The Yellowstone supervolcano’s last eruption wasn’t a single event, but 2 closely-spaced eruptions that put the brakes on a natural global-warming trend, says a study.

The gorgeous colors of Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Prismatic hot spring are among the park’s myriad hydrothermal features created by the fact that Yellowstone is a supervolcano – the largest type of volcano on Earth.

Photo via Windows into the Earth by Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel

The Yellowstone supervolcano’s last catastrophic eruption, about 630,000 years ago, was not a single event, but two powerful and closely-spaced eruptions, according to a new study. The super-eruptions were powerful enough, the researchers say, to slow a natural global warming trend that eventually led the planet out of a major ice age.

For the study, presented at the Geological Society of American’s annual meeting in Seattle on October 25, 2017, a team of geologists from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) analyzed two layers of volcanic ash discovered in seafloor sediments off the coast of Southern California. These layers of ash, sandwiched among sediments, bear the unique chemical fingerprint of Yellowstone’s most recent super eruption. and contain a remarkably detailed climate record of the violent events that formed the vast Yellowstone caldera – or cauldron-like crater – that we see today.
UCSB geologist Jim Kennett said in a statement:

We discovered here that there are two ash-forming super eruptions 170 years apart, and each cooled the ocean by about three degrees Celsius.

Read more about the research here.

By comparing the volcanic ash record with the climate record of single-celled marine animal fossils, it’s quite clear, Kennet said, that both of these eruptions caused separate volcanic winters, when ash and volcanic sulfur dioxide emissions reduce the amount of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface and cause temporary cooling. According to the study, the onset of the global cooling events was abrupt and coincided precisely with the timing of the supervolcanic eruptions.

These cooling events occurred at an especially sensitive time, Kennet said, when the global climate was warming out of an ice age and easily disrupted by such events. But, Kennet added, each time, the cooling lasted longer than it should have, according to simple climate models. He said:

We see planetary cooling of sufficient magnitude and duration that there had to be other feedbacks involved.

These feedbacks might include increased sunlight-reflecting sea ice and snow cover or a change in ocean circulation that would cool the planet for a longer time.

Bottom line: New research suggest that the Yellowstone supervolcano’s last eruption wasn’t a single event, but 2 closely-spaced eruptions that slowed a natural global-warming trend.

Read more from the Geological Society of America

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

02-11-2017 om 14:14 geschreven door peter  

Most remarkable UFO sightings in October 2017

3rd October 2017; bright lights – Karolino Bugaz Bay

9th October 2017; triangle-shaped craft – Thornhill, Canada

late October 2017; unknown lights – Haifa, Israel

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

02-11-2017 om 13:59 geschreven door peter  

Second Scientist to analyse Nazca Alien mummies says they are REAL

“At first sight, it looked like a normal body but looking closely at every body part we found could find several abnormalities. “For example, the head is bigger, it has wider eyes, a smaller nose, and it has no ears. It has fewer vertebrae that a common human…”

The alleged mummified remains discovered in Nazca Peru have created a massive debate among Alien believers, and researchers around the globe.

The scientific community was left awe-struck when UFO hunters and a group of researchers released a statement claiming they had come across the mummified remains of the mummified remains of several alien bodies at an undisclosed cave at Nazca, Peru.

Soon after the statement was made, the scientific community struck the claims and tagged the entire thing as a hoax, saying that the alleged mummies were in fact fabricated, and were never actually discovered.

These comments were made despite the fact that skeptical scientists never took a look at the mummies, nor did they analyze them thoroughly.

Nevertheless, as the scientific community stood up against the mummies, most people recognized they were probably a hoax, despite the fact that Mr. Jaime Maussan—a UFO researcher and journalist from Mexico—and his team provided evidence suggesting the mummified remains found in Peru were not ordinary human beings.

Now, months after the mummies were found and analyzed by independent laboratories around the globe, a second scientist has studied the bodies discovered in Peru and said that they are not a HOAX.

Dr. Jose Benitez, a doctor of forensic medicine, and member of the team studying the alleged mummified remains has made shocking claims about the mysterious remains discovered in Peru.

ALIENS LATEST: New DNA results on Nazca Tomb 'mummified aliens' say they are 'not human'

Benitez is the SECOND scientists to put his reputation at stake by saying that the mummified remains could in fact be aliens or a least a new species we haven’t encountered before on Earth.

The first scientists to make the same claims was Dr. Edson Vivancoa, a skeletal specialist, who concluded after studying the remains, they were not human.

However, DNA results suggest otherwise.

In fact, one set of DNA results found that the mummified remains were 100 percent Human, while other sets of DNA results showed inconclusive results.

Hence the confusion.

Both Dr. Vivancoa and Dr. Benitez are part of the group of researchers led by Mexican Investigative Journalist and UFOlogist Mr. Maussan.

Dr. Benitez has analyzed previous discoveries together with MR. Maussan. In 2015, they examined the images of what some have suggested may be a non-human body, which later turned out to be a mummified child.

Dr. Benitez was recently interviewed by British ufologist Steve Meera, who traveled to Peru to investigate the claims.

“I found a lot of characteristics that make this body entirely different.

“At first sight, it looked like a normal body but looking closely at every body part we found could find several abnormalities. “For example, the head is bigger, it has wider eyes, a smaller nose, and it has no ears. It has fewer vertebrae that a common human,” said, Dr. Benitez

“The bone structure is different; it’s wider. There are only three fingers and three toes. These are the most notable distinctions we could find. There are a few more such as the number of finger joints and the nail beds,” added Dr. Benitez.

“The white dust that covers the mummified remains is a special material known as diatom soil. “This soil has a unique origin with extraordinary characteristics. It dries, dehydrates and preserves tissue and also has the unusual characteristic of being an insect repellent, deterring insects.

“For example, the head is more prominent. It has wider eyes, a smaller nose, has no ears. It has fewer vertebrae that an ordinary human.

“Helping the dehydration process and encouraging the natural mummification process.”

All of these conclusions made by Dr. Benitez, and presented in a documentary produced by Steve Meera suggest that the mummified remains found in Peru are anything but human.

“It is essential; we are faced with the try possibility of discovering an organic being very similar to humans but different at the same time. We need to take a step forward to determine what it is and where it has come from,” concluded Dr. Benitez.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

02-11-2017 om 13:06 geschreven door peter  

Antediluvian monument? Scientific study says the Sphinx may be up to 800,000 years old

“…it is the sea level during the Calabrian phase which is the closest to the present mark with the highest GES (Great Egyptian Sphinx) hollow at its level. High level of sea water also caused the Nile overflowing and created long-living water-bodies. As to time, it corresponds to 800000 years.

Great, mysterious, almost mystical, shrouded in mystery, millennial, how else would you describe this amazing ancient monument?

It is probably one of the most recognized monuments in the world, one of the icons representative of the power and culture of the ancient Egyptian civilization, cradle, and tomb of pharaohs.

It is ironic then, that the Great Sphinx of Giza is also one of the least understood architectural wonders of ancient Egypt, even though researchers from around the globe have tried to understand when the Sphinx was carved, how, why and what it represents.

An artists illustration of the Great Sphinx before it was completely excavated. 

by ATArts

But the most mysterious part of the Sphinx is probably its age. Egyptologists estimate that it was sculpted around the XXVI century BC., as part of the funerary complex.

Having a lion’s body and a human head, this strange hybrid being, which we know with the term of the Sphinx, is one of the most striking productions of Egyptian art.

The ancient Egyptians called it Shesep-ankh, “living image,” the name given to the royal statues.

They symbolized the idea of strength and power, and the Pharaoh was generally represented in this form.

This is indicated by the fact that the sphinxes wore nemes— the striped headcloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt.

This ancient monument faces from West to East and stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt.

The face of the Sphinx is commonly assumed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre.

The Great Sphinx was created by carving a mound of limestone located on the Giza plateau.

It has a height of about twenty meters and the fact of the creatures measures around five meters. In ancient times it was painted in bright colors: red body and face, and the nemes that covered the head were decorated with yellow and blue stripes.

A man standing on the shoulder of the Great Sphinx. The image was taken in the 1900’s. Notice the size of the monument.

Titled “GEOLOGICAL ASPECT OF THE PROBLEM OF DATING THE GREAT EGYPTIAN SPHINX CONSTRUCTION” a study presented in 2008 offers controversial details about the Great Sphinx of Giza, and particularly its age.

As noted by Vjacheslav I. Manichev and Alexander G. Parkhomenko in their study, after all these years of intensive scientific work trying to determine the exact age of the Sphinx, we still have problems coming to an agreement.

“The problem of dating the Great Egyptian Sphinx is still valid, despite the long-term history of its research. A geological approach in connection to other scientific-natural methods allows answering the question about the relative age of the Sphinx. The conducted visual research of the Sphinx allowed the conclusion about the important role of water from large water bodies which partially flooded the structure with formation of wave-cut hollows on its vertical walls,” wrote experts in the study.

“The morphology of these formations has an analogy with similar hollows formed by the sea in the coastal zones. The genetic similarity of the compared erosion forms and the geological formation and petrographic composition of sedimentary rock complexes lead to a conclusion that the decisive factor of destruction of the Great Sphinx is the wave energy rather than sand abrasion in Eolian process.”

“Voluminous geological literature confirms the fact of existence of long-living fresh-water lakes in various periods of the Quaternary from the Lower Pleistocene to the Holocene.”

“These lakes were distributed in the territories adjacent to the Nile. The absolute mark of the large upper erosion hollow of the Sphinx corresponds to the level of water surface which took place in the Early Pleistocene.”

“The Great Egyptian Sphinx was already present on the Giza Plateau by that geological (historical) time,” concluded experts.

Manichev and Parkhomenko are convinced that the Great Sphinx had to hae been submerged for a long time underwater and, to support this theory, they point towards existing literature of geological studies of the Giza Plateau.

According to a number of studies, it was at the end of the Pliocene geologic period (sometime between 5.2 and 1.6 million years ago) that sea water entered the Nile valley and gradually created flooding in the area.

This phenomenon led to the formation of lacustrine deposits which are at the mark of 180 m above the present level of the Mediterranean Sea.

According to Manichev and Parkhomenko, it is the sea level during the Calabrian phase which is the closest to the present mark with the highest GES (Great Egyptian Sphinx) hollow at its level.

High level of sea water also caused the Nile overflowing and created long-living water-bodies. As to time, it corresponds to 800000 years.

Read the entire study here.

Featured image by Rob-Joseph

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

02-11-2017 om 12:38 geschreven door peter  

Scientists have just found THOUSANDS of new lifeforms that redraw the Tree of Life

A stunning discovery has just been made by scientists who have found ‘organisms that are different from any other life forms on Earth known to science’.

While humans are the dominant species on Earth, if we take a look at the tree of life, we will notice that we share this branch with a number of different creatures on Earth, who all have one thing in common, a backbone.

This small—yet extremely important feature—is enough to place humans in a group referred to as ‘phylum’ together with dogs, fish, and lizards. This is something we see repeated across Earth’s organisms, and essentially connects all of life’s diversities into one.

A phylogenetic tree of life. Note how small the phylum Animalia — where humans fit in — is compared to bacteria and archaea.

(Image Credit: Adl, Sina M.; Simpson, Alastair G. B.; et al.)

As noted by Futurism, scientists from the  University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia have uncovered an array of thousands of organisms so unique, they don’t fit into any existing phylum.

Their study, published in the Journal Nature Microbiology, experts revealed a new technique referred to as metagenomics, which essentially involves the sequencing of ALL the DNA in a sample of an environment — dirt, water, feces, etc. — to produce that sample’s metagenome.

With aid of an international massive database composed of 1,500 metagenomes, scientists were able to reconstruct the individual genomes of 7,280 new bacteria and 623 new archaea.

Then, scientists came across something totally unexpected. The discovered that out of all these microorganisms, around a third were UNLIKE anything experts had seen before, resulting in the creation of 17 completely new bacterial phylums and three new achaeal phylums.

“The real value of these genomes is that many are evolutionarily distinct from previously recovered genomes,” asserts lead researcher Gene Tyson. “They increase the evolutionary diversity spanned by both bacterial and archaeal genome trees by over 30 percent, and are the first representatives within 17 bacterial and three archaeal phyla.”

“To give this context, every single insect on Earth belongs to just one phylum, and every single animal with a backbone belongs to one phylum, so this is crazy new levels of stuff,” says Nicholas Coleman at the University of Sydney.

Previous scientific studies have estimated that Earth has about 1 trillion microbial species, with 98 percent yet to be identified.

“But this is probably an underestimate, as we’ve recently found that existing methods for estimating this actually miss a lot of organisms,” says Donovan Parks at the University of Queensland in Australia.

References: ScienceAlert - Latest, Nature

(H/T New Scientist) (Futurism)

Featured image credit: PixaBay

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

02-11-2017 om 12:26 geschreven door peter  

Meet NGTS-1b, a monstrous planet that ‘should not exist’

A giant planet, so disproportionate that it should not exist according to the theory of planet formation, has been discovered around a small distant star.

The new research detailing its discovery was presented for publishing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The existence of the monster planet, NGTS-1b, defies the theories of planetary formation that affirm that a planet of this size could not be formed around such a small star.

According to these theories, small stars can easily form rocky planets but do not accumulate enough material to produce planets the size of Jupiter.

However, NGTS-1b is a gas giant; Due to its size and temperature, the planet is known as a “hot Jupiter,” a class of planets that are at least as large as our own Jupiter, but with about 20 percent less mass. H

However, unlike Jupiter, NGTS-1b is very close to its star, barely 3% of the distance between Earth and the Sun, and completes one orbit every 2.6 days, which means that one year in NGTS -1b lasts two and a half years in Earth’s days.

In contrast, the host star is small, with a radius and a mass half that of our sun.

Professor Peter Wheatley, of the University of Warwick, detailed in a statement the complications that this introduced to astronomy:

“Despite being a monster planet, NGTS-1b was difficult to find because its parent star is small and faint “. He went on to explain that “small stars are actually the most common in the universe, so it is possible that there are many of these giant planets waiting to found.”

NGTS-1b is the first planet to be detected by The Next-Generation Transit Survey (or “NGTS”) that uses a series of 12 telescopes to explore the sky.

The researchers made the discovery by continuously monitoring patches of the night sky for months, and detecting the red light of the star with innovative red-sensitive cameras.

They noticed dips in the light of the star every 2.6 days, which implies that a planet was in orbit and periodically blocked the light from the star.

Using this data, they tracked the planet’s orbit and calculated the size, position, and mass by measuring the radial velocity of the star.

In fact, this method, which measures how much the stars wobble due to the gravitational pull of the planet, was the best way to measure the size of NGTS-1b.

Daniel Bayliss, lead author of the study, from the University of Warwick, said:

“The discovery of NGTS-1b was a complete surprise to us – such massive planets were not thought to exist around such small stars. This is the first exoplanet we have found with our new NGTS facility, and we are already challenging the received wisdom of how planets form.

“Our challenge is to now find out how common these types of planets are in the Galaxy, and with the new NGTS facility we are well-placed to do just that.”

Source:

• ‘Monster’ planet discovery challenges formation theory
• Original Study

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

02-11-2017 om 12:12 geschreven door peter  

This may not be as big as the news that scientists at CERN believe the universe should not exist, but it may be easier to prove. Astronomers using a new array of telescopes in Chile have discovered a monster planet which challenges the previously-held theory that huge gaseous planets cannot exist in tight orbits around tiny stars. Now they’re scrambling to explain this big-planet-little star combo. (Insert “Aliens!” here.)

The latest Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyannounced the exciting discovery this week – exciting because this is the first big finding using the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) whose purpose is to find giant exoplanets orbiting small stars. Baseball fans will recognize this as an example of a rookie hitting a grand slam home run in his first major league at-bat. (This is what happens when big discoveries occur during the World Series.) Its array of fully-robotic small telescopes operate in the 600-900nm band, making them sensitive to bright but relatively small, cool host stars … stars like the aptly named NGTS-1 in the Columba constellation.

The Columba constellation

The shocking aspect of the discovery is the size, composition and location of NGTS-1b – the ‘hot Jupiter’ spinning around NGTS-1. Hot Jupiters have been in the astronomical news recently with the discovery of WASP-12b, a dark giant gas ball that is mysteriously eating the light from its star. If Elon Musk tells you he has no more seats left on his Mars spacecraft but can get you on a trip to a Hot Jupiter – just say “no.”

“The discovery of NGTS-1b was a complete surprise to us — such massive planets were not thought to exist around such small stars. The planet is about 25 percent the radius its host star. This makes is very large compared to its host star! For comparison, Jupiter is only about 10 percent the radius of our sun.”

Daniel Bayliss, lead author of the study, illustrates one of the impossibilities of NGTS-1b – its size. Dwarf stars were not thought to have enough mass of their own to pull together the amount of mass needed to create such monster planets. Impossibility #2 is its incredible closeness to NGTS-1 … NGTS-1b is a mere 2.8 million miles away from its star (Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun) and completes a ‘yearly’ orbit in 62.4 hours or 2.6 Earth days.

NGTS-1b’s size and proximity to its star contributed greatly to its discovery. Astronomers observing NGTS-1 saw it dim every 2.6 days but, unlike Tabby’s star, they quickly determined it was a monster planet and not an alien-built energy-collecting Dyson sphere causing the dimming.

Artist’s depiction of a red dwarf and its planets

If there’s an astronomer’s creed, it is that “If there’s one, there’s more,” so the researchers at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile will be using the Next-Generation Transit Survey to find more giant hot Jupiters orbiting tiny cool planets.

If there’s an astronomer’s creed, it may have to be modified to require astronomers discovering monster gas ball planets to yell “Hot Jupiter!”

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

02-11-2017 om 01:39 geschreven door peter  

Of all the many and varied encounters with the Men in Blackthat I have on record, there is no doubt that one of the creepiest is that of an Englishman, Nev Jacques. Nev told me, just a couple of years ago, that while he and his wife were vacationing in the Canary Islands in 2012 they had a very strange encounter with a mysterious MIB. Nev began as follows:

“Hi Nick, I listened to your show on Coast to Coast, re Men in black recently, the header photo for that gave me some relief! Let me explain. I was on holiday with my wife in Fuerteventura, in the Canaries, November-December 2012. We were walking back to our hotel on a very long promenade walk. It was close to 4 p.m. There were other people milling about. It’s kind of high up on a volcanic rock face, directly at the seas edge and a wide open area.”

Up until that point, everything had been completely normal. That normality, however, was destined to change radically and drastically, as Nev revealed to me: “We noticed about 100 meters in front of us a tall, thin man, at least 6 foot 2 with a big rimmed black hat, round feature hugging black sixties type sunglasses, a long sleeved shirt and a light-colored jumper over his shoulders and long trousers! What made it more strange was his face looked white, as if it was plastered in sun block, (whiter than white). We both laughed and watched him walk towards us. I got the feeling he was watching me, although I couldn’t see his eyes. As he drew closer it became apparent that it wasn’t sun block it was his skin! He had big hands and long fingers, also very white; kind of in front of him, not by his sides!”

There was far more to come. All of it was very weird, which is hardly surprising: just about everything concerning the Men in Black is weird. Back to Nev: “When we where about 5 feet from him I noticed his skin was almost translucent. That’s the only way I can describe it. His sunglasses covered all of his eye area and wrapped around the full socket area. They were round and black. He had a narrow, sunken face, and had a very angular jaw and prominent cheek bones. He looked in his sixties or so.”

Things got stranger…

“When he was passing us he turned his head looking at me and spoke, with a kind of acknowledging manner and said something that I and my wife couldn’t understand or describe as human language. It was high and low pitched all at the same time and very short, that’s the best way to describe it! Strangely, we didn’t look back to see where he went or take a photo. Both of us don’t know why we didn’t. I got the feeling he was watching me from me first noticing him.”

The brief experience was over, but Nev was unable to shake off the spine-tingling effects of that eerie encounter, as he told me: “We got back to the hotel and I could stop thinking and talking about the encounter with my wife. I kept telling her he wasn’t from here, his clothes weren’t right. In fact, he was totally alien in appearance to anyone I have ever seen in my life. I went to bed that night and didn’t sleep much. Every time I tried to go to sleep all I could see was him and I thought about the encounter for the rest of the holiday.”

Nev concluded: “I searched the Internet for all types of albinos that I could find for months after, but couldn’t find a match for him. Then, I found your interview on Coast to Coast and, bingo, the artist’s impression of the Man in Black was him, only without the hat and glasses. It still freaks me out to this day, Nick, We can still not explain it! Kind Regards, Nev Jacques, UK.”

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

02-11-2017 om 01:33 geschreven door peter  

NASA finds dwarf planet Ceres once had a global ocean - and say some of it could still be there today

• NASA found Ceres' crust is a mixture of ice, salts and hydrated materials 
• Say it shows past and possibly recent geologic activity, and represents most of an ancient ocean
• Second studyfind a softer, layer beneath Ceres' rigid surface crust, which could be residual liquid

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

Ceres may have once had a global ocean - and part of it could still remain, NASA has revealed.

The dwarf planet, best known for its strange 'alien spots', is seen as being a record of the early solar system.

Now, the Dawn mission has found minerals containing water are widespread on its surface.

Scroll down for video 

This animation shows Ceres as seen by NASA's Dawn spacecraft from its high-altitude mapping orbit at 913 miles (1,470 kilometers) above the surface. The colorful map overlaid at right shows variations in Ceres' gravity field measured by Dawn, and gives scientists hints about the dwarf planet's internal structure. Red colors indicate more positive values, corresponding to a stronger gravitational pull than expected, compared to scientists' pre-Dawn model of Ceres' internal structure; blue colors indicate more negative values, corresponding to a weaker gravitational pull

'More and more, we are learning that Ceres is a complex, dynamic world that may have hosted a lot of liquid water in the past, and may still have some underground,' said Julie Castillo-Rogez, Dawn project scientist and co-author of the studies, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The Dawn team found that Ceres' crust is a mixture of ice, salts and hydrated materials that were subjected to past and possibly recent geologic activity, and that this crust represents most of that ancient ocean.  

Landing on Ceres to investigate its interior would be technically challenging and would risk contaminating the dwarf planet. 

Instead, scientists use Dawn's observations in orbit to measure Ceres' gravity, in order to estimate its composition and interior structure.

Led by Anton Ermakov, a postdoctoral researcher at JPL, the first study used shape and gravity data measurements from the Dawn mission to determine the internal structure an   d composition of Ceres.

The measurements came from observing the spacecraft's motions with NASA's Deep Space Network to track small changes in the spacecraft's orbit. This study is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Ermakov and his colleagues' research supports the possibility that Ceres is geologically active -- if not now, then it may have been in the recent past. 

Three craters -- Occator, Kerwan and Yalode -- and Ceres' solitary tall mountain, Ahuna Mons, are all associated with 'gravity anomalies.' 

This means discrepancies between the scientists' models of Ceres' gravity and what Dawn observed in these four locations can be associated with subsurface structures.

'Ceres has an abundance of gravity anomalies associated with outstanding geologic features,' Ermakov said. 

In the cases of Ahuna Mons and Occator, the anomalies can be used to better understand the origin of these features, which are believed to be different expressions of cryovolcanism.

The study found the crust's density to be relatively low, closer to that of ice than rocks. 

The second study builds off the first and suggests there is a softer, easily deformable layer beneath Ceres' rigid surface crust, which could be the signature of residual liquid left over from the ocean, too.

However, a study by Dawn guest investigator Michael Bland of the U.S. Geological Survey indicated that ice is too soft to be the dominant component of Ceres' strong crust.  

The second study, led by Roger Fu at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, investigated the strength and composition of Ceres' crust and deeper interior by studying the dwarf planet's topography. 

The map overlaid at right gives scientists hints about Ceres' internal structure from gravity measurements. Led by Anton Ermakov, a postdoctoral researcher at JPL, the study used shape and gravity data measurements from the Dawn mission to determine the internal structure and composition of Ceres

This study is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters

By studying how topography evolves on a planetary body, scientists can understand the composition of its interior. 

A strong, rock-dominated crust can remain unchanged over the 4.5-billion-year-old age of the solar system, while a weak crust rich in ices and salts would deform over that time.

By modeling how Ceres' crust flows, Fu and colleagues found it is likely a mixture of ice, salts, rock and an additional component believed to be clathrate hydrate. 

A clathrate hydrate is a cage of water molecules surrounding a gas molecule. This structure is 100 to 1,000 times stronger than water ice, despite having nearly the same density.

The researchers believe Ceres once had more pronounced surface features, but they have smoothed out over time. 

This type of flattening of mountains and valleys requires a high-strength crust resting on a more deformable layer, which Fu and colleagues interpret to contain a little bit of liquid.

The team thinks most of Ceres' ancient ocean is now frozen and bound up in the crust, remaining in the form of ice, clathrate hydrates and salts. 

It has mostly been that way for more than 4 billion years. 

But if there is residual liquid underneath, that ocean is not yet entirely frozen. 

This is consistent with several thermal evolution models of Ceres published prior to Dawn's arrival there, supporting the idea that Ceres' deeper interior contains liquid left over from its ancient ocean. 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-11-2017 om 01:21 geschreven door peter  

What does alien life look like? Oxford scientists think the answer may surprise you

Experts are using Darwin's evolutionary theory to predict what aliens may look like.

By Jason Murdock

{ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ }

02-11-2017 om 00:56 geschreven door peter  

Aliens may be more like us than we think: study

Scientists from the University of Oxford in the UK show that aliens are potentially shaped by the same processes that shaped humans.

 Scientists from the University of Oxford in the UK show that aliens are potentially shaped by the same processes that shaped humans.

(Photo: Pixabay)

Tags: 

evolution, natural selection, oxford university, humans, aliens, extra terrestrial, astrobiology

Related Stories

• Remains found in Peru are 'alien mummies', claims scientist
• Man gives detail account of his alien abduction in new book 37 years later
• Chemical found around star deals blow to search for aliens

{http://www.asianage.com/ }

02-11-2017 om 00:43 geschreven door peter  

US predator drone ‘shot down by alien UFO with ENERGY BEAM’ in baffling video

A US predator drone chasing a UFO was shot down by an energy beam, according to wacky conspiracists.

By Simon Green 

YOUTUBE/UFO TODAY

MYSTERY: The drone started to scramble when the beam of light appeared

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

02-11-2017 om 00:25 geschreven door peter  

Is it a bird, plane or ALIENS? Woman spots a UFO hovering over the Great Barrier Reef

• A woman photographed an inexplicably green dot with a saucer-like shadow 
• The figure appeared to drift across the sky, but she didn't see it at the time
• She was photographing with her smartphone after a day at Elford Reef

By Brooke Rolfe For Daily Mail Australia

Evidence of extraterrestrial activity may have been written across the sky in Australia's North East over the weekend, according to a woman behind some 'unexplainable' photos.

Jenny Morrison captured photos of a bizarre UFO-like object appearing to drift across the sky above the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday afternoon.

The Cairns local was photographing the sunset with her smart phone as she cruised back to shore from a fishing trip off Elford Reef, News.com.au reports. 

A Cairns woman captured photos of a bizarre UFO-like object hovering across the sky above the Great Barrier Reef on Saturday

She recalled nothing out of ordinary at the time, but when inspecting her photos later on noticed a strange neon dot surrounded by a saucer-like shadow.

The out-of-place figure seemed to progress further across the skyline near Fitzroy Island with every frame, before disappearing completely. 

'There's this little light, that looks just like a bit of water on the lens,' she said.

'I haven’t edited the photos, or done anything to them.'

The Cairns local was photographing the sunset with her smart phone as she cruised back to shore from a fishing trip off Elford Reef

'When you look through the photos, though, the dot is in the middle of a saucer-shaped shadow thing.'

Ms Morrison likened the 'crazy' sighting to something normally only seen on television.

Far North Queensland has become known for being a UFO hotspot, with 20 sightings recorded throughout the past 20 years in Townsville alone.

Ms Morrison likened the 'crazy' sighting to something normally only seen on televisio

Read more:

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

01-11-2017 om 23:51 geschreven door peter  

The Rise of Conscious AI is Just Decades Away

by Dom Galeon

 

01-11-2017 om 23:32 geschreven door peter  

Electrifyingly GIANT: Futuristic Tesla Towers built and tested in 

This futuristic Tesla Complex can produce enough power matching all power generation facilities in Russia when lightning is discharged onto a platform.

It’s not a massive alien colony. It’s not part of a Hollywood movie set up, it’s not HAARP. What you are seeing here is in fact a massive TESLA tower complex located in a forest outside of Moscow.

Dubbed as the “High Voltage Marx and Tesla Generators Research Facility,” the weird facility belongs to the Russian Electrical Engineering Institute. It was created near the town of Istra, some 40 kilometers of Moscow.

The massive high-voltage testing range was not built recently. It was erected in the 1970’s and it was created in order to test insulator and protect vehicles, aircrafts and electronic equipment against lightning.

This futuristic facility is absolutely stunning, and most importantly its unique. There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world, and its mostly because of its outlandish charging capacity.

According to Rossiya-1 TV reports, at its peak operating capacity, and when lightning is discharged onto an isolated platform, this Tesla-like generator has power equal to ALL power generating facilities in Russia, including thermoelectric, hydroelectric, nuclear, solar, and wind power stations combined. However, it can only last for around 100 microseconds.

The massive facility consists of a 3 Megawatt capacity transformer cascade; a 9 Megawatt Pulsed Voltage Generator (PVG), measuring 39.3 meters high, capable of creating 150-meter artificial lightning, believed to be the largest in the world; and a 2.25 Megawatt constant voltage unit.

The facility is one of the most powerful in the world. If not the most powerful. In fact, when the facility is operational, the static charge in the ‘hot zone’ is so massive that the air of anyone present ‘bristles’ reports Rossiya-1 TV.

Here is a video of the facility filmed from a drone:

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

01-11-2017 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

On July 3, 2016 – as Comet 67P erupted with a plume of dust – the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft happened to pass right through the dust cloud.

On July 3, 2016, when Comet 67P sent a jet of dust into space, all 5 instruments aboard the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft were able to record the event. This image shows the dust plume, which originated from the Imhotep region on the comet.

Image via ESA/ Rosetta/ UPD/ LAM/ IAA/ SSO/ INTA/ UPM/ DASP/ IDA/ MPS.

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany reported on October 26, 2017 on scientists’ analysis of a very conveniently placed jet of dust that had erupted from Comet 67P/Chruyumov-Gerasimenko a year earlier. ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, which was orbiting the comet at that time, passed serendipitously right through the jet and was able to use all five of its instruments to record it. Subsequent analysis of this goldmine of data from Rosetta is now complete. The scientists said it revealed a more intricate process driving the jets of comets than had been previously supposed.

It was known that the jets of comets are driven by the sublimation of frozen water, the process by which a solid turns into a gas without going through a liquid stage. But, in addition, these scientists said:

… further processes augment the outbreaks. Possible scenarios include the release of pressurized gas stored below the surface or the conversion of one kind of frozen water into an energetically more favorable one.

The analysis of the July 3, 2016 jet from 67P has now been published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Before the Rosetta spacecraft, who knew comets could look like this? This is Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – aka Chury – via Rosetta.

Thanks to Rosetta, researchers had previously discovered a day-night cycle of activity on Comet 67P. The comet’s “day,” that is, its day-night cycle (a single rotation on its axis) takes about 12.4 hours. Data from Rosetta had shown that, as the comet spins, and as the sun rises and shines on each new part of the comet, that area becomes most likely to produce jets. A statement from MPS explained:

When the sun rose over the Imhotep region of Rosetta’s comet on July 3, 2016, everything was just right: As the surface warmed and began to emit dust into space, Rosetta’s trajectory led the probe right through the cloud. At the same time, the view of the scientific camera system OSIRIS coincidentally focused precisely on the surface region of the comet from which the fountain originated. A total of five instruments on board the probe were able to document the outburst in the following hours.

Jessica Agarwal of MPS led the study. She said:

This was an amazing stroke of luck. It is impossible to plan something like this.

Prior to this event, the spacecraft had been able to point perhaps one of its instruments – from afar – toward an erupting jet on 67P. Agarwal said:

From the extensive measurement data of July 3, 2016, we were able to reconstruct the progress and the characteristics of the outburst as detailed as never before.

The July 3, 2016 dust plume was spotted within the ice-filled depression close to the large boulder near the bottom of this image. The image is a false-color composite, where the pale blue patches highlight the presence and location of water-ice.

Image via ESA/ Rosetta/ UPD/ LAM/ IAA/ SSO/ INTA/ UPM/ DASP/ MPS.

The researchers were able to see the starting point of the jet as a circular area on the comet, about 30 feet (10 meters) in diameter, and located within a depression on the comet’s surface. As the data show, this area contains frozen water at the surface. In general, scientists assume that frozen gases on a comet’s surface, such as water, are responsible for dust production.

The new study shows, though, that sublimation of water ice by itself can’t explain the event of July 3, 2016. The dust production from this region was measured at approximately 40 pounds per second (18 kilograms per second), and hence the jet is much dustier than conventional models had predicted. Agarwal explained:

An additional energetic process must be at play – energy must have been released from beneath the surface to support the plume.

The scientists statement elaborated further:

It is conceivable, for example, that under the surface of the comet there are cavities filled with compressed gas. Upon sunrise, the radiation begins to warm the overlying surface, cracks develop and the gas escapes. According to another theory, deposits of amorphous ice beneath the surface play a decisive role. In this type of frozen water, the individual molecules are not aligned in a lattice-like structure, as is customary in the case of crystalline ice, but arranged in a far more disorderly fashion. Since the crystalline state is energetically more favorable, energy is released during the transition from amorphous to crystalline ice. Energy input through sunlight can start this transformation.

[However],exactly which process took place on July 3, 2016 is still unclear.

Matt Taylor, Rosetta Project Scientist at ESA, said:

There’s a particular focus now within the Rosetta science community on looking to combine data from 67P with modelling, simulations, and laboratory work here on Earth, to address the question of what drives such activity on comets.

Here’s a Rosetta spacecraft selfie with Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in background taken by the CIVA camera onboard the Philae Lander on September 7, 2014. The spacecraft and comet were separated by about 31 miles (50 km) at the time. Two frames were taken and merged due to the high contrast.

Image via ESA/ Rosetta/ Philae/ CIVA. Read more about this image.

Bottom line: Outbursts of dust from comets appear without warning. But on July 3, 2016 – as Comet 67P erupted with a plume of dust – the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft happened to pass right through the dust cloud.

Via Max Planck Institute for Solar System Studies

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

01-11-2017 om 22:52 geschreven door peter  

ALIENS COULD BE JUST LIKE US—DARWIN'S THEORY OF EVOLUTION MEANS E.T. WOULD BE HUMAN-LIKE

01-11-2017 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

Northern lights (aurora borealis) illuminate the sky over Reinfjorden in Reine, on Lofoten Islands, Arctic Circle, on September 8, 2017./Photographers waiting for the Northern Lights in Siberia on the night of Oct. 26 saw an unexpected sight.

(Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of photographers camping out in Siberia to shoot the Northern Lights saw a sight every bit as spectacular and even more mysterious.

Viewers were stunned to see a huge, glowing, bubble of light rise into the sky. It was weird, it was unidentifiable—and it was flying. It was an Unidentified Flying Object.

According to Siberian Times, many people saw the inexplicable bubble and at least five took pictures on the night of Oct. 26–27.

The Siberian Times @siberian_times

Reports of a giant glowing ball lighting the sky over Salekhard, the Yamal peninsula http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/reports-of-spectacular-ufo-signaled-by-a-giant-glowing-ball-lighting-the-sky-in-northern-siberia/ …

12:10 PM - Oct 27, 2017

•  3737 Replies
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Some people described the bizarre bubble as “a gap in the space-time continuum” according to the Siberian Times. Others said it must have been aliens.

The actual explanation is a bit more mundane.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on its Facebook page that it had launched a Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile from a missile base in northern Siberia that night.

According to the Facebook page, the Topol-M missile was fired from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia toward the Kura testing range in Kamchatka, which is on Russia’s far eastern Pacific peninsula.

The strange atmospheric effects caused by the missile launch came as a kind of extra treat for the photographers, who were there to capture what was predicted to be an exceptionally bright display of the Aurora Borealis.

From NTD.tv

01-11-2017 om 22:10 geschreven door peter  

‘Flying saucer’ photographed over Great Barrier Reef

A WOMAN believes she has snapped a picture of a bright “flying saucer” over the Great Barrier Reef.

Daniel Bateman

UFO Bargo NSW

ARE aliens intent on invading the Great Barrier Reef?

A Cairns woman has photographed, what she believes, is a UFO flying off Fitzroy Island, while she was sailing back to the mainland from a reef fishing trip on Saturday afternoon.

Jenny Morrison was returning from Elford Reef, about 50km east of Cairns, after spending a day at sea with friends, and took a series of photographs of the sunset on her smartphone.

Jenny Morrison photographed this UFO with her iPhone, off Fitzroy Island, on Saturday afternoon. WHAT IS IT????

Source:Supplied

When she later examined the photos, she noticed in several of the images, an inexplicable luminous green dot shrouded in a distinctive flying saucer shape.

“There’s this little light, that looks just like a bit of water on the lens,” she said.

“I haven’t edited the photos, or done anything to them.

“When you look through the photos, though, the dot is in the middle of a saucer-shaped shadow thing.

“I don’t know how to explain it.”

Adding to the mystery, the green dot eventually vanishes from the last few photographs in the series.

Jenny Morrison photographed this UFO with her iPhone, off Fitzroy Island.

Source:Supplied

Ms Morrison said she did not notice anything with her naked eye, when she took the photos.

“It’s so weird. It looks really real — like something you’d see on TV,” she said.

“It’s crazy.”

Far North Queensland is considered a UFO hotspot, with several sightings of mystery aircraft in the sky over several decades.

The Cardwell UFO Festival, held each October, celebrates the region’s interstellar links by inviting the public to share their experiences of the unexplained.

Originally published as Woman photographs ‘UFO’ over Reef

{ http://www.news.com.au/ }

01-11-2017 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Force 11 Encounters Unknowns on November 14, 2004 near San Diego – Part 2/3

Posted by: Robert Powell 

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a series regarding Robert Powell’s investigation of this case. Part I, along with alleged video of the event, can be found here.

In December 2016 I submitted nine different Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Navy and the Marines in an effort to establish whether the information on the UFO encounter that I discussed in Part I was real. Here is a link to one of the actual FOIA requests for those that like to see the details click here.

Notice that I never used the term “UFO” in the request as this lessens the likelihood of success because of the negative connotations with the use of that word. This type of FOIA request was made for five different Navy assets that were involved in this incident; a nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz; a guided missile cruiser, the USS Princeton; an F-18 part of a Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA-232); two to four F-18 Super Hornets from a Navy Fighter Attack Squadron (VFA-41); and a carrier based airborne early warning aircraft (an E-2C from VAW-117). Requests were sent to Naval Intelligence, Chief of Naval Operations, U.S. Marines Pacific, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Naval Research, Naval Surface Forces in the Pacific, Naval Air Warfare Center, Naval Facilities, Naval Sea Systems Command, and Naval History.

By April of 2017 I had received replies on all nine of my requests for information. In every case the Navy replied that they had no information responsive to my request. I appealed two of what I considered the most important of the nine FOIAs to the Navy’s Judge Advocate General (JAG). The first appeal came back denied. In the second appeal, I pointed out to the Navy JAG officers that another appeal denial would would indicate that on November 14, 2004, that they had no records on five different Navy assets. I copied my senators and congressman on my appeal. This time I had success. Although the Navy again indicated that they could find no documents, this time they provided me emails with some very interesting information that establishes the encounter with the unknown craft did occur.

Remember in Part I of this story that the F-18 pilot referred to the objects encountered as resembling the oval candy known as “tic tacs.” JAG provided me an email they received from a Marine Lieutenant Colonel that began as follows: “I am definitely aware of the ‘flying tic tac’! We were aboard the USS Nimitz attached to CVW-11. The CO of VFA-41, CDR Fravor had the video footage on his ATFLIR and several pilots in VMFA-232 saw the video.” Bingo! Not only did this event happen, the video was witnessed by a number of Navy and Marine officers. Is the video the same one that was leaked to the internet? We can’t know for certain but I think if the Navy has done their due diligence then they still have a copy of that video.

USS Princeton, guided missile cruiser, part of Carrier Strike Group-11.

And then a second email was provided to me by JAG from a Marine Major. In that email he states, “MAG-11 (Marine Air Group 11) Operations should have a Point of Contact at the archive to facilitate recovery of these files.” This clearly indicates that the Major would expect the Marine archival group to have copies of these records. And would it not be reasonable to expect that the Navy would have the records archived of such an extraordinary event!

In total, I have the names of nine different Marine and Navy officers who either participated in the encounter with the unknown craft or have direct knowledge of the event. I will again appeal for the actual case files but the only way to really get to the bottom of this mystery is to ask a Congressional subcommittee to get involved. In Part 3 I will give you step by step instructions on how you can help petition your congressman. Please share this story with others on Facebook.

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

01-11-2017 om 21:36 geschreven door peter