VIDEO: 7 vuurballen en een ufo: de spectaculairste hemelfenomenen van de voorbije jaren - HLN.be

© screenshot.

VIDEO Boven ons land lichtte een heldere vuurbol gisteravond de hemel op. Het ging om een klein steentje dat met tienduizenden kilometer per uur in de dampkring verbrandde en zo een heel heldere 'vallende ster' werd. Hier zie je nog beelden van zeven prachtige vuurballen en een ufo die de voorbije jaren werden gefilmd!

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

22-09-2017 om 21:21 geschreven door peter  

Er is nu ook mooi beeld: heldere vuurbol boven België en Nederland - HLN.be

Afbeelding weergeven op Twitter

Wie gisteravond rond 21 uur naar omhoog tuurde, heeft 'm misschien wel gezien: een heldere vuurbol schoot door de lucht. Veel Belgen en Nederlanders maakten er melding van op sociale media. "Het gaat om een klein steentje dat met een snelheid van tienduizenden kilometer per uur de dampkring binnenkomt. Het doet de lucht fel oplichten en wij zien het dan als een vuurbol", zegt weerman Frank Deboosere.

Noodweer Benelux kreeg gisteravond heel wat meldingen binnen. De vuurbol die rond 21 uur boven vele dorpen en steden te zien was, ook in Nederland, is eigenlijk een heel heldere vallende ster. "Die is vaak niet groter dan één centimeter", zegt Deboosere. De meteoriet kan, wanneer ze in de dampkring komt, heel fel gaan schijnen. "Zo helder als de volle maan of zelfs nog helderder", vervolgt Deboosere. "Meestal is het leven van een vuurbol erg kort en dus quasi onmogelijk om op beeld vast te leggen. Na één of twee seconden is alles voorbij." Wie het verschijnsel heeft waargenomen, kan dat melden.

Intussen is ook een prachtige foto van het fenomeen op het web verschenen. Een Nederlandse fotograaf slaagde erin om de vuurbol vast te leggen met zijn speciale camera en zette het beeld op Twitter.

NoodweerBenelux @NoodweerBe

Heeft nog iemand een 

#lichtverschijnsel boven #Waregem#Anzegem waargenomen? Vermoedelijk gaat het om een #meteoor. Meldingen zijn welkom.

21:02 - 21 sep. 2017

•  5454 antwoorden
 
•  1313 retweets
 
•  2626 vind-ik-leuks

Frank Deboosere 

✔@frankdeboosere

Rond 21u00 was er boven België en Nederland een heldere #vuurbol zichtbaar. Hoe je dit kan rapporteren, lees je op

 http://www.frankdeboosere.be/vragen/vraag213.php …

9:39 PM - Sep 21, 2017

•  2424 Replies
•  1818 Retweets
•  6868 likes

Frank Deboosere 

 ✔@frankdeboosere

Rond 21u00 was er boven België en Nederland een heldere #vuurbol zichtbaar. Hoe je dit kan rapporteren, lees je op 

http://www.frankdeboosere.be/vragen/vraag213.php …

• VSW Mira @VSWMira

Op MIRA ondertussen al waarnemingen binnengekomen vanuit nagenoeg het ganse land, van West-Vlaanderen tot Limburg. Ideaal weer en tijdstip 

10:05 PM - Sep 21, 2017

•  Replies 
•  Retweets
•  44 likes

Olivier Wambacq @OlivierWambacq

Net een vuurbol uit de lucht zien vallen boven Kuurne. Enig idee wat dit was? @lievenscheire @frankdeboosere

9:07 PM - Sep 21, 2017

• 22 Replies
•  Retweets
• 22 likes

Frank Deboosere 

 ✔@frankdeboosere

Rond 21u00 was er boven België en Nederland een heldere #vuurbol zichtbaar. Hoe je dit kan rapporteren, lees je op 

http://www.frankdeboosere.be/vragen/vraag213.php …

Schotmanjelle @schotmanjelle

Ja heb het gezien! Dacht dat het een vliegtuig was

9:44 PM - Sep 21, 2017

•  11 Reply
•  11 Retweet
•  22 likes

Gulden trends & info @Gulden_NLG

Zojuist een massive vallend stuk rots uit de ruimte zien vallen! #offtopic #komeet #vuurbal #vallendester

21:16 - 21 sep. 2017

• 33 antwoorden
•  retweets
•  44 vind-ik-leuks

Athena @ofmiceandathena

Ik heb net voor het eerst in mijn leven een vallende ster gezien en het was zo magisch

21:23 - 21 sep. 2017

•  33 antwoorden
• retweets
•  77 vind-ik-leuks

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

22-09-2017 om 21:07 geschreven door peter  

Wetenschappers ontdekken vreemd object in ons zonnestelsel - HLN.be

Bron: Belga

© afp.

De Amerikaans-Europese Hubble-ruimtetelescoop heeft een vreemd en uniek object in ons zonnestelsel ontdekt, zo heeft het Hubble Informatie Centrum in Garching nabij München bekendgemaakt.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

22-09-2017 om 20:34 geschreven door peter  

Bron: Astronomy Magazine

© thinkstock.

Ons eigen sterrenstelsel - de Melkweg - is altijd de referentie geweest om andere sterrenstelsels in het universum te bestuderen. Maar nieuw onderzoek van enkele buurstelsels lijkt erop te wijzen dat we niet zo een typisch voorbeeld zijn als we wel dachten. En dat kan verregaande gevolgen hebben voor alles wat we menen te weten over ons universum.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

22-09-2017 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

Wedge-Shaped UFO Moves Slow Near Augusta, Georgia

A resident of Grovetown, Georgia had taken a brief look skyward during a football game on a Friday night. During the match between the Grovetown Warriors and the Lincoln County Red Devils, he noticed a wedge-shaped object moving west to east at a slow rate of speed. He observed the UFO’s triangular light configuration from the stands.

The witness, who chooses to stay anonymous, tried to record the aberration using his cell phone, but it malfunctioned. He decided to borrow the phone of a friend to take a photo of the mysterious UFO. He then sent the picture to Donnie Brooke, a member of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) – Georgia Chapter.

Brooke confirmed that he received the picture on the night of September 1 and that the witness knows him personally. He said that the witness told him the UFO was moving eastward toward Fort Gordon Army Base. The witness revealed to him over the phone that he looked skyward while leaning back in his seat and saw a humongous object.

Brooke called the witness after receiving the photo. He said to the witness that the image was somewhat similar to a triangle object he saw about eight months ago. The object that Brooke saw was also moving towards Fort Gordon. The story of the witness confirmed what he had encountered, according to Brooke.

Brooke sent the photo to Georgia MUFON director Ralph O. Howard, who said that it is compelling. Howard stated that there are several witnesses of UFOs in the area but did not report them because they are afraid of what others will think. He is hoping that the witness who sent the photo logs to their site and files a report so that they can get enough information. He explained that without having those details, they could not launch an investigation and establish whether the actual event is what the witness believes he saw or not.

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

22-09-2017 om 19:51 geschreven door peter  

Flying Saucers in Red, Green & Yellow Colors Spotted Hovering For Two Hours Over Military Bases In Antarctica

Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter once revealed via the New York Times in 1960 that high-ranking Air Force officers led many citizens to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense through official secrecy and ridicule.

Hillenkoetter is the very first director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the third director of Central Intelligence, and the third director of the post-World War II US Central Intelligence Group.
For so many years, people who believe in the existence of alien UFOs are perceived as crazy individuals. In the present time, however, is a much different story. Thousands of declassified documents reveal that global militaries and intelligence agencies have an extremely high interest in UFOs and intelligent extraterrestrial life.

In 1979, General Carlos Castro Cavero stated that everything is in the process of investigation in the world as both the US and Spain, as well as the rest of the word, are working together in the UFO phenomenon studies.

Lord Admiral Hill-Norton once said that there is a serious possibility people from outer space or other civilisations have visited or been visiting for many years here on Earth. He suggested that there should be a rigorous scientific investigation to find out who they are, where they come from, and what they want. He said that the possibility should not be the subject of rubbishing as these people from outer space could turn hostile.

In one CIA document, several pieces of information can be found suggesting particular attention paid to UFO or extraterrestrial topic under the guise of national security. According to many conspiracy theories, the intelligence community has been studying the subject for years and using the term ‘national security’ to classify everything, protect the interests of the elites around the world, and enable them to do whatever they want.

The CIA document reveals details of the Antarctic flying saucers. It says that Argentine, Chilean and British military bases in Antarctica have seen a group of red, green, and yellow flying saucers above Deception Island for two hours. The saucer UFOs were also observed flying in formation above the South Orkney islands in quick circles. The document dates back to 1965, more than five decades old already.

Conspiracy theorists have pointed out how other unrelated factors are inserted into the document.

It is also important to note that the 1965 document shows the CIA have been putting tremendous effort and resources into studying such topic. Now, it makes sense to ponder what type of information do they have at present, more than 50 years later. They may have known more details as to who or what are operating these UFOs, how they work, where they come from, and what are their intentions

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

22-09-2017 om 19:46 geschreven door peter  

Three People From Different Areas Spot Similar UFO

Three people have come forward claiming that they photographed and videotaped a UFO in the skies over Plymouth. Alan Kingwell, 62, was one of the witnesses of the appearance of strange black shapes. Alan was shooting a time-lapse video in his garden in Plymouth when the UFO sighting took place. The footage shows two dark shapes hovering in the blue sky that sometimes covered with clouds.

David Shepherd of Plymstock also noticed similar shapes on one of his photos. He believes may have spotted the same UFO.

Earlier in the summer, Mr Shepherd photographed a block blob. He noticed a little black shape after an X shape of aeroplane contrails in the sky caught his attention. The strange UFO that was below them looked similar to what Mr Kingwell caught on video. Like what Alan described, the black shaped UFO lingered for around 10 minutes before it disappeared.

On September 15, John Mooner of Newton Abbot also saw the same UFO. He stated that he was sky watching with his Nikon P900 camera when he spotted the unusual object hovering just above one of the clouds. Since the object was stationary, he took a photo and continued to watch as it remained in one position for around a minute before it finally started to move and flew off at incredible speed. He then lost sight of the object as it headed towards some thick cloud cover.

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

22-09-2017 om 19:39 geschreven door peter  

'We saw something. Something came down': The Shag Harbour UFO sighting, 50 years later

It was around 11 p.m. on the night of Oct. 4, 1967. Most witnesses thought it was a doomed aircraft

HALIFAX — The first frantic callers to reach the RCMP were clear: something had crashed in the waters off Shag Harbour, N.S.

It was around 11 p.m. on the night of Oct. 4, 1967. Most witnesses thought it was a doomed aircraft.

Among those who saw the string of flashing lights on that clear, moonless night were three RCMP officers, scores of fishermen and airline pilots flying along the province’s rugged southwest coast.

But a series of searches turned up nothing. No wreckage. No bodies. No clues as to what really happened that night 50 years ago.

To this day, I don't know the absolute answer, but we're still finding things

A Halifax-area man later uncovered a trove of government and police records that would make the Shag Harbour incident Canada’s best-documented and most intriguing UFO sighting.

Hundreds of UFO sightings are reported across Canada every year, but none has the paper trail of Shag Harbour.

In a series of RCMP reports and correspondence sent by telex between military officials in Ottawa and Halifax, there are specific references to unidentified flying objects, and no attempts were made to explain away what people were reporting.

Chris Styles, the UFO researcher who dug up those documents, remains baffled by the case.

“To this day, I don’t know the absolute answer, but we’re still finding things,” says Styles, the author of two books about the Shag Harbour incident.

Next week, on the eve of the 50th anniversary, Styles will be the keynote speaker at the start of the three-day Shag Harbour UFO Festival. After 20-plus years of dogged research, he says he has new evidence to share.

It points to an explanation that hardly seems possible, unless you have a sense of what Styles has uncovered so far.

To be sure, the most compelling evidence comes from eyewitnesses like Laurie Wickens, now a 67-year-old former fisherman.

There was four (lights) in a row, and they were going on and off

“There was four (lights) in a row, and they were going on and off,” says Wickens, at the time a 17-year-old driving home to Shag Harbour with a friend and three young women. “One would come on, then two, three and four — and they’d all be off for a second and come back on again.”

Sure he was about to witness an airline disaster, Wickens found a phone booth and called the local RCMP detachment. Questions were asked about his sobriety. But he wasn’t drunk, and he was sure about what he saw.

Several other people called the Mounties that night. They all told same story.

Soon afterwards, Wickens was among a dozen or so people gathered at the water’s edge, watching in amazement as a glowing, orange sphere — about the size of a city bus — bobbed on the waves about 300 metres from shore.

At 11:20 p.m., it slipped beneath the surface without a sound.

Three of those at the wharf were Mounties. One of them called the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax. A coast guard cutter was immediately dispatched to conduct a search.

All I know is that we saw something, and something came down. I can't prove it, but in my opinion they found something

Before the ship arrived, volunteer searchers aboard two fishing boats soon spotted a long trail of bubbling, yellow foam on the calm waters — but no wreckage.

A squad of Royal Canadian Navy divers later failed to turn up any clues after a three-day scan of the harbour floor, according to official military records.

To this day, Wickens has no idea what he saw.

“All I know is that we saw something, and something came down,” he says, adding that he believes the divers pulled something from the water.

“I can’t prove it, but in my opinion they found something.”

Wickens, now president of the Shag Harbour UFO Society, will take part in a panel discussion Saturday that is expected to include Ralph Loewinger, one of the pilots aboard Pan Am Flight 160, a Boeing 707 cargo aircraft that was at 33,000 feet that same night.

They saw the same row of flashing lights over the Gulf of Maine as they approached to coast of Nova Scotia.

Nobody reported a UFO. Everybody reported a plane crash. That gives a boost of credibility to the story

Loewinger and the other crew members never reported their sighting. Their story came to light about six years ago when Styles tracked them down.

“What sets this story apart is that the impact … was witnessed by several independent and very credible witnesses,” says Brock Zinck, a Nova Scotia seafood buyer and vice-president of the Shag Harbour UFO Society.

“Nobody reported a UFO. Everybody reported a plane crash. That gives a boost of credibility to the story.”

About 36 hours after the initial sightings, several Defence Department officials signed off on a memo that made it clear authorities had no idea what they were dealing with.

“A preliminary investigation has been carried out by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax,” the memo says. “It has been determined that this UFO sighting was not caused by a flare, float, aircraft or in fact any known object.”

It’s worth noting the search at Shag Harbour was conducted during a highly charged period in Canada’s history.

The space race was on and so was the Cold War. Russian submarines were known to frequent the East Coast. And the Americans were testing all manner of devices to spy on their communist foes, including crude spy satellites that ejected film canisters at high altitudes.

While the official records provide no explanation for what happened, there are vague clues pointing to another incident about 50 kilometres north, just off the coast of Shelburne.

In his 2001 book, Dark Object, Styles says he eventually interviewed former military insiders and members of the navy’s Fleet Diving Unit, who told him the orange orb spotted in Shag Harbour had submerged under its own power and travelled to a spot on the seabed off Shelburne.

At the time, the area was the location for a top-secret U.S. military base, disguised as an oceanographic institute. The facility used underwater microphones and magnetic detection devices to track enemy submarines, but its true purpose wasn’t revealed until the 1980s.

“I interviewed anybody who was still alive,” Styles says. “I tracked them down. I was a bulldog with it back then.”

In the book, Styles’ sources talk about a secret flotilla of American and Canadian ships dispatched to the area. There was speculation about Russian submarines and, yes, extraterrestrial visitors. But there is no hard evidence to back their claims.

But the clues keep coming.

During a recent search of an island off Shag Harbour, Styles says he spotted a military marker that indicated it was placed there by staff from the fake institute in Shelburne, which means the U.S. military snoops had been there at some point.

“I’m not here to make believers,” he says. “Some people say I’m a believer, but that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I want the real answers.”

{ http://theprovince.com/}

22-09-2017 om 01:41 geschreven door peter  

Space travel debris clutters Earth’s orbit, putting innovation at risk

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

© Getty Images

After 13 years, nearly 300 orbits and millions of scientific observations, NASA scientists directed the Cassini probe to burn up in Saturn's atmosphere last week.

They ended the mission because the spacecraft's fuel was nearly depleted, meaning that NASA would have lost the ability to control Cassini's trajectory and could not guarantee it would not crash into a sensitive site like the icy moon Enceladus, which could potentially harbor extraterrestrial life

Saturn and Enceladus are currently more than 930 million miles from Earth, but humankind seems to have less dedication to cleanliness in space closer to home. Even as space-based services like weather forecasting and GPS become an intimate, inseparable part of our daily lives, we risk the sustainability of the space environment through sloppy practices that could make near-Earth space into a perilous demolition derby.

 

Right now, more than 500,000 pieces of space debris (ranging in size from that of a marble to a school bus) closely orbit the Earth. This space junk — such as defunct satellites or rocket parts left over from past launch missions — can whip around uncontrollably at 17,500 miles per hour. In space, a fleck of paint can bring about more damage than can a speeding bullet on Earth.

What’s more, this debris field is poised to grow significantly in coming years. The danger of hurtling space debris destroying crucial satellites will grow quickly and could spike suddenly. In 2009, the derelict Cosmos 2251 satellite collided with an active Iridium 33 satellite that was providing global cell phone service. Both satellites were destroyed, creating 3,000 smaller tracked pieces of debris and hundreds of thousands too small to detect but that pose dangers to other spacecraft.

The U.S. military is concerned about space debris because it threatens the critical role space plays in America’s national security, from intelligence collection to communication and navigation. But every inoperative satellite or stray object makes space more difficult and dangerous for many users, not just the military. This is something of interest to anyone who wants a good weather forecast, relies on a ridesharing app or even just loves Snapchat. 

As these threats increase, my colleagues at the non-profit Aerospace Corporation are collaborating with the government, space industry and partners around the world on solutions to space debris challenges. We help the U.S. government set design requirements and assist vehicle contractors to design spacecraft that can maneuver to avoid collisions, withstand small debris strikes and move to disposal orbits or safely reenter the Earth’s atmosphere at end of life.  

As the number of satellite launches grows, launch safety is increasingly important, so we have developed probability-based screening of launch trajectories to ensure that a new launch will not collide with known objects in orbit. And when it comes to the daunting process of removing space debris, Aerospace is preparing to test the Brane Craft — a super-thin, flexible sheet to envelop debris and haul it safely back into Earth’s atmosphere.

Policymakers worldwide need to recognize that dramatic growth in the commercial space sector is increasing congestion in space and represents a shift from the decades in which governments dominated the domain. New commercial players are advancing promising new space applications with real economic potential. That is why more than 10,000 satellites are slated to launch over the next decade compared to only 7,800 since the dawn of the space age. That is also why a "just say no" regulatory approach is not a viable path to space sustainability.

With so many new entrants to the space industry, including from nations with little history of spacefaring, future U.S. space industry economic competitiveness would benefit from sensible regulatory simplification to keep the U.S. as the home of choice for space companies. Today, three separate U.S. government agencies — the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Communications Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — have major legal responsibilities for regulating orbital debris mitigation as part of their licensing roles.

A "one-stop shop" for regulation and licensing could facilitate both solutions to the emerging debris threat and greater regulatory responsiveness and clarity for new players. However, an overly blunt deregulatory approach could put space sustainability at risk, which is in no one's long-term interest.

Time is of the essence here. Congestion in space is no trivial issue, and the effects will eventually be widely felt. Inaction from the U.S. could cede economic and military advantage to other players. By leading the world in advancing down technically feasible and economically viable paths to space sustainability, the U.S. can continue to benefit from the growing space economy and rely on space for vital national security missions. 

Jamie Morin is vice president at The Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit that runs a Federally Funded Research and Development Center to serve as a leading architect for America’s national security and civil space programs. Morin serves as executive director of the Center for Space Policy and Strategy, which provides objective analysis and comprehensive research to ensure well-informed, technically defensible, and forward-looking space policy.

{ http://thehill.com/ }

22-09-2017 om 01:22 geschreven door peter  

22-09-2017 om 01:12 geschreven door peter  

22-09-2017 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

MacDill chuckling as UFO website reports 'flying triangles' at base: Howard Altman

22-09-2017 om 00:45 geschreven door peter  

The Darkest Skies ... A view from Darkest Wyoming

COPYRIGHT2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

This past Sept 14-16 I received and invitation to speak at the first annual Devils Tower UFO Rendezvous. Richard Beckwith, Wyoming’s state director for the Mutual UFO Network asked if I was interested and I said sure. It seemed to be a great locale and looked to be a more scientifically based first time conference. As an astronomer, (we really DO exist), I wanted to talk on a topic that is pertinent to any conference about extraterrestrial life: Exoplanets. After all, other worlds around other stars could harbor life like us if they are in the right place and are the right atmospheric makeup. I also did a second progress report talk on the UFOTOG II project that I have been working on with Douglas Trumbull. The conference organizers, Laurie Tucker and Bob Olsen did a magnificent job for their first “rodeo” and the press attended each day including the UK Sun newspaper.

One thing I was really looking forward to was the absolute dark skies that Wyoming offers depending on where you go. In the town of Hulett, there are a few lights, security or otherwise for some of the facilities there (cattle and lumber being the main concerns), I brought the camera that I use with our SkyTour LiveStream YouTube channel we produce on clear nights from the John Zack Memorial Observatory in CT so that I could avail myself of the incredible sensitivity of that camera. I put a lens on the camera body and off I went. I was a bit nervous flying this expensive gear so it rode with me under the seat on the flights. I was not prepared for the landscapes however. Southwestern Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah were once part of a large group of lakes that formed sedimentary rock known as the Green River Formation. Laid down 55 million years ago, this formation is rich with fossils characterized by the tan colored rock matrix and dark fossil remains.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

The Exoplanet talk on Friday afternoon was live streamed on my channel so if you want to see it you can go Here to the SkyTour LiveStream page and watch it. It is a lighthearted, sometimes funny look at the science behind the discovery of Exoplanets. Sunday I discussed progress on UFOTOG II which is the UFO detection system I am putting together with Douglas Trumbull (VFX genius, god, and UFO Hunter). At this point the John Zack Observatory is being used as a test site for instruments we come up with as well as a LiveStream site for the clear night tours of the sky with a moderate telescope. We can show ultra faint objects live and in real time thanks to the camera technology we employ.

On Sunday, a free day, I went to Devils Tower, the most memorable part of the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Interestingly, Doug Trumbull did the visual effects for the movie so it was cool to visit that site even though the time spent filming there was certainly not the lion’s share of the time. The movie took the crew all over the world, from Devil’s Tower, to India to dunes in California. The process that actually made the tower is in debate but the cause is not. It is very likely an igneous intrusion, where magma from underground pushes into overlying strata and then cools there. Even though the process that made the tower still debated, it is known that the only reason we SEE the tower at all is because the surrounding shales and softer rocks were eroded away over the last 50 million years. That is to say that Devils Tower which rises over 850 feet above the landscape NOW, was actually buried deep underground before it was exposed by the relentless erosion that took place since its formation. Overall the elevation of the tower above sea level is over 5000 feet.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

The geology of the Tower is fascinating but the sheer beauty is breathtaking. Once at the Tower you are close to 5000 feet in elevation so looking at the surrounding terrain is amazing. Sweeping valleys and large conifer trees dot the landscape so it really does make you take pause. To see what that looked like check out the image below.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

Just as a point of scale, check out the pictures below.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

The crystallized igneous rocks that form the towers distinctive columnar structure are similar in appearance to the Devil’s Postpile in California but are a much larger diameter. Magma that cools slowly underground can crystallize into the characteristic hexagonal form. Devil’s Postpile was formed from a different type of lava than the Tower but on the outside it looks the same. A similar rock crystallization process occurs. The key item here is that the above picture doesnt give you an adequate sense of scale . Consider the picture below however!

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

Can you see the climber just right of center? These lava columns are clearly among the largest, suggesting that the process that made Devils Tower encouraged such large crystal growth. These columns can break off and crash to the base of the tower as can be seen in the above photo as well... This makes climbing somewhat treacherous. I have NO desire to climb this decaying massif! For instance look at this photo below.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

The Tower is decaying slowly and will eventually erode to a small hill in the far future. For no

w it is an exciting tourist attraction.

While there I noticed a strong acrid odor that burned the eyes and made it hard to breathe. This was the smoke from existing forest fires in Montana that was drifting down to us. In fact if you went north in Wyoming this past weekend you would have another experience too: that of ash from the fires raining down on you coating everything with a gray layer. It was like a post apocalyptic scene from a movie. I didnt witness this personally but some people there had done so. I am glad I stayed in Hulett...

One of the things on my to do list was to photograph the night sky. It rained for the first couple of days which was disheartening until I realized that the smoke that was shrouding the Tower would be cleared out by the rain. Then Sunday it cleared impressively! I took a number of photos that night and the next. Devils Tower is actually open and accessible 24 hours so after dark I went up to the Tower and took photos of the Milky Way over the Tower and then farther away on the highway did a similar set of photos. First of all, Hulett itself, lights and all is still impressive . Note the image below showing the Dark Sky view around Hulett. It registers green on th light pollution scale which is fairly close to the darkest skies.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT DARKSITEFINDER.COM

Here is an example of what the night sky looks like in Hulett. You can see the lights, but you can also see the complex Milky Way. Its stunning.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

After taking the pictures in Hulett and after seeing Devil’s Tower in the photos appearing in the distance I went to the Tower and on the way found a spot where the Milky Way was descending on the Tower. This below is that image. It looks like a scene out of Close Encounters.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

And finally after arriving at the Tower at night I was able to capture the full majesty of the Tower. The sky wasnt quite dark enough to keep me from seeing my hand in front of my face but then I realized WHY. It was the STARLIGHT that was brightly illuminating the scene as there was no light pollution worth mentioning here. In the above image you are seeing the light dome (orange yellow light causing the tower to appear in silhouette) from the town of Gillete 100 miles away.

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

Of course there was other fun too... Getting personal with an Elk...

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY MARC DANTONIO

Well I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride! If you have any questions let me know!

Thanks and see you next time!

{ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ }

22-09-2017 om 00:32 geschreven door peter  

BRUNO BAYLEY

Image: 'UFO Drawings from The National Archives'

We spoke to veteran UFO investigator Dr David Clarke about all the paintings and drawings he uncovered in the UK's real-life 'X Files'.

After a decade of pressuring the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release some of its 11,000 case reports on UFO sightings in the UK (having filed many FOIA requests and conducted his own investigations into Britain's UFO paperwork) Dr David Clarke's efforts paid off in 2008 when those files were made public, prior to the MoD's UFO desk closing in 2009.

Since World War Two the government had logged – and, at times, investigated – reports of UFOs. In 2009, the MoD claimed that not one UFO sighting it had looked into had been of military or defence interest, and that the effort and resources put into monitoring the reports was no longer deemed worth it. In an about-face from "poacher to game keeper", Clarke was appointed curator for the transfer of these files into the National Archive.

A lecturer in folklore and journalism, Clarke's years of working on Britain's UFO papers led to his new book, UFO Drawings from The National Archives, a beautiful collection of paintings, diagrams and drawings from the archive, complimented by the accounts that came with them. We spoke to Dr Clarke, of Sheffield Hallam University, about the difficulty of being a journalist working on UFOs.

---

WATCH: The Alien Worshippers

---

VICE: For those not familiar, what was your route into the world of UFO research?

David Clarke: I got into it as a journalist. Before we had the Freedom of Information Act, they used to release previously secret government documents on New Year's Day – all the documents that were over 30 years old. It used to be a big media event.

Of course, New Year's Day is dead as a doornail for news – nothing going on. I was at The Yorkshire Post and they used to make me look through those released files to find things to run in January. Naturally you are looking for a crazy story, and the UFO files kept coming up. 
I had an interest in the subject already, having seen Encounters of the Third Kind in the cinema aged ten. From there I went on to reading paper backs about UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle and so on. I had moved on, but got back into that area in the late-90s when The X-Files came out. And then all these files came along, and I needed a niche as a journalist…

Once you started reading the files, was there a particular angle that hooked you, or was it just the childhood interest flooding back? 

The thing that intrigued me was that I knew from looking over the released files that there was this mysterious Ministry of Defence department that looked at UFOs! They were looking at the subject for about 60 years and spending quite a bit of public money on it. I wanted to know why. From the mid-90s this stuff was coming out in bits and pieces, up until 2006 or 2007, when they decided to make public all this stuff that had been, until that point, largely secret. The first British government documents on UFOs were actually released to the National Archives in 1986 as part of that 30-year rule. They included the famous memo sent in 1952 by PM Winston Churchill to the Air Ministry that asked: "What's all this stuff about flying saucers? What is the truth?"

They didn't release the secret files in 2008 on a whim. I'd spent a lot of time investigating – speaking with people who had reported sightings, as well as tracking down those I could who were involved in investigating them. From 1998 I was bombarding the government with FOIAs. The more eccentric UFO fans would write to them saying, "We know you are hiding crashed flying saucers, we know the truth!" And of course if you were one of the Ministry people you would just be like, "Please go away."

Image: The National Archives AIR 2-17983

I liked that aspect of the book. Your description of these supposedly hi-tech, top secret government departments, the "Men In Black"… but actually they come across more as harassed, under-resourced people in back rooms under piles of letters about god knows what who eventually effectively said, "Sod it, you can have it all." You definitely dent the glamour surrounding that side of things. 

There's that mythic idea of a lavishly funded X-files department that rush around in black suits… it's more like Yes Minister. Or was, as it doesn't exist any more.

It must be very hard to exist in that world for so long as a skeptic, and to balance that with spending time with so many people who believe strongly that they have seen things that can't be explained by earthly means. 

It's not easy. I mean, where do I start? There's obviously something there – it's very hard to detach oneself and be completely objective. The first question people usually ask me is, "Do you believe in UFOs?" Which I find very odd. Why ask that? If I wrote a book about the history of Christianity, the first question wouldn't be, "Do you believe in Jesus?", would it?

Image: The National Archives AIR 2-18961

This crosses over to another issue you talk about in the book – that of people's assumptions and associations. You say "UFO" and people think 'aliens'. But of course the vast majority of UFO claims are explained away without getting anywhere near even a suggestion of extraterrestrial causes. 

Well, the irony here is that when UFOs first became big, in the late-1940s, it was all about "flying saucers". A flying saucer is explicitly a craft from another world. The American air force came up with the term "UFO" to get away from that association. But that's now come full circle. The MoD actually came up with a new term – UAP, which stands for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. It avoids the use of the word object, and the associations people have with UFO. They used that from around 2000 onward until they closed the desk.

How does someone who's spent so long looking over this material, of which there's so much, go about selecting the few cases you included in the book? Is the book a shortlist of your favourites, a selection of the best images? 

It was a balance. It's an image-led book – an art book – so I had to favour the more visually striking cases. But some of the most interesting cases, or stories, aren't particularly well illustrated. Not everyone did a painting or drawing of what they saw.

Image: The National Archives DEFE 24-1207

In some cases I felt that the less artful illustrations were just as revealing. The style of image, to an extent, tells you something about those making the claim. From the really matter of fact map drawn by a policeman, to the ridiculously elaborate, full-colour illustrations some sent in.

I am glad you think that, and that that's how it comes over. People tend to think of UFOs as just one thing. You can see in the book that there are a zillion things that can be UFOs. Zillions of things that cause people to see what they think are UFOs, and these people are from all sorts of backgrounds. You get the imaginative accounts by people who claim to be in contact with aliens, and you get quite ordinary people who have no interest in the subject at all. That policeman you mentioned was just out checking doors. He felt he should report what he saw, submitted it as a standard police report. He didn't expect anyone to get back to him, and he certainly didn't imagine his report would become public.

Another thing that comes over in the book is the different responses people have to explanations they are given. Some people clearly have no interest in being told anything that deviates from their own view. 

But then there are others who very happily accept explanations given. It's impossible to generalise about people who see UFOs. Some do have that will to believe – it's almost a religious thing. They might not be people who go to church, but they still seem to be looking for something – something more in their lives. To them, seeing a thing they don't understand in the sky is akin to a religious experience. And of course it can become an obsession.

The cover of 'UFO Drawings from the National Archives'

How much of the UFO phenomenon is mass hysteria of a sort, driven by popular culture, and how much is innocent interpretation of unexplained sightings? 

People have experiences, genuine experiences. But nobody is free from the impact of popular culture. You have people reporting sightings saying, "I have no interest in popular culture, but…" and you're like, "Come off it – you haven't ever seen Thunderbirds, or The X-Files?" Even if people genuinely don't think they are influenced by those things, they may well be. There was a famous psychology experiment where they briefly showed a group of people a picture with a flying object on it, then asked them to draw it again. People drew classic "flying saucers", with windows or flanges or whatever, but that wasn't what they were shown… where was that coming from? It was coming from that stock of sci-fi imagery.

There are cases in the book where detailed accounts of UFO sightings, by seemingly rational people, were conclusively shown to be run of the mill aircraft sightings.

On that psychology side, there's a case of a woman driving at night with her boyfriend in Essex, in the 70s, on the A12, I think. She saw an object overhead – a triangle shape with lots of white lights on it. She was transfixed. They pulled over and thought it was going to land on the car! She said it wasn't a plane, that it had no wings and made no sound. Her father was an RAF Group Captain who reported it officially – a pages-long account of the event and object. This agency DI55 looked into it – they are the real X-Files lot, defence intelligence staff. They got radar records and found that, without any shadow of doubt, what they had seen was an aircraft landing at Stansted airport. They traced it to the time and place.

But even if what she saw was a plane, what she thought she saw, and what she reported, was a UFO. People see ordinary things in extraordinary circumstances, or extraordinary things in ordinary circumstances… both can lead to these sightings.

I once saw an object in the sky that I couldn't explain; it zoomed between two tall buildings. It turned out to be a Tesco carrier bag, but I only knew that because I followed it around the building and saw it land. If I had wanted to believe maybe I would have reported it as a flying saucer.

Image: The National Archives DEFE 24-2060

How many of the reports sent in to the UFO desk actually led to investigations? 

Very, very few. But it changed over the years. When the desk was first set up in the Churchill years, it was all taken very, very seriously because people really thought these might have been Soviet spy planes. The Americans had Project Blue Book at that time too. Even then the British version was, as usual, a cut-price version run by air force intelligence, but that was a golden era for UFO investigations in the UK.

Later it was handled by civilians, and it started to attract attention from people like the Aetherius Society, who bombarded them with letters. There were protests outside Whitehall demanding "the truth" as early as 1958.

When the Americans packed it in in the late-60s the British continued to collect and look at these reports. A lot of the earliest, and most thorough, investigations were actually destroyed – as they predated things like freedom of information, public records act and so on. Of course, the fact these were destroyed plays into the hands of the more conspiracy-minded UFO enthusiasts, even though the government destroys stuff all the time.

By the time you get to the 1980s and 90s it's just a constant washing of hands – no one wants anything to do with it. The last time they had a real field investigation team sent out was in the late-1960s.

What is your overriding view of the UFO world, in light of your investigations?

One of the MoD's UFO desk officers I tracked down was an air force psychologist called Alex Cassie. He'd been investigating air crashes and their causes, focusing on why pilots made mistakes they shouldn't. He was drafted into this real life X-Files team investigating flying saucer sightings. When I spoke to him he said he had visited about half a dozen people around 1967, 68, and I distinctly remember what he said to me – he said, "I came to the conclusion that the people who see UFOs are far more interesting than the UFOs themselves." And I came to the same conclusion myself, actually.

UFO Drawings from The National Archives is available now, on Four Corners Books.

More on VICE:

The Professional UFO Skeptic Who Believed in Aliens

Watching for Aliens in the UFO Capital of Scotland

The Strange Story of Australia's Outback UFO Capital

{ https://www.vice.com/en_uk }

22-09-2017 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Nibiru: How the nonsense Planet X Armageddon and Nasa fake news theories spread globally  

Nibiru conspiracy theories about the end of the world have been circulating online for more than two decades, with the latest dubious prophecy predicting the apocalypse on September 23, 2017.

Planet X, or Nibiru, refers to a mythological planet in our solar system that will supposedly crash into Earth and wipe out the human race, however it has been consistently dismissed by Nasa and other experts as an internet hoax.

Despite absolutely no scientific evidence to back up the suggestions of a rogue planet getting rapidly closer to Earth, myths about Planet X continue to be perpetuated online.

Of course, this isn't the first time time harbingers of doom have predicted the end of time; Nasa also had to deny the existence of Nibiru in 2012.

Throughout history there have been similar claims, but thankfully none of them so far have been proved correct. 

How did conspiracy theories about Planet X start?

Online chatter about Nibiru began back in 1995 when Wisconsin native Nancy Lieder created the alien-conspiracy website ZetaTalk.

Ms Lieder claims to be a conduit for aliens from the Zeta Reticuli star system, 39.17 light years from Earth, who have warned her about the Nibiru catastrophe.

The conspiracy theory hasn’t gone away, with so-called Christian numerologist David Meade claiming Planet X is heading in our direction.

Meade believes October could see the start The Rapture and a seven-year tribulation period of widescale natural disasters.

Why September 23?

It has been claimed an unusual celestial arrangement mirroring signs from the Bible’s Book of Revelation on September 23 will signal the start of the end of the world.  

However, the EarthSky blog notes there will be “nothing unique” about the sun, moon and planets on the date.

“In the past 1,000 years, this same event has happened at least four times already, in 1827, 1483, 1293, and 1056,” explains astronomer Christopher M. Graney.

Haven’t we been here before?

This isn't the first time the apocalypse has been predicted:

1844

American Baptist teacher William Miller first shared publicly his belief in the coming Second Advent of Jesus Christ in 1833, predicting he would return in the year 1843.

The Millerites were his followers and Millerism became a national movement, however when Jesus didn’t arrive, October 22, 1844, became known as the Great Disappointment.

1997

Twenty years ago, 29 members of Heaven’s Gate, a UFO religious millenarian group, committed suicide with the aim of boarding a UFO they believed was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet before the supposed end of the world.

2003

Planet X was also supposedly discovered by the ancient Sumerian people and was meant to hit Earth in 2003, but never arrived.

“This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012,” say Nasa.

2011

The end of the world was also supposed to arrive on 21 May 2011, with Christian doomsday prophet Harold Camping predicting the Rapture would begin at 18:00 in each of the world's time zones, wiping out nay-sayers with rolling earthquakes as believers ascended to heaven.

2012

Nasa had to debunk an ancient Maya prophecy theory about the world ending back in 2012.

The Mayan connection “was a misconception from the very beginning,” astrophysicist Dr. John Carlson said at the time.

“The Maya calendar did not end on Dec. 21, 2012, and there were no Maya prophecies foretelling the end of the world on that date."

2015

Chris McCann, leader and founder of the eBible fellowship, said the world would be engulfed and destroyed by a great fire on October 7.

McCann said he was "surprised" by the outcome and wrote a blog post entitled: "A response to being incorrect with the prediction that, in all likelihood, the world would end on October 7."

What does Nasa say this time?

Nasa has definitively dismissed wild theories about Nibiru as pseudoscience, issuing a number of statements denying its existence.

“Various people are ‘predicting’ that world will end on September 23 when another planet collides with Earth,” say Nasa.

“The planet in question, Nibiru, doesn't exist, so there will be no collision. The story of Nibiru has been around for years (as has the 'days of darkness' tale) and is periodically recycled into new apocalyptic fables.”

They add: “Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth … astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist.

“Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.”

Nasa fake news and the days of darkness tale

A fake news story being widely shared online suggests Nasa has confirmed Earth will experience 15 days of complete darkness in November 2015.

Another fake news video claims that Nasa has found Nibiru and confirmed it is heading straight for us.

Debunking website Snopes explains the “days of darkness” tale is a “bit of fake news lifted from an older viral rumour”

They say that it “had already been around the online block several times before,” adding, “it has long since become an evergreen online hoax — a jape that is typically resurrected a few times a year by dubious websites that simply update the time span for the alleged ‘period of darkness’ and send it winging around the internet again.

What do other experts say?

Nick Pope, who used to investigate UFOs and other mysteries for the Ministry of Defence, says “Nibiru doesn't exist”.

He adds: “The world won't end on September 23. Shame on the people promoting this hoax in the name of evangelical Christianity.”

Mr Pope told The Telegraph: “I'm certain Nibiru doesn't exist because if there really was a rogue planet heading for Earth, due to hit on Saturday, it would be visible to the naked naked eye by now.

“Furthermore, astronomers would have been aware of its presence for years, both through direct observation and through gravitational effects on other planets in the solar system.”

Why are some people so keen to promote this conspiracy?

“The people promoting this prediction seem to be doing so because of religious belief, tenuously linking the recent eclipse with Biblical passages, including one from the Book of Revelations,” Pope says.

“I suspect the reasons include self-publicity and the desire to promote their particular brand of evangelical Christianity.”

Is there anything we should be worried about?

“All this isn't to say that there aren't some existential threats out there, but if people want to worry about something, they should probably worry about North Korean missiles, or about Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, not about Nibiru,” Pope adds. 

“There have been countless previous predictions of the end of the world. Self-evidently all these predictions were false. September 23 will pass without incident, just as we safely negotiated all the previous dates that had been put forward as doomsday.”

{ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ }

21-09-2017 om 23:59 geschreven door peter  

The disappearance of the UK’s “most spectacular” UFO photo

Hanging on the wall near the British government’s UFO Desk was what one of the men who occupied that desk called “the most spectacular UFO photo ever sent to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).” The photo has since disappeared, but the story of how the picture was obtained, and what it showed, has not.

Nick Pope ran the MoD’s UFO project from 1991 to 1994. When he was first assigned to the position, he was not excited about it. He felt the issue was ridiculous and he was not looking forward to having to deal with a bunch of UFO nuts. However, over the years, Pope found there were credible cases of incredible things, and began to see there was something truly mysterious about the phenomenon. One of the cases that lead him to this conclusion had to do with a photo that was made into a poster that he found hung in the office near his desk when he began working the UFO desk.

A recreation of the Calvine UFO photo poster.

(Credit: Channel 5)

“I first came across this story in 1991, when I joined the UFO project,” writes Pope on his website. “A poster-sized enlargement of the best  photo was prominently displayed on the office wall.”

“The X-Files first aired in the UK in 1994 and I acquired the same nickname (Spooky) as Fox Mulder, for obvious reasons,” Nick continues. “Mulder famously had his ‘I want to believe’ UFO poster on his office wall and though uncaptioned, I suppose this was my equivalent.”

The photo showed a picture of a large diamond shaped craft with a jet in the background. When he asked about the photo, Pope was told that they had officially determined the image was real. They estimated the craft to have been 25 meters (over 80 feet) in diameter.

However, if asked, they were instructed to answer, “no definite conclusion had been reached regarding the large diamond-shaped object.”

Pope learned that the object had been photographed on August 4, 1990. Two people had been walking near the town of Calvine in Scotland when they spotted the large diamond-shaped object. They described the object as looking metallic. It sat in one position, hovering silently for several minutes before taking off vertically at, as Pope writes, “a massive speed.”

During the sighting, the witnesses also saw a military aircraft that they thought might be a harrier jet, but they were unsure whether the jet was escorting the craft, chasing it, or whether the jet pilot was even aware of the diamond-shaped UFO.

The witnesses had taken several photographs and sent them to the Scottish Daily Record newspaper. The paper contacted the MoD, and the MoD was somehow able to convince the paper to hand over the photographs along with the negatives.

” The photos were then sent to the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) who then sent them on to imagery analysts at JARIC (Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre). Yet at the time, MoD hadn’t even publicly acknowledged that there was any intelligence interest in UFOs at all,” Pope explains.

“We implied and sometimes stated that we didn’t ‘investigate’ UFOs, but merely ‘examined sightings to see if anything reported was of any defence interest’ – as if the two were somehow different!”

Pope say the MoD was actually very interested in these cases, but often less interested in where the craft came from than what they could learn from it. They had hoped to identify some sort of technology they would be able to appropriate.

Nick Pope, former MOD UFO investigator, at the International UFO Congress.

(Credit: Peter Beste/Open Minds)

Either way, the Calvine UFO photos impressed the UFO desk investigators enough that they hung the poster in the office.

“At one particularly surreal briefing on the UFO phenomenon my DIS opposite number indicated the photo and pointed his finger to the right: ‘It’s not the Americans’, he said, before pointing to the left and saying ‘and it’s not the Russians.’ There was a pause, before he concluded ‘and that only leaves …’ – his voice trailed off and he didn’t complete the sentence, but his finger was pointing directly upwards,” recalls Pope.

The office where the UFO desk was located also housed other non-UFO related projects.

Pope says the reaction of some colleagues who came to visit unaware of the UFO program had amusing reactions to the poster.

Pope writes, “You’d have this surreal moment when they’d stop mid-sentence, stare at it, point and say ‘what the hell’s that?’ – this wasn’t the archetypal distant, blurred UFO photo. This was up close and personal, reach out and you can touch it stuff. ‘I don’t know what it is, but it’s not one of ours’ was our stock answer to the inevitable question.”

Eventually, around 1994, Pope says his superior determined the craft was a secret American aircraft or drone. Pope says they had already asked the U.S. if the craft or something similar of theirs was being tested over the UK, and were told they were not. Pope believes his boss had decided to support a potential cover-up by the Americans and the MoD and removed the poster. It was never to be seen again.

Although Pope has discussed these photographs in the media and has posted an article on his website, no one has come forward to claim they took the photos. Nor has anyone at the Scottish Daily Record come forth to discuss any involvement. The case remains a mystery.

You can read more about this sighting and Pope’s work at www.NickPope.net. He can also be heard on several episode of Open Minds UFO Radio.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

21-09-2017 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

THREE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN ASTEROIDS JUST MISSED EARTH BY ONLY 120,000 MILES

During the past week, Earth has been said to have a close shave three times. Astronomers found three asteroids which have never been seen before and they went whizzing past Earth a great deal close  

While the three asteroids really did not pose any real threat to Earth, it does happen to be rather unsettling that the biggest out of the three asteroids, with the name of 2017 SQ2, was seen on Monday. This is close to four days after another hunk which was said to be the size of a warehouse passed Earth around 120,000 miles above the heads of people.

The asteroid given the name of 2017 SM2 is said to be around half that size, and this asteroid passed over the Earth on Wednesday morning, and this one was said to be around 188,000 miles over our heads.

The smallest and the closest of the debris from space that has just been found close to Earth is 2017 SR2, and this has been said to be about the same size as a bus. This asteroid was said to have passed by Earth on Wednesday at about 1.30pm PT, and it was just 55,000 miles away from Earth.

MOST ASTEROIDS PASS EARTH AT DISTANCES THAT ARE COMFORTABLE

Of course, there are many asteroids that float around the same region of the Solar System that Earth does, and it seems that now astronomers are finding new debris that goes flying past Earth closer and closer every day. Many of the asteroids have thankfully passed Earth at a distance that is very comfortable and which is said to be several times further away than the Moon is. However, there is the rare time when an asteroid does come closer than the space that is between Earth and the Moon.  

While they did not pose any threat to Earth, they are worth noting, and their flying past the Earth has made for a dramatic week for many astronomers. Up to date, a total of 31 asteroids have passed by Earth closer than the Moon during 2017. One of the closest times an asteroid came past us was in April when a rock that was said to be the size of a car came past a great deal closer than most artificial satellites.

One of the closest shaves might be next month when asteroid 2012 TC4 is said to be coming past Earth, and this is about the size of a house, and it may pass Earth at just 5,000 miles on 12 October. NASA is full of confidence that while this is going to be a close call, the asteroid is not going to strike Earth.

However, there may still be a good reason to be concerned about it as in 2013 there was an explosion over Russia caused by an asteroid that had been undetected and collided with the atmosphere of Earth.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Nobody Saw It Coming! A Big Asteroid Missed Earth By Just 120,000 Miles
• An Asteroid Just Missed The Earth, But There Is Another One  .

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

21-09-2017 om 23:17 geschreven door peter  

AN OBJECT LIKE NOTHING WE'VE SEEN BEFORE HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

The Hubble Space Telescope is no stranger to finding strange things that defy definition and one more has been added to that list, a binary asteroid spotted by astronomers that is also a comet.

HYBRID ASTEROID SPOTTED IN SOLAR SYSTEM BY ASTRONOMERS AND IT'S STRANGE  

ASTRONOMERS WONDER HOW MANY HYBRIDS ARE OUT THERE

Astronomers have found not just one, but two, swirling around each other in a cosmic dance and leaving behind a stream of dust as they go. It is certainly a beautiful example of nature and it does bring about questions that are very interesting concerning just how many hybrids there might be out there.

As part of the Spacewatch program, the binary object was seen first in 2006 and it was given the rather unassuming name of 2006 VW139. However, in 2012 astronomers found that there was something strange about it as the asteroid had characteristics that were comet-like, with one giveaway being the tail that was streaming behind it.

ASTEROID STANDS OUT AS IT IS IN TWO PIECES

There is nothing new about main-belt comets. However, they are not common either. The asteroid is only one of a dozen objects to have ever been found and what makes this one standout is the fact that it is in two pieces.

2006 VW139 is made from two lumps of equal size that are orbiting each other at about 60 miles distance but why it split in half is something of a mystery and left astronomers wanting to take an even closer look. When the twins came closer to the Sun in September last year, NASA made the Hubble Space Telescope capture images that were clearer of the tail and the nucleus and this confirmed signatures of a comet sitting where they do not usually sit.

 Jessica Agarwal from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany said that they had found indications that were strong for sublimation of water ice thanks to an increase in solar heating, very much in the same way as the comet's tail is created. Researchers believe that 2006 VW139 split apart around 5000 years ago thanks to stress rotation, where a stream of vapor coming off them helped them to move more and more apart.

There is still one question that remains, and this is how common systems such as this are actually in the inner Solar System. Agarwal said that more observational and theoretical work is needed along with the sighting of more objects similar to this one to be able to find an answer to the question. It is hoped that more of the oddball icy asteroids will be seen with technology making advancements, to reveal a great deal more of the beauty along with detail in the rock-studded asteroid belt.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Astronomers Think They Might Have Spotted A New Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System
• Scientists can't explain a weird object spotted beyond Neptune

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

21-09-2017 om 22:58 geschreven door peter  

Canada's best-documented UFO sighting still intrigues, 50 years on

Highway sign identifying the incident location at Shag Harbour.

HALIFAX -- The first frantic callers to reach the RCMP were clear: something had crashed in the waters off Shag Harbour, N.S.

It was around 11 p.m. on the night of Oct. 4, 1967. Most witnesses thought it was a doomed aircraft.

Among those who saw the string of flashing lights on that clear, moonless night were three RCMP officers, scores of fishermen and airline pilots flying along the province's rugged southwest coast.

RELATED STORIES

• Canada's 'UFO guy' fascinated by lights in the sky

PHOTOS

The Shag Harbour Incident Interpretive Centre is seen in Shag Harbour, N.S. on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Laurie Wickens, president of the Shag Harbour Incident Society, is seen in Shag Harbour, N.S. on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

But a series of searches turned up nothing. No wreckage. No bodies. No clues as to what really happened that night 50 years ago.

A Halifax-area man later uncovered a trove of government and police records that would make the Shag Harbour incident Canada's best-documented and most intriguing UFO sighting.

Hundreds of UFO sightings are reported across Canada every year, but none has the paper trail of Shag Harbour.

In a series of RCMP reports and correspondence sent by telex between military officials in Ottawa and Halifax, there are specific references to unidentified flying objects, and no attempts were made to explain away what people were reporting.

Chris Styles, the UFO researcher who dug up those documents, remains baffled by the case.

"To this day, I don't know the absolute answer, but we're still finding things," says Styles, the author of two books about the Shag Harbour incident.

Next week, on the eve of the 50th anniversary, Styles will be the keynote speaker at the start of the three-day Shag Harbour UFO Festival. After 20-plus years of dogged research, he says he has new evidence to share.

It points to an explanation that hardly seems possible, unless you have a sense of what Styles has uncovered so far.

To be sure, the most compelling evidence comes from eyewitnesses like Laurie Wickens, now a 67-year-old former fisherman.

"There was four (lights) in a row, and they were going on and off," says Wickens, at the time a 17-year-old driving home to Shag Harbour with a friend and three young women. "One would come on, then two, three and four -- and they'd all be off for a second and come back on again."

Sure he was about to witness an airline disaster, Wickens found a phone booth and called the local RCMP detachment. Questions were asked about his sobriety. But he wasn't drunk, and he was sure about what he saw.

Several other people called the Mounties that night. They all told same story.

Soon afterwards, Wickens was among a dozen or so people gathered at the water's edge, watching in amazement as a glowing, orange sphere -- about the size of a city bus -- bobbed on the waves about 300 metres from shore.

At 11:20 p.m., it slipped beneath the surface without a sound.

Three of those at the wharf were Mounties. One of them called the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax. A coast guard cutter was immediately dispatched to conduct a search.

Before the ship arrived, volunteer searchers aboard two fishing boats soon spotted a long trail of bubbling, yellow foam on the calm waters -- but no wreckage.

A squad of Royal Canadian Navy divers later failed to turn up any clues after a three-day scan of the harbour floor, according to official military records.

To this day, Wickens has no idea what he saw.

"All I know is that we saw something, and something came down," he says, adding that he believes the divers pulled something from the water.

"I can't prove it, but in my opinion they found something."

Wickens, now president of the Shag Harbour UFO Society, will take part in a panel discussion Saturday that is expected to include Ralph Loewinger, one of the pilots aboard Pan Am Flight 160, a Boeing 707 cargo aircraft that was at 33,000 feet that same night.

They saw the same row of flashing lights over the Gulf of Maine as they approached to coast of Nova Scotia.

Loewinger and the other crew members never reported their sighting. Their story came to light about six years ago when Styles tracked them down.

"What sets this story apart is that the impact ... was witnessed by several independent and very credible witnesses," says Brock Zinck, a Nova Scotia seafood buyer and vice-president of the Shag Harbour UFO Society.

"Nobody reported a UFO. Everybody reported a plane crash. That gives a boost of credibility to the story."

About 36 hours after the initial sightings, several Defence Department officials signed off on a memo that made it clear authorities had no idea what they were dealing with.

"A preliminary investigation has been carried out by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Halifax," the memo says. "It has been determined that this UFO sighting was not caused by a flare, float, aircraft or in fact any known object."

It's worth noting the search at Shag Harbour was conducted during a highly charged period in Canada's history.

The space race was on and so was the Cold War. Russian submarines were known to frequent the East Coast. And the Americans were testing all manner of devices to spy on their communist foes, including crude spy satellites that ejected film canisters at high altitudes.

While the official records provide no explanation for what happened, there are vague clues pointing to another incident about 50 kilometres north, just off the coast of Shelburne.

In his 2001 book, "Dark Object," Styles says he eventually interviewed former military insiders and members of the navy's Fleet Diving Unit, who told him the orange orb spotted in Shag Harbour had submerged under its own power and travelled to a spot on the seabed off Shelburne.

At the time, the area was the location for a top-secret U.S. military base, disguised as an oceanographic institute. The facility used underwater microphones and magnetic detection devices to track enemy submarines, but its true purpose wasn't revealed until the 1980s.

"I interviewed anybody who was still alive," Styles says. "I tracked them down. I was a bulldog with it back then."

In the book, Styles' sources talk about a secret flotilla of American and Canadian ships dispatched to the area. There was speculation about Russian submarines and, yes, extraterrestrial visitors. But there is no hard evidence to back their claims.

But the clues keep coming.

During a recent search of an island off Shag Harbour, Styles says he spotted a military marker that indicated it was placed there by staff from the fake institute in Shelburne, which means the U.S. military snoops had been there at some point.

"I'm not here to make believers," he says. "Some people say I'm a believer, but that's a bit of an exaggeration. I want the real answers."

{ http://www.ctvnews.ca/ }

21-09-2017 om 22:34 geschreven door peter  

After thirteen years of some truly epic space exploration, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft ended its career by exploding on the atmosphere of Saturn in a controlled collision. Cassini was responsible for making some of the most groundbreaking discoveries in our solar system including detecting possible life-sustaining conditions on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Cassini gave us an unprecedented look at Saturn and her moons, giving us a glimpse at what true alien worlds are like.

Rest in pieces, Cassini.

Even in its final moments, Cassini continued to make some startling discoveries. As it approached its final resting place in Saturn’s upper atmosphere, Cassini snapped some photographs of one of Saturn’s most mysterious features, named “Peggy” after the mother-in-law of the scientist who discovered it.

Peggy was one of the last things Cassini ever saw.

Peggy has been described as an odd “glitch” in one of Saturn’s outermost rings. Through a telescope, Peggy appears to be an anomalous bright spot in Saturn’s rings, but up close appears a lot stranger. Saturn’s rings are typically smooth-looking and perfectly circular owing to the planet’s gravity, but Peggy looks like a strange rough or jagged area and measures some 750 miles across.

Peggy from a distance.

Carl Murray of Queen Mary University of London worked on the Cassini project for nearly three decades and was responsible for naming Peggy. Murray was among the first to discover Peggy and says even after all these years, NASA scientists still don’t know what the ‘glitch’ might be:

We obviously wanted to know, ‘Was it real? What is it? Where did it come from? Where is it going?’ We’ve been tracking it almost ever since. We’ve never actually resolved the object. All we can do is track the glitch.

Main theories for what Peggy might be include a dense cloud of dust and debris caught in Saturn’s gravity, or even perhaps a tiny proto moon that hasn’t quite broken free of the planet’s pull yet. For now, Peggy will remains a mystery until the next deep-space probe can get a good look at her.

 { http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

21-09-2017 om 22:15 geschreven door peter