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.
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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 Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
09-03-2018
Ook de Canadese overheid deed in het geheim onderzoek naar UFO’s. Deze stukken leveren een schat aan informatie op
Ook de Canadese overheid deed in het geheim onderzoek naar UFO’s. Deze stukken leveren een schat aan informatie op
Overheidsdocumenten uit 1967 laten zien dat de Canadese overheid serieus onderzoek deed naar UFO’s, schrijft Vice.
De stukken onthullen dat de overheid hoogstwaarschijnlijk ook jaren later nog UFO-waarnemingen bestudeerde.
De documenten zijn opgediept door Chris Rutkowski, die ze onlangs op zijn blog plaatste. Hij zegt een schat aan informatie te hebben gevonden.
Geen verklaring
“Wat we hier hebben zijn interessante meldingen die zijn gedaan door getraind personeel en getrainde bronnen en onderzocht door getrainde onderzoekers, maar er is nog altijd geen verklaring voor,” zei hij.
“Dat zegt mij dat het UFO-fenomeen echt serieus werd genomen,” vervolgde hij.
De stukken bevatten een aantal interessante meldingen. Zo zag ene Steven Michalak uit Manitoba twee vliegende schotels terwijl hij een rotsformatie bestudeerde.
Radioactief
Eén van de UFO’s vloog met hoge snelheid weg, terwijl de andere op enkele honderden meters afstand van hem landde. Toen hij het object aanraakte, brandde hij zich gelijk.
Bodemmonsters werden geanalyseerd en bleken erg radioactief te zijn. Het was onduidelijk waarom het gebied besmet was met straling.
De Canadese overheid kon geen verklaring vinden voor het incident.
Opener
Een tweede case heeft betrekking op een foto die in 1967 is gemaakt in de buurt van Calgary. Boven de bomen verscheen plotseling uit het niets een UFO, waar Warren Smith enkele foto’s van maakte.
De foto’s werden opgestuurd naar het Canadese ministerie van Defensie en authentiek verklaard.
De documenten zijn opgesteld door officier Douglas Robertson. Hij schreef dat de overheid opener moet zijn over haar onderzoek naar UFO’s.
Learjet and Airbus had Strange Encounter with Mysterious UFO over Arizona
Learjet and Airbus had Strange Encounter with Mysterious UFO over Arizona
A series of strange events occurred high up in the flight levels above Southern Arizona on February 24, 2017.
Between roughly 3:30pm and 4:15pm local time, N71PG, a Learjet 36 belonging to Phoenix Air, and American Airlines Flight 1095, an Airbus A321, had independent close encounters with a strange craft flying at around 40,000 feet.
The planes were flying east at about 37,000 feet between the Sonoran Desert National Monument and the New Mexico border when the incident took place.
The initial report came from N71PG, the Learjet, asking Albuquerque Center if traffic had passed above them. The controller replied "negative," meaning that there was no traffic to his knowledge that would account for such an observation.
The Learjet pilot replies defiantly, "somethin' did." Another pilot chimed in on the frequency saying "a UFO" and the Learjet pilot replied "yeah."
The incident comes after a bizarre and remarkably well documented series of encounters with a mystery aircraft flying at a similar altitude occurred over Oregon and Northern California last October 2017.
In that prolonged event, USAF F-15s were scrambled to investigate and the response from both the FAA and the military was extensive on multiple levels.
Here is the unedited and official audio recording of the Arizona incident – Warzone Link:
Triangle-Shaped UFO Spotted by Astronomers On The Moon’s Surface Sparks Conspiracy
Triangle-Shaped UFO Spotted by Astronomers On The Moon’s Surface Sparks Conspiracy
Earth’s moon is a strange place… apparently.
From mysterious alleged structures on the moon’s surface to stories that Apollo never landed on the moon, countless ‘controversial’ theories have emerged in recent years.
But even before crazy theories about structures on the moon started appearing in recent years, two Russian scientistsMikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, published in July of 1970, an article in the Soviet journal Sputnik called “Is the Moon the Creation of Alien Intelligence?”
The paper proposed by the two experts offers arguments that would explain the countless enigmas surrounding the moon and its creation. Shcherbakov and Vasin proposed that massive machines were used to melt rock and form long cavities within the Moon, spreading the molten refuse onto the lunar surface.
Their study marked what many ufologists the beginning of countless theories that proposed the moon was heavily connected to advanced alien life.
Now, astronomers have spotted a mysterious triangle-shaped craft on the moon, which conspiracy theorists claim originated from a secret base on the moon’s surface.
The video and images of the mysterious craft show an unidentified object moving on the moon’s surface, and ufo hunters claim, it cannot be ignored by skeptics.
The footage was captured with a high-powered telescope, the shots appear to show a gigantic, black, triangular shape against the backdrop of the moon’s rocky surface, reports the Daily Mail.
The video of the mystery craft was posted on YouTube by Secure Team 10, a YouTube account that explores mysterious occurrences on the moon, as well as UFO footage.
‘You can tell that this is a shadow because you can see the shadow wrapping around the craters’, the narrator of the footage said.
‘This was emailed to me by not only an amateur astronomer but a guy who was the CEO of a corporate jet fleet in Texas.’
Skeptics have already come forward trying to explain the mysterious triangle-shaped craft, arguing that the enigmatic object is nothing more than the shadow cast by a craggy formation on the surface.
However, UFO believers argue that this explanation does not solve the mystery as to how the object is moving.
Other theories suggest that the triangle-shaped object is just a telescope anomaly or even a flaw within the telescope’s lens.
However, and yet again, the theory does not explain how the object is moving between the images.
This footage is just one of the many strange finds that UFO hunters and amateur astronomers have spotted on the moon.
NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Reveals What Lies Beneath Jupiter’s Clouds In Stunning Images
NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Reveals What Lies Beneath Jupiter’s Clouds In Stunning Images
Since the time of Galileo, the observers of the stars have looked at Jupiter and wondered what lies beneath the striking clouds that cover the Gas giants atmosphere.
The analysis of the latest data from the Juno probe, published in March of 2018, will help answer that question. The scientific papers also help understand what lies beyond Jupiter’s thick envelope of gases and whether there is a nucleus that was formed from rock, which could help astronomers answer one of the biggest mysteries about the origin of the Solar System.
According to the latest mission reports and a series of scientific studies, NASA’s probe observes huge storms, detected winds more than 3,000 kilometers below the clouds that cover its atmosphere and details about an almost unknown nucleus.
An image of the North polar region of Jupiter.
Photograph: MSSS/SwRI/JPL-Caltech/NASA
Jupiter has more mass than the rest of the planets of the Solar System together.
Jupiter has the shortest days of all the planets in our Solar System. Since Jupiter is a gas planet, it does not rotate as a solid sphere. Jupiter’s equator rotates a bit faster than its polar regions at a speed of 28,273 miles/hour (about 43,000 kilometers/hour). This makes the Gas Giant the fastest spinning planet in our Solar System rotating on average once in just under 10 hours.
With these characteristics, its gravitational field should be uniform, but for some reason, it is not, there are areas where the giant’s pull is greater, and until now researchers had no idea why.
However, four studies published in Nature provide an explanation for this phenomenon and describe what the interior of the planet is like.
This composite image, derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter, shows the central cyclone at the planet’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it.
Scientists analyzed data obtained by NASA’s Juno probe and have found that ‘odd Gravity and rapid jest streatms lie around 3,000 kilometers below the surface of the clouds that cover the planet.
Furthermore, experts have found that at each pole on Jupiter exists a cyclone which is thousands of miles in diameter. The study also explains how these cyclones appear to be surrounded by a polygonal arrangement of storms — eight in the north and five in the south.
“Before Juno, we had no idea what the weather was like near Jupiter’s poles. Now, we have been able to observe the polar weather up-close every two months,” said Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, Rome, and lead author of the paper.
“Each one of the northern cyclones is almost as wide as the distance between Naples, Italy and New York City — and the southern ones are even larger than that. They have very violent winds, reaching, in some cases, speeds as great as 220 mph (350 kph). Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, they are very close together and enduring. There is nothing else like it that we know of in the solar system.”
The discoveries reveal unprecedented details about Jupiter’s interior and could help experts finally understand the dynamics that exist inside the gas giant’s atmosphere and other similar planets across the galaxy.
“These astonishing science results are yet another example of Jupiter’s curve balls and a testimony to the value of exploring the unknown from a new perspective with next-generation instruments. Juno’s unique orbit and evolutionary high-precision radio science and infrared technologies enabled these paradigm-shifting discoveries,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio.
“Juno is only about one third the way through its primary mission, and already we are seeing the beginnings of a new Jupiter.”
“Juno’s measurement of Jupiter’s gravity field indicates a north-south asymmetry, similar to the asymmetry observed in its zones and belts,” said Luciano Iess, Juno co-investigator from Sapienza University of Rome, and lead author on a Nature paper on Jupiter’s gravity field.
This computer-generated image is based on an infrared image of Jupiter’s north polar region that was acquired on February 2, 2017, by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard Juno during the spacecraft’s fourth pass over Jupiter.
“Galileo observed the stripes on the Gas Giant more than 400 years ago,” said Yohai Kaspi, Juno co-investigator from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, and lead author of a Nature paper on Jupiter’s deep weather layer.
“Until now, we only had a superficial understanding of them and have been able to relate these stripes to cloud features along Jupiter’s jets. Now, following Juno’s gravity measurements, we understand how deep the jets extend and what their structure is beneath the visible clouds. We are basically going from a 2-D picture to a 3-D version in high definition.”
The result was a huge surprise for the Juno mission scientists because it indicated that the weather layer of Jupiter was more massive, extending much deeper than previously thought. The Jovian weather layer, from its very top to a depth of 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers), contains about one percent of Jupiter’s mass, which is approximately 3 Earth masses.
“By contrast, Earth’s atmosphere is less than one-millionth of the total mass of Earth,” said Kaspi “The fact that Jupiter has such a massive region rotating in separate east-west bands is a surprise.”
The finding is important for understanding the nature and possible mechanisms driving these strong jet streams.
In addition, the gravity signature of the jets is entangled with the gravity signal of Jupiter’s core.
The scientific studies:
The measurement of Jupiter’s asymmetric gravity field:
Exposing Puma Punku: 50 Unbelievable Facts About The Mysterious Ancient Ruins
Exposing Puma Punku: 50 Unbelievable Facts About The Mysterious Ancient Ruins
One of the most mysterious ancient sites composed of supermassive megaliths and stones that appear to be worked with laser-like tools was built thousands of years ago in modern-day Bolivia.
Located not far from another amazing site—Tiahuanaco—the ruins of Puma Punku have puzzled experts for decades.
Some 45 miles west of the city of La Paz in Bolivia, we find an ancient site that is unlike any other on Earth.
Shattering traditional views on ancient cultures, the archaeological site of Puma Punku features incredibly precise stones, precision cuts, and polished surfaces on stones that have defied explanation for centuries.
Some of the stones at Puma Punku were so finely polished that they appear smooth as glass.
Only a few places on earth display this type of stonework.
It’s as if thousands of years ago, an unknown culture used advanced tools to shape and form massive andesite stones. Some of these rocks have been cut with such precision that they fit together perfectly and are interlocked with each other without the use of mortar.
Even more fascinating is the fact that not a single sheet of paper can fit between some of these stones.
In this article, we take a look at Puma Punk and its history, bringing you 50 incredible facts about one of the most mysterious archaeological sites on the surface of the planet.
The ancient ruins of Puma Punku are located in modern-day Bolivia.
Puma Punku is located near Tiahuanaco, in fact, it’s less than a quarter-mile northeast of Puma Punku.
Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco may have been in fact one massive complex.
Tiahuanaco’s most distinctive feature, other than the wall of faces, is the Gate of The Sun.
It is believed that, because of certain markings on stones found at Puma Punku, the Gate of the Sun was originally part of Puma Punku.
Puma Punku has a length of 116.7 meters and a width of 167.36 meters.
The archaeological site of Puma Punku consists of an unwalled western court, a central unwalled esplanade, a terraced platform mound that is faced with stone, and a walled eastern court.
Tiahuanaco may have been an ancient metropolis according to experts, as more than 40,000 inhabitants called it home.
Tiahuanaco features a massive wall which, according to some authors, displays all the races of mankind, even elongated skulls, people wearing turbans, people with broad noses, people with thin noses, people with thick lips, people with thin lips.
At its peak, the Tiwanaku culture dominated the entire Lake Titicaca basin as well as portions of Bolivia and Chile.
In the vicinity of Tiahuanaco, experts excavated a mysterious object called the Fuente Magna Bowl. The Ceramic bowl has Sumerian cuneiform and Proto-Sumerian hieroglyphic written on it.
Since Puma Punku is of great interest to scholars, the area within the kilometer separating the Puma Punku and Kalasasaya complexes have been surveyed using ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, induced electrical conductivity, and magnetic susceptibility.
In Aymara—an Aymaran language spoken by the Aymara people of the Andes—Puma Punku’s name means “The Door of the Puma.”
The archaeological site is a treasure of ancient history located deep within the Andean mountain. Puma Punku is located at an altitude of nearly 13,000 feet.
Given the fact that Puma Punku lies at an altitude of almost 13,000 feet, it means that the ancient site is above the natural tree line, which in turn means NO trees grew in that area.
The fact that no trees grew in the area challenges the idea that the ancient builders used wooden rollers to transport massive stones from where they were quarried.
Mainstream scholars argue that the massive stones used in the construction of Puma Punku were transported thanks to a large labor force.
Another theory suggests that the ancient builders of Puma Punku made use of the llama skin ropes and the use of ramps and inclined planes.
Researchers have found no evidence whatsoever that the ancient builders of Puma Punku knew about the wheel.
Despite the fact that Puma Punku is believed to have been built around 500 AD, many researchers claim that this ancient site, just as Tiahuanaco, could predate the Inca themselves.
The Ancient Inca denied having anything to do with the building of Tiahuanaco or Puma Punku.
This means that the culture that built these sites existed INDEPENDENTLY of the Inca, predating them as well.
Puma Punku is not isolated. It is part of a massive complex of temples, plazas and even pyramids, and is believed to have belonged to the ancient Tiahuanaco culture, which predates the ancient Inca by millennia.
Puma Punku features massive stones. But the fact that there are so many of them make makes Puma Punku’s stones amongst the largest found on the planet.
Puma Punku consists of a mixture of andesite and red sandstone.
Despite having been researched, analyzed, and studied by experts around the globe, not a single researcher has managed to explain how the ancient builders of Puma Punku managed to cut, polish and transport the stones at the site.
Modern day engineers argue that the base of the Puma Punku temple was constructed using a technique called layering and depositing.
Oral legends indicate that the first inhabitants of Puma Punku were unlike ordinary humans.
These ‘early people’ had the ability to ‘carry’ megalithic stones through the air with the use of SOUND.
The eastern edge of the Puma Punku is occupied by what is called the Plataforma Lítica.
The so-called Plataforma Lítica consists of a stone terrace that is 6.75 by 38.72 meters (22.1 by 127.0 feet) in dimension.
This terrace is paved with multiple enormous stone blocks.
One of the largest stones at Puma Punku is 7.81 meters long, 5.17 meters wide, averages 1.07 meters thick.
The estimated weight of this massive rock is 131 metric tons.
But this isn’t the only one. Another massive rock at Puma Punku is 7.90 meters long, 2.50 meters wide, and averages 1.86 meters thick. Its weight has been estimated to be 85.21 metric tons.
Both of these stone blocks are part of the Plataforma Lítica and composed of red sandstone
Puma Punku’s H Blocks are the best-known feature of the site.
The H blocks at Puma Punku have approximately 80 faces each.
Some authors suggest that given the precision cuts and incredible angles seen on Puma Punku’s blocks, it is possible that the ancient builders made use of prefabrication and mass production, technologies far in advance of the Tiwanaku’s Inca successors hundreds of years later.
Experts note that the precision with which these angles have been used to create flush joints is indicative of a highly sophisticated knowledge of stone-cutting and a thorough understanding of descriptive geometry.
As noted by researchers, many of the joints are so precise that not even a razor blade will fit between the stones. Much of the masonry is characterized by accurately cut rectilinear blocks of such uniformity that they could be interchanged for one another while maintaining a level surface and even joints.
One of the closest stone quarries used by the builders of Puma Punku was located some 10 km away, near Lake Titicaca.
The furthest identified quarry is believed to have been located near Copacabana Peninsula about 90 km away from and across Lake Titicaca.
According to archeological investigations, Puma Punku’s H blocks match each other with such an extreme precision that the architects most likely used a system of preferred measurements and proportions.
While it is amazing what the ancients achieved thousands of years ago in terms of transportation, design, and logistics, the ancient engineers that built Puma Punku and Tiahuanaco were also adept at developing a civic infrastructure at this complex, constructing functional irrigation systems, hydraulic mechanisms, and waterproof sewage lines.
Despite the fact we see ruins today, Puma Punku is thought to have been “unimaginably wondrous,” adorned with polished metal plaques, brightly colored ceramic and fabric ornamentation, and visited by costumed citizens, elaborately dressed priests, and elites decked in exotic jewelry.
There are some still unfinished stones found near Puma Punku.
Experts say that the unfinished stones show some of the techniques that were used to shape the blocks.
Experts say that Puma Punku’s blocks of stone were initially pounded by stone hammers, which can still be found in numbers on local andesite quarries, creating depressions, and then slowly ground and polished with flat stones and sand.
Excavations have documented “three major building epochs, in addition to small repairs and remodeling”.
A series of four papers using data from NASA’s Juno mission reveals intriguing information about Jupiter, including its gravitational field, its atmospheric flows, its interior composition and its polar cyclones.
Jupiter’s winds are tightly connected to the planet’s gravitational and magnetic fields. Image credits: NASA / ESA / UC Berkeley.
When the Juno mission was successfully launched in 2011, astronomers worldwide were thrilled. The shuttle had the potential to reveal valuable information about Jupiter and its satellites — and that potential has been thoroughly fulfilled. The new papers are the latest in a long chain of remarkable findings about the most massive planet in our solar system, adding some much-needed pieces to the puzzle.
In the first paper, researchers led by Luciano Iess of the Sapienza University of Rome in Italy used Doppler data to study Jupiter’s gravitational field. The data allowed researchers to measure Juno’s velocity down to 0.01mm/s accuracy, even while the shuttle is traveling at speeds of up to 70 km/s in orbit.
Jupiter’s gravitational field is famously asymmetrical, which is unusual for fast-rotating and oblate (squashed at the poles) gas giants. This gravitational asymmetry is caused by hydrogen-rich gas is flowing asymmetrically deep in the planet, and Juno was able to study this process.
This picture of the Jupiter’s South Pole is a mosaic of many images acquired by the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper on board the Juno shuttle. The images have been taken in different times while Juno was leaving the planet after the closest approach. What you see here is the heat (measured as radiance) coming out from the planet through the clouds: yellow indicates the presence of thinner clouds and dark red the thicker ones. Credit: NASA/SWRI/JPL/ASI/INAF/IAPS
Two other papers looked at different physical parameters of Jupiter. A team led by Yohai Kaspi of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used another asymmetry, that of Jupiter’s magnetic field, to calculate the depth of Jupiter’s atmosphere, finding that the mass of the atmosphere amounts for about 1% of the planet’s total mass. Meanwhile, Tristan Guillot and co-authors report that at depths greater than 3,000 kilometers below cloud level, Jupiter’s deep interior is made up of a fluid mixture of hydrogen and helium, rotating as a solid body. They also found that the speed of the above-mentioned winds extend some 3,000 km beneath the cloud level, dropping in intensity with altitude.
Even with all this information, we’re still just barely scratching the surface of what we know about Jupiter.
“We’re at the beginning of dissecting Jupiter,” says Juno mission leader Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.
However, there’s also a downside to the Juno mission: it offered so much valuable data that it’s gonna be very hard to top it. In an accompanying News&Views article, planetary scientist Jonathan Fortney of the University of California Santa Cruz praised the work, writing:
“The work demonstrated here is extremely robust,” Fortney wrote in his editorial. “I do not foresee another leap in knowledge on Jupiter’s interior after the Juno mission ends, unless astronomers are able to study the planet’s internal oscillations, as has been done for the Sun.”
Fortunately, Juno will remain in orbit for at least a couple of years, so we’ll certainly have more to learn about Jupiter.
Journal References:
Measurement of Jupiter’s asymmetric gravity field. Corresponding Author: Luciano Iess (Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy). DOI: 10.1038/nature25776. http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25776
Jupiter’s atmospheric jet streams extend thousands of kilometres deep. Corresponding Author: Yohai Kaspi (Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel). DOI: 10.1038/nature25793. http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25793
A suppression of differential rotation in Jupiter’s deep interior. Corresponding Author: Tristan Guillot (Université Côte d’Azur, Nice, France). DOI: 10.1038/nature25775. http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25775
Clusters of cyclones encircling Jupiter’s poles. Corresponding Author: Alberto Adriani (INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome, Italy). DOI: 10.1038/nature25491. http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature25491
We may not be on Mars yet, but new research has made sure that when we get there, we’ll know exactly where to settle.
You don’t know this yet but those blue areas? They mean food! Image credits Wieger Wamelink, Line Schug / Wageningen University & Research
What would life be without food? Well, for starters, really short; but also quite unpleasant. Precisely because of that, colonists going to Mars in the future will need to settle in a place that’s good for agriculture — as good as can be, on a planet with almost no atmosphere.
To their aid comes a study from the Wageningen University & Research, which has identified the areas on Mars which are favorable for the growing of plants. Even though the crops will be grown indoors, local factors still play a part — chief among them being the presence of regolith and ice deposits, both of which will be used to sustain the crops.
Mars’ cropspots
In order to estimate which areas of the planet would be most suitable, the team combined data on Martian geography and geology to create a 3D, Mars-wide landing map, showcasing the best spots for agriculture. The datasets included information about mineral content — relating to calcium and heavy metal content in the soils, for example. Other important element ‘maps’ were those for potassium, chloride, iron, and silicon. The team also mixed in data pertaining to climate, terrain altitude, and radiation exposure.
That’s a lot of data, and several scientific bodies — including the JPL, the Arizona State University, and NASA — pitched in.
“Without them this endeavour would not have been possible”, says Wieger Wamelink, one of the two researchers who created the map.
That’s because each of these elements has a hand to play in the suitability of each area for agriculture. They needed all this data to control for as many factors as possible — and any missing piece could have drastically reduced the work’s applicability. All the maps were merged and, based on the data each contained, were used to calculate a ‘score’ for every area — with high scores marking the best sites, just like in a video game.
Some factors, naturally, were more decisive than others:
“High levels of heavy metals in the soil and strong radiation make a location unsuitable for establishment,” explains Line Schug.
The map revealed that the Mars Pathfinder and Viking 1 landed at ‘hotspots’ for colonies, while the MSL Curiosity and Viking 2 crafts landed on less favorable spots.
The research is part of the larger “Food for Mars and Moon” project unrolling at Wageningen. It aims to develop a sustainable agricultural system that we can take with us to space. The most important element it relies on is the presence of soils and water, both on Mars and the moon.
The first experiments in the project started in 2013. Researchers used soil simulats supplied by NASA — from a volcano in Hawaii (Mars) and a desert in Arizona (moon) — to try and grow crops. At first, the results weren’t very encouraging. But today the team can grow over a dozen crops. The only species that has stubbornly refused to take the plunge to space-soils is spinach. Chemical analysis showed that the plants are safe for human consumption, but there were fears that the plants would accumulate heavy metals more readily than in Earth soils — that’s why this factor was given more importance when creating the agricultural potential map of Mars.
After they were tested, the veggies were cooked and served to those who supported the project via its crowdfunding campaign. I imagine the attendees considered the food to be “stellar” and “out of this world”.
Cosmic rays hitting Earth are ‘bad and getting worse’ says NASA
Cosmic rays hitting Earth are ‘bad and getting worse’ says NASA
Have you ever been hit by a beam of high energy particles from above? Surely you have since it happens all of the time. And the cosmic ray situation is WORSENING. Cosmic rays hitting Earth are bad and are getting worse. That’s the conclusion of a new paper just published in the research journal Space Weather, showing that radiation from deep space is dangerous and intensifying faster than previously predicted.
Cosmic rays were discovered unexpectedly in 1912. It is now known that most cosmic rays are atomic nuclei. Most are hydrogen nuclei, some are helium nuclei, and the rest heavier elements. The relative abundance changes with cosmic ray energy, with the highest energy cosmic rays tend to be heavier nuclei. Although many of the low energy cosmic rays come from our Sun, the origins of the highest energy cosmic rays remains unknown and a topic of much research. This drawing illustrates air showers from very high energy cosmic rays. Cosmic rays may even be important to Earth’s weather, as common lightning may be triggered by passing cosmic rays. via APOD
The story begins four years ago when Schwadron and colleagues first sounded the alarm about cosmic rays. Analyzing data from the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), they found that cosmic rays in the Earth-Moon system were peaking at levels never before seen in the Space Age. The worsening radiation environment, they pointed out, was a potential peril to astronauts, curtailing how long they could safely travel through space.
This figure from their original 2014 paper shows the number of days a 30-year old male astronaut flying in a spaceship with 10 g/cm2 of aluminum shielding could go before hitting NASA-mandated radiation limits:
Cosmic rays in the Earth-Moon system were peaking at levels never before seen in the Space Age and the trend is worsening.
In the 1990s, the astronaut could spend 1000 days in interplanetary space. In 2014 … only 700 days. “That’s a huge change,” says Schwadron.
Galactic cosmic rays come from outside the solar system. They are a mixture of high-energy photons and sub-atomic particles accelerated toward Earth by supernova explosions and other violent events in the cosmos. Our first line of defense is the sun: The sun’s magnetic field and solar wind combine to create a porous ‘shield’ that fends off cosmic rays attempting to enter the solar system. The shielding action of the sun is strongest during Solar Maximum and weakest during Solar Minimum–hence the 11-year rhythm of the mission duration plot above.
The problem is, as the authors note in their new paper,the shield is weakening: “Over the last decade, the solar wind has exhibited low densities and magnetic field strengths, representing anomalous states that have never been observed during the Space Age. As a result of this remarkably weak solar activity, we have also observed the highest fluxes of cosmic rays.”
Back in 2014, Schwadron et al used a leading model of solar activity to predict how bad cosmic rays would become during the next Solar Minimum, now expected in 2019-2020. “Our previous work suggested a ~ 20% increase of dose rates from one solar minimum to the next,” says Schwadron. “In fact, we now see that actual dose rates observed by CRaTER in the last 4 years exceed the predictions by ~ 10%,showing that the radiation environment is worsening even more rapidly than we expected.” In this plot bright green data points show the recent excess:
Previous work suggested a ~ 20% increase of dose rates from one solar minimum to the next. In fact, the actual dose rates in the last 4 years exceed the predictions by ~ 10%, showing that the radiation environment is worsening even more rapidly than we expected.
The data Schwadron et al have been analyzing come from CRaTER on the LRO spacecraft in orbit around the Moon, which is point-blank exposed to any cosmic radiation the sun allows to pass. Here on Earth, we have two additional lines of defense: the magnetic field and atmosphere of our planet. Both mitigate cosmic rays.
But even on Earth the increase is being felt
Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been launching space weather balloons to the stratosphere almost weekly since 2015. Sensors onboard those balloons show a 13% increase in radiation (X-rays and gamma-rays) penetrating our planet’s atmosphere:
Even on Earth the increase in cosmic rays intensity is being felt. Space weather balloon sensors show a 13% increase in radiation (X-rays and gamma-rays) penetrating our planet’s atmosphere.
X-rays and gamma-rays detected by these balloons are “secondary cosmic rays,” produced by the crash of primary cosmic rays into Earth’s upper atmosphere. They trace radiation percolating down toward our planet’s surface. The energy range of the sensors, 10 keV to 20 MeV, is similar to that of medical X-ray machines and airport security scanners.
How does this affect us?
Cosmic rays penetrate commercial airlines, dosing passengers and flight crews so much that pilots are classified by the International Commission on Radiological Protection as occupational radiation workers. Some research shows that cosmic rays can seed clouds and trigger lightning, potentially altering weather and climate. Furthermore, there are studies linking cosmic rays with cardiac arrhythmias in the general population.
This plot displays radiation measurements not only in the stratosphere, but also at aviation altitudes. Dose rates are expessed as multiples of sea level. For instance, we see that boarding a plane that flies at 25,000 feet exposes passengers to dose rates ~10x higher than sea level. At 40,000 feet, the multiplier is closer to 50x. These measurements are made by our usual cosmic ray payload as it passes through aviation altitudes en route to the stratosphere over California. via Spaceweather
Why are cosmic rays intensifying?
The main reason is the sun. Solar storm clouds such as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) sweep aside cosmic rays when they pass by Earth. During Solar Maximum, CMEs are abundant and cosmic rays are held at bay. Now, however, the solar cycle is swinging toward Solar Minimum, allowing cosmic rays to return. Another reason could be the weakening of Earth’s magnetic field, which helps protect us from deep-space radiation.
Cosmic rays will intensify even more in the years ahead as the sun plunges toward what may be the deepest Solar Minimum in more than a century.
The year was 1967 and the Canadian government was super into aliens.
A collection of documents from 1967 found in the national archives give us a hint into just how seriously the government used to take UFO sightings.
The documents outline how the government investigated UFOs—a process that most likely lasted for years afterwards—and breaks down six cases that are “of interest” to the government in detail. The investigations include a man burned by a UFO in Manitoba, some incredibly weird radar sightings by the Department of Defence, an RCMP officer in Nova Scotia who watched a UFO dive below the water and disappear, and a crop circle found in Alberta that was the first investigated by a government.
The documents were found in the national archive by Chris Rutkowski—a man that could probably be best described as Canada’s Fox Mulder—and recently posted to his Ufology blog. Rutowski routinely goes through Canada’s national archives looking for things like this and described the find as “a gem.”
"What we do have in here is rather interesting reports from qualified personnel and qualified sources and investigated by qualified investigators and still there is no explanation," Rutkowski told VICE. "What that tells me is that the UFO phenomena was taking quite seriously by them indeed."
The intro to the document.
Photo via screenshot.
While the government has some of tUFO research readily available online in a database it is still relatively unknown—especially among the general public—how they actually investigated cases and what the bureaucracy was like. This, Rutkowski says, might be “our best snapshot” into this process.
"This is certainly an interesting snapshot because it does show what was happening before and how it was going to move forward and I think it set the stage for how the Canadian military and government were looking at UFOs from that point onward,” said Rutkowski.
The 27 page set of documents—which Rutkowski was kind enough to direct VICE towards—was prepared by Wing Commander Douglas Robertson (a Canadian Forces officer well-known in the UFO community) for someone we do not know in November of 1967. Rutkowski speculates it could’ve been for a newly-appointed Minister of Defence as “the infamous Paul Hellyer [one of the world’s highest ranking alien believers] had left the position a few months earlier.” At the time, as Robertson writes, the National Department of Defence was the body in charge of investigating UFO reports.
The briefing breaks down the seven military categories of UFOs which include hoaxes, mass hysteria, misinterpretations of natural events, advanced military technology, and psychological conditions. However, the seventh and final category is “unusual sightings which the viewer is unable to identify or explain, namely, UFOs.” Hell yeah.
The documents show that the investigation into UFOs was a little bit of a hot potato in Canada as in it was frequently handed off between departments. When a new report came in, researchers would first decide if the object was a meteor or fireball—if so it would be directed to the NRC. If it was something else it would then be put in one of three categories Class A: worthy of investigation Class B: interesting but you don’t need to look into it; and Class C: boring.
Photo via screenshot.
The investigations varied and could be as simple as an interview or as a complicated as getting several other agencies including the RCMP, NRC, Defence Research Board (DRB) or (weirdly) the Department of National Health and Welfare on board. In many of the cases, you can see that post-secondary institutions like the University of Toronto and the University of Manitoba would help out with analysis. The government would also send professionals to investigate the sites in-depth and if the case was intense enough, partner with the United States.
The document was written during an interesting time for UFOs in Canada. As Rutkowski puts it, 1967 was a high water mark for this type of activity in the Great White North. The briefing indicates there was a jump in reports from 1966 to 1967—from about 40 to 167. The case files showcase A) just how strange these occurrences were and B) just how seriously the government was taking the investigations.
Here are breakdowns of the case studies Robertson concludes “may be of interest” to whoever the intended reader of the briefing may be:
Falcon Lake
The first one outlines perhaps Canada’s most infamous “UFO encounter,” the Falcon Lake case. The case revolved around Steven Michalak, a Manitoba man, who says he encountered two UFOs 90 miles east of Winnipeg. While Michalak was analyzing a rock formation he said two flying saucers appeared before him. One flew off at high speed while other landed about 100 feet in front of him. When he reached out and touched the object with his gloved hand, it burned him immediately. The object took off and the exhaust fumes reportedly burned him as well. Michalak was hospitalized for several days as a result.
In the briefing, Robertson writes that soil samples at the site were “analyzed and found to be radioactive to a degree that the samples had to be safely disposed of.” In the briefing, Robertson admits that “neither the DND nor the RCMP investigative teams were able to provide evidence which could dispute Mr Michalak’s story.” Furthermore, the radiologist dispatched to the area was unable to explain why the area was contaminated with radiation. The section ends with “although the investigation has been completed, a satisfactory ending or conclusion is still lacking.”
Many, many things have been written about the Falcon Lake case, including a book Rutkowski wrote with Michalak's son.
Calgary UFO Photo
The second case, again made in 1967, revolves around a famous Canadian photograph taken of a UFO near Calgary. It tells the story of Warren Smith who was out for a hike near Nanton, Alberta.
“A UFO suddenly appeared outside of an area of trees a few hundred feet above the observers,” reads the briefing which goes on to explain how Smith was able to snap two photos of the objects. Smith made prints of these shots, which were then sent to the DND. “The prints were subjected to a detailed analysis by the Photo Intelligence Interpretation Centre. The Centre concluded its investigation by stating, assuming the photos by Mr Smith to be genuine, the UFO fit the description of the objects by Mr Smith.”
Clear Water Bay
The next case outlined in the briefing is focused on a family that was returning to their home in Clear Water Bay by boat when they encountered a UFO. According to the briefing the object appeared about 50 feet away from “Mr. Green” (how he is referred to in the document) and Green decided to investigate it. When he approached the object ripped towards Green and he “immediately retreated using maximum power.” Then the object returned to its original spot.
Green and his family docked the boat and ran to a nearby home to wake all the occupants so they could come and look at the object. They were able to do so for about 15 minutes until it took off. In a nearby home, a neighbour that was interviewed by the government said that while he didn’t see the object he was “listening to his radio at the time the UFO was sighted and received so much static he was forced to turn it off.”
A “detailed investigation conducted by the DND in cooperation with the RCMP” found that Green was a “reliable, competent, and sincere witness with no indulgence tendencies.” They also checked to see if alcohol was consumed at the time, found none, and tested Green’s eyes. Wilted leaves were found at the top of the trees near where the object was allegedly hovering and some were sent to the University of Manitoba for lab testing. The Department of Forestry also checked and found “that they are unable to explain the reason for the wilting.”
The section ends with “the investigation has been concluded without any fixed conclusions or findings being made.”
The RCMP’s Diving UFO
The next sighting was seen by an RCMP corporal out near Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia. The RCMP officer describes seeing an object about 60 feet in length with white lights flying over the water at a low altitude. The object started making a high pitched whistling sound and slammed into the water leaving only one white light visible. RCMP Cpl Wereisky approached the light by boat and it rapidly sank underneath him as he got close. The area was then searched by the Canadian Coast Guard and other boats but nothing was found.
The government conducted a rigorous investigation into this sighting which included an underwater search and wasn’t able to find anything. The government investigation ended, once again, “without finding any fixed findings.”
Department of Transportation Radar Sighting
The next investigation outlined in the briefing is one Rutkowski described as being “very unique.” In July of 1967, the Department of Transportation reported that “an unidentified radar target was tracked through seven sweeps of their radar, witnessed by three controllers, and two technicians some 70 miles east of Winnipeg.”
The target was ripping at intense rate. As outlined in the briefing, it increased from a speed of “720 knots [1,333 km per hour] to 3,600 knots [6,667 km per hour] in one minute and ten seconds.” The briefing explains that the five people who witnessed the radar object are “certain it was a radar target and not something associated with mechanical, electrical, or equipment faults.” On the same day in Kenora, Ontario, a similar object was picked up on the radar.
“The unknown object was under the positive radar for 29 minutes,” reads the briefing about the Kenora sighting. “The object followed Air Canada Flight 405 for a period before disappearing from scope. It reappeared and followed Air Canada Flight 927 for a period of time. DOT are unable to explain these radar returns.”
The DND again did an investigation into this and again were unable to find any conclusions.
Camrose Crop Circle
The final case outlined in the briefing is one in Alberta and, according to Rutowski, contrary to popular belief shows that it was in Canada, not Britain, where a government first investigated crop circles. It occurred outside of Camrose Alberta in August of 1967 when “several deep impressions were made in an unknown object in a pasture.”
The Department of Defence sent out a man who is referred to as “Dr. Jones” in the document to investigate and he found “no physical evidence of any damage to trees or shrubs in the field and no evidence to suggest a deliberate interference or involvement by a person.” Rutowski was able to find further documentation of Dr. Jones investigation and again was kind enough to share them with VICE. In the documents, you can see just how in depth the government got with their investigation.
In the documents, Jones said that he believed it could be a “deliberate hoax” but the hoaxers would “require some equipment and a great deal of determination.” He estimates that in order to do such spherical circles the hoaxers would need two wheels on a 30-foot axle that put pressure of three-quarters of a ton on a pasture. Next Jones has us “consider the UFO possibility” and he breaks down the math behind what size a flying vehicle would need to be in order to produce such marks and comes upon 135 tons.
“This load of 135 tons would be in the right ballpark for a large aircraft, or presumably, small space craft,” ends this section of Jones’ report.
Epilogue
After the case studies, Robertson uses the briefing to discuss possible future plans regarding UFO research in Canada and give several recommendations to our unknown reader. He proposes that the DND hands off the responsibility of investigating UFOs to the National Research Council and that the Director of Operations works as the coordinating agency between the DND units providing field investigations and the NRC.
“It is evident that from investigations conducted by the DND, and from the findings made by prominent and highly qualified personnel, that the primary interest of UFOs lies in the field of science, and to a lesser degree, to one that is associated with national security,” writes Robertson.
Robertson writes that the workload in 1967 regarding UFOs was so large that it was actually becoming detrimental to government workers as it took up so much time. He also writes that the government should be more open with the public about their work in UFOs. This is something Rutkowski—even over 51 years removed—still admittedly agrees with.
"By not being able to comment it made it look like there was something to hide. Of course, this document does show there was some very interesting conclusions, some unexplained cases that should have been made more public,” said Rutkowski. “But when a public relations officer just keeps saying no comment, no comment, it shows that perhaps there is something that is being hidden.
"My reading from this document is that the Canadian Forces didn't really know what to do with UFOs either. It's not that they were hiding everything they just didn't have the expertise in the field and the scientific community didn't want anything to do with it so they were kinda hung out to dry."
The US-funded Aerospace Corporation said there was “a chance that a small amount of debris” could survive re-entry and make contact with Earth.
“If this should happen, any surviving debris would fall within a region that is a few hundred kilometres in size,” the research organisation said in a statement.
The organisation said it was extremely unlikely that a person would be struck by falling debris.
“When considering the worst-case location, the probability that a specific person will be struck by Tiangong-1 debris is about one million times smaller than the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot,” the corporation wrote.
“In the history of spaceflight, no known person has ever been harmed by re-entering space debris. Only one person has ever been recorded as being hit by a piece of space debris and, fortunately, she was not injured.”
However, there is a chance the space station could be carrying a highly toxic and corrosive substance called hydrazine on board.
“For your safety, do not touch any debris you may find on the ground nor inhale vapours it may emit,” Aerospace said.
The Tiangong-1 station was launched in 2011 as one of the great hopes of the Chinese ambitions in space, and as part of a plan to show itself off as a global superpower.
The country’s space agency referred to the station as the “Heavenly Palace” and conducted a range of missions, some of which included astronauts.
Gary McKinnon: The Hacker Who Exposed NASA’s Secret UFO Files
Gary McKinnon: The Hacker Who Exposed NASA’s Secret UFO Files
IT expert and so-called hacker Gary McKinnon has claimed in an interview with RichPlanet TV that he came across information relating to UFOs and extraterrestrial life during his infamous foray into NASA’s computer system.
Police said it was a hoax, but James Lawson wasn’t so sure.
The flattened circle in the middle of his sea of corn looked perfect. It looked, if he was being honest, like something had landed on it.
“Whatever it was, it came down from the elements and took off,” he told The Associated Press a few days after discovering the crop circle on his farmland in Milan, Illinois. “I think it’s a UFO landing.”
Webb: The night police reported UFOs
Crop circles became a small epidemic in the fall of 1990. About a month after Lawson found the round disturbance tattooed on his land on Oct. 16, Mike Thompson discovered something similar only eight miles away.
A co-worker named Mike Searle had been riding his John Deere through Thompson’s cornfields on Nov. 23 when he unexpectedly came to a clearing: an immaculate 64-foot circle.
“I about ran into it, so I backed out and went around it,” Searle said. “I was surprised. All the corn around it was standing.”
Thompson was surprised, too.
Webb: Two tales of UFOs invading the Tri-State
“People might think it’s crazy,” he said. “But it was there.”
No one disputed the crop circle’s existence. The question was, who made them? For Rock Island County Sheriff Tod VanWolvelaere, the answer was simple.
“We think it’s probably just kids,” he said.
Police said there was plenty of evidence to support the hoax theory. On Thompson’s land, they found a hole that looked like it had once been filled with a wooden stake. That could have been used to mark off the circle so the hoaxers could flatten the crops.
Webb: Here are 7 Evansville UFO sightings
They also claimed a local newspaper got an anonymous call not long after Lawson’s discovery. The caller warned authorities that another crop circle was coming.
But none of that does much to explain the high number of UFO sightings that plagued Illinois and the rest of the Tri-State that fall.
According to Francis L. Ridge’s book “Regional Encounters: The FC Files,” 1990 was a busy year. Ridge and his team of UFO field investigators based in Mount Vernon, Indiana, handled almost 70 reports, including 21 close encounters. Seven sightings occurred between Oct. 16 and Nov. 23.
The night of Lawson’s discovery, a 23-year-old woman reported a strange craft hovering over Fort Wayne. Two days later in Argos, Indiana, a father and son driving down the road saw a silent aircraft shaped like a bow-tie lingering over the road. They watched it for 15 minutes before it disappeared.
Webb: Sunday sales are here. Weed may be next
There were sightings in Culver and Plymouth. The strangest, however, occurred in Louisville, Kentucky.
A woman looking out the 12-floor window of her office building in the middle of a sunny day saw a saucer rise from below her and shimmy through the sky in half-circle loops. Co-workers joined her and watched for 20 minutes. Then a second craft appeared. Shaped like a boomerang, it shot toward the saucer. The two merged and vanished.
Meanwhile, the interest in crop circles was igniting. According to the book “Crop Circle: Exploring the Designs & Mysteries” by Werner Anderhub and Hans Peter Roth, there were at least 60 reports of crop circles in the U.S. in 1990.
The problem was even bigger in the United Kingdom where countless fields were branded with ornate patterns. From the sky, they looked like ancient keys or beautiful sewer grates.
Researcher Colin Andrews spearheaded several investigations, and even claimed to coin the term “crop circle.”
Interest grew so much in the U.S. that Lawson accepted an offer to appear on “Unsolved Mysteries.” But his segment was canceled after two other crop circle victims in North Dakota and Missouri declined to appear.
School shooting survivor: 'It makes you sick'
By the fall of 1991, a London tabloid thought they had discovered the source of the phenomenon. Two “jovial con men” named David Chorley and Doug Bower took credit. Giggling, they said they created the crop circles with “two wooden boards, a piece of string and a bizarre sighting device attached to a baseball cap.”
Crop circles fanatics, who had given themselves the science-y title of “cereologists,” didn’t buy it. After all, where did the patterns in Canada and Europe and India come from? Were these two 60-year-old men swimming in frequent flyer miles?
And what about Illinois? Searle certainly didn’t have an answer.
“There’s got to be a reason for it,” he told the Associated Press. “When you figure it out, tell me.”
In de VS verschenen in 1990 vele tientallen graancirkels. Tegelijkertijd werden deze vreemde objecten gezien
In de VS verschenen in 1990 vele tientallen graancirkels. Tegelijkertijd werden deze vreemde objecten gezien
In 1990 verscheen er een graancirkel in het weiland van een boer uit Illinois. Het was alsof er iets op de grond was geland.
“Wat het ook was, het kwam uit de lucht en steeg weer op,” vertelde boer James Lawson aan persbureau AP. “Ik denk dat er een UFO is geland.”
In de herfst van 1990 doken overal graancirkels op in het gebied. Een maand na de vondst stuitte collega Mike Searle op enkele kilometers afstand op een tientallen meters grote graancirkel.
Erg verrast
“Ik reed er bijna overheen, ging terug en reed er omheen,” zei Searle. “Ik was erg verrast.”
De politie zei te denken dat het waarschijnlijk het werk was geweest van kinderen.
Op het land van Thompson vonden agenten een gat in de grond ‘waar mogelijk ooit een stok in had gezeten’. Maar dat verklaart niet het grote aantal UFO-waarnemingen in Illinois gedurende die periode.
Vreemd vaartuig
Toen Lawson zijn graancirkel ontdekte, deed een 23-jarige vrouw melding van een vreemd vaartuig in het gebied.
Twee dagen later zagen een vader en zoon in buurstaat Indiana een onbekend object boven de weg hangen. Ze keken er 15 minuten lang naar, waarna het verdween.
De vreemdste melding werd gedaan in Kentucky, een andere buurstaat, waar een vrouw samen met een aantal collega’s 20 minuten lang twee vaartuigen zag vanuit haar kantoor.
Boemerang
Het ene vaartuig, dat eruitzag als een boemerang, smolt daarna samen met het andere en verdween.
In 1990 werden in de VS tenminste 60 graancirkels gemeld. In Groot-Brittannië lag dat aantal nog veel hoger.
"Maar ook viel mij iets anders veel meer verontrustend op. Namelijk een 2e zon. Ik dacht meteen dit kan niet waar zijn."
Naast een planeet nabij onze zon zien mensen ook steeds vaker hele vreemde luchten, waar geen enkele verklaring voor is.
Langzaam maar zeker beginnen er zich steeds meer vreemde zaken voor te doen aan onze hemel. Zelfs de zogenaamde nuchtere mensen vinden het soms moeilijk om hun eigen ogen te geloven.
We beginnen vandaag in de Amerikaanse staat Utah waar iemand rond een uur of één 's nachts richting huis gaat en dan plotseling stopt, want hij ziet een vreemde lucht. Een vreemde oranjekleurige lucht op een moment dat er geen sprake is van een zon.
De man rijdt er iedere dag langs en nog nooit heeft hij zoiets gezien. Wanneer hij gaat zoeken naar een bepaalde lichtbron is er helemaal niets te vinden.
In het begin van de video hoor je, wat wij niet echt mooie muziek plegen te noemen, maar daarna hoor je gewoon de stem van de man die hoogst verbaasd is over wat hij ziet. Van Utah gaan we naar ons land en wel naar de dijk tussen Lelystad en Enkhuizen. Een lezer schrijft het volgende (dank!):
Hierbij stuur ik een foto welke mijn vrouw vanuit de auto door het raam nam van de zon. We reden op de dijk van Lelystad/Enkhuizen, op 20-02-2018. Na het bekijken valt iets op wat we niet kunnen verklaren. Heeft u hierover een mening?
Het is duidelijk dat er zich gedeeltelijk achter de wolken iets verbergt dat heel sterk lijkt op een planeet. Eén die daar normaal gesproken niet hoort te zijn en die zeker niet als een lensflare kan worden uitgelegd omdat er duidelijk wolken zichtbaar zijn die voor het object langs lopen, iets wat niet gebeurt in het geval van een lensflare.
Van Lelystad gaan we naar de andere kant van de wereld en wel naar het Zuid Amerikaanse Ecuador. De volgende video laat een bizar verschijnsel zien in de lucht. Iets dat het midden houdt tussen een soort vreemde wolk, een lichtstraal of iets anders, maar waarvoor ook geen enkele verklaring is.
Soms zijn er vreemde verschijnselen waar misschien wel een heel "normale verklaring" voor is, zoals de volgende foto die gemaakt is door een lezer vanuit de cabine van zijn vrachtwagen. Hij schrijft (dank!):
Ik heb ook even terug zitten zoeken in mijn fotos. Omdat jullie het al een paar keer over paarse/roze luchten hebben gehad.
23 december 2016 dus al meer dan een jaar geleden, kwam ik sochtends rond de klok van 8 ook van die roze luchten tegen. Maar zo duidelijk als mijn fotos heb ik ze nog niet op jullie site gezien.
Locatie in de buurt van Rotterdam ik gokte dat de lucht boven Oud Bijerland hing. Maar als het een tweede zon zou zijn zou het dus over al te zien zijn in Nederland als je richting het noorden kijkt. Als het een ruimteschip zou zijn is die goed te zien alleen plaatselijk. Ik weet het ff niet , jullie?
Zeker weten doen we het niet, maar het zou hier kunnen om de reflectie van de roze/paarsachtige LED lampen die door steeds meer kwekerijen in de buurt van Rotterdam worden gebruikt.
En dan naar de Nederlands/Duitse grens waar zich afgelopen weekend een merkwaardig schouwspel voor deed.
Een lezer schrijft het volgende (dank!):
Afgelopen weekend zaterdag 03-03 was ik bij mijn ouders op bezoek. Deze wonen net over de grens in Duitsland. Tegen het eind van de middag zaten we in de woonkamer en vanuit daar een prachtig zicht over de landerijen. Maar ook viel mij iets anders veel meer verontrustend op. Namelijk een 2e zon. Ik dacht meteen dit kan niet waar zijn. Is het dan toch waarheid. Planeet Niburu. Planet X. Zelf lees ik al enige jaren over dit onderwerp en vind dit een zorgwekkende ontwikkeling. Als het wel de echte waarheid is en dat ons (de mensheid) hier niets over verteld word. Zelf dacht ik steeds eerst zien dan geloven. Ik geloof dat dat moment nu daar is. En dit benauwd mij behoorlijk.
De foto's die ik bijvoeg zijn aan het eind van de middag gemaakt. En vanuit de woonkamer kijk je naar de Nederlandse/Duitse grens.
Hopelijk kunnen jullie hier iets mee. Graag zou ik van jullie horen wat jullie gedachte hierbij is.
Het zijn hoe dan ook uitzonderlijk mooie opnames. Wat ook mooi is in dit geval is dat de getuige in de zitkamer zit en naar buiten kijkt waarbij iets ongewoons opvalt. Dat betekent dan in ieder geval dat het geen lensflare of iets dergelijks is omdat hij het ook met zijn eigen ogen ziet en ja, het lijkt ontegenzeggelijk op een tweede zon, achter onze eigen zon of, wie weet, wel omgekeerd? Dit laatste omdat er berichten zijn over deze planeet waarbij wordt uitgelegd dat deze tussen onze zon en de aarde kan staan op bepaalde momenten.
Wat dan verder opvalt, is dat dit onbekende hemellichaam plots groter lijkt dan in opnames die nog niet zolang geleden werden gemaakt. Dat zou kunnen aantonen dat het object inderdaad veel dichterbij onze aarde staat nu.
On left, a “dark, worm-like shape” hovered midair in a Northwest D.C. neighborhood in October 2016, a witness said. On right, in August 2017, a family was visiting D.C., when one person said they noticed a little black disc to the right of the Washington...
WASHINGTON — Last month, something strange hovered in the sky just a few miles from the Pentagon, a witness reported.
The witness, who took photos, said whatever it was appeared to rotate and then morph into a group of glowing objects that split apart. The photos are hard to make out, but one does seem to show a set of glittering, airborne lights.
Maybe there’s a good explanation, but the incident is one of the most recent UFO sightings reported in the D.C. region to the Mutual UFO Network, also known as MUFON.
MUFON collects reports of sightings worldwide and investigates them. Another organization, the National UFO Reporting Center, or NUFORC, also accepts reports of UFOs.
“Our first credo is believe the witness. At least listen to the witness,” Susan Swiatek, MUFON’s Virginia director said to WTOP. “That’s a big therapeutic thing we can do for people and get their remarks on the record for hopefully a greater whole that will emerge.”
Swiatek said some people are happy to have a strange encounter, while others are definitely not.
“Just seeing something in the sky that they know they can’t explain, that’s enough to really upset people. And if you can just come alongside them and say, ‘It’s OK, we get those reports all the time,’ then that can help. Conversely, I’ve had people get really upset. They’d rather say ‘I’m crazy, give me a pill,'” she said.
There were more than 100 sightings reported in Virginia last year — up 13 from the number of 2016 sightings reported, MUFON reported.
In 2017, Virginia had more sighting reports than Maryland and D.C. combined. There were 65 reports in Maryland and 11 in the District.
Reports can be filed online, and submissions can remain anonymous.
Tony Angiola, assistant state director of MUFON Virginia and an investigator, has appeared on TV’s “NASA’s Unexplained Files” and “Hangar 1: The UFO Files.”
“Our goal is to take ufology to the point where we’re taking information, giving it to scientists at NASA and being able to do something with it,” he said.
In addition to studying new UFO reports, Angiola and Ben Moss, chief field investigator for MUFON Virginia, also reinvestigate some sightings that were made decades ago.
One reason? It’s easier to fake UFO photos and video today.
Swiatek admits good evidence is hard to find.
“It’s pretty scant. We’re holding on to feathers that are kind of blowing in the wind, and it’s a little tough. But we’re trying to perform science where we can and when we can.”
“I think we are getting somewhere,” she added.
Here are some more interesting alleged sightings from the D.C. area that were reported to MUFON:
Christmas night, 2017: From a balcony in Annandale, Virginia, someone reported seeing “an extremely bright light in the sky” that didn’t move or make a sound. But the witness said it stayed there for hours, and at one point more lights appeared and formed a triangular shape near the first light before disappearing. “I go out to my balcony every single night and never saw anything like this,” the witness wrote. A video was submitted with the report.
August 2017: A family visiting D.C. took a series of photos in quick succession of the Washington Monument. While looking at the photos later, they say they noticed something odd in one of them. “The first picture was totally normal, but in the second one, on the right of the Washington [Monument], I saw a little black disc shaped object just hovering next to it,” reported the submitter.
July 2017: A submitter in Ridge, Maryland, reported waking up to “very bright pulsating light outside my window.” The witness went outside and recorded video of it. “The object was larger then (sic) a normal star and seemed to be rapidly evolving/transforming as it moved across the sky. Then in an instant it went from the transforming sphere into a tiny bright dot,” which moved back and forth before disappearing.
October 2016:A person walking home in Northwest D.C. said they saw something weird hanging in midair, 30 to 40 feet up. “It was a dark, worm-like shape and it hovered in the same position for roughly 3 minutes while I was able to take photos. At first I thought it could have been an unusual entanglement of those narrow balloons used to make balloon animals, however, I don’t believe they could have floated in this position with helium,” that person wrote.
April 2016:Someone who took a dramatic nighttime photo of the Washington Monument also reports capturing something unexplained in one image. It looked like four glowing lights floating in formation next to the monument. “I am an amateur photographer and have taken hundreds of night time shots. I know what airplane and satellite trails look like. This is not one of those,” the sighting description reads. “I have no clue what it is nor am I insinuating it is of alien nature. Just strange and thought you might take a look.”
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETIn 2016 verloor China de controle over Tiangong-1, hun eerste ruimtestation. Binnen enkele weken zal het ding op een ongecontroleerde manier op de aarde neerstorten, en experts kunnen onmogelijk vaststellen waar het 8,5 ton wegende gevaarte zal terechtkomen. Onder meer Europa, de VS, Australië en Nieuw-Zeeland liggen in de vuurlinie.
Het Amerikaanse Aerospace Corporation schat dat Tiangong-1 in de eerste week van april opnieuw in onze atmosfeer zal komen. De European Space Agency (ESA) houdt het op ‘ergens tussen 24 maart en 19 april’. Het ruimtestation, dat ’hemelse plaats betekent, weegt meer dan 8 ton, en volgens de Aerospace Corporation is het goed mogelijk dat het niet volledig zal opbranden in de atmosfeer. Het puin zou dan kunnen neerkomen in een gebied van enkele honderden vierkante kilometers groot.
De kans dat dit in België gebeurt is alvast nihil. Volgens de ESA kunnen de brokstukken terechtkomen ‘overal tussen de breedtegraden van 43ºN en 43ºS’. En daar ligt zowat de halve wereld tussen: van Zuid-Frankrijk en Spanje tot Australië, Noord- en Zuid-Amerika. “Op dit moment is een precieze schatting van waar Tiangong-1 de atmosfeer zal binnendringen onmogelijk.” Het kan dus evengoed in de oceaan zijn.
RVHet risicogebied ligt tussen de twee rode lijnen.
Geen reden tot paniek
Maar zelfs als er brokstukken op het vasteland vallen, is dat geen reden tot bezorgdheid. “Zelfs wanneer een locatie wordt getroffen, dan nog is de kans dat een specifiek persoon wordt geraakt ongeveer een miljoen keer kleiner dan de kans om de nationale loterij te winnen”, aldus Aerospace Corporation. “In de geschiedenis van de ruimtevaart is nog niemand slachtoffer geworden van ruimtepuin. Slechts één iemand zou ooit getroffen zijn, en zij raakte niet eens gewond.”
‘Het is pas in de laatste week dat we met meer zekerheid kunnen spreken over een mogelijke crash’
Jonathan McDowell, astrofysicus aan de universiteit van Harvard
Jonathan McDowell, een astrofysicus van de universiteit van Harvard, maant wel aan tot voorzichtigheid. Tegen de Britse krant The Guardian wees hij op fragmenten van een raket van vergelijkbare omvang die in januari in Peru neerkwamen. “Om de paar jaar gebeurt zoiets als dit, maar Tiangong-1 is groot en compact, dus we moeten het in de gaten houden.”
In 2016 gaf China toe dat het de controle over Tiangong-1 had verloren en dat het niet in staat zou zijn om een gecontroleerde re-entry uit te voeren. McDowell stelt dat het ruimtestation de laatste maanden steeds sneller daalt, momenteel aan een snelheid van ongeveer 6 kilometer per week. Het is moeilijk te voorspellen wanneer de module zal neerstorten, omdat de snelheid wordt beïnvloed door het constant veranderende “weer” in de ruimte.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:HLN.be - Het Laatste Nieuws ( NL)
Some of those Lights up there aren't Stars
Some of those Lights up there aren't Stars
The Canada France Hawaii Telescope observatory hosts a world-class, 3.6 meter optical/infrared telescope. The observatory is located atop the summit of Mauna Kea, a 4200 meter, dormant volcano located on the island of Hawaii.
On March 6, 2018 the observatory’s webcam captured a series of strange lights seemly flying in formation through the sky.
Although it is difficult to determine what these objects are, the lights are certainly not stars.
As I have mentioned here at Mysterious Universe on a few occasions, I’m not a big fan of sci-fi. Violent horror is far more my thing. But, there are a few sci-fi-based TV shows I did like, such as The Invaders, The X-Files (for a while, until it got crap) and Dark Skies. In other words, sci-fi with a lot of conspiracy attached to it is something I like – when it’s done well. As for sci-fi-driven movies, I thought the first installment in The Matrixseries was very good. The two sequels were just “meh.” Dark City was a good one, too. I guess, with the Area 51 conspiracy connection, I should have liked Independence Day. But, no, I didn’t: it was just a bunch of swaggering, high-fiving, kick-ass bullshit. All of which brings me to the matter of two more sci-fi movies with conspiracy aspects attached to them. And both of them were released in the latter part of 1988. There is a specific reason why I mention the date.
Both movies led to rumors that their combined release amounted to a case of “the Government” preparing us for “the truth” behind the UFO phenomenon. Yes, we’re talking about UFO disclosure – another subject that I have no love for. As I have also stated here previously, I’m sick and tired of all the garbage along the lines of, “I have an insider source who tells me that disclosure is coming at noon three weeks from tomorrow. But, if it doesn’t, don’t worry. It will turn up next year. Or the next. Or the…” My words for these people: “Put up, shut up, or just go away and die.” If the latter, preferably slowly. As for those two 1988 movies they were They Live and Alien Nation.
The former was written and directed by John Carpenter (of The Fog and Halloween fame – two of my favorites). They Livestarred Roddy Piper, Keith David and Meg Foster. It’s a witty, watchable movie of how aliens are secretly taking over the planet in a very unusual and alternative way – and how the human global elite is totally selling its collective soul to the ETs. In fact, it’s very much a satire on 1980s-era society and the “greed is good” phenomenon. At first glance, the aliens look just like us. Identical, in fact. Put on a pair of special sunglasses, however, and you’ll see how they really look: like decaying corpses.
As for Alien Nation, it’s Lethal Weapon, but with extraterrestrials instead of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. The leading cast are James Caan, Mandy Patinkin (who is now in the excellent Homeland show), and Terrence Stamp. Set in the early 1990s, Alien Nation tells the story of what happens when more than a quarter of a million ETs – “The Newcomers,” as they are termed – reach the Earth and are assimilated into human society. And with varying degree of success and failiure. There is prejudice, fear and extraterrestrial racism. If you haven’t seen the movie, I won’t spoil things by revealing the plot, except to say that there is an unforeseen conspiratorial angle to the story which ensures you’ll keep watching. So, what does this have to do with UFO disclosure? Well, I’ll tell you.
I started attending UFO/Fortean/paranormal conferences and lectures in the U.K. probably around 1985/1986. Something happened in 1989 onward in the U.K. which I had not seen at conferences before. Namely, parallels with today’s disclosure farce. On at least four or five times at various events around the country, I heard people speculating that the releases of both Alien Nation and They Live – which surfaced in the United States just four weeks apart, the former on October 7, 1988 and the latter on November 4, 1988 – was the work of – who else? – that aforementioned ” the government.”
The truth was just around the corner. People really did want to believe. With the public acclimatized to more and more fictional ET-human interaction (good, bad or somewhere in between), it would surely only be a matter of time before we would finally have the answers. I can recall hearing such rumors throughout the year; the final time – and the most vocal – being at the annual UFO Magazine conference held in Yorkshire, England in September 1989.
Of course, the fact that I’m now writing these words shows that no such disclosure ever came. There was never a plan to use They Live and Alien Nation as a means to initiate disclosure. Thirty years on, though, people are still going on about disclosure and plans to prepare the public. All of these claims and scenarios (in 1988/1989 and now) have one thing in common: they never, ever amount to anything. They didn’t in the late eighties with a pair of fun movies. And they won’t now.
Ever since we as a species have become aware of other stars and planets beyond our own we have let our imaginations run wild with what might lie out there or if we really are alone in the universe upon this spinning rock we call Earth. Are there other creatures or beings inhabiting other stars, and if so we will we ever see them or even talk to them? These are the dreams of our kind, the questions that still loom large across the landscape of our psyche. Is there someone else out there? Further adding to our questions is if there was some other race out there, and we did actually manage to make contact with them across the sea of stars, what would they be like? Would we be able to talk to these alien visitors and perhaps more importantly, what would we say? The conundrum of how we would communicate with extraterrestrials has in recent years been seriously considered, and despite all of the very smart people working on it we are mostly still left in the dark and unprepared for what talking to an alien might actually be like.
If aliens were to come down and greet us, say, tomorrow, we would likely immediately be faced with numerous challenges even beyond language, such as culture, customs, ways of thinking, and even possibly a different concept and perception of reality itself. We might not even recognize them as any type of life as we know it. But if we were to assume that we could just start talking, there would be several potential obstacles right off the bat, not the least of which is that our bodies would likely be completely different, and this could have a lot of possible repercussions.
For one, since language is a representation of our thoughts, which are largely based in how we perceive and interact with the world, human languages reflect the concepts of our senses of sight, smell, touch, and other cues from our physical form, our shared evolution and physical actions and reactions such as laughter or crying. What then happens if an alien race has no eyes or ears or mouth, or experiences the world in a totally different way? What if they do not have the same physical relationship with their as we do with our own? What if they don’t laugh or cry, or emote as we do? They may have no understanding at all of what our concepts of perception are in the first place, a totally different way of experiencing and thinking about time and reality, and so this would reverberate throughout their whole way of thinking and communication, and indeed their very being. This was all rather well-explored in the film Arrival, in which a team of linguists is tasked with deciphering the mysterious language of a decidedly non-humanoid species with a very different language and view of time and space, and within the understanding of which hangs the balance of our survival.
Even within human languages here on Earth we can see how the effects of our sensory abilities, our upbringing, and our perceptions of the world around us can change methods and means of communication. For instance, deaf people use sign language as a means to communicate when the sense of hearing is robbed from them. However, although human languages do all sound very unique and even alien at times, and there are sign languages and whatnot, they are still based on our shared perception of the universe through the same common biology, morphology, anatomy, and physiology, and therefore they follow rules that we can all fathom and which give us at least a chance of reproducing them. With aliens, all bets would be off.
Another important hurdle with differences in physical form would be how we produce and detect sounds, and thereby language, in the first place. For humans we use a vocal tract and our ears, and there is a very finite, set frequency through which we are able to detect the sounds we utter. With aliens they would be working with a whole different set of organs, frequencies, and physiology for speech, that is if they even “spoke” as we know it at all. Their utterances would possibly be made through strange organs for which we have no close approximation or even understanding of, would probably be made at frequencies, vibrations, or cadences that we would not be able to detect or recognize as language, and would be made through a different atmosphere to make it all even worse.
These would be completely non-human sounds, we may not be able to physically discern the distinctions they make, and considering that many animals on our very own planet are thought to be able to speak in language and we are completely in the dark as to what they are saying, this would likely be even more pronounced in something from out beyond the stars. Perhaps impossibly, indecipherably so. Simply put, if we cannot physically detect their sounds and cannot reproduce them, then vocal communication is virtually impossible.
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that we can get past these obstacles, and that we can hear and be heard by each other in a meaningful way. The problems would still not end there. The very rules of our language and the way they are laid out are all intrinsically linked to our biology and mindset as well. An alien language might not have any of the parts of language that we take for granted, such as verbs, adjectives, and nouns, would possibly not view things such as cause and effect or the passage of time the same as us, and would potentially follow certain internal rules, logic, and structures so different from us that we are unable to even mutually comprehend them. We as humans have shared cognition and linguistic structures, basic psychologies, and features, but aliens cannot be counted upon to do so. Jessica Coon, a professor of linguistics at McGill University in Montreal who was consulted on the film about extraterrestrial communication, Arrival, said of this:
What linguists have discovered about human languages is that even though they can sound very different from one another and their grammars do show a lot of variation…languages tend to fall into certain patterns. Most of the world’s languages fall into one of those patterns or the other. The variation isn’t completely unconstrained. Humans seem to be hardwired for this capacity to learn language. Because it is part of our genetics and part of being human, it’s very unlikely that other creatures would have the same kinds of constraints or show the same kinds of similarities that human languages do. We would just have to hope that we would still be able to recognize patterns and match it up with we’re seeing.
The notable American linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Chomsky has also offered his thoughts on the inherit linguistic problems with trying to talk with extraterrestrial beings with which we have no shared cognitive understanding of how language works. He has said:
If a Martian landed from outer space and spoke a language that violated universal grammar, we simply would not be able to learn that language the way that we learn a human language like English or Swahili. We’re designed by nature for English, Chinese, and every other possible human language. But we’re not designed to learn perfectly usable languages that violate universal grammar.
The formidable challenge this would present can already be seen even among human languages here on our own planet, where there are sometimes things we have no word for, or a lack of a word for something we take for granted. A tropical people might have no word for “snow,” for instance. Some remote, isolated languages are so alien to others that they do not even have words, concepts or phrases for things most speakers of other languages would likely take for granted. For instance, the Pirahã people of the Brazilian Amazon have no words for counting things. It is either “one” or “more than one,” that’s it. They also have no clear words for certain directions such as “left” or “right,” and this is a daunting challenge to understanding them, even though they are human. Imagine a completely non-human entity with even more outlandish rules of language and grammatical idiosyncrasies and you can see how meaningful exchanges could be a problem. Jesse Snedeker, a Harvard psychologist who studies the development of language in children, has said of this:
We know that every child can learn every possible human language. Every child has to have some sort of internal capacity that allows them to learn language. We have to ask ourselves, ‘Would we have the capacity to learn alien language, and would they have the capacity to learn ours?’ And different people would give you very different answers to that question. On the other hand, there’s the argument that any species that achieves a high level of technology would necessarily understand certain concepts, so that ought to provide a basis for at least a limited degree of communication.
This is where we begin to see that all hope is not necessarily lost, and one thing seen as the key to actually being able to start towards communication with aliens is to find some commonality to use as a starting point. A good way to do this would be to have some sort of key, something like the Rosetta Stone, which helped us to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. This has been an idea tossed around in science fiction before, such as the use of the tones in Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or the use of prime numbers in Carl Sagan’s book Contact. If we could have some common frame of reference and somewhere to start, then there is the chance we could work towards further meaningful communication.
One of the best ways of doing this has been seen in recent years as being to use mathematics or scientific information such as physics as a sort of “universal language” and starting point. After all, as the laws of physics and reality are the same throughout the universe, then it stands to reason that any advanced society would have a grasp of these things in a similar way, regardless of how we ultimately think about them or express them in language. No matter what our physiological differences or deviations in ways of looking at the world and universe, physics are the same everywhere, and so would be a commonality we could use.
Carl DeVito, an emeritus faculty member in the mathematics department at the University of Arizona in Tucson, believes that although this exchange of scientific information is perhaps the key to communication with aliens, it nevertheless still faces some challenges. First is that the idea that it is still reliant on understanding the aliens’ systems of measurement, as well as relying on the supposition that they can count and do arithmetic as we do, that they recognize the same elements of the periodic table, that they have adequately studied the different states of matter, and that they know enough chemistry to carry out chemical calculations in the same way we do. He also points out that even though the physics would be the same, these extraterrestrials might calculate their rules of motion and mechanics based on their own unique geometry. DeVito has said of this:
The mathematics of motion is differential calculus. Can we assume that an alien race shares this with us? Differential and integral calculus are so fundamental in so many areas of science that it is hard to imagine a science without them. But this is, perhaps, a human bias. We, of course, can’t know, but we must be aware that the physics of an alien race, even in a fundamental area like mechanics, might differ in subtle but important ways from our own.
Using mathematics and physics is nevertheless still seen as a potential way of breaking through our communication barrier, to the point that it is used by those organizations seeking to reach out and make contact, such as SETI. However, even if we can express simple messages to each other with math, there are still the intricacies of culture and thinking that would shape how messages and ideas are expressed and interpreted. Doug Vakoch, the president of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, METI, and respected researcher of xenolinguistics, has said of this conundrum thus:
If they can build spacecraft to come to come to Earth, they have to have an understanding of good engineering, physics, science, math. But doing the nitty-gritty work of going back and forth and making guesses at what an alien says, trying to interpret swirls and determining a sentence or concept? It’s hard. Conveying matters. You need flexibility of language with its infinite combinations. Our art and culture — that’s all from language, that’s not from just raw numbers.
In addition to the promise of using math, there is also the hopeful fact that it is possible that the alien’s psyches and physicality are not as different from our own as we may think after all. For instance, on our own planet we can see vastly different organisms that have nevertheless developed strikingly similar ways of dealing with the environment and world around them, such as evolving eyes, ears, legs, wings and similar organs separately across species, often evolving independently or sometimes the same structures multiple times, all in the process called “convergent evolution.”
Perhaps in other areas of the universe extraterrestrials have evolved similarly enough to ourselves, especially an intelligent tool-using one that would have developed communication and technology in the first place, that our mental architectures and languages are not necessarily mutually unintelligible. This theory postulates that there are enough universal elements to how we think and evolve to certain environmental challenges that this would be enough solid ground for us to delve into a basic framework from which further communication would be possible. Making this even more promising still is that with all of the broadcasts we have spewed out into the stars the aliens would potentially have a good enough sampling of our languages and communications to make talking between us easier without having even met us yet, a possibility of which Coon has said:
If you have enough information and enough of the context and the history, I think there’s hope that even without a lot of interaction you could be able to make at least significant progress in understanding the grammar of a language—again depending on how likely we are to be able to understand alien life at all. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if creatures who could make giant spaceships that just show up on Earth could easily figure out our languages from the many broadcasts we put into outer space, and that we might be able to do the same thing with sufficient resources and sufficient information.
One thing that is worth considering is that even if we overcome all of these considerable challenges and are able to communicate, look at us here on Earth. With our different cultures, ways of thinking, values, and linguistic nuances, even communication between us humans can be confusing and difficult, with misunderstandings and gaffes commonplace. How can we hope to resolve these issues with an alien civilization from another star? In the end, we just don’t know. Since we have never made contact with aliens, at least as far as we know, there is no precedent for it, and we cannot possibly know what to expect when such a day comes to pass. It is impossible to know what form these beings will take, how they will think, or how they will communicate. Will it come easy or will we forever remain closed behind mutual doors of incomprehensibility? The answers remain complex, it is all left entirely to speculation and the imagination, and we will only know when we finally make that first contact we have always dreamed of.
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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 74 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.
