We May Have Uncovered the First Ever Evidence of the Multiverse

For many years, scientists have been very much baffled by a weird anomaly far away in space: a mysterious “Cold Spot” about 1.8 billion light-years across. It is cooler than its surroundings by around 0.00015 degrees Celsius (0.00027 degrees Fahrenheit), a fact astronomers discovered by measuring background radiation throughout the universe.

Previously, astronomers believed that this space could be cooler simply because it had less matter in it than most sections of space. They dubbed it a massive supervoid and estimated that it had 10,000 galaxies fewer than other comparable sections of space.

But now, in a recently published survey of galaxies, astronomers from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) say they have discovered that this supervoide could not exist. They now believe that the galaxies in the cold spot are just clustered around smaller voids that populate the cold spot like bubbles. These small voids, however, cannot explain the temperature difference observed.

To link the temperature differences to the smaller voids, the researchers say a non-standard cosmological model would be required. “But our data place powerful constraints on any attempt to do that,” explained researcher Ruari Mackenzie in an RAS press release.

While the study had a large margin of error, the simulations suggest there is only a two percent probability that the Cold Spot formed just randomly.

 “This means we can’t entirely rule out that the Spot is caused by an unlikely fluctuation explained by the standard model. But if that isn’t the answer, then there are more exotic explanations,” said researcher Tom Shanks in the press release. “Perhaps the most exciting of these is that the Cold Spot was caused by a collision between our universe and another bubble universe.”

If more detailed studies support the findings of this research, the Cold Spot might turn out to be the first evidence for the multiverse, though far more evidence would be needed to confirm our universe is indeed one of many.

Via Futurism

{ http://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

01-04-2018 om 22:17 geschreven door peter  

Pilots Who Saw UFO Over Arizona Speak Out: 'It Didn't Look Anything Like an Airplane'

RAY STERN

Blenus Green, a retired B-1 pilot who now flies for American Airlines, sounded amazed and couldn't seem to help smiling as he described seeing a UFO last month over Arizona.

News coverage of the astonishing sight blew up this week, a few weeks after Phoenix New Times — following a TheDrive.com story — published an article and Federal Aviation Administration audio recordings on March 9.

On Wednesday, the first interview of the Abilene, Texas, pilot aired on his hometown TV station, KTAB/KRBC-TV, describing what he saw from his American Airlines cockpit. New Times also interviewed the vice president of Phoenix Air Group, whose Learjet pilot also saw the weird object.

RELATED STORIES

• Hear American Airlines Pilot Discuss UFO Sighting Over Arizona in FAA Tape

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• Air Traffic Controllers Who Saw UFO Muzzled by FAA

As reported previously, the Learjet pilot reported to Albuquerque Center air traffic control on the afternoon of February 24 that he saw something bright and inexplicable fly over him, which would have put the object at about 40,000 feet.

After that, as Green told "Big Country" news reporter Pheban Kassahun in her exclusive interview, Albuquerque Center "asked us if we could just be on the lookout, see if we see anything."

Kassahun reported that Green has been flying for 20 years and displayed a photo of him in an Air Force uniform. On that day, American Airlines Flight 1095 was flying from San Diego to Dallas. Somewhere over the Sonoran Desert between Picacho and Mammoth, Green saw what the Learjet pilot had seen.

"So sure enough, I was looking out the windscreen to see if it was there, and yeah, I did. I saw it!" Green said in the interview. "It was very bright, but it wasn't so bright you couldn't look at it. You almost really wanted to look at it, to try to figure out what it was. It didn't look anything like an airplane."

In the FAA tape, an Albuquerque Center official asks Green to describe the object. He said it was flying several thousand feet above his Airbus and going "in the opposite direction."

Someone then asked the pilot if it was a "Google balloon."

EXPAND

Blenus Green, a pilot for American Airlines, describes the weird and bright object he saw over Arizona on February 24 in an interview with Texas TV news reporter Pheban Kassahun.

BigCountryHomePage.com

"Doubtful," Green replied on the FAA tape.

"What was weird about it, (is) normally if you have an object, you know, and if the sun's shining this way, the reflection would be on this side," he told Kassahun, using his hands to help him describe the object. "But this was bright all the way around. It was so bright, you couldn't make it out, what shape it was."

Earlier this week, American Airlines spokeswoman Katie Cody said she could add no further details about the incident.

However, Bob Tracey, vice president of Phoenix Air Group, Inc., which is based in Atlanta, said on Thursday that after receiving a "full debriefing" from the pilot of the Learjet, he's left wondering, "what the hell was it?"

Phoenix Air uses Learjets for a variety of contract work, including as air ambulances for the military's Air Mobility Command. That's what the Learjet pilot and his co-pilot were doing on February 24. Tracey couldn't say if a patient was on board at the time, but assumed it had no passengers because it was on its way back to Georgia from California.

The pilot realizes the public is interested in his story, but he and the company are worried he'll be overwhelmed by the publicity.

"I'm not naming him," Tracey said. "He's going to get buried with phone calls."

The pilot is a 15-year veteran with Phoenix Air, and is a "seasoned captain" with more than 14,000 hours of flying time.

At about the same time that afternoon, the pilot and his co-pilot noticed something flying outside and above them.

"What's that — what the hell is that?" the pilot remembered both of them saying.

Like Green, they mostly noticed the intense bright light of the object. The Learjet pilot described it as "like you woke up in the morning and stared at a bright light," Tracey said.

The brightness didn't fill the whole windshield, though — it was definitely a spot of light, and seemed to come from a source that was flying west at high speed, toward the eastbound Learjet but high above it.

The pilots put their fingers on the window to estimate how high in the sky it was. They concluded it might have been flying at nearly 50,000 feet, or more than 10,000 feet above them.

Then it raced past them. The pilot, knowing that another airplane likely would be coming near the area soon, put in his call to Albuquerque Center to alert air traffic controllers.

The pilot was concerned that "someone's going to whack into this thing."

When the pilot got back from the trip, he gave a casual briefing of the incident to the company's flight operations.

"He didn't think much of it," Tracey said. The pilot has seen many balloons in sky, he said. Sometimes they're sent up by amateurs with expendable GoPros. Like a balloon, it wasn't tracked by radar, and the Learjet's Traffic Collision Avoidance System didn't sound any alarms.

Yet in his full debriefing, he described something that didn't sound at all like a balloon, Tracey acknowledged.

"He said that it passed him at maybe a similar speed that an airliner would," Tracey said. That would be roughly 500 mph each, for a combined speed of "well over Mach 1," or the speed of sound.

Balloons, of course, may travel at high speeds on a vertical line, but not very fast horizontally.

Tracey summed up the incident as a "mystery."

"Everybody's got a theory on it," he said.

{ http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/ }

01-04-2018 om 22:06 geschreven door peter  

Chinese space station Tiangong-1 hurtling toward Earth for reentry

By Christopher Carbone | Fox News

China’s out-of-control, defunct space station is hurtling toward Earth and currently expected to enter the atmosphere sometime in the next 24 hours.

The 8.5-ton space lab, known as Tiangong-1, is likely to burn up upon re-entry, which is expected to happen about 37 miles above ground, so it only poses a small risk to people and property.

However, the exact timing of when the craft, which is about the size of a school bus, will fall back to Earth is uncertain due to how quiet the sun has been. The European Space Agency says it will happen between today and early Monday, while the Chinese Space Agency extends the potential landfall window to Wednesday.

A rogue Chinese space station that weighs 8.5 tons is hurtling toward Earth.  

(European Space Agency)

According to Space.com, if the sun is active, its energy pushes more strongly against Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere then balloons and becomes denser at higher altitudes, and the density impacts the drag against Tiangong-1’s orbital speed.

Most of the U.S. appeared to be outside the likely landfall area, but a senior member of Aerospace Corp. told Space.com that all predictions are subject to change based on new information.

In this June 13, 2013, file image released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft is seen while conducting docking with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space module.  

(AP)

Although the Chinese station has received intense media coverage, each year around 1,000 large objects such as lost satellites and rocket stages fall back to Earth. These numbers are projected to increase over the coming years as more and more satellites are placed into orbit.

Experts say there is also an economic risk that Tiangong-1 could present to air traffic as it hurtles toward Earth.

This undated file photo shows researchers installing China's first space station module Tiangong-1 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province prior to its launch on Sept. 29, 2011.  (AP)

“The problem here is less the probability for an aircraft to be directly hit by space debris (which is low, but not zero), but the difficulty to predict precisely the area of possible impacts and their exact time of occurrence, because of uncertainties resulting from variations of solar activity,” Dieter Isakeit, chair of the information and communication committee for the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, told Fox News in a statement.

Air traffic controllers could take a more conservative approach, Isakeit says, and “totally close” large areas to air traffic for several hours if they don’t have more reliable data about where the station is headed.

That type of closure has happened during other events, such as volcanic eruptions.

In this June 18, 2012, file image released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese astronauts, from left, Liu Wang, Liu Yang and Jing Haipeng wave while aboard the orbiting Tiangong-1 space station.  

(Xinhua News Agency/AP)

The good news is that it’s very unlikely that anyone will be hit with debris from the rogue space station.

• CHINA'S TIANGONG-1 SPACE LAB SET TO FALL TO EARTH: WHAT TO EXPECT

“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 nonprofit Aerospace Corporation told the Sun. “In the history of spaceflight, no known person has ever been harmed by re-entering space debris.”

Video

• Chinese space station heading to Earth

Indeed, only one person is known to have been hit by falling space debris: American woman Lottie Williams, who was struck but not injured by a falling piece of a U.S. Delta II rocket while exercising in an Oklahoma park in 1997.

Most famously, America's 77-ton Skylab crashed through the atmosphere in 1979, spreading pieces of wreckage near the southwestern Australia city of Perth, which fined the U.S. $400 for littering.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

{ http://www.foxnews.com/ }

01-04-2018 om 21:55 geschreven door peter  

WE COULD ALL BE PETS IN AN ELABORATE ALIEN ZOO, CLAIMS NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Planet Earth could be an elaborate zoo created by a hyper-intelligent alien civilisation, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has claimed. And such aliens, he added, might even be inflicting “weird politics” on us as a form of entertainment.

Tyson, who was among the guests at the Starmus conference in Tenerife, Spain, said he remained pessimistic about humanity making contact with intelligent alien life, arguing our relative lack of intelligence could either be bad news for discovery or allow us to exist in blissful ignorance.

“I fear the day we come upon a species such as that. Maybe I don’t fear it, I just hope that all they would do for us is create a zoo where we are happy. And maybe that is what they call Earth.”

Tyson was in part responding to statements made by Stephen Hawking in July last year. At the time Hawking said the discovery of alien life could destroy humanity but we should keep searching for it anyway.

But Tyson said the likelihood of that happening were low. “A sufficiently intelligent civilisation would have positively no interest in us at all,” he said. “In the same way as when you’re walking down a street and there’s a worm there.”. And even if you wanted to kill all the worms, he continued, you’d soon get bored and do something else.

“Maybe our biggest protection against being killed by alien civilisations is their conclusion there’s no intelligent civilisation on Earth,” Tyson continued. “Suppose in fact intelligence has come to the galaxy. Who are we to then decide that we are intelligent? We define our intelligence. Of course we’re intelligent because we define it.” he said.

“The microbes in our lower gut would think of humans as dark, anaerobic pockets of faecal matter in the service of their life. That’s the purpose of human life to them.”

Tyson also argued the tiny genetic difference between a human and a chimp made it likely alien intelligence, if it does exist, is already way beyond our on. “We would not be able to comprehend their simplest of thoughts any more than a chimp can understand ‘Let’s go have dinner at the buffet later I’m going to have some carbohydrates and protein because I’m on a low fat diet’. What would that sentence mean to a chimp?” he joked. To a hyper-intelligent alien race, Tyson continued, Stephen Hawking’s intelligence might be the equivalent of an alien toddler.

He also had a word of warning for those that would have humanity become an interplanetary species. “Yes, being a multi-planet species I think that looks good on paper. Put your eggs in more than one basket. If one basket gets smashed the species is preserved. In practice it is completely unrealistic. Let’s terraform Mars, turn Mars into an Earth-haven, ship four billion people there,” he said.

“Are we really going to do that?” It would be far cheaper and easier, he added, to work out how to deflect the asteroid or defeat the pandemic that could spell our early demise. “It plays well as a news headline,” he continued. “I want the solar system to be our backyard, but the motivation should not be to stop everyone dying from a cosmic event.”

Tyson isn’t the only one making bold claims about the reality of life on Earth. Earlier this month Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said there was only a “one in a billion” chance we weren’t living in a simulation. His proof? Advancements in gaming since Pong was released in 1972.

“Now, forty years later, we have photo-realistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously and it’s getting better every year. Soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality,” said Musk.

Source www.wired.co.uk

{ https://www.tidiochat.com/ }

01-04-2018 om 21:27 geschreven door peter  

'It's a space WAR' Alien ‘battle’ near Area 51 baffles UFO hunters

ALIEN hunters were left in a frenzy when they spotted what they believed to be a UFO ‘battle’ in the skies above a city in Nevada which is just a two hour driver from Area 51 – an alleged extraterrestrial hotspot.

01-04-2018 om 21:15 geschreven door peter  

With UFO reports and sightings continuing to mount, one must wonder what reason Aliens would have to visit earth. There are plenty of theories out there, so I want to collect them all here as well as give my opinion on the subject. Read through all the theories and be sure to comment on which one you think makes the most sense. If you have something in mind not mentioned here be sure to let me know.

 

1. Simple Curiosity

The easiest to understand and most logical reason why aliens would visit earth is simple curiosity. We humans have spent countless hours out in the wild exploring our planet - observing, hunting, photographing, and cataloging its species. It’s not hard to imagine that alien visitors are doing the same. Curiosity seems to be innate to every living creature, the dog sniffing around wondering what’s in your hand, the deer scouting your back yard, etc. Perhaps these extraterrestrials are on a quest to explore the universe and catalog its inhabitants. Now there are good and bad sides to this proposition, just like some who go out in search of elephants and zebras are peaceful and simply want to carefully watch from a distance, others are hunters intent on bringing down the animal and mounting it as a trophy. The one positive we have as humans is that it seems we would be rather easy prey for a hunter, especially a race of aliens with such technological advancements as space travel. We would be equal to hunting ants, which doesn’t sound very appealing.

2. Claiming the Planet

Now there are a couple theories under the umbrella of what I will call “claiming the planet”. One is that it was their original home and they want it back. To me this one is a little far out there, but I have seen this theory online. Basically those who propose this idea tend to also believe the hollow earth theory, and that at the center of the earth lives all sorts of races. Included among them are the reptilians. In short, alien visitors are scoping us out for an upcoming battle to take back their rightful home land. 

In the 2013 Superman movie Man of Steel, Kryptonian's have run out of resources and need to flee from their planet to ensure survival. Clark Kent, one of the last of an extinguished race disguised as an unremarkable human, is forced to reveal his identity when Earth is invaded by an army of survivors who threaten to bring the planet to the brink of destruction.

Another theory is that they need a new home. In this scenario our alien visitors are searching out a new place to live because their old planet just doesn’t cut it anymore. It may be a lack of resources (see below) or they have devastated their own planet and need a new one, which ties into the hippie theory that they want to prevent us from doing the same. Others have suggested that they are fighting with an enemy species that calls earth home. 

The Hippie Theory: To save us from Ourselves. Some UFO researchers out there see aliens as benevolent creatures out to save the universe from harm. For Earth, as we race towards Nuclear Armageddon, space people hope to prevent us from reaching a catastrophic end. They seem to have a non-interventionist strategy apparently, since we have no concrete evidence of Alien visitation. This is a popular theme of movies like Arrival, and some books. To me this is nonsense. It’s the hippy spiritual outlook, from the same people who are sitting in the middle of a field chanting and trying to summon star beings. Yes, this really happens. 

3. They Need Food

If other planets are dry, barren, and desert like, or cold and icy then chances are that very few animals or plants could survive those conditions, which would make food supply scarce. Perhaps that’s why aliens are so darn skinny. Now that is a bit of a joke, but seriously - evolution would no doubt adapt alien physiology to require a smaller caloric intake, but still any living being will still require sustenance. If Aliens really are in search of food, the question becomes does earth even offer the food that aliens would want? Assuming that their biology would process the same components that we do – protein, fats, and carbohydrates - the earth has plenty to offer. It’s doubtful that we are being hunted as food, but the possibility exists. As I mentioned earlier, humans hunt animals as they catalog species, so an alien race might do the same thing.

4. Water

There are plenty of UFO sightings near and around water. This makes it easy to guess that aliens want our water… and again it looks like a lot of those planets they may come from are pretty dry. I can’t imagine a scenario where a biological entity could completely evolve beyond the need for water, so if you are short on supply and NEED water, it makes sense that you are going to look for it.  Obviously, Earth has a huge supply of it being made up of approximately 70% H2O. Remote viewer Ingo Swan, a member of the top secret Stargate Program, claimed to have witnessed a UFO near water. He described his sighting in his book Penetration:

Dawn arrived, and Swann saw a fog developing over the lake. This went on for five minutes, until the fog developed a luminous neon-blue color. Then, according to Swann, the color changed to an “angry purple” Axelrod and one of the twins each placed a hand firmly on Swann’s shoulders while “a network of purple, red, and yellow lightning bolts shot in all crazy directions through the ‘cloud.’ Swann said he would have jumped if the two had not held him down. He saw an object, almost transparent at first, but then “solidly visible over the lake.” It was triangular or diamond-shaped, growing in size.”

Swann, in terror and amazement, heard a strong wind moving past, rustling the pine trees so much that some cones and branches fell on them.  The object then began to shoot out ‘ruby red laster-like beams’ as it continued to grow even more in size while maintaining its position on the lake. Very quietly, one of the twins said, ‘Shit! They’re enveloping the area. They’re going to spot us.”

As Swann later recalled the event, some of the red laser beams from the object were ‘blasting’ pine trees, and he could hear low frequency pulsations. Axelrod whispered to Swann that the beams were probably honing in on deer or other forest creatures, as they sense biological body heat. ‘They’re sure to hone in on us,’ he told Swann. Just then, one of the twins literally lifted and dragged Swann away, but not before Swann noticed the water of the lake surging upward, ‘like a waterfall going upward, as if being sucked into the ‘machine.'” 

The four ran quickly and at great length, sustaining minor cuts and bruises. Eventually they stopped, breathing hard, and waited for more than thirty minutes, until one of the twins said all was clear.”

Now the skeptic is going to say if alien explorers have the technology to travel light years away, you would think they have an invention that can condense air into water. I mean we can do that here on planet Earth already. (For a little bit more on that kind of stuff read Magnus Marrissink’s article on Weather Control) I think it’s more likely our celestial visitors are being seen around water for another reason:

5. Toxic and Hazardous Waste Dumping

In economics, there is a term called rent seeking. It basically means to increase ones own wealth by limiting access to that which is lucrative. In college, I wrote a paper arguing that the developed world practiced a form of rent seeking by passing its problems onto the third world so that they are restrained from advancing. So an alien presence could do such a thing by waste dumping, or polluting, our planet as a way of forcing Earth to need the resources they have brought. So if this is the case, aliens may be a form of space pirates traveling the galaxy, dumping their toxic trash on foreign planets and preserving their own planet, while trading their interstellar goods for other useful items. 

6. Biological Material: DNA Collection, Science Experiments, and Cross Breeding

Humans have truly pushed the boundaries in science, and we are capable of engineering humanity itself. The Nazis first delved into eugenics, and now today we do the same under other guises. We take fetal tissue and repurpose it, extract cartilage and all sort of other nutrients from one source and infuse it into our food supply and other places. Degenerative joints are treated with stem cells …. athletes receive platelet rich plasma injections. Eggs are plucked from ovaries and stored next to sperm for future use. So why wouldn’t that material hold value to an alien species? Is it all that difficult to imagine a scenario where aliens would attempt to cross breed with a human? We have done the same with lions and tigers in creating the liger. The problem with the liger is that it's parents, the lion and tiger, though closely related are far enough apart in terms of genetics that any offspring are sterile. From PBS: 

 Lions and tigers are two different species. They look different, they have different lifestyles, they vocalize differently, and they generally live on different continents. Yet when they are brought together artificially, they can interbreed. Such hybrids are called tions and ligers. 

Do they challenge the definition of species? Not really. The key words are "interbreed successfully"; tigons and ligers generally are sterile and short-lived -- an evolutionary dead end. 

If species exist, why? And what maintains them over time? Biologists are still wrestling with these questions, which some call the "species problem" or the "species crisis." 

Biologist Ernst Mayr sees the species as a small gene pool protected from too much variability by a reproductive barrier. In other words, the species is a population adapted to a certain niche, and if the members of different species could interbreed with each other, too much genetic variability would occur, reducing the success of the adaptation. "The basic biological purpose of the species," says Mayr, "is the protection of a harmonious gene pool." To bolster his argument, he points out that hybrids between species are usually less successful and are often sterile. 

This may be the case with a hybrid alien-human creature as well, thus necessitating the constant need for new biological material to produce "children". Humans may share some genetic similarity with our Alien Visitors, or may even have been engineered at some point if you believe the Ancient Alien theories or have studied topics such as bloodlines of the Annunaki.  

Obviously we get into some dark subject matter here, but if you dare to search out the stories of alien abduction, babies implanted and then stolen from wombs, human experimentation in the deepest parts of the Dulce Base….the idea of aliens looking for biological material becomes a lot easier to believe, and a lot more scary. Perhaps such an experiment is taking place on a cosmic level, with a cross bred race serving as workers and slaves to a master race. Since they can’t reproduce, the need for biological material would never end. Are these sightings a search team looking for targets specimens?  

7. Material Resources

This I find to be the most plausible reason we would be visited. We are exploring our solar system and excite over the possibility of harvesting minerals from other planets. A NASA supported scientist, chemical engineer Ken Debelak of Vanderbilt University, is learning how to use carbon dioxide (the main gas in Mars' atmosphere) to harvest rocket fuel and water from the red planet. Among the other resources present inside martian rocks and soil lies a bounty of useful elements: magnesium and hydrogen for rocket fuel, oxygen to breathe, water to drink.

8. Gold and Minerals

Perhaps there is something to the idea that UFO's were in search of gold in ancient times. Gold is inert and doesn't react with other substances, it is an excellent conductor of electricity, and reflects infrared energy. According to Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Planetarium Director for the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, "you can use gold blankets to protect spacecraft against the intense heat of a star or any sort of heat source." It helps that gold can be hammered into extremely thin sheets: one ounce of gold can be beaten out to 300 square feet. That would allow a space craft to receive its many benefits without the burden of significant weight. 

 

We all know about ancient astronaut theory, the pyramids, and the connection to gold, but how about mercury?

 

Now on the flip side of things, minerals that are valuable here on earth may not serve any purpose on an alien planet. What ever the reason Aliens may be visiting us, it is a scary proposition. While some of the more far out theories like biological material theft may one day prove true, the skeptic in me says it has to be a simper answer: That's why I am sticking to the idea that UFO's, if real, are dumping their trash here and picking up some valuable mineral resources to take home.  

 Which of the theories above do you think makes the most sense?

Why do you think aliens are visiting earth?

Do you have your own theory or explanation? Let me know!

{ http://www.blackdiamondsocialclub.com/blog/}

01-04-2018 om 21:05 geschreven door peter  

{ https://alienufoblog.com/category/ }

01-04-2018 om 20:44 geschreven door peter  

Shock claim Great Pyramid constructed by ALIENS - and they left THIS vital clue

CONSPIRACY theorists believe they have unearthed definitive proof that aliens constructed the Great Pyramid.

By Tom Towers 

The photo of the strange structure was brought to light by Tyler Glockner, who runs

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

01-04-2018 om 20:34 geschreven door peter  

ANCIENT ALIENS, SUPERHEROES, AND THE DECLINE IN RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Co-author: Abby Moore (superhero theorist). Are myths of ancient astronauts filling the voids left behind in the exodus from the myths of religion? Perhaps the popularity of the Ancient Aliens television series parallels the decline of traditional religious belief in 21st-century America. After all, twice as many Americans believe in ancient aliens visiting humans on Earth (35%) than believe in the pure evolution of human life on Earth (19%). Maybe TV shows about ancient aliens and Hollywood movies about superheroes provide the big cosmic narratives that once belonged almost solely to theology. Think about it: ancient aliens and superheroes both have superpowers once reserved for Gods, prophets, and miracle makers.

For the record, I am an existentialist without the angst, influenced by Sartre, Sagan, and others. In a vast and ancient universe of two trillion galaxies and three sextillion stars stretching across 100 billion light years, I am not a cosmic narcissist who believes a Creator has a special plan for me or my species on a speck of a planet in a remote part of one galaxy. Yet, the cosmic vastness gives me hope that— to quote the astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston) in Planet of the Apes (1968)— there has “to be something better than man. Has to be.” As explained in my most read essay in Medium, these better-than-human extratrerrestrials have never visited Earth (though I wish they would). Instead, we are witnessing the electronic birth of a new religion based in the myths and imaginary legends of extraterrestrial reality-TV stars—the “ancient aliens” who star in every episode, but have yet to appear.

21st Century Non-Belief

Much has been written about the decline of religious belief in 21st-century America, as documented in various surveys by the Pew Research Center. Americans who have no religious belief and/or no religious affiliation rose to 22.8% in 2014, up from 2% in the 1950s. While religious writers blamed the decline on the usual suspects (the breakdown of society, the decay of traditional values, and so on), the atheists and humanists tweeted their cheers of hope, apparently overlooking the possibility that a decline in traditional religious belief does not automatically equate to a rise in reason, science, and enlightenment. Given the increasing paranormalism in America, it could be the opposite. Make no mistake, something will fill the void.

According to the United States Census, the current US population is an estimated 327 million people. If indeed 22.8% of Americans are non-believers, that total equals about 75 million people. Age is definitely a factor in non-belief. Over 33% of millennials claim no religious belief, while GenX non-believers are at 23%, Baby Boomers are 17%, and those born before 1945 are 11%.

TABLE 1. Source: Pew Research Center website (2014); accessed November 11, 2017.

According to Pew, about 50% of the unaffiliated are disenchanted with religion or don’t need religion because of their beliefs in “science” and the lack of evidence for a Creator. Another 20% have a beef against organized religion, while 18% are unsure of their beliefs and 10% are inactive.

What’s most interesting to me is not the increase in atheists and agnostics, but the 15.8% who believe “nothing in particular.” 15.8% equals just over 50 million people. Since I doubt all of these people are nihilists, I wonder what they believe about the origins and destiny of the human species.

Are they merely disinterested in religion? Have they outgrown religion, with no need to replace it with any other worldview or cosmology? Do they believe in evolution or that the observable universe is indeed 13.7 billion years old and contains two trillion galaxies? Do they believe in human-caused climate disruption or the Anthropocene? Do they believe we got here via the advice and interventions of ancient aliens? Or do mobile phones, cool threads, hipster restaurants, and Netflix subscriptions provide the needed daily dope—such that they do not need a cosmology for themselves or for our species?

GRAPH 1. Beginning in the late 1960s, we can see the post-Apollo rise of the nones. Source: Gallup and National Public Radio, 2013.

The Apollo Effect

According to Gallup surveys and National Public Radio, the “nones” stayed below 5% until the Apollo program in the late 1960s. The rise of the nones began with the launch of rockets to the moon and continued long after the Apollo program was shut down. For readers who might not know, Apollo 8 orbited the moon in 1968 and took the famed Earthrise image, with Apollo 11 landing on the moon in 1969 and Apollo 17 marking the last journey to the moon in 1972.

GRAPH 2. The post-1990 rise of the internet and rise of nones. Source: MIT Technology Review (“How the Internet is Taking Away America’s Religion,” April 4, 2014) and Allen Downey (“ “Religious Affiliation, Education, and Internet Use,” March 21, 2014).

The Internet Effect

According to computer scientist Allen Downey, the rise of the internet correlates with the rise of non-belief from 1990 to 2010. During that period, the increase in non-believers jumped from 8% to 18% of Americans. In a study of four decades of survey data trends regarding demographics, socioeconomics, religious affiliation, and internet usage, Downey concluded that:

• Religious upbringing increases the chance of religious affiliation as an adult. Decreases in religious upbringing between the 1980s and 2000s account for about 25% of the observed decrease in affiliation.
• College education decreases the chance of religious affiliation. Increases in college graduation between the 1980s and 2000s account for about 5% of the observed decrease in affiliation.
• Internet use decreases the chance of religious affiliation. Increases in Internet use since 1990, from 0 to nearly 80% of the general population, account for about 20% of the observed decrease in affiliation.

Please keep in mind that “correlation” does not equal “causation.” Correlations show patterns that we must connect to other knowledge, evidence, and observations.

What Accounts for the Other 45%?

Given there are 75 million non-believers, what other trends might account for the startling growth in numbers? If we follow Downey’s study and assume upbringing, education, and the internet can account for 55% of the increase, what else accounts for the other 45% (33.7 million people)?

Is it the growth of the scientific outlook? That’s possible, given that only 9% of Americans believed in pure evolution in 1982 and the total has more than doubled to 19% in 2014 (according to Gallup). However, it is likely a good chunk of that 19% is accounted for in the 55% of Downey’s study?

Could the increases be attributed to the various “New Atheist” books published in the past few years? Recent works include: Sam Harris’ The End of Faith (2004), Susan Jacoby’s Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (2004), Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion (2006), Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell (2006), Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great (2007), and Victor Stenger’s God: the Failed Hypothesis (2007). These books might have had marginal influence on creating more non-believers, but my guess is that most of the readers of these books were already atheists. Plus, the sales of these books are dwarfed by the audience size of Ancient Aliens.

As dramatized in 2001: A Space Odyssey, the monolith was the indisputable artifact left on Earth by advanced extraterrestrials. Ancient Aliens hijacked this concept and dumbed it down to the lowest possible level, while filling the intellectual void left by the death of philosophy long divorced from cosmology.

The Rise of Ancient Alien Theory: Hijacking the 2001 and Apollo Narratives

Published at the pinnacle of the space age in 1968, Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods? hijacked the space narrative from Apollo and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. 2001 appeared in 1968, along with Planet of the Apes, Apollo 8 (the first journey to the moon), and Chariots of the Gods?. Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 as von Daniken’s book was becoming popular around the world. Chariots of the Gods? did what few other works tried (outside of a few episodes of the original Star Trek): it connected human destiny on Earth to the stars we were beginning to explore with the Apollo program. As I wrote in my previous essay about ancient-alien theory:

“The ancient-astronaut theory draws upon two valid cosmological concepts: 1) the reality of the immensity of space and time; and 2) the possibility of advanced civilizations somewhere in the cosmos. Given that the scale of the observable universe is immense and that NASA’s Kepler telescope suggests there may be billions of planets in the Milky Way, there is almost certainly life elsewhere in the cosmos, perhaps including intelligent civilizations.”

“Given that the observable universe is 13.7 billion years old and it took 4 billion years for intelligent life to emerge on Earth, then it is possible the remaining 9 billion years produced civilizations that may have existed for millions or billions of years. If so, they may have developed space travel technologies that allow them to traverse the great distances with relative ease…Such a possibility is one reason why 2001 offers such a compelling vision of human origins and destinies. After all, it would be an epochal moment to find a black monolith somewhere on Earth or the moon, beaming out a radio signal to an alert and curious species.”

Such a possibility is attractive, at least in theory. If ancient aliens have visited our planet, they would have possessed highly advanced sciences and technologies. They would have been viewed as gods, angels, and miracle makers by premodern humans, who would have looked upon the beings and technologies with awe, wonder, and fear.

A 1970s-style Captain Kirk got in on the ancient alien narrative, too.

Since Chariots of the Gods? was a huge best-seller, it was made into a documentary film, Chariots of the Gods (1970). Creator of The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling even narrated a one-hour TV version called In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973). A copycat version of the film, Mysteries of the Gods, was released in 1976—hosted by none other than William Shatner, a.k.a. Captain Kirk, looking rather hip in a green turtleneck and black velour blazer, while sporting a 1970s-style toupée. With films and TV shows as publicity, Chariots of the Gods? sold over 40 million copies during the 1970s.

Without a doubt, 2001, Planet of the Apes, and von Daniken’s book and films were trying to account for human origins and destiny at the pinnacle of the space age and the Apollo program. When I first encountered Chariots of the Gods? as a boy in the suburbs of Texas in the 1970s, it seemed like a plausible counter-narrative to the self-righteous evangelicals in my school and neighborhood. As explained here, I eventually began to question the validity of the assertions and realized the ancient-alien theory was bogus pseudoscience. To be frank, I was kinda bummed out. But, logic and evidence mattered more to me. Still do.

Of course, there were mainstream media efforts to debunk Chariots of the Gods? These included a 1976 Skeptical Inquirer article, a book entitled The Space Gods Revealed that featured a forward by Carl Sagan, and a BBC-PBS production of Nova (the episode “The Case of the Ancient Astronauts”). Nevertheless, the book’s pseudoscientific ideas continued to circulate around the world in the decades that featured the rise of non-belief in the wake of Apollo. Given that Chariots of the Gods? sold 40 million copies, can we assume it had zero impact on traditional religious beliefs?

In 2009, a two-part episode of Ancient Aliens appeared on the History Channel. So popular was the show that the History Channel programmed the Ancient Alien series, which began in 2010 and is still running every season—134 episodes and counting! As point of comparison for the atheist programs, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s 2014 Cosmos reboot only had 13 episodes and seems to appear on TV far less often than Ancient Aliens. I have seen both series listed in Netflix. Why would Ancient Aliens far outstrip Cosmos if the issue was merely a scientific outlook?

The prime-time episodes of Ancient Aliens draw well over one million viewers, plus there are endless repeats during days and evenings. These audiences are far larger than anything on the Science Channel. Who knows how many millions of viewers have seen the various episodes of Ancient Aliens? Among the 45% and 33 million non-believers unaccounted for in Downey’s study, how many millions might be fans of Ancient Aliens? I don’t know but it is a question worth considering. I bet the total is far from zero. After all, recent surveys show that 35% of Americans believe aliens have visited Earth in the ancient past (see the Chapman surveys below).

Still going strong almost 50 years after Chariots of the Gods?.

The Ancient Aliens series features fanciful storytelling, with many scenes shot at the various remote sites where “evidence” of ancient aliens supposedly exists. Still, it’s all pseudoscientific nonsense—simply because there are no proven artifacts of extraterrestrial origin. There is no academic conspiracy against the ancient-alien theorists as implied in the narration and comments of the talking heads. What’s needed is proven evidence, as cleverly suggested by the monolith in 2001. But we haven’t discovered a monolith or the “chariots.” I wish we had.

In Chariots of the Gods?, Mysteries of the Gods, and Ancient Aliens, virtually all of the so-called evidence and arguments provided by the theorists are myth, superstition, hearsay, anecdotal, or involve an inference or conclusion that is fallacious, implausible, or unknowable. The “evidence” and arguments also contain inaccuracies, mistaken assumptions, unrelated facts, and false similarities. The few remaining pieces of “evidence” — which are a tiny fragment of the absurd claims — are simply mysteries yet to be solved or mysteries that will never be solved. One might say this is also a key point in the cultural emergence of “alternative facts.”

Ancient Aliens: A New Cosmic Religion

But the pseudoscience, endless fallacies, and alternative facts have not prevented the multi-season programming of the television series. Even if the History Channel decided against renewing the series, it would run for decades in syndication and for eternity online, at least until real extraterrestrials arrived or we finishing wrecking the planet.

According to Chapman University, the belief in ancient aliens is growing rapidly: from 20% in 2015 to 35% in 2017.

Chariots of the Gods? and Ancient Aliens have given birth to new cosmic religion narrative, with von Daniken as the great prophet and his followers serving as the scribes—Giorgio Tsoukalos, Graham Hancock, David Childress, and others. Like God and his prophets, the unseen aliens have superpowers and have shaped our past and perhaps our destiny, especially if they return. The ancient alien narrative is like the standard Creator narratives, in that it assumes most everything humans have done follows from pre-ordained grand plans, with mysterious or hidden purposes, effected by an all-powerful force from the sky, a force that has yet to return to prove it exists. Like the Creator narrative, we humans must have been special beneficiaries. After all, the ancient aliens have taken the time to visit our tiny planet, thus caring enough to allegedly build stone structures, design ancient batteries, create cool statuettes, and paint pictographs before cruising to the next galaxy or star system.

Despite (or because of) the pseudoscience, the ancient alien theorists are doing a far better job of connecting humanity to the cosmos than Hollywood filmmakers and contemporary philosophers. The ancient-alien theorists have a fervant audience of followers who feel the theory connects our origins and destinies to the stars. Meanwhile, Hollywood merely sends us into space to wage Star Wars and battle Alien monsters.

All of the above is why I predict the ancient-alien narrative will continue to grow over time, precisely because it is filled with mystical and magical beliefs that mirror religious mythologies. Ancient Aliens makes us feel special—just like Jesus, ETs came to visit us and advise us. After hijacking the 2001narrative, von Daniken and his scribes have built the ancient-astronaut theory into a new religion, a new cosmic narrative filling the void left by contemporary philosophy as it shrinks before a massive and expanding universe. Meanwhile, secular society provides us with mobile phones and IMAX movies, and says we and our tribes are special—so super-special that superheroes will save us in case the aliens don’t make it back in time.

Superheroes: Our Secular Gods

Born of Nietzsche’s 19th century “Ubermensch,” the superhero emerged to counter horiffic “supermen” of the 20th century — the Marxist New Man and the Nazi Aryan man. By the early 20th century, the Soviet Union promised to create the Marxist New Man, the new human supposedly liberated from capitalism and united via communism and “scientific” materialism, supposedly destined to operate on an international scale. Countering the Marxist New Man, Nazi Germany concocted a racist Aryan Man, a mythical superman from the past supposedly destined to rule Europe and much of the world. Of course, both of these visions of a “new man” resulted in genocide and mass slaughter in totalitarian societies, culminating in World War II and the deaths of hundreds of millions of people before, during, and after the war.

In America’s land of a mythic “Democratic Man,” the only “superman” would be Superman, Batman, and subsequent legions of superheroes to save us in comics and movies. Though superheroes are fictional, their stories draw on real world events, such as nuclear weapons and environmental destruction. Superheroes function like secular gods providing stories about humanity’s survival and redemption in the face of apocalypse. In the end credits for The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), we see a giant sculpture of the Avenger superheroes, as if they are a pantheon of gods from Ancient Greece or Rome.

Pantheon of Secular Gods. Above: Statue of The Avengers from The Age of Ultron. Below: Justice League Superheroes

Superhero films have proven especially popular in the 21st century, with a trendline that mirrors the rise of non-belief in America.

Well into the 21st century, the superhero films just keep coming from Hollywood. Be it Superman, Batman, X-Men, Wonder Woman, or The Avengers, it seems almost all superhero films feature superheroes confronting a doomsday scenario for humanity. The superheroes must “save the world” because we can’t do it. Just as ancient-aliens fills the void left by philosophy divorced from science, superheroes fill the void left because industrial society has become divorced from nature, yet it is utterly reliant on the resources we are depleting. Oceans are acidifying, sea levels are rising, and nuclear war is still a possibility, while terrorism, exploitation, and endless tribal warfare plague secular society. Superheroes are needed to save us from ourselves because we know we have no answers, no real solutions for our problems, no leaders or institutions left to trust. It’s the same thing, over and over again, as illustrated in presidential elections.

In the 21st century, Americans expect their presidents to be superheroes battling the doomsday scenarios of the other party—thus we give the presidents ever-expanded political and legal powers, as if we are trying to give them superpowers and make them into superheroes with super solutions. Both major parties do it. Don’t deny it. When the dictator arrives in America, it will be in the guise of a presidential superhero with political superpowers. As Trump has shown, the superhero prez won’t even need to be rational or coherent or even sane. They just need to be superheroes who zap the bad guys. This is what happens when religion and nationalism merge with Hollywood and the 24/7 media spectacle.

In superhero movies and sequels, the superheroes must return to save us, again and again. Ancient-alien theorists claim extraterrestrial visitors shaped our past, present, and perhaps our future when they return. The return of aliens and superheroes echoes the promised return of Jesus and Nietzsche’s cycle of the eternal return, the superhero feedback loop. Ancient aliens and superheroes have superpowers beyond anything humans have, not unlike the Gods and prophets in religions. In the end, superheroes are our secular Gods and fulfill functions formerly reserved for religion, while ancient-alien theory claims to offer a secular narrative that connects us to the stars, yet ends up as another religion—a merger of the space age and new age.

Superhero stories and ancient-alien theory now stand in for contemporary philosophy, divorced from 21st century cosmology and declared “dead” by Stephen Hawking. In the absence of a science-based popular philosophy that offers us hope, meaning, and purpose (beyond tribalism, consumerism, and strip-mining other planets) amid the cosmic vastness, the ancient-alien theory provides hope and meaning by connecting our origins and destiny to a story that begins in the stars—even it is in a universe of alternative facts.

How much of the decline of traditional religious belief can be attributed to the rise of ancient alien theory? I don’t know, but given this analysis, I bet it is far from zero. This possibility is why the traditional religions will try to colonize the ancient-alien theory. Already, one prominent religious leader suggests we baptize extraterrestrials upon meeting them. If the ancient aliens do show up and don’t believe in a Creator, we might well need the superheroes to save us from a religious war in space!

_____________

Barry Vacker is author of the new book, Specter of the Monolith (2017), which explores the meaning of Apollo and films like 2001 and Interstellar, while outlining a new and entirely original space philosophy for the human species. The book is available in Apple’s iBooks, Barnes & Noble (here), and Amazon (here).

Source medium.com

{http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

01-04-2018 om 18:18 geschreven door peter  

Tiangong-1 reentry update

{ https://spacetodaypt.wordpress.com/ }

01-04-2018 om 18:00 geschreven door peter  

Op zoek naar de mysterieuze planeet 9 -  HLN.be

Vermoedelijke opvolger Pluto laat zich (nog) niet zien

Steven Stroeykens 

Er zijn bizarre dingen gaande in het buitenste stuk van het zonnestelsel voorbij Neptunus, de verste van de acht planeten. In die koude buitenwijk van het zonnestelsel draaien een heleboel kleine, ijzige hemellichamen, waaronder ook Pluto, dat in 2006 tot ‘dwergplaneet’ werd gedegradeerd. Astronomen noemen die kleine hemellichamen meestal nogal fantasieloos ‘trans-Neptunian objects’ of TNO’s (objecten voorbij Neptunus). Samen vormen ze de zogeheten ‘Kuipergordel’, een vele miljarden kilometers grote zwerm voorbij Neptunus.

Het zijn de vreemde banen van sommige TNO’s in de Kuipergordel die astronomen nu aan het denken hebben gezet. Ze draaien immers niet rond de zon in nette cirkels die ongeveer in eenzelfde vlak liggen — zoals de acht planeten doen — maar beschrijven heel langgerekte ellipsvormige banen die schots en scheef georiënteerd staan in de ruimte. Sedna bijvoorbeeld — een duizend kilometer grote bal ijs en rots die er maar liefst 11.000 jaar over doet om één keer rond de zon te draaien — verwijdert zich één keer per omloop tot ruim 140 miljard kilometer van de zon. Da’s dertig keer zo ver als Neptunus en 940 keer zo ver als de aarde.

Kudde schapen

Maar de banen van die avontuurlijke TNO’s zijn niet helemaal willekeurig, integendeel. Er is een groepje bij met verdacht gelijkaardige banen, in een gelijkaardige hoek tegenover de rest van het zonnestelsel en reikend tot gelijkaardige afstanden. Dat moet een reden hebben, denken astronomen, en dan is een nog onbekende planeet de meest voor de hand liggende. Misschien trekt en sleurt zijn zwaartekracht aan de TNO’s en houdt hij die in het gareel als een herdershond bij een kudde schapen?

Als planeet nummer 9 echt bestaat, is het alleszins een behoorlijk fors exemplaar. Misschien zelfs tien keer zo zwaar als de aarde en érg ver weg: gemiddeld 60 à 75 miljard kilometer van de zon, volgens een schatting van Mike Brown en Konstantin Batygin van het California Institute of Technology. Op zijn verste punt zou hij nog een stuk verder kunnen komen dan Sedna. Ter vergelijking: de aarde staat op amper 0,15 miljard kilometer van de zon.

Grote bol ijs

Wat voor planeet het is, weten we niet, maar een grote bol ijs, mogelijk met wat gesteente en ander materiaal ertussen gemengd, is een goede gok. Hij houdt zich immers schuil in de ijskoude, donkere buitenste delen van ons zonnestelsel, ver weg van de zonnewarmte. Doordat hij zich zo ver weg van ons en de zon bevindt, moet planeet 9 – als hij al bestaat – erg lichtzwak zijn en moeilijk te vinden. Zelfs door de grootste telescopen zou hij niet meer zijn dan een onooglijk klein lichtpuntje, verloren tussen de miljarden verre sterren in onze Melkweg. Dat verklaart waarom hij nooit eerder is waargenomen door een telescoop. Het belet astronomen niet om te proberen. Onder meer het team van Brown is aan het speuren geslagen met de Subara, een grote telescoop op een bergtop in Hawaï.

Op basis van de banen van bekende TNO’s kunnen astronomen wel ruwweg de baan van planeet 9 schatten, maar nog niet op welk punt van die baan hij zich momenteel bevindt. Dat betekent dat hij op heel veel plaatsen aan de hemel zou kunnen staan. Om zeker te zijn moet die héle baan afgespeurd worden, met een ruime onzekerheidsmarge eromheen. De zoektocht zou dus weleens lang kunnen duren, maar de astronomen zouden natuurlijk ook geluk kunnen hebben en morgen al op de planeet stoten.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

01-04-2018 om 17:43 geschreven door peter  

Algerian Sky suddenly turns into red – Sahara Sand or Iron Oxide?

A rare weather event has happened this week in Algeria where the sky suddenly turned into red. The phenomenon in Algeria is just one example of extreme weather events taking place all over the world every week.

A completely red sky has been filmed in Algeria due to incoming Sahara sand according to weather specialists, but others are convinced that it is iron oxide coming from the Nibiru system similar to the strange red dust mist captured by the International Space Station live feed camera, a few days ago.

  

01-04-2018 om 10:44 geschreven door peter  

Two Cylinder UFOs Seen Over Iowa By Aircraft Pilot, Jan 29, 2018, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 29, 2018
Location of sighting: Burlington, Iowa, USA
Source: MUFON #91139

These two UFOs are flying in military formation, meaning they are watching out for one another...a wingman of sorts. The pilot says that he saw two shiny cylinder UFOs leaving the earths atmosphere. Most UFOs have the ability to create clouds, contrails and aircraft light flashes, in order to camouflage themselves. Clearly these UFOs are doing the same to look like rockets. 
Scott C. Waring

Eyewitness states:

While Piloting aircraft at 10,000 ft observed two separate contrails emitted in pulses from 2 small blunt highly reflective cylindrical objects. 

01-04-2018 om 10:39 geschreven door peter  

Mystery of Arctic's exploding craters solved? Scientist claims enormous holes are formed by Russia's attempts to exploit vast gas reserves

• The holes first appeared in 2014 and led to wild speculation that they were caused by Kremlin missile tests
• Later scientists agreed the craters were formed by underground methane eruptions in thawing permafrost
• Satellite image analysis has revealed the craters - which fill with water - are prone to explode more than once
• Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky now claims that he suspects drilling for vast Yamal gas reserves are to blame

By Will Stewart for MailOnline

The mysterious holes first appeared in 2014 and led to wild speculation that they were caused by Kremlin missile tests, aliens, or that they were manmade - as a prank.

Later scientists agreed they were formed by underground methane eruptions in thawing permafrost.

Now experts have found from satellite image analysis that the craters - which fill with water - are prone to explode more than once 

And Russia's leading authority on the bizarre phenomenon claims that many  explosions may have been triggered by the massive exploitation of natural gas for exports to Europe - including Britain - and China.

Scroll down for video 

 Mysterious holes that first appeared in 2014 are formed by underground methane eruptions in thawing permafrost. Russia's leading authority on the bizarre phenomenon claims that many explosions may have been triggered by the massive exploitation of natural gas for exports to Europe - including Britain - and China

Professor Vasily Bogoyavlensky said he suspected 'human activities' - namely interfering with nature by drilling for vast Yamal gas reserves, vital for the Russian economy - were to blame.

Leaks from gas wells lead to unstable pockets of methane accumulating under frozen soil, he said.

Initially these cause swelling pingos - or mounds - in the tundra which explode when the gas builds up under a thick cap of ice.

One famous crater which exploded in the middle of the Mordy-Yakha River has only natural causes, but it may not be typical, he said.

'We managed to take samples of gas, and analyse them,' he said.

'The gas is biogenic. There are no gas wells nearby.

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'So there is no doubt that the appearance of this funnel is natural.

'But we cannot say this for sure about all the craters discovered in recent years — or be certain that human activities did not contribute to their emergence.'

He believes some to be 'technogenic' - caused by man's use of technology in the tundra.

Dr Bogoyavlensky, from the Russian Oil and Gas Research Institute in Moscow, also discovered that the eerie holes are prone to second explosions, reported The Siberian Times.

 Leaks from gas wells lead to unstable pockets of methane accumulating under frozen soil, he said. Initially these cause swelling pingos - or mounds - in the tundra which explode when the gas builds up under a thick cap of ice and form deep craters (pictured)

Bulging bumps filled with methane in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas are believed to be caused by thawing permafrost. Scientists have identified the peculiar phenomenon on expeditions and from satellite images. The bubbled eventually erupt, forming large craters

Researchers discovered last year that some 7,000 'underground gas bubbles' are set to explode in the Russian Arctic in future and a dozen new craters have been identified in three years.

'We discovered from space that in one of the craters flooded with water a new pingo appeared - and exploded,' he revealed.

The hole with the second eruption was not identified and further details are to be published in a scientific journal.

But he said: 'We proved that the forming of craters is not a one-off phenomenon.'

He is concerned at the risk of ecological disasters if the explosions occur under gas pipelines or production facilities or residential areas.

The domes are created from thawing permafrost releasing methane into the ground above. This causes the ground to bulge and form unusual gas mounds (left). These are called pingos which are prone to exploding and this creates vast craters (right)

Pingos are dome-shaped mounds over a core of ice. Dr Bogoyavlensky, from the Russian Oil and Gas Research Institute in Moscow, also discovered that the eerie holes are prone to second explosions

'In a number of areas, pingos - as we see both from satellite data and with own eyes during helicopter inspections - literally prop up gas pipes,' he said last year.

'In some places they jack up the gas pipes... they seem to begin to slightly bend these pipes.'

The problem is extensive.

'Based on satellite data, we have marked 7,000 bulges (pingos) - or even more,' he said.

'It doesn't mean that every pingo carries danger - but it is still clear that we can draw certain conclusions.

A dozen new craters have been identified in three years.

He called for more seismic stations to monitor potential explosions close to gas pipelines or residential areas.

The changes of the famous Yamal crater from 2014 to 2016. The craters remain unpredictable and mysterious, despite understanding of them increasing markedly in recent years. Last year, Russia set up an early warning system of seismic sensors hoping to predict new permafrost explosions leads to the formation of bizarre 'Arctic domes'

WHAT ARE THE GIANT CRATERS IN RUSSIA?

Scientists believe the giant holes in north Siberia were originally a phenomenon known as a pingo. 

This is a subsurface accumulation of ice that has been covered by land.

Pingos are dome-shaped mounds over a core of ice.

At least ten are known to have exploded in Siberia in recent years forming craters. 

The craters were only first discovered in 2014  and were shrouded in mystery. 

When this happens  it can leave behind a gaping hole.

The melting of the permafrost caused natural gas trapped in the soil to be released and accumulate in the void, causing the pressure to build and eventually erupt from the ground.

Rising temperatures in the soil would have increased the pressure, leading to an eruption.

Initially there was mystery over the sudden formation of the dramatic craters - first noticed in 2014 - with claims they could have been formed by missile tests from Vladimir Putin's military machine, or even by aliens

There has been significant activity in the region, with reports of underground methane bubbles about to explode in the region. 

Bulging bumps filled with methane in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas are believed to be caused by thawing permafrost. 

Yamal is Russia's main area for extracting natural gas, and there are fears that explosions could lead to damage to key energy facilities. 

When the bubbles explode they release methane gas which is approximately 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

After they've exploded they leave gigantic funnels or craters.

The extent of the harmful greenhouse gases buried in this new phenomenon of jelly-like bubbles poses 'very serious alarm' concerning the impact of global warming, experts have warned. 

Russia set up an early warning system of seismic sensors hoping to predict when these explosions would occur. 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

01-04-2018 om 01:42 geschreven door peter  

NASA: Gas Giant Ejected ‘Oumuamua Into Interstellar Space

01-04-2018 om 01:13 geschreven door peter  

US Scientists Are Being Criticised Over Their Treatment of Ata The "Alien" Mummy

She was someone's daughter.

KRISTIN HOUSER, FUTURISM

It looks like an alien, but its story is much stranger. And now it's causing an international incident.

Chilean scientists and government officials are protesting a study published in the journal Genome Research on March 22.

It's not the study's conclusions or science they take issue with, though. It's the study's subject: the body of a mummified Chilean girl.

Alien enthusiasts are pretty obsessed with Ata, a 6-inch-long skeleton that was discovered in 2003.

Oscar Munoz found the tiny mummy in a leather pouch in a Chilean ghost town near the Atacama Desert (hence its name), and soon after, rumors began swirling as to Ata's origin.

See, the Chilean mummy looked human-ish, but it also looked, well, kind of not.

Ata had a conical head shape and large eye sockets that looked straight out of a sci-fi film.

The mummy was barely the length of a 19-week-old human fetus, but had bones as mature as those of a six-year-old. It also had hard teeth and only 10 pairs of ribs while humans have 12.

Cue the alien hunter hype.

Eventually, the Chilean mummy landed in the private collection of a Spanish businessman.

In 2012, he gave Steven Greer, a doctor and founder of the Center for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (CSETI), permission to analyze it.

Greer, in turn, gave Garry Nolan, an immunologist at Stanford University, samplesof Ata's bone marrow and other genetic material.

In 2013, Nolan dashed the hopes of alien hunters everywhere by concluding that Ata was fully human.

"There's no doubt about it," he told Science Magazine at the time.

Case closed, right? Not so much.

This week, Nolan and his team published new research about the Chilean mummy in the journal Genome Research. In it, the researchers provide an explanation for Ata's alien-like appearance: seven different genetic mutations.

"Once we understood that it was human, the next step was to understand how something could come to look like this," Nolan told National Geographic.

Chile strongly disagrees. The next step should have been returning Ata to her country of origin.

Once Nolan published his findings in 2013, Ata was no longer an "it" but a "she," and as such, the tiny mummy should have received all the protections given to the remains of any other human.

On March 25, Cristina Dorado, a biologist at Chile's University of Antofagasta, published a commentary in Etilmercurio citing a number of legal and ethical issues with Nolan's latest work.

She wrote that, while the study did have scientific value, it failed to consider the legal and ethical implications of studying a human body.

Furthermore, the researchers themselves concluded that Ata, whom Dorado calls "the girl from La Noria", was likely born just 40 years ago, meaning her parents could still be alive.

Dorado called upon Genome Research to retract the article, but that doesn't seem likely.

The journal's editor, Hilary Sussman, told The New York Times the publication "will return to [the issue of studying DNA from ancient human remains] in future issues of the journal".

In other words, it's not happening right now.

Still, as Dorado notes, this is far from the first example of the "plunder and sale of mummified bodies".

Genome Research might not retract the article on Ata, but perhaps the controversy surrounding the study will give other scientists pause before they move forward with research on human remains.

• This article was originally published by Futurism. Read the original article.

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2. Mummy unwrapping brought Egyptology to the public
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3. DNA analysis of ancient mummy, thought to have smallpox, points to Hepatitis B instead
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{ https://www.sciencealert.com/  }

01-04-2018 om 01:02 geschreven door peter  

Extraterrestrial Life Could Be Thriving In The Clouds Of Planet Venus

Could the clouds of Venus actually host extraterrestrial life? Researchers of a new study said that the dark patches in the clouds of the planet could be comparable to algae blooms.  

( NASA/JPL/USGS )

As scientists continue with their hunt for extraterrestrial life, a new paper published in the journal Astrobiology proposes that alien microbial life could be present in the atmosphere of planet Venus.

The Potentially Habitable Clouds Of Venus

The idea that the clouds of Venus are potentially habitable was proposed decades ago by biophysicist Harold Morowitz and astronomer Carl Sagan.

The recent study, however, was inspired by the idea of Grzegorz Slowik of the University of Zielona Góra in Poland.

During a chance meeting, Slowik told study researcher Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about bacteria on Earth with light-absorbing properties that are similar to those of unidentified particles that compose dark patches in the clouds of Venus. These particles have nearly the same dimensions as some bacteria on Earth.

Limaye and colleagues now suggest the possibility these patches could be comparable to algae blooms that can be found on Earth's bodies of water.

Life Forms That Can Thrive In Extreme Environments

Researchers said that terrestrial microorganisms on Earth, particularly bacteria, can be swept into the atmosphere and have been found alive at altitudes as high as 25 miles.

There are also microbes that are known to live in incredibly harsh environments on Earth such as in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, acidic lakes and the hot springs of Yellowstone. These microorganisms can feed on carbon dioxide and produce sulfuric acid.

Study co-author Rakesh Mogul, from California State Polytechnic University, said that the cloudy, highly reflective and acidic atmosphere of Venus is mostly composed of carbon dioxide and water droplets that contain sulfuric acid.

Search For Extraterrestrial Life

Scientists have been studying Mars and the moons of Saturn and Jupiter as possible worlds that can support life. However, the new study calls for another look at the clouds of Venus for a possibility that they can host life.

Limaye noted that planet Venus has had plenty of time for life there to evolve on its own. The scientist cited models suggesting that Venus used to have a habitable climate and had liquid water on the surface for up to 2 billion years, which is much longer compared with what is believed to have occurred on Mars.

"Particles in Venus' lower clouds contain sufficient mass balance to harbor microorganisms, water, and solutes, and potentially sufficient biomass to be detected by optical methods," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published on March 30.

"The comparisons presented in this article warrant further investigations into the prospect of biosignatures in Venus' clouds."

{ http://www.techtimes.com/ }

01-04-2018 om 00:53 geschreven door peter  

The research was published earlier this week in a peer-reviewed journal called Astrobiology, and suggests that the extra-terrestrial microbes could survive by being blown around by winds in Venus' cooler clouds tops.

Professor Rakesh Mogul - paper co-author and biological chemist at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona -said: "On Earth, we know that life can thrive in very acidic conditions, can feed on carbon dioxide, and produce sulfuric acid."

Co-author David J Smith, of Nasa's Ames Research Center, has also said that similar bacteria and other organisms on Earth have been found alive at altitudes of 25 miles.

While Venus is of a similar size to Earth, it has an incredibly inhospitable surface - with a temperature that's twice the maximum setting in a kitchen oven.

It also rains sulphuric acid, so, y'know', not ideal.

via GIPHY

"Venus has had plenty of time to evolve life on its own," explains Limaye, noting that some models suggest Venus once had a habitable climate with liquid water on its surface for as long as 2 billion years. "That's much longer than is believed to have occurred on Mars."

In the paper, the authors explain: "Our comparative analyses support the blended hypotheses that terrestrial-type biology can survive within and contribute to the spectral signatures of Venus' clouds.

"To test the ideas presented here, we propose the need for an integrated chemical, biochemical, and microbiological study focusing on the survival and spectroscopy of terrestrial microorganisms under Venus' cloud conditions."

The scientists have also said that further research is needed to investigate.

They add: "Looking forward, investigations into the actual habitability of Venus' clouds would ideally benefit from a mixture of orbiter, lander, airplane/balloons, and sample return missions as proposed by Schulze-Makuch and Irwin (2002) and Grinspoon (1997)."

Featured Image Credit: PA

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01-04-2018 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Chinese space lab to fall on Easter Sunday

There is a good chance parts of the craft will fall in the ocean but European space authorities admit nobody can predict this.

Radar image of the station about 165 miles above the Earth.

Pic: Fraunhofer FHR

A piece of Chinese spacecraft is due to plunge to Earth sometime in the evening on Easter Sunday or the Monday morning following, the European Space Agency has said.

The Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace 1), which is about the size of a bus, was sent into orbit in 2011 for experiments as part of China's space programme.

It had been set for a controlled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

But it stopped working in March 2016 - three years after it was last occupied - and there is no way of knowing where it will land.

In ESA's most recent reentry forecast, the space debris reentry has been pushed back to 1 April.

Image:Tiangong-1's potential re-entry areas.

Pic: ESA

The agency explained: "One of the main reasons why it is so difficult to make an accurate reentry predictions, even if just a few days in advance of an expected reentry, materialised during Thursday this week.

"A high-speed stream of particles from the Sun, which was expected to reach Earth and influence our planet's geomagnetic field, did, in fact, not have any effect, and calmer space weather around Earth and its atmosphere is now expected in the coming days.

"This means that the density of the upper atmosphere, through which Tiangong-1 is moving, did not increase as predicted (which would have dragged the spacecraft down sooner) and hence the ESA Space Debris Office has adjusted the predicted decay rate.

"This implies that the new (and still uncertain) reentry window has shifted to late in the day on 1 April."

View image on Twitter

Jonathan McDowell

✔@planet4589

Replying to @planet4589

1540 UTC: Tiangong-1 crossing California coast heading SE

5:39 PM - Mar 31, 2018

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View image on Twitter

Jonathan McDowell

✔@planet4589

At 1810 UTC, Tiangong-1 is heading northeast over Indian Ocean and Malaysia

8:10 PM - Mar 31, 2018

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Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted how the spacecraft was orbiting above west the Indian Ocean and Malaysia shortly after 7pm UK time, having earlier swung across the United States.

Without being able to communicate with the space lab, Earth-based controllers have no way of firing its engines or thrusters and no way of controlling its descent.

The craft is about 120 miles from Earth, down from about 185 miles in January, according to the European Space Agency.

Researchers had said that a number of the spacecraft's parts - including its dense rocket engines - would be unlikely to burn up, leaving chunks of the craft to crash towards the planet's surface.

They fear that debris could survive the atmosphere and land anywhere 43 degrees either side of the equator.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office said on its WeChat social media account that falling spacecraft do "not crash into the Earth fiercely like in sci-fi movies, but turn into a splendid (meteor shower) and move across the beautiful starry sky as they race towards the Earth".

They said the atmospheric drag would tear away the external components of the craft when it gets to an altitude of around 60 miles.

The heat will grow and friction will cause the main structure of the lab to burn or blow up, with most of the parts dissolving in the air.

ESA

✔@esa

Every week, on average, a substantial, inert satellite drops into our atmosphere and burns up. Monitoring these reentries and warning European civil authorities has become routine work for ESA’s #spacedebris experts #tiangong1 #reentry
Read more:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Debris/ESA_reentry_e

xpertise …

2:25 PM - Mar 30, 2018

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Some of the debris will fall slowly before landing, most likely in the ocean, the Chinese predicted.

The ESA said nearly 6,000 uncontrolled re-entries of large objects have occurred over the past 60 years without anyone being hurt.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: "I want to highlight that we attach importance to this issue and we've been dealing with it very responsibly in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

"If there is a need, we will promptly be in touch with the relevant country."

{ https://news.sky.com/ }

31-03-2018 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

Google Earth: Is this proof of ‘Hollow Earth?’ - UFO hunters found THIS mystery structure

GOOGLE Earth UFO hunters believe they have uncovered a mile high structure under the Pacific Ocean. Is this the spooky proof Hollow Earth theorists have been waiting for?

31-03-2018 om 23:43 geschreven door peter