Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS.
ON 06/04/2024 MORE THAN 1.951.050
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
18-12-2017
Astronomers spot primordial galaxies swimming in dark matter
Astronomers spot primordial galaxies swimming in dark matter
Artist’s concept of SPT0311-58, a pair of massive galaxies in the very early universe. Researchers say galaxies of this era are “messier” than the ones we see in the nearby universe. Their more jumbled shapes are due to the vast stores of gas raining down on them and their ongoing interactions and mergers with their neighbors.
Our solar system – our sun and family of planets – is thought to have been built from clumps of space stuff sticking together. Likewise, astronomers expected the first galaxies – those that formed shortly after the Big Bang – to resemble the little dwarf galaxies we see today, so that they’d serve as building blocks for larger galaxies that came later. And so nature surprised us by revealing examples of massive, star-filled galaxies seen when the cosmos was less than a billion years old. Now, new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have revealed two giant galaxies seen even farther away, and longer ago, when the universe was only 780 million years old, or about 5 percent its current age. These giant, early galaxies – collectively known as SPT0311-58 – appear to be nestled inside an even-more-massive dark matter halo, containing several trillion times the mass of our sun.
The researchers reported their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on December 6, 2017.
They said these two giant, early galaxies are close to each other, less than the distance from Earth to the center of our Milky Way galaxy. That’s why, they think, the galaxies will shortly merge to form the largest galaxy ever observed at that period in cosmic history. Dan Marrone, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson and lead author on the paper, said in a statement:
With these exquisite ALMA observations, astronomers are seeing the most massive galaxy known in the first billion years of the universe in the process of assembling itself.
A composite image showing ALMA data (red) of the two galaxies of SPT0311-58. These galaxies are shown over a background from the Hubble Space Telescope (blue and green). The ALMA data show the two galaxies’ dusty glow. The image of the galaxy on the right is distorted by gravitational lensing. The nearer foreground lensing galaxy is the green object between the two galaxies imaged by ALMA.
Image via ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Marrone, et al.; B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); NASA/ESA Hubble.
Located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile, ALMA is one of the world’s most advanced tools for astronomical observing. It’s an interferometer of radio telescopes, which has been fully operation only since March of 2013. It’s made possible by an international partnership between Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile. But even ALMA couldn’t see so far back into space and time without help.
In this case, the help came from nature itself, which produces what is called a a gravitational lens whenever an intervening massive object, like a galaxy or galaxy cluster, bends the light from more distant galaxies. In a universe of at least 100 billion galaxies (or more), this happen pretty often, but can be tricky to observe. Although galaxies between us and SPT0311-58 bent and magnified their light, sophisticated computer models were required to reconstruct the image of SPT0311-58 as these galaxies would appear in an unaltered state.
Yet the process of teasing out this data from the observations yielded yet more information according to these astronomers:
This ‘de-lensing’ process provided intriguing details about the galaxies, showing that the larger of the two is forming stars at a rate of 2,900 solar masses per year. It also contains about 270 billion times the mass of our sun in gas and nearly 3 billion times the mass of our sun in dust.
Justin Spilker at the University of Texas at Austin, a co-author on the study, commented:
That’s a whopping large quantity of dust, considering the young age of the system.
The astronomers believe the larger galaxy’s pace of star formation was likely triggered by a close encounter with its slightly smaller companion, which already hosts about 35 billion solar masses of stars and is also forming stars at a rate of about 540 solar masses per year.
The new observations also allowed the researchers to infer the presence of a truly massive dark matter halo surrounding both galaxies. Dark matter is thought to provide the pull of gravity that causes the universe to collapse into structures such as galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies and so on. By comparing their calculations with current cosmological predictions, the researchers found that this halo is one of the most massive that should exist at that time.
Gravitational lensing works – as Albert Einstein explained in his theory of general relativity – mass bends light. The gravitational field of a distant galaxy or galaxy cluster causes light to bend around it. From Earth, we see the light as displaced from where it would otherwise be.
The astronomers said they are seeing these galaxies during a period of cosmic history known as the Epoch of Reionization:
… when most of intergalactic space was suffused with an obscuring fog of cold hydrogen gas. As more stars and galaxies formed, their energy eventually ionized the hydrogen between the galaxies, revealing the universe as we see it today.
Marrone commented:
In any case, our next round of ALMA observations should help us understand how quickly these galaxies came together and improve our understanding of massive galaxy formation during reionization.
To correct for the effects of gravitational lensing in these galaxies, the ALMA data (left panel) is compared to a lensing-distorted model image (second panel from left). The difference is shown in the third panel from the left. The structure of the galaxy, after removing the lensing effect, is shown at right. This image loops through the different velocity ranges within the galaxy, which appear at different frequencies to ALMA due to the Doppler effect.
Bottom line: Astronomers thought galaxies in the early universe would be small. But they’ve just spotted 2 giant galaxies – collectively known as SPT0311-58 – at a time when the universe was only 780 million years old, or about 5 percent its curr }ent age.
A secretive Pentagon program investigating unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and evidence of alien life has been uncovered, revealing several sightings of peculiar aircraft by members of the U.S. military.
But despite the Pentagon insisting the program—first reported by The New York Times on Saturday—ended with the termination of its funding, its backers claim it is still in existence. Below are some of the most bizarre sightings laid out in the declassified reports.
Pentagon UFO Sightings: Las Vegas Research Facility
In order to investigate reports of UFO sightings, a building in Las Vegas was modified to house any materials that were suspected to have come from an unidentified flying object.
A sign off route U.S. 285, north of Roswell, New Mexico, points west to the alleged 1947 crash site of a flying saucer on the Corn Ranch.
REUTERS
This reportedly included metal alloys and plastics, while a section of the facility was also used to study people who claimed to have had contact with the objects that resulted in physical and physiological changes.
The Las Vegas-based facility also described sightings of flying objects that remained airborne despite no visible signs of propulsion or lift.
Pentagon UFO Sightings: ‘Whole fleet’ of Glowing Auras
Among the UFO sightings investigated by the U.S. Department of Defense was a rotating glowing aura that travelled at high speeds. The footage was captured from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet, though officials refused to give more details about the time or date of the sightings.
An audio recording from the Navy pilots who witnessed the peculiar aerial phenomena suggests there was more than one of the UFOs. “There’s a whole fleet of them,” one pilot is heard saying.
Another pilot responds: “My gosh. They are all going against the wind, the wind is 120 miles to the west… look at that thing dude.”
Aerial photo of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virgina on September 26, 2003.
(PHOTO BY ANDY DUNAWAY/USAF VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Pentagon UFO Sightings: Oval object in San Diego
Program officials also investigated events that took place prior to the program coming into existence, studying videos captured by cameras aboard military aircraft.
This included a 2004 video of a bright oval-shaped object off the coast of San Diego, which was determined by the pilots of the fighter jets pursuing it to be the size of a commercial aircraft.
Pentagon UFO Sightings: ‘Black Money’ Funding
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was funded with less than 0.004 percent of the Defense Department’s annual budget, which is partly why it has gone unreported for more than a decade.
The $22 million funding came thanks to Nevada Democrat and UFO enthusiast Harry Reid, who passed the majority of the money to his friend Robert Bigelow’s aerospace research firm Bigelow Aerospace.
If anyone says they have the answers, they’re fooling themselves.
We don’t know the answers but we have plenty of evidence to support asking the questions. This is about science and national security. If America doesn’t take the lead in answering these questions, others will.
Reid referred to these funds as “black money,” as only himself and two other senators—Alaska Republican Ted Stevens and Hawaii Democrat Daniel K. Inouye—knew of the program.
C’est officiel, nous savons maintenant que les OVNIs sont réels, mais sont-ils extraterrestres ?
Nous sommes presque en 2018, et le sujet des Objets Volants Non Identifiés (OVNI) ou du Phénomène Aérien Non Identifié (PANI, un terme qui semble être le nouveau “libellé officiel” du personnel gouvernemental) est maintenant un fait vérifié dans le courant dominant. Tout aussi certains que nous le sommes de plusieurs concepts différents issus de la science dure répétable, ou de l’information sur d’autres phénomènes dans d’autres domaines traitant de l’observation, nous (l’humanité) sommes tout aussi certains de l’existence des OVNIs.
Lorsque l’ex-ministre de la Défense nationale, Paul Hellyer, a déclaré que “les ovnis sont aussi réels que les avions qui volent au-dessus de nos têtes”, il ne plaisantait pas. Des documents, ainsi que des témoignages en direct de douzaines, voire de centaines de personnes de gouvernements et de groupes de renseignements de “haut niveau”ont également parlé publiquement du sujet.
Il y a littéralement trop d’exemples, depuis les généraux quatre étoiles jusqu’aux directeurs d’entreprises militaires comme Lockheed Martin, les directeurs d’agences de renseignement, les chefs de grands comités militaires comme l’OTAN, et bien plus encore.
Les derniers exemples en date seraient Steve Justice, un administrateur de Lockheed Skunkworks (aérospatiale) qui a récemment pris sa retraite il y a 30 ans, maintenant administrateur de To The Stars, il a récemment déclaré :
“Il s’agit d’un concept pour un engin de transport international point à point qui efface les limites actuelles de la distance et du temps de déplacement. Il imite les capacités observées dans le phénomène aérien non identifié en utilisant un système d’entraînement qui modifie la métrique espace-temps. Nous avons un aperçu de la façon dont cela fonctionne, mais nous devons exploiter les technologies de la Division des sciences pour “réaliser” cette capacité.” – Steve Justice, directeur de la Division de l’aérospatiale.
En faisant cette déclaration, il nous dit qu’il y a des embarcations non identifiées qui utilisent ces capacités pour parcourir ce que nous considérons comme de grandes distances.
Un de ses prédécesseurs, Ben Rich (2ème directeur de Lockheed Shunkworks) a également fait des commentaires très intéressants. Vous pouvez en savoir plus à ce sujet et consulter ses commentaires ici.
Robert Bigelow, le fondateur de Bigelow aerospace a récemment déclaré publiquement qu’il savait que “ET” est là. Vous pouvez voir cette interview et en savoir plus ici.
Bien sûr, les témoignages ne sont pas suffisants pour tirer une conclusion, mais étant donné leur position et leurs longs dossiers de “crédibilité”, il est presque ridicule de les ignorer. S’il s’agissait d’une ou deux personnes, il y aurait des raisons de douter, mais lorsqu’il y en a plusieurs centaines, nous savons qu’il y a quelque chose qui se passe, surtout quand leurs rencontres avec des “OVNIs” ont déjà été vérifiées par leur employeur, le gouvernement et par des documents officiels préalablement classifiés.
Puisque beaucoup ne considèrent pas que les témoignages de témoins sont crédibles, peu importe d’où ils viennent, il est toujours important de mentionner les documents, les preuves de suivi radar et plus encore.
Évidemment, c’est un sujet qui interpelle encore beaucoup de gens, ça les brosse dans le mauvais sens du poil et entre en conflit avec des systèmes de croyances ancestraux. C’est une tendance qui s’est manifestée avec de nombreux sujets et de nouvelles découvertes tout au long de l’histoire humaine, les choses changent lentement au fil du temps, mais avec notre développement technologique rapide, qui continue d’augmenter à un rythme exponentiel, nous ne semblons pas si lointain. En fait, nous semblons déjà en être là.
“Nous avons déjà les moyens de voyager parmi les étoiles, mais ces technologies sont enfermées dans des projets noirs, et il faudrait un acte de Dieu pour les faire sortir au profit de l’humanité. Tout ce que vous pouvez imaginer, nous savons déjà comment le faire”
Rappelez-vous, OVNI ne signifie pas à 100% extraterrestre, cependant, c’est l’une des nombreuses possibilités et probabilités qui ont leurs propres preuves pour faire cette affirmation.
Les documents qui ont été rendus publics par plusieurs gouvernements, agences de renseignements et par l’intermédiaire de la Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) indiquent des objets et des rencontres (principalement militaires) avec des objets voyageant à des vitesses inaccessibles et effectuant des manœuvres qu’aucun de nos avions connus ne peut réaliser, dans certains cas, ils défient notre propre compréhension de la physique.
“Au fur et à mesure que le F-4 s’approchait, il perdait toute l’instrumentation et les communications. Lorsque le F-4 s’est éloigné de l’objet et qu’apparemment il n’était plus une menace pour lui, l’avion a retrouvé toutes les communications et instruments de navigation. Un autre objet brillant est sorti de l’objet original. Le second objet s’est dirigé vers le F-4.” (source)
Ci-dessous, un petit discours de Jacques Vallée sur la façon de commencer à apprendre de toutes ces rencontres. C’est un informaticien et astronome qui a travaillé pour la NASA, et plus encore. Il est le plus à même de co-développer la première cartographie informatisée de Mars et pour son travail à SRI International sur le centre d’information réseau d’ARPANET.
Déception gouvernementale
Ce serait le bon moment pour affirmer que, de toute évidence, nos gouvernements nous ont trompés bien souvent et sur divers sujets, il est plus que probable qu’au fur et à mesure que de plus en plus d’informations continueront à se retrouver dans le domaine public, il y aura de bonnes raisons d’avoir un scepticisme accru lorsqu’ils parleront des OVNI et/ou des extraterrestres, comme c’est le cas pour n’importe quoi d’autre.
Le monde dominant est plein d’agendas tordus et de tentatives de modifier notre perception de la vérité et du profit, ou d’autres agendas qui ne sont pas vraiment dans le meilleur intérêt du peuple, mais plutôt dans le meilleur intérêt des “1%”. La guerre mondiale contre la drogue ou le terrorisme en sont de parfaits exemples.
Pour se faire une idée claire de ce sujet, ce qui est presque impossible, il faut faire des recherches indépendantes plutôt que de s’en remettre aux mêmes médias qui ont des liens étroits avec les intérêts des entreprises et du gouvernement, sous le couvert de la “sécurité nationale”.
Cela ne veut pas dire qu’il n’y a pas de bonnes personnes, avec des intentions pures, qui ne font que leur travail dans ces arènes. C’est un sujet compliqué, mais en discutant, il faut toujours garder l’état profond dans le dos de son esprit, car il contrôle la perception géopolitique dans son ensemble, dans la plupart des cas.
Il y a des efforts qui sont faits pour alerter le public, l’effort de To The Stars par Tom Delonge en est un, mais c’est un sujet très compartimenté. Il reçoit de l’information de ceux qui travaillent dans le milieu du renseignement, mais de qui obtiennent-ils cette information et est-ce exact ? Est-ce vrai ? Ou est-ce qu’il y a une sorte de tour de passe-passe, pour quelque raison que ce soit ? Et ceux qui relaient cette information se rendent-ils compte qu’il pourrait y avoir un véritable tour de passe-passe ?
Qui sait ce qui se passe vraiment.
Y a-t-il vraiment des raisons légitimes pour justifier le camouflage après tant d’années ? Était-ce justifié ? Je crois que l’humanité est censée vivre dans la transparence, et nous pouvons et devons gérer ce type d’information, nous étions censés la recevoir. Reconnaître certaines vérités sur la nature de la réalité est une étape importante de notre évolution humaine, car elle nous donne l’occasion de dépasser les paradigmes du passé et d’avancer là où nous sommes censés aller, et peut-être vers les étoiles.
La prise de contrôle corporatif et financier de notre système démocratique a sans aucun doute contribué au secret. Ce sujet a d’énormes implications technologiques et intellectuelles qui pourraient transformer complètement notre planète et aider à créer de nouvelles façons de faire les choses ici. Et, comme c’est le cas pour tout le reste, ceux qui font des milliards et des billions avec l’ancienne façon de faire les choses peuvent aussi avoir leur mot à dire.
Quel type de systèmes de propulsion ces embarcations utilisent-elles ?
Bien sûr, nous savons que les OVNIs sont réels, mais les médias grand public (ainsi que le gouvernement) ont une longue histoire de prendre des événements réels et de les utiliser à leur avantage, et le font généralement en déformant notre perception de ce qui se passe réellement.
Avec ce sujet, comme avec tous les autres, nous ne pouvons tout simplement pas compter sur les services de renseignements gouvernementaux et officiels en tout temps, avec une crédibilité totale.Il est important de se rappeler qu’il y a beaucoup de désinformation qui s’est infiltrée dans ce domaine, et il faut toujours utiliser leur discernement.
Sont-ils extraterrestres ?
L’existence des OVNIs est vérifiée de plusieurs manières différentes, mais l’intelligence extraterrestre est toujours une histoire différente. Plusieurs facteurs conduisent à l’hypothèse extraterrestre. Comme mentionné plus haut, avant que les OVNIs ne soient officiellement “vérifiés”, il y avait de bonnes raisons de croire en leur existence, et maintenant c’est officiel. De la même façon, il est maintenant prouvé que certains de ces engins sophistiqués sont en fait extraterrestres.
“Il y a de fortes chances que des gens de l’espace et d’autres civilisations nous visitent depuis de nombreuses années. Ce qu’ils sont, d’où ils viennent et ce qu’ils veulent devrait faire l’objet d’une enquête scientifique rigoureuse et ne pas faire l’objet d’une dissimulation ridicule par les tabloïds.” µ
(source) – Lord Admiral Hill-Norton, ancien chef d’état-major de la Défense, amiral 5 étoiles de la Marine royale, président du Comité militaire de l’OTAN.
Beaucoup de gens, comme Lord Amiral Hill-Norton, sont venus exprimer la même chose, et ont dit qu’ils ont une grande connaissance de l’intelligence extraterrestre en ce qui concerne le phénomène OVNI.
Voici un document du FBI discutant des corps extraterrestres et un vaisseau (pages 21 et 22), voici un article avec un document intéressant de la CIA qui fait référence à des corps extraterrestres et une rencontre militaire. Il y a plusieurs exemples que l’on peut trouver dans la littérature, qui sont à la fois bienveillants et malveillants.
Vous trouverez ci-dessous une discussion intéressante avec Richard Dolan, l’un des plus éminents spécialistes mondiaux du sujet. Il va un peu plus loin sur l’hypothèse extraterrestre. Si vous voulez en savoir plus sur le sujet, c’est un excellent point de départ.
“C’est ma thèse que les soucoupes volantes sont réelles et qu’elles sont des vaisseaux spatiaux d’un autre système solaire. Je pense qu’ils sont peut-être habités par des observateurs intelligents, membres d’une race qui a peut-être étudié notre Terre pendant des siècles”
– Herman Oberth, père fondateur de la fusée moderne (source)
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Le Pentagone reconnaît l'existence d'un programme d'étude des ovnis (vidéo)
Le Pentagone reconnaît l'existence d'un programme d'étude des ovnis (vidéo)
Le Pentagone a reconnu l’existence d’un mystérieux programme chargé d’enquêter sur les observations d’objets volants non identifiés (ovni).
Le ministère de la Défense américain assure que le programme s’est arrêté en 2012, mais le New York Times affirme que les enquêtes sur les incidents impliquant des ovnis, rapportés par les militaires, continuent.
Entre 2007 et 2012, le programme baptisé Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (Programme d’identification des menaces aérospatiales avancées) a documenté d’étranges objets volants, évoluant à grande vitesse sans propulsion visible ou en position stationnaire sans moyen apparent de portance, selon le New York Times.
L’une des vidéos obtenues par le New York Times montre deux avions de chasse américains qui poursuivent un objet ovale de la taille d’un avion de ligne, au large de la côte californienne, en 2004.
Le Pentagone a déclaré dans un communiqué que le programme s’est terminé en 2012.
« Il a été déterminé qu’il y avait d’autres priorités qui méritaient un financement et qu’il était dans le meilleur intérêt du ministère d’apporter un changement », indique le Pentagone.
Le programme doté d’un budget de 22 millions de dollars, et seulement connu d’un petit nombre de responsables, a été initié par l’ancien sénateur démocrate du Nevada, alors chef de file de la majorité au Sénat, Harry Reid, qui portait un intérêt particulier aux phénomènes inexpliqués.
La majeure partie de l’argent du programme est allée à une société de recherche aérospatiale dirigée par Robert Bigelow, un entrepreneur milliardaire et un ami de longue date de d’Harry Reid, selon le New York Times.
« Nous n’avons pas les réponses, mais nous avons beaucoup d’éléments pour justifier de se poser des questions », a expliqué Harry Reid sur son compte Twitter après la publication de l’enquête du New York Times, samedi.
« C’est une question scientifique et de sécurité nationale. Si l’Amérique ne se charge pas de répondre à ces questions, d’autres le feront.
An interstellar asteroid is analyzed for signs of alien life, the last man to walk on the moon releases chapters of his diary, astrophotographers across the world capture beautiful images of the Geminid meteor shower and astronauts politely wait for their new crewmembers to finally watch the new 'Star Wars' film aboard the International Space Station. Here are this week's top stories on Space.com.
Photo Credit: Aubrey Gemignani/NASA
1. President Trump directs NASA to return to the moon.
On Dec. 11, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1, which orders NASA to send humans back to the moon. However, the administration has not offered further information about a timeline for this effort, nor estimated budget information to make the return to the lunar surface a reality.
After five months in orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, and American astronaut Randy Bresnik touched down in Kazakhstan on Thursday (Dec. 14). Their departure aboard the Soyuz MS-05 spacecrat marked an official end to Expedition 53, the 53rd crewed mission to the ISS since the year 2000.
On Dec. 11, Harrison Schmitt released the fifth chapter of his diary, which recounts his experiences launching to the moon as a lunar module pilot on NASA's Apollo 17 mission on that day in 1972. Schmitt is currently drafting his account of the epic journey to share with the public.
Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, CFHT, CXO, M.J. Jee (University of California, Davis), and A. Mahdavi (San Francisco State University)
4. New alternative to dark matter is published
A Swiss astrophysicist has proposed the "cotensor analysis," a concept which offers an alternative to the notion of dark matter. The elusive, invisible substance thought to make up more than 80 percent of the universe's total mass may not be the source behind many mysterious cosmic phenomena after all, and activity that has previously been attributed to dark matter, like the rotation rate of individual galaxies, may be explained with the study's new model, the researchers say.
5. Astronauts to watch latest 'Star Wars' film from far, far away.
NASA transmitted a digital copy of the latest "Star Wars" film to the International Space Station (ISS), but since three new crewmembers are set to join the ISS on Sunday (Dec. 17), the film screening may be held off until then. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" hit movie theaters on Friday (Dec. 15).
In another step toward total rocket reusability, SpaceX successfully launched and landed a previously flown rocket on Friday (Dec. 15). The payload aboard the two-stage Falcon 9 rocket was Space X's Dragon capsule, which brought scientific experiments, supplies and (perhaps) Christmas presents to the International Space Station.
"Shooting stars" lit up the sky this week as the Geminid meteor shower peaked on the evening of Dec. 13 into the morning of Dec. 14. The spectacle occurs each year as Earth passes through a cloud of meteoroids associated with asteroid 3200 Phaethon. The rain of space rock particles can cause meteor rates of up to 100 per hour.
A preliminary design for a 2018 United States Postal Service (USPS) stamp depicts Sally Ride, the first American women in space, with the Challenger space shuttle. According to a USPS press release from Tuesday (Dec. 12), her likeness will be featured on a stamp series sometime next year to commemorate her groundbreaking launch into space in June 1983.
Photo Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel
9. Google machine-learning tech used in new exoplanet discovery.
Scientists discovered a new exoplanet orbiting the star Kepler-90 by using Google artificial intelligence to analyze archival data from NASA's Kepler mission. This planet, known as Kepler-90i, is the eighth known in the system, meaning Kepler-90 is now tied with our own sun as the star that hosts the most planets.
On Thursday (Dec. 14), scientists from the Breakthrough Listen project announced that their initial scans of the needle-shaped interstellar asteroid 'Ouamuamua with the Green Bank radio telescope had revealed no potential signals from an alien civilization to date. The team will continue to analyze the data, and it plans to conduct three more observation "blocks" of 'Oumuamua in the near future as well.
Recycled SpaceX Dragon Capsule Makes 2nd Delivery to Space Station
Recycled SpaceX Dragon Capsule Makes 2nd Delivery to Space Station
By Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor
SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo ship approaches the International Space Station (ISS) on April 17, 2015, in this still from a camera on the orbiting lab’s exterior. This same Dragon arrived at the space station on Dec. 17, 2017.
Credit: NASA TV
A used SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station for the second time Sunday (Dec. 17), delivering more than 2 tons of NASA supplies just in time for Christmas.
The uncrewed Dragon capsule was captured by astronauts using the space station's robotic arm at 5:57 a.m. EST (1057 GMT) as both spacecraft sailed 252 miles (405 kilometers) above the Pacific Ocean, between Australia and Papua New Guinea. [See photos for the Dragon cargo ship launch]
A recycled SpaceX Dragon cargo ship approaches the International Space Station on Dec. 17, 2017 to be captured by astronauts via a robotic arm. It is the second delivery flight to the station for the Dragon capsule.
Credit: NASA TV
"It's a great day to see Dragon back on ISS again," spacecraft communicator Leslie Ringo radioed the International Space Station (ISS) crew from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston. SpaceX launched the Dragon capsule Friday (Dec. 15).
"It's a beautiful spacecraft and we're looking forward to digging into it and getting some science on board," astronaut Joe Acaba of NASA replied from the station. Acaba assisted crewmate Mark Vande Hei, who controlled the station's arm during the Dragon capture.
Sunday's arrival marked the second cargo delivery mission for this SpaceX Dragon capsule. It last visited the station in April 2015. SpaceX also reused the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched the Dragon, with the booster landing on a pad to mark the company's 20th successful landing. SpaceX has developed its reusable rocket technology to lower the cost of spaceflight.
For this mission, SpaceX's 13th station resupply flight for NASA, the Dragon delivered nearly 4,800 lbs. (2,177 kilograms) of supplies and scientific gear for astronauts on the space station. Dragon will stay at the space station until mid-January, when it will return to Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, allowing SpaceX and NASA to recover experiment results and other gear.
Today's Dragon arrival capped a busy day for the International Space Station. Just hours earlier, at 2:21 a.m. EST (0721 GMT), a Russian Soyuz rocket launched three new crewmembers toward the orbiting lab from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige "Neemo" Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and astronaut Scott "Maker" Tingle of NASA launched aboard a Soyuz space capsule and will join the station's Expedition 54 crew later this week. The trio is scheduled to dock at the space station early Tuesday (Dec. 19) at 3:43 a.m. EST (0843 GMT).
Pentagon admits running secret UFO investigation for five years
Pentagon admits running secret UFO investigation for five years
Task force that investigated sightings of unidentified flying objects ran from 2007 to 2012 with annual budget of $22m.
A sign in Roswell, New Mexico. The revelation is likely to provide some satisfaction to UFO enthusiasts. Photograph: Visions of America/UIG via Getty Images
The truth is finally out there, after the Pentagon admitted it ran a secret UFO investigation programme for five years until 2012.
The Department of Defense’s own “X-Files” operation, known by the less catchy title of the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, was closed after a change in funding priorities, it said.
But the remarkable revelation has raised more questions than answers, including whether the programme has been completely shut down, or just covered up further.
While the Pentagon claims it ended five years ago, it said it continued to take seriously “all threats and potential threats to our people”.
The military intelligence official Luis Elizondo, who ran the programme on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, according to the New York Times, which broke the story, told the paper it was only the government funding that had dried up. He said activities continued under the direction of his successor, whom he declined to name.
Either way the revelation is likely to provide some satisfaction to UFO enthusiasts, often dismissed as conspiracy theorists.
Nick Pope, who used to run the British government’s UFO project, said: “The take-home message here is that there’s probably something out there, but we don’t know what it is. It’s an extraordinary revelation, not least because it directly contradicts the many specific denials that the US government has issued previously when asked about this subject, and their involvement in it.
“It precisely reflects my own experience of this intriguing but frustrating subject with the British government. Like our US colleagues, we too denied – even to parliament – that we were undertaking secret studies into the UFO phenomenon and consistently downplayed the true extent of our interest and activity at the Ministry of Defence.”
The New York Times said the project, parts of which remain classified, received $22m (£18.7m) each year, hidden away in US Department of Defense (DoD) budgets worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
It said its initial funding came largely at the request of the former Senate leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat long known for his enthusiasm for space phenomena. He was quoted as saying: “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going. I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”
Bill Clinton previously said that, during his time in the White House, he had tried to find out if there were any secret “X-Files”, concluding: “If so, they eluded me.”
In the UK, 209 files and approximately 52,000 pages of information on UFOs were released during a five-year rolling disclosure programme that concluded in 2013, containing details of about 6,000 separate observations reported to the British authorities since 1984.
In 2009, the Ministry of Defence closed down its hotline for UFO sightings, stating: “In over 50 years, no UFO report has revealed any evidence of a potential threat to the United Kingdom.”
Responding to the revelations about its activities, the Pentagon spokeswoman Laura Ochoas told Reuters: “The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ended in the 2012 timeframe. It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change.”
She added: “The DoD takes seriously all threats and potential threats to our people, our assets, and our mission and takes action whenever credible information is developed.”
Pope said: “This isn’t quite the ‘spaceship in a hangar’ smoking gun the UFO lobby was hoping for, but it’s as close as those of us who have looked at this subject from within government will ever go to saying: ‘Yes, this is real.’”
For most people, any mention of the term “UFO” inevitably conjures up imagery of all-things airborne and saucer-shaped. In reality, however, unidentified flying objects come in a dizzying array of shapes – and have done so for decades. In other words, the classic Flying Saucer is merely one facet of an infinitely larger puzzle, as will now become graphically apparent. On numerous occasions throughout the latter stages of the Second World War, military pilots from Britain, Germany, Japan, Poland, and the United States reported seeing strange, seemingly intelligently-controlled, aerial globes of light that furiously pursued their aircraft, and at times even engaged in dogfights with the mystified aircrews. They were the Foo Fighters.
A Royal Air Force report of 3 February 1944, from the crew of a Lancaster bomber, describes a typical encounter: “It was a ball of red fire on port side 2 miles away at same height with yellowish red flame coming out behind and black smoke. It was 30/40 mph faster than the Lancaster. It went like this for a period of ¾ to 1 minute. It did not explode at any time. Fizzled out and not seen again. The smoke was very black and showed up well against grayish night background. It followed when Lancaster went into a dive and again on corkscrewing. It seemed to go out once but sprang into life again when Lancaster changed from dive to starboard into a corkscrew.”
As the following statement – extracted from an article that appeared in the 13 December 1944 issue of the South Wales Argus newspaper – makes clear, initial theories were focused upon the idea that the Foo Fighters were the work of the Nazis: “The Germans have produced a “secret” weapon in keeping with the Christmas season. The new device, which is apparently an air defense weapon, resembles the glass balls which adorn Christmas trees. They have been seen hanging in the air and are apparently transparent.”Problematic with the theory that the Foo Fighters were weapons of the Nazis, however, is the revelation that Hitler’s minions were having their own encounters with such objects, and assumed that Allied forces were responsible for their creation! Needless to say, the matter was never fully resolved and the Foo Fighters ultimately vanished as mysteriously and as quickly as they had first appeared.
The Ghost Rockets were curious missile-like objects that were predominantly seen in Scandinavian skies in 1946: one year after the Foo Fighters vanished, and only twelve months before the Flying Saucer burst forth onto the world’s stage. Astonishingly, somewhere in the region of two thousand sightings were made between May and December of that year, with August 9 and August 11 seeing the largest volume of encounters – including some that were corroborated on radar.
Search for “ghost rocket” seen crashing July 19, 1946, in Lake Kölmjärv, Sweden. by Swedish Air Force officer Karl-Gösta Bartoll (pictured).
Interestingly, the August 1946 encounters fell directly within the peak of the annual Perseid meteor-shower. Problematic when it comes to dismissing the whole affair as a case of mistaken identity, however, is the fact that most of the Ghost Rocket incidents fell firmly outside of the time-frame of the Perseid shower. And the fact that some of the witnesses reported seeing the devices changing direction in the sky would seem to effectively eliminate meteors as the culprits.
Another conventional theory addressed at the time was the possibility that the Ghost Rockets were the work of the Russians, who were capitalizing upon the rocket research of German scientists stationed at Peenemünde in the 1940s. It is a historical fact that a number of such scientists were indeed employed by the Russians after the defeat of Nazi Germany, and did expand upon the work that had led to the production of the deadly V-1 and V-2’s that caused considerable damage to the British Isles during the War. As a result of this potentially worrying scenario, the Swedish military quickly issued a directive requesting that newspapers not report on the estimated speeds of the objects, or their trajectories; since this information would be vital to those test-flying the machines.
Nevertheless, as with the theory that the Ghost Rockets were meteors, a possible Russian connection to the puzzle was never confirmed either. Twelve months later, however, the Ghost Rockets were eclipsed by a new, and much more famous, breed of UFO.
The saga of the Flying Saucer began with the pilot Kenneth Arnold, whose 24 June 1947 encounter at the Cascade Mountains, Washington State, kicked off the modern era of UFO sightings. At approximately 3.00 p.m. on the afternoon in question, Arnold was searching for an aircraft that had reportedly crashed on the southwest side of Mt. Rainier. At the time of its occurrence, Arnold’s encounter attracted the keen interest of not just the public and the media, but also that of the all-powerful Federal Bureau of Investigation. The following is a verbatim statement made by Arnold himself, and taken from previously Secret FBI records of 1947:
“I hadn’t flown more than two or three minutes on my course when a bright flash reflected on my airplane. It startled me as I thought I was too close to some other aircraft. I looked every place in the sky and couldn’t find where the reflection had come from until I looked to the left and the north of Mt. Rainier, where I observed a chain of nine peculiar looking aircraft flying from north to south at approximately 9,500 feet elevation and going, seemingly, in a definite direction of about 170 degrees.”
Arnold stressed that the objects were approaching Mt. Rainier very rapidly and he was puzzled by their physical appearance: “I thought it was very peculiar that I couldn’t find their tails but assumed they were some type of jet plane. The more I observed these objects, the more upset I became, as I am accustomed and familiar with most all objects flying whether I am close to the ground or at higher altitudes. The chain of these saucer-like objects [was] at least five miles long. I felt confident after I would land there would be some explanation of what I saw [sic].”
And from that day forth, the world was forever changed: that most mysterious of all aerial intruders, the Flying Saucer, was well and truly born. For the next three decades, countless sightings of such objects were reported all across the planet; making the subject truly one of global proportions. In the 1980s, however, the Flying Saucer was firmly elbowed out of the picture by a new player in town: the Flying Triangle.
For more than two decades, sightings of large, triangular-shaped UFOs, usually described as being black in color, very often with rounded – rather than angled – corners, and that make a low humming noise, have been reported throughout the world. he sheer proliferation of such reports has led some ufological commentators to suspect that the so-called Flying Triangles are prime examples of still-classified aircraft, the development of which was secretly begun in the 1980s by elements of the United States’ Department of Defense and Air Force. Not everyone is so sure that this particular theory has merit to it, however. Consider the following.
On the night of 31 March 1993, an event occurred that was personally investigated by the Ministry of Defense’s then-UFO-investigator, Nick Pope. Reportedly, it involved the sighting of a huge Flying Triangle seen in the early hours of the morning in the direct vicinity of RAF Shawbury, Shropshire. Pope was able to speak with the chief witness to the Flying Triangle – namely, the Meteorological Officer at Shawbury – and offers his recollections on the intriguing conversation:
“Military officers are very good at gauging sizes of aircraft and they’re very precise. His quote to me was that the UFO’s size was midway between that of a C-130 Hercules and a Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.” Pope continues: “He had eight years worth of experience with the Royal Air Force; and a Met. Officer is generally much better qualified than most for looking at things in the night sky. And there were other factors too: he heard this most unpleasant low-frequency hum, and saw the craft fire a beam of light down to the ground. He felt that it was something like a laser beam or a searchlight. The light was tracking very rapidly back and forth and sweeping one of the fields adjacent to the base. He also said – and he admitted this was speculation – that it was as if the UFO was looking for something.
“The speed of the UFO was extremely slow – no more than twenty or thirty miles per hour, which in itself is quite extraordinary. As far as the description is concerned, he said that it was fairly featureless – a sort of flat, triangular-shaped craft, or possibly a bit more diamond-shaped. He also said that the beam of light retracted into the craft, which then seemed to gain a little bit of height. But then, in an absolute instant, the UFO moved from a speed of about twenty or thirty miles per hour to a speed of several hundreds of miles per hour – if not thousands. It just suddenly moved off to the horizon and then out of sight in no more than a second or so.”
Although the Flying Saucers, Ghost Rockets, Flying Triangles and Foo Fighters are all integral parts of the UFO puzzle, long before each and every one of them appeared in our skies, there was yet another unknown, aerial intruder whose presence still creates controversy to this day: the Phantom Airship. Very much the product of the latter years of the 19th Century, the Phantom Airships were, as their name suggests, often Zeppelin-like devices that were seen on countless occasions during the years in question; and particularly so in the night-skies of the United States.
Interestingly, even back then, theories abounded that the Airships were piloted by extra-terrestrials. For example, in 1897, none other than the Washington Times reported on the theory that the mysterious vehicles represented “a reconnoitering party from Mars.” Similarly, in the same time frame, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch speculated that “these may be visitors from Mars, fearful, at the last, of invading the planet they have been seeking.”
One of the most famous – or, rather, infamous – incidents of the Phantom Airship variety allegedly occurred at the little Texas town of Aurora on 17 April 1897. So the wild story goes, on the day in question, an Airship slammed into a windmill owned by a local man, Judge J.S. Proctor, practically destroying the craft, and killing its diminutive alien pilot. Strange wreckage, described as being a combination of aluminum and silver, and adorned with hieroglyphics, was rumored to have been scooped up by the locals, and the body of the alien visitor was said to have been buried in the local cemetery. Whether true, a hoax, a practical joke, or something else, the town of Aurora still to this day attracts those curious about this early Roswell-style event.
Quite clearly, UFOs are forever changing. While we could speculate endlessly upon the issue of what type of UFO will one day replace the now-ubiquitous Flying Triangle, only the intelligence behind the phenomenon know the answer to that intriguing question.
Which news is bigger: Tom deLonge’s To The Stars Academy (TTSA) releasing what it calls “The first official UAP footage ever released by the USG” or The New York Times and Politico both releasing reports revealing a secret multi-million-dollar Pentagon program set up 10 years ago by a leading senator to look into unidentified flying objects or unidentified aerial phenomena? How about the news that both happened on the same day? Circle the date – this could be a big one.
“Presented here is the first official evidence released by the US government that can be rightfully designated as credible, authentic confirmation that unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) are real.”
That’s how TTSA announced not one but three videos of US military planes encountering unidentified aerial phenomenon. (The first two videos can be seen here). The so-called GIMBAL video was captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet using the Raytheon AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod and includes commentary of the pilots being amazed by what they’re seeing and trying to determine what it is. The so-called 2004 Nimitz FLIR1 video is described as “the only official footage captured by a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet present at the 2004 Nimitz incident off the coast of San Diego.” Both videos come with detailed commentary and additional data.
At the same time, The New York Times and Politico reported that now-retired Senator Harry Reid, D-Nev, helped the Pentagon establish The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, a non-classified yet extremely secret program that received its appropriation (i.e. taxpayer money which ultimately totaled $20 million) in 2007 to research UAPs/UFOs encountered by pilots out of concern (at least publicly) that they may be secret aircraft being tested by China or Russia.
“I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going. I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”
Harry Reid
Harry Reid told this to the Times, which also confirmed that former military intelligence official Luis Elizondo was responsible for overseeing the program until 2012, when the funding ran out. and that while its congressional funding dried up in 2012, somehow the program is still active with the CIA and the Navy. Meanwhile, Politico said what everyone has been thinking:
“The revelation of the program could give a credibility boost to UFO theorists, who have long pointed to public accounts by military pilots and others describing phenomena that defy obvious explanation, and could fuel demands for increased transparency about the scope and findings of the Pentagon effort, which focused some of its inquiries into sci-fi sounding concepts like “wormholes” and “warp drives.”
Is the released of the videos by the To The Stars Academy related to The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program? Well, Luis Elizondo resigned from the program to become one of the principles of TTSA. Does this vindicate Tom deLonge, who has been accused of not coming through on his big promises of big revelations? That remains to be seen.
Whatever the case, December 16, 2017, could some day be remembered as the start of government UFO disclosure.
Elk jaar publiceert het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt opnieuw haar cijfers in een jaarverslag. Het aantal UFO-meldingen is in 2016 bijna gehalveerd in vergelijking met het vorige jaar. Het hoogste aantal meldingen is in 2016 afkomstig uit Oost-Vlaanderen en Antwerpen.
Er werden vorig jaar 143 meldingen genoteerd. Dat betekent een daling van 89 waarnemingen in vergelijking met 2015 toen 232 meldingen binnenkwamen. De aanzienlijke daling van het aantal meldingen in Vlaanderen komt deels doordat het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt vanaf februari 2016 gebruik maakte van een nieuwe werkmethodiek.
Zo wordt aan de ‘waarnemer’ gevraagd om alleen nog verschijnselen te melden waarvan de mogelijke verklaring niet terug te vinden is op hun pagina 'verklaringen'. Daarnaast kwamen er ook 51 meldingen binnen die als 'gegevens onvoldoende' werden geëvalueerd.
Vooral in Antwerpen en Oost-Vlaanderen Het grootste aantal meldingen voor 2016 was afkomstig uit Oost-Vlaanderen (33 meldingen). In Antwerpen werd met 7 meldingen het hoogste aantal meldingen voor een stad of gemeente genoteerd. De grootste piek aan meldingen was in augustus en september, mogelijk door het mooie weer.
VS POMPTE JAARLIJKS 22 MILJOEN IN GEHEIM UFO-ONDERZOEK
VS POMPTE JAARLIJKS 22 MILJOEN IN GEHEIM UFO-ONDERZOEK
Het ministerie van Defensie van de VS bevestigt dat het in stilte onderzoek deed naar onverklaarbare luchtfenomenen. Het programma liep van 2007 tot 2012 in het Pentagon. Dat schrijft de New York Times.
Het zogenaamde 'Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Programme' kostte jaarlijks 22 miljoen dollar. Volgens de krant kwam het programma tot stand onder impuls van Harry Reid, de senator uit Nevada, die de Democratische fractie in het hogerhuis leidde van 2005 tot januari dit jaar, toen hij het Congres verliet. De linksere Democraten verkregen een meerderheid in de Senaat nadat ze de parlementsverkiezingen in 2006 hadden gewonnen.
Bigelow Aerospace Het merendeel van de 22 miljoen dollar die het programma kostte, ging naar Bigelow Aerospace, dat gevestigd is in Reids thuisstaat. Het bedrijf, dat nog steeds federale contracten heeft, ook met de NASA, is eigendom van multimiljardair Robert Bigelow, die de NY Times omschrijft als vriend van Reid.
Op het nummer van Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas nam niemand op. De voicemail op het nummer was buiten werking.
De NY Times bericht dat de officier die het programma sinds 2007 leidde, Luis Elizondo, zegt dat het doorliep nadat de financiering was stopgezet in 2012. Elizondo verliet het Pentagon in oktober.
VS deed jarenlang in het geheim onderzoek naar UFO’s. Dit bewijsmateriaal wilde men openbaar maken
VS deed jarenlang in het geheim onderzoek naar UFO’s. Dit bewijsmateriaal wilde men openbaar maken
Het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie bevestigt dat het in stilte onderzoek deed naar onbekende vliegende objecten.
Het programma liep van 2007 tot 2012 in het Pentagon, zo schrijft deNew York Times.
Het zogenoemde Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program kostte jaarlijks 22 miljoen dollar. Slechts enkelen waren op de hoogte van het programma.
NASA
Volgens de krant kwam het programma tot stand dankzij Harry Reid, de senator uit Nevada die de Democratische fractie in het hogerhuis leidde van 2005 tot januari dit jaar, toen hij het Congres verliet.
Het grootste deel van de 22 miljoen dollar die het programma kostte, ging naar Bigelow Aerospace, dat gevestigd is in Reids thuisstaat.
Het bedrijf, dat nog steeds federale contacten heeft – ook met de NASA – is eigendom van multimiljardair Robert Bigelow, die de krant omschrijft als vriend van Reid.
Doorliep
“Ik schaam me er niet voor dat ik dit in gang heb gezet,” zei de senator tegen de New York Times. En op Twitter schreef hij: “The truth is out there.”
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program
The shadowy program began in 2007 and was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, who has had a longtime interest in space phenomena.
De officier die het programma sinds 2007 leidde, Luis Elizondo, zegt dat het doorliep nadat de financiering was stopgezet in 2012.
Drie ongewone video’s
Elizondo, die het Pentagon in oktober verliet, probeerde drie ongewone video’s vrij te krijgen voor het grote publiek.
In de video’s is te zien hoe piloten proberen hun radars te locken op ovaalvormige schepen. De vreemde objecten lijken even te zweven om vervolgens weg te schieten.
‘Buitenaards moederschip’ gespot bij het ISS. Is dit een laserstraal?
‘Buitenaards moederschip’ gespot bij het ISS. Is dit een laserstraal?
Er zijn vreemde beelden opgedoken van het moment waarop volgens complottheoretici door een buitenaards moederschip een laserstraal wordt afgevuurd op het internationale ruimtestation ISS.
In de video zijn een aantal heldere lichten te zien boven het ruimtestation. Vervolgens lijkt er een rode lichtstraal te worden afgevuurd vanaf het object, richting het ISS.
De beelden, die inmiddels zo’n 40.000 keer zijn bekeken, zijn op YouTube gezet door UFO-jager Streetcap1.
Vreemd
“Kijk naar het rode licht dat naar het ruimtestation gaat,” zegt hij in het filmpje. “Dat is nogal vreemd.”
“Misschien is het een lensflare, ik weet niet wat het veroorzaakt,” vervolgde hij. “In de uren hiervoor was dit niet te zien.”
Hij zegt dat vooral de vorm van het object hem interesseerde.
Bezoeker
Het ISS, dat op 320 kilometer hoogte rondjes om de aarde draait, leek niet te worden beïnvloed door de ‘laser’.
Het onbekende object doet volgens de Daily Mail denken aan andere vermeende schepen die bij het ruimtestation zijn gespot.
“Ik heb me al vaak afgevraagd of een ‘bezoeker’ al contact heeft gelegd met het ISS of is aangemeerd,” reageerde Cindy WH-Witter op de video.
Reflectie
“Wat was die rode straal? Het zou van alles kunnen zijn, van informatie tot teleportatie. Die straal is echt, dat is het enige wat zeker is,” voegde ze toe.
Captain Jay zei: “De kleur rood kan gegevens op het hoogste niveau opslaan en wat je hier ziet is mogelijk het uitwisselen of verzamelen van data.”
Niet iedereen was overtuigd. Erika Demiral zei: “Het is waarschijnlijk een reflectie van een elektrisch paneel van het ISS.”
First Official UFO Footage Released By The U.S. Government
First Official UFO Footage Released By The U.S. Government
A paradigm shift is happening. The first official USG footage of UFO’s has been released to the public and brought to you byTo The Stars Academy.
Gimbal is the first of three US military videos of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) that has been through the official declassification review process of the United States government and has been approved for public release.
This footage, and all official USG footage you will see on TTS Academy’s community of interest (COI), comes with essential chain-of-custody documentation validating that it is received in its original and unaltered form and is authentic.
The US Department of Defense uses this process in order to meticulously ensure that information and material retain their integrity without revealing sources and methods.
This footage is apart from anything else that has made its way to the public domain, by establishing its authenticity and thereby giving it enormous historical significance.
Read the full analysis of what you are observing in the video HERE.
FLIR1 is the second of three US military videos.
It is the only official footage captured by a US navy F/A-18 Super Hornet present at the 2004 Nimitz incident off the coast of San Diego.
Like Gimbal, this footage comes with crucial chain-of-custody (CoC) documentation because it is a product of US military sensors, which confirms it is original, unaltered, and not computer generated or artificially fabricated.
The CoC establishes the authenticity and credibility that this version is the original footage taken from one of the most advanced sensor tracking devices in use.
Read further analysis of what is being observed in the video HERE.
Funded at the request of Harry Reid, the program probed a number of encounters military pilots had with aircraft they believed didn’t operate like anything they had seen before.
BREAKING NEWS!New York Times Releases UFO Footage From US Government AlongWith Story About Secret UFO Program! Story Simultaneously Posted On Politico! To The Stars Academy and Bigelow Aerospace Involvement!
Listen to George Knapp and Alejandro Rojas discuss this news on Coast to Coast AM Sunday night, December 17, 2017!
In some of the most important UFO news to be released in years, the New York Times and Politico have posted stories on a secret UFO program ran by the Department of Defense, who worked with Bigelow Aerospace. The program was initiated by Harry Reid who was convinced to undergo the project by Robert Bigelow, and partially influenced by a pro-UFO comment made to him by astronaut John Glenn. Reid told the New York Times he is in no way embarassed by funding this important project. The public first heard of the project during the press conference announcing the To The Stars Academy (TTSA), created by Tom DeLonge. Luis Elizondo, who ran the UFO department, retired in October to join TTSA and revealed the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, the progam to look into UFO reports.
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program
A video shows an encounter between a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet and an unknown object. It was released by the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.Published On
WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.
Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.
For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.
The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.
The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.
On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth.
Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, has had a longtime interest in space phenomena.CreditAl Drago/The New York Times
Working with Mr. Bigelow’s Las Vegas-based company, the program produced documents that describe sightings of aircraft that seemed to move at very high velocities with no visible signs of propulsion, or that hovered with no apparent means of lift.
Officials with the program have also studied videos of encounters between unknown objects and American military aircraft — including one released in August of a whitish oval object, about the size of a commercial plane, chased by two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets from the aircraft carrier Nimitz off the coast of San Diego in 2004.
Mr. Reid, who retired from Congress this year, said he was proud of the program. “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” Mr. Reid said in a recent interview in Nevada. “I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.”
Two other former senators and top members of a defense spending subcommittee — Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, and Daniel K. Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat — also supported the program. Mr. Stevens died in 2010, and Mr. Inouye in 2012.
While not addressing the merits of the program, Sara Seager, an astrophysicist at M.I.T., cautioned that not knowing the origin of an object does not mean that it is from another planet or galaxy. “When people claim to observe truly unusual phenomena, sometimes it’s worth investigating seriously,” she said. But, she added, “what people sometimes don’t get about science is that we often have phenomena that remain unexplained.”
Courtesy of U.s. Department Of Defense1:16
Video: U.S. Military Jets Encounter Unknown Object
A video shows a 2004 encounter near San Diego between two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets and an unknown object. It was released by the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program.Published OnCreditImage by U.S Department of Defense
James E. Oberg, a former NASA space shuttle engineer and the author of 10 books on spaceflight who often debunks U.F.O. sightings, was also doubtful. “There are plenty of prosaic events and human perceptual traits that can account for these stories,” Mr. Oberg said. “Lots of people are active in the air and don’t want others to know about it. They are happy to lurk unrecognized in the noise, or even to stir it up as camouflage.”
Still, Mr. Oberg said he welcomed research. “There could well be a pearl there,” he said.
In response to questions from The Times, Pentagon officials this month acknowledged the existence of the program, which began as part of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Officials insisted that the effort had ended after five years, in 2012.
“It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding, and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change,” a Pentagon spokesman, Thomas Crosson, said in an email, referring to the Department of Defense.
But Mr. Elizondo said the only thing that had ended was the effort’s government funding, which dried up in 2012. From then on, Mr. Elizondo said in an interview, he worked with officials from the Navy and the C.I.A. He continued to work out of his Pentagon office until this past October, when he resigned to protest what he characterized as excessive secrecy and internal opposition.
“Why aren’t we spending more time and effort on this issue?” Mr. Elizondo wrote in a resignation letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Pentagon officials say the program ended in 2012, five years after it was created, but the official who led it said that only the government funding had ended then.CreditCharles Dharapak/Associated Press
Mr. Elizondo said that the effort continued and that he had a successor, whom he declined to name.
U.F.O.s have been repeatedly investigated over the decades in the United States, including by the American military. In 1947, the Air Force began a series of studies that investigated more than 12,000 claimed U.F.O. sightings before it was officially ended in 1969. The project, which included a study code-named Project Blue Book, started in 1952, concluded that most sightings involved stars, clouds, conventional aircraft or spy planes, although 701 remained unexplained.
Robert C. Seamans Jr., the secretary of the Air Force at the time, said in a memorandum announcing the end of Project Blue Book that it “no longer can be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science.”
Mr. Reid said his interest in U.F.O.s came from Mr. Bigelow. In 2007, Mr. Reid said in the interview, Mr. Bigelow told him that an official with the Defense Intelligence Agency had approached him wanting to visit Mr. Bigelow’s ranch in Utah, where he conducted research.
Mr. Reid said he met with agency officials shortly after his meeting with Mr. Bigelow and learned that they wanted to start a research program on U.F.O.s. Mr. Reid then summoned Mr. Stevens and Mr. Inouye to a secure room in the Capitol.
“I had talked to John Glenn a number of years before,” Mr. Reid said, referring to the astronaut and former senator from Ohio, who died in 2016. Mr. Glenn, Mr. Reid said, had told him he thought that the federal government should be looking seriously into U.F.O.s, and should be talking to military service members, particularly pilots, who had reported seeing aircraft they could not identify or explain.
Luis Elizondo, who led the Pentagon effort to investigate U.F.O.s until October. He resigned to protest what he characterized as excessive secrecy and internal opposition to the program.CreditJustin T. Gellerson for The New York Times
The sightings were not often reported up the military’s chain of command, Mr. Reid said, because service members were afraid they would be laughed at or stigmatized.
The meeting with Mr. Stevens and Mr. Inouye, Mr. Reid said, “was one of the easiest meetings I ever had.”
He added, “Ted Stevens said, ‘I’ve been waiting to do this since I was in the Air Force.’” (The Alaska senator had been a pilot in the Army’s air force, flying transport missions over China during World War II.)
During the meeting, Mr. Reid said, Mr. Stevens recounted being tailed by a strange aircraft with no known origin, which he said had followed his plane for miles.
None of the three senators wanted a public debate on the Senate floor about the funding for the program, Mr. Reid said. “This was so-called black money,” he said. “Stevens knows about it, Inouye knows about it. But that was it, and that’s how we wanted it.” Mr. Reid was referring to the Pentagon budget for classified programs.
Robert Bigelow, a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid, received most of the money allocated for the Pentagon program. On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth.CreditIsaac Brekken for The New York Times
Contracts obtained by The Times show a congressional appropriation of just under $22 million beginning in late 2008 through 2011. The money was used for management of the program, research and assessments of the threat posed by the objects.
The funding went to Mr. Bigelow’s company, Bigelow Aerospace, which hired subcontractors and solicited research for the program.
Under Mr. Bigelow’s direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft.
“We’re sort of in the position of what would happen if you gave Leonardo da Vinci a garage-door opener,” said Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who has conducted research on extrasensory perception for the C.I.A. and later worked as a contractor for the program. “First of all, he’d try to figure out what is this plastic stuff. He wouldn’t know anything about the electromagnetic signals involved or its function.”
The program collected video and audio recordings of reported U.F.O. incidents, including footage from a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet showing an aircraft surrounded by some kind of glowing aura traveling at high speed and rotating as it moves. The Navy pilots can be heard trying to understand what they are seeing. “There’s a whole fleet of them,” one exclaims. Defense officials declined to release the location and date of the incident.
“Internationally, we are the most backward country in the world on this issue,” Mr. Bigelow said in an interview. “Our scientists are scared of being ostracized, and our media is scared of the stigma. China and Russia are much more open and work on this with huge organizations within their countries. Smaller countries like Belgium, France, England and South American countries like Chile are more open, too. They are proactive and willing to discuss this topic, rather than being held back by a juvenile taboo.”
By 2009, Mr. Reid decided that the program had made such extraordinary discoveries that he argued for heightened security to protect it. “Much progress has been made with the identification of several highly sensitive, unconventional aerospace-related findings,” Mr. Reid said in a letter to William Lynn III, a deputy defense secretary at the time, requesting that it be designated a “restricted special access program” limited to a few listed officials.
A 2009 Pentagon briefing summary of the program prepared by its director at the time asserted that “what was considered science fiction is now science fact,” and that the United States was incapable of defending itself against some of the technologies discovered. Mr. Reid’s request for the special designation was denied.
Mr. Elizondo, in his resignation letter of Oct. 4, said there was a need for more serious attention to “the many accounts from the Navy and other services of unusual aerial systems interfering with military weapon platforms and displaying beyond-next-generation capabilities.” He expressed his frustration with the limitations placed on the program, telling Mr. Mattis that “there remains a vital need to ascertain capability and intent of these phenomena for the benefit of the armed forces and the nation.”
Mr. Elizondo has now joined Mr. Puthoff and another former Defense Department official, Christopher K. Mellon, who was a deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, in a new commercial venture called To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science. They are speaking publicly about their efforts as their venture aims to raise money for research into U.F.O.s.
In the interview, Mr. Elizondo said he and his government colleagues had determined that the phenomena they had studied did not seem to originate from any country. “That fact is not something any government or institution should classify in order to keep secret from the people,” he said.
For his part, Mr. Reid said he did not know where the objects had come from. “If anyone says they have the answers now, they’re fooling themselves,” he said. “We do not know.”
NASA has been hunting for alien exoplanets with the Kepler Space Telescope.
Recently, it teamed up with the tech giant Google to try and work out smarter ways of discovering these so-called exoplanets. Specifically, the Kepler mission looks for planets like Earth inside the "habitable zone" of its star.
Now it has discovered a "sizzling hot, rocky planet" in the distant solar system of Kepler 90 - this is the eighth known exoplanet (called Kepler 90i) in this solar system and ties it with our own Milky Way for the most number of known planets in one system.
Scientists have found, for the first time, an eighth planet (called Kepler 90i) in the Kepler 90 system - tying that solar system with our own for the most known planets in any one system.
The Kepler team made the discovery through the use of a “neural network” artificial intelligence program developed by the search giant Google.
“Just as we expected, there are exciting discoveries lurking in our archived Kepler data, waiting for the right tool or technology to unearth them,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division in Washington. “This finding shows that our data will be a treasure trove available to innovative researchers for years to come.”
The discovery came about after researchers Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg trained a computer to learn how to identify exoplanets in the light readings recorded by Kepler – the miniscule change in brightness captured when a planet passed in front of, or transited, a star. Inspired by the way neurons connect in the human brain, this artificial “neural network” sifted through Kepler data and found weak transit signals from a previously-missed eighth planet orbiting Kepler-90, in the constellation Draco.
While machine learning has previously been used in searches of the Kepler database, this research demonstrates that neural networks are a promising tool in finding some of the weakest signals of distant worlds.
Other planetary systems probably hold more promise for life than Kepler-90. About 30 percent larger than Earth, Kepler-90i is so close to its star that its average surface temperature is believed to exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit, on par with Mercury. Its outermost planet, Kepler-90h, orbits at a similar distance to its star as Earth does to the Sun.
Artist's impression of the surface of Kepler 90i (Image: NASA)
“These results demonstrate the enduring value of Kepler’s mission,” said Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “New ways of looking at the data – such as this early-stage research to apply machine learning algorithms – promises to continue to yield significant advances in our understanding of planetary systems around other stars. I’m sure there are more firsts in the data waiting for people to find them.”
JEFF PARSONS = The conference is over
NASA has finished up its conference surrounding its discovery of an eighth exoplanet in another solar system which ties it with our own for the most number of known planets.
The space agency is starting an “Ask Me Anything” segment over on Reddit to discuss the discoveries in more detail.
JEFF PARSONS = Last question
Finishing up the Q&A is a bit of an overview of the announcement - what are neural networks and how does the Kepler 90 solar system differ from ours.
Loosely, a neural network is a type of algorithm that can classify inputs by learning through example. It’s modelled on the human brain and can be “trained” to get better over time.
And the second part of the question hinges on Kepler 90 being “squished” when compared to our own solar system. As in, the planets exist closer to each other than our own.
That’s what the signals seem to suggest but, unfortunately, we only have minimal data on the Kepler 90 system. It’s too early to say too much about how its makeup is similar or different from our own.
“New ways of looking at the data – such as this early-stage research to apply machine learning algorithms – promises to continue to yield significant advances in our understanding of planetary systems around other stars. I’m sure there are more firsts in the data waiting for people to find them,” said Jessie Dotson.
JEFF PARSONS = Google's CEO aiming for 'hyperspace'
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai has tweeted out his reaction to this evening’s news:
1/2 Google AI working w/ @UTAustin used machine learning to look for exoplanets in @NASAKepler data. Our models were trained on 15,000 signals to recognize patterns caused by actual planets vs those caused by other objects, and performed w/ 96% accuracy for planet detection.
1/2 Google AI working w/ @UTAustin used machine learning to look for exoplanets in @NASAKepler data. Our models were trained on 15,000 signals to recognize patterns caused by actual planets vs those caused by other objects, and performed w/ 96% accuracy for planet detection.
2/2 So excited to share 2 newly-discovered planets ID’d by Google AI models: Kepler-80 g, and Kepler-90 i -- which is in the first 8-planet system outside our own! Amazing example of how AI can help w/ new scientific discoveries. Next stop, hyperspace:) http://goo.gl/4fuWG2pic.twitter.com/nOjecR57zD
KEY EVENT = Kepler is NOT able to confirm alien life
Aliens (Image: Getty)
The inevitable question about finding aliens has been asked - and received a pretty comprehensive reply: NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope is not able to tell if the alien planets have life on them - all it can do is confirm the planets are there.
“Searching for bio-signatures will be something that has to be done with more specialist equipment,” Hertz said.
If we’re going to find aliens, chances are we’ll have to use the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope which is taking over from Hubble.
JEFF PARSONS = Tied for the lead
One questioner has asked whether this discovery will set off an arms race between the Kepler 90 solar system and our own when it comes to finding a ninth planet.
The answer? Quite possibly.
Meanwhile, check out this image NASA has released showing how the planets in our solar system stack up against those of Kepler 90:
JEFF PARSONS = Soon anyone will be able to start Googling for planets
An artist's impression of LHS 1140b (Image: ESO / SWNS.com)
Google will release the code needed to use the neural network tools to the public. No special hardware will be required and, since the Kepler data is all public, anyone can comb through the data.
The research paper reporting these findings has also been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.
“These results demonstrate the enduring value of Kepler’s mission,” said Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
“New ways of looking at the data – such as this early-stage research to apply machine learning algorithms – promises to continue to yield significant advances in our understanding of planetary systems around other stars. I’m sure there are more firsts in the data waiting for people to find them.”
JEFF PARSONS = "Sizzling hot, rocky planet"
Here’s a brief rundown of what NASA has announced this evening:
JEFF PARSONS = Will Google's Kepler tech put astronomers out of work?
Google (Image: Getty)
The artificial intelligence will “absolutely work alongside astronomers,” confirms Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center when asked about whether the automation will replace human jobs.
So, don’t let this put you off a career in astronomy. The robots aren’t coming for their jobs yet.
JEFF PARSONS = Could the planet have been found without AI?
The first question from the Q&A session is whether or not NASA would have found this planet without Google’s help?
“If humans were to have looked at a much larger set of signals it would have been possible using the previous technique...the key contribution of machine learning was that it was able to search a much higher range of signals that humans would have been able to do in the same amount of time,” explains Paul Hertz.
So there you go, turns out you can even use Google to search for alien planets.
JEFF PARSONS = There could be more...
Finding a planetary system that rivals our own is a big step in planetary science.
But the NASA engineers believe there may even be solar systems with more than that.
There could well be systems out there with ten or more exoplanets orbiting their parent star.
Researchers using data from our planet-hunting @NASAKeplermission and machine learning from @Google discovered an 8th planet orbiting a distant star. With this discovery, our solar system is now tied for most number of planets around a single star! Info: https://go.nasa.gov/2zcJtS6
JEFF PARSONS = Kepler 90i - no signs of alien life
Kepler 90i is one of two planets discovered in the Kepler 90 solar system that orbits its star every 14 days.
It’s likely got a “scorching hot” surface and is not somewhere we’d like to go and visit.
It’s proximity to its parent star means it’s extremely unlikely to support any kind of alien life.
JEFF PARSONS = Neural networks
(Image: Brand X)
Christopher Shallue, senior software engineer at Google AI in Mountain View, California, is explaining how neural networks are computer programs that can be trained to recognise patterns and differentiate between objects.
Turning the technology onto Kepler’s findings means that the researchers are picking up on planets they might otherwise have missed.
“To train our neural network we used 15,000 signals from Kepler data that had already been examined,” Shallue said.
Searching 672 stars, the AI program was able to pick up signals of two new planets.
KEY EVENT = An eighth planet has been found in a distant solar system
Scientists have found, for the first time, an eighth planet (called Kepler 90i) in the Kepler 90 system - tying it with our own solar system for the most known planets.
Kepler has confirmed that other stars can have large amounts of planets orbiting it, just like our own sun.
This discovery was made through the use of a “neural network” AI program developed by Google.
JEFF PARSONS = The conference is underway
The NASA conference has just kicked off in the US.
Panellists are to be introduced and then we will hear the main announcement.
As usual, you can ask questions yourself on Twitter using the askNASA hashtag.
JEFF PARSONS = What is an exoplanet?
(Image: NASA, ESA and G. Bacon (STScI))
In case you were wondering what an exoplanet actually is - it’s simply the name given to any planet orbiting a star that’s not our own sun. So, any planet outside of our solar system.
Since the first confirmation of an exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star in 1995, and with only a few, narrow slices of our Milky Way galaxy so far surveyed, the astronomical community has already struck many rich veins. A recent statistical estimate places, on average, at least one planet around every star in the galaxy. That means there’s something on the order of a trillion planets in our galaxy alone, many of them in Earth’s size range.
“Right now we know, for the first time, that small planets are very common,” said Sara Seager, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an exoplanet research pioneer. “It’s phenomenal. We had no way to know that before Kepler. We’ll just say, colloquially: They’re everywhere.”
How long has Kepler been up there?
Kepler launched back in March 2009, and it’s become one of NASA’s main pieces of kit.
When it launched, scientists didn’t know how common planets were beyond our solar system. Thanks to the discoveries it’s made, astronomers now believe there may be at least one planet orbiting every star in the sky.
NASA explains: “Kepler completed its prime mission in 2012 and went on to collect data for an additional year in an extended mission. In 2014, the spacecraft began a new extended mission called K2, which continues the search for planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, while introducing new research opportunities to study young stars, supernovae and other cosmic phenomena.”
Google getting involved
Google (Image: Getty)
This is the first time we’ve heard of Google joining in with the planet-hunting Kepler mission.
A representative for the search giant will be present on the panel today and we’re expecting to hear about how Google’s software has helped NASA zero in on potential exoplanets.
“The discovery was made by researchers using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analysing Kepler data,” it said in a brief press statement.
Using computers and artificial intelligence could help with some of the grunt work, and free up time for the researchers at NASA to delve deeper into the results.
Could we soon be seeing Google Earth-style simulations of Kepler’s alien planets?
How does Kepler find alien planets?
Exoplanet Kepler 62f, which orbits a star 1,200 light years from Earth (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle/PA)
Here’s a really quick explanation of how the Kepler space telescope actually discovers a planet.
Basically, it uses a technique called the “transit method” of planet finding. That means, it spots the tiny blockage of light that occurs when a planet passes in front of the star. It’s called transiting and if the telescope spots repeated transits at regular times it must mean an orbit and therefore a planet.
“From the brightness change we can tell the planet size. From the time between transits, we can tell the size of the planet’s orbit and estimate the planet’s temperature,” explains NASA.
“These qualities determine possibilities for life on the planet.”
Why am I a bit excited about the @NASA announcement at 6pm? We may get the answer to the question: Are we alone in the universe? #askNASA#lifeonmars#Extraterrestrial
Three of these planets lie within the star’s “habitable zone” where surface temperatures range from nought to 100 degrees centigrade.
All seven planets could have liquid water – key to life as we know it – under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.
Cambridge astronomer Dr Amaury Triaud said: “Here we have the right target to start the search for life.
“Within the next decade we could know if we are alone in the universe. And that is quite incredible.”
“We’ve made a crucial step toward finding if there is life out there.”
No other star system known to man contains such a large number of Earth-sized and probably rocky planets.
JEFF PARSONS = Who will be giving the announcement?
NASA's planet-hunter, the Kepler Space Telescope (Image: Rex Features)
The hosts of today’s announcement will be a panel of experts including:
Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
Christopher Shallue, senior software engineer at Google AI in Mountain View, California
Andrew Vanderburg, astronomer and NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, Austin
Jessie Dotson, Kepler project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley
If the conference follows the same route as previous Kepler announcements, it will start with a brief overview of the mission and an update on the status of the craft and its progress.
Then we’ll get to the meat of the space sandwich and a big reveal of what it’s found. After that, you can expect some more interstellar chatter on the implications of the findings and finally some Q&As.
Members of the public will be able to submit questions through Twitter by using the hashtag #askNASA.
JEFF PARSONS = What to expect from today's event
NASA’s Kepler space telescope is the space agency’s dedicated planet-hunting piece of equipment. It scans the stars looking for alien worlds and has - so far - found over 2,000 exoplanets.
Today we might be adding to that number.
NASA has said it will begin the announcement at 1pm Eastern Time - which is 6pm here in the UK. Even though it’s staying tight-lipped until then, plenty of space fans have been speculating about what the announcement could be.
Finding another exoplanet is all well and good, but many will be hoping for a discovery within the so-called “Goldilocks zone”. That is, a planet the right size and distance from its parent star to hold liquid water and - potentially - alien life.
Has NASA finally found aliens? Stick with us to find out.
Everybody lookin’ at you crazy (crazy!) What you gonna do? (what you gonna do?) Lift up your head and keep moving (keep moving) Or let the paranoia haunt you (haunt you)?
If those lyrics from the song “i” by Grammy Award winning rapper and songwriter Kendrick Lamar make you wonder if he’s being haunted by seeing a UFO and possibly from being abducted by extraterrestrials, you’re obviously not familiar with his works … or you heard him talk about those personal experiences on the radio this week. Who do you think was more scared … Kendrick or the aliens?
“Nobody believed me then and [nobody] believes me now. I probably shouldn’t even be talking about it… [but] I’m going to stand my ground. It’s just something I can’t really describe, because it just sounds like, ‘OK, you just saw a dart go past.’ That shit don’t make sense … I remember this. Words just can’t describe – it was just a surreal moment.”
Directions for UFOs?
The discussion took place on The Howard Stern Show. Kendrick revealed to co-host Robin Quivers that he saw a UFO as a 6-year-old in Compton (this is starting to sound like a movie plot) and, while it may not have haunted him, it has stuck with him in a “surreal” way. How surreal? He speculated that, although he doesn’t remember it, he may have been abducted and it influenced his career choice.
“That’s probably why I’m doing music right now. Who knows. They probably gave me the energy.”
This could be chalked up as another instance where guests say strange things just because they’re on the Howard Stern Show … except it’s not the first time Kendrick has talked about his close encounter. In late 2014, he told the same story to another radio host, JoJo Wright, but apparently no one believed him then either, so he was back two years later on a different show with the same story and plea to be believed.
Alien rapper?
Kendrick is a spiritual artist who talks about having a greater purpose. Did that belief come from religion or his alien encounter? Or did it come from the influence of his name? Kendrick was named after Eddie Kendricks, an original member of The Temptations, who sang about being on “Cloud Nine.” Then again, they also sang about what they saw out their window being “Just My Imagination.”
Do artists like Kendrick Lamar attract extraterrestrials or are they just more open to seeing them? Is it time to believe Kendrick?
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
