Latest Juno spacecraft results fill in details about Jupiter’s interior and polar storms

BY CHRISTOPHER CROCKETT 

 

STORMY SKIES  A quintet of cyclones encircles a sixth cyclone at Jupiter’s south pole in this mosaic of infrared images from the Juno spacecraft. Color represents heat coming from below: Yellow is where clouds are thin; red is where they are thick.

JPL-CALTECH/NASA, SWRI, ASI, INAF, IAPS

Bit by bit, Jupiter is revealing its deepest, darkest secrets.

The latest findings are in from the Juno spacecraft. And they unveil the roots of the planet’s storms, what lies beneath the opaque atmosphere and a striking geometric layout of cyclones parked around the gas giant’s north and south poles.

“We’re at the beginning of dissecting Jupiter,” says Juno mission leader Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. And the picture that’s emerging — still just a sketch — topples many preconceived notions. The results appear in four papers in the March 8 Nature.

Juno has been orbiting Jupiter since July 4, 2016, on a mission to map the planet’s interior (SN: 6/25/16, p. 16). The probe loops around once every 53 days, traveling on an elongated orbit that takes the spacecraft from pole to pole and as close as about 4,000 kilometers above the cloud tops.

As it plows through Jupiter’s gravity field, Juno speeds up and slows down in response to shifting masses inside the planet. By measuring these minute accelerations and decelerations, scientists can calculate subtle variations in Jupiter’s gravity and deduce how its mass is distributed. That lets researchers build up a three-dimensional map of the planet’s internal structure. At the same time, Juno snaps pictures in visible and infrared light. While other probes have extensively photographed much of the planet, Juno is the first to get an intimate look at the north and south poles.

“The whole thing is really intriguing, especially when you compare [Jupiter] to other giant planets,” says Imke de Pater, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. “They are all unique, it looks like.”

Check out these four surprising new things we’ve learned that make Jupiter one of a kind:

1. Rings of cyclones

Parked at each pole is a cyclone several thousand kilometers wide. That part isn’t surprising. But each of those cyclones is encircled by a polygonal arrangement of similarly sized storms — eight in the north and five in the south. The patterns have persisted throughout Juno’s visit.

“We don’t really understand why that would happen, and why they would collect up there in such a geometric fashion,” Bolton says. “That's pretty amazing that nature is capable of something like that.”

Eyes of the storms

This highest-resolution-yet view of the south pole reveals temperature variation as well as intricate eddies and turbulence around the main cyclones. 

A. ADRIANI ET AL/NATURE 2018

2. More than skin deep

Researchers have long debated whether the photogenic bands of clouds that wrap around Jupiter have deep roots or just skim the top of the atmosphere. Juno’s new look shows that the bands penetrate roughly 3,000 kilometers below the cloud tops. That’s 30 times as thick as the bulk of Earth’s atmosphere. While just a tiny fraction of Jupiter’s diameter, that’s deeper than previously thought, Bolton says.

3. Weighty weather

Within those 3,000 kilometers lies what passes for an atmosphere on Jupiter. It’s the stage on which Jupiter’s turbulent weather plays out. The atmosphere alone is about three times as massive as our planet, or 1 percent of Jupiter’s entire mass, researchers estimate.

4. Stuck together

Below the atmosphere, Jupiter is fluid. But unlike most fluids, the planet rotates as if it’s a solid mass. Like kids playing crack-the-whip, atoms of hydrogen and helium figuratively link arms and spin around the planet in unison, scientists report. Earlier results from Juno also indicate there’s no solid core lurking beneath this fluid (SN: 6/24/17, p. 14), so anyone dropped into the planet can expect a terribly long fall.

Many of these results are preliminary, and it’s unclear what it all means for how Jupiter operates. But what’s been learned so far, Bolton says, “is quite different than anybody anticipated.”

Citations

• A. Adriani et al. Clusters of cyclones encircling Jupiter’s poles. Nature. Vol. 555, March 8, 2018, p. 216. doi:10.1038/nature25491.
• T. Guillot et al. A suppression of differential rotation in Jupiter’s deep interior. Nature. Vol. 555, March 8, 2018, p. 227. doi:10.1038/nature25775 .
• L. Iess et al. Measurement of Jupiter’s asymmetric gravity field. Nature. Vol. 555, March 8, 2018, p. 220. doi:10.1038/nature25776.
• Y. Kaspi et al. Jupiter’s atmospheric jet streams extend thousands of kilometres deep. Nature. Vol. 555, March 8, 2018, p. 223. doi:10.1038/nature25793.

Further Reading

• L. Grossman. Jupiter’s massive Great Red Spot is at least 350 kilometers deep. Science News. Vol. 193, January 20, 2018, p. 7.
• A. Yeager. Juno spacecraft reveals a more complex Jupiter. Science News. Vol. 191, June 24, 2017, p. 14.
• C. Crockett. Juno is closing in on Jupiter. Science News. Vol. 189, June 25, 2016, p. 16.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

11-03-2018 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

The radiation explosion from Proxima Centauri has scorched hopes for habitability nearby

BY LISA GROSSMAN 

TEMPER TANTRUM  Proxima Centauri released a gigantic flare on March 24, 2017, fizzling hopes that this nearby star’s Earth-mass planet is habitable.

ROBERTO MOLAR CANDANOSA/CARNEGIE INSTITUTION FOR SCIENCE, SDO/NASA, JPL/NASA

Proxima Centauri has a temper. Earth’s nearest planet-hosting neighbor released a gigantic flare in March 2017, a new analysis of observations of the star shows. And that’s bad news for the potential for life on the star’s planet, Proxima b.

The star got 1,000 times brighter over 10 seconds before dimming again. That can best be explained by an enormous stellar flare, astronomer Meredith MacGregor of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., and colleagues report February 26 in Astrophysical JournalLetters.

Because Proxima b is so much closer to its star than Earth is to the sun, the flare would have blasted Proxima b with 4,000 times more radiation than Earth typically gets from the sun’s flares. “If there are flares like this at all frequently, then [the exoplanet] is likely not in the best shape,” MacGregor says.

Proxima b was one of the most sought-after sites for finding life outside the solar system. Just four light-years away, it has a mass about the same as Earth’s and probably has temperatures suitable for liquid water (SN: 12/24/16, p. 20). But its star is an M dwarf, a class of small dim stars notoriously prone to flaresthat could rip away their planets’ atmospheres (SN: 6/24/17, p. 18).

Peak energy

Proxima Centauri became 1,000 times brighter and then dimmed again over about two minutes (red lines). The black line refers to normal emission from the star, and the yellow and blue lines are smaller flares.

M. MACGREGOR

MacGregor and her colleagues reanalyzed data from a recent study led by astronomer Guillem Anglada of the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada, Spain. Anglada and his colleagues had observed Proxima Centauri with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescopes in Chile. The team saw extra light that it interpreted as a ring of dust analogous to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt, scattering the light in all directions, the team reported November 15  in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

But Anglada and his colleagues had averaged the amount of light over 10 hours of observations. That smeared out any short-term changes in the star’s brightness — such as a bright flare.

When MacGregor’s team reanalyzed the data, they found that all the excess light came from the same two-minute period on March 24. A massive flare explains all the extra light, she says — none of it was masquerading as a glittering dust ring.

Anglada says he and his colleagues are aware of the March 24 flare and are currently revising their original claim. But he says the flare can’t account for all the extra light, so the dust ring theory might still survive.

Citations

• M. MacGregor et al. Detection of a millimeter flare from Proxima Centauri. Astrophysical Journal Letters. Published February 26, 2018.
• G. Anglada et al. ALMA discovery of dust belts around Proxima Centauri. Astrophysical Journal Letters. Published November 15, 2017.

Further Reading

• C. Crockett. Year in review: A planet lurks around the star next door. Science News. Vol. 190, December 24, 2016, p. 20.
• C. Crockett. Life might have a shot on planets orbiting dim red dwarfs. Science News. Vol. 191, June 24, 2017, p. 18.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

11-03-2018 om 22:52 geschreven door peter  

Mogen we enkele verzegelde maanstalen openen?

{ https://www.eoswetenschap.eu/ }

11-03-2018 om 22:26 geschreven door peter  

My Alien & UFO Existential Crisis

I’m not kidding that a few years ago, I wholeheartedly believed aliens were visiting our planet. I believed that religions all bore a resemblance to each other because of aliens having visited the earth in ancient times. I even witnessed a UFO myself. But nowadays, I’m having a crisis. You see, I no longer believe that UFOs are alien-controlled ships. I no longer believe that we’ve been visited. I don’t believe those alien abductions are real. And I don’t believe aliens guided our ancestors in ancient times. So what the hell happened?

Science & Critical Thinking

First of all, I’m a science guy. I have a degree in engineering and I do IT work as a full-time career. As a result, my education and work experience have taught me the rules of critical thinking. They’ve taught me about drawing conclusions from evidence. They’ve also taught me the dangers of searching for evidence solely to support an existing conclusion. After writing about UFO encounters and researching alternative explanations for the past couple years, very rarely does something come up that isn’t explainable.

I’m not a closed-minded person, in fact, I’m open to the idea that we’re being visited. Unfortunately, a glowing ball in the sky that you can’t identify just isn’t enough to convince me. Alien abduction stories that are clearly cases of sleep paralysis simply don’t convince me. And the History Channel show Ancient Aliens definitely can’t convince me.

Witnesses Too Eager to Believe

The desire to believe is one thing consistent in all of my research on UFO sightings. This desire creates a bias in the witness that’s undeniable. I’ve seen witnesses who quickly come to a conclusion simply based on their existing beliefs.

When a vibrant and beautiful aurora borealis appeared over Siberia, one witness stated, “It’s a gap in the space-time continuum”. This witness didn’t take any measurements. He didn’t measure any gravitational changes. He didn’t check his watch speed to see if it changed. All he did was look up in the sky. He literally just made it up because he believed those things happen. His quote appeared in the Daily Mail which contained many such quotes from locals who observed this totally natural phenomenon.

Lots of Deliberate Hoaxes

The fact is I’ve found a ton of deliberate hoaxes when it comes to UFOs & aliens. While I love and appreciate a good mystery, deliberate hoaxes are the worst. Some of the best footage of aliens and UFOs has turned out to be fake. Remember the alien autopsy? Fake. The Adamski videos? Fake. Crop Circles? Fake.

I totally understand that the existence of hoaxes doesn’t mean there are no real mysteries out there. But their existence and predominance should make anyone take pause before assuming they’re reporting and sharing a real encounter.

The X-Files - I Want To Believe TV Poster Print

By BananaRoad

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UFO Community Not Policing Itself

This is a topic that’s always infuriated me. UFOlogists and researchers regularly share and propagate known hoaxes because they haven’t done their due diligence. It’s the single greatest detriment to the ‘science’ of UFOlogy. What’s worse is they aren’t even likely to call out others who do it either.

I’ve written about the issues with credibility in the UFO community before. I was attacked on social media and banned from certain UFOlogy groups on Facebook as a result. Yet, all I did was present facts. Real facts.

Wrapping it Up

The echo chambers created by the UFO community have made it very difficult to discern the truth from fantasy. If you don’t go along with the status quo, you will likely be ostracised. Consequently, I find myself much more critical of reports. My threshold for proof has become very high. But at the end of that day, when you want to talk about something as extraordinary as alien visitation, shouldn’t the standard for proof be very high? We are, after all, talking about our fate as a species.

So, can you convince me? I want your stories, your evidence, and your experiences.

---

Featured Image Credit | Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

{ https://alienufoblog.com/category/ufo-sightings/ }

11-03-2018 om 21:57 geschreven door peter  

You know that Aliens are in control, we can hear their voices according to most of the popular and authetic physicists. One of the world’s most respected theoretical physicists Michio Kaku has predicted that humans will make contact with an alien civilisation within this century. While he doesn’t know if we’ll be able to talk back to them by then, Kaku thinks that humans will detect aliens before 2100 by listening in to their radio communications.

He gave the prediction on reddit last week during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) question-and-answer session. “Dr Kaku, if we make contact with alien civilizations, then what? And how will we talk to them?” asked redditor MalachiNorris.

Kaku responded: “Let me stick my neck out. I personally feel that within this century, we will make contact with an alien civilization, by listening in on their radio communications. But talking to them will be difficult, since they could be tens of light years away. So, in the meantime, we must decipher their language to understand their level of technology. Are they Type I, II, or III??? And what are their intentions. Are they expansive and aggressive, or peaceful.”

The “types” of civilisations he’s referring to represent the three categories in the Kardashev scale – a scale that measures a civilisation’s technological advancement based on the amount of energy they are able to use for communication. For reference, humans aren’t quite a Type I civilisation as yet, as that would require learning to harvest every ounce of energy from their home planet, including all solar, thermal, oceanic energy, and more.

As Kaku added to his response: “Another possibility is that they land on the White House lawn and announce their existence. But I think that is unlikely, since we would be like forest animals to them, i.e. not worth communicating with.”

Ooh, burn.

Kaku’s not the first scientist to suggest we’re not far off making contact with extraterrestrial life.

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer with the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute has placed a wager we’ll find signs of alien life within just 20 years. Even Stephen Hawking recently said he’s “more convinced than ever that we are not alone” and warned humanity to stop reaching out to aliens before it’s too late.

Hawking is involved in the Breakthrough Listen project, which will scan planets around the nearest million stars for signs of life within radio signals – including Earth-like planet Gliese 832c. “One day we might receive a signal from a planet like Gliese 832c, but we should be wary of answering back,” said Hawking.

Shostak, Hawking, and Kaku are all predicting that alien contact will come through radio waves, a narrow frequency band of electromagnetic waves that are often used for long-distance communication. Scientists are so focussed on this small part of the electromagnetic spectrum because it stands out from the naturally occurring background noise in the Universe, which typically extends across a much wider frequency range.

Radio telescopes around the world are constantly scanning the Universe for any signs of life, and although we’ve had some close calls, we haven’t seen anything as yet to suggest aliens are out there. But according to the Drake equation, based on the sheer number of stars out there, it’s highly unlikely that we’re the only life in the Universe.

Alternatively, another alien civilisation might end up detecting our radio wave communications first. If that’s the case, let’s just hope they’re friendly.

{ https://thesciencealert.com/category/science/ }

11-03-2018 om 21:43 geschreven door peter  

{ https://futurism.com/ }

11-03-2018 om 20:46 geschreven door peter  

We have no idea what’s behind these weird incidents because we’re not investigating.

By Christopher Mellon 

Christopher Mellon served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. He is a private equity investor and an adviser to the To the Stars Academy for Arts and Science.

US Government releases footage of Super fast UFO captured by Navy Jet

In December, the Defense Department declassified two videos documenting encounters between U.S. Navy F-18 fighters and unidentified aircraft. The first video captures multiple pilots observing and discussing a strange, hovering, egg-shaped craft, apparently one of a “fleet” of such objects, according to cockpit audio. The second shows a similar incident involving an F-18 attached to the USS Nimitz carrier battle group in 2004.  

The videos, along with observations by pilots and radar operators, appear to provide evidence of the existence of aircraft far superior to anything possessed by the United States or its allies. Defense Department officials who analyze the relevant intelligence confirm more than a dozen such incidents off the East Coast alone since 2015. In another recent case, the Air Force launched F-15 fighters last October in a failed attempt to intercept an unidentified high-speed aircraft looping over the Pacific Northwest .

A third declassified video, released by To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science , a privately owned media and scientific research company to which I’m an adviser, reveals a previously undisclosed Navy encounter that occurred off the East Coast in 2015.

Watch: Military jet video tracks high-speed UFO

(To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science)

Is it possible that America has been technologically leap-frogged by Russia or China? Or, as many people wondered after the videos were first published by the New York Times in December, might they be evidence of some alien civilization? 

Unfortunately, we have no idea, because we aren’t even seeking answers.

I served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence for the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and as staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, and I know from numerous discussions with Pentagon officials over the past two years that military departments and agencies treat such incidents as isolated events rather than as part of a pattern requiring serious attention and investigation. A colleague of mine at To the Stars Academy, Luis Elizondo, used to run a Pentagon intelligence program that examined evidence of “anomalous” aircraft, but he resigned last fall to protest government inattention to the growing body of empirical data. 

Meanwhile, reports from different services and agencies remain largely ignored and unevaluated inside their respective bureaucratic stovepipes. There is no Pentagon process for synthesizing all the observations the military is making. The current approach is equivalent to having the Army conduct a submarine search without the Navy. It is also reminiscent of the counterterrorism efforts of the CIA and the FBI before Sept. 11, 2001, when each had information on the hijackers that they kept to themselves. In this instance, the truth may ultimately prove benign, but why leave it to chance? 

(A Pentagon spokesman did not respond to requests from The Washington Post for comment, but in December, the military confirmed the existence of a program to investigate UFOs and said it had stopped funding the research in 2012.)

The military personnel who are encountering these phenomena tell remarkable stories. In one example, over the course of two weeks in November 2004, the USS Princeton, a guided-missile cruiser operating advanced naval radar, repeatedly detected unidentified aircraft operating in and around the Nimitz carrier battle group, which it was guarding off the coast of San Diego. In some cases, according to incident reports and interviews with military personnel, these vehicles descended from altitudes higher than 60,000 feet at supersonic speeds, only to suddenly stop and hover as low as 50 feet above the ocean. The United States possesses nothing capable of such feats.

On at least two occasions, F-18 fighters were guided to intercept these vehicles and were able to verify their location, appearance and performance. Notably, these encounters occurred in broad daylight and were independently monitored by radars aboard multiple ships and aircraft. According to naval aviators I have spoken with at length, the vehicles were roughly 45 feet long and white. Yet these mysterious aircraft easily sped away from and outmaneuvered America’s front-line fighters without a discernible means of propulsion. 

From my work with To the Stars Academy, which seeks to raise private funds to investigate incidents like the 2004 Nimitz encounter, I know they continue to occur, because we are being approached by military personnel who are concerned about national security and frustrated by how the Defense Department is handling such reports. I am also familiar with the evidence as a former Pentagon intelligence official and a consultant who began researching the issue after the Nimitz incident was brought to my attention. On several occasions, I have met with senior Pentagon officials, and at least one followed up and obtained briefings confirming incidents such as the Nimitz case. But nobody wants to be “the alien guy” in the national security bureaucracy; nobody wants to be ridiculed or sidelined for drawing attention to the issue. This is true up and down the chain of command, and it is a serious and recurring impediment to progress. 

If the origin of these aircraft is a mystery, so is the paralysis of the U.S. government in the face of such evidence. Sixty years ago, when the Soviet Union put the first manmade satellite in orbit, Americans recoiled at the idea of being technologically surpassed by a dangerous rival, and the furor over Sputnik ultimately produced the space race. Americans responded vigorously, and a little more than a decade later, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. If these craft mean that Russia, China or some other nation is concealing an astonishing technological breakthrough to quietly extend its lead, surely we should respond as we did then. Perhaps Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s recent chest-thumping claims about propulsion breakthroughs are not pure braggadocio. Or, if these craft really aren’t from Earth, then the need to figure out what they are is even more urgent.

Lately, media coverage of the issue of unidentified aerial vehicles has focused on an expired $22 million congressional earmark for Bigelow Aerospace, a contractor with ties to former Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (Nev.). The money mostly funded research and analysis by that contractor, without participation from the Air Force, NORAD or other key military organizations. The real issue, though, is not a long-gone earmark, helpful though it may have been, but numerous recent incidents involving the military and violations of U.S. airspace. It is time to set aside taboos regarding “UFOs” and instead listen to our pilots and radar operators. 

Within a roughly $50 billion annual intelligence budget, money is not the issue. Existing funds would easily cover what’s needed to look into the incidents. What we lack above all is recognition that this issue warrants a serious collection and analysis effort. To make headway, the task needs to be assigned to an official with the clout to compel collaboration among disparate and often quarrelsome national security bureaucracies. A truly serious effort would involve, among other things, analysts able to review infrared satellite data, NORAD radar databases, and signals and human intelligence reporting. Congress should require an all-source study by the secretary of defense while promoting research into new forms of propulsion that might explain how these vehicles achieve such extraordinary power and maneuverability.

As with Sputnik, the national security implications of these incidents are concerning — but the scientific opportunities are thrilling. Who knows what perils we may avoid or opportunities we might identify if we follow the data? We cannot afford to avert our eyes, given the risk of strategic surprise. The future belongs to not only the physically brave but also the intellectually agile.

Read more from Outlook and follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter. 

{ https://www.washingtonpost.com/ }

11-03-2018 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

On February 28 of this year, the FBI posted to its website, The Vault, its now-declassified file on Stanley Kubrick. He was the director of numerous movies, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut. The file only amounts to four pages, so there isn’t that much said about him. We are told, however, that “…Kubrick was an old chess-playing friend of [Deleted] who has been the subject of a security-type investigation conducted by this Bureau. [Deleted] reportedly had a large circle of communist associates.”

What’s more intriguing, though, are the references in the file to a controversial movie of 1964, Seven Days in May. It’s an absorbing, thought-provoking story that tells of an attempted military coup to take control of the U.S. Government. The authors of the novel that the movie was based on were Charles W. Bailey II (who died in 2012 at the age of eighty-two) and Fletcher Knebel who, in 1960, wrote a chapter on JFK for a book titled Candidate 1960.

Seven Days in May starred a number of major movie-stars of that era, including Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Fredric March, Martin Balsam, and Edmond O’Brien. In the story, Lancaster’s character of General James Mattoon Scott secretly initiates a plan to take over the elected U.S. Government (run by President Jordan Lyman and played by March). General Scott sees President Lyman’s plans to enter into a nuclear treaty with the Soviet Union as weak and ineffectual and a danger to U.S. national security and to the American people. The battle is then on, with General Scott trying to ensure the coup succeeds and President Lyman doing his utmost to stop it. But, why is Seven Days in May referenced in the Kubrick file? Let’s see.

On March 20, 1964, the FBI recorded the following in a Confidential-level memo: “Admiral [Arleigh A.] Burke, U.S. Navy (Ret.), good friend of Bureau, has contacted Assistant Director Sullivan to state that movie ‘Seven Days in May,’ which tells of abortive plot of military clique to seize control of U.S. Government. Burke is in receipt of letters concerning recent attacks on military. One letter alleges communist connections of movie’s cast, namely, Fredric March, Burt Lancaster [deleted] and Ava Gardner.”

The document continues: “Another letter cites two new books, ‘The Passion of the Hawks,’ by Tristram Coffin, and ‘The Military Establishment,’ by John Swomley, and another new movie, ‘Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,’ produced by Stanley Kubrick, all of which derogate military.” That’s how Seven Days in May came to be referenced in the Kubrick file. And, although there is little more on Kubrick, there is certainly more on Seven Days in May.

The FBI’s memo continues: “Fletcher Knebel, one of co-authors of ‘Seven Days of May,’ criticized Director in ‘Look’ magazine in 1955. Fredrick March and wife were subjects of closed security cases alleging them to have been Communist Party members and active in communist fronts in past…Burke stated that he had seen the film, which portrays every military and civilian leader in it as a man of great weakness, and he feels that the picture is detrimental to the Nation. His appraisal of the picture has appeared in the press, and, as a result, he said, he has received several letters.” The document also refers to one of Admiral Burke’s correspondents as stating that Burt Lancaster was a “zealous Moscow stalwart.”

The FBI concluded with these words: “It is entirely understandable why a military leader of Admiral Burke’s stature would find the theme of ‘Seven Days in May’ — even though it is pure fiction — offensive because it does tarnish the image of the American military.”

In some ways, at least, this kind of reminds me of how the military wasn’t too happy when Area 51 was portrayed in 1996’s Independence Day. This new file provides some interesting insight into the connection between Hollywood and government agencies.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

11-03-2018 om 20:07 geschreven door peter  

“What the f— is that thing?”

That’s not something you’d expect to hear a highly-trained Navy pilot say.

“Oh my gosh dude!”

That doesn’t quite sound like the vernacular of another military officer responding as he viewed what the pilot saw. Yet both of those quotes come from a newly-released Pentagon video of an encounter in 2015 between a US Navy F/A 18 jet and an unidentified flying object off the east coast of the U.S. What’s even more shocking is that the video was not released by the Pentagon but in an opinion piece in the Washington Post by a member of Tom DeLonge’s To the Stars Academy.

“Oh my gosh dude!”

That’s the edited-for-family-publications reaction by almost everyone after reading the op-ed written by Christopher Mellon, a well-heeled (member of the Mellon family of Gulf Oil and Mellon Bank fame), former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and of the Security and Information Operations. Mellon wrote the opinion and exposed the video (see the video here) as an advisor to the To the Stars media company chartered in part to pressure governments to release what secret information they allegedly have on UFO and extraterrestrial encounters.

“If the origin of these aircraft is a mystery, so is the paralysis of the U.S. government in the face of such evidence.”

The purpose of Mellon’s essay is not just to expose the video but to shame the Pentagon and the U.S. government for not even investigating this and “more than a dozen such incidents off the East Coast alone since 2015.” Mellon laments that these incidents could be encounters with military aircraft (Russian or from another country) far sophisticated to ours or they could be alien spacecrafts. However, he warns not to hold your breath waiting for a conclusive answer on which one it is because …

“Unfortunately, we have no idea, because we aren’t even seeking answers.”

Mellon blames the problem not on money (he says there’s roughly $50 billion in the annual intelligence budget) but on government bureaucracy …

“Meanwhile, reports from different services and agencies remain largely ignored and unevaluated inside their respective bureaucratic stovepipes. There is no Pentagon process for synthesizing all the observations the military is making.”

… and on attitudes.

“But nobody wants to be “the alien guy” in the national security bureaucracy; nobody wants to be ridiculed or sidelined for drawing attention to the issue. This is true up and down the chain of command, and it is a serious and recurring impediment to progress.”

To get past the second impediment, Mellon thinks we need to combine the military fears and scientific excitement of the early space program.

“As with Sputnik, the national security implications of these incidents are concerning — but the scientific opportunities are thrilling. Who knows what perils we may avoid or opportunities we might identify if we follow the data? We cannot afford to avert our eyes, given the risk of strategic surprise. The future belongs to not only the physically brave but also the intellectually agile.”

Does our current government have people who are “physically brave but also the intellectually agile”? Should these investigations – and the data associated with them – be turned over to the private sector instead? Or to To The Stars? Does Mellon have enough money to fund it himself? How much do you need to answer the question …

“What the f— is that thing?”

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

11-03-2018 om 19:56 geschreven door peter  

Either space is weirder than we thought, or NASA ripped off The Fantastic Four. According to a study published by the space agency, space travel can permanently alter your DNA. Identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly were observed over the course of a year after Scott touched down on Earth after a yearlong stay on the International Space Station. The Twins Study is part of an ongoing NASA effort called the Human Research Project which studies the effects of space on the human body in preparation for eventual manned missions to Mars and other prolonged trips through the void.

Identical twins have almost identical DNA, which makes them ideal candidates for studying the mental and physical health effects of space: any changes in the space-faring twin’s physical health would have to be caused by an outside force and not due to natural variation. Identical twins are rare, and astronauts even rarer; luckily NASA has plenty of the latter and two of the former. It was Scott Kelly himself who suggested NASA use him and his brother Mark as test subjects.

What they found is quite strange. While many of the changes to Scott’s physiology returned to normal soon after returning to Earth, they found permanent changes as well. It seems that 7% of Scott Kelly’s DNA has been altered permanently. NASA has speculated on the existence of a “space gene,” which might be activated by conditions in space, causing changes in DNA. NASA says the changes to Scott’s DNA “related to his immune system, DNA repair, bone formation networks, hypoxia, and hypercapnia.” Whether these changes were seen as positive or negative were not said. We may have an answer if the retired astronaut suddenly begins a career as a vigilante superhero, or if it turns out he’s the mothman.

NASA, don’t tell this guy about space genes.

Predictions for the Twins Study were also proven wrong. Telomeres are components of chromosomes that shorten with age, and NASA expected the radiation of space to accelerate that shortening. They found, however, that Scott’s telomeres actually lengthened during his stay on the ISS. They returned to normal within two hours of his return to Earth, however, squashing any hope there might have been for finding the space-fountain of youth.

There were other findings, too. While on the ISS, Scott’s gut bacteria changed dramatically. It returned to normal once back on solid ground, and scientists do not know whether it was differences in the food he ate or environmental factors, such as gravity and radiation, which were responsible. NASA also studied Scott’s mental abilities. Being in space had no effect on his cognition, yet after returning to Earth his mental speed and accuracy began showing slight decreases. Perhaps this is due to returning from a year of peace and quiet in space to a life of medical tests and interviews on terra firma.

Scott Kelly went from looking at this every day to being constantly asked about his space genes.

While NASA may be furthering the goals of the human species and finding us a way off this rock, they apparently don’t have the best bedside manners. Scott says that he found out about the results of the study the same way as everyone else.

“I did read in the newspaper the other day… that 7 percent of my DNA had changed permanently,” Kelly said. “And I’m reading that, I’m like, ‘Huh, well that’s weird.’”

The full results of the study will be released later in 2018.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

11-03-2018 om 19:43 geschreven door peter  

Mysterieuze ufobeelden slaan Amerikaanse legerpiloten met verstomming: “WTF is dat ding?” - HLN.be

Bron: Washington Post, New York Times

De clip duurt twee minuten en is sensationeel. Legerpiloten filmden een ufo vanuit een F-18 van de US Navy, die op een hoogte van 25.000 voet vloog. “What the fuck is dat ding?” roept een piloot. De video werd online gepost door de To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, een privaat onderzoeksbedrijf. 

De vrijgegeven beelden werden in 2015 geschoten aan de Amerikaanse Oostkust. Hoe het onderzoekscentrum eraan geraakte, zei het niet. Maar iedereen zou ze kunnen opvragen. Vorig jaar werden twee gelijkaardige video’s openbaar gemaakt.

Volgens Christopher Mellon vormen de video’s “het bewijs voor het bestaan van vliegtuigen die ver boven alles staan waar de VS of haar bondgenoten over beschikken”. Mellon is adviseur bij de To the Stars Acacemy en werkte voor de geheime dienst onder Bill Clinton en George W. Bush. Hij vindt dat de overheid te weinig onderzoek doet naar dat soort bewijsmateriaal: “Als het een mysterie is waar die vliegtuigen vandaan komen, dan is de passiviteit van de overheid tegenover zulke bewijzen dat ook”. 

Hij verwijt het leger en de overheid dat ze “dat soort incidenten beschouwen als geïsoleerde feiten en niet als onderdeel van een patroon dat op een ernstige manier aandacht en onderzoek vraagt”. Hij vergelijkt die houding in de Washington Post met de inspanningen van de CIA en de FBI tegen terrorisme vóór 9/11, toen beide diensten wel informatie hadden over de kapers maar die voor zich hielden en niet met elkaar deelden.

Mellon vraagt zich af of “Rusland of China technologisch haasje-over doen met de VS” dan wel dat de beelden “het bewijs kunnen zijn van een buitenaardse beschaving”. Hij schrijft dat Poetins recente gepoch over een Russische doorbraak in voortstuwingstechnieken misschien wel niet zomaar bluf is. Mellons besluit: “Helaas hebben we geen idee, omdat we zelfs geen antwoorden zoeken.”

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

11-03-2018 om 19:22 geschreven door peter  

US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet Records UFO Over East Coast Waters, 2015, Newly Released! UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: 2015

Location of sighting: East Coast of USA

 

Here is another great military report that contains some raw footages of a NAVY Super Hornet recording a UFO moving at high speed over the water. It had no wings, no blades and no known method of propulsion. It was diamond shaped, having four sides. Its a welcome sight for me to see raw US military footage. Absolutely 100% evidence that aliens exist and are monitoring everything and anything on this planet. However, I have noticed that UFOs frequent aircraft more than other objects. The tech or the people are more easily accessible to them. 

Scott C. Waring

Video states: 

GO FAST is the third of three official USG videos selected for release after official review by multiple government organizations. While To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science was the first to obtain a copy, it should be available to any member of the press or public via the Freedom of Information Act. This footage was captured by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet using the Raytheon ATFLIR Pod that was being operated by a highly trained aerial observer and weapons system operator whom the government has spent millions of dollars to train. Go Fast reveals a Navy encounter that occurred off the East Coast of the United States in 2015 and the object in view remains unidentified. Read further analysis of what is being observed in Go Fast by our team of experts including additional videos and reports on our community of interest: coi.tothestarsacademy.com. It is the mission of To The Stars Academy to support underfunded areas of research that could lead to a better understanding of scientific anomalies and breakthrough discoveries in technology.

UFO with three green lights UFO sightings 2017 over the city UFO 2017 mp4 (Video)

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

11-03-2018 om 18:51 geschreven door peter  

Hong Kong Taxi hit by Supernatural Being

A video of what appears to be an apparition hitting a Hong Kong taxi has gone viral on the social media

The video, posted by Hung Leung on his Facebook page, was captured by a dashboard cam of a car following the taxi on a narrow road and shows a blast of fog for a split-second before it blown into the left side of the taxi, reports thesundaily.my

Then the taxi swerves off the road to the right and nearly collides with a tree.

The driver in the vehicle behind the taxi can be heard freaking out in the 23-sec clip.

Screenshots from the video clearly show the blast of fog that looks like a supernatural being that collided with the car. Below the video of the very strange phenomenon.

  

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

11-03-2018 om 18:37 geschreven door peter  

Live Fox News Broadcast Shows Cluster Of UFOs Dashing Around

A live news broadcast in the United States has become a controversial one after a cluster of UFOs were spotted, which has let some alien enthusiasts believe aliens have arrived on Earth.

Many viewers, who tuned in at 4:43 am, on Fox 6 News noticed a bizarre astronomical display on February 28. They were treated with the appearance of series of bright lights dashing around a live feed of Milwaukee.

At least ten bright dots were moving in the distance, glowing, and then disappearing before shining a light again.

The viewers were not the only one who got surprised as even the man, and woman presenters of the show appeared to be equally surprised of the strange activity.

The female broadcaster initially thought of fireworks but later confirmed they were not. She then asked if those were aliens.

The male counterpart said that he also saw the strange activity and added that it kept getting weirder by the second. He explained that it looked like they were sticking around.

Authorities later claimed that seagulls were responsible for the mysterious darting formation of lights. They explained that they were just seagulls reflecting light.

However, many viewers of the video were not buying that excuse. In a video uploaded to YouTube channel Suspect Sky, one viewer said that they watched it 500 times and those were not seagulls.

Another user said that tiny seagulls at that distance could only be seen with binoculars and even then it would be challenging with the limited light.

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

11-03-2018 om 18:26 geschreven door peter  

British Popular Singer Robbie Williams Recalls Bizarre UFO Sighting

British pop star Robbie Williams has experienced an exciting ride of his life and often shared details of his alcoholic and drug addictions in the past. And the world-renown star, 44, has recently shared his bizarre experiences that he referred to as phenomena that can’t be explained.

He revealed they had taken place in America and the United Kingdom. He described them as intriguing and powerful.

On one UFO sighting, the Let Me Entertain You hit-maker said that he had seen one right over him and he could have hit the mysterious thing with a tennis ball if he has it at that time.

The Take That boy band member’s admission has shocked everybody who follows the singer. Robbie confidently said that no substance was involved at all.

Last year, he also spoke the experience saying that he has seen stuff that he can’t explain and he had a UFO right over his head hovering less than 150 feet.

Robbie is married to American actress Ayda Field, and they have two children.

Robbie had a terrifying health issue late last year.

The singer was found with abnormalities in his brain, prompting him to cancel his final two European tour dates in September 2017 after spending seven days in intensive care.

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

11-03-2018 om 18:18 geschreven door peter  

Footage of mysterious object above ocean stuns military personnel

By Dean Balsamini

SEE ALSO

Pentagon’s UFO program revealed

Newly-released video of a mysterious object streaking over the Atlantic Ocean shows the Pentagon needs to take UFOs seriously, a researcher says.

The sensational two-minute clip captured by a camera aboard a US Navy F/A 18 jet flying at 25,000 feet wowed military personnel.

“What the f— is that thing?” shouted the pilot in the video posted online by the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science, a private research company.

“Oh my gosh dude!” exclaimed the jet’s weapons systems officer

The video was shot off the East Coast in 2015. To the Stars Academy did not say how it obtained the declassified footage, but said others could obtain it through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Three videos showing similar incidents became public last year in reports of $22 million in Pentagon spending on UFO research.

The videos, along with observations by pilots and radar operators, “appear to provide evidence of the existence of aircraft far superior to anything possessed by the United States or its allies,” writes Christopher Mellon, a former defense official in the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations and an adviser to To the Stars Academy.

In a Washington Post op-ed, Mellon reasoned that if the origin of these aircraft is a mystery, “so is the paralysis of the US government in the face of such evidence.”

Mellon, who served as an intelligence official for the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, charged that military and department agencies “treat such incidents as isolated events rather than as part of a pattern requiring serious attention and investigation.”

Mellon compared the government’s current approach to UFOs to the counterterrorism efforts of the CIA and the FBI prior to 9/11.

He wondered if the US has been “technologically leap-frogged by Russia or China” or might these videos “be evidence of some alien civilization. Unfortunately, we have no idea, because we aren’t even seeking answers.”

{https://nypost.com/ }

11-03-2018 om 02:06 geschreven door peter  

Antarctica’s secrets EXPOSED? Google Earth images show 'hidden camps, UFOs and Nazi bases'

ANTARCTICA is one of the remotest regions on the planet and could hide some incredible secrets if these Google Earth images are anything to go by.

11-03-2018 om 01:57 geschreven door peter  

{ http://www.ladbible.com/ }

11-03-2018 om 01:45 geschreven door peter  

“There have been 10,000 Generations Before Us --Ours Could be the First to Discover Extraterrestrial Life” --NASA

In 1960, the astrophysicist Francis Drake pointed a radio telescope situated in Green Bank, West Virginia, in the direction of two Sun-like stars 11 light years away. His faith: to pick up a signal that would verify gifted life might be out there. Fifty years have departed by since Drake’s pioneering SETI experiment, and we’ve yet to perceive the aliens. But because of a host of discoveries, the idea that life might survive outside Earth now appears more believable than ever. For one, we now know that life can flourish in the most extreme surroundings here on Earth — from deep-sea methane seep and Antarctic sea ice to acidic rivers and our thirstiest deserts.

We’ve also discovered that liquid water isn’t exclusive to our planet. Saturn’s moon “Enceladus” and Jupiter’s moons “Ganymede” and “Europa” have large oceans underneath their icy surfaces. Even Saturn’s largest moon “Titan” could seed some kind of life in its lakes and rivers of methane-ethane. And then there’s the finding of exo-planets, with more than 1800 alien worlds outside our Solar System recognized so far. In fact, astrophysicists think there may be a million and millions of planets in our galaxy alone, one-fifth of which may be like Earth. As Carl Sagan excellently said: “The Universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”

Now some researchers trust the hunt for life outside Earth may well repay in our lifespan. “There have been 10K generations of humans before us. Ours could be the first to know,” said SETI astrophysicist Seth Shostak.

But what can occur once we do? How would we deal with the discovery? And what would be its influence on humanity? This overwhelming question was the focus of a meeting organized last September by the NASA Astrobiology Institute and the Library of Congress. For two days, a group of researchers, historians, philosophers and theologians from round the world discussed how we might prepare for the preordained discovery of life — microbial or intelligent — somewhere else in our Universe. The conference was hosted by Steven J. Dick, the 2nd yearly Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress.

Of course, the influence of discovery will rest on on the specific situation. In a talk titled “Current Approaches to Finding Life Beyond Earth, and What Happens If We Do,” Shostak proposed three ways — or three “horse races” — for discovering life in space. First, we could discover it close, in our Solar System. NASA’s Curiosity Rover is at present studying the Martian surface for clues of past or present life. And “Europa Clipper”, a mission to Jupiter’s icy moon, is now under attention. Second, we could “discover it out” of the atmosphere of an exo-planet, using telescopes to look for gases such as methane and oxygen that might clue at a biosphere. The James Webb Space Telescope, to be launched in 2018, will be able to carry out that kind of work.

Discovering life in our Solar System, which possibly would be microbial, might not have as great an impression as hearing from an intellectual civilization far away. We’d have to worry about matters like contamination. We might also find some different biochemistry, maybe exposing new visions about the nature of life. But that type of finding wouldn’t affect us as much as the view of communicating with intellectual life.

Then again it would take hundreds, if not thousands of years for a signal to mobile from side to side, Shostak mentioned. So that third situation would only show us a very few things immediately, such as their locality or what type of star they orbit. However, picking a signal might have other tempting implications about the nature of alien intellect.

Several scientists, including Shostak, put forward the following proposition: “That once a society creates the technology that could put them in touch with the cosmos, they are only a few hundred years away from changing their paradigm from biology to artificial intelligence.” The knowledge is based on the so-called “time scale argument” or “short window observation.” Many scientists forecast we’ll have industrialized a strong A.I by 2050 here on Earth — about a hundred years after the creation of computers, or a hundred and fifty years after the creation of radio connectio. “The point is that, going from creating radios to devising thinking machines is very short — a few centuries at most,” Shostak said. “The leading intelligence in the cosmos may well be non-biological.”

In a talk titled “Alien Minds,” Susan Schneider, a philosophy professor at the University of Connecticut, explained that idea further. The idea of “whole brain emulation” is becoming gradually general among certain scientists, she explained. So are other unbelievable sounding ideas like “mind uploading” and “immortally.” So, to her, a civilization able to radio communicate would probably be “super-intelligent” by the time we hear from them.

According to the "short window observation" concept, a civilization talented of radio communication would possibly have established artificial intelligence by the time we hear from them. She also claimed that alien super-intelligence would be sensible in principle, since the neural code is similar to a computational code, and thoughts could well be inserted in a silicon-based substrate. A silicon-based intelligence would also have wonderful effects for long distance space travel. But again, a repeated theme throughout the conference was to be alert of our anthropocentric tendencies. There’s been a vast gap between microbial life and intelligent life on Earth, and even intelligent life has even progressed on a spectrum.

Lori Marino, a neuroscientist and current director of the Kimela Center for Animal Advocacy, debated as such in a talked titled “The Landscape of Intelligence.” We have a lot to study from other intelligent beings here on Earth (such as dolphins) before even thinking about contacting aliens.

Eventually, the utmost implications might be philosophical. Whether it turns out to be microbial, compound or intelligent, finding life somewhere else will increase fascinating questions about our place in the cosmos. A couple of presentations, by theologian Robin Lovin and Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno, even spoke the potential influence on the world’s religions. But what if we don’t find anything soon, or even at all?

The hunt itself can give us a sense of direction, and help us furnace a planetary characteristics, argued the philosopher Clement Vidal in a talk titled “Silent Impact.” And if we’re really alone, then we should start taking good care of life here on Earth, and consider our duty of colonization, he added. The hunt itself can help us forge a planetary identity, said philosopher Clement Vidal. In the interim, astrobiology can help thin the gap among the sciences and humanities, as many presenters highlighted. And it can be a step to incorporating our knowledge across a wide range of disciplines.

So, how do we get ready for something we know so little about? We do so “by on-going to do good science, but also by understanding that science is not metaphysically n }eutral,” finished the conference host Steven Dick. “We get ready by continuing to question our suppositions about the nature of life and intelligence.”

Via Astrobio.net

{http://www.thesci-community.com/ }

11-03-2018 om 00:07 geschreven door peter  

A demonic robo-wolf is now protecting Japanese farmlands

 BY TIBI PUIU 

Credit: YouTube.

Honshu wolves were abundant in Japan until 1732, when rabies reached the island’s shores. Alongside widescale deforestation and a state-funded culling, the disease ultimately led to wolve’s complete extinction. The last specimen was officially killed in 1905 in Nara prefecture.

Now, in the farmlands near Kisarazu City, they are making a comeback. However, these aren’t the living, breathing wolves we all know (and fear). Rather, it’s a solar-powered robot that’s meant to look like a wolf. And instead of terrorizing Japanese rice farmers, this big, bad wolf is designed to scare off deer, wild boars and other ‘pests’ that have bred uncontrollably ever since wolves disappeared.

View image on Twitter

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'Super Monster Wolf' a success in Japan farming trials http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-43303781 …

11:20 PM - Mar 6, 2018

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21st-century scarecrow

The mechanized wolf, officially called “Super Monster Wolf” (SMW), was loaned to the cooperative association JA Kisarazu-shi for the last eight months. Reportedly, the trial has been a resounding success with local farmers happy with the results.

SMW measures 65 centimeters (2.2 feet) in length, which makes it about the size of a real wolf. It’s been adorned with fur, but also with a really weird and menacing-looking face, with angry blood-shot eyes. And I’m sorry to break it to you, but this version doesn’t prance around farms, shrieking and howling. Instead, it’s immobile, much like a scarecrow.

However, it’s infrared sensors alert the bot of any wildlife that comes within a one kilometer (0.6 miles) radius. When it does, it goes full nuclear, emitting a wide range of sounds from classic wolf howls to gunshots — anything to ward off wild boars. Any humans scared to death by SMW can be classed as collateral damage.

Since SMW was installed on July 11, Japanese news outlet The Asahi Shimbun reports that there have been no more signs of wild animals or birds nearby. So, it seems to be working quite nicely. If you’re interested in one for your farm (or evil lair), the Super Monster Wolf will become commercially available in late September for ¥200,000, or $1,810 USD. Quite the price to pay for a high-tech scarecrow, but imagine what an icebreaker this will make at parties.

{https://www.zmescience.com/}

10-03-2018 om 23:58 geschreven door peter