gaf aan dat zijn team sommige boodschappen had weten te ontcijferen, maar dat andere in mysterie gehuld bleven.
“We weten inmiddels wat de basissymbolen betekenen en belangrijker nog: we weten hoe de zinsbouw in elkaar zit,” zei hij.
Meer gegevens
“We hebben enkele woorden voor complexe begrippen en als we meer gegevens krijgen kunnen we ze vertalen,” voegde hij toe.
In het stuk staat alleen niet wat Campaigne en zijn collega’s precies hebben ontdekt en welke woorden ze hebben kunnen vertalen.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
UFO from below: This could be the bottom of a flying saucer, says Malcolm Robinson.
The "craft" was reportedly photographed by a man, who had to "bend over backwards" to get it in sight above an oil refinery.
The extraordinary image was revealed to the audience at the Outer Limits Magazine 70 Years of the Modern UFO Era conference in Hull by UFO investigator Malcolm Robinson.
Mr Robinson, who has investigated UFOs since the 1980s, said it was the most remarkable UFO picture he has come across.
He told the audience that two men were photographing the BP oil refinery at Grangemouth, central Scotland, at night when they spotted a distant red object.
It then flew directly towards them, he said.
Getty*YouTube*MoD
Malcolm Robinson says it is the most extraordinary UFO picture he has seen.
He said: "This red ball of light shot across towards them and was 200 to 300 feet above when he took the picture.
"He literally had to bend over to take it.
"We checked with all the usual people and there was nothing in the area at the time.
"It is nice we got a photo. Is that evidence?
"I am here to tell you to open up your minds."
Mr Robinson runs Strange Phenomena Investigations (SPI) based in central Scotland.
The image was sent to him in 1991 but remains one of the most compelling he has seen.
In an article on the SPI website, Mr Robinson said: "UFO testimony is one thing, but when you receive testimony backed up with a quite spectacular UFO photograph, well that's another matter.
"We at SPI received quite an amazing UFO photograph which was unlike anything we have ever seen before."
The incident happened on November 12 at around 9.30pm.
Phil Trevis, who snapped it was with a friend at the time.
In a report sent to SPI with the picture, he said: "My friend and I were taking photographs of the BP chemicals plant in Grangemouth (from Polmont Reservoir) when we noticed a dim, or rather, two small dim flashing lights over by the two 'flashing pylons' at Kincardine Bridge.
Mr Robinson added: "What you are actually looking at is the underside of the object - concave, with numerous bright flashing lights being thrown out into the dark night sky, which creates a sort of halo effect.
"SPI conducted the usual lines of investigative enquiry to try and get to the bottom of this incident.
"We ascertained that there was no aircraft activity in that part of central Scotland that night.
"Letters to the British Petroleum plant at Grangemouth, asking them if they had any small light aircraft or microlights in operation above their complex that night (on pipe inspection duty) came back stating that no such light aircraft or micro-lights were flying above the plant that night."
Pictures show the eerie orange object change colour and move around the sky for more than two hours.
Trent Mason, 22, and Jack Holdsworth, 21, spotted the UFO in the skies near the famous Ribblehead railway viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales.
The pair said they were shocked as the object made circular and triangular patterns.
Trent, from Leeds, said: "It just popped up on the horizon, then disappeared back where it came from. I wasn't sure if I saw it but looked at Jack and his face was white
CASCADE/GETTY
WEIRD: A glowing light appeared in the sky in the Yorkshire Dales
"It was there one minute, then next it lit up like a bolt of lightning. It was like a flash and whoosh, it was gone. If I'd blinked I would have missed it.
"It was absolutely incredible. The stars were dots in the night sky and this was the size of a 5p. It was hard to judge how far away it was but it was definitely higher than the hills."
The pair drove from Leeds to the world famous viaduct on the Settle to Carlisle railway line for spot of star-gazing.
CASCADE
FAMOUS: The pair saw the object in the skies near the famous Ribblehead railway viaduct
“It was like a flash and whoosh, it was gone”
Witness
They arrived at around 2.30am and parked up beneath the arches which appeared in the 2012 film Sightseers.
Trent said: "It was quite late, we just wanted to go up there and do some stargazing and we saw it.
"It stayed in same vicinity, but it was doing squares, circles, triangles. It was doing them very slowly but you could just make it out.
"We were sat there for two and a half hours just studying it, watching it flying around the sky.
FACEBOOK
AMAZED: Trent Mason said after watching the object for a couple of hours
"I lost track of time sat there. It was mind-blowing. We just looked at each other like 'Wow, what the hell was that?"
The area attracts thousands of hikers every year who take part in the Three Peaks Yorkshire Challenge.
Yorkshire based UFO researcher Philip Mantle, a former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association, said: "For decades now UFO sighting reports have come across my desk from areas in and around the Yorkshire Dales national park and surrounding areas.
"Over the last few years UFO sighting reports in this area have been few and far between, however, for whatever reason, 2017 has seen a sharp upturn in reports in this area.
"Why this is, I have no idea, but the sighting reported by these two gentlemen fits with other sightings I have had from this general area in the past."
Wilsthorpe Incident: There were allegedly 30 to 40 UFOs over the sea.
The husband and wife, aged in their 80s, who have not been named claim to have witnessed the phenomenal sight over Wilsthorpe Beach in East Yorkshire.
Paranormal investigator Paul Sinclair tells their story in a new book he is penning about the Wilsthorpe Incident, which has been branded Britain's new Roswell due to the mysterious military activity seemingly connected to UFO sightings.
The couple's bizarre claims concern the night of September 14 2009 at 11pm.
They lived in one of 30 flats that overlook the sea at Wilsthorpe.
The pair decided to go to bed, however, as the woman went to turn off the lights, she saw a glow outside.
Mr Sinclair said "something told her to go outside" before she opened the front door and looked out to sea where she was amazed to see several glowing UFOs above the coast.
Mr Sinclair said she described them as 15-feet long and eight-feet wide "spaceships over the sea".
He said: "She said there was a huge circle of boomerang-shaped craft.
"She said there were loads - 30 to 40 and the sea below was bubbling, banging and crashing.
"They were silent, but there was electricity going into the sea.
"Ron (her husband) said it was like a blue and white Christmas tree over the sea. He was frightened and left after ten minutes and put his head under the pillow for the night.
"But, she told me she was not frightened and knew she was never going to see anything like it again in her life."
She stayed for around half and hour before the objects began to "lift out of the circle in pairs at a 45 degree angle until just two were left which shot off straight up."
Two Chinook helicopters full of RAF personnel landed at the beach by the remote hamlet.
Mr Sinclair also spoke with a man who runs a bait shop at Bridlington Harbour, who told him his bait diggers had seen "triangle" craft enter the sea in 2009 over the same period.
Mr Sinclair also spoke with a man who runs a bait shop at Bridlington Harbour, who told him his bait diggers had seen "triangle" craft enter the sea in 2009 over the same period.
She said there were loads - 30 to 40 and the sea below was bubbling, banging and crashing. They were silent, but there was electricity going into the sea.
Paul Sinclair
He said two of his bait diggers had been on Wilsthorpe Beach the day the couple saw the military operation.
They told of seeing "triangles entering the sea" and later "being surrounded by soldiers."
Separately a man working on a boat at Blythe Park boat compound also confirmed the military presence, he said.
Mr Sinclair submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to find out why the operation took place on September 15.
However, the response he eventually received, said it was just a "routine military exercise" and few other details were provided.
The reply said "no live ammunition was used" and "any explosions heard were controlled detonations of simulated ammunitions."
The response added that it was "one of a number of regular exercises" as part of work to defend the UK, and new locations would often be used with landowners' consent.
Mr Sinclair continues to investigate the case and is trying to obtain historic coastguard reports from the period.
He believes it is connected to a high level of reported UFO activity along a 25-mile stretch of the East Yorkshire and North Yorkshire coast from Brandesburton in East Yorkshire to Scarborough, North Yorkshire, between May and September 2009.
High levels of military aircraft flying low and circling near his home in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, were also recorded that September.
Mr Sinclair said the case did not yet prove a UFO presence, but: "I think the military arrived because of the objects."
In a post on his Truth Proof Facebook page about the case, he wrote: "Nothing found can prove with any certainty the UFOs were over the sea as an elderly couple claim, or that the black triangles entered the sea in September 2009 like the bait diggers described.
"All I can do is stack the evidence for and against, either side of the scale."
Some of the sightings have been detailed in Mr Sinclair's first book - Truth-Proof: The Truth That Leaves No Proof, which is available on Amazon.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
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.
Farewell, Spacecraft
The Cassini spacecraft has plunged into Saturn, sending back its final communications before burning up in the ringed planet's atmosphere.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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.
Credit: M. Weisberger/Live Science
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?
Two pages of the 240-page Voynich Manuscript.
Credit: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
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.
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.
Illustration by Evald Hansen based on the original plan of grave Bj 581 by excavator Hjalmar Stolpe; published in 1889 (Stolpe, 1889)
Credit: Evald Hansen/American Journal of Physical Anthropology
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.
Credit: SpaceX/YouTube
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.
Credit: Survival International
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
Archaeologists in England are excavating the ruins of the fort of Vindolanda, which was once at the northern edge of the Roman Empire.
Credit: The Vindolanda Trust
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.]
Giant, Scorching-Hot Alien Planet Is Darker Than Asphalt
Giant, Scorching-Hot Alien Planet Is Darker Than Asphalt
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Artist’s illustration showing the exoplanet WASP-12b, which is as black as fresh asphalt in optical wavelengths.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
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?
Astronomers have confirmed more than 800 planets beyond our own solar system, and the discoveries keep rolling in. How much do you know about these exotic worlds?
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.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
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 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
Jada Pinkett Smith 'is a Scientologist and played hide and...
The shocking moment a thief steals a dead man's CLOTHES from...
Mysterious light formation appears in the sky above Salt...
Mysterious glowing orb flying over the California sky sparks...
