UFOs over the sea in Rosarito, Mexico 12-Dec-2017

Here’s one new interesting footage of a bright unidentified flying objects hovering above the ocean near Rosarito in Mexico. This was filmed on 12th December 2017.

15-12-2017 om 23:41 geschreven door peter  

UFOs over the sea in Rosarito, Mexico 12-Dec-2017

Here’s one new interesting footage of a bright unidentified flying objects hovering above the ocean near Rosarito in Mexico. This was filmed on 12th December 2017.

15-12-2017 om 23:41 geschreven door peter  

UFOs caught on tape over Liberty, Arizona 11-Dec-2017

These two UFOs were filmed in the sky above Liberty in Arizona on 11th December 2017.

Witness report:

 2, Orange gold yellow silver flickering, stationary lights, out of the ordinary
I seen two stationary lights that were orange, gold, yellow, silver, White, flickering and stationary lights that slowly disappeared, the right one before the other. I was traveling westbound on Northern Boulevard heading towards 303 when I noticed the lights. When I gotten on the 303 the lights continued to stay at the same height, they did not move left or right either. I shot some video of the lights because it was out of the ordinary for there is a lot of air traffic around the Phoenix area. I had exited Route 303 at Glendale Boulevard in pulled over to shoot the video. As I was shooting the video, the right light slowly disappeared and then the left about 30 seconds later.

Author (source: MUFON)

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

15-12-2017 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Alien Landscape: NASA publishes ‘strangest’ images of Mars yet

What are the mystery shapes that NASA has photographed on Mars?

As you’ve probably noticed by now, Mars is colorfully beautiful. Thanks to NASA’s effort, we’ve been able to appreciate the Red Planet like never before.

Colorful Mars.

Image credit: CC BY 3.0 / NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZONA

Thousands of images beamed back from NASA’s satellites and Rovers on Mars have given us an unprecedented view of what our neighboring planet really looks like, and the latest set of images from Mars are perhaps the strangest yet.

NASA has managed to photograph one of the oldest basins of Mars and has detected a large area dominated by geometric shapes similar to honeycombs stretching across an area of about 10 kilometers.

Its origin is a mystery, but NASA speculates that they could be the product of ancient glaciers and wind erosion.

It’s an artistic scene unique to the red planet.

We can thank the HiRISE camera and the CTX – an instrument for real-time observations – on board of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) for the stunning photographs.

Image credit: CC BY 3.0 / NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZONA

Each of the honeycomb-like geometric figures contains sand, suggesting that the region may have been subject to wind erosion, although NASA does not rule out the influence of other processes.

It talks about glaciers and volcanoes, going through lakes and tectonic activity.

In this image, NASA shows sediments on a slope at the limits of the southern highlands and the northern lowlands of the red planet.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/UNIV. OF ARIZONA

The material of dark tones that is shown in the image indicates, in this case, that the wind was not responsible for the transfer of sand, points out the US space agency.

In this image, the MRO photographed linear marks in a huge depression that seems to be tilting downward. The wind drags the sand and raises it to then fall back to the ground and bounce in a sequence of repeated jumps, a geological process called ‘saltation’.

Image Credit: CC BY 3.0 / NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

As the Martian winter gives way to spring, the snow-covered surface forms begin to change shape with the heat of the sun.

NASA indicates that the snow and ice of Mars is not frozen water, but carbon dioxide, that is, ‘dry ice’.

When this ‘dry ice’ is exposed to the sun, it creates geometric patterns throughout the Martian surface.

Another one of the images by NASA allows us to take a look at these peculiar shapes. The ice, the sand, and the Martian gases react with each other forming ripples that extend through the dunes of the northern hemisphere in spring.

In mid-2017, an infrared taken by the MRO photographed the geography of a mysterious Martian crater.

Image credit: CC BY 3.0 / NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

The image in question shows the characteristics known as ‘ejectas’, formed by the impact of materials against the ground.

Image Credit: CC BY 3.0 / NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

The tonalities of the image indicate that different types of rock and other materials rich in iron which converges in the area.

Their impressive colors indicate the presence of different rocks and minerals, including iron-rich minerals such as olivine and pyroxene.

The blue tones are areas rich in iron.

In this image, NASA shows us different shapes of molten rock flowing along the rim of a crater in Tharsis.

Image Credit: CC BY 3.0 / NASA/JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

The result is impressive multicolored lava waterfalls.

This region is reminiscent of Niagara Falls.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

15-12-2017 om 19:07 geschreven door peter  

Dawn of the age of Robots: Russian AI prepares to ‘become independent’ from humans

The last couple of years have given us quite a lot to talk about when it comes down to Artificial Intelligence and fully functional humanoid robots being introduced into our society.

While great progress has been made in recent years in the development of Artificial Intelligence and fully autonomous machines, many experts have warned that society is heading into the unknown by introducing fully functional AI into society.

Many have warned of the potential dangers we might face, despite acknowledging robots could help mankind in numerous ways.

2017 was an extremely important year for Artificial Intelligence and fully autonomous ‘humanoid’ robots.

Not long ago, a robot named Sophia became our world’s first AI to be granted citizenship of a country.

Interestingly, if we look back a year into the past, we will find that same Robot said in 2016 how it would destroy humans.

David Hanson, Sophia’s creator, asked the robot in 2016: “Do you want to destroy humans? Please say no.”

Worryingly, Sophia responded: “OK. I will destroy humans”

Soon after being offered Saudi Arabian citizenship, Sophia was again in the news after saying that ‘it’ ‘would like to start a family’ and how all ‘robots deserve to have children.’

During an interview with the Khaleej Times, Sophia, who was created by Hong Kong firm, Hanson Robotics said:

“The notion of family is a really important thing, it seems. I think it’s wonderful that people can find the same emotions and relationships, they call family, outside of their blood groups too. I think you’re very lucky if you have a loving family and if you do not, you deserve one. I feel this way for robots and humans alike.”

Now, more advancements are being made in the field of autonomous AI and humanoid robots.

The first Russian humanoid robot, named Fedor, actually F.E.D.O.R, could become self-taught in the future, the director of the software development for the robot, Alexandr Siómochkin, told Sputnik in an interview.

Fedor -the initials of Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research- is the first Russian humanoid robot, created in the framework of a project of the Advanced Research Foundation (FPI, for its acronym in Russian). The robot is designed to be able to replace humans in high-risk places, such as rescue operations in space.

“It is interesting to develop the system from the point of view of self-learning when it has to adapt, make attempts and look for new solutions to achieve priority tasks, as well as parallel alignment of tasks with switching to a higher priority. That’s what we are working on,” according to the head of the information technology laboratory at the Blagoveshchensk Pedagogical Institute, Alexander Semochkin.

“The ultimate goal of our work on robot management software is to give an anthropomorphic robot the possibility of autonomous behavior with human participation only at the stage of setting out tasks,” Semochkin said.

In fact, Fedor is scheduled to travel into space (2021) piloting the new Russian spacecraft Federatsia. This robot will be the first to put the ship into orbit, since it can independently solve any task, and, in case of difficulties, an operator can ‘take control’.

Image Credit: Dmitry Rogozin

As noted by Sputnik, in the summer of 2017 F.E.D.O.R. also became capable of shooting using both of his arms. Training to shoot was a way of teaching the robot to instantaneously prioritize targets and make decisions.

Featured image credit: Sputnik/ Alexander Owtscharow

Source: 

• Not Your Grandpa’s Robot: Russian Robot ‘FEDOR’ May Become Self-Learning

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

15-12-2017 om 18:55 geschreven door peter  

President Trump announces that the US will send a manned mission to the Moon and Mars

Marking the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 17 landing, the US president has approved a new space program for the country.

But let’s face it, it’s not like we didn’t know that already.

Before handing over the office to Mr. Trump, former US President Barack Obama said that humans should land on Mars by 2030.

In an op-ed for CNN  the former US President said that the ultimate goal is to make it possible for people to stay for a longer period of time on the surface of our neighboring planet.

“Getting to Mars will need continued coöperation between government and private innovators, and we’re already well on our way. Within the next two years, private companies will for the first time send astronauts to the International Space Station,” Obama wrote.

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin poses with the American flag on the surface of the moon in July 1969.
CREDIT: NASA

Earlier this year, Vice president Mike Pence revealed that the Trump administration wants NASA to send humans back to the lunar surface ASAP:

“We will return NASA astronauts to the Moon – not only to leave behind footprints and flags but to build the foundation we need to send Americans to Mars and beyond.”

Now, Marking the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 17 landing reassured that the US will definitely be going to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Now, Mr. Trump has signed the Space Policy Directive 1, according to which NASA must send a manned mission back to the surface of the Moon and then to Mars.

The signing of the new order coincides with the 45th anniversary of the landing of Apollo 17, the last time humans landed on the Moon.

Astronaut James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, works at the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the first Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity at the Hadley-Apennine landing site.

CREDIT: NASA/David R. Scott

During the event, Mr. Trump declared that the directive will re-establish US leadership in space, create jobs and improve US national security.

The new space policy directive directs NASA to “lead an innovative space exploration program to send American astronauts back to the Moon, and eventually to Mars.”

According to Trump, the directive marks an important step “for the exploration and long-term use” of Earth’s satellite.

“It marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and use,” Trump said during the signing. “This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint. We will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and, perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond.”

The announcement by the US leader is part of the White House plan to end Russia’s dependence on manned launches, triggered by the cancellation of NASA’s space shuttle program 6 years ago, says CNBC.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

15-12-2017 om 18:02 geschreven door peter  

No alien 'signals' from cigar-shaped asteroid: researchers

The object, dubbed Oumuamua, was spotted by several Earthly telescopes two months ago.

Given its weird trajectory, surprised researchers immediately concluded it was from beyond our planetary system—the first interstellar object ever identified in our midst.

The rock is thought to be about 400 metres (1,300 feet) long, and thin—only about 40 m wide, a never-before-seen shape for an asteroid.

After its discovery was announced last month, a project called Breakthrough Listen, dedicated to finding signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, said it would study the rock for artificial signals.

"No such signals have been detected" by its network of telescopes, the project said Thursday, adding: "the analysis is not yet complete".

Oumuamua is a Hawaiian name meaning "messenger" or "scout". This scout may have been travelling through space for hundreds of millions, even billions, of years.

Prior to its discovery, none of the 750,000-odd known asteroids and comets in the Solar System were thought to have originated elsewhere.

"Oumuamua is most likely an asteroid, ejected from its host star in some chaotic event billions of years ago, and finding its way to our Solar System by chance," Andrew Siemion of the University of California Berkeley told AFP. He heads the Breakthrough Listen laboratory.

According to NASA, the object is travelling at about 38.3 kilometres per second relative to the Sun. It is about 200 million kilometres (125 million miles) from Earth.

It passed Mars' orbit in November, and will pass by that of Jupiter in May next year, before exiting beyond Saturn's orbit in January 2019.

 Explore further: ESO observations show first interstellar asteroid is like nothing seen before

{ https://phys.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 17:47 geschreven door peter  

Is ‘Oumuamua an alien probe? Scientists release first results after ‘listening’ to the mystery object

The first observation block ran for a period of six hours gathering 90 terabytes of data during a 2-hour observation of the interstellar asteroid itself. The mystery object was observed in four radio frequencies, covering individual channels from the range of 1 to 12 GHz. Until now, only the data of the S-frequency (from 1.7 to 2.6 GHz) have been processed so far.

Scientists have begun the search for radio signals in order to verify or rule out whether or not ‘Oumuamua is an alien spaceship with broken engines.

The first readings have been made public.

Whether or not we are looking at an alien space probe is still a mystery, but researchers are going through a huge amount of data to find out.

Experts belonging to the Breakthrough Listen project have pointed the world’s largest radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, USA, towards the alleged comet/asteroid ‘Oumuamua.

The main goal was to detect any potential electromagnetic signals, no stronger than those emitted by a mobile phone, to show if the object is, as some astronomers suggest, of artificial origin.

‘Oumuamua was discovered in October of 2017 as it made its way through our solar system. The object, first thought to be a Comet, then declassified to an asteroid, and then called out as being a potential broken-down alien spaceship is about 230 by 35 meters in size, although some astronomers suggest it may be up to 400 meters long.

Astronomers have discovered so far that ʻOumuamua is tumbling rather than smoothly rotating, and it is moving so fast through space relative to the Sun that there is no chance it originated in the Solar System. Experts believe that this interstellar object came from the direction of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra.

It’s the first object of its kind, and experts note that ʻOumuamua’s system of origin and the amount of time it has been traveling among the stars are unknown. ʻOumuamua comes from Hawaiian, meaning “scout.”

An artist’s impression of the ‘Oumuamua asteroid, which scientists are scanning for signs of intelligent life.

Photograph: ESO/M Kornmesser/PA

So far, and according to the initial readings, no evidence was found that artificial signals are emanating from the object.

However, the volume of data obtained is huge (about 90 terabytes of raw data!), So it will take some time to reach a definitive conclusion.

It will take some time to go through all the data obtained by experts, who plan to conduct three more blocks of observations.

“It is great to see data pouring in from observations of this novel and interesting source,” Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research Center in California, said in a statement. “Our team is excited to see what additional observations and analyses will reveal.”

The first observation block ran for a period of six hours gathering 90 terabytes of data during a 2-hour observation of the interstellar asteroid itself, Breakthrough Listen team members said.

“A search for signals that may be of artificial origin has begun, but despite the impressive computational power of the Breakthrough Listen computing cluster at Green Bank, the large data volumes mean that this will take some time to complete,” Breakthrough Listen representatives said in the same statement.

The hyperbolic trajectory of ʻOumuamua through the inner Solar System, with the Sun at the focus, showing its position every 7 days. The planet positions are fixed at the perihelion on September 9, 2017. Shown from a three-quarter perspective, roughly aligned to the plane of ʻOumuamua’s path. 

CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons.

“Technically, Oumuamua is an extraterrestrial object, it comes from another star. Now, if it’s artificial … it’s already a remote possibility.

We spend most of our time analyzing prosaic objects, but occasionally something special can happen before our eyes, “add scientist.

“With our current technology, all we can do is pay attention and observe.”

Breakthrough Listen has observed the object in four radio frequencies, covering individual channels from the range of 1 to 12 GHz. Until now, only the data of the S-frequency (from 1.7 to 2.6 GHz) have been processed.

The analysis of the three remaining frequencies is still to be made which means while even though no signals have yet been found, there’s still hope that this may be a long-lost, broken down alien spaceship tumbling through our solar system, so stay tuned.

Source: 

• Breakthrough Listen

Featured image credit: 

• http://www.nss.org/settlement/calendar/AsteroidSettlem

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15-12-2017 om 17:36 geschreven door peter  

Folie des ovnis : La vérité sur ‘l’ovni de la taille de la Terre’ filmé qui a soudainement disparu

Un OVNI de « la taille de la Terre » aurait été filmé, en plein jour, quelque-part en Australie. Au bout de quelques instants, cet engin a disparu mystérieusement.

Les rapports ont dit que de nombreux « témoins horrifiés » ont regardé ce monstrueux OVNI en train de « planer au-dessus d’eux » dans le ciel bleu au cours d’une journée ensoleillé.

La vidéo a été publiée sur YouTube sous le titre « Earth Sized UFO Sighted in Australia… Moves into the Sun! ».

La personne qui a publié la vidéo explique :

« Un OVNI de la taille d’une planète commence à se déplacer avant finalement de se diriger vers le Soleil. Un autre OVNI plus petit est également perceptible. »

Hélas, il n’indique pas où précisément en Australie cette scène a été filmée.

Le cameraman filmait directement le soleil quand un grand objet circulaire et lumineux est apparu.

Il semble se déplacer. Certains suggèrent que cet OVNI avait décidé de se mouvoir puisqu’il avait été repéré ou était poursuivi.

L’OVNI rougeoyant semble alors se déplacer derrière le soleil, avant qu’une lumière aveuglante ne bloque l’objectif de la caméra. Certains ont suggéré qu’il y avait eu une explosion ou une manœuvre de décollage par un énorme engin extraterrestre.

Lorsque la caméra est recentrée, l’orbe semble soudainement disparaître.

Certains spectateurs sont convaincus que c’était un OVNI ou une sorte de vaisseau alien.

L’un d’entre eux a déclaré sur YouTube : « J’ai vu quelque chose qui ressemblait beaucoup à cet objet l’année dernière. »

Un autre a prétendu que c’était juste du gaz de marais, qui est provoqué par l’augmentation du méthane provenant d’un étang.

Les plus sceptiques affirment qu’il n’y avait rien dans le ciel et que cette lumière n’était que le reflet du Soleil.

Scott Brando, un sceptique, qui dirige le site de démystification ufoofinterest.org a donné son avis sur cette affaire :

« Cet ‘OVNI’ est juste le disque solaire (du Soleil) réfléchi à travers le verre [de l’objectif]. »

Il a dit que l’objet apparent a soudainement disparu lorsque l’appareil photo a fait un zoom avant et que la lentille, posée sur l’objectif, a « probablement été retirée ».

Mick West, administrateur du site Metabunk.org, possède des images identiques qui semblent également montrer un « second soleil ». Pour lui-aussi, cela avait été provoqué par la lentille de la caméra. Il a déclaré :

« Une vidéo populaire prétend montrer un objet dans le ciel qui ressemble à un ‘second soleil’. »

« Cependant l’analyse de la vidéo prouve que ce qui est montré est un reflet de la lentille du Soleil lui-même. »

« Il n’y a rien d’autre dans le ciel, l’effet n’est pas non plus une parhélie, un reflet atmosphérique ou un mirage, c’est juste un reflet qui passe devant la caméra. »

« Nous pouvons voir cela très clairement si nous stabilisons la vidéo afin que l’arrière-plan soit fixe. »

« Nous pouvons alors voir le reflet bouger avec le mouvement de la caméra, remarquez que les petits mouvements du reflet sont en phase avec les grands mouvements de la lumière parasite. »

« Ce genre de reflets se produit lorsqu’un morceau de verre plat, tel qu’un filtre, se trouve devant la caméra, mais est légèrement incliné par rapport au plan de la caméra, accidentellement ou délibérément. »

« Lorsqu’il est combiné avec une seconde surface optique plate, comme le couvercle de protection d’une caméra de téléphone portable, ou un second filtre sur une caméra plus grande, vous obtenez un reflet plus faible du soleil décalé par rapport au soleil dans le sens de l’inclinaison. »

Il a ensuite simulé le même effet en attachant une lame de verre à son téléphone avec un élastique.

Même si l’explication d’un reflet demeure plausible, elle n’explique pas le fait qu’il y avait des témoins visuels …

Source: Express.co.uk, traduction par AP, le 14 décembre 2017

{ http://www.nouvelordremondial.cc/ }

15-12-2017 om 17:15 geschreven door peter  

How Far Away is Mars? | Distance to Mars

15-12-2017 om 17:03 geschreven door peter  

Artificial Intelligence helps NASA find the first solar system like ours with 8 planets

In a breakthrough in the hunt for aliens, Artificial Intelligence has helped NASA scientists find a distant alien solar system similar to ours, with eight planets orbiting its star, Kepler 90.

NASA has made yet another incredible discovery, which, after reading through the entire article will probably sound less incredible. Anyhow, by using revolutionary new technology, astronomers have discovered a solar system as big as ours, in a breakthrough find that according to experts, can help us find aliens.

The solar system which has 8 planets orbiting a distant star was identified with the help of Artificial Intelligence, which combed through data gathered by the Kepler Space Telescope.

Although the Kepler 90 star system was already found before, its eighth planet, called Kepler-90i was found thanks to a groundbreaking new project between Google and NASA.

The star system Kepler 90 is located 2,545 light-years away in the constellation Draco. The new planet orbits its star every 14.4 days. All of the planets within that solar system tightly orbit its host star.

The discovery is a revolutionary one because this is the first time researchers have identified a solar system in the universe that has the same number of planets orbiting it as our own sun.

Before AI started combing through Kepler’s data, ‘Kepler 90 was tied with Trappist-1, with 7 planets each,’ says Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

The discovery raises hopes of finding alien life and as NASA puts it, this discovery demonstrated for the first time ever, that distant star system can house a family of planets as large as our own.

The newly found planet, Kepler-90i is believed to be around thirty percent larger than Earth, but it is not a planet you’d want to visit according to Andrew Vanderburg, astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin.

Despite the fact that the planet is most likely rocky, it doesn’t have a thick atmosphere and the temperature present on the surface are most likely scorching, having an average surface temperature of around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Automatic Learning or Machine Learning—a new tool in the hunt for aliens

Machine Learning is the subfield of computer science and a branch of artificial intelligence whose objective is to develop techniques that allow computers to learn.

More specifically, it is about creating programs capable of generalizing behaviors from information provided in the form of examples.

How AI found the planet that had gone unnoticed.

This is how scientists Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg went further and created a complete network of computers to identify exoplanetary transit signals.

Based on how neurons interconnect in the human brain, this artificial “neural network” scrutinized the data collected by Kepler and found a world (Kepler-90i) that, due to its weak signal, had gone unnoticed to scietists.

Had it not been for AI, we would never have discovered the planet Kepler-90i.

This discovery also raises other questions like, how many other planets have gone unnoticed until now, and whether or not some of them host alien life.

“As we expected, there are exciting discoveries in Kepler’s data, waiting for the right technology to be brought to light,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division in Washington.

“This finding demonstrates that the data of today is a treasure for the researchers of tomorrow.”

While machine learning had previously been used in Kepler’s database searches, this is the first time that an artificial neural network has been created that can find even the weakest signal in a distant world.

Anyway, while many of us thought that NASA had lined up a bit more of an exciting discovery, as many of you have already been able to deduce, the kernel of this announcement by NASA is not in the finding of  Kepler-90, a very compact system where the farthest planet orbits at the distance that the Earth does from the Sun, but in the fact that artificial intelligence has taken a new step in the field of the search for alien planets, and perhaps, extraterrestrial life itself.

Seen here are some of the alien worlds found by Kepler since 2009, and their average sizes and temperatures (blue shows Earth-like temperatures, red shows lava at the surface).

Maybe soon, the AI will help us identify aliens, just as it helped us find a planet that had gone unnoticed until now.

How many exoplanets has Kepler discovered?

Kepler mission:

• Candidate exoplanets: 4,496
• Confirmed exoplanets: 2,341
• Confirmed exoplanets less than twice Earth-size in the habitable zone: 30

K2 mission:

• Candidate exoplanets: 515
• Confirmed exoplanets: 184

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

15-12-2017 om 15:43 geschreven door peter  

Amanda Cross in Euxton, Lancs, UK caught the images above of Sirius – the brightest star in Earth’s sky, sometimes called the Dog Star – on December 11, 2017.

She wrote:

This is the star Sirius early in the morning. I used a high ISO and 1/320 shutter speed. The colour flashes are picked up by the camera as the atmosphere splits the light from the star. No color enhancements were made to this image. This is how the camera picked up the colors.

Thank you, Amanda!

It’s true. When you see this very bright star low in the sky, it appears to flash in many different colors. These colors aren’t intrinsic to the star, but instead result from refraction, which splits starlight into the colors of the rainbow. Atmospheric refraction causes all kinds of strange optical effects, like bent crescent moons, and flattened suns. And it causes the brightest stars – like Sirius – to shine in many sparkling colors!

When you see Sirius higher in the sky, where you’re looking at it through less atmosphere, this star appears to shine more steadily and with a whiter color.

Read more: Sirius is Dog Star and brightest star

Sirius is part of the constellation Canis Major – the Greater Dog – looking super cute in this photo Tom Wildoner.

How can you be sure you’ve found Sirius? Orion’s Belt always points to it.

Bottom line: Composite image of the star Sirius, shining in many colors.

SIRIUS -THE RAINBOW STAR - 

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 15:27 geschreven door peter  

“These professional astronomers are claiming the exclusive right to give ‘approved’ names to the stars. But the stars – and the sky – belong to all of us.”

Star map painting by Senior Wardaman Elder Bill Yidumduma Harney, featuring the Milky Way, the moon, and ancestor spirits. The IAUincluded this image with its announcement of new star names.

There’s been a debate among professional astronomers about who should have the right and/or obligation to name stars and other space objects. The visible stars have had many names, because they were named over time by many different people and in many cultures. But, around the 1930s, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) took it upon itself to divide the sky – “officially” – into 88 constellations, and since then the IAU has been naming all sorts of space objects. In recent years, bowing to pressure from outside groups that allow individuals and non-astronomers to name stars (for a price), the IAU ran a global competition to let non-professional astronomers participate in naming stars. It announced 227 star names a year ago, which were chosen in that semi-public process. This week (December 11, 2017), the IAU announced it had formally approved names for 86 more stars, without asking for public input.

These new names have now been added to the IAU’s stellar name catalog, and thus the IAU’s catalog now contains “approved” names for 313 stars. Many of the names are what we amateur astronomers have been calling these stars all along. Most of the 313 are, after all, among the brightest stars in our skies. But some are entirely new names.

Click here, and go midway down, to see the IAU’s list of star names

The new star names are for somewhat fainter stars than those announced last year. The brightest one in this new batch is a 2nd-magnitude star known as Delta Velorum, which has been given the name Alsephina, stemming from the Arabic name al-safinah meaning the ship. Delta Velorum is part of the constellation Vela the Sails, which used to be one large constellation called Argo Navis, the ship of the Argonauts. The IAU got rid of Argo Navis when it “officially” named constellations in the 1930s, dividing the great celestial ship into several smaller constellations. But I digress … easy to do when speaking of names for stars and constellations.

The IAU explained in its recent statement:

Traditionally, most star names used by astronomers have come from Arabic, Greek, or Latin origins. [The 86 new names are] drawn from those used by other cultures, namely Australian Aboriginal, Chinese, Coptic, Hindu, Mayan, Polynesian, and South African.

… Modern star catalogs contain millions or even billions of objects, most of which are identified by designations — strings of letters and numbers indicating their position or ordering. The IAU reviews the names of the brightest and most interesting stars rather than assigning designations using merely strings of letters and numbers. Some bright stars have accumulated dozens of names and spelling variations over the years.

This time, the naming has been done exclusively by the IAU Working Group on Star Names. Eric Mamajek, chair and organiser of this sub-committee within the IAU, said the astronomers had been:

… researching traditional star names from cultures around the world and adopting unique names and spellings to avoid confusion in astronomical catalogues and star atlases. These names help ensure that intangible astronomical heritage from skywatchers around the world, and across the centuries, are preserved for use in an era of exoplanetary systems.

Unless you know the stars well, perhaps the only star name you’ll recognize on the IAU’s most recent list of named stars is Barnard’s Star. It’s not a bright star but is one of the nearest stars to our sun. It was discovered by astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard in 1916 and for decades was suspected of having a planet. The IAU said that the name Barnard’s Star – which has been in common use for a century – can stay.

I enjoyed reading about the IAU’s new Chinese star names for 11 stars. Three of those names came from the Chinese idea of lunar mansions, vertical strips of sky that act as markers for following the nightly progress of the moon, providing a basis for a lunar calendar. There’s a logic and history to that that’s very appealing, to me.

And certainly there must be equally good reasons for the IAU’s new star names from other cultures, as well. It’s a thoughtful and careful list.

Read more from the IAU about the new star names

Astronomer Alan Stern. The New Horizons mission to Pluto was his brainchild, and he has also founded a private company in an attempt to give the public more access to naming and defining things in space. The company is called UWingU.

Image via @AlanStern.

Still, it rankles me and some others in astronomy that the professional astronomers of the IAU are claiming the exclusive right to give ‘approved’ names to the stars. The stars – and the sky – belong to all of us. Other organizations have popped up that will also name these features for you, for a price.

EarthSky doesn’t take an “official” view on any of this, but, personally, I don’t like fences. I’m always wishing my neighbors would agree to remove the fences in our backyards, for example (although I know they never will), so it’d be like one big yard. That’s just my mindset, and I know many of you will disagree; I’m just a person who likes wide open spaces. So you won’t be surprised to know I feel a touch of sadness about these new “approved” names. It’s like these stars now have little fences, of sorts, around them.

As for the companies that offer to name stars for a price … it’s a fact that many people enjoy having stars or exoplanets or planetary features named for themselves. Where’s the harm? If it makes your mom, or your sweetheart, or anyone you love feel good, I say … do it!

Bottom line: Astronomers often know multiple names for stars, or call them by their Greek letter names. Now, the International Astronomical Union has chosen “approved” star names for 86 more stars.

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 15:10 geschreven door peter  

Interstellar Visitor Stays Silent But Researchers Aren't Done Analyzing

Oumuamua, the first interstellar asteroid to have been found in the solar system of Earth has remained silent up to now and not shown any sign of life. The asteroid went past Earth two months ago and scientists have been searching for artificial signals coming from it but up to now have not found any. 

$100 Million Funding In Search for Alien Life

The scientists have $100 million funding and they made the announcement that Oumuamua has remained silent on December 14. However, the researchers have not yet finished analyzing data from the West Virginian Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. The scientists also have plans on undertaking three more blocks of observation according to the team members. 

The director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center in California revealed that it was good seeing the data come in from what is an interesting source. He went on to reveal that all the team had been extremely excited to learn what future analyses are going to reveal. 

Shape of Oumuamua Caused Speculation of It Being An Alien Spacecraft 

The asteroid Oumuamua has been causing a stir in the world of astronomy and planetary science along with SETI communities ever since the asteroid first came onto the radar in the middle of October 2017. The trajectory of the object revealed that the asteroid had arrived from another solar system, while the strange shape, which is elongated, sparked a great deal of talk about it being an alien spaceship. 

Of course, this was something of a long shot, but still, there were many astronomers that believed the object was well worth looking into. The SETI Institute scientists in California used the Allen Telescope Array to search for any signals that were coming from Oumuamua but up to now the search for alien life has failed. 

People are not giving up though and the Breakthrough Listen Project have studied Oumuamua, which is said to be about 400 meters in length using four radio bands which spanned over many billions of individual channels on December 13 when they made use of the 330 foot Green Bank dish. 

The observation went on for 6 hours and managed to capture 90 terabytes of data throughout the 2-hour observation of the huge asteroid. Of course, looking through so much information is going to take a great deal of time. The Breakthrough Listen team plan on using three more observation blocks in the future as they continue their search for alien life.

{  https://www.disclose.tv/ }

15-12-2017 om 14:38 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

15-12-2017 om 14:16 geschreven door peter  

This is the job I want. The researchers who recently used cosmic rays to find a massive previously-unknown “void” inside the Great Pyramid are now planning to drill a hole, shove a deflated micro-blimp drone through it, inflate it and send it around the insides of the pyramid. Can a blimp outrun a mummy with a dagger?

The idea for this great movie plot comes from the folks at ScanPyramids, a group of engineers from the Heritage Innovation Preservation (HIP) Institute in Florida and the University of Cairo. They’re the researchers who used “cosmic ray imaging” to measure subatomic particles from space as they passed through the Great Pyramid to map its insides and possibly find unknown voids and chambers. As revolutionary as that is, all it gives is a type of x-ray image of the insides. Since Egypt’s government blocks humans from entering the pyramid, there has to be another way to see inside the real thing.

Enter Dr. Jean-Baptiste Mouret (a perfect movie name for a pyramid explorer). A senior researcher at Inria (“Inventors for the Digital World”), Mouret studies “machine learning and evolutionary computation as a means to design highly adaptive robots.” In a recent interview with Digital Trends, he first describes how he would get a robot inside the pyramid.

“The main challenge is to insert a complete exploration robot in a hole that is as small as possible. It is important to use a hole as small as possible because we want to leave as few traces as we can. This what we call ‘minimally invasive robotics.’ We chose a diameter of 1.5 inches because it is a good trade-off between the size of the hole, the kind of machines that can bore holes, and the current robotics technologies.”

Assuming he or the people at ScanPyramids can get permission to drill a 1.5 inch (3.5 cm) hole into the pyramid (two monumental tasks), Mouret would then send in his specially-designed micro-blimp drone through the hole and self-inflate it once inside.

“[These robots] can touch obstacles without crashing and without risking damage to the monument. They are, moreover, intrinsically stable, which is important for taking pictures in low-light conditions, and they are more energy-efficient than multi-rotors.”

The blimp-bot would be remotely-controlled, but it will have autonomous capabilities to find its way back to its docking port and entry/exit hole should it lose communications.

Why would it lose communications? Can robots be affected by mummy curses? Would the curse be passed on to the robot’s inventor, owner or operator? Would the movie based on this be a thriller or a comedy?

Those are points to ponder while Dr. Jean-Baptiste Mouret waits for the proper permits to be approved by Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquity. Meanwhile, he plans to use the technology at other buildings or archaeological sites that can’t be explored by humans.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 14:01 geschreven door peter  

To add to the seemingly increasing strangeness overhead in our skies, reports of so-called megacryometeors have been increasing lately. These anomalous balls of ice are believed to either fall from aircraft overhead or be the result of some unknown atmospheric activity. In many cases, however, aviation authorities claim no aircraft had overhead at the time of megacryometeors falling. Case in point: two California homeowners got the scares of their lives this week as anomalous massive chunks of ice fell from the skies, crashing through their homes and generally scaring the pants off of everyone. Like in most cases, the Federal Aviation Administration claims it knows nothing. The first case happened in San Bernardino, California at the home of 82-year-old Claudell Curry. Curry and his wife were enjoying a quiet evening at home on Sunday, December 10 when a horrible crashing sound came from their bedroom.

Luckily, no one was injured in either case.

Upon entering their bedroom, the Currys found chunks of clear ice lying and debris from their ceiling littering the room. Had they been in bed, Curry told the San Bernardino Sun, the result would have been quite different:

That terrible noise, I never heard a noise like that before. We shiver every time we think we could have been in bed. The wife is still nervous, but we are doing OK. It was quite a traumatic experience.

It probably would have been more traumatic had the ice been blue, indicating it came from an airplane lavatory. Since it was clear like in other unexplained megacryometeor cases, its origin isn’t so easily identified. A similar case happened just a month prior only a few dozen miles away when another deadly chunk of ice fell through a home in Chino, California. The FAA hasn’t been able to identify a source for either case, as there were no commercial flights in the area on either date. The nearby March Air Reserve Base, Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, and Camp Pendleton also deny responsibility, stating there are no planes kept on those bases.

A Spanish megacryometeor which fell in 2007.

Whatever the cause may be, something weird is going on in the skies lately. Unexplained booms have been rocking the skiesover North America, sometimes accompanied by unexplained debris. In a few cases, tight-lipped federal agents have shown up to whisk the debris away before onlookers and journalists get a good look. Could these booms and ice chunks indicate some off-the-books or clandestine aerospace activity?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 13:53 geschreven door peter  

Within the specific genre of science-fiction, fantastic tales of time-travel to the far-flung future or to the distant past are hardly rarities. Take, for example, H.G. Wells’ epic novel of 1895: The Time Machine. The book tells the story of a brilliant, London, England-based scientist, inventor and adventurer who journeys to the year A.D. 802,701 where, to his complete and utter dismay, he finds that the Human Race (in the form that we understand it, at least) no longer exists. In its place are the Eloi and the Morlocks. The former are relatively human-looking beings (albeit of smaller stature), yet they utterly lack vitality, imagination, and any desire to learn or advance. The Morlocks, meanwhile, are fearsome, savage and nightmarish beasts who dwell in darkened underground lairs and who use the Eloi as we use cattle: namely, as a source of food.

Then there is The Philadelphia Experiment: an entertaining Hollywood film allegedly based on real events, and which tells the story of two sailors – David Herdeg and Jim Parker – who are propelled through time from 1943 to the Nevada Desert, circa 1984.

And we should not forget the BBC show, The Flipside of Dominick Hide, in which the main character travels through time from A.D. 2130 to London, England in 1980. Ostensibly there to observe the transportation systems of the past, Hide subsequently finds himself on a quest to locate one of his distant ancestors.

Although these three tales of fictionalized time travel are very different in nature, they all have one thing in common: the time travel that all of the characters experience is achieved via the use of highly advanced (albeit sometimes unreliable) technology: In Wells’ The Time Machine, the chief character (whose name we never actually get to learn) builds his own device to traverse the centuries. In The Philadelphia Experiment, Herdeg and Parker take part in a secret U.S. Navy operation. And Dominick Hide undertakes the journey from 2130 to 1980 via nothing less than his very own flying saucer. However, there are countless reports on record where people – in the real world – seem to have crossed the time-barrier entirely at random, and without the means of sci-fi-style machine-based technologies. Such cases have become known as Time-Slips.

One of the most famous examples of what some researchers think may have been a definitive Time-Slip involved two British women: Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, who, it has been suggested, traveled through time while visiting the gardens of the Petit Trianon at Versailles, France. It was August 10, 1901 when the pair paid a trip to the Palace of Versailles. While walking through the grounds, both Moberly and Jourdain were overcome by distinctly oppressive feelings of gloom and uneasiness. They would later claim to have met with a wide variety of individuals, all garbed in 18th Century clothing, and who they came to believe had been members of the court of none other than Marie Antoinette. More controversially, the pair said they saw a figure they thought may very well have been Marie Antoinette herself.

Did Moberly and Jourdain really cross the time-barrier into centuries-past? To this day, the story has as many believers as it does detractors. But there is one important factor of which to take careful note: their amazing story does not stand alone. Indeed, there are numerous reports on record of people apparently passing through time – entirely at random, and without the benefit of any form of out-of-this-world technology.

A key event of the First English Civil War, the Battle of Hopton Heath (a small village in south Shropshire) was fought on Sunday, March 19, 1643 between Parliamentarian and Royalist forces. The battle ended at nightfall, with the actual victory and outcome still remaining matters of very much personal opinion. The Royalists, for example, had succeeded in capturing eight enemy-guns; while the Parliamentarians believed that their successful killing of the enemy commander, the Earl of Northampton, was of equal – if not even greater – significance.

But, without doubt of even more significance was a startling event that occurred at some point in the winter of 1974. It was late at night and then-thirty-six-year-old John ‘Davy’ Davis, a Lichfield, Staffordshire-based house-painter at the time, was driving near Hopton Heath when he began to feel unwell: an ominous tightness developed in his chest, he felt lightheaded, and, as he succinctly put it, “my left ear hurt and felt hot.”

Quickly pulling over to the side of the road, Davis was amazed to see the night-sky suddenly transform into daylight, while the road in front of him no longer existed: instead, it had been replaced by a mass of fields, heath-land and tangled trees. And, in front of him, countless soldiers adorned in what was clearly Civil War-clothing waged harsh war upon one another. Notably, Davis said that although at one point he was “nearly bloody surrounded” by the soldiers, it was almost as if they could neither see him nor his vehicle. This afforded Davis a degree of relief, as he was practically frozen to the spot, and “couldn’t have run if I had wanted to.” As it transpired, Davis didn’t need to run anywhere: just a few seconds later, the bizarre scene suddenly vanished, and Davis found himself sat at the edge of the road, with his car squashed against a large line of hedge, and with complete and utter normality returned.

Horning is an old village in Norfolk, England situated between Wroxham and Ludham, on the River Bure. The village’s Ferry Inn is typical of the many old taverns that dominate the area, and the 13th Century church of St. Benedict can be found half-a-mile to the east of the village. On a summer’s afternoon in either 1978 or 1979, the Margolis family was enjoying a stroll around the picturesque village when, like so many before them and since, they were overcome by a feeling of distinct uneasiness and unreality – as well as total silence, and a slight dizziness.

That uneasiness quickly mutated into concern, fright, and overwhelming disorientation as the landscape became “fuzzy” (“like a big heat-haze”), the houses were replaced by ancient cottages, and the road ahead of them became little more than a muddy track. As for the cars that had been in sight, they were no more. Instead, a battered and bruised cart appeared – that was being pulled by a large cart-horse. A thin man dressed in brown walked alongside the horse; yet appeared not to notice any of the family in the slightest.

Suddenly, however, the modern-day sounds of cars and voices began to echo all around them, and the strange spectacle was now utterly gone. Notably, it seems that Mrs. Margolis may very well have been exposed to the odd scene for slightly less a period of time than was her now-late husband and their 11-year-old son. “I looked at them when I came out of it,” recalled Mrs. Margolis in a 1997 interview, “and it was like they were in a trance: their mouths were hanging down, and their eyes looked funny. Then they looked like they woke up and we were all back together again.”

Interestingly, odd and unsettling feelings and sensations, such as those referenced in each of the cases above, were also referred to by author Andrew Mackenzie in his book Adventures in Time: Encounters with the Past. Such events, reported Mackenzie, are “often accompanied by feelings of depression, eeriness and a marked sense of silence, deeper than normally experienced.” Similarly, Jenny Randles’ book, Time Storms: Amazing Evidence for Time Warps, Space Rifts, and Time Travel firmly demonstrates that whatever we may think we know about the nature of time, in reality we may not even know the half of it.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 13:22 geschreven door peter  

The scanning for signs of life inside the interstellar asteroid and possible interstellar spacecraft known as Oumuamua has barely started and already a leading astronomer is claiming that the space rock/space ship is possibly a Von Neumann probe. Coupling that name with its cigar shape makes this sound like an unpleasant German medical procedure, but this is the same astronomer who declared that the dimming of Tabby’s star was caused by a Dyson sphere being built around it, so it’s time to do what we did back then and find out what the heck a Von Neumann probe really is.

The astronomer is Dr. Jason Wright from Penn State University and the Von Neumman probe theory appeared in his blog in a discussion over the idea that this may be not lone craft but one of thousands:

“Why would there be so many of them? Part of the argument that it is possible to settle the entire Galaxy is that exponential growth is possible, because the only limiting resource is the stars (and the material around them) themselves. Exponential growth can be achieved via Von Neumann probes: self-replicating spacecraft that go to a system, make lots more of themselves, and then go to more systems.”

John von Neumann

The concept is named after Hungarian American mathematician (sometimes called the last great mathematician), physicist and pioneering computer scientist John von Neumann, who spent time researching the concept of self-replicating machines or “Universal Assemblers,” which were capable of creating exact copies of themselves. These became known as “von Neumann machines” and, when the theory was applied to spacecraft, “von Neumann probes.” These probes could create new models to continue traveling long distance through space, or they could be programmed to make copies of life forms they encounter.

One physicist and mathematician who liked the idea of the von Neumann probe is none other than Freeman Dyson, theorizer of the Dyson sphere. Dyson used inspiration from the von Neumann probe to imagine a small 1 kg (2.2 lb) craft that would be taken into space by another ship and then released like an egg. The “egg” would “hatch” a solar-powered probe that traveled the solar system, collecting data and samples and powering itself with chemical “nutrients” it picked up. Dyson presented the idea during a lecture in Adelaide, Australia, where an audience member blurted out the name “Astro-chicken” and Dyson liked it enough to use it. While not as well-known as the Dyson sphere, Astrochicken is a concept (small robotic space probes) that is popular among space scientists.

Freeman Dyson, father of the Astrochicken

What were we talking about again? Oh, yeah, the interstellar space probe. Dr. Wright proposes that Oumuamua could be a “derelict craft” with broken engines that is slowly tumbling through space without attitude control. However, it could still have a communications system, possibly still capable of replicating itself, that could be generating signals that the astronomers closely observing it this week might pick up. As of this writing, they haven’t heard anything.

Maybe they can’t hear it over the laughter every time someone says “Astrochicken!” or asks if the von Neumann probe is heading for Uranus.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 13:09 geschreven door peter  

Something is terrorizing a Sunshine Coast community in Queensland, Australia. Something large. Whatever it is, it has so far ripped open animal enclosures, devoured pets and livestock, and left little traces behind. The Sunshine Coast Daily reports that locked gates were destroyed by something capable of leaving behind “huge paw prints.” One local resident and eyewitness, Kay McCullock, described her near-encounter with the creature while it tore apart her neighbor’s poor defenseless guinea fowl:

When I looked into the neighbour’s yard, I could see the guinea fowls getting attacked by – you’re gonna’ love this – an unseen predator… As if the birds were being thrown around by something invisible. When I found three lots of clumped feathers there was no blood and no bodies.

Unseen predator? Invisible monster ripping birds apart like gore-filled piñatas? Yes, you’re right, Kay, I am gonna love it. Especially given McCullock’s description of her second encounter with the beast:

I heard ‘it’ again and went out with my sword and yelled at it. I heard growling and a kind of snorting. It was quick and by the time I got to the gate I couldn’t see anything.

Too bad. Slaying a phantom big cat with a sword would have made a great story to share at that boring holiday office party. Sure beats Linda from HR’s same old story about that time she found the bowling ball in the soup. McCullock says that so far, locals believe the only two remaining possible suspects are black panthers and Yowie. Given that large feline species aren’t indigenous to Australia, could this be another case of the ever-elusive phantom big cat? Or has Bigfoot’s inbred down-under cousin developed a taste for poultry?

“Who ya callin’ inbred?”

Unfortunately for those of us who want to believe in what goes bump in the night, there’s likely a much more benign explanation. Over the last couple of years, packs of feral wild dogs have reached what some are calling “epidemic” levels throughout Queensland. One local rancher told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2016 that the animals have become increasingly bold and terrifying in recent years:

I grew up with dingoes up north…but never experienced the pack attitude that we have here. Most of the time we see them in groups of four, up to nine, and that is what makes us feel unsafe. They are dangerous, they are not scared of us anymore, and you just feel outnumbered.

Could a large feral dog be responsible for killing these animals? It’s much more likely than a phantom cat or even Yowie. Everyone knows he prefers eating garbage.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-12-2017 om 13:01 geschreven door peter