Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
19-04-2018
Despite alien theories and novel mutations, the real Ata puzzle may be ethical
Despite alien theories and novel mutations, the real Ata puzzle may be ethical
A genomic study proved Ata is human, but now the study's ethics are in question.
In 2003, Oscar Munoz found a mummy in the Atacama Desert ghost town of La Noria. The six-inch-long mummy, now called Ata, has an elongated skull, oddly shaped eye sockets, and only ten pairs of ribs... which helped fuel wild speculation that she was an alien hybrid. Ata was sold several times—probably illegally—and ended up in the private collection of Barcelona entrepreneur and UFO enthusiast Ramón Navia-Osorio. A 2013 documentary called Sirius soon helped immortalize Ata, focusing heavily on the alien hybrid claims.
When a team led by University of California, San Francisco bioinformatics researcher Sanchita Bhattacharya recently sequenced the tiny mummy’s genome, however, it revealed only a girl of Chilean descent. There were a complicated set of genetic mutations, including some usually associated with bone and growth disorders and a few more that have never been described before. Those mutations, the researchers claim, may help explain her unusual appearance.
It’s easy to see why the team's March paper attracted so much interest: a high-profile urban legend was fully debunked at last, but now there were hints at compelling medical discoveries. Most press outlets presented the results as conclusive, cut-and-dried science—except for a few UFO fan sites that loudly insisted the study was part of a cover-up. But even beyond the extraterrestrial exchanges, things have gotten very complicated, both in terms of the scientific claims and in terms of whether the research should have been done at all.
A scientific controversy
The complaints started only three days after Bhattacharya and her colleagues, including Stanford University immunologist Garry Nolan, published their paper in Genome Research. Chilean microbiologist Cristina Dorador of the University of Antofagasta published an article on Chilean science news site Etilmercurio, criticizing the geneticists for working with samples obtained from a mummy that had probably been illegally smuggled out of Chile. By March 28, TheNew York Timesreported that the Chilean National Monuments Council had launched an official inquiry into the provenance of the remains, and Chilean anthropologists and archaeologists criticized the ethics of the study and called for a retraction of the paper.
Nolan and co-author Atul Butte, a computational biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, published a response in the journal Genome Research on March 30, defending the ethics and scientific merits of their work. The journal also issued a statement defending their ethical standards and decision to publish. But now a group of anthropologists is challenging not only the ethics but the science behind the study.
This group, led by University of Otago bioarchaeologist Siân Halcrow, claims that Ata’s appearance was never actually that unusual—if you know what the bones of a human fetus are supposed to look like halfway through gestation. And if they’re right, it means the genetic study was unnecessary in the first place to prove Ata’s humanity or to understand the appearance of her bones.
Bones of contention
“There is nothing about Ata that suggests she is anything but a mummified human fetus,” bioarchaeologist Kristina Killgrove of the University of West Florida and the Ronin Institute told Ars. “Her body looks like a normal fetus around the mid-point of development and most likely represents a miscarriage.”
Fetal skeletons don’t look quite like fully developed infants. A fetus’ 11th and 12th ribs often haven’t developed by the middle of a pregnancy, for instance. And the process of passing through the birth canal tends to compress babies’ skulls into a slightly elongated, cone-like shape. Combine that with processes at work on the body after burial, the archaeologists say, and Ata’s appearance makes perfect sense.
This argument first emerged in 2013, when Nolan announced the results of an initial genetic study to Science Magazine. Stony Brook University School of Medicine anatomist William Jungers, in an interview at the time, remarked, “Genetic anomalies are not evident, probably because there aren't any.” Jungers is now part of Halcrow’s group.
What about the mutations Bhattacharya and her colleagues found in Ata’s genome? Halcrow and her colleagues say that the ones usually associated with bone and growth disorders wouldn’t impact the appearance of Ata's skeleton so early in her development. And they argue that it could just be coincidence that the previously unidentified mutations turn up at locations associated with bone formation and growth. Mutations, especially ones that affect only a single DNA base, are surprisingly common. And generally, they have no effect on a person’s body because they occur in regions of DNA that don’t actually code for anything.
Although headlines have claimed that Bhattacharya and her colleagues found the genetic mutations that explain Ata's appearance, the researchers themselves have been much more cautious. In an interview with Ars prior to the study's publication, Bhattacharya said that it would take more work in the lab, possibly using mice as a model, to figure out whether these specific mutations actually cause any deformities.
By all accounts, the sky can be filled with myriad peculiar objects, from drones to experimental crafts, or others that some find difficult to explain.
Recently, a viewer saw something aloft over town that struck her as odd, and so she decided to log a report with the Mutual UFO Network, also commonly known as MUFON.
The reported sighting took place last June, some time between 5:45 and 6:15 p.m. in the vicinity of Route 3 and Interstate 495, and was logged in October.
“I was out in the open yard, which is flat, gravel and grass. i was standing, by my friend’s car, talking to her,” the report states. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in the air and looked up. Both objects were in the air, not over 300 feet above and about 40 feet in front of me. Both objects were exactly alike.”
The report said, “The first object was in front, the second object was in the rear and maintained constant position from the first one, which was about 20ft behind and 30ft to the left of the first one, but not lower than the first. there was absolutely no sound.”
The two objects flew steadily, “almost as if there was a rod between them to keep them together and maintain status. My friend is handicapped and was unable to get out of the car in time to see them.”
The report also mentions a helicopter coming into nearby.
The viewer said she didn’t think to take a photo, noting that she does not take good photos. But, she said, “I too happy to finally see something I’ve never seen before. There were other people in the yard but no one looked up or paid attention, they were all talking to each other a few yards away. i have never seen any object in the sky in my entire life that looked like this.”
Eric Hartwig, the state director of the network’s Massachusetts chapter, said he contacted the woman, and noted that the organization does not reveal the identities of those who file reports.
A quest to know
Strictly speaking, UFO is simply an acronym for “unidentified flying object,” with no inference about the object’s nature or source.
The Mutual UFO Network follows up on reports, and sometimes sends an investigator to the site of the report. The goal is to check out the information objectively, and much of the time, the sighting is ruled to be something fairly ordinary, such as a manmade craft, a reflection of light, or a normal celestial object such as a planet or meteor.
In this case, Hartwig said he believes the phone interview was sufficient.
“She described two metallic objects, that had a lattice-like appearance, like under a porch,” Hartwig said. “The odd thing was, there was a garage or something in the area, and the guys are out there, a bunch of workers just hanging out. She is across the yard in the parking lot there.” It did not appear that the men saw the sighting, or that they were too engaged in conversation to notice anything unusual, Hartwig said.
The woman provided a drawing of what she saw.
Hartwig said, “What I mentioned to her was that from what she is describing, it sounds almost like an ion propulsion -- people will build these experimental things.”
Hartwig alluded to videos on YouTube showing demonstrations of such crafts, which he said can throw out a breeze. Often, the craft makers put aluminum foil around the crafts, “and it causes this ion effect, and that’s just what I thought of when she described it.”
The dimensions as described seemed small, said Hartwig. “It looked like a few feet thick. In other words, it didn’t look like it had the room for occupants, really,” Hartwig said.
‘Fact-based approach’
The tracking of UFOs is controversial both in popular culture and in the scientific community.
But Nancy Kotary, communications officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s sHaystack Observatory in Westford, said, “We think that scientists are naturally curious and also want to identify unknown things. Wanting to identify things is in line with science.”
The observatory devotes most of its research to radioastronomy -- which is concerned with radio emissions from objects in space -- as well as atmospheric studies and studies of the ionosphere.
The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere with a high concentration of ions and free electrons, and which is able to reflect radio waves.
Kotary said, “We take a science-based aproach, and don’t take too seriously things that can’t be proven.”
Kotary added, “We understanding wanting to know what something is. We just take a very fact-based approach.”
By all accounts, the sky can be filled with myriad peculiar objects, from drones to experimental crafts, or others that some find difficult to explain.
Recently, a viewer saw something aloft over town that struck her as odd, and so she decided to log a report with the Mutual UFO Network, also commonly known as MUFON.
The reported sighting took place last June, some time between 5:45 and 6:15 p.m. in the vicinity of Route 3 and Interstate 495, and was logged in October.
“I was out in the open yard, which is flat, gravel and grass. i was standing, by my friend’s car, talking to her,” the report states. “Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in the air and looked up. Both objects were in the air, not over 300 feet above and about 40 feet in front of me. Both objects were exactly alike.”
The report said, “The first object was in front, the second object was in the rear and maintained constant position from the first one, which was about 20ft behind and 30ft to the left of the first one, but not lower than the first. there was absolutely no sound.”
The two objects flew steadily, “almost as if there was a rod between them to keep them together and maintain status. My friend is handicapped and was unable to get out of the car in time to see them.”
The report also mentions a helicopter coming into nearby.
The viewer said she didn’t think to take a photo, noting that she does not take good photos. But, she said, “I too happy to finally see something I’ve never seen before. There were other people in the yard but no one looked up or paid attention, they were all talking to each other a few yards away. i have never seen any object in the sky in my entire life that looked like this.”
Eric Hartwig, the state director of the network’s Massachusetts chapter, said he contacted the woman, and noted that the organization does not reveal the identities of those who file reports.
A quest to know
Strictly speaking, UFO is simply an acronym for “unidentified flying object,” with no inference about the object’s nature or source.
The Mutual UFO Network follows up on reports, and sometimes sends an investigator to the site of the report. The goal is to check out the information objectively, and much of the time, the sighting is ruled to be something fairly ordinary, such as a manmade craft, a reflection of light, or a normal celestial object such as a planet or meteor.
In this case, Hartwig said he believes the phone interview was sufficient.
“She described two metallic objects, that had a lattice-like appearance, like under a porch,” Hartwig said. “The odd thing was, there was a garage or something in the area, and the guys are out there, a bunch of workers just hanging out. She is across the yard in the parking lot there.” It did not appear that the men saw the sighting, or that they were too engaged in conversation to notice anything unusual, Hartwig said.
The woman provided a drawing of what she saw.
Hartwig said, “What I mentioned to her was that from what she is describing, it sounds almost like an ion propulsion -- people will build these experimental things.”
Hartwig alluded to videos on YouTube showing demonstrations of such crafts, which he said can throw out a breeze. Often, the craft makers put aluminum foil around the crafts, “and it causes this ion effect, and that’s just what I thought of when she described it.”
The dimensions as described seemed small, said Hartwig. “It looked like a few feet thick. In other words, it didn’t look like it had the room for occupants, really,” Hartwig said.
‘Fact-based approach’
The tracking of UFOs is controversial both in popular culture and in the scientific community.
But Nancy Kotary, communications officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s sHaystack Observatory in Westford, said, “We think that scientists are naturally curious and also want to identify unknown things. Wanting to identify things is in line with science.”
The observatory devotes most of its research to radioastronomy -- which is concerned with radio emissions from objects in space -- as well as atmospheric studies and studies of the ionosphere.
The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere with a high concentration of ions and free electrons, and which is able to reflect radio waves.
Kotary said, “We take a science-based aproach, and don’t take too seriously things that can’t be proven.”
Kotary added, “We understanding wanting to know what something is. We just take a very fact-based approach.”
We have been searching for life on other space globes, including our natural satellite, Moon and our closest neighbor, Mars.
Moon is the only place after Earth where we, the humans have walked. The purpose was to find out if our moon can host life!
Space agencies are planning to land humans on Mars, too, in the near future to dig out the traces of life. NASA and their European counterparts are also extending their search for extraterrestrial life on some of the moons of Jupiter, Saturn and a few dwarf planets such as Ceres. These strange rocks have many awesome characteristics to support life.
Scientists and space watchers have time and again created the sensation with their not-so-reliable findings.
According to many conspiracy theories, aliens are already in contact with humans. If that is true, how easy it is for us to identify extraterrestrial life on Earth and in the outer space?
Finds of a Spanish University
A Spanish journal “Acta Astronautica” recently published a report about the finds of a study done by researchers at the University of Cádiz, Spain. A group of people was asked to spot the (signs of) human-made structures on alien land, and most of them spotted Earth-like creatures such as the famous waving gorilla or the (illusion of) human face on the top of a volcanic mountain on Mars.
Humans are so biased and have such a narrow definition of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) that it is hard for them to believe that aliens can be present in any form and may have an entirely different DNA or physical structure.
The reason behind the definition of ETI we have is basically the science fictions we read or watch. The visual representation of aliens has made us believe that aliens are an advanced version of humans. However, the fact can be miles away from our belief.
Telescopes and radio antennas to receive alien signals
NASA and other agencies have installed large radio telescopes to see and receive alien frequencies.
Amoeboid found below the thick frozen layer of water on a distant planet can also be an example of extraterrestrial life. Can single-celled creatures send radio signals or can it be spotted through a large city-sized telescope in the Earth’s orbit? Are the technology and approach we use to #search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) really alien friendly? Are they advanced enough to spot aliens?
Characteristically, we have been searching for blue-red human-like creatures that we see in our movies. But, we need to understand that not every living thing in the universe can be a mirror image of creatures living on the Earth.
It’s all about the limitations of our imagination, say the researchers at the Spanish University.
The need is to broaden our search criteria to find brainy aliens. We need to peep into multiple directions following a multidisciplinary approach. But, what remains unquestioned here is, are we really open for that? Should we really contact aliens? #Alien life#how to spot an alien
Humans have been speculating about their existence for thousands of years, but ours is the 1st generation to know, with certainty, that exoplanets are really out there.
The Milky Way, our own galaxy, stretches across the sky above the La Silla telescope in Chile. Hidden inside our own galaxy are trillions of planets, most waiting to be found.
Step outside on a clear night, and you can be sure of something our ancestors could only imagine: Every star you see likely plays host to at least one planet.
The worlds orbiting other stars are called exoplanets, and they come in a wide variety of sizes, from gas giants larger than Jupiter to small, rocky planets about as big around as Earth or Mars. They can be hot enough to boil metal or locked in deep freeze. They can orbit their stars so tightly that a year lasts only a few days; they can orbit two suns at once. Some exoplanets are sunless rogues, wandering through the galaxy in permanent darkness.
That galaxy, the Milky Way, is the thick stream of stars that cuts across the sky on the darkest, clearest nights. Its spiraling expanse probably contains about 400 billion stars, our sun among them. And if each of those stars has not just one planet, but, like ours, a whole system of them, then the number of planets in the galaxy is truly astronomical: We’re already heading into the trillions.
This rocky super-Earth is an illustration of the type of planets future telescopes, like TESS and James Webb, hope to find outside our solar system.
Image via ESO/M. Kornmesser
We humans have been speculating about such possibilities for thousands of years, but ours is the first generation to know, with certainty, that exoplanets are really out there. In fact, way out there. Our nearest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, was recently found to possess at least one planet – probably a rocky one. It’s 4.5 light-years away – more than 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km). The bulk of exoplanets found so far are hundreds or thousands of light-years away.
The bad news: As yet we have no way to reach them, and won’t be leaving footprints on them anytime soon. The good news: We can look in on them, take their temperatures, taste their atmospheres and, perhaps one day soon, detect signs of life that might be hidden in pixels of light captured from these dim, distant worlds.
The first exoplanet to burst upon the world stage was 51 Pegasi b, a hot Jupiter 50 light-years away that is locked in a four-day orbit around its star. The watershed year was 1995. All of a sudden, exoplanets were a thing.
When a planet passes directly between its star and an observer, it dims the star’s light by a measurable amount.
Video via NASA/JPL-Caltech
But a few hints had already emerged. A planet now known as Tadmor was detected in 1988, though the discovery was withdrawn in 1992. Ten years later, more and better data showed definitively that it was really there after all.
And a system of three pulsar planets also had been detected, beginning in 1992. These planets orbit a pulsar some 2,300 light-years away. Pulsars are the high-density, rapidly spinning corpses of dead stars, raking any planets in orbit around them with searing lances of radiation.
Now we live in a universe of exoplanets. The count of confirmed planets is 3,700, and rising. That’s from only a small sampling of the galaxy as a whole. The count could rise to the tens of thousands within a decade, as we increase the number, and observing power, of robotic telescopes lofted into space.
How did we get here?
We’re standing on a precipice of scientific history. The era of early exploration, and the first confirmed exoplanet detections, is giving way to the next phase: sharper and more sophisticated telescopes, in space and on the ground. They will go broad but also drill down. Some will be tasked with taking an ever more precise population census of these far-off worlds, nailing down their many sizes and types. Others will make a closer inspection of individual planets, their atmospheres, and their potential to harbor some form of life.
Direct imaging of exoplanets – that is, actual pictures – will play an increasingly larger role, though we’ve arrived at our present state of knowledge mostly through indirect means. The two main methods rely on wobbles and shadows. The wobble method, called radial velocity, watches for the telltale jitters of stars as they are pulled back and forth by the gravitational tugs of an orbiting planet. The size of the wobble reveals the weight, or mass, of the planet.
This evocative movie of four planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting the young star HR 8799 is a composite of sorts, including images taken over seven years at the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii.
Image via Jason Wang/Christian Marois.
This method produced the very first confirmed exoplanet detections, including 51 Peg b in 1995, discovered by astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Ground telescopes using the radial velocity method have discovered nearly 700 planets so far.
But the vast majority of exoplanets have been found by searching for shadows: the incredibly tiny dip in the light from a star when a planet crosses its face. Astronomers call this crossing a transit.
The size of the dip in starlight reveals how big around the transiting planet is. Unsurprisingly, this search for planetary shadows is known as the transit method.
NASA’s Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009, has found nearly 2,700 confirmed exoplanets this way. Now in its K2 mission, Kepler is still discovering new planets, though its fuel is expected to run out soon.
Each method has its pluses and minuses. Wobble detections provide the mass of the planet, but give no information about the planet’s girth, or diameter. Transit detections reveal the diameter but not the mass.
But when multiple methods are used together, we can learn the vital statistics of whole planetary systems – without ever directly imaging the planets themselves. The best example so far is the TRAPPIST-1 system about 40 light-years away, where seven roughly Earth-sized planets orbit a small, red star.
The TRAPPIST-1 planets have been examined with ground and space telescopes. The space-based studies revealed not only their diameters, but the subtle gravitational influence these seven closely packed planets have upon each other; from this, scientists determined each planet’s mass.
So now we know their masses and their diameters. We also know how much of the energy radiated by their star strikes these planets’ surfaces, allowing scientists to estimate their temperatures. We can even make reasonable estimates of the light level, and guess at the color of the sky, if you were standing on one of them. And while much remains unknown about these seven worlds, including whether they possess atmospheres or oceans, ice sheets or glaciers, it’s become the best-known solar system apart from our own.
Where are we going?
The next generation of space telescopes is upon us. First up was Wednesday’s launch of TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. This extraordinary instrument will take a nearly full-sky survey of the closer, brighter stars to look for transiting planets. Kepler, the past master of transits, will be passing the torch of discovery to TESS.
TESS, in turn, will reveal the best candidates for a closer look with the James Webb Space Telescope, currently scheduled to launch in 2020. The Webb telescope, deploying a giant, segmented, light-collecting mirror that will ride on a shingle-like platform, is designed to capture light directly from the planets themselves. The light then can be split into a multi-colored spectrum, a kind of bar code showing which gases are present in the planet’s atmosphere. Webb’s targets might include super Earths, or planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune – some that could be rocky planets like super-sized versions of our own.
An illustration of the different missions and observatories in NASA’s exoplanet program, both present and future.
Image via NASA.
Little is known about these big planets, including whether some might be suitable for life. If we’re very lucky, perhaps one of them will show signs of oxygen, carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere. Such a mix of gases would remind us strongly of our own atmosphere, possibly indicating the presence of life.
But hunting for Earth-like atmospheres on Earth-sized exoplanets will probably have to wait for a future generation of even more powerful space probes in the 2020s or 2030s.
Thanks to the Kepler telescope’s statistical survey, we know the stars above are rich with planetary companions. And as we stare up at the night sky, we can be sure not only of a vast multitude of exoplanet neighbors, but of something else: The adventure is just beginning.
Bottom line: Worlds orbiting other stars are called exoplanets. How we know they’re out there, plus the potential for finding more via the newly launched TESS mission.
“It’s the beginning of a new era of exoplanet research.”
The TESS planet hunter successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Wednesday evening. TESS will search for new worlds outside our solar system for further study.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched NASA’s TESS mission on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. After a delayed launch on Monday, Wednesday’s launch took place at 6:51 p.m. EDT (22:51 UTC; translate UTC to your time). TESS – a first-of-its-kind mission to find worlds beyond our solar system, including some that could support life – was deployed into a highly elliptical orbit approximately 49 minutes after launch. At 7:53 p.m., the twin solar arrays that will power the spacecraft successfully deployed.
Following stage separation, SpaceX successfully landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean.
You can watch a replay of the launch webcast below.
TESS stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The two-year survey mission is expected to find thousands of new exoplanets – planets orbiting stars other than our sun – orbiting in our neighborhood of the Milky Way galaxy.
NASA✔@NASA
How many worlds exist outside our solar system? @NASA_TESS launched from planet Earth today at 6:51pm ET to hunt for planets around some of the closest & brightest stars. TESS will use 4 cameras to search nearly the entire sky for unknown worlds. More: http://go.nasa.gov/2HdnRqy
Over the course of several weeks, TESS will use six thruster burns to travel in a series of progressively elongated orbits to reach the moon, which will provide a gravitational assist so that TESS can transfer into its 13.7-day final science orbit around Earth. After approximately 60 days of check-out and instrument testing, the spacecraft will begin its work …
[For this mission] scientists divided the sky into 26 sectors. TESS will use four unique wide-field cameras to map 13 sectors encompassing the southern sky during its first year of observations and 13 sectors of the northern sky during the second year, altogether covering 85 percent of the sky.
TESS will be watching for phenomena called transits. A transit occurs when a planet passes in front of its star from the observer’s perspective, causing a periodic and regular dip in the star’s brightness. More than 78 percent of the approximately 3,700 confirmed exoplanets have been found using transits.
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft found more than 2,600 exoplanets, most orbiting faint stars between 300 and 3,000 light-years from Earth, using this same method of watching for transits. TESS will focus on stars between 30 and 300 light-years away and 30 to 100 times brighter than Kepler’s targets.
The brightness of these target stars will allow researchers to use spectroscopy, the study of the absorption and emission of light, to determine a planet’s mass, density and atmospheric composition. Water, and other key molecules, in its atmosphere can give us hints about a planet’s capacity to harbor life.
A transit happens when a planet crosses in front of its star as viewed from Earth. Transits by small, rocky planets produce a minute change in a star’s brightness (about 100 parts per million), lasting for 2 to 16 hours. If this tiny change happens again and again, on a regular schedule, it might indicate an orbiting exoplanet.
George Ricker is TESS principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He explained:
One critical piece for the science return of TESS is the high data rate associated with its orbit. Each time the spacecraft passes close to Earth, it will transmit full-frame images taken with the cameras. That’s one of the unique things TESS brings that was not possible before.
Stephen Rinehart is TESS project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He said:
The targets TESS finds are going to be fantastic subjects for research for decades to come. It’s the beginning of a new era of exoplanet research.
Haven’t got enough yet? SpaceX livestreamed the launch, and you can watch a replay of this launch webcast below …
Bottom line: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched NASA’s TESS mission on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. All systems appear to be go at this time.
A Mystery In History: When God Made Burning Sulfur Destroy Sodom And Gomorrah
A Mystery In History: When God Made Burning Sulfur Destroy Sodom And Gomorrah
“Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land…” (Source)
Sodom and Gomorrah were two ancient cities that, according to the Old Testament, were destroyed in ancient times by supernatural means.
The cities are described as two of the cities that were part of the biblical Pentapolis, located on the shores of the Dead Sea. Gomorrah was situated in the valley of Siddim next to the Dead Sea and was one of the five cities of the plain, along with Sodom, Adma, Zoar, and Zeboim.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah takes place primarily in Genesis 19, where it is reported that God sentenced the destruction to these cities by the abject perversion of its inhabitants.
YHWH rained on Sodom, and Gomorrah brimstone and fire destroyed these cities and all the men in them.
“(Gn 19: 27-28) God decides to take the life he gave them, but before executing his sentence sends two angels to the city of Sodom with the mission of rescuing Lot and his people.
In this part of the scriptures, Gomorrah is not mentioned as part of the visits of the angels or that Lot had any connection with this neighboring city of Sodom.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, John Martin, 1832.
Moses referred to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Deuteronomy 29:22–23:
“Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.” —NIV
A wealth of information is available about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in various religious texts, including the Koran, where we find details of accounts that are a mixture of facts and myths.
The legends of Sodom and Gomorrah speak of peculiar personalities, angels and other deities who literally warned people to leave these doomed cities whose catastrophic fate was inevitable. These stories are a mixture of different accounts.
Many Biblical scholars would agree that Sodom and Gomorrah are probably two of the most infamous cities that may have existed on planet Earth.
These cities have been lost for millennia, and only in recent years, have the sites been tentatively identified by experts who have proposed dozens of different theories about these mystical cities and their fate.
But what really happened here and what do the stories tell? What has been written down?
Here are some of the things we have to know when talking about Sodom and Gomorrah
The Bible tells the story of what happened:
(Genesis 18:20; 19: 24-26.28)
24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed in the background of Lucas van Leyden’s 1520 painting Lot and his Daughters.
Their Geographical location remains disrupted. However, some experts believe that the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira, two adjacent archeological sites said by some to be the two cities’ locations.
Bab edh-Dhra is the site of an Early Bronze Age settlement located near the Dead Sea, on the south bank of Wadi Kerak. Some biblical scholars argue that this was the ancient city of “Sodom”. Other archaeologists disagree.
The archaeological site of Numeira is, according to some scholars, the location of the city of Gomorra.
It has been argued that Numeira approximates the alleged biblical city of Gomorrah, although other several scholars have countered these claims, arguing that it is in the wrong geographical area, and is not within the designated timeframe.
And while the location of these two important historic cities remains a mystery for experts, ancient astronaut theorists suggest that Sodom and Gomorrah are the Hiroshima and Nagasaki of the distant past, 4000 years ago.
Some ancient astronaut theorists believe that these ancient accounts, described in the Bible and other religious texts indicate the presence of supernatural beings present on Earth, and how these two cities were destroyed, not by God’s wrath, but by the use of extremely advanced weaponry, brought to Earth by beings, not from Earth.
The Area where Sodom And Gomorra were allegedly located is also particularly interesting.
The Dead Sea’s surface and shores are 429 meters (1,407 ft) below sea level, representing Earth’s lowest elevation on land.
The Dead Sea is 304 m (997 ft) deep, which makes it the deepest hypersaline lake in the world.
With 34.2% salinity, The Dead Sea also happens to be one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water, though Lake Vanda in Antarctica (35%), Lake Assal in Djibouti (34.8%) in Jordan and many smaller rivers flow into the Dead Sea.
The Jordan river has a major importance in Judaism and Christianity and, to a more moderate degree, Islam. It is said to be the site where the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land and where John the Baptist baptized Jesus of Nazareth.
Interestingly, according to scientific measurements, evaporation under the burning sun occurs on the surface of the Dead Sea at a speed of more than 230 million cubic feet per day.
As noted by Arab tradition, there are many poisonous gases evaporating from the lake that are so hazardous that birds cannot fly over it.
Is ‘alien UFO’ seen near Area 51 a firing range used to test top-secret weapons?
Is ‘alien UFO’ seen near Area 51 a firing range used to test top-secret weapons?
Jasper Hamill
Alien hunters may be disappointed by the latest theory about mystery structure
(Photo: Google Maps)
The merest mention of a strange sighting at a secret military test base is enough to set internet conspiracy theorists aquiver.
Now UFO hunters are struggling to explain why a strange structure shaped like an ‘alien UFO’ has been built outside a naval research facility about 500 miles away from the mysterious Area 51.
Since we first revealed the location of a weird object spotted on Google Maps, readers have been getting in touch to give their own theories about the structure.
It’s been suggested that the spaceship-shaped construction is merely a cess-pit or fish farm.
Some alien hunters believe it’s a message to the stars, whilst others claim it’s a prop destined to be used in a fake extraterrestrial invasion – which is certainly an imaginative explanation.
weird structure was spotted some 500 miles from Area 51
(Photo: Google Maps)
Now we’ve received the most compelling theory about the structure: it’s an artificial lake used to test weapons.
This theory is backed up by the fact there appear to be loads of tanks dotted around the desert nearby, as well as rusty-looking aeroplanes.
Several boats can be seen near the mystery object itself. Seeing as you don’t generally find boats in the desert, it’s a fair bet they are being used for more than just fishing trips.
However, we have been unable to find a similar structure at other American military bases using Google Maps satellite images.
Test ranges tend to look fairly strange, as you can see in the pictures below, with some looking as if they are crop circle-style messages to aliens.
But if you see a weird structure near a military base, it’s reasonable to expect it’s being used to help devise new and improved ways of blowing things up.
Pinecastle Impact Range, in Florida
(Photo: Google Maps)
White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico, site of the first atomic bomb tests
(Photo: Google Maps)
Delamere Air Weapons Range in Australia
(Photo: Google Maps)
‘It’s a Navy target range lake,’ a reader wrote.
‘They float targets in it and then make them go away. Take off the tin foil hats, stop gargling vinegar and step away from the conspiracy theories.
‘The long structure jutting into the water is a ramp, there is a boat alongside and it’s on a bombing and testing range owned by the US Navy.
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UFO Legacy: What Impact Will Revelation of Secret Government Program Have?
UFO Legacy: What Impact Will Revelation of Secret Government Program Have?
By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist
Believers in aliens visiting Earth's friendly skies via Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) couldn't ask for more: A secretive government group backed by federal "black money," a talkative former U.S. military intelligence official, fighter-jet video of odd objects doing out-of-this-world maneuvers and a space mogul purportedly housing leftovers of unidentified aerial craft.
It all has the feel of sliding open a top drawer in a new "X-Files" TV episode.
Yes, "the truth is out there," a maxim made all the stranger by reports last month by both The New York Times and Politico Magazine of the secretive Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, or AATIP for short. Along with the reporting, a video was released by the Department of Defense showing a 2004 encounter near San Diego involving two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets and an unknown object. [UFO Watch: 8 Times the Government Looked for Flying Saucers]
Behind the scenes
AATIP was originated by then-United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who garnered taxpayer dollars to start the program in 2007, along with the support of the late senators Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
But behind the scenes is Robert Bigelow of Bigelow Aerospace, a Harry Reid political donor in Nevada. A hefty chunk of the AATIP's $22 million budget over five years was reportedly given to Bigelow's company to hire subcontractors and carry out research for the program.
Now toss into the mix Luis Elizondo, the former intelligence officer who ran the AATIP, which initially was under the wing of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He resigned from the job last October, advising CNN post-departure that it was his personal belief "that there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone."
Elizondo also told CNN that the craft studied by AATIP "are displaying characteristics that are not currently within the U.S. inventory nor in any foreign inventory that we are aware of." [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]
Turning point
Jan Harzan, the executive director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), sees the eye-opening reporting as a "turning point in the study of UFOs." He said his organization is excited about the events beginning to unfold "and feel[s] the public and everyone on this planet should be as well."
MUFON has been investigating and researching the UFO phenomenon since 1969, Harzan said. The group's analysis of over 100,000 UFO reports over the past five decades has shown three things to be true, he has stated:
1. UFOs are real
2. UFOs represent extremely advanced technology
3. Tremendous breakthroughs will happen if we make it safe for our scientists and engineers to study this phenomenon unimpeded. These breakthroughs involve the fields of propulsion, energy, communication, biology and consciousness, to name just a few.
The recently released fighter-jet camera video of craft off the coast of San Diego "is just the tip of the iceberg," Harzan said. "Our military vaults are full of such videos and data on these objects. Now that the spill gates have been opened a little, it is time for the rest to come out in an orderly fashion," he added, "and in so doing make it safe for our scientists and engineers to study this phenomenon without fear of ridicule or retribution, but with funding provided by Congress and private industry." [UFO Watch: 8 Times the Government Looked for Flying Saucers]
No national security threat
The new revelation about the AATIP is evidence that the U.S. government has been researching and taking this issue seriously for decades, despite claiming no interest in the phenomenon since 1969, said Alejandro Rojas, spokesman for the Scientific Coalition for Ufology (SCU).
Indeed, between 1952 and its termination in 1969, the U.S. Air Force's official UFO-investigation program, known as Project Blue Book, came to the following set of conclusions: No UFO reported, investigated and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security; there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge; and there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" are extraterrestrial vehicles.
Advanced technology
Rojas endorses the scientific study of the UFO phenomenon and believes that all information regarding unidentified aerial objects should be released so that the data can be properly analyzed by the scientific community.
"Remember, the 'U' is for unidentified, not alien," said Rojas, who is also director of operations for Open Minds Production.
"We don't know what these things are," Rojas told Space.com. "Just because we get uncomfortable with the idea of aliens does not mean we should not investigate when the people who pilot our most advanced technology say they encounter something that outclasses their aircraft. It would be highly negligent not to investigate."
Another striking point in the recent disclosure, Rojas added, is that the incidents "are very similar to events that have been recorded by the U.S. Air Force and other governments for decades."
Tone of evidence
There is one head-scratcher: Why release this information now? Some see it as a trial balloon to take the pulse of citizens' reactions. Is the public being set up for the really big news about alien visitors?
"I can't say I know why things are coming out at this time," said Stanton Friedman, a retired nuclear physicist and a long-time investigator and lecturer on the UFO phenomenon.
"I appreciate the courage of those former officials who came forth," Friedman said. He criticized debunkers who advocate listening for alien signals "but ignore the tone of evidence of alien visitors."
Small program, little to show
Robert Sheaffer is a writer and one of the leading skeptical investigators of UFOs.
In his summary of recent events, Sheaffer notes that Robert Bigelow has been a strong believer in UFOs and alien visitors all his life. He was a campaign contributor to Sen. Reid and some of Reid's causes and persuaded Reid that the military budget ought to include funds for the study of UFOs.
The AATIP is a small program by Pentagon standards, Sheaffer said; it ultimately spent just $22 million over five years.
"Who knew it apparently only takes three senators to set up a secret Pentagon project?" Sheaffer said.
Funding for the AATIP activity was discontinued in 2012, Sheaffer said, "because it was not producing any results, just reams of paper, although the investigation is reported to still be continuing, but without funding, if that is possible."
"They have only released two very blurry infrared videos of objects that appear to be distant jets, without sufficient information to do a really good analysis of them," he added. "So, ultimately, all you have are a few UFO believers in and outside government who were able to get away with funneling a few million Pentagon dollars to themselves for UFO research, and have very little to show for it." [Ten Alien Encounters Debunked]
UFO artifacts
Sheaffer said that what is really interesting is the statement in The New York Times story that, under Bigelow's direction, the aerospace company "modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena."
If that's true, Bigelow supposedly has actual artifacts from UFOs, Sheaffer said, "and in fact has such a large quantity that he needs to modify his buildings to accommodate them? That is just utterly bizarre. We need an explanation of exactly what buildings were modified at federal expense, and what do they contain?" he said.
Purpose of the program
"Threat identification is obviously an important task," said Steven Aftergood of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.
"But the fact that this program was initiated at the request of Senator Reid — not the Air Force — suggests that national security was not the paramount motivation here," Aftergood said. This impression, he said, is reinforced by the fact that a constituent of Sen. Reid (Robert Bigelow) received funding through the program.
"It is somewhat dismaying to see how quickly 'unidentified' aerial phenomena are publicly interpreted and portrayed as UFOs of possibly extraterrestrial origin," Aftergood concluded. His advice: "Collectively, we should all be becoming more intelligent and more perceptive, not more stupid and gullible."
Serious study
"It is complicated, and I am still trying to make sense of things," said Mark Rodeghier, president and scientific director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies in Chicago, Illinois.
The center was started by Hynek, who served as the astronomical consultant to Project Blue Book. Hynek himself was initially dubious of the whole UFO business, but after culling through hundreds of reports by witnesses, he became convinced UFOs were worthy of serious study.
In broad terms, the outing of the AATIP and its investigation of military UFO sightings "confirms something that has been believed for many years … that these sightings are still happening," Rodeghier said. "We just were not learning about them."
Blip in UFO history?
Rodeghier said he hopes the core of AATIP information that has been gathered can be released to the public and made available for scientific analysis.
"It would be extremely disappointing and frustrating if these reports are not released for scrutiny. We need high-quality data about UFOs to do better science," Rodeghier said.
"If those reports are never released, all of this is going to be blip in UFO history," he added. "But even if it's only a blip in history, it's still a darn interesting blip."
Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel series "Mars." A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades.
Are you desperate to see a UFO? Or perhaps you actually want to avoid ever experiencing an alien encounter. Never fear, we’ve got you covered with all you need to know about UFO sightings in the US.
This isn’t something out of a 1950s SciFi movie with wires and rubber masks. Thousands of people see unidentified flying objects each year, and here’s what you should know.
States with the Most UFO Sightings
When you think of UFOs, you might think of places like Roswell, New Mexico. The American southwest has a reputation for being alien country, although plenty of other remote farm towns might also see unexplained phenomena in the skies or fields.
However, the stats show beyond all doubt that the state with the most UFO sightings is California. This could be because it’s such a populous state, so there are more people to do the sightings in the first place.
Other explanations are because of the coastline, which means more people are looking out over the water, or even the lovely weather which means that people spend more time outdoors and are more aware of the skies as a result. It could also be that there are more military bases conducting missile tests that lead to strange occurrences in the sky. Or maybe California is simply more popular for extraterrestrial visitors.
Other states with frequent UFO sightings are Ohio, New York, Florida, Texas and North Carolina. Again, this could be attributed to the population sizes and how much time people spend outdoors staring at the sky, or it could be an indication of which parts of the country are most likely to get visited by alien craft.
How UFO Sightings Have Changed
After World War II, it seems attention shifted towards UFOs in the US. The term flying saucer was common and people across the country frequently reported sightings. However, numerous sightings were debunked as hoaxes from people seeking attention. You would think this might mean that sightings were less common now, but in fact, UFO sightings are at an all-time high.
UFO sightings skyrocketed in the 1990s and 2000s, and one researcher thinks he knows why. Thanks to increased internet access, people no longer just tell their friends or call into their local radio station to report a sighting. Reports can be made online quickly and easily. Now, with everyone walking around with a camera attached to their phones, people can record the UFO and share it on social media in a matter of moments.
Of course, they are easier to debunk, like when people across California, Nevada and Arizona saw a strange phenomena in January 2018 that turned out to be an after-flare from a SpaceX launch. But there are still plenty of unexplained videos and photos out there.
UFO Sightings Spike in Summer
If you look at the research on UFO sightings, you’ll see that they are much more common during the summer months. The simplest explanation for this is that people are outside more. Thanks to the nice weather, more people go hiking, camping or even just go on more picnics and eat dinner outside. As a result, there are more people outside, aware of the sky above them.
Other reasons that scientists like to give is that there are more festivals, concerts, and even 4th of July celebrations, which means there are also more fireworks and drones in the atmosphere. Some people even like to blame the fact that summer blockbusters often include some elements of alien life, making viewers most likely to look up at the sky and find unexplained lights or flying objects.
Spotted a UFO? – What You Should Do
First thing is to make sure to get evidence. Take a picture or better yet a video with your phone. Point it out to friends so that they can also capture pictures or videos, possibly from different angles. The more evidence that you can collect, the more credible you will be when you report it.
Unfortunately, there aren’t any official government bodies in the US that want you to report UFOs to them. You can contact homeland security, but there are fines and penalties for hoax reporting and they appear to be more interested in earthly beings. As a result, there’s the Mutual UFO Network known as MUFON. You can use their form to file a UFO sighting.
It’s also best to post the video or pictures on social media. If you’re embarrassed, you don’t need to claim that you saw an alien. Simply post the image or video on your social media platform of choice, tag in some local news networks and ask them what you might be seeing. If it’s easily explained, at least others will get to see an interesting phenomenon in the sky. If it’s not so easily explained, you might just be a source as proof that UFOs are still common in our modern society.
The internet has shown many weird and strange videos in our time, but this one might be one of those rarest clips.
A Facebook page of a group known as Ufo Türkiye uploaded a video that caught the attention of netizens, which has now a total of over 17,000 views and around 300,00 shares.
The video apparently shows an unidentified flying object in the sky above Turkey. A dark shape can be seen in the video, which undoubtedly looks like a UFO. It can also be observed in the footage that the strange aerial object hovers for a few seconds and then flies off in the flash of light.
The controversial video comes just a few weeks after a plane passenger on a commercial flight to Athens, Greece claimed he caught a UFO moving alongside the aircraft.
Kerry Forides filmed the UFO from his seat while travelling above the Aegean Sea on the 28th of March.
Forides then posted the video on his Facebook page and YouTube.
The description of the video says that the UFO appears to be moving away at right angles from the commercial jet where Forides was onboard, and they end up almost following the strange object without either of them appearing to turn.
Woman Claims She Felt Chills Up Her Spine After Seeing A UFO
Woman Claims She Felt Chills Up Her Spine After Seeing A UFO
A woman felt chills up to her spine after observing an unidentified flying object.
Suzanne Riley claimed that she saw a black craft hovering over trees while driving on her way home from work on Saturday.
On Facebook, Suzanne posted that she thought a Decepticon from the movie Transformer was going to land on her car.
Suzanne said that the sighting above A691 left her scared and confused.
She said that she was shocked while staring at the object and thought what the hell was that object. She further stated that the cars around her were stopping and she almost hit a man in front of the red car who had jumped out with his phone. She couldn’t stop thinking about what happened.
She also claimed that a military aircraft arrived moments after the sighting happened.
Suzanne described the object as a triangular angled appearance and had no visible windows or doors. She added that it had lots of edges going all over it and not just a triangle in the sky. She explained that no real wings or propellers were visible. She was no idea about the object’s identity that she was not sure if she could sketch it.
Among several suggestions she got from her friends was the possibility that it could have been a Nighthawk stealth aircraft. Secretive Skunk Works division of Lockheed developed the plane that could travel up to 1,000 km/h, particularly popular during the Gulf War. In 2008, however, it was retired. North-East UFO expert Glen Richardson was wondering if it was that particular model.
Hartlepool-based Glen doubted that kind of plane would be hovering above the woods. He suspected it to be military testing, but not really sure what it could be.
He urged anyone with footage to release it as he would like to investigate the sighting.
The strange event took place mid-afternoon near the County Durham village of Lanchester. Glen stated that this incident was one of many that hit the region recently.
Glen said that he observed a canny wave recently in the North-East and no reasons for it that he could think. He stressed that people these days just gained more courage to speak more on what they saw. He added that footage is vital to any investigation.
Suzanne, who did not get a snap out of her sighting, asked anyone who has the footage to share it to help give explanations for her close encounter. She said that the sighting left her confused and a bit scared due to insufficient knowledge of the object’s identity.
A spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense said that they were three Apache helicopters flying over where the sighting happened on that day. However, no further information was released.
Nevertheless, Suzanne was convinced that it wasn’t looked like a helicopter in any way.
Alien Implants: The Ultimate Proof Of Alien Abductions?
Alien Implants: The Ultimate Proof Of Alien Abductions?
Every time we speak about aliens, we talk about UFO sightings. When talking about UFO signs, people speak of alien abductions, and when you read about a case where someone claims to be abducted, you end up learning about alien implants.
But what are the mysterious, miniature devices? Fact or fiction? If proven authentic, these implants could be considered as crystal-clear evidence of an alien presence on Earth.
For years, the general public has been tormented by stories of UFO sightings, and even, in some cases, even alien encounters.
However, fact-checking these stories have been disappointingly challenging to achieve.
More often than not, it simply comes down to taking a person’s word for it.
In some cases, photographs have been taken, but, inevitably, questions about their authenticity always come to light.
Therefore, when it comes down to aliens, and UFOs, physical evidence has been treated as the Holy Grail of UFO research.
The amount of “official” information about the UFO phenomenon that has been made available thanks to ufology reports around the world is impressive.
In recent years, various governments around the world have taken a step towards Disclosure as they’ve started releasing an ample amount fo top-secret documents about the UFO Phenomenon.
Not long ago, if you remember, NASA brought together scientists, theologians, philosophers, and historians to examine how to prepare the world for alien contact, whether it be microbial organisms or intelligent beings.
Recently, declassified materials have revealed that the Pentagon spent at least 22 million dollars researching the UFO phenomena in a secret program that existed for at least three years.
According to reports, from 2008 through 2011, the Pentagon spent a budget of around 22 million dollars on a program that investigated UFO’s. Called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, the mysterious secret program was supposedly shut down in 2012.
Anyway, getting back to alien implants…
Strange marks on the body and implants extracted from people who claim to have been abducted have been present whenever someone comes forward saying he or she was abducted by aliens.
The case of the extracted implants is very fascinating, and if proven authentic, this material could be considered as the long searched for scientific evidence of the existence of aliens, and alien abductions.
Dr. Roger Leir is arguably the best person with ‘experience’ in the extraction of extraterrestrial implants. According to Dr. Leir, he performed 17 surgeries in which he extracted small objects of unknown origin.
According to Dr. Leir, a hallucinatory feature is that these supposed incrustations the size of a pencil point were magnetic in nature, and some even emitted radio frequencies.
Other objects examined had meteorite fragments inside them; metals such as gallium, germanium, platinum, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium.
According to Alex Mosier, who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Chemistry, and Physics, who examined the pieces together with Leir, fibers were found very similar to carbon nano-tubes, suggesting that the fragments were designed or manufactured:
“You would not find these things in nature, they have to be processed, they require complex engineering, and they are not easy to manufacture. ”
As noted by mufon.com, tests were performed on both the removed alien implants and the individuals several years after surgical removal.
The alleged implants removed from the first set of surgeries were studied by two different pathologists and then sent to various independent laboratories for extensive scientific analysis. The tests performed on these alleged alien implants were: a pathology/tissue evaluation, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), extensive metallurgical testing involving a density immersion test, X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern analysis and electron/magnetic and fluorescence property analysis. Isotopic range tests are also in progress. Tests were conducted by the National Institute of Discovery of Science (NIDS), New Mexico Tech, and other independent sources.
“The findings of these implant surgeries are highly unusual,” reported Dr. Leir. “In all these cases, there was virtually no inflammatory response.”
This is not the usual finding in foreign tissue reactions. Typically, foreign bodies embedded in tissues result in some type of acute or chronic inflammatory response and may include fibrosis and cyst formation. Such was not the case here. The pathology reports of the first two surgeries revealed that the metallic objects were encased in a very dense, tough, grey membrane consisting of proteinaceous coagulum, hemoseridin, and pure keratin.
More directly, blood protein and skin cells that are usually found in the superficial layer of the skin. Biological “cocoons” encasing the implants were also found to contain nerve proprioceptors – nerve and pressure cells of the wrong tissue type for that part of the body. These implant cocoons also fluoresced a bright green color in the presence of an ultraviolet light source.
Dr. Leir, who also worked as a consultant physician at the Mutual UFO Network, claimed that the people from whom he extracted the alien objects had no visible scars or disruption in the integrity of the skin.
There were no signs of inflammation, but the X-rays showed the incrustation, which seemed almost impossible.
The specialist in podiatry died on March 14, 2014 (paradoxically, due to a foot injury), so his studies did not go beyond a limited budget that prevented further understanding of the findings.
Until now, medicine, and probably other scientific fields, have had a phobia with respect to performing tests on people who claimed to have been abducted.
There are very few scientists and doctors who have dared to venture out into UFOlogy, especially because of the loss of prestige that this entails. However, if we are to come to the bottom of the UFO mystery, scientists, doctors, and other experts should start thinking about proactively participating in the UFO discussion, as only then will we be able to fully understand what on Earth is going on.
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THE AURORA, TEXAS CRASH OF 1897
THE AURORA, TEXAS CRASH OF 1897
The state of Texas has always been called the “big state.” This expression applies to many things, but is especially true regarding “tall tales.” I have heard them all of my life, and sometimes it is difficult to separate truth from fiction. Such is the case with one story that comes from the small town of Aurora.
The town’s history book labels the community as “the town that almost wasn’t,” and that expression is directly related to the legend of a spaceship crashing into a windmill, and the burial of a small alien creature found in the aftermath.This event has become the most important news story to ever come out of this small Texas city. Aurora was designated a “historical site” by the State of Texas.
The year was 1897, and this was the year of the “great airships” reports in the United States. As the story goes, it was on April 17, 1897, that a slow moving space ship crashed into a windmill, bursting into pieces. As the debris was searched through, supposedly the body of a small alien was discovered.
Originally the alien pilot was dubbed the “Martian pilot.”
Some of the debris also revealed material sketched with a type of hieroglyphic. The town folk gave the poor little creature a proper burial in the local cemetery.
This incident, whether true or not, has had just enough publicity to stay afloat for over 100 years. It was made into a movie, “The Aurora Encounter” in 1986, starring Jack Elam.
The news of the crash spread quickly, even for that time period. A newspaper article of the event still exists, written by S. E. Haydon, reporter for the Dallas Morning News. Below is the original article:
About 6 o’clock this morning the early risers of Aurora were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship which has been sailing around the country. It was traveling due north and much nearer the earth than before.
Evidently some of the machinery was out of order, for it was making a speed of only ten or twelve miles an hour, and gradually settling toward the earth. It sailed over the public square and when it reached the north part of town it collided with the tower of Judge Proctor’s windmill and went into pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground, wrecking the windmill and water tank and destroying the judge’s flower garden.
The pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only one aboard and, while his remains were badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world.
The story never gained a lot of exposure at the time, but held on until it was commented on by UPI on May 24, 1973:
“Aurora, Tex. — (UPI) — A grave in a small north Texas cemetery contains the body of an 1897 astronaut who was ‘not an inhabitant of this world,’ according to the International UFO Bureau. The group, which investigates unidentified flying objects, has already initiated legal proceedings to exhume the body and will go to court if necessary to open the grave, director Hayden Hewes said Wednesday.”
“After checking the grave with metal detectors and gathering facts for three months, we are certain as we can be at this point [that] he was the pilot of a UFO which reportedly exploded atop a well on Judge J.S. Proctor’s place, April 19, 1897,” Hewes said.” “He was not an inhabitant of this world.”
The legend was back in the news! Only a couple of days later, UPI followed up the first report with another from Aurora. They had located a living witness to the event.
A ninety-one-year-old who had been a girl of fifteen in Aurora at the time of the reported incident was quoted. “I had all but forgotten the incident until it appeared in the newspapers recently.”
She said her parents had actually been to the crash sight, but had not allowed her to accompany them for fear of what might be in the debris.
She recalled that the remains of the pilot, “a small man,” had been buried in the Aurora cemetery, validating the other legends.
The Associated Press now joined the chase for the sensational story. From the city of Denton, Texas came this account:
“A North Texas State University professor had found some metal fragments near the Oates gas station (former Proctor farm). One fragment was said to be ‘most intriguing’ because it consisted primarily of iron which did not seem to exhibit magnetic properties.”
The professor also said he was puzzled because the fragment was “shiny and malleable instead of dull and brittle like iron.”
For reasons unknown, the Aurora Cemetery Association fought the attempts to exhume the alleged alien body. They were successful, and the dead alien’s remains stayed a mystery. The town of Aurora still shows traces of Military intervention today, and the question must be asked, “Why would the U. S. Military be in the town of Aurora?”
Anyone familiar with the Roswell crash of 1947 will remember that debris from Mac Brazel’s field was flown to Ft. Worth, which is only a short hop’s distance from Aurora. Is this why the Military was in Aurora? Could the Government have the alien body?
Today Aurora, like other cities, is modernized, and yet a few hints of the past still remain. Although the headstone of the alien was stolen, there remain pictures of it today. A copy of this photo now adorns the grave site.
There has been, at times, a lobby to exhume the remains of the little pilot and give it a proper burial, with a new headstone. So far, this has not happened. Should the little grave be dug up, or should we just leave it and the legend of the Aurora UFO alone?
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
There Is Evidence That a Planet in Our Solar System Was Destroyed
There Is Evidence That a Planet in Our Solar System Was Destroyed
By Elizabeth Howell, Live Science Contributor
An asteroid that slammed into the Sudan desert on Oct. 7, 2008, shot out lots of little space rocks holding a precious secret: diamonds that likely formed billions of years ago inside the embryo of a now-decimated planet.
That lost planet was the size of Mercury or perhaps Mars, researchers now say.
In the space rocks, which are also called meteorites, researchers found compounds common to diamonds on Earth, such as chromite, phosphate and iron-nickel sulfides. It's the first time these diamond components have been found in an extraterrestrial body, the researchers said in a new study describing the findings. [See Photos of Meteorites Discovered Around the World]
The finding provides more information on the early days of our solar system about 4.4 billion years ago, when the zone near the sun had several planetary embryos. Many of them coalesced into the planets we see today. Others fell into the sun or were ejected into interstellar space.
The meteorites were formed after an asteroid slammed into Earth's atmosphere — making it technically a meteor — exploding 23 miles (37 kilometers) above the Nubian Desert in Sudan. The explosion from the 13-foot-wide (4 meters) body shot fragments all over the desert below. Researchers picked up 50 of these pieces, which ranged in size from 0.4 to 4 inches (1 to 10 centimeters).
(An asteroid is a space rock, a meteor is a space rock burning up in Earth's atmosphere, and a meteorite is the leftover fragment that reaches Earth after a meteor comes through the atmosphere.)
Researchers collected these tiny meteorites into a collection called "Almahata Sitta"; this is the Arabic word for "Station Six," a train station nearby the meteorite fall and between Wadi Halfa and Khartoum. After collecting the tiny meteorites, researchers discovered nano-size diamonds inside them. But at first, the origins of the diamonds eluded researchers.
Nanodiamonds can form from "normal" static pressure inside a large parent body like Earth, but there are other origin theories as well. High-energy collisions between worlds in space can leave such diamonds behind, as can deposition by chemical vapor,according to a statement from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland.
The new study, however, revealed that the diamonds in the meteorite could form only under pressures higher than 20 gigapascals. This is an extremely high form of pressure that humans can generate with certain explosives.
"This level of internal pressure can only be explained if the planetary parent body was a Mercury- to Mars-sized planetary 'embryo,' depending on the layer in which the diamonds were formed," the researchers said in a statement from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland. Farhang Nabiei, a doctoral student at the institution, led the research.
That planetary embryo would have then been destroyed through violent collisions, the researchers noted.
The research was published online yesterday (April 17) in the journal Nature Communications.
Study Claims Technologically Advanced Species Could Have Been On Earth Tens Of Millions Of Years Ago
Study Claims Technologically Advanced Species Could Have Been On Earth Tens Of Millions Of Years Ago
We like to think that we are an exception: An intelligent life that has developed a vastly complex indust
rialized civilization unlike anything seen before. But would we actually know if millions of years ago some other life forms had created huge cities, altered the landscape, and formed their own civilization? What would be left of their exploits for us to find?
This is the thought experiment that the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Gavin Schmidt, and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester, Adam Frank, have been exploring. They want to understand if any evidence of a hugely advanced civilization could persist tens of millions of years into the future and, if so, what form it might take. Their results are published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.
“Gavin and I have not seen any evidence of another industrial civilization,” Frank lays out from the onset. Since they have not found any pre-human civilization, they have been looking at what impact we as a species are having on the planet, and how long those impacts are likely to be detectable into the future. “These questions make us think about the future and the past in a much different way, including how any planetary-scale civilization might rise and fall.”
While we have plenty of evidence of past civilizations in the form of statutes and foundations that date back maybe a few thousand years at most, things get far more opaque when the clock is rolled back by a few million or hundreds of millions of years.
Calling this the “Silurian hypothesis” – after the technologically advanced reptiles from Dr. Who – they speculate what would be left if a civilization lasted for 100,000 years or so around 60 million years ago. That may sound like a long time, but in the history of the Earth, it is but a blip. However, the chance of fossils would be rare, so what else could we look for?
As a species, we are currently laying down all sorts of traces that will be detectable in a 100 million years’ time. In feeding 7 billion people, we’ve completely altered the nitrogen cycle, with much of it now finding its way into sediment at the bottom of the ocean and the tops of mountains. On the flip side, rare earth elements that were once buried deep are now floating free at the surface as we develop ever more complex technology.
That’s not to mention the changes in the carbon cycle from burning so much fossil fuel or the millions of tonnes of plastic being laid down. Some have even suggested that all the plastic we’re producing is forming a new kind of rock, and all these changes will still be detectable far into the future.
All this is obviously hypothetical at the moment, but it has an important point. These are the kind of clues we could use to look for previously advanced civilizations on other planets.
“We know early Mars and, perhaps, early Venus were more habitable than they are now, and conceivably we will one day drill through the geological sediments there, too,” says Gavin Schmidt. “This helps us think about what we should be looking for.”
WETENSCHAP Tess, de nieuwe ruimtetelescoop van NASA, is succesvol de ruimte ingeschoten. Daarmee kan de zoektocht naar nieuwe planeten worden voortgezet. De lancering die rond 00.50 uur Belgische tijd plaatsvond verliep zonder problemen, meldt de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie.
De lancering was eigenlijk al voor maandag gepland, maar werd uitgesteld om bijkomende tests uit te voeren op het navigatiesysteem van de raket. De ruimteverkenner moet in kaart brengen of er ergens in het heelal een andere planeet is waar misschien leven mogelijk is. Tess is het zusje van de Amerikaanse ruimtetelescoop Kepler, die in 2009 werd gelanceerd en nu aan het einde van zijn leven is.
Ken Tyndall@KenTyndallWFTV
#BREAKING Lift-off! NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite #TESS begins 2-year mission to search for planets outside our solar system! Crowds watch from Jetty Park. @WFTV
TESS, de opvolger van de Kepler-satelliet, is uitgerust met vier camera’s en zal de komende twee jaar lang 200.000 sterren observeren op zoek naar exoplaneten. Die zal de telescoop kunnen waarnemen door het licht dat ze blokkeren in hun baan rond de sterren.
De missie kost rond de 200 miljoen dollar. Vanaf 2019 zal NASA naar verwachting de eerste verwerkte resultaten publiceren.
Photo News
NASA✔@NASA
Successful main engine cutoff (MECO) of the @SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying @NASA_TESS on its journey to search the skies for planets outside of our solar system. Watch live: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1vAxRVVyqykxl
ECONOMIE Japanse wetenschappers hebben een ontdekking gedaan die weleens de volledige wereldeconomie kan omgooien. Onder Minamitorishima, een mini-eilandje in de Stille Oceaan, vonden ze 16 miljoen ton zeldzame metalen die van grote waarde zijn voor de techindustrie. De wetenschappers bundelden hun bevindingen in het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift Scientific Reports.
In de modder rond het koraaleiland Minamitorishima, ook Marcuseiland genoemd, zit meer dan 16 miljoen ton aan zeldzame metalen dat gebruikt kan worden in smartphones, elektrische wagens en kernreactoren. De onderzoekers vonden bijvoorbeeld ook yttrium, een erg zeldzaam metaal dat wordt gebruikt voor cameralenzen en smartphoneschermen.
Jack Lifton van Technology Metals Research LLC, dat niet betrokken was bij het onderzoek, noemt de ontdekking een gamechanger voor Japan en de wereldeconomie. “Japan kan waardevolle metalen leveren aan de rest van de wereld op nagenoeg oneindige basis”, vertelt Lifton aan The Wall Street Journal. “De gevonden metalen zijn erg belangrijk in de moderne samenleving.”
Ton Bastein, grondstoffenexpert bij de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO), zegt tegen de Nederlandse zender NOS dat een groter aanbod van de bijzondere metalen een goede zaak is, maar nuanceert het ook: “Er is absoluut geen tekort aan deze metalen. Er zat al voor duizenden jaren in de grond”.
China
Voorlopig heeft China de macht over de markt van de zeldzame metalen. Volgens CNN bezat het land in 2015 ongeveer 95 procent van de markt, maar die dominantie zou nu kunnen verdwijnen. Dat zegt ook Bastein tegen NOS: ”Als het tot echte mijnbouw komt, dan zou dat de afhankelijkheid van China verminderen”. Volgens Bastein zou het dan ook goed nieuws zijn als er een tweede land is waar de metalen vandaan kunnen komen.
De Japanse wetenschappers zijn alvast overtuigd dat het zal lukken om de metalen te winnen, al moet het materiaal wel van ver komen: het vasteland ligt op een afstand van 2.000 km. De vondst roept meteen ook vragen op over welke metalen nog allemaal te vinden zijn op onze zeebodem.
Among all of the strange stories of the mysterious and paranormal there are often those which seem to be particularly strange and inexplicable, and which serve to grip us with their enigmas. Certainly among these are the numerous cases throughout history of bizarre holes in the earth which seem to penetrate down into paranormal oddities and anomalies that we can only grasp at the answers to. Portals to other dimensions, doorways to Hell, and just plain wellsprings of surreal mysteries and horrors, here are some of the most mysterious alleged paranormal holes in the earth there are.
By far the most well-known such mysterious hole first came to public knowledge on February 21, 1997, when the late, great radio talent Art Bell, host of the legendary radio show Coast to Coast AM had a guest join him on the air who called himself Mel Waters and claimed to own a stretch of secluded rural property in Kittitas County, Washington, near Manastash Ridge that apparently had something rather strange going on. As Bell listened on as calm and unflappable as always, Waters would over the course of a series of several shows weave a truly, increasingly bizarre tale of a mysterious hole in the earth that he had found on his property and which seemed to defy and warp reality as we know it.
Art Bell in his studio
The legendary hole was apparently long known in the area as The Devil’s Hole, and supposedly measures around 9 feet across, with the strange addition of seemingly hand-placed bricks lining the interior down to a depth of around 15 feet, after which it drops off into, well, no one really knows. According to Waters the hole had been known in the area since humans had first inhabited the region, and Natives and early settlers found that anything they threw into the hole would vanish into the yawning void without ever issuing any sound of actually hitting a bottom of any kind. The Native people of the area apparently stayed well away from the cursed hole, and claimed that animals would not go near it. Waters himself said he began to use the bizarre hole as a sort of garbage dump, and after never hearing a sound of even the heaviest objects connecting and no sign of the hole filling up, he became increasingly obsessed with the idea that it may in fact be bottomless.
To test his odd theory Waters told Bell that he had concocted an experiment in the summer of 1996, wherein he would rig a fishing line over the hole with a one-pound weight attached and lower it until it hit the bottom to see how deep it really was. This would apparently turn out to be easier said than done, as he claimed to have used spool after spool of line without ever reaching the bottom, and he estimated that it had to be at least a staggering, physics-defying 80,000 feet deep. Waters also discovered at this time the unsettling fact that shouting down into the hole produced no echo, and radios brought near it would sometimes pick up strange things such as unidentified voices and old-fashioned music from another era materializing from out of the ether. Mel’s dogs were also apparently absolutely terrified of the hole, absolutely refusing to go anywhere near it. This is already quite weird enough as it is, but what would come to be known as “Mel’s Hole” would prove to be even stranger still. Waters claimed in one of his interviews that a local man had once thrown his recently deceased dog down into the hole and that it had come back to him from the dead, of which he would say:
One guy claims he threw his departed canine down into the hole… and the guy that did it swears the dog actually came back to him… he was a hunter and he was out there hunting and he saw the same dog, he had the same collar, he had the same little metal thing on his collar there and he said it was the same dog and he says he knew he had thrown the dog into the hole!
The initial interview with Bell created a sensation that propelled the story of Mel’s Hole firmly into the pantheon of great unexplained paranormal phenomena, and pretty soon it was being excitedly discussed and debated all over the place. Waters would end up having more interviews with Bell over the years, during which it came out that he had been experiencing some unusual activity since his story had been made public. In one incident he was allegedly heading out to the hole to perform another experiment when he was warned away approaching by some official looking gentlemen who told him that the area had been closed off due to a plane crash. Waters claimed that at the time he had noticed some personnel nearby who appeared to have been wearing some sort of biocontainment suits. When Waters demanded to be let in, he was apparently told in no uncertain terms that he would face serious repercussions if he should try and do so. The government then apparently leased the land from him and paid to have him relocated to Australia, all while denying that anything had happened at all.
Waters would go on in a later interview to claim that he had spent two years in Australia before heading back to the United States despite alleged warnings against doing this. After arriving he said that he had been removed from a bus headed for Washington by police and dumped 2 weeks later onto the streets of San Francisco with IV needle marks on his arm, some of his teeth missing, and no memory of what had happened to him. He still managed to make it back to his hometown, where he had then been menaced by mysterious strangers dressed in black and had seemingly been under constant surveillance. As to his land, he was told that it had been taken under control of the government, and oddly enough it seemed to have been erased from an early mapping system called TerraServer, a sort of early version of Google Earth.
All of this talk of government conspiracies reinvigorated interest in the mysterious Mel’s Hole, and this isn’t even the end of the bizarre odyssey of Mel Waters, as he would claim to go on to find a second mysterious hole, this time in the badlands of Nevada that was by his account every bit as strange, if not more so, than the first one. This particular hole was of similar dimensions to the first, only instead of a brick lining possessed what looked like some sort of metal ring around the entrance that extended all the way down into the gloom. Like the first hole, anything dropped into it seemed to simply cease to exist, never hitting the bottom. With the help of local Natives, Waters claimed that he had then decided to continue his experimentation, and this is where things would get outlandish rather quickly.
In one experiment Waters would claim that a bucket of ice had been lowered into the hole down to a depth of around 1,500 feet, after which it had been brought up to find that the ice was warm to the touch, yet not had not melted. What’s more, the ice seemed to have changed into a type of flammable substance. Perplexed, Waters moved on to a live test subject, this time having a sheep lowered down into the hole inside a wooden crate. It was apparently quite a time trying to get the animal anywhere near the hole, as it was overcome with a profound panic, but what is really strange is what supposedly happened next.
As with the ice, the sheep was lowered down to 1,500 feet, shrieking, screaming, bucking and kicking the whole way until it abruptly went silent. At this point the metallic surface of the pit was said to have begun to hum and vibrate ominously, and after fleeing the scene for some time Waters and his crew were finally able to hoist the sheep back up, after which it was found to have been gruesomely cooked on the inside by some unknown force. In addition, an anomalous tumor was purportedly found on the sheep, which seemed to be moving and which they went and cut open to see what was going on. It was a decision they would soon regret.
As soon as the tumor had been cut open, something quite horrifying was regurgitated forth from the sheep’s carcass, which was described as looking like a “fetal seal,” which stared at them for some time with intelligent, human-like eyes before jumping into the murky depths of the hole. Waters and company, shocked and disgusted by what they had seen wasted no time in tossing the dead sheep in after it to sail down through that bottomless abyss. To make this all the more surreal, Waters would credit the creature with curing a cancer he had had, and even claimed that it would regularly visit the local sheep herders after that, who described it as being a benevolent presence. After this incident there were also seen various brightly colored birds loitering about the hole that were supposedly impervious to bullets, and a few instances of what Waters called a black beam emanating from the hole, which he described as looking like “if you had a flashlight, and it was capable of throwing up a solid black.”
The whole tale is just about as far-out and absurd as it could be, yet it captured the imagination and continued to be hotly talked about, with numerous sites devoted to dissecting the case of Mel’s Holes and countless believers in the tale trying to deduce the locations to no avail. Since Waters had never given away the exact location of either hole they remained a cipher, and considering that his last interview with Bell was in 2002 there was no other forthcoming information on the holes and their myriad anomalies and phenomena. Then, in 2008 the tale was reignited when a man claiming to be a tribal medicine man named Gerald R. Osborne, or also his tribal name “Red Elk,” came forward to claim that not only was Mel’s story true, but that he had seen the one in Washington himself on several occasions and that it was every bit as odd as Waters had described. Red Elk would go on to speculate that it was the entrance to some sort of underground UFO base, and would even claim that he had once seen a UFO hovering over the pit.
Others have come forward since who have claimed to have been to one Mel’s Hole or the other, but no one has ever given any proof or made the supposed locations of the holes public, which means that these claims have only added to the mystique and mythology of the tale. The mystery of Mel Waters and his holes has never really faded, and is still discussed as much as it ever was. Considering that no one seems to have ever really had any idea of where either hole could be, and that there is no evidence that Mel Waters was ever even a real person at all, combined with the sheer bizarreness of it all, it is a distinct possibility that this was all an elaborate hoax that got out of hand to propel itself into urban legend. However, there are still plenty of people who believe Waters was telling the truth. Until the holes are found, it seems it will continue to be one of those stories that is impossible to prove or disprove, and will likely linger in the lore of great paranormal mysteries.
Although Mel’s Holes are by far the most well-known, they are not the first, and indeed tales of mysterious pits in the earth have been around for a while. In ancient Rome and Greece tales of sinister bottomless holes with supernatural qualities were all the rage, and were well-witnessed by scores of people. Often there would be actual temples, shrines, and even amphitheaters erected at these “Gates of Hell,” and in many cases animals would be dropped down towards these fissures to suddenly drop dead as if by some evil force. These areas, such as one in Turkey’s ancient city of Hierapolis, would often be considered the realms of the gods of the underworld, and to the people of the time it was all seen as a decidedly supernatural event.
It has in recent years been found that these places were constructed over cracks in the earth that seem to vent high concentrations of CO2 gas, which would form a sort of CO2 lake, and that this could have been the reason that these animal sacrifices were snuffed out so quickly. In these cases, the priests and observers are speculated to have been situated high enough to have escaped the lethal effects of the gas, and it all would have seemed like a very mysterious occurrence, with the power of the underworld belching out from beneath the ground. It is an interesting instance of science managing to come close to an understanding of some of these mysterious holes.
Another one of the older and more infamous paranormal holes can be found in the Czech Republic. Constructed between 1253 and 1278, the majestic Houska Castle is said to have been built specifically to cover a hole which led straight to Hell, said to have spontaneously formed in a limestone cliff and to be a bottomless pit full of tormented souls, which would vomit forth all manner of horrific creatures birthed from the underworld.These demonic monstrosities were said to emerge from the hole to fan out across the countryside at night, terrorizing local villages to the point that people were afraid to leave their homes after sunset, and certainly would not go anywhere near the hole even in daylight. Such was the ominous reputation of the hole that prisoners were sometimes thrown into the pit as punishment, with the caveat that they would be released if they could climb back out. Not many did, and even when they did there were strange tales surrounding their reemergence. In one story, a prisoner who had been thrown into the hole began screaming with such abject terror that he was hoisted back out to find that he had aged 30 years within moments.
The persistent tales of marauding demons and dark forces at work within the malevolent hole, as well as the growing panic of villagers in the area, is said to have prompted construction of Houska Castle in an effort to block the gateway. There are many odd details about the castle that lend weight to this theory. Although the castle has a large number of windows, very few of them are actually real, and most of them have thick walls directly behind the glass. There is also the odd fact that the castle had no water source, was not near any trading routes, and remained without occupants for years. The frescoes and artwork found within the castle also point to its true purpose, such as pagan imagery denoting demonic creatures, not common in most castles of the time, as well as various depictions of St. Michael fighting dragons and images which have hints and leanings of a Satanic undertone. It is said that the purported demonic powers of the castle were the reason why Nazis chose it as a base of operations during World War II, and that they carried out secret experiments trying to harness its enigmatic power.
If Houska Castle was indeed built to cover up a pit to Hell, then it seems it was only partially successful because strange stories have continued to emanate from the location to this day. Visitors to the lower floors have long claimed that at times there can be heard the sound of what seems to be claws or talons scrabbling and clawing at the floor underneath, as if something is trying to break free from underground. There are also reports from the chapel on the premises, which is said to be built directly over the hole itself, of a “chorus of screams” that allegedly pours forth from the bowels of the earth below. There are also numerous reports of a wide variety of strange apparitions roaming the cold, stone halls and corridors of the castle. One such apparition is said to be a headless corpse that lurks within the courtyard spewing blood, and there are also featureless shadow people, winged creatures like warped, giant bats, and even a bizarre entity said to look like a combination of human, frog, and a bulldog. Adding to all of the other weirdness are reports of levitating objects, numerous inexplicable thumps or bangs, visitors being tapped, pushed, or even hit, and roaming cold spots, all of which have made Houska Castle a popular destination for paranormal investigators.
Houska Castle
One curious case of a strange, possibly demonic portal in the earth of some sort allegedly occurred in 1947 at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Yealmpton, South Devon, England. At the time a Reverend Alfred Byles was serving as the Vicar of the church, and he would say that one day he had been walking about in the churchyard when he noticed a gaping pit planted right in the middle of the pathway that led up to the church proper. He claimed that he entered the church for just a moment to fetch his wife to take a look, and when he came out again it had inexplicably grown in size. Peering into it, they could see no bottom to the hole, and a rock thrown in hit some kind of stonework on the side that looked like a manmade wall.
Byles said that he had gone into town to find something to cover the hole with, as it seemed to be an unsafe thing to have there on the church pathway, and while he was looking around he invited a local builder to come with them to see it for himself. However, when they arrived the hole was apparently gone, with no scar in the earth, the grass all back to where it was, and no sign whatsoever that a yawning maw in the earth with walls within it had ever been there at all. Byles would write of the incident decades later in a letter to the magazine Reports and Transaction of the Devonshire Association in 1975, and the odd tale attracted the interest of the TV show Arthur C. Clarke’s World of Strange Powers, which interviewed him on the phenomenon in 1985. If this strange hole really did exist, then what was it and where did it go? It remains a mystery.
In later years there have been other stories of strange holes in the earth as well. In 1984 something very strange happened near Grand Coulee Dam, in Eastern Washington state, in the United States. Here in a secluded wheat field operated by a Fred Timm and his sons was found a huge chunk of earth measuring 10 feet long and 7 feet wide and weighing several tons that had been cleanly removed from the ground and placed right-side up 73 feet away to leave a circular hole with smooth vertical walls and an almost perfectly flat bottom behind. It looked almost as if it had been removed with some enormous cookie-cutter. The chunk of earth appeared to be completely intact, and there was also found a trail of dirt that had apparently dribbled from the main slab as it had travelled to its displaced location.
Scientists were baffled as to what had caused the sudden appearance of this hole, as it was so well-formed and the chunk that had been removed so intact. Although there had been a minor earthquake in the region just before the discovery, the temblor was a mere 3.0 on the Richter Scale, and it was deemed impossible by geologists that this could have moved that piece of earth and formed that bizarre hole. It was also suggested that a meteorite could have somehow caused it, but the “cookie-cutter” nature of the hole and the lack of any signs of impact made this unlikely.
It also seemed that the roots of the plants seemed to have been torn rather than cut, suggesting that the enormous block had been lifted by some force. Then it had been moved over the ground, not along it, so that it seemed as if some sort of machinery would have been needed to do this, yet there was no sign of anything large enough to have accomplished this. No one has been able to figure out how this could have happened, but some have theorized that it might have been the doing of some as-yet unidentified geological phenomenon had caused some sort of waves that could have ejected the block of soil. Explosions, rogue tornadoes, helicopters coming in to lift the piece out, all explanations were deemed insufficient to explain what had happened, and scientists are still not sure what to make of it all.
Of course, with something this inexplicable and bizarre UFOs have absolutely come into the mix, and it turns out that the area had actually experienced some sightings of strange things in the sky in the days surrounding the odd discovery. Other reports of this “cookie cutter phenomenon” have been recorded in various areas around the world since, but in the end there has been no rational explanation.
One very recent mysterious “pit to Hell” that has generated quite a lot of debate in recent years is the so-called “Well to Hell,” of the cold expanses of Siberia, in Russia. The story goes that a crew of Russian engineers and geologists were drilling an ambitiously deep borehole in the desolate wilds of Siberia, which penetrated up to 14.4 kilometers deep (about 9 miles) into the earth when it broke through some unseen cavern deep down below to reveal something extremely bizarre. When temperature readings were taken from the borehole they revealed an astonishingly scorching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (around 1,100 degrees Celsius) near the bottom, but even stranger still was what they purportedly picked up when they lowered a sensitive, heat resistant microphone designed to hear the sounds of plate movement down into the murk.
Supposedly, the microphone picked up what sounded like a sea of human wails and screams from thousands, perhaps millions of souls, seemingly out of incredibly pain and suffering before it was extinguished by the relentless heat, leading the scientists to believe that they had bored down into a literal passage to Hell itself. The director of the survey, known only as a Dr. Azzacov, apparently told media at the time: “The information we are gathering is so surprising, that we are sincerely afraid of what we might find down there.” Additionally, later reports claimed that there was “fountainhead of luminous gas shooting up from the drill site, and out of the midst of this incandescent cloud pillar.” It was then said that over half of the team quit out of a profound fear of what they had uncovered, and that the team had come to the conclusion that the earth was hollow and that something decidedly malignant dwelled within.
The whole chilling incident was apparently first featured on the the Christian-based Trinity Broadcasting Network in Southern California in 1989, after which it appeared in the Finnish newsletter Ammennusastia in 1990, after which it then went on to take on a life of its own, appearing on Internet sites and in tabloids all over the place. The bizarre story eventually ending up featured on an episode of famed paranormal radio show Coast to Coast AM in 2002. On this particular show, host Art Bell produced a recording of the sounds recorded within the pit, which are indeed quite disturbing, but could be anything.
It seems like an incredibly fantastical story and no doubt it likely is. It is thought that the whole story of the “Well to Hell” had its origins at least partially in fact, with a 1984 article in Scientific American which told of a team of geologists had drilled an extremely deep borehole 12 kilometers down in Russia’s Kola Peninsula, one of the deepest ever recorded and definitely not in Siberia. Although impressive and some interesting discoveries were indeed made, there was no report at all from this team of anything supernatural going on, and certainly no word of the mass screaming of condemned souls languishing in Hell. It seems that this story was picked up and then further tweaked and exaggerated until it took off onto the Internet and picked up more and more embellishment as time went on, feeding and gorging itself on unverified rumors, hearsay, and uncorroborated “facts.”
It does not help that one of the original purveyors of the story was a Christian broadcasting network who would obviously have a vested interest in somehow proving that a literal Hell exists, and the various recordings allegedly taken within the borehole are inconclusive at best. They could be anything. The story also has various versions that have evolved over the years, including one story in that righteous last bastion of journalism Weekly World News, which reported the event as having happened in 1992, only this time in Alaska and ending in the deaths of 13 expeditions members when Satan himself emerged to ravage them. Nevertheless, despite all of the signs pointing to the Well of Hell story as being an out of control hoax, there are many out there who still argue that the whole incident indeed happened, and is merely being covered up and made to seem like a hoax by those who do not want us to know that Hell actually exists.
These stories truly run the gamut between the mysterious and the far reaches of the bizarre, and in many cases we are left with very little evidence as to how true any of the tales are. Even if they are real we are left to wonder just what is going on with these various holes, pits, and fissures and their wellsprings of weirdness. Are these portals of some sort, doorways to other dimensions? Are they entrances to other realms or even Hell itself? Is it aliens? We have very few answers to these subterranean mysteries and they remain in the realm of speculations and the imagination, enigmatic entrances into the earth and perhaps into unknown domains past out understanding as well.
Sometimes, it’s just better not to know what goes on above our heads. Our planet is constantly bombarded with rocks and objects hurtling through our solar system, but luckily, most of these are so small they explode upon colliding with our atmosphere and fall to the ground in the form of mostly harmless pebbles – or even microscopic diamonds. Occasionally, though (geologically speaking), large asteroids make it through our atmosphere with the potential to cause real damage. Aside from collisions in distant epochs which killed off many of our predecessors like the dinosaurs, there have been a few recent incidents of some truly terrifying asteroid collisions.
In 2014, a 20-meter-wide meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, injuring over 1,000 people and causing widespread property damage.
One of the most terrifying examples is the infamous Tunguska Incident which occurred over Siberia on June 30, 1908. While the event is still mostly shrouded in mystery, one thing is clear: something very big exploded in the air above the Siberian wilderness, producing energy 1,000 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan and flattening more than 80 million trees over an area of 2,150 square kilometers (830 square miles). “Sure,” you say, “that’s pretty scary. But that was over 100 years ago and in the middle of nowhere.” That it might have been, but the comet thought to have been responsible for the Tunguska meteorite returns every 3 years. Even scarier? An asteroid similar in size to the one which exploded over Tunguska narrowly missed Earth just this week. Even even scarier? It went largely undetected until it whizzed right by us.
Trees flattened in the aftermath of the 1908 Tunguska event, revealing a rough blast pattern with the direction they fell.
The asteroid, known as 2018 GE3, zoomed past our fragile planet on Sunday April 15 around 2:41 a.m. EDT (0641 GMT), missing us by a distance of just 192,000 kilometers (119,400 miles). That’s only half the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The asteroid is thought to measure somewhere between 48 to 110 meters in diameter (157 to 360 feet), making it even larger than the Tunguska asteroid. The worst part? It was detected only 21 hours before its closest approach to Earth.
NASA tracks tens of thousands of similar near-Earth objects. We’re basically sitting ducks.
With every near-miss asteroid that zooms by, it’s becoming clear: it’s not a matter of if, but when. How well-stocked is your bunker? And remember: keep one bullet per person hidden away just in case. Some things aren’t worth living through.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.