Airliners And F-15s Involved In Bizarre Encounter With Mystery Aircraft Over Oregon

The FAA, the USAF, and air traffic control recordings all confirm the bizarre event did indeed occur last October.

16-11-2017 om 23:33 geschreven door peter  

Close Encounters Today: A Global UFO Update

Posted by: Joe Posner 

Based on recent data collected, as you read this, a close encounter could very well be happening somewhere in the world. The number of experiencers ranges from a single witness to hundreds. Some are reported, others are secrets taken to the grave. With reported close encounters as an ongoing phenomenon and because of multiple factors, ironically many due to the advances in technology, it has become harder than ever for anyone, private or government, to accurately separate an experience that is being misinterpreted from an authentic close encounter.

It has been 45 years since the world was first introduced to Dr. J. Allen Hynek’s “close encounter” system of classification in his book, “The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry”. Of course Steven Spielberg’s movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” made the system of classification a global house-hold terminology, still holding-up to this day to best categorize the types of UFO/alien encounters being experienced.

SIGHTINGS

J. Allen Hynek

(image: Northwestern University)

No current update on close encounters would be complete without an overview referencing the long history of these phenomena, which arguably stretches back to biblical times and beyond, with references to “beings from the sky” prolific throughout many of the ancient cultures and mythologies. The Nazca Lines in Peru is one such example of this compelling circumstantial evidence. Confirmed UFO encounters amidst the era of manned flight began during World War II with countless reports of a “foo fighter” phenomena, a term used by U.S. military squadrons.

Of course it was the Kenneth Arnold incident that would forever change America. On June 26, 1947, on an unusually sunny Washington day, private pilot Arnold was flying his small single engine plane from Chehalis, Washington to Yakima, Washington. At one point Arnold turned and saw nine shiny objects in the sky, flying past Mount Rainer at approximately 1,200 miles an hour. That is much faster than any conventional aircraft in 1947. When Arnold later compared their actions in the sky to saucers skipping on water, the press ran with “flying saucers” and a new era was born. While many regard this as modern America’s first UFO incident, two other lesser-known events took place in the previous century. While the 1800’s may not entirely be considered ‘modern America’, the incidents warrant mentioning; on June 1, 1853, at dawn, countless students and faculty of Burritt College in Tennessee observed two massive floating objects perform various maneuvers in the morning sky, including one of the objects morphing its shape; and in 1896/1897 a rash of sightings occurred across the U.S. originating from Sacramento, California and culminating on April 17, 1897 in Aurora, Texas, where the entire community supposedly not only witnessed the crashing of a UFO near their town, but also buried the extraterrestrial pilot in their town’s cemetery.

Closely following the Kenneth Arnold Incident, an event took place involving a supposed flying saucer that remains one of the best known, and most controversial, UFO stories to date. On July 8, 1947 Walter Haut, the Roswell Army Air Field public information officer issued a press release. It stated that the 509th Operations Group had retrieved a flying disc that had apparently crashed, near Roswell, on a ranch. The local media ran a front-page story in their newspaper, which quickly spread across the country and around the world in record time, and that was without the Internet. However, the military jumped-in and made a huge effort to correct the story, hosting a press event now stating that the crash was of a weather balloon and not a “flying saucer”. With that, after creating a brief stir, the story faded from view. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that UFOlogists rediscovered the Roswell incident with great interest. While stories eventually circulated involving alien bodies recovered from the crashed UFO, proof that the Roswell crash actually involved an alien craft remains elusive.

CONTACT

While a ‘close encounter of the third kind’ technically includes all manner of direct extraterrestrial contact, many in the UFOlogy community wanted to more specifically categorize the type of extraterrestrial contact. What resulted was the adding of two new close encounter classifications; the ‘fourth’ and ‘fifth’ kinds that covers ‘abductions’. Though these terms are not universally recognized.

Betty and Barney Hill marker.

(Credit: Kathleen Marden)

One of the first alien abduction cases in modern culture that defined the phenomena was the 1961 case of Barney and Betty Hill, which was majorly publicized. At the time, Barney and Betty Hill were like any other married couple with one possible exception: they had an interracial marriage at a time when such things were not common. On September 9, the Hills were driving at night, in their rural New Hampshire community. On a secluded country road, Betty observed what she thought was a falling star. She encouraged Barney to stop the car so they could investigate. Betty followed the “odd shaped” object with her binoculars. It flashed multi-colored lights. Curiosity getting the best of them, they drove to another location. In an area near Indian Head, the object came down and hovered about 100 feet over the Hill’s car, that was now stopped in the middle of the highway. Barney saw the object as a giant pancake. Using binoculars, Betty saw 8 to 11 figures looking out the saucer’s window. Suddenly a loud buzzing was heard that vibrated both the car and their bodies. They drove away, later claiming to have had a distortion of time experience. Some time after this event, under hypnosis, Barney and Betty separately revealed supposed terrifying experiences aboard the aliens’ craft that produced tormented dreams for years. Their story later became a popular 1966 book, as well as a 1975 TV movie starring James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons. The first modern abduction story is amazing and like the majority of abduction cases, somewhat difficult to prove, despite the credibility of the Hills.

Travis Walton

(Credit: OpenMinds.tv/Peter Beste)

Another famous close encounter of the third kind took place in Arizona, on November 5, 1975. Logger Travis Walton was part of a five man lumbering crew in Sitgreaves National Forest, a stone’s throw from Snowflake, Arizona. At one point, the crew spotted a saucer-shaped craft, emitting a high-pitched sound, hovering above the ground a hundred feet or so away. Travis states he left the logging truck to further investigate. After being hit by an intense beam of bright light, Walton was knocked to the ground. According to him, his logging buddies freaked, racing off in the truck and leaving him behind. After this, Travis went missing for five days. While people were out in the woods looking for him, Walton claims he woke up in a hospital bed, with three short, bald beings peering down at him. After a clear plastic mask was put on his face, he passed out. The next thing he remembered he was walking along the road as the UFO departed. The Walton abduction received extraordinary press, the story eventually becoming a book and a movie.

Close encounters of the third kind, specifically abductions, are the most difficult to assess, primarily due to the lack of direct and forensic evidence, the majority of the time only leaving testimonial and circumstantial evidence to support the encounter, many times fragmented and unclear, typically collected through hypnotic regression. Though difficult to find corroborating evidence, similar to close encounters of the first and second kinds, a significant percentage of abduction experiencers are proven to be of sound mind and body and are upstanding citizens and individuals of impeccable reputation and credibility.

A DECADE OF CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Here is a smattering of some of the most intriguing close encounters from around the world that have taken place in the last decade:

INDIA

In the airspace above Kolkata in the early morning of October 29, 2007, hundreds of witnesses observed a fast moving UFO that was also able to morph its shape from a sphere into a triangle and then into a straight line. The object emitted a brilliant light that produced a halo with a full spectrum of colors. As it continued to move over the area, hundreds of more witnesses encountered the UFO, resulting on countless photos and videos. Shibani Banerjee went through a complete spectrum of emotions as she experienced the encounter, “At first I was like everyone else around me, thrilled and excited by what we were seeing, like children seeing fireworks for the first time. Than, as if I hit a brick wall, a horrible ominous feeling came over me and of what this thing could be. I retreated along with others, at first slowly walking which then turned into a hysterical run.” The UFO disappeared into the horizon at an impossible rate of speed leaving local and government authorities at a loss for what it was.

TURKEY

For a few days in 2007, four months in 2008 and again in 2009, UFOs besieged a wide area of western Turkey near Istanbul, along the Sea of Marmara. “The UFOs were so frequent and obvious, I brought my video camera to work and was able to easily capture the objects as they flew overhead”, stated Yalcin Yalman, a security guard handling the nightshift at the Yeni Kent Compound in Kumburgaz. Government authorities visually confirmed each time the UFOs appeared but were unable to identify what the objects were. Haktan Akdogon and other scientific analysts at the Sirius UFO Space Science Research Center had thoroughly analyzed all footage filmed by Mr. Yalman and were able to rule-out all logical explanations, stating, “we came to a definite conclusion with no doubts that these are 100% genuine”, adding about the footage, “the most significant UFO videos ever!”

CHINA

On July 7, 2010, at Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, China, a UFO was spotted hovering in the airport airspace at approximately 8:40 p.m. In response, authorities had to cease all airport operations, diverting inbound flights to Ningbo and Wuxi Airports and/or delaying countless planes and halting all adjacent ground traffic. A brief video of the object was later shown on Chinese TV. While the UFO was visibly seen by countless witnesses and recorded by multiple means, it did not appear on radar.

Xiaoshan Airport in Hangzhou, China

(Credit: Xiaoshan Airport)

A Chinese aircraft engineer, who was among the thousands that witnessed the event, was adamant that the object could not have been any type of man-made aircraft. Several theories were floated, from the absurd to the plausible, including the planet Venus, a rocket launch or a helicopter with flashing lights. While analysts and skeptics were quick to dismiss the incident, multiple news and media outlets shifted and retracted their stories about government investigations into the incident, seemingly as a result of government pressure, with come Chinese officials going on record stating they knew what the object was but could not comment further due to national security. Lou Jinhong and his associates with the Shanghai UFO Investigative Research Center, had been interviewing witnesses and reviewing footage and photographs in an attempt to make some sort of definitive conclusion on what the object was. Both this organization, as well as conventional authorities, have been unable to determine the object’s true identity.

CHILE

In April of 2013, on a clear sunny day in the isolated Atacama Desert community, countless workers of the Collahuasi copper mine and their friends and families encountered a glowing flying disc maneuver in the skies above them. Several of the witnesses took photos and video of the object as it ascended, descended and moved horizontally at extraordinary speeds, unlike any aircraft today. At one point, the object hovered in one area as if intending to land, then suddenly disappeared into the east. It was later discovered that during the brief time it hovered in one place, an apparent abduction had also taken place. Initially, both the authorities, as well as the corporation that owned the mine and surrounding properties, were suppressing all information and documentation concerning this incident. Several months later, some of the video and photos that had been taken were leaked and the government and corporation had no choice but to comment on the “sighting” aspect of the incident only, declaring an investigation is taking place. Even with this announcement and the ongoing investigation, authorities sought to control all information concerning the event until they knew what they were dealing with and maintained a controlled press blackout.

The first image captured by the miners.

(Credit: CEFAA)

Over a year later and over a thousand miles away, another UFO incident occurred in Chile on November 2014, as a Chilean Navy helicopter was performing routine coastal patrol. The military aircraft visually documented the UFO with state-of-the-art recording technology while it flew in front of them at the same rate of speed for over nine minutes, until they had to break-off to return to base. Shortly after the government went public with this incident earlier this year.

AFRICA

On the evening of December 13^th, 2016, a pilot flying from Cape Town International Airport to Port Elizabeth International Airport encountered a glowing green object increasing in speed and altitude past the cockpit of their airplane, reaching to about a thousand feet into clouds above them and then returning towards earth at high speed past the cockpit of their plane. The incident forced the NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) to investigate the matter, conducting searches in case the unidentified aircraft had gone down for whatever reason. No aircraft was ever found. Everything from weather balloons to drones to green parachute flares to space debris and meteorites were ruled out in this case, the object classified as unidentified.

UNITED STATES

And of course it is no surprise that the U.S. continues to be at or near the top of the list for countries that continue to report close encounter events. In fact, according to the 2017 book, “UFO Sightings Desk Reference”, written by two UFO experts, Linda Miller Costa and Cheryl Costa—one a former aerospace analyst and the other a former librarian at the National Academy of Sciences and NASA, sightings have spiked across the U.S. in general. In 2015 alone, there were 11,868 reported sightings, significantly up from the 3,479 logged in 2001—and those are just the reported ones. Rather then even attempt to detail the specifics from so many encounters, here is the list of states that continue to have the most UFO sightings, in order from the most to least, with California leading with the most reports:

1. California
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Washington
5. Pennsylvania
6. New York
7. Arizona
8. Illinois
9. Michigan
10. Ohio

AN ACCOUNTING

For years now there has been much debate on whether close encounters worldwide are on the decline, have remained steady or are actually on the rise. However a recent 2017 independent report and assessment done by Statistician/PhD student Sam Monfort with Human Factors and Applied Cognition at George Mason University, revealed that UFOs sightings have been steadily rising with 104,947 reported sightings on record over the past 100-plus years. Monfort utilized data from the previously mentioned National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). According to Monfort’s assessment, sightings have spiked dramatically over the past 30-plus years, with the reported number jumping from around 5,000 in 1980, to roughly 45,000 in 2010. Some sociologists and psychologists speculate that the perception of there being a decline in UFO reports is due to an overall dismissal of such eye-opening news as a product of mass desensitizing, cynicism, pessimism and apathy around the world. They suggest that this is primarily because of the effects of the digital age (Internet, smartphone, etc.) and constant over-exposure to violence and other negative depictions in media, as well as an overall loss of confidence in media.

Of course the majority of close encounters of the ‘third kind’ that include alien abductions are a different matter all together, with many of the encounters never associated with actually seeing a UFO prior to the actual encounter. Additionally, a huge percentage of abductions are never reported for a variety of psychological, sociological and cultural/religious reasons, with a significant estimated percentage never knowing or realizing that they had been abducted to begin with.

One thing is for certain regarding close encounter experiences; it is most certainly an equal opportunity phenomena around the world, being experienced equally by every age group, sex, social class, culture and belief system. And while the phenomena continues to elusively proliferate, we are yet to have globally come to any absolute agreed-upon consensus of what these phenomena are and why they continue to occur, remaining just as mysterious as ever.

{http://www.openminds.tv/ }

16-11-2017 om 23:13 geschreven door peter  

Scientists just sent a message to a possible alien civilization, and it could have disastrous consequences

Humans, generally speaking, are incredibly interested in the potential existence of intelligent alien life. The idea that an alien civilization exists somewhere in the cosmos has always fascinated us, but we’v yet to find any evidence that our dreams are more than fantasy. Now, scientists have taken a big step towards contacting extraterrestrials, sending a message to a nearby star system that may well host an advanced civilization, but not everyone thinks that was such a good idea.

A group of scientists hungry for evidence of aliens took it upon themselves to send a message to the system called GJ273, which resides approximately 12.4 light-years away from Earth. That’s a pretty sizable distance, but the signal will eventually get there, and if ET is listening they’ll most certainly know it’s not an accident.

The message, which reportedly included samples of music, language, and math, also included a request that anyone who gets it should attempt to respond. If the scientists strike gold, a message would likely be headed back our direction by around 2042, and astronomers will be listening closely for any sign of it.

However, many scientists have voiced their displeasure at the idea that mankind might proactively contact an alien civilization, especially one that has mastered spaceflight. Without having any idea of whether or not our needle-in-a-haystack signal is retrieved by a peaceful alien race or a hostile one, many fear that we could be setting the stage for the ultimate destruction of mankind and perhaps Earth as we know it.

One of the more vocal opponents of the effort is world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who has suggested that yelling into the void may bring dire results. Likening the arrival of an alien race to Earth to that of Europeans arriving in America, Hawking warns that a more advanced species could do whatever they wanted to our planet with little regard for mankind’s fate.

The signals, which were sent in mid-Otober, should arrive at their destination many years from now, and if we indeed to hear back, it will be a momentous occasion. Let’s just hope we don’t annoy them if they’re having a bad day.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.com

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16-11-2017 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

NASA scientists say we’ll find Alien life within 20 years

The US space agency has revealed that we will find aliens sooner than we think.

Despite the fact that there are millions of people around the globe who are convinced we are being visited by beings not from Earth, and that thousands of years ago, ancient civilization had contact with beings from elsewhere in the cosmos, officially speaking, aliens are an enigma for the human race.

However, according to NASA, we may confirm aliens are real as soon as 20 years time.

As noted by Anthony Del Genio, a member of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies:

“Before we search for alien life, we’re trying to understand what types of planets could have a climate that’s favorable to life. We’re utilizing the identical climate models that we use to predict 21st-century climate change on Earth to do simulations of specific exoplanets that have been found and possible ones.”

In a recently published video—How to Find a Living Planet—NASA explains that the discovery of water on distant alien worlds may be a key to finding alien life.

The Space Agency explains in the video that: “No matter where we look, whether it’s a desert or Antarctica or the deepest parts of the ocean or the deepest parts of Earth’s crust that we’ve explored, as long as there’s a tiny speck of liquid water, there’s life.

“And because of that, it’s been central to NASA’s search for habitable environments elsewhere. It’s why experts get excited about water spewing up from the icy moons of Europa and Enceladus in our outer solar system. Not only could they have water, they could have global oceans like the ones we have here on Earth.”

According to Del Genio, our civilization will confirm aliens are real in as soon as 20 years: “I think that in 20 years we will have found one candidate that might be it.”

But NASA notes it’s not only looking for water on alien worlds.

It’s imperative that we identify certain atmospheric gasses as well notes NASA.

In particular, scientists will focus on identifying alien environments that show traces of both oxygen and methane. As noted by scientists, when you spot these two gases in the same atmosphere, ‘you’ve got something special.’

‘There are methods to build up oxygen and methane in a planetary atmosphere, but the only way you could have both in the same atmosphere at the same time is if you produce them both super rapidly,’ said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Scientists say that the best ‘current’ bet for finding traces of alien life is within our solar system, with experts setting their sights on Enceladus and Europa, Saturn and Jupiter’s moons respectively.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

16-11-2017 om 22:49 geschreven door peter  

Mystery of Pluto's Super-Cold Weather Solved

16-11-2017 om 22:32 geschreven door peter  

The dwarf planet may be the only place in the solar system to have its temperature regulated by solids, not gases

BY LISA GROSSMAN 

 

HEAT SHIELD  Layers of haze in Pluto’s atmosphere, shown here in an image from the New Horizons spacecraft, could radiate heat away from the dwarf planet and cool it down.

SWRI/JHUAPL/NASA

Blame Pluto’s haze for the dwarf planet’s unexpected chilliness. Clusters of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere radiate heat back into space, keeping the dwarf planet cool, a new study suggests. Pluto may be the only world in the solar system whose atmospheric temperature is controlled by solid particles, rather than gas, researchers report in the Nov. 16 Nature.

Most planets’ temperatures are set by the gas content of their atmospheres, since certain gases trap heat from the sun more efficiently than others (SN Online: 6/8/15). Based on the nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide in Pluto’s atmosphere, scientists predicted the dwarf planet’s upper atmosphere would be a brisk –173° Celsius.

But when the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, the probe found temperatures closer to –203° — with no obvious explanation.

The spacecraft found another surprising feature: Pluto’s atmosphere is separated into about 20 distinct haze layers. Solid hydrocarbon particles tens of nanometers wide clump together in the atmosphere to form the haze before eventually settling onto Pluto’s surface (SN: 4/15/17, p. 14).

This haze could be what’s keeping the atmosphere cool, Xi Zhang of the University of California, Santa Cruz and his colleagues say. The team calculated that those hydrocarbon clumps could absorb heat from the sun as well as from gases in the atmosphere and radiate it back into space. Ultimately, the haze would cool the atmosphere instead of warming it.

That makes Pluto unique in the solar system, the researchers say. Other hazy worlds, like Saturn’s moon Titan, still have temperatures that are mostly determined by gas.

“On Pluto, almost the whole game is haze,” says planetary scientist Robert West of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who wrote a commentary on the new work, also published in the Nov. 16 Nature. “That was a real surprise.”

West thinks Zhang and colleagues’ argument “sounds convincing.” But he’s reserving judgement until the James Webb Space Telescope, due to launch in 2019, can see if Pluto glows brighter than expected in infrared wavelengths, a sign that the planet is wrapped in a radiating haze. “That will make it a closed case.”

Citations

X. Zhang, D.F. Strobel and H. Imanaka. Haze heats Pluto’s atmosphere yet explains its cold temperature. Nature. Vol. 551, November 16, 2017, p. 352. doi: 10.1038/nature24465.

R. West. Haze cools Pluto’s atmosphere. Nature. Vol. 551, November 16, 2017, p. 302.   

Further Reading

A. Yeager. How Pluto’s haze could explain its red spots. Science News. Vol. 191, April 15, 2017, p. 14.

C. Crockett. Get your Pluto trivia down cold. Science News Online, March 17, 2016.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

16-11-2017 om 22:14 geschreven door peter  

A ‘Second Earth’ found 11 light years away could be our best bet for Alien life

Could this be our galaxy’s best bet for extraterrestrial life? Astronomers have recently spotted an alien world the same size and temperature as our own, a mere ’11 light years away’ and claim it may be the ‘closest known home for alien life’.

Astronomers from the University of Grenoble in France have discovered an alien world named Ross 128b, orbiting a red dwarf star, some 11 light years away. According to experts, this not-so-distant planet may be our best bet yet, for finding alien life.

The recently discovered planet is believed to be the same size as Earth, and also an eerily similar surface temperature. Scientists believe this planet may the ‘the closest known comfortable abode for possible life,’ according to a new study.

Despite the fact that it would take us nearly 141,000 years to travel to the planet using our current spaceships, the planet is located relatively close in cosmic terms, only 11 light years away, which makes it the second closest Earth-like planet in our close proximity.

The red dwarf star Ross 128 sits in the constellation Virgo, the virgin. Image Credit: Sky Survey 2.

Experts have said that despite the fact that its located 11 light years away from us, the planet is actually moving towards us and is expected to become our closest cosmic neighbor in around 79,000 years.

The planet was spotted by astronomers collaborating with the European Southern Observatory’s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument, located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Astronomers report that the low-mass exoplanet orbits its star, a weak red dwarf every 9.9 days.

The planet which has already been dubbed as ‘the second Earth’ is believed to be temperate and have a surface temperature very close to Earth.

Ross128 is considered the quietest nearby star to host such a planet.

This discovery is based on more than a decade of HARPS intensive monitoring together with state-of-the-art data reduction and analysis techniques. Only HARPS has demonstrated such a precision and it remains the best planet hunter of its kind, 15 years after it began operations,’ said Study co-author Dr. Nicola Astudillo-Defru, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Image Credit: Daily Mail

Lead author Dr. Xavier Bonfils, of Université Grenoble in France, said in an interview with National Geographic: “There wasn’t a ‘eureka’ moment here where we were able to suddenly say, wow, we have a planet. We accumulated data over many years, and only gradually the signal built up and became significant.”

The discovery of Ross128 raises hopes that mankind will soon discover whether or not we are alone in the universe.

The discovery of Ross128 comes after NASA researchers have claimed that mankind will most likely find alien life within the next 20 years.

In a recently published video—How to Find a Living Planet—NASA explains that the discovery of water on distant alien worlds may be a key to finding alien life.

The Space Agency explains in the video that: “No matter where we look, whether it’s a desert or Antarctica or the deepest parts of the ocean or the deepest parts of Earth’s crust that we’ve explored, as long as there’s a tiny speck of liquid water, there’s life.

Interestingly, astronomers are now working to find out whether or not Rss128b is located within its stars habitable zone. The habitable zone of a star is a region in space within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure.

Source: New Earth-Size Planet Found Around Nearby Star

Reference: The galaxy’s best bet for alien life? 

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

16-11-2017 om 21:41 geschreven door peter  

Layers of hydrocarbon haze could explain why Pluto’s so super-cold

 BY TIBI PUIU

Plutonian landscapes in twilight, under a hazy sky.

Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwR.

Orbiting the sun over 40 times farther away than the Earth, it’s no wonder that Pluto is so incredibly cold. But when New Horizon made its historic flyby of the dwarf planet, NASA scientists were dumbfounded to find Pluto was even colder than expected — about 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) colder. A new hypothesis suggests that a haze of solid hydrocarbons might be regulating Pluto’s temperature. If this hypothesis is confirmed, it would signify a new regime of planetary climate; something that’s never been witnessed before.

Pluto might not be a planet but at least it’s still cool

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, led by planetary scientist Xi Zhang, believe they’ve found the culprit for Pluto’s anonymously cold atmosphere. The New Horizons spacecraft revealed that the dwarf planet is surrounded by 20 or so layers of haze arranged like the skin of an onion. The haze is made of soot-like solid particles.

Scientists had known for decades that Pluto has an atmosphere and that it might be hazy, but it wasn’t until recently that they began to comprehend this stunningly complex atmospheric mechanism.

Zhang and colleagues devised a mathematical model that investigated whether or not the nanoparticles could be influencing Pluto’s atmospheric temperature. Indeed they can, the model suggested, whose results were almost a perfect match with New Horizon’s empirical observations.

The particles are no bigger than 150 nanometers in diameter and are thought to consist of hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, and other organic compounds, similar to the ones found around Saturn’s moon Titan. These particles might have a significant cooling effect on Pluto by absorbing infrared radiation, thereby reducing atmospheric temperature.

 “Basically, we needed a strong coolant to explain why Pluto is so cold,” Zhang toldNew Scientist. “We found that the abundant haze particles can strongly cool the atmosphere by re-emitting infrared radiation to space, a process not considered in previous theories.”

“In the infrared range of radiation, a slightly larger amount of energy is radiated back to space by the haze particles, cooling the atmosphere overall,” he added.

From six billion miles away, Earth-based detectors aren’t sensitive enough to identify Pluto’s near-infrared radiation, which could be one of the reasons why the haze wasn’t discovered sooner. Fortunately, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2019, will be equipped with the proper tools to investigate Pluto’s infrared radiation.

If the researchers’ hypothesis holds water, this would make Pluto the only solar system planetary body whose temperature isn’t principally controlled by gases.

Scientific reference: 

X Zhang, D F Strobel and H Imanaka, Nature, 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nature24465.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

16-11-2017 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

NASA releases atmospheric simulation of this year’s hurricane season

BY ALEXANDRU MICU

A gorgeous new animation published by NASA depicts sea salt, dust, and smoke movements in the atmosphere during this year’s hurricane season.

Because air is so hard to see, NASA uses aerosol particles to track movements in the atmosphere. By combining raw satellite data with mathematical models of atmospheric phenomena, NASA researchers can see how smoke, dust, and sea salt are transported across the globe — allowing the agency a glimpse into weather patterns that would otherwise remain hidden to our view.

For example, tracking how sea salt (blue-white) evaporates from oceans will showcase the evolution of all of 2017’s hurricanes. The animation also captures the massive wildfires in the Pacific Northwest on the smoke layer of the simulation (gray). Particles released in these fires made it all the way from Oregon to Washington, though the south, eventually reaching the UK (in early September).

Dust (brown) also makes an appearance, most notably piggybacking on storm systems out of the Sahara and towards the Americas. Unlike sea salt, however, it doesn’t last too long in the eye of the storm. Here, dust particles are captured by cloud droplets and rain down on the ocean.

Advances in computing speed allow scientists to include more details of these physical processes in their simulations than ever before. So in time, they’re only going to become more complex and will more closely reflect reality.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

16-11-2017 om 21:20 geschreven door peter  

Four Major Fireballs within Ten Hours

Vincent Perlerin 

Germany, France, Ohio and Arizona

It was a busy night for the AMS and IMO (International Meteor Organization) that started early around 16:50 Universal Time (UT) with a fireball in the skies over Germany. Over 1180 witnesses reported to the AMS/IMO database within the first few hours of the event. Les than five hours later, near the weastern shores of France witness reported another significant fireball at 21:30 UT.

While excited fireball observers in Germany, France, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Italy were filling out their forms, two significant fireballs fell over the United States during the hours of 01:40 and 03:30 UTC. The first over Arizona and the second over Ohio.

In total the AMS/IMO collected, grouped and analyzed over 1320 witness reports spanning these 4 fireballs in the 10 hours that followed the events.

Taurid or not Taurid: that is the question

Are the events related or simply coincidence. Could these events be part of the Taurid meteor shower which peaked this past Saturday? Associated with the comet Encke, the Taurids are actually two separate showers, with a Southern and a Northern component. Both branches of the Taurids are most notable for colorful fireballs and are often responsible for an increased number of fireball reports from September through November.

The first analysis conducted by former IMO president Dr. Juergen Rendtel of the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam from the raw data shows that the events that occurred over Arizona and France cannot be linked to the Taurids: the Arizona event was moving from North-West to South-East while the French event was moving from North-East to South-West. However, the events over Germany and Ohio fit the Taurids direction (East->West) and the low inclination angle at the time of the sightings! Note that the East-West direction is related to the Taurids only because the fireball occurred in the local evening. Later in the night or towards the morning the direction is different, of course.

Nov 14^th 16:48 UT – Blue Fireball over Germany

The fireball that flew over Germany on Nov 14^th around 16:48 UT is the most reported fireball event from Europe since the AMS and the IMO launched the international version of the AMS fireball form. Translated in 31 languages, this form potentially allows the whole population of the globe to report such events. So far, we received over 820 reports about this event from at least 7 different versions of the form: not only from the AMS and the IMO versions but also from the forms we customized for local organizations such as the French Networks Reforme and Vigie-Ciel, the Swiss organization Fachgruppe Meteorastronomie, the german organization Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. and even from the Italian Network PRISMA.

Below is the 3D trajectory of the event (available in KML format from the Event#4299-2017 page):

This event has been caught on several dash cams:

Nov 14^th 21:32 UT over France

The French event occurred over the city of Bordeaux (West of France) and it has been reported so far from about 20 witnesses. This event has been caught on cam by the french camera network FRIPON that is a member of the citizen science project Vigie-Ciel and by the French allsky amateur network BOAM.

We should receive more details about this event anytime soon. As stated above, this event doesn’t seem like being part of the Taurid Meteor Shower. The event has been caught by 10 cameras of the French Network (Toulouse, Angers, Talence, Sabres, Carcassonne, Aurillac, Hendaye, Saint Bonnet Vert, Coulounieix-Chamiers and Mauroux).

Event#4312-2017 – Allsky Cam photo from BOAM (thank you to Tioga Gulon)

Nov 15^th 03:28 UT over Arizona

The AMS received 85 reports so far about this event that occurred over Arizona. We didn’t receive reports only from Arizona but also from California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico.

This event has been caught on at least two dash cams shared via the AMS Fireball report:

As stated above, the first estimated 3D trajectory doesn’t make this fireball a good candidate for the Taurid Meteor Shower. Traveling from North-West to South-East, the visible path of the fireball ended somewhere east of Happy Jack, AZ.

Nov 15^th 01:49 UT over Ohio

We received 34 reports so far about this event that occurred over Ohio but was also reported from Michiga, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Just like the German event, this fireball was travelling East to West. The first estimation of the 3D trajectory shows that the visible path of the fireball ended somewhere over Greenfield, OH.

Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any photo or video of this event yet. If you witnessed one of this event and/or if you have a video or a photo, please

Submit an Official Fireball Report.

{ http://www.amsmeteors.org/ }

16-11-2017 om 21:13 geschreven door peter  

Has Britain's most baffling alien abduction UFO case involving police man been solved?

EXCLUSIVE: It was on a cold morning in November 1980 that PC Alan Godfrey, now 70, came face-to-face with a UFO.

16-11-2017 om 20:53 geschreven door peter  

16-11-2017 om 18:43 geschreven door peter  

16-11-2017 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

16-11-2017 om 18:35 geschreven door peter  

DE MEEST SPECTACULAIRE UFO FOTO'S OOIT GENOMEN OP EEN BEKENDE UFO HOTSPOT

{ http://niburu.co/ }

16-11-2017 om 18:29 geschreven door peter  

We hebben net boodschap verstuurd naar mogelijk buitenaardse leven op ‘superaarde’ en over 26 jaar kunnen we al antwoord hebben - HLN.be

Koen Van De Sype 

Bron: Newsweek, Tech Insider

WETENSCHAP & PLANEET 21 juni 2043: dat is de dag dat wetenschappers van Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) aan hun ontvangers gekluisterd zullen zijn, in de hoop bericht te krijgen van een buitenaardse beschaving op GJ273b. Dat is een superaarde op 12,4 lichtjaar – 70.000.000.000.000 kilometer – van onze aarde. Exact een maand geleden verstuurden ze daartoe enkele boodschappen.

Dat gebeurde op 16, 17 en 18 oktober. De wetenschappers gebruikten radiogolven en lieten de berichten op negen verschillende momenten horen, om de kans te vergroten dat ze worden opgepikt. In totaal werd er elke dag voor 11 minuten uitgezonden.

Lees ook

Nieuwe planeet dicht bij aarde ontdekt met “mogelijk beste kans op leven ooit”

Muziekstukken

De boodschap zelf bestaat onder meer uit 18 muziekstukken van 10 seconden, voorbeelden van wiskunde en technologie én uitleg over de manier waarop we de tijd bijhouden. Aan de hand daarvan legden de wetenschappers ook uit wanneer we zouden luisteren voor een mogelijk antwoord.

Het bericht werd niet zomaar lukraak gestuurd, maar naar een nabijgelegen exoplaneet GJ273b. Die draait rond de Ster van Luyten – een rode dwerg – en wordt door astronomen ook wel omschreven als een ‘superaarde’. De massa is iets groter dan die van onze planeet en hij bevindt zich op een afstand van zijn ster die leven er mogelijk kan maken.

Controversieel

Het is de allereerste keer dat de mensheid een boodschap verstuurt die gericht is op een antwoord op een specifiek moment. Het uitsturen van boodschappen naar mogelijk buitenaards leven zodat het ons kan vinden, is overigens controversieel. Onder meer de vermaarde wetenschapper Stephen Hawking waarschuwde al voor de gevaren daarvan. “Als dergelijk buitenaards leven ons bezoekt, dan zal het er ongeveer aan toe gaan zoals toen Columbus in Amerika landde. En we weten allemaal hoe dat afliep voor de oorspronkelijke bevolking”, zei hij al. (lees hieronder verder)

Douglas Vakoch van METI relativeert. “Als er een buitenaardse beschaving bestond die in staat was om naar de aarde te reizen met het doel ons kwaad te doen, zou die al veel eerder al onze radio- en tv-signalen opgepikt hebben en naar hier gekomen zijn. Onze atmosfeer geeft overigens al 2,5 miljard jaar bewijs af van leven door de zuurstof in de lucht.”

SETI

METI is de tegenhanger van SETI – Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – dat ook vindt dat we actief moeten zoeken naar buitenaards leven, maar dan door te proberen boodschappen van anderen op te vangen in plaats van ze zelf te versturen. Voor het project werkte METi samen met het Instituut voor Ruimtestudies van Catalonië (IEEC) en het Spaanse muziekfestival Sónar.

“Hopelijk krijgen we antwoord”, aldus Vakoch. “Maar de kans bestaat dat we het experiment nog een aantal keer zullen moeten herhalen in de richting van andere planeten voor we geluk hebben. Ik zie het eerder op langere termijn. We moeten daarbij een systeem ontwikkelen waarmee we niet één maar vele tientallen, duizenden of zelfs miljoenen planeten tegelijk proberen te bereiken. Alleen zo kunnen we onze kansen vergroten om ooit een respons te ontvangen.” 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

16-11-2017 om 17:17 geschreven door peter  

After all of the recent predictions of a collision between Planet X/Nibiru and Earth have come and gone, a little announcement from a credible source sneaks in with actual sightings of a real exoplanet that’s not only near to Earth but may support life and it and its star may be on a collision course with Earth and the Sun. Should we celebrate, panic or both?

The announcement comes from the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics which published a report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) whose scientists used ten years of data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) in Chile on Ross 128, a small red dwarf in the constellation Virgo (named for American astronomer Frank Elmore Ross) that’s a mere 10.89 light years from our solar system. That data showed a wobble in Ross 128 indicating that something is speedily orbiting it every 10 days. That something is an exoplanet with some special characteristics.

“The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected after Proxima b. It is also the closest planet to be discovered orbiting an inactive red dwarf star, which may increase the likelihood that this planet could potentially sustain life.”

The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher

(HARPS)

Ross 128 b is about the same size as Earth and, despite being 20 times closer to its star, has an Earth-ish surface temperature raging between –60°C and 20°C (–78°F and 68°F). Couple that with the fact that its dim red sun can’t fry it with radiation either and Roth 128 b becomes a better candidate for life than Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri. ESO astronomers will know more in 2025 when they’re able to look for oxygen biomarkers using the new Extremely Large Telescope.

2025? What about the collision? Will we still exist by then?

“Although it is currently 11 light-years from Earth, Ross 128 is moving towards us and is expected to become our nearest stellar neighbour in just 79 000 years — a blink of the eye in cosmic terms. Ross 128 b will by then take the crown from Proxima b and become the closest exoplanet to Earth!”

That’s disappointing news to Planet X fans but hugely exciting for astronomers, since 79,000 years is a blink of an eye for them, especially when you consider this is the time it will take for Ross 128 and Ross 128 b to travel seven light years – from 11 light years to less than Proxima b’s 4.2 light years away.

So Ross 128 b is not Planet X, but it does prove that a star and its planet(s) could be moving quite fast through the galaxy … giving a tiny bit of credence to the theory that Planet X is orbiting the Sun’s binary sibling and they’re on a fast path to collision. Then again, if astronomers can see Ross 128 and Ross 128 b at 11 billion light years away, shouldn’t they already be able to see Planet X and its star?

Anyone?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

16-11-2017 om 17:06 geschreven door peter  

The subject of UFO research is filled with cases that positively reek of high strangeness. And they don’t get much stranger than a very weird incident which occurred in August 1955, in the vicinity of Kelly and Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Depending on whose version of events you accept as the truth, either aliens landed or a band of marauding circus monkeys – painted silver, no less – were on the loose! Kelly was, and still is, a small, rural town which is situated just short of ten miles from Hopkinsville. It was the night of August 15 when absolute chaos broke out. It all went down at the farmhouse of the Sutton family, who had visitors in from Pennsylvania: Billy Ray Taylor and his wife. Around 7.00 p.m. Billy Ray left the farmhouse to fetch water from the family’s well. And what a big mistake that was.

In mere minutes, Billy Ray was back, minus the water. Terrified Billy Ray told the Suttons and his wife that as he headed towards the well he saw a significantly sized, illuminated, circular-shaped object come to rest in a nearby gully. As the group tried to figure out what on earth (or off it…) was going on, they mused upon the possibilities of shooting stars, meteorites, and good old leg-pulling. By all accounts, it was none of those. In just a few minutes, the Sutton’s dog began to bark, growl, and snarl in aggressive, uncontrollable fashion – after which it raced for cover underneath the porch. Clearly, something strange was going down. Exactly how strange, soon became very apparent.

Intent on making sure they were in control of the situation, Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor armed themselves with a shotgun and headed out into the darkness. In no time, they were confronted by something terrifying: a small, silvery, creature – in the region of three feet tall – that was scurrying towards them with its long, ape-like, arms held high in the air. Sutton did what most folk might do when confronted by a strange, dwarfish thing after sunset: he blasted the beast with his shotgun. To the consternation of both men, the gun had no effect, aside from causing the creature to do a quick, impressive back-flip, after which it disappeared into the darkness – for a while.

Rather wisely, Elmer and Billy Ray raced for the safety of the farmhouse and locked the doors behind them. In mere moments, the same creature – or, at least, a very similar one – was seen peering through one of the windows. Elmer’s son, J.C., took a shot at it. The only damage was to the window. The small beast scurried away at lightning speed. Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray took a tentative walk outside to see if they could see the creature – or creatures. That was a very bad move: as they prowled around the property, a clawed hand came down from the roof and seized Billy Ray’s hair and head.

Terrified Billy Ray pulled away, screaming, to see the creature charge across the roof. To their horror, a second creature was staring at them from the branch of a nearby tree. A second shoot-out achieved nothing, aside from the remarkably weird sight of the creatures floating – rather than leaping or falling – to the ground and then racing into the darkness. The tumultuous events continued throughout the night, with guns firing, and the creepy little beasts seemingly doing their very best to create as much havoc and mayhem as was conceivably possible.

Realizing that the situation might very well go on all night, the group decided there was only one option available to them: they had to flee the farmhouse, which they did in two cars, making their speedy way to the sheriff’s office in nearby Hopkinsville. The sheer, collective state of fear into which the Suttons and the Taylors had been plunged, pretty much immediately convinced the sheriff that whatever had happened, it was no drunken prank.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one’s perspective), by the time the sheriff and the family arrived back at the farmhouse, the creatures were gone – they did, however, put in a reappearance in the early hours, and conveniently after the police had left. In no time at all, the media got onto the story, as did the U.S. Air Force – the latter coming up with a very bizarre explanation as its staff sought to lay matters to rest.

Before we get to the matter of that explanation, it’s important to have a full understanding of the physical appearance of the creatures, drawn from the memories and recollections of the players: the Suttons and the Taylors. All of the strange entities were near-identical: long arms, skinny legs, large ears, and yellow eyes. As for their gait, they moved in a strange, pivoting fashion. And, there was the fact that they were all silver in color. Cue the Air Force’s best estimate of what really happened.

With absolutely nothing solid – at all – to back up its claims, the Air Force suggested the culprits were monkeys, painted silver, and which had escaped from a traveling circus! As cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard notes, it’s “a theory more ridiculous than the notion of invading aliens.” Nevertheless, the Air Force stuck to its guns, with Major John E. Albert being the major proponent of the circus escapee/painted monkeys theory.

Ufologists did not just accept this theory without question. One of the most respected of all UFO researchers was Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He said (in The Hynek UFO Report), of his investigation of the Air Force’s claim: “I did make an attempt to find out whether there had been any traveling circuses in the area from which some monkeys could have escaped. The monkey hypothesis fails, however, if the basic testimony of the witnesses can be accepted. Under a barrage of gunfire from Kentuckians, over a somewhat extended period, it is unthinkable that at least one cadaver would not have been found. Furthermore, monkeys do not float down from trees: they either jump or fall. And, anyway, I was unable to find any trace of a traveling circus!”

The 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville saga remains unresolved to this day. The fact that the incident began with the sighting of what may well have been a UFO, has led flying saucer sleuths to conclude a mini-alien invasion briefly broke out in rural Kentucky. On the other hand, is it possible that the Air Force was, at least, partly on the right track? Could the creatures have been monkeys, after all? They are questions that, decades later, still endure.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

16-11-2017 om 16:56 geschreven door peter  

Fireballs in the sky over the US and Europe all captured on November 14, 2017

Several meteors lit the sky over the United States and Europe on Tuesday night.

Fireballs were captured over Phoenix, over Southern Ohio and later in the night two meteors crossed over France and the other over Germany which was seen as far away as Italy and Switserland.

Although it seems that these fireballs were at least somewhat related with the Tuarids and with the comet Encke, the fireballs that occurred in Arizona and France are not related to the Tuarids due to their origin and direction, the fireballs over Ohio and Germany were probably Tuarids.

Below videos show the fireball that flew across the Phoenix sky and captured by the Phoenix city Cam and the fireball over Southern Ohio uploaded by J. Verrico on the American Meteor Society Website.

The American Meteor Society has noted before that there has been a dramatic increase in fireball /meteor activity since the last two years.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

16-11-2017 om 16:47 geschreven door peter  

UFO Secrets

Coast To Coast AM – November 10, 2017 UFO Secrets & Open Lines with Jimmy Church

Author Peter Levenda joined Jimmy Church (Fade To Black) to discuss his collaboration with Tom DeLonge, and his work speaking with officials who hold secrets to some of the most intriguing questions about UFOs and our universe. Open Lines followed in the latter half of program.

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

16-11-2017 om 16:42 geschreven door peter