4 things you need to know about NASA’s new planet-hunting satellite

by Colm Gorey

Inside NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the SpaceX payload fairing containing TESS is moved by crane to a transporter. Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett

NASA is set to launch its latest satellite, called TESS, aboard a SpaceX rocket with one mission: locate distant worlds that could harbour alien life.

NASA has been told it has to wait until 18 April for the launch of its latest satellite – the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) – after ground crew identified that further guidance, navigation and control analysis had to be done.

Aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the Monday (16 April) launch of TESS was aborted in the final hours as the company looked to make absolutely sure it avoids any costly catastrophe.

Coverage of the launch has garnered particular attention, but what exactly is TESS and what does it hope to achieve?

Here are four things you need to know about what could be an important scientific mission.

SpaceX

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Standing down today to conduct additional GNC analysis, and teams are now working towards a targeted launch of @NASA_TESS on Wednesday, April 18.

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1. What it aims to do

The TESS satellite aims to take on board what has been achieved by the exoplanet-hunting spacecraft Kepler and improve it exponentially by directly searching for alien worlds in greater detail.

After all, Kepler was limited by the hardware on board, meaning it could only observe a small fraction of what was out there, with many of the stars too faint to detect the surrounding planets with great accuracy.

The spacecraft will spend the next two years observing 200,000 of the brightest points in the night’s sky, with the NASA team hopeful that by the time the mission is over, it will have found 20,000 exoplanets, of which 500 might be Earth-sized.

2. NASA hitches ride aboard SpaceX in major first

SpaceX will feel vindicated following a recent investigation finding it devoid of blame in the loss of the secret Zuma satellite in January, but NASA scientists will still be feeling slightly anxious with the launch of TESS.

In a major landmark for the space agency, this is the first of its missions to be launched by a SpaceX rocket.

The $200m piece of hardware was given the go-ahead to launch aboard the Falcon 9 rocket by NASA’s administrators only as recently as February.

Adding to the anxiety will be the fact that TESS will be put into an orbit never attempted before, out as far as the moon and back to Earth, lasting 14 days at a time.

NASA’s newest planet hunter, TESS, will look around the brightest stars closest to our solar system for new worlds. Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

3. Astronomers dying to get their hands on the data

Once the planets are identified, the world’s astronomers can adjust all of their equipment – including the long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope – and analyse the planets in great detail to determine whether they could harbour life.

When active, TESS will collect 27GB of scientific data every day before being put through NASA’s specialist algorithms, which are designed to clean up the signal to remove any background interference.

Stephen Rinehart, TESS’s project scientist, said of the mission: “There are some people on the mission who are very, very, very keen to find Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of their host stars, and that would be absolutely fabulous.

“But the data on all these planets is interesting, because they help us form a picture of how planetary systems form and evolve. It’s going to be a game-changer in our ability to study planets.”

4. A one-two punch of satellite discovery

The launch of TESS will be immediately beneficial to scientists down here on Earth, but the satellite will also lay the groundwork for future missions, most notably the European Space Agency’s Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) spacecraft.

Set for launch in 2028, ARIEL – with the location of thousands of exoplanets discovered by TESS – will be able to ‘sniff’ their atmospheres to determine their chemical composition and answer the question: how do planetary systems form and evolve?

During its four-year mission, ARIEL will observe 1,000 planets, ranging from Jupiter and Neptune down to super-Earth size, in the visible and the infrared with its metre-class telescope.

All of these factors should lead to a bounty of information returned to Earth, dependent on whether SpaceX can get the craft to its intended orbit.

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17-04-2018 om 16:19 geschreven door peter  

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17-04-2018 om 16:00 geschreven door peter  

Have The Ancient Ruins Of Atlantis Been Found In Antarctica?

I mean who doesn’t want to find Atlantis, right?

According to satellite images on Google Earth, there is a strange area in Antarctica which supposedly reveals a structure that, according to some theorists, could belong to lost ancient civilization, and not just any lost civilization, but Plato’s Atlantis.

As expected, the video detailing the possible ‘discovery’ was posted by the Conspiracy Depot channel, and it shows a series of lines that according to the video’s narrator, appear to have an artificial origin and have been exposed due to the melting of the ice in the region.

“The three parts of this structure are separated by equal distances and all are approximately seven meters long,” says Graham Maple, owner of the YouTube channel.

“It looks ancient, almost as if it had been carved into the rock itself. I think this was what was left of a building or structure. I think there were great civilizations in the ancient Antarctic continent and maybe Antarctica was even home to the mythical Atlantis, “he said.

2There is much-forgotten knowledge of our ancient history. We are beginning to scratch the surface with this new discovery,” concluded Maple.

According to Mapple, Atlantis, or the ruins of another ancient empire, are buried somewhere beneath the Antarctic ice.

Image Credit: Google Earth.

Coordinates: 64 ° 2’40.87 “S 59 ° 46’13.97” W (the discovery was made in the north of the Antarctic Peninsula).

So are these the Atlantean ruins that have eluded discovery for centuries?

If we read what Plato wrote about the mythical city/continent than no.

The Story of Atlantis

In Timaeus and Critias, written around 360 BC Plato described—through the voice of Critias—how Solon, a highly respected and well known Greek Statement traveled to Sais and met with priests from the goddess Neith.

It is there where an extremely old priest tells Solon about an empire that existed 9,000 years before him, which was at war with Athens.

Eventually, this empire identified as ‘Atlantis’ was destroyed by a great catastrophe.

Sonchis explained that Atlantis’ capital city was elaborately constructed, where great temples and palaces were erected, adorned by exotic gardens made of silver, gold and, ivory. Sonchis further described the capital of the Atlantean empire as being made of massive walls, which in turn were surrounded by circular islands protecting the inner citadel of the metropolis.

And according to Plato, Atlantis was located “beyond the Pillars of Hercules“. While Antarctica is beyond the pillars, it isn’t anywhere near where Plato said the mighty Atlantean empire disappeared.

However, as noted by experts, Antarctica wasn’t always the frozen continent and was certainly not always located where it today (geographically).

While this may not be Atlantis, it certainly is interesting to see what future explorations of the frozen continent will yield, and whether or not it’s possible that in the distant past, perhaps even before written history, great civilizations ruled the earth.

Featured image credit by Julian-Faylona Posted with Permission

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17-04-2018 om 15:42 geschreven door peter  

The Stone Circles Of Senegambia, The Largest Group Of Megalithic Complexes On Earth

If the largest concentration of dolmens on the planet is found on the Korean peninsula, the largest group of megalithic complexes corresponds to the central area of Senegal bordering the north of Gambia.

Surprised?

So was I!

But this just shows off the huge number of ancient sites that exist on Earth, which most people have no idea of.

In an area of 30,000 square kilometers between the two countries north of Janjanbureh (former Georgetown) we find the megalithic structures of a lost civilization.

These massive monuments are sometimes divided into the Wassu (Gambian) and Sine-Saloum (Senegalese) circles, but this is purely a national division from modern times.

Wassu Stone Circles.

Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0

The megalithic structures found in Senegal and Gambia are usually divided into four large sites: Sine Ngayene and Wanar in Senegal, and Wassu and Kerbatch in the Central River Region in Gambia.

The monuments itself are a mystery.

So far, experts have not been able to date them, but it is mostly accepted that the megalithic structures were erected between the third century B.C. and the sixteenth century AD.

The megalithic stone circles of Senegambia are home to around 29,000 stones, 17,000 monuments, and 2,000 individual sites.

Archaeologists Todd and Ozanne first studied the monuments in 1903.

Wassu stone circles.

Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons.

The structures were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2006.

Todd, together with Wolbach, carried out excavations on the monuments in 1911 and determined that their construction could not be attributed to the cultures that occupied the territories at that time.

Experts note that the construction of the Senegambian stone monuments is evidence of a prosperous and well-organized culture.

This conclusion was reached after experts calculated the amount of labor which was required to build such structures.

Wassu Stone Circles.

Image Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons.

The stones are believed to have been extracted from laterite quarries with the help of iron tools, although archaeologists have identified few of the quarries which are directly linked to particular sites.

How the ancient builders transported the massive blocks of stones from their quarry to their construction site remains an enigma.

Who these ancient people were is also a mystery.

Some archaeologists believe that the Serer people are the builders of the massive structures.

This theory comes from the fact that the Serer still use funerary houses like those found at Wanar.

Stone Circles of Senegambia.

Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 Wikimedia Commons.

The Serer people are the third largest ethnic group in Senegal making up 15% of the Senegalese population.

Burial mounds with human remains, ceramics, and other objects have been found around the monuments, although the relationship of these tombs with the stone circles is not very clear.

Some theories suggest that the builders of the structures were farmers, since most the circles are located close to rivers, but experts have discovered spears in some of the tombs, which seems to indicate that they were also hunters.

Most experts seem to agree that it is not known exactly if the tombs are prior to the circles, whether they are contemporary to the structures or if they were built later.

According to local legends, the circles would have been built around the tombs of the kings of the ancient empire of Ghana.

Circles of stone Wassu Gambia.

Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons.

The largest monolith is located in Wassu, Gambia, and it has a height of 2.59 meters and is part of a circle that includes another 10 stones.

However, the area that hosts the largest number of circles is Sine Ngayene, in Senegal, with 52 circles, one of them featuring double stone circles, and has a total of1102 stones.

Archaeological excavations carried out in 2002 concluded that some tombs clearly predate the megaliths.

So, in all the mystery that engulfs these megalithic structures, we do know one thing: the area hosts the largest group of megalithic complexes in the world, as we haven’t found so many megaliths in any other part of the world.

Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons.

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17-04-2018 om 15:31 geschreven door peter  

Inner Earth Civilizations? Unraveling The Mystery Behind Our Planet’s Massive Inner Ocean

One of my all-time favorite books is without a doubt Journey to the Center of the Earth, written by world-famous Author Jules Verne.

The story written by Verne involves a German professor called Otto Lidenbrock who was convinced that there are volcanic tubes that lead toward the center of our planet.

Lidenbrock, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans descend into the Icelandic volcano Snæfellsjökull and encounter many adventures along the way, including prehistoric animals and dangers. Eventually, they resurface in southern Italy, at the Stromboli volcano.

In the book, Verne describes a MASSIVE ocean that exists inside our planet.

He explains how: a vast expanse of water, the beginning of a lake or an ocean, extended beyond the limits of sight.

Further, the view followed its mass outlined on the misty background of the horizon. It was a true ocean, capriciously contoured by the terrestrial shores, but deserted and with a terribly wild aspect.

The book was a science fiction bestseller, and despite many people believing that something like this may be possible, the idea remained firmly a science fictional idea.

Now, what if what was once thought to be a mere fantasy of the writer, was, in fact, closer to reality?

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Is it even possible that there really is an underground ocean beneath or feet?

An article published in the journal Nature points in that direction.

As it turns out, scientists discovered a while ago, a diamond-rich in water with traces of a mineral called ringwoodite (in honor of its discoverer, the geochemist Alfred Ringwood).

The diamond originally came from an area that separates the upper terrestrial mantle from the lower one, that is, between four and six hundred kilometers beneath our feet.

So, what does that has to do with Verne, Inner Earth, and an ocean beneath our feet?

The fact is that the diamond found was associated with water molecules in a significant proportion (1.5%), which leads experts to propose the theory that this zone of transition of the mantle is very rich in water.

In fact, scientists have proposed that there is so much water beneath the surface of our planet, that we can cover the surface of our planet entirely in water. The existence of this ‘underground ocean’ would explain the great volcanic and tectonic dynamism of the planet.

Graham Pearson, a researcher from the University of Alberta (Canada) says that the ringwoodite found “provides confirmation that there really are pockets of water in the depths of the Earth.”

That, however, is a theoretical confirmation, of course, since due to lack of equipment and technology it would be impossible to obtain physical evidence from the mantle directly.

That kinda’ sucks since, despite the fact that humans have made it to space, landed on the moon and explored distant alien worlds, we’ve still not explored what exactly lies beneath our ocean, and what mysteries may be hidden beneath the surface of our planet.

Alfred Ringwood proposed that the mineral that bears his name could be found in the transition zone of the mantle, originated by the high pressures and temperatures that are found beneath deep beneath the surface.

But if we can’t go down there, how did scientists find the diamond?

Experts believe that the diamond surfaced in a volcanic eruption in a kimberlite wash (an igneous rock formed from magma and that is the deepest).

It was only three millimeters wide and lacked commercial value, but it was sold to scientists who were looking for other types of rocks, and who came up with something that was priceless: inside the diamond, there was a microscopic trail of ringwoodite.

But not everyone is convinced that a massive underground ocean exists and not all scientists believe that the result of the diamond analysis should be extrapolated to the theory of a massive underwater ocean based on such a small sample of ringwoodite.

Moreover, some scientists even admit that even if there is an ocean beneath our feet, it would not be in liquid form but under a molecular variant called hydroxyl, with only one atom of oxygen and another of hydrogen instead of the two.

David Wilcock and Earth’s Inner Civilizations

In 2015, an article appeared on Coast To Coast AM, where author and researcher David Wilcock discusses Earth’s Inner Civilizations.

Wilcock told C2C that an alliance of ancient civilizationscurrently resides inside the Earth, and they may soon reveal themselves to the ‘outer’ world.

During the formation of all watery planets in the universe, he explained, hollow cavities form below the surface of the crust and have their own biome that features bacteria which gives off natural light.

“What this means is that you can actually live inside caverns in the Earth that have visible light,” he marveled.

Based on his research, Wilcock said, “it appears that these cavities are used so that more advanced civilizations have a place they can live while they’re managing what takes place on the surface.”

Over the span of the planet’s history, he explained, various advanced societies, such as the Atlanteans, took refuge underground in order to survive tumultuous times and ultimately settled in their new subterranean location.

While the presence of these civilizations has been a part of UFO lore for decades, he contended that the government has direct knowledge of their presence due to accidentally discovering them via clandestine projects aimed at building secret underground bases.

“They’ll have these tunnel boring machines and sometimes they break through into someplace they’re not supposed to go,” Wilcock claimed, “and there’s already people there.”

For the full interview with David Wilcock click here.

Featured image by Leon Tukker. Image Posted with permission.

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17-04-2018 om 15:16 geschreven door peter  

Scientists 1st observed gravitational waves from merging black holes. Now they’re targeting a different gravitational wave signal: a long continuous waveform from a rapidly spinning neutron star.

Artist’s concept of gravitational waves via ScienceBlog.

In 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration announced the first direct observations of short bursts of gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space-time – in this case, created during the merger of black holes. Late last year, LIGO said it had detected the first gravitational waves from colliding neutron stars. On April 10, 2018, scientists in Europe announced a search for a different type of gravitational wave signal, the long continuous waveform expected from a single rapidly spinning neutron star. The scientists said they’d established a new permanent independent research group to search for such objects.

Maria Alessandra Papa is leading the group at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany. The announcement said:

It is the largest group worldwide dedicated to this topic and conducts the most sensitive searches for this kind of gravitational wave with the globally distributed volunteer computing project Einstein@Home. In addition to its permanent funding, the group will receive additional funds from the Max Planck Society for the first five years.

Papa explained:

With the first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging black hole and neutron star pairs, we have done the first steps into new astrophysical territory.

But much of this new continent is still uncharted. While we do know that there are about 100 million single neutron stars in our galaxy, we have only identified about 3,000 of them. We want to unveil this mostly invisible population by detecting their continuous gravitational-wave emission.

A neutron single star swiftly rotating on its axis – with a large mountain or other irregularity on it – might produce continuous gravitational waves. The gravitational waves would be weak compared to the short bursts produced by, for example, black hole mergers.

Image via LIGO.

The statement from Max Planck Institute further explained:

The type of gravitational wave emitted by single neutron stars is very different from the signals already detected. Rapidly rotating neutron stars can emit much fainter but much longer duration (continuous) gravitational waves. Finding these waves is very difficult and limited by the amount of computing power available for the searches. This is because there are many unknowns to search over wide ranges: the star’s sky position, its spin rate, and its deformation responsible for the gravitational-wave emission.

The Einstein@Home volunteer computing project provides the lion’s share of the required compute cycles for the state-of-the-art search techniques.

Read more about how Einstein@Home works

Einstein@Home applications

Maria Alessandra Papa.

Image via T. Damm/Max Planck Institute.

Bottom line: Scientists first observed gravitational waves from merging black holes. Now they’re seeking a different gravitational wave signal – a long continuous waveform from a rapidly spinning neutron star.

Via Max Planck Institute

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17-04-2018 om 15:07 geschreven door peter  

The experiment offers a hint of how the material behaves deep inside faraway worlds

BY LISA GROSSMAN 

UNDER PRESSURE  Using lasers, scientists compressed iron to high pressures that are likely found in large, rocky exoplanets’ cores. Here, an image of inside the laser chamber is shown with an artist’s rendering of an exoplanet. 

MARK MEAMBER/NIF

Physicists have simulated the cores of some large rocky exoplanets by pummeling iron with lasers. The resulting measurements give the first clue to how iron might behave inside planets outside the solar system that are several times the mass of Earth, researchers report April 16 in Nature Astronomy.

“Until now, there’s been no data available on the state of these materials at the center of large exoplanets,” says Ray Smith, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Working at the National Ignition Facility, Smith and his colleagues aimed 176 lasers at a pellet of iron a few micrometers thick wrapped in a gold cylinder. The lasers delivered enough energy over 30 billionths of a second to compress the iron to pressures up to 14 million times Earth’s atmospheric pressure at sea level. The researchers measured how the iron’s density changed at different pressures.

These high pressures are thought to be found in the iron cores of rocky exoplanets that are between three and four times Earth’s mass, Smith says. Although our solar system doesn’t have any planets of this size, they are the most common type of exoplanet in the galaxy. Previous simulations suggest that some of these rocky worlds may have interior compositions similar to Earth’s.

That similarity raises hopes that the exoplanets may have features that make the worlds hospitable to life, such as a magnetic field or plate tectonics (SN: 4/30/16, p. 36). NASA’s latest exoplanet-hunting telescope called TESS, scheduled to launch the evening of April 16, is expected to find hundreds of planets in this size range (SN Online: 4/12/18).

But the details of exoplanet interiors are hard to tease out. Until now, researchers had to extrapolate iron’s behavior at high pressures from measurements made at low pressures, which introduced uncertainties. With the new measurements, scientists can be more confident that their simulations reflect actual planets.

Previously, Smith and colleagues had made some headway by compressing diamond to even greater pressures (SN: 8/9/14, p. 20). Diamond is easy to compress but is not likely found deep inside rocky exoplanets.

“This is one of the first mineral physics experiments that is going to be much more applicable to every planet,” says exogeologist Cayman Unterborn of Arizona State University in Tempe. “That’s going to be really important once we start characterizing exoplanets with all of these new missions.”

Citations

• R.F. Smith. Equation of state of iron under core conditions of large rocky exoplanets. Nature Astronomy. Published online April 16, 2018. doi:10.1038/s41550-018-0437-9.

Further Reading

• L. Grossman. With the launch of TESS, NASA will boost its search for exoplanets. Science News Online, April 12, 2018.
• L. Hamers. Some TRAPPIST-1 planets may be water worlds. Science News Online, March 19, 2018.
• T. Sumner. How alien can a planet be and still support life? Science News. Vol. 189, April 30, 2016, p. 36.
• T. Sumner. Exoplanets need right stuff to be habitable. Science News. Vol. 189, January 23, 2016, p. 8.
• T. Sumner. Diamonds under pressure impersonate exoplanet cores. Science News. Vol. 186, August 9, 2014, p. 20.

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17-04-2018 om 14:54 geschreven door peter  

Disques protoplanétaires : une étonnante diversité dans le cosmos

Laurent Sacco

Journaliste

L'instrument Sphere du VLT permet aux astronomes de former des images directes d'exoplanètes et de disques protoplanétaires, similaires à celui où sont nées les planètes du Système solaire. Ces disques apparaissent maintenant avec un zoo de formes et de tailles, plus diverses que l'on ne l'imaginait.

André Brahic aimait souligner que l'exploration du Système solaire à laquelle il avait participé avec les missions Voyager puis avec celle de Cassini avaient montré sa grande diversité. Les surprises étaient au rendez-vous et cela n'a pas changé quand ce fut le tour de la rencontre entre Pluton, son satellite Charon et la sonde de la mission New Horizons.

Les astrophysiciens du XXI^e siècle sont devenus plus ambitieux puisqu'ils explorent désormais le monde des exoplanètes et qu'ils multiplient les observations des disques protoplanétaires autour des jeunes étoiles. Ils espèrent mieux comprendre encore la cosmogonie des planètes du Système solaire et mieux contraindre les théories modernes, héritières de celle proposée par Kant et Laplace, pour expliquer la naissance de ces astres avec la formation de ce type de disque de matière.

Ils ont développé l'instrument Sphere (Spectro Polarimetric High contrast Exoplanet REsearch) qui équipe le Very Large Telescope (VLT) de l'ESO au Chili depuis 2014. Il permet de faire de l'imagerie directe des exoplanètes mais aussi des disques protoplanétaires, malgré le rayonnement bien plus intense de leurs étoiles hôtes, dans une certaine mesure tout au moins.

Sphere a permis aux chercheurs de mener une campagne d'observation baptisée DARTTS-S (Disques Autour des Etoiles T-Tauri avec Sphere) concernant des étoiles de type T-Tauri à des distances de 230 à 550 années-lumière du Soleil. Ces étoiles, moins de trois fois plus massives que le Soleil, ne sont pourtant pas encore sur la séquence principale, car ce sont en fait de jeunes protoétoiles dont les âges sont inférieurs à 10 millions d'années.

Les étoiles T-Tauri, un laboratoire d'étude de la naissance des planètes

Elles sont entourées d'un disque protoplanétaire et sont particulièrement lumineuses car même pour une masse équivalente à celle du Soleil, elles ont un rayon plus grand et donc une surface d'émission de la lumière plus importante. Elles sont encore en contraction gravitationnelle de sorte qu'elles ne tirent pas leur énergie de la fusion thermonucléaire de l'hydrogène (bien que peut-être, parfois, en partie de celle du lithium), mais bien du mécanisme de Kelvin-Helmoltz.

On considère que les étoiles T-Tauri sont de bons laboratoires pour observer en direct l'équivalent de la naissance du Système solaire et ses étapes, alors que les planètes se formaient dans son disque protoplanétaire.

L’instrument Sphere installé sur le Very Large Telescope de l’ESO révèle les disques de poussière autour de jeunes étoiles proches. Tous arborent des formes, des dimensions ainsi que des structures différentes, et témoignent des probables effets des processus de formation planétaire.

© ESO/H. Avenhaus et al./E. Sissa et al./DARTT-S and SHINE collaborations 

DARTTS-S vient de faire l'objet de deux publications sur arXiv et de nouveau les astronomes sont surpris par la diversité découverte, comme le montre en images, un véritable zoo de disques qui diffèrent nettement les uns des autres en termes de dimensions et de formes. Certains sont composés d'anneaux brillants alors que d'autres exhibent des anneaux sombres.

Les astrophysiciens sont particulièrement intéressés par le cas de l'étoile GSC 07396-00759, une naine rouge de type M qui fait partie d'un système triple car elle orbite autour d'une étoile double formée de deux astres de type T-Tauri : V4046 Sagittarii. Ces deux étoiles sont nées ensemble et curieusement, elles ne sont pas entourées d'un même disque protoplanétaire, alors qu'ils devraient avoir évolué en parallèle et avec un matériau similaire. Là encore, il y a une diversité à comprendre pour progresser dans notre quête des origines, du Big Bang au vivant, et de notre place dans l'univers observable avec peut-être de la vie ailleurs.

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17-04-2018 om 14:37 geschreven door peter  

Project 1794 And The Flying Saucers They Were Supposed NOT To Be Working On?

The US was working on Flying Saucers regards of what they said publicly and it looks like they were taking it very, very seriously! So yeah when the US government says one thing we should take it with a pinch of salt especially with regards to UFOs and the existence of Aliens? If your caught lying about it once then how do we know they're not pulling the same stunt again? Well we don't and all we have to go off is past behaviours and they've lied once so...

I mean just look at this image marked " SECRET" and you tell me if they took it seriously or not?

Officially, aliens have never existed but flying saucers very nearly did. The National Archives has recently published never-before-seen schematics and details of a 1950s military venture, called Project 1794, which aimed to build a supersonic flying saucer.

The newly declassified materials show the U.S. Air Force had a contract with a now-defunct Canadian company to build an aircraft unlike anything seen before. Project 1794 got as far as the initial rounds of product development and into prototype design. In a memo dating from 1956 the results from pre-prototype testing are summarised and reveal exactly what the developers had hoped to create. The saucer was supposed to reach a top speed of “between Mach 3 and Mach 4, a ceiling of over 100,000 ft. and a maximum range with allowances of about 1,000 nautical miles,” according to the document. If the plans had followed through to completion they would have created a saucer, which could spin through the Earth’s stratosphere at an average top speed of about 2,600 miles per hour.

Wow. It was also designed to take off and land vertically (VTOL), using propulsion jets to control and stabilise the aircraft. Admittedly the range of 1,000 nautical miles seems limited in comparison to the other specifications but if you’d hopped on the disk in New York it could’ve had you in Miami within about 24 minutes. The document also hints that the product development seemed to be going better than planned; “the present design will provide a much superior performance to that estimated at the start of contract negotiations.”

It begs the question – why was the project dropped? Why aren’t wars being fought with flying saucers? The cost of continuing to prototype was estimated at $3,168,000, which roughly translates to about $26.6 million in today’s money and wouldn’t have been an insane price for such advanced technology. The problem with the other flying saucers developed under the same program (see video) is pretty clear. They didn’t get anywhere near 100,000 feet in altitude, more like five or six if you were lucky – so the military finally pulled the plug in 1960.

That's the introduction and there's loads more to come, we suggest you check all this out guys?

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17-04-2018 om 14:23 geschreven door peter  

Did Another Civilization Exist On Earth Before Humans? Scientists Investigate

These civilizations would have existed many millions of years ago on Earth, to be precise nearly 60 million years ago. Now, scientists ask whether there’d be evidence of such civilizations existing on Earth. 

If you take a look at the long history of our planet, you’ll see that nearly sixty million years ago, our planet experienced temperatures far warmer than today, and the planet’s poles melted.

This historical fact has led some scientists to venture out into the unknown and ponder whether it is possible that this event—the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM)—is the result of global warming caused by a now existing civilization which existed on Earth before mankind.

And while this may sound as something that scientists wouldn’t really investigate, since, as Rob Waugh, Metro’s writer puts it: “It sounds like the kind of crackpot conspiracy to be found on ‘ancient alien’ UFO sites,” scientists have in fact ventured out of their ‘comfort zone’ and asked a question they’ve refrained from asking for decades.

In an article by the Atlantic, Adam Frank, a scientist from the University of Rochester asked what many other experts have refrained from asking.

Professor Frank writes: “There is a conundrum here. If an earlier species’ industrial activity is short-lived, we might not be able to easily see it. The PETM’s spikes mostly show us the Earth’s timescales for responding to whatever caused it, not necessarily the timescale of the cause.”

“So, it might take both dedicated and novel detection methods to find evidence of a truly short-lived event in ancient sediments. In other words, if you’re not explicitly looking for it, you might not see it.”

This isn’t just another conspiracy theory cooked up by a scientist.

Professor Frank wondered about what our civilization could leave behind if it perishes one day, and what other potential civilizations may find on Earth. Will they identify our civilization by the plastics we’ve dumped in the ocean? Will they find us because of the chemicals we’ve been using? Or will they find evidence of an ancient civilization on Earth prior to them because we’ve been using fossil fuels?

Professor Frank clarifies that while there is no evidence of an ancient advanced civilization existing on Earth before us, the idea brings up a number of possibilities regarding the cycle of life and how it may operate on other, distant alien worlds.

Professor Frank explains in the article that civilizations may inadvertently—through their collapse—create the necessary conditions to produce more fossil fuels, for future, distant civilization to use.

“Our work also opened up the speculative possibility that some planets might have fossil-fuel-driven cycles of civilization building and collapse. If a civilization uses fossil fuels, the climate change they trigger can lead to a large decrease in ocean oxygen levels.”

“These low oxygen levels (called ocean anoxia) help trigger the conditions needed for making fossil fuels like oil and coal in the first place. In this way, a civilization and its demise might sow the seed for new civilizations in the future.

By asking about civilizations lost in deep time, we’re also asking about the possibility for universal rules guiding the evolution of all biospheres in all their creative potential, including the emergence of civilizations. Even without pickup-driving Paleocenians, we’re only now learning to see how rich that potential might be.”

And as Waugh writes for Metro, here’s a crackpot conspiracy video for you to enjoy: (I wonder why Waugh writes so many conspiracy-related articles? Maybe he likes the crackpot conspiracy to be found on ‘ancient alien’ UFO sites, or maybe he just loves writing for popular sites like Metro, who not only post ridiculous articles but are apparently happy making revenue off of ‘Conspiracy’.

Source: Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans? A look at the available evidence

Featured image credit

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

17-04-2018 om 14:14 geschreven door peter  

Comment la France s’apprête à imposer le pistage des drones de plus de 800 grammes

Crédits : VictorBernard/iStock/ThinkStock

    

Par Xavier Berne 

{ https://www.nextinpact.com/ }

17-04-2018 om 14:02 geschreven door peter  

California Residents Stunned by Mass UFO Disclosure Event

This group of UFO's made itself known in the California sky recently. The sighting lasted for over 10 minutes!

www.moderngalaxynews.com/...

 { https://www.disclose.tv/ }

17-04-2018 om 13:50 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Object Near ISS Starts Blinking, April 14, 2018

Jump to 0:58! Blink blink, hello there!

The video recording of April 14, 2018, shows an object that starts flashing. Is it a UFO trying to make contact? Or is there another explanation?

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

17-04-2018 om 13:43 geschreven door peter  

Giant Triangle UFO Seen Over Freeway In California On April 2, 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: April 2, 2018

Location of sighting: Simi Valley, California, USA

Source: MUFON #91465

 

This UFO report just in today. A person was driving in Simi, CA and noticed a dark triangle craft moving over the freeway. The UFO had no aircraft lights, so we can rule out public aircraft. The design seems very odd and uneven, but also very thick. Simi Valley located in Southern California, is very close to Area 51, Nellis AFB and the Extraterrestrial Highway. The pattern is becoming visible. 

Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: I caught a triangle craft above the freeway on the way home. (further statement is not visible to the pubic due to MUFON no longer allowing you to view without paying them). 

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

17-04-2018 om 11:45 geschreven door peter  

Strangest UFO Case of All Time, This One is Stranger Than Fiction

It couldn’t happen here? Most people would say it couldn’t happen anywhere! But more than 100 witnesses to one of the world’s biggest UFO mysteries are adamant that it did, in broad daylight. And 50 years after the event, many are still fuming that the military they say were swarming around the scene for days have offically denied the incident and no record appears to exist. They say they spent their lives being doubted and want some official acknowledgment that something weird happened above and behind Westall high and primary schools that morning. London’s Telegraph newspaper rates it as the fifth-greatest UFO mystery of all time, but another mystery is how little-known the episode is here. A documentary – Westall ’66: A Suburban UFO Mystery. Producers hope it will flush out an official who can say what the military were doing and what they found.

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

17-04-2018 om 11:33 geschreven door peter  

Two Pilots On Separate Planes Observe The Same UFO

When we heard of UFO sightings or UFOs being spotted it is hard to believe especially if the report is coming from a single witness. It is often written off immediately, simply because it is hard to verify or give proof of what an individual believes they saw in the sky.

However, when two or more individuals reported the same sighting, things get a lot more interesting. Seasoned pilots know things or everyday events in the sky, and when they witness an unnatural event, it is worth to give more attention to their reports.

Two pilots flying above Arizona on February 14th reported seeing a strange object flying above them. Even the FAA could not explain the UFO.

An audio recording of the incident reveals the bizarre sighting also baffled their air traffic controller.

The pilot of Learjet of the Phoenix Air recorded a conversation of the pilot and the air traffic control center. In the audio, the pilot asks the air traffic control if there is a plane above that passed over them, but the controller responds in the negative. Then the controller adds maybe it is a UFO which the pilot agrees.

The controller then contacts another pilot on an American Airlines flying above over the same area. The controller asks if they have seen anything that passed over them over the next few miles of their flight.

The Learjet pilot says that he does not know the unusual aerial thing, but it was flying in the opposite direction.

Moments later, American Airlines joins in the conversation and states that they also saw that unusual object flying above them and that it was operating two to three thousand feet above them.

The FAA states that no other planes should have there in the area of the sightings.

Based on the recording, those pilots did not think it was just another plane or a balloon. Now, this makes reports such as this one a lot more interesting and confusing at the same time.

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

17-04-2018 om 11:26 geschreven door peter  

Buzz Aldrin did NOT see a UFO during 1969 moon mission: Apollo 11 astronaut said bizarre light he saw in space 'was not an alien,' as NASA confirms it was likely a reflection off the craft's panel

• Bizarre story this month claims Apollo 11 astronaut said he saw a UFO in space
• But, the astronaut has said over the years that the light he saw 'was not an alien' 
• Both Aldrin and NASA have said it was likely sun reflecting off a spacecraft panel 

By Ap and Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

Despite widely circulated claims this week that astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second human to step foot on the moon, saw alien activity during his historic 1969 mission, no such close encounter ever actually happened.

In fact, the Apollo 11 astronaut has said the exact opposite about the unusual sighting in question.

Describing the appearance of a moving light alongside his spacecraft, Aldrin said explicitly during a 2014 Q&A: ‘It was not an alien.’

Renewed interested in Aldrin’s strange experience has been sparked by a bizarre story published earlier this month by the Daily Star, which claimed he passed a lie detector test after recalling an ‘alien encounter.’

But, the astronaut never took a lie detector test on the subject, and never stated he saw aliens in the first place.

Scroll down for video 

Despite widely circulated claims this week that astronaut Buzz Aldrin (right) , the second human to step foot on the moon, saw alien activity during his 1969 mission, no such encounter ever actually happened. Pictured are Neil Armstrong (left) and Michael Collins (center)

Over the years, Aldrin has described a strange sighting that occurred during his 1969 mission, when a light appeared outside of the module.

While he has said that 'technically, the definition could be "unidentified,"' as he did not know what exactly caused the light at the time, he has repeatedly insisted that it was not of alien origin.

In a 2014 question-and-answer session on Reddit, he explained that it was likely the reflection of the sun bouncing off a panel that separated from the craft after launch. 

'On Apollo 11 in route to the Moon, I observed a light out the window that appeared to be moving alongside us,' Aldrin wrote.

'There were many explanations of what that could be, other than another spacecraft from another country or another world - it was either the rocket we had separated from, or the 4 panels that moved away when we extracted the lander from the rocket and we were nose to nose with the two spacecraft. 

'So in the close vicinity, moving away, were 4 panels. And I feel absolutely convinced that we were looking at the sun reflected off of one of these panels. Which one? I don't know. So technically, the definition could be "unidentified."

'We well understood exactly what that was. And when we returned, we debriefed and explained exactly what we had observed.' 

Pictured, astronaut Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside a U.S. flag planted on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission

Still, the Star's story claims the second man to walk on the moon 'took part' in research conducted by an Ohio woman, Sharry Edwards that confirmed he had an alien encounter.

But Edwards told The Associated Press in an email, 'There were no tests.'

She claims that reviews of recordings of Aldrin's voice indicate he 'has a firm belief' that he saw a UFO.

NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said in an email to the AP that Aldrin likely saw panels that separated as the Apollo 11 command module maneuvered to dock with the lunar lander on the way to the moon in 1969.

Read more:

• I am Buzz Aldrin, engineer, American astronaut, and the second person to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 moon landing. AMA! : IAmA

{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/}

17-04-2018 om 01:34 geschreven door peter  

UFO sightings in Cornwall 'are increasing' after five reports including one that left Launceston resident ‘shaken to the core’

There were alleged UFO sightings in Marazion, Mevagissey, Newlyn and Launceston

By Hannah Maltwood

One of the leading investigators into UFOs sighting has claimed that they "are increasing" with "more and more" being reported every day.

The news comes after five "very convincing" sightings were reported from Cornwall, as well as countless others from across the rest of the UK last year.

One of the sightings, which was captured of film, was reportedly so terrifying that it left a Launceston resident with "nightmares".

The person, who has not given their name, contacted the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society (BEAMS) after spotting a “perfectly round disc” hanging in the sky above North Hill in Launceston.

It was 2pm on a clear and sunny Friday afternoon that the object was reportedly spotted “motionless hanging in the sky, making no sound”.

The spotter estimated the object being a few miles away from them, but it was still close enough to make out details of a silver metallic colour as well as black, brown, orange and red tones.

After watching it still in the skies for around 30 seconds, the resident claimed the object shot off “at high speed” and they even managed to capture the moment on film, which can be seen above. They described the encounter as “brief, but it was very quiet and surreal”.

In a message sent to the BEAMS investigators, they said: “On a personal note, the experience ‎has shaken me to the core and frankly terrified me.

“During the sighting I was unsettled but very calm, I knew exactly what I was witnessing, shock I guess, but in the weeks that have passed I have had nightmares!

“I now have a profound empathy for those who have been taken.

“I see everything now in a new light.

“Still having problems processing it all.

“My God, 'they' are really real!”

The sighting was reported to BEAMS in September and was one of five "very interesting" sightings that were logged in the county in 2017.

Speaking to Cornwall Live, UFO investigator Hilary Porter, who jointly runs the society with Ken Parsons, said: “It’s very convincing.

“[All of the sightings in Cornwall] are very interesting and people are definitely experiencing things more and more."

One witness in Mevagissey claimed to have spotted a "saucer" object in the sky.

They said that they had spotted the object in clear skies at around 9.30pm in October last year.

The witness, who did not give their name, described the object they saw as a silent, yellow/orange saucer that was "hovering, in a jerky but controlled up and down movements, whilst travelling horizontally".

The video below shows what they believe to be UFO lights.

Then in September a "huge red light" was reported as a sighting in Marazion.

The witness claimed that they had been left 'spooked' when they came across the unidentified object in Green Lane.

Another Marazion sighting, reported to BEAMS in July, saw a witness claim to have spotted a "strange object" in the grounds of the historic farm where they lived.

The sighting left the farms occupant "creeped out" and sent their dog "growling and barking" to the window.

The resident gave the following statement to BEAMS: "I live alone in a rather large 300-year-old barn complex near Marazion in Cornwall. A week or so ago I was sitting in my front room with my girlfriend listening to the radio.

"It was about 11pm the windows were open but the curtains were drawn, suddenly my Jack Russell jumped up growling then barking very aggressively at the window, if it were a fox etc she would run to the front door to chase it away, it wasn't her normal behavior. 

"I had my camera next to me so I put it through the curtains and the open window and blindly took a few photos into the dark. 

"Upon examination I found the following strange object, it casts a shadow on the ground from the flash, it actually has creeped me out a little."

And in January 2017, there was two reports of a UFO with "a contrail" spotted in the skies above Newlyn East.

While there haven’t been any sightings in the county since the start of 2018, Hilary said that the county has been a hotspot for activity and in the future, it could be again.

Hilary added: “We cover everything, including ancient sites and ley lines – it all joins together with the UFO side of it in many ways.

“Bodmin Moor has always been popular for sightings, you’ve got some very strange things going on there.

“It goes in waves I think, you get no activity and then you get a whole wave of things happening at once.”

“Devon is really the hot, hot spot,” she said.

“But we are seeing more and more sightings across the UK, it’s not going away whatever it is. The sightings are increasing.”

Hilary said that the team have had sightings reported by people “from all walks of life”, "from medical professionals to mechanics”.

{ https://www.cornwalllive.com/ }

17-04-2018 om 01:10 geschreven door peter  

Glowing UFO 'spaceship' spotted ‘watching’ ISS before DISAPPEARING into darkness

BIZARRE footage has emerged that proves we are not alone in the universe – according to wild claims online.

By Callum Hoare 

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

17-04-2018 om 00:48 geschreven door peter  

The Enigma Of The Phaistos Disk, A 3,700-Year-Old Indecipherable Message

The 2nd millennium BC is a period that spanned the years 2000 through 1001 BC and was marked by the appearance of great kingdoms and empires across the planet. The period marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.

Experts maintain that the first half of the 2nd millennium BC was noted by the domination of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. During this time, scholars say that alphabet started developing.

However, the 2nd millennium BC also marked the appearance of Chariot warfare and population movements which are believed to have led to violent changes at the center of the millennium; a new order emerges with Greek dominance of the Aegean and the rise of the Hittite Empire.

The side A of the Phaistos disk, as displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion after the 2014 renovation.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

But this period was also marked by many different things.

It is believed that a mysterious artifact, dubbed the Phaistos Disc,housed today at archaeological museum of Heraklion was crafted by a mysterious people, written in an undecipherable text, during the end of the Bronze Age, around 1700 BC, that is, some 3700 years ago.

The side B of the disc of Phaistos, as displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion after the 2014 renovation.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The mysterious disk-shaped object is about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter and is covered on both sides with a spiral of stamped symbols.

Its purpose and meaning, and even its original geographical place of manufacture remains disputed among scholars, making it one of the most mysterious archeological artifacts on the surface of the planet.

The inscriptions, made by pressing hieroglyphic “seals” into a disc of soft clay, are hieroglyphical and are similar to those of the linear script A (the system used by the Cretan culture and still not deciphered totally) and the linear B (the one used by the Mycenaeans) together with others of unknown origin.

Some researchers attribute this to a non-Cretan origin, despite the fact that it was discovered, on July 3, 1908, in Phaistos, Crete.

A Side view of the Phaistos Disk.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The disc was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernierin the Minoan palace-site of Phaistos and features 242 tokens, comprising 45 distinct signs, which were supposedly made by pressing hieroglyphic “seals” into a disc of soft clay, in a clockwise order spiraling toward the center of the object.  Many of these 45 signs represent easily identifiable symbols. In addition to these, there is a small diagonal line that appears underneath the final sign in a group a total of 18 times. The disc shows traces of corrections made by the scribe in several places.

However, many authors believe the disk is a forgery.

The doubts come from the own characteristics of the disc: the Phaistos Disk has straight edges, despite the fact that nearly all the clay disks of the time appear curved.

However, perhaps what casts the greatest doubts on the Phaistos Disk’s authenticity is that typographical seals were used in its manufacture when there is no other similar example in antiquity, or anything similar until the invention of the printing press by Guttenberg.

According to a report in The Times in 2008, the date of manufacture has never been established by thermoluminescence.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

16-04-2018 om 23:49 geschreven door peter