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...
27-04-2018
China To Build A ‘Lunar Palace’ Powered By The Sun
China To Build A ‘Lunar Palace’ Powered By The Sun
China plans to build a manned 'lunar palace' that will probe the moon for resources and act as a launchpad for missions to Mars (artist's impression)
China plans to build a scientific outpost on the moon’s surface, and they’re about to it with absolute class.
The Apollo 11 mission was the first manned mission to land on the moon, and this historical event took place on July 20, 1969.
In fact, there have been six manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972. All of that was half a decade ago. To date, the United States is the only country in the world to have successfully conducted manned missions to the Moon, with the last departing the lunar surface in December 1972.
If we had the means and technology to travel to the moon, land astronauts on its surface, and bring them safely back home fifty years ago, why have we not returned to the moon’s surface?
While both Russia and the US don’t seem too interested in the moon, China, a country that has made incredible advancements in spaceflight in recent years is eager to travel to the moon.
However, the Chinese not only want to put a man on the moon, but they also want to construct a lunar outpost as well.
Members of the Chinese space industry announced on April 24 that Beijing plans to build a manned research station on the moon, reports China Daily.
“We believe that the Chinese nation’s dream of residing in a ‘lunar palace’ will soon become a reality,” the administration said in the video.
The Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) presented a videoin Harbin (Heilongjiang, China) in which it showed different achievements and explained its initiative to build and operate that facility on the surface of the moon.
The outpost is expected to have multiple tube-shaped cabins (pictured) that link up and provide oxygen to people inside, according to a video seen by Chinese media
That lunar station would have multiple ‘space cabins’ interconnected by tubes that would provide oxygen to its occupants and basically work relying on solar energy.
Wang Liheng, a senior space scientist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, told China Daily it has become the consensus among Chinese space researchers that a manned lunar station is necessary so scientists can deepen their lunar research and explore ways for the exploitation of lunar resources.
“The first step, our researchers suggest, will be sending our astronauts to the moon to perform short-term explorations,” said Wang, referring to a manned lunar program, which has been called for by Chinese scientists for a long time.
Although the CNSA did not reveal a timetable build their so-called ‘lunar palace,’ reports added that the Chinese Space agency intends to explore the two lunar poles.
This is the first time that China has declared in public that it plans to build a habitable lunar outpost.
“The mission will enable us to discover what we haven’t known about the moon. Moreover, we can take advantage of the far side’s shield against Earth’s interference to make clearer observation into the deep space,” added Wang.
But since these Chinese don’t want to stop with going to the moon, it is reported that in the long term, the Chinese lunar outpost could serve as a launch pad to travel to Mars.
So, while other parts of the world are busy trying to figure out the war in the middle east, Asian countries are working towards the future, creating kick-ass projects that will benefit humanity in the long term.
Vergroot kunstmatige intelligentie de kans op een kernoorlog?
Vergroot kunstmatige intelligentie de kans op een kernoorlog?
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Sommige deskundigen vrezen van wel.
Dat blijkt uit een nieuw rapport van het RAND Center for Global Risk and Security. Het rapport is gebaseerd op een serie workshops waarbij wetenschappers, beleidsmakers en andere deskundigen zich bogen over de vraag: ‘Hoe kan kunstmatige intelligentie tegen 2040 van invloed zijn op de kans op een kernoorlog?’.
Misschien denk je in eerste instantie dat kernwapens en KI weinig met elkaar te maken hebben. Maar dat is niet zo. “De connectie tussen kernoorlog en kunstmatige intelligentie is niet nieuw, sterker nog: de histories van de twee zijn met elkaar verweven,” vertelt onderzoeker Edward Geist. Hij vertelt dat KI in een pril stadium ontwikkeld werd omwille van militaire doeleinden. Een mooi voorbeeld daarvan is een experiment uit de jaren tachtig, waarbij KI werd ingezet om op basis van data die tijdens verkennende missies waren verzameld verschillende plaatsen aan te wijzen die tijdens een eventuele kernoorlog konden worden aangevallen.
Mutual Assured Destruction Uit de workshops blijkt dat het eigenlijk twee kanten op gaan. Sommige onderzoekers denken bijvoorbeeld dat kunstmatige intelligentie een bedreiging vormt voor de nucleaire stabiliteit. Die stabiliteit is op dit moment gebaseerd op de militaire strategie MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction, oftewel gegarandeerde wederzijdse vernietiging). Deze strategie stelt dat landen met kernwapens deze niet tegen elkaar zullen inzetten, omdat het niet alleen resulteert in de vernietiging van het aangevallen land, maar ook in de vernietiging van de aanvaller (aangezien het aangevallen land ongetwijfeld met kernwapens terugslaat). Volgens sommige onderzoekers zou kunstmatige intelligentie deze militaire strategie de komende decennia kunnen ondermijnen. En wel doordat kunstmatige intelligentie in staat is om de wapensystemen van de tegenstander nauwkeuriger dan ooit te lokaliseren en aan te vallen. In zo’n scenario kan de aanvaller die wapensystemen uitschakelen, waarna het aangevallen land niet meer terug kan slaan, MAD dus geen rol meer speelt en het gemakkelijker wordt om naar de kernwapens te grijpen.
Wapenwedloop En zelfs als landen niet de intentie hebben om de kernwapensystemen van andere landen uit te schakelen, kan de gedachte dat zij daar dankzij KI wel toe in staat zijn, al voldoende zijn om tot een kernoorlog of in ieder geval een wapenwedloop te leiden. Stel je voor dat land A laat doorschemeren dat het precies weet waar de kernwapens van land B liggen. Dan zal land B zich kwetsbaar voelen; in zekere zin zijn haar kernwapens – die toch vooral moeten afschrikken – nutteloos geworden, omdat land A ze elk moment weg kan nemen. Land B zal dan ook op zoek gaan naar nieuwe manieren om zich tegen land A te beschermen en die Mutual Assured Destruction-strategie in ere te herstellen.
Stabiliserende werking Andere onderzoekers stellen dat KI de wereld echter ook veiliger kan maken. Bijvoorbeeld doordat de systemen beter in staat zijn om tegenstanders te monitoren en hun verrichtingen te interpreteren. Dat zou de kans op onterechte escalatie verkleinen. Ook is het mogelijk dat toekomstige kunstmatige intelligente systemen minder foutgevoelig zijn dan wij mensen, met onze eigen belangen en emoties. In die zin zouden de systemen op lange termijn dus ook stabiliserend kunnen werken.
Of dat in 2040 echter al gaat gebeuren? Daar zijn de meeste deskundigen niet van overtuigd. Zij stellen dat de technologie tegen die tijd waarschijnlijk nog niet is uitgekristalliseerd. Zo kan deze pas in combinatie met kernwapens worden ingezet als deze onmogelijk te hacken is. En zover zijn we nog niet. Het is dan ook te hopen dat kernwapenlanden – in een poging anderen te slim af te zijn en als eersten de vruchten van KI te plukken – niet vroegtijding naar de kunstmatig intelligente systemen grijpen, aldus de deskundigen.
Op de voorgrond zien we het oppervlak van Rosetta. Maar wat vooral opvalt, is natuurlijk de ‘sneeuw’ die op komeet 67P/C-G lijkt te vallen.
landru79@landru79
#ROSETTA OSIRIS #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO new albums --ROSETTA EXTENSION 2 MTP030-- Miércoles 1 Junio 2016 all filters stacked pic.twitter.com/Bf173Z5g79
Natuurlijk is het geen echte sneeuw, zo laat Mark McCaughrean – werkzaam bij de Europese ruimtevaartorganisatie – weten. “Mijn eerste gok is dat het door de zon verlicht stof is dat zich vrij dicht bij het ruimtevaartuig bevindt en terwijl het (ruimtevaartuig, red.) zich door het stof beweegt, ontstaat de illusie dat er kilometers ver weg, op de achtergrond, sneeuw valt op komeet 67P. Heel cool wel.”
Maar hoe zit het dan met de ‘sneeuw’ die achter de klif lijkt te verdwijnen? Ook dat is slechts een illusie: het zijn talloze sterren die op de achtergrond staan! De beelden hieronder laten dat heel fraai zien. Het gifje is hier enigszins aangepast, zodat je ziet dat niet de sterren op de achtergrond, maar de komeet zelf in beweging is.
landru79@landru79
Si apilamos todo el set alineando con las estrellas de fondo se distingue mejor que son estrellas y q es polvo (olvidaos de rayos cósmicos ) #ROSETTA OSIRIS #67P/CHURYUMOV-GERASIMENKO new albums --ROSETTA EXTENSION 2 MTP030-- Miércoles 1 Junio 2016 all filters stacked
Ruimtesonde Rosetta werd in 2004 gelanceerd en arriveerde in 2014 bij komeet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Een paar maanden later bonjourde de ruimtesonde een lander naar de komeet. Maar dat ging helaas niet helemaal goed; de lander stuiterde over het oppervlak en belandde in de schaduw van een klif, waar deze onvoldoende zonne-energie kon opwekken. De lander was dan ook maar kort actief. Rosetta bleef komeet 67P ondertussen bestuderen en was er van dichtbij getuige van hoe de komeet – naarmate deze de zon naderde – steeds actiever werd. De missie leverde een schat aan informatie op. In september 2016 kwam Rosetta’s missie ten einde toen de lander opdracht kreeg om zichzelf op komeet 67P te parkeren.
Bronmateriaal:
Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Ruimtetelescoop Gaia onthult positie en bewegingen van meer dan 1 miljard sterren
Ruimtetelescoop Gaia onthult positie en bewegingen van meer dan 1 miljard sterren
Caroline Kraaijvanger
De nieuwe dataset zal naar verwachting tot talloze nieuwe ontdekkingen leiden.
Ruimtetelescoop Gaia werd in 2013 gelanceerd. De telescoop had een duidelijk doel voor ogen: de positie, afstand en bewegingen van meer dan 1 miljard sterren vastleggen. In 2016 kwamen onderzoekers met de eerste dataset op de proppen. Deze bevatte de afstanden en bewegingen van twee miljoen sterren. Vandaag is een nieuwe dataset vrijgegeven. De nieuwe dataset onthult de 3D-posities, 2D-bewegingen, de helderheid en kleur van meer dan 1,3 miljard sterren. En de metingen zijn heel nauwkeurig; Gaia is zo gevoelig dat de telescoop zelfs de groei van een mensenhaar op de maan zou kunnen meten!
Links de eerste dataset van Gaia in beeld. Rechts de dataset die nu is vrijgegeven. Tijdens het filmpje reizen we als het ware van de zon vandaan, tussen de sterren.
Filmpje: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.
Dwergsterrenstelsels Inmiddels is de door Gaia verzamelde data al kort geanalyseerd. De resultaten zijn vandaag verschenen in zes verschillende wetenschappelijke papers. Amina Helmi, verbonden aan het Kapteyn Instituut Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, was één van de onderzoekers die als eersten een blik op de nieuwe dataset mochten werpen. En dat was voldoende om onder meer een 20 jaar oude vraag te kunnen beantwoorden: bewegen de dwergsterrenstelsels rond de Melkweg in hetzelfde vlak? De zeer nauwkeurige data onthulde dat de dwergsterrenstelsels rond de Melkweg wel allemaal een sterk gehelde baan te hebben, maar niet in hetzelfde vlak bewegen, hoewel sommige zich in groepjes lijken op te houden. “Het is ongelofelijk wat de Gaia-data nu al, in deze eerste en relatief snelle en oppervlakkige analyse aan nieuwe kennis en inzichten hebben opgeleverd,” aldus Helmi. “Zelfs op één van de plaatjes die we voor de pers hebben gemaakt, zag ik ineens een volstrekt nieuw detail dat we niet wisten, namelijk dat sommige bolvormige sterrenhopen rond de Melkweg in groepjes bewegen.”
Nieuwe ontdekkingen En dat is nog maar het begin, zo weet Anthony Brown, voorzitter van het consortium dat de datacenters van Gaia bestuurt. “Astronomen kunnen met ons archief nieuwe wetenschap gaan doen, dingen ontdekken waar we nu nog niets van weten. Dat is het revolutionaire aan deze ontdekkingsmachine. Ik verwacht dat astronomen gaan spreken over de periode vóór en ná deze tweede datarelease.”
Planetoïden Gaia heeft de blik overigens niet alleen op objecten buiten ons zonnestelsel gericht. Ook binnen het zonnestelsel werd onderzoek gedaan met de ruimtetelescoop. Zo onthult de nieuwe dataset de posities van meer dan 14.000 bekende planetoïden (zie filmpje hieronder). Op basis van die informatie kan hun baan weer nauwkeurig worden vastgesteld.
Filmpje: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.
“Gaia zal ons begrip van het universum op alle kosmische schalen vergroten,” stelt onderzoeker Timo Prusti. “Zelfs in de nabijheid van de zon, de regio waarvan we dachten dat we deze het beste begrepen, onthult Gaia nieuwe en opwindende eigenschappen.”
Ondertussen gaat Gaia vrolijk verder: de komende jaren zullen er nog herhaaldelijk nieuwe datasets gepresenteerd worden. “Gaia is astronomie op zijn best,” aldus missiemanager Fred Jansen. “Wetenschappers zullen vele jaren druk zijn met deze data en we zijn er klaar voor om verrast te worden door de stortvloed aan ontdekkingen die de geheimen van ons universum zullen onthullen.”
While the swirling winds of hurricanes down here on Earth are terrifying in their own right, they don’t have anything on the most terrifying storm in the solar system. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot might look like a cross between a hipster latte and a Jelly Belly from afar, but up close in personal this crimson tempest could literally tear the skin from bone.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft did humans a favor and got closer to the cosmic Eye of Sauron than any of us would ever care to. This color-enhanced image fuses together three separate photos of the planet that were taken on April 1 as Juno was roughly 23,000 miles (37,015 kilometers) from its cloud tops. Citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran then processed the image using data from the JunoCam imager to give us a better look at the cyclone’s howling winds of death.
Super Typhoon Tip was one of the most massive storms to be recorded on Earth. It spanned approximately the distance between New York City to Dallas and whipped up wind gusts reaching 190 miles per hour (306 kilometers per hour). That’s all child’s play compared to the Great Red Spot that was once recorded to be about two to three times larger than Earth and capable of creating 400 miles per hour winds.
Studies have shown that Jupiter’s upper atmosphere consists of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide, and water. Two of which are highly toxic to humans and can cause burning of the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract and can result in blindness, lung damage, or death. Imagine that being thrown in your face at half the speed of sound.
Luckily Juno can surf atop of the literal hellscape that is Jupiter to give astronomers hints of what lies beneath the planet’s dense clouds of noxious gas. Currently the Juno mission is funded through July 2018 for a total of 12 orbits of the gas giant. After that NASA can decide to extend its mission or let it drift off into Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Until then, we still have a couple of months of some eye-popping visuals of Jupiter’s absolutely deadly, but oh-so breathtaking squall. More proof that space is out to kill us all.
A YouTube channel ' mavi 777' has shared a bizarre video featuring a triangular UFO hovering across the skies of California. The unidentified flying object has lights on each tip of its three-sided body, as well as one at the back side that flashed often.
"I stopped on the freeway because there was a metal triangle in the sky. Can anyone explain this? It's not drones if you zoom in you can see it's a UFO," said the witness, Daily Star reports.
As the video went viral on the Internet, conspiracy theorists soon jumped to the conclusion that the object featured in the video is nothing other than TR-3B, the confidential anti-gravity military vessel developed by the US Air Force in Area 51.
Even though rumours surrounding TR-3B have been heard since the Gulf War, the US Air Force has never acknowledged the existence of such a military spacecraft. However, there have been many reported sightings of triangular spacecraft in the US and UK for the past few years, and the mysteries surrounding these incidents were never solved.
"They wanted to be viewed for all to see, the FAA flashing light was there for all to view. Are they getting ready to let this MIL aircraft be public knowledge," commented Forestsoft, a YouTube user.
According to conspiracy theorists, if the object captured in the video is not TR-3B, then it will be an alien UFO which came from outer space. A section of conspiracy theorists strongly believes that aliens are watching the activities of humans regularly, and they are even preparing for a disclosure.
"They fly them out of the base at Palmdale. Used to see them all the time in the 90s when I lived in Los Angeles. This is nothing new it's been around for nearly 30 years. It's an alien reproduction vehicle," posted Mary Smith, a YouTube user.
WATER MIGHT BE THE WEIRDEST LIQUID IN THE UNIVERSE, AND NOW WE KNOW WHY
WATER MIGHT BE THE WEIRDEST LIQUID IN THE UNIVERSE, AND NOW WE KNOW WHY
Water might seem ubiquitous and ordinary; it covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, not to mention being the primary fluid in most living organisms. But when you step back and look at water from the point of view of physics and chemistry, it’s truly an oddball molecule.
For one, water has a highly unusual density. Most liquids become more dense as they cool down, but after water cools past 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit, it defies this general rule and instead becomes less dense. By the time it freezes solid, the resultant ice actually floats on liquid water. Again, because water is so ubiquitous, you might not find this property weird, but solids are generally supposed to be denser than their liquid forms. Not so with water.
That’s not all. Water also has an unusually high boiling point, and an absurdly high surface tension to boot. Oh, and there’s also the property that makes water such a valuable substance for life: so many chemical substances dissolve in it that it’s often referred to as a “universal solvent.”
You’d think that with water’s importance, we’d have figured out why its properties are so uncanny. But the properties of water have actually remained largely unexplained. That is, until now.
Researchers from the University of Bristol and the University of Tokyo recently used a supercomputer to model the structure of how water molecules arrange themselves, and what they found might finally solve the mystery of this magical substance, according to a recent press release.
It turns out that at room temperature and as ice, water has a tetrahedral arrangement of molecules, which is essentially a pyramid shape, and it’s this shape that apparently gives water such amazing abilities. To test this, researchers were able to run computer models that arranged water molecules in other shapes besides the pyramid. What they found was that as soon as the tetrahedral arrangement was broken down, water began behaving more like a normal liquid.
“With this procedure, we have found that what makes water behave anomalously is the presence of a particular arrangement of the water’s molecules, such as the tetrahedral arrangement,” explained lead author John Russo.
He added: “We think this work provides a simple explanation of the anomalies and highlights the exceptional nature of water, which makes it so special compared with any other substance.”
Doomsday AI Could Star Nuclear War By 2040 That Could Wipe Out Humanity Say Experts
Doomsday AI Could Star Nuclear War By 2040 That Could Wipe Out Humanity Say Experts
Artificial intelligence has the potential to upend the foundations of nuclear peace by the year 2040, a leading think tank has warned. 'Doomsday AI' machines could encourage humans to take potentially apocalyptic risks that could lead to a nuclear war and humanity's destruction
Eerie warnings from AI experts suggest that Artificial Intelligence could kick-start a nuclear war by 2040 that could destroy our civilization, and there may be nothing we can do about it.
A recent study by leading security experts believes how advanced in the field of Artificial Intelligence could lead to the creation of Doomsday Machines that could cause nations around the globe to take apocalyptic risks with their nuclear arsenals.
To understand what experts are talking about, let’s take a trip back to the Cold War.
Back then, a condition referred to as the mutually assured destruction (Mad)— a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender kept an uneasy peace between the superpowers.
During the Cold War, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (Mad) maintained an uneasy peace between the superpowers by ensuring that any attack would be met by a devastating retaliation
Both sides possessing weapons of mass destruction had very little initiative to launch such a devastating attack as it would have been responded by an equally devastating retaliation.
However, the cold war is long gone, and we’ve entered a modern militaristic era where advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence no longer guarantees this.
Experts from the Rand Corporation—a nonprofit based organization with headquarters in Santa Monica, California—say that this scenario opens up a number of problems including the possibility of taking out an enemy’s ability to launch a counter-offensive, and there may be very little we can do about it.
The Rand Corporation offers research and analysis to the United States armed forces on global policy issues.
They say that given the numerous advances in the field of artificial intelligence, in the coming decades AI could practically cancel out Mad’s ability to keep nuclear tensions at ease.
The new study explains how futuristic AI agents, together with sensor and open source data could convince countries that their nuclear capabilities are at risk.
The report argues that this may cause countries to take more drastic measures to keep up with leading military countries such as the United States.
Speaking about this issue, Andrew Lohn, a co-author on the paper and associate engineer at Rand said: “Some experts fear that an increased reliance on artificial intelligence can lead to new types of catastrophic mistakes.”
“There may be pressure to use AI before it is technologically mature, or it may be susceptible to adversarial subversion. Therefore, maintaining strategic stability in coming decades may prove extremely difficult, and all nuclear powers must participate in the cultivation of institutions to help limit nuclear risk.”
But there could be an even greater threat lurking in the shadows say experts from the Rand Corporation: Military Commanders could make the wrong decision to launch an attack based on advice from Artificial Intelligence that has been fed erroneous information.
But in addition to the danger of being fed with corrupted information, AI is also at risk from hacking, which in turn opens the possibility that malicious third parties could trigger—just as those villains in Hollywood movies—a global conflict.
ESA Reveals Most Detailed Map Of The Milky Way With 1.7 Billion Stars
ESA Reveals Most Detailed Map Of The Milky Way With 1.7 Billion Stars
The European Space Agency has just produced a stunning map of our home galaxy the Milky Way, featuring around 1.7 billion stars.
The ESA has produced the complete star catalog to date, with high precision measurements of almost 1.7 Billion stars featuring incredible, never-before-seen details of the Milky Way.
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the nearest galaxies to our Milky Way, as viewed by ESA’s Gaia satellite using information from the mission’s second data release.
According to reports, around 450 scientists and software engineers participated in the task of creating the complete star map of our galaxy. And it includes 1.3 billion light sources.
The data was collected by the space agency’s Gaia probe, which launched into space in 2013.
The above GIF shows the orbits of four globular clusters (NGC 104, NGC 288, NGC 362 and NGC 1851), shown in blue, and three dwarf galaxies (Carina, Bootes I and Draco), shown in red, around the Milky Way, as imaged by the Gaia spacecraft.
Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC.
The analysis has revealed details about the Milky Way’s stellar composition, including how stars move, which is important for investigation how our galaxy formed and evolved.
The news is exciting since the European Space Agency—based in Paris—has revealed that professional and amateur astronomers alike will have the opportunity to access the new data and hunt for discoveries in our galaxy.
Gaia is unique, and unlike NASA’s Hubble telescope—which takes images of the sky—Gaia has the ability to measure the distance, motion, brightens and color of the stars in our galaxy.
The newly gathered details will allow astronomers and software engineers to create new maps including asteroids in our solar system, as well as 3D charts of nearby stars.
The Gaia spacecraft gathered observations for this all-sky view of the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies between July 2014 and May 2016, releasing the data on April 25, 2018. This image shows all the stars’ colors and brightness (top), the total density of stars (middle) and the distribution of interstellar gas and dust across the galaxy (bottom).
Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC
An example of the date allows viewers to see the sheer number of celestial objects that have been mapped by the project so far.
The new data gathered by Gaia includes the position, distance and motion of more than one billion stars, as well as high-precision measurements of asteroids in our own star system, and stars well beyond the Milky Way galaxy.
“The observations collected by Gaia are redefining the foundations of astronomy,’ said Günther Hasinger, ESA director of science, in a written statement. Gaia is an ambitious mission that relies on a huge human collaboration to make sense of a large volume of highly complex data. It demonstrates the need for long-term projects to guarantee progress in space science and technology and to implement even more daring scientific missions of the coming decades.”
The data gathered by data comprises a period between July of 2014 and May 23 of 2016. The first release covered one year of observations and was released in 2016 and contained distances and motions of around 2 million stars.
The new release pins down with great accuracy around 1.7 billion stars with unprecedented precision.
To understand how precise the measurements are, for some of the brightest stars in the new survey, the level of precision equals to telescopes on Earth spotting a coin on the surface of the moon.
“The second Gaia data release represents a huge leap forward concerning ESA’s Hipparcos satellite, Gaia’s predecessor and the first space mission for astrometry, which surveyed some 118,000 stars almost thirty years ago,” says Anthony Brown of Leiden University in the Netherlands.
“The sheer number of stars alone, with their positions and motions, would make Gaia’s new catalog already quite astonishing. But there is more. This unique scientific catalog includes many other data types, with information about the properties of the stars and other celestial objects, making this release truly exceptional,” added Brown.
Great Pyramid’s ‘Big Void’ May Be Important Construction Detail And Not New Chamber
Great Pyramid’s ‘Big Void’ May Be Important Construction Detail And Not New Chamber
The Great Pyramid of Giza continues to surprise experts every single day.
The Great Pyramid of Giza is considered the oldest and largest of the three main pyramids at the Giza Plateau and is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and the only one that remains standing today.
Believed to have been built as a tomb over a 10- to 20-year period, the Great Pyramid of Giza is believed to have been completed around 2560 BC.
It was the tallest man-made structure on the surface of the planet for more than 3,800 years and was covered by white limestone that formed a smooth shiny surface.
Everything we know about the great pyramid is based on studies from different scholars that have researchers this ancient wonder of the world since time immemorial.
And while we know a great number of details about the structure, many other facts continue to elude experts.
Last years, the Great Pyramid of Giza made headlines after the ScanPyramids project, using muon tomography detected a massive, never-before-seen void inside the structure, located above the Pyramids So-called Grand Gallery.
It was a huge and exciting discovery, which raised new questions about the interior of the pyramid.
Is this the only secret chamber? Are there more? What was its purpose?
Dubbed by experts as the ‘Big Void’, it was the first chamber of this sort found since the 1800’s, but most importantly, it is considered the first and ONLY chamber of its type.
But is this mysterious area inside the pyramid really a hidden chamber? Or is there perhaps a different explanation?
According to Egyptologist, Dr. David Lightbody this mysterious chamber may not be a chamber after all.
The solid red line shows plane 63.5 degrees to the horizontal, sloping to true north and running from P1 to P2. The inverted red triangle represents the zone covered by the Nagoya muon detection plates near P1. Image Credit
According to Dr. Lightbody, “Geometric calculations illustrated below… indicate that the new features on the scans which were interpreted as produced by a single ‘big’ void viewed from two directions, located 40m out towards the north face of the structure, could in fact have been produced by two smaller void zones closer to the center of the pyramid, one on either side of the Grand Gallery structure. Due to the offsets of the two Nagoya nuclear emulsion detection plates from the center line of the Grand Gallery, which were of a similar magnitude (NE2 – 4 m west, and NE1 – 5.5 m east of the N-S center line), and the inward slope of the sides of the Grand Gallery structure, only one such void zone would be clearly visible on each Nagoya scan.”
“On one side the small voids would be aligned with the detector and would form a zone that was almost a continuous void directed at the plate. On the other hand, the opposing void zone signals would not align with the detector and so the effect of the signals would not be cumulative. In addition, most of them would be hidden behind the signal of the main gallery structure.”
It’s noteworthy to mention that Dr. Lightbody has proposed just another theory and does not directly claim to have disproven the original explanation as to what the mysterious void is.
He offers an alternative view on the original find.
According to Dr. Lightbody, the ‘Big Void’ inside the pyramid revolves around a structural problem intrinsic to the pyramid’s construction.
As noted by the expert, the Grand Gallery slopes upwards at a steep angle, and it’s extremely difficult to cut blocks with two inclined faces while properly securing them in an unfinished structure.
So how could the ancient builders have resolved this issue? One way is to leave ‘voids’ inside the Great Pyramid.
The ancient builders of the Pyramid may have poured either sand or some kind of mortar inside the voids, and this material most likely was not picked up during the Moun tomography, which is why it appears as an empty space.
Dr. Lightbody argues that certain structures inside the Pyramid, like the Great Gallery and the King’s Chamber, may have been designed by the ancient architects as self-supporting structures, created outside the pyramid, before being transported and eventually assembled within the Pyramid.
If this is the case, then we could explain the existence of voids as artifacts of the Pyramids assembly process, and not empty chambers.
Dr. Lightbody concludes that “The Scan Pyramids project must be applauded for their progress so far, and more experimental work of this type is required at Giza. Ultimately, however, the priority should be to understand the structures from the point of view of the ancient Egyptian builders and architects who created them.”
YOU ARE HERE The most precise all-sky map of the Milky Way was released by the Gaia space telescope team on April 25. It shows the total brightness and color of nearly 1.7 billion stars and a few neighboring galaxies (bright spots to the lower right of the main disk).
GAIA/DPAC/ESA
Using the precise position and brightness of almost 1.7 billion stars, the Gaia spacecraft has created the most precise 3-D map of the Milky Way yet.
On April 25, the European Space Agency’s Gaia team released the spacecraft’s second batch of data, gathered from July 2014 to May 2016, used to create the map. The tally includes measurements of half a million quasars — the active black holes at the centers of distant galaxies — and 14,099 known solar system objects (mostly asteroids), observations of other nearby galaxies and the amount of dust in between Earth and 87 million stars (SN: 4/14/18, p. 27).
The spacecraft also measures the distances and motions of stars by taking advantage of Earth’s motion around the sun, a technique called parallax. As Earth moves, stars appear to trace a small ellipse, whose size is related to the stars’ distance. Measuring the wavelengths of light the stars emit tells how fast they are moving toward or away from the sun. Combining Gaia’s measurements with earlier sky surveys let astronomers track stars’ motions.
Gaia launched in 2013, and released its first batch of data in September 2016 (SN: 10/15/16, p. 16). Those data included distances and motions of roughly 2 million stars; the new data up that number to 1.3 billion.
Knowing those distances will allow astronomers to decipher details about the Milky Way’s shape and history. Already the second data release suggests that the galaxy contains two distinct populations of stars that may have different origins. The stars’ chemistry and motions suggest that some could have originated in a different galaxy that the Milky Way cannibalized long ago.
“With Gaia, we can reconstruct the whole history of the Milky Way,” ESA science director Günther Hasinger said in a news conference April 25.
A TOUR OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD Explore this 360-degree map of the Milky Way galaxy, based on measurements taken by the Gaia spacecraft of the brightness and color of nearly 1.7 billion stars. A few neighboring galaxies can also be seen.
Our Milky Way galaxy is known to have a supermassive black hole at its heart. Could more supermassive black holes be lurking unseen at our galaxy’s outskirts?
Nowadays, astronomers think that nearly all large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their cores. Our own Milky Way’s central black hole is called Sgr A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star), and it’s the focus of many fascinating studies. This week (April 24, 2018), astrophysicists announced the results of a new study based not on observations, but on a state-of-the-art cosmological simulation, called Romulus. The simulation showed that galaxies might contain more than one supermassive black hole. In fact, a galaxy with a mass like that of our Milky Way should host several, these scientists said. The extra supermassive black holes might “wander” throughout a galaxy, remaining far from its center. If it’s true, then could our own Milky Way galaxy’s supermassive black hole have an unseen sibling or two?
How did these extra supermassive black holes get into the Milky Way? These scientists – led by Michael Tremmel at Yale – think the sibling black holes, if they exist, indicate mergers between our Milky Way and other galaxies in the early universe. If a smaller galaxy joined ours, it might have deposited its own central supermassive black hole within our galaxy. When the universe was young, this might have happened several times.
The new study was published April 24 in the peer-reviewedAstrophysical Journal. Tremmel was speaking of the computer simulation when he said:
In this study, we’re looking at how supermassive black holes move through their galaxies. If we look at massive galaxies the size of the Milky Way, we find that, on average, these galaxies host several supermassive black holes within them, wandering about the galaxy on scales of several thousand light-years from the center of the galaxy.
So, theoretically, multiple supermassive black holes – wandering supermassive black holes – within galaxies are possible. But no one has yet discovered them. Tremmel said that, in the next several decades, gravitational wave telescopes in space should be able to detect the black hole mergers that would cause galaxies to have more than one supermassive black hole. Perhaps this is a normal part of galaxy evolution.
Could we find one of our Milky Way’s sibling black holes now? Probably not. Tremmel said that, since wandering supermassive black holes are predicted to exist far from the centers of galaxies and outside of galactic disks, they’re unlikely to be accreting more gas. Since it’s the accretion of matter that causes all the observable activity near a black hole, any sibling supermassive black holes for our Milky Way or other galaxies would effectively be invisible. Tremmel said:
We are currently working to better quantify how we might be able to infer their presence indirectly.
If they exist, could unseen supermassive black holes in our Milky Way galaxy somehow affect us? No. Tremmel explained:
It is extremely unlikely that any wandering supermassive black hole will come close enough to our sun to have any impact on our solar system. We estimate that a close approach of one of these wanderers that is able to affect our solar system should occur every 100 billion years or so, or nearly 10 times the age of the universe.
An extremely unlikely encounter indeed!
Simulated view of black holes merging in the early universe, via YaleNews.
Bottom line: Astronomers ran a sophisticated computer simulation called Romulus to learn that galaxies like our Milky Way might contain multiple supermassive black holes. Thus our Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole might have unseen siblings.
Mint's newest coin showcases famous Falcon Lake UFO encounter in Manitoba
Mint's newest coin showcases famous Falcon Lake UFO encounter in Manitoba
Ovoid coin depicts Stefan Michalak's close encounter, glows in the dark
Elisha Dacey · CBC News
The new coin from the Royal Canadian Mint depicts Stefan Michalak after a close encounter in 1967 at Falcon Lake.
(Royal Canadian Mint)
One could be forgiven for describing the mint's newest coin as rather otherworldly.
The Royal Canadian Mint's newest offering features Manitoba's most famous UFO encounter, which happened in 1967 when Stefan Michalak went looking for precious metals near Falcon Lake.
"I was very surprised, frankly. They called me out of the blue and said 'I have this idea,'" said Stefan's son, Stan Michalak.
"It's not every day the mint calls and says, 'Hey, we're going to do a coin.'"
Stefan, whom his son says was a "rock nut," was searching for gold, silver and other precious metals and gems in Whiteshell Provincial Park one May long weekend in 1967. At about noon, two craft appeared in the sky, he said, and one landed about 50 metres away from Stefan on a flat rocky area.
The other craft left, but the first stayed, said Stefan. He observed it from the bush for about half an hour before approaching it.
"In his mind, he reasoned, 'This must be some sort of a military experimental craft. They've landed here by mistake or maybe out of need. Maybe they're in trouble,'" said Stan. "'I'll offer to help them out.'"
When Stefan approached the craft, which he later described as saucer-shaped and made of a stainless steel material, he touched it and the heat melted the fingertips of his heavy gloves. There was an opening he put his head through, said Stan, but he didn't enter.
The craft then expelled a cloud of gas and lifted off, knocking Stefan off his feet, setting his shirt aflame and leaving a distinct pattern of burns on his chest.
There will be only 4,000 of the collectors coins minted.
(Royal Canadian Mint)
The coin shows the moment the craft lifted from the rock, with a figure lying on the ground with a hand in the air, as if to ward something off. In the dark, the craft on the coin glows, as does the gas coming from the ship.
The coin is ovoid and uses more colours than traditionally found in a coin, said Stan.
"They sent me a proof that had their original thought, which was kind of cute," said Stan. "Originally, it was going to have alien eyes on it, so it looked like the shape of an alien head."
Erica Maga, product manager for the coin, said the idea came to the team during their annual research.
"We thought it was such an interesting story that it was one that we had to share with Canadians," said Maga. "Everyone is sort of fascinated by this subject matter and we thought it would make a really interesting coin design."
The coin has been in production for a few months but went on sale Monday, said Maga. The coin's egg shape, while unusual, was also used for coins with a hot air balloon and featuring Ukranian pysanka.
Maga confirmed one of the earliest designs featured glow-in-the-dark alien eyes.
"We had talked around a lot of really wacky ideas and interesting concepts for this one, but in the end, we wanted to try and stay as faithful and true to the story as we could."
Despite the Manitoba connection, the coin is being minted in Ottawa instead of Winnipeg, said Alex Reeves, external communications advisor for The Mint. The Winnipeg facility does currency coins, while the Ottawa facility specializes in collector coins.
Stan, who co-wrote a book about his father's encounter, said he hopes the coin helps end his family's saga.
"We just decided to put this to rest, and I think the mint, giving me a call and saying 'We have this idea,' I think it just puts the ribbon on the box to finally close it forever."
The $20 legal tender coin can be ordered from the mint's website. It retails for $129.95.
Could Aliens Have Experienced or Understand The Big Bang Differently Then Us?
Could Aliens Have Experienced or Understand The Big Bang Differently Then Us?
With the full force of infinite combinations and diversity that surely exists in the Universe. Could other alien life forms experienced or observed the Universe’s creation differently than we do? Could a sentient mind based on elements and events from a completely independent evolutionary lineage see the creation of the Universe differently? I don’t mean in more detail or complexity (as more advanced minds tend to do) but as a completely different phenomenon? Could there be competing theoretical entries in the Encyclopedia Galactica?
There are no competing theories with the Big Bang Theory because there is no such thing as the Big Bang Theory (other than the pop culture television show, that is.)
The discipline is called physical cosmology. Its theoretical foundations include general relativity and the standard model of particle physics, and additional assumptions about the conditions in the very early universe and about additional, yet-to-be-discovered fields that may have played a role, especially in the very early universe (e.g., during inflation).
As to the Big Bang itself: the idea that the early universe was hot and dense is no longer really subject to debate. The reason is that it is no longer a far-fetched conjecture supported only by the luminosity-redshift relationship (Hubble relationship) of distant objects. We now have direct observational evidence of very early galaxies, the composition of which is very different from galaxies of the present day: they contain virtually no heavy elements, for instance. We also have very detailed maps of the cosmic microwave background, which provide very specific constraints on the evolution of the universe. In particular, the so-called concordance or CDM model of cosmology actually predicted the shape of the curve that characterizes temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background; these predictions were confirmed.
Now it is a good question if the early, dense phase of the universe really marked the beginning of it all (initial singularity) or if there was a prior state, e.g., a universe that contracted before it “bounced” back and started expanding again. Such bounce models are frequently proposed, though they are not without issues and shortcomings. There is also the concept of eternal inflation, in which our “pocket” of the universe (a “pocket” that is much larger than the observable universe, but still just a “pocket” in the big scheme of things) is just one region of something much larger, a universe in which rapid expansion (inflation) takes place all the time, forming pockets like ours, in a never-ending process.
And there are many other possibilities. The existence of dark matter, a core concept in the concordance model (CDM stands for Cold Dark Matter), is questioned by those who attempt to attribute the same effects that dark matter is supposed to explain to modifications of Einstein’s gravity instead. The acceleration of the universe, deduced from the luminosity-distance relationship of Type Ia supernovae, is questioned by those who attribute these observations to large-scale inhomogeneities in our universe (so-called “void cosmology” models.) And so on.
Physical cosmology is still a young science, and there are many unknowns (which makes it all the more exciting). Not even the most ardent advocates of the concordance model suggest that it is the last word on the topic. There are many alternatives. But there are a few things we (think we) know already, and the idea that the early universe was hot and dense is one of them.
This wasn’t always so. Before the observational discovery of the cosmic microwave background, there was another widely favored model: steady-state cosmology, in which the expansion of the universe is balanced by the continuous, spontaneous creation of matter so that on the largest of scales, the universe is eternal and unchanging. One of the best-known advocates of steady state cosmology was Sir Fred Hoyle, who, incidentally, was also the person who coined the term, “Big Bang”, when he ridiculed Big Bang cosmology on a BBC radio show. The Hubble redshift also had an explanation in the form of “tired light”, the idea that over cosmic distances, photons lose energy, e.g., by interacting with the intergalactic medium. These alternatives have since been discredited by data; as I mentioned, very little doubt exists that the early universe was in a hot and dense state, which is what the Big Bang is all about.
It is in the truth of science and shared experienced that understanding and a common ground can be found between us and the sentient unknown. We and alien life will be more different than we can imagine. At least we can appreciate and understand (in our own degree) some of the same things.
Brown University researchers found new evidence that asteroids could have brought water to Earth — and they could also bring it to other planets.
A) A Mylar tray filled with heat-treated powdered pumice. B) Tray centered beneath the impact point. C) The same view as (B) but showing a frame 761.5 milliseconds (μs) after impact. The Mylar has ruptured, directing most of the luminous melt downward into the well for recovery. White lines mark the extent of the glowing plume; the region outlined in gray contains abundant luminous melt.
Image credits R. Terik Daly, Peter H. Schultz, 2018, Planetary Sciences.
In an effort to understand how the blue planet got all its blue (water), researchers at Brown University have turned to NASA and one of its biggest gun rooms.
Their what now?
Exactly how planets got all their water is still open to debate. Compounding the problem is the fact that traces of water were also found in comparatively dry places, such as the Moon’s mantle — dismissing ‘that’s just how the Earth rolls’ as a valid explanation. One possible explanation is that asteroids brought all this water here in the planet’s early days.
However, this theory never fared that well in the face of computer simulations.
“Impact models tell us that [asteroids] should completely devolatilize at many of the impact speeds common in the solar system, meaning all the water they contain just boils off in the heat of the impact,” says study co-author Peter Schultz, a professor in Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement.
“But nature has a tendency to be more interesting than our models, which is why we need to do experiments.”
In order to test the validity of this claim with as little computer simulations as possible, the team asked NASA for permission to use their Vertical Gun Range, housed at the Ames Research Center in California. The indoor ballistic facility was built during the 1960s when, NASA needed to see what happens during high-speed cosmic collisions, without having the luxury of powerful computers.
In lieu of real asteroids, the team used marble-sized cylinders of antigorite, a green mineral common in the oceanic crust that contains some 13% water by weight. A tray of dried, powdered pumice stone was used as a target, to simulate the loose layer of dusty minerals covering Earth’s bedrock, according to the authors. A plastic-lined well was affixed beneath this tray to capture the debris left by the simulated asteroid impact.
The team performed several trials, shooting the fake asteroids into the fake Earth at speeds in excess of 11,200 mph, which they write is “comparable to the median impact speed” in the asteroid belt. They report that on impact, some of the pumice stone melted, then quickly re-solidified, forming glass. Pieces of antigorite also got mixed in with the powder and formed breccia, a type of rock formed when bits of preexisting material get cemented together.
The surprising bit, however, was the water content in the debris. Lab analyses revealed that up to 30% of the mock asteroid’s water found its way into the debris left over in the tray — much more than models suggested was possible up to now. The findings lend weight to the theory that asteroids could have brought water to Earth from the depths of the universe.
“These new experiments raise the possibility that growing terrestrial planets trap water in their interiors as they grow,” the researchers wrote.
That being said, there is also evidence in support of Earth generating its own water, through geological processes. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but at this point, we can’t say for sure.
The paper “The delivery of water by impacts from planetary accretion to present” has been published in the journal Planetary Science.
Both NASA and ESA space missions have just released new videos plotting the orbits of tens of thousands of asteroids (and comets) orbiting our sun.
The study of asteroids has come a long way in recent decades, especially since astronomers realized that Earth is more or less at the center of a cosmic shooting gallery, in which asteroids are the bullets and we’re the target. Fortunately, this shooting is happening over a fantastically long timescale, with the biggest asteroids easiest to spot, so that – for example – astronomers now know there are no world- or even continent-destroying asteroids headed our way, anytime soon by human standards. Yet small asteroids sweep within our moon’s orbit all the time, sometimes weekly, certainly monthly. You can now subscribe to the Daily Minor Planet to see how often, in real time. The relatively new awareness of asteroids’ potential for harm is why astronomers have turned up their scrutiny of asteroid orbits and why – within the past week – both the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA released new videos, based on spacecraft observations, showing asteroids orbiting our sun.
The NASA video and animation – above and below – plot the data gathered during the first four years of NASA’s NEOWISE or Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer mission. NEOWISE has spotted and characterized more than 29,000 objects since December 2013. Most of those are asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter (gray dots in the visuals above and below), but the total includes nearly 800 near-Earth objects (NEOs, shown as green dots in the visuals) and more than 130 comets (yellow squares), mission team members said.
This movie shows the progression of NEOWISE’s investigation for the mission’s first 4 years following its restart in December 2013. Green dots represent near-Earth objects. Gray dots represent all other asteroids which are mainly in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Yellow squares represent comets.
And you might see that the study of asteroids is laborious, to say the least. NASA said that NEOWISE acquired more than 2.5 million infrared images of the sky during its fourth year of operation. Scientists combined these data with NEOWISE’s first through third years data into a single publicly available archive, containing approximately 10.3 million sets of images and a database of more than 76 billion source detections extracted from those images.
So you see there’s a lot of stuff out there, but – in a word of caution as you review the NASA video and animation above – it’s good to remember that space is vast. These visuals make it look as if the asteroids (the gray and green dots) are almost touching each other, and that’s an unintentional misrepresentation, caused by the fact that the scientists are trying to show you thousands of objects on your tiny computer screen.
In fact, if you were traveling through the asteroid belt in a spacecraft, you’d hardly be dodging asteroids, as sci fi movies like the one above love to depict. Instead, you’d be hard-pressed even to see an asteroid because, well, as you might or might not appreciate, there’s just lots of empty space out there.
That why – when asked if a spacecraft could travel through the asteroid belt safely – Sophie Allen of the UK’s National Space Academy answered that the chances of a collision would be about one in a billion.
Personally, I prefer the ESA video above to the NASA depiction because it doesn’t convey that false idea so completely, that the asteroids surrounding us are so densely packed they almost touch (they aren’t densely packed at all). The ESA video – released April 25, 2018 – is an animated view of some 14,099 asteroid orbits. The data came from ESA’s Gaia satellite’s second data release. The orbits of the 200 brightest asteroids are also shown, as determined using Gaia data.
Cela fait des années que Google Maps a entrepris de cartographier le monde entier dans ses moindres détails. En analysant certaines images, certains sont persuadés avoir trouvés des preuves d’une vie extraterrestre sur Terre.
En visionnant les très nombreuses images publiées sur ce logiciel lancé en 2005, des internautes et des ufologues ont découvert la présence d’OVNI ou d’autres phénomènes surnaturels. Récemment, un mystérieux engin non identifié a été repéré alors qu’il flottait dans les airs en Finlande.
Cette sphère rouges semblait voler parmi les arbres au-dessus des maisons dans le quartier de Rantapuisto, dans la ville de Forssa, au sud du pays.
La forme de cet OVNI n’est pas sans rappeler les nombreux objets identifiés souvent observés dans le monde entier.
La couleur vive de cet OVNI contraste de manière assez évidente avec le fond bleu du ciel.
Le haut et le bas de cet OVNI sont plus sombres tandis que les bords pointus de l’objet apparaissent moins définis et sont d’une couleur plus claire. Selon certains, cela indiquerait que cet engin est, en partie, fait de métal.
Il pourrait également y avoir une explication plus plausible.
En effet, les images prises par Google sont ensuite reconstituées donnant l’impression qu’il s’agit que d’une seule et unique photo. De ce fait, le possible OVNI pourrait être un pépin technique ou un impact sur l’objectif de la caméra
Plus tôt, un objet similaire a été découvert sur Google Maps et un OVNI a été vu en train de survoler East Lake George dans l’État de New York. Dans ce cas, l’objet était d’une grande taille et était métallique.
Avec une base blanche, une zone de masque sombre peut être distinguée du reste de l’objet circulaire.
Le revêtement noir donne de la profondeur à cette objet qui s’accorde avec les critères habituellement admis pour les OVNI « typiques ».
HOW A PASSING STAR 70,000 YEARS AGO CHANGED THE SOLAR SYSTEM
HOW A PASSING STAR 70,000 YEARS AGO CHANGED THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Another star buzzed the solar system 70,000 years ago and may have sent comets hurtling our way.
It is possible our prehistoric ancestors saw the star in the sky.
A new study also ID’ed eight objects that could have come from beyond our solar system.
About 70,000 years ago, around the time our ancestors were just beginning to leave Africa, a small red dwarf star passed remarkably close to the solar system. Scholz’s star came within a light-year of the sun, the closest such encounter we know of. Today, Scholz’s star sits about 20 light-years away, its stellar flyby a distant memory. But we are still seeing the influence of its visit.
Back in 2015, researchers led by Eric Mamajek, professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Rochester, studied the galactic orbits of Scholz’s star and our sun. They discovered that Scholz’s star and its brown dwarf binary companion probably wandered close to our solar system. At the time, the scientists concluded that Scholz’s star did not disturb the orbits of any objects in the solar system in any notable way when it passed by.
However, a new study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests this stellar flyby did in fact nudge comets from the Oort cloud, the ring of icy objects far beyond the planets that marks the edge of the solar system. These comets are now close enough to study in more detail, and while looking for them, the scientists also found eight objects that could be from outside the solar system entirely.
Comets From a 70,000-Year-Old Star Flyby
70,000 years ago, Scholz’s star and its binary companion passed within about 50,000 AU from the sun, the closest stellar encounter known.
NASA/MICHAEL OSADCIW/UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER/ILLUSTRATION-T.REYES
The Oort cloud is a swarm of cometary bodies believed to be between 5,000 and 100,000 AU from the sun. Occasionally, these objects fall toward the sun, and some gain enough velocity to reach so-called hyperbolic orbits. These trajectories will eventually take them out of the solar system—unless they are influenced by another gravitational encounter with a giant planet, for example.
The new study, conducted by researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge, analyzed the positions and velocities of 339 hyperbolic objects in the solar system. Normally, you’d expect the distribution of these objects across the sky to be more or less even. However, a group of them seem to be coming from the same radiant, or point of origin in the sky, and that area aligns with the encounter with Scholz’s star. Any objects that might have been pushed by Scholz’s star 70,000 years ago would only now be approaching the inner solar system.
“Out of those 339 [objects], 36 appear projected towards the relevant region in the constellation of Gemini (about 11 percent),” lead author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of Complutense University of Madrid told Popular Mechanics in an email. “These are the ones that we suggest may have had an origin in the flyby with Scholz’s star.”
An artist’s conception of Scholz’s star and its brown dwarf companion during its flyby of the solar system 70,000 years ago. The sun can be seen in the background as a brilliant star.
MICHAEL OSADCIW/UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
The researchers also found the suspect comets are traveling at a velocity around 1 km/s, or 2,200 mph, which could point to an “impulsive interaction” such as a stellar encounter. “Some of them were sent outwards and away from the solar system… some others were sent inwards and reached the inner solar system,” Marcos says. “Out of those sent inwards, a fraction passed close enough to the Earth to be detected by ongoing surveys. Most of the 36 objects pointed out above may fall into this category, the others may be chance alignments.”
The study identifies an exciting connection between these comets and the estimated location of the Scholz’s star flyby, but to truly confirm that the hyperbolic objects were pushed by that star in prehistoric times, additional modelling of both the comets and the star will be needed. By analyzing the 339 hyperbolic objects, however, the team turned up another tantalizing find—possible interstellar objects.
New Interstellar Suspects
Comet Hyakutake (C/1996 B2) might be an interstellar object captured by the solar system.
Photographed at its closest approach to Earth on 25 March 1996. E. KOLMHOFER, H. RAAB; JOHANNES-KEPLER-OBSERVATORY, LINZ, AUSTRIA
In addition to the comets that could have been hurled in by Scholz’s star, the study found eight objects that may be new interstellar candidates. The only confirmed object from outside the solar system to visit our neighborhood of planets is ‘Oumuamua, an elongated asteroid that made a close pass to Earth in October 2017. These additional eight objects are icy hyperbolic bodies with a velocity of 1.5 km/s or more, suggesting they could be interstellar comets.
“Statistically speaking, their paths are probably interstellar as their inbound velocities were significantly higher than those of the bulk of the other hyperbolic comets [2 to 30 times higher],” says Marcos. “As far as we can tell, the eight candidates to being interstellar interlopers have been singled out in our work for the first time.”
It’s unlikely that all eight of these objects have interstellar origins, as some may have formed in the solar system and accelerated during encounters with large objects. “I do think that the 1.5 km/s they used as a cut-off is probably a bit low, so I suspect that some of the eight candidates they identify are not true interstellar objects,” says Alan Jackson, a postdoc researcher at the Centre for Planetary Sciences at the University of Toronto who recently published a study that suggests ‘Oumuamua likely came from a binary star system. “The two that they identify as their best candidates, C/2008 J4 (McNaught) and C/2012 S1 (ISON), are I think fairly robust.”
If any of these objects are confirmed as interstellar interlopers, it would provide an icy comet from beyond the solar system to study alongside the rocky asteroid ‘Oumuamua, which turned out to be an object unlike anything astronomers had ever seen. Most astronomers believe interstellar objects fly through the solar system regularly, and our telescope survey projects are advancing toward the point of finding them much more frequently.
Red Star in the Ancient Sky
When the red dwarf star and its brown dwarf companion flew by the outer reaches of the solar system, it is possible that humanity’s ancestors saw the star in the sky.
Scholz’s star was almost certainly not visible generally, but red dwarfs can periodically flare up due to magnetic activity and grow many times brighter than their standard magnitude. The dimmest stars humans can see with the naked eye have an apparent magnitude (intrinsic magnitude modified by distance) of about 6 (lower numbers are brighter). If Scholz’s star was on the farther end of estimates, it would have had an apparent magnitude of about 11, and closer in an apparent magnitude of perhaps 7.9.
Even at the greater distances, “those flares could be visible to human eyes without optical aids,” says Marcos. (However, Marcos stresses that whether or not the star was visible to human ancestors is not discussed in the paper.)
It is tempting to imagine that prehistoric humans looked up one night to catch a glimpse of Scholz’s star flaring up in the sky. Perhaps they considered it a sign of a bountiful hunt, or an omen of doom. Seventy thousand years later, equipped with all the advantages of modern science, we may have found new evidence of Scholz’s visit to the solar system, the most distant comets of the Oort cloud in for a closer look.
INTERSTELLAR VISITOR ’OUMUAMUA PROBABLY CAME FROM A TWO-STAR SYSTEM
INTERSTELLAR VISITOR ’OUMUAMUA PROBABLY CAME FROM A TWO-STAR SYSTEM
Astronomers are now certain that the mysterious object detected hurtling past our sun last month is indeed from another solar system. They have named it 1I/2017 U1(’Oumuamua) and believe it could be one of 10,000 others lurking undetected in our cosmic neighbourhood.
The certainty of its interstellar origin comes from an analysis that shows its orbit is almost impossible to achieve from within our solar system.
Its name comes from a Hawaiian term for messenger or scout. Indeed, it is the first space rock to have been identified as forming around another star. Since asteroids coalesce during the process of planet formation, this object can tell us something about the formation of planets around its unknown parent star.
The latest analyses with ground-based telescopes show that ’Oumuamua is quite similar to some comets and asteroids in our own solar system. This is important because it suggests that planetary compositions like ours could be typical across the galaxy.
It is thought to be an extremely dark object, absorbing 96% of the light that falls on its surface, and it is red. This colour is the hallmark of organic (carbon-based) molecules. Organic molecules are the building blocks of the biological molecules that allow life to function.
It is widely thought that the delivery of organic molecules to the early Earth by the collision of comets and asteroids made life here possible. ’Oumuamua shows that the same could be possible in other solar systems.
Its characteristics have been published by two independent groups of astronomers. The first group, led by Karen Meech, University of Hawaii, also found that ’Oumuamua was extremely elongated and roughly 400 metres long. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope(VLT) they also found that it rotated once every 7.3 hours.
Surprisingly, they calculate that another 10,000 could be closer to the sun than the eighth planet, Neptune, which lies 30 times further from the sun than the Earth. Yet these are currently undetected.
Each of these interstellar interlopers would be just passing through. They are travelling too fast to be captured by the gravity of the sun. Yet it still takes them about a decade to cross our solar system and disappear back into interstellar space.
If this estimate is correct, then roughly 1,000 enter and another 1,000 leave every year – which means that roughly three arrive and three leave every day.
Using robotic telescopes such as Pan-STARRS, the one that detected ’Oumuamua, to look for asteroids is a priority for astronomers as they concentrate on discovering potentially hazardous objects that could impact Earth.
Imminent upgrades to these survey telescopes and improvements in data processing techniques mean that astronomers will soon be able to detect smaller and fainter objects. They expect a number of these to be interstellar interlopers like ’Oumuamua.
Reversing Earth's spin would dramatically change familiar landscapes across multiple continents.
Credit: Shutterstock
For billions of years, Earth has rotated in the same direction as the sun — but what if that direction were reversed?
Deserts would cover North America, arid sand dunes would replace expanses of the Amazon rainforest in South America, and lush, green landscapes would flourish from central Africa to the Middle East, according to a computer simulation presented earlier this month at the annual European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2018 in Austria.
In the simulation, not only did deserts vanish from some continents and appear in others, but freezing winters plagued western Europe. Cyanobacteria, a group of bacteria that produce oxygen through photosynthesis, bloomed where they never had before. And the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), an important climate-regulating ocean current in the Atlantic, faded away and resurfaced in the northern Pacific Ocean, scientists reported at the conference. [What If the World Stopped Turning?]
During Earth's yearlong orbit around the sun, our planet completes a full rotation on its axis — which runs from the North Pole to South Pole — every 24 hours, spinning at a rate of about 1,040 mph (1,670 km/h) as measured at the equator. Its rotation direction is prograde, or west to east, which appears counterclockwise when viewed from above the North Pole, and it is common to all the planets in our solar system except Venus and Uranus, according to NASA.
As Earth rotates, the push and pull of its momentum shapes ocean currents, which, along with atmospheric wind flows, produces a range of climate patterns around the globe. These patterns carry abundant rainfall to humid jungles or divert moisture away from rain-parched badlands, for example.
Going retro
To study how Earth's climate system is affected by its rotation, scientists recently modeled a digital version of Earth spinning in the opposite direction — clockwise when viewed from above the North Pole, a direction known as retrograde, Florian Ziemen, co-creator of the simulation and a researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany, told Live Science in an email.
"[Reversing Earth's rotation] preserves all major characteristics of the topography like sizes, shapes and positions of continents and oceans, while creating a completely different set of conditions for the interactions between the circulation and the topography," Ziemen said.
This new rotation set the stage for ocean currents and winds to interact with the continents in different ways, generating entirely new climate conditions around the world, the researchers reported in a project overview.
Spin cycle
To simulate what would happen if Earth were to spin backward (retrograde instead of prograde), they used the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model to change Earth's relationship to the sun and reverse the Coriolis effect, an invisible force that pushes against objects traveling over a rotating planet's surface.
Once those alterations were in place and the model showed Earth spinning in the opposite direction, the researchers observed the changes that emerged in the climate system over several thousand years, as feedback among the rotation, atmosphere and ocean went to work on the planet, the scientists wrote in a description of the work, which they are currently preparing for publication.
Overall, the researchers found that a backward-spinning Earth was a greener Earth. Global desert coverage shrank from about 16 million square miles (42 million square kilometers) to around 12 million square miles (31 million square km). Grasses sprouted over half of the former desert areas, and woody plants emerged to cover the other half. And this world's vegetation stored more carbon than our forward-spinning Earth, the researchers discovered.
However, deserts emerged where they never had before — in the southeastern U.S., southern Brazil and Argentina, and northern China.
Turn, turn, turn
The change in rotation also reversed global wind patterns, bringing temperature changes to the subtropics and midlatitudes; continents' western zones cooled as eastern boundaries warmed, and winters became significantly colder in northwestern Europe. Ocean currents also changed direction, warming seas' eastern boundaries and cooling their western ones.
In the simulation, AMOC— the ocean current responsible for transporting heat around the globe — disappeared from the Atlantic Ocean, but a similar and slightly stronger current arose in the Pacific, carrying heat into eastern Russia. This was somewhat unusual, as a prior study that modeled a reverse-spinning Earth did not see this change, Ziemen told Live Science in an email.
With retrograde rotation, a vast desert belt would form in the Americas (left), compared with its present position in Africa and the Middle East (right).
Altered sea currents in the Indian Ocean also allowed cyanobacteria to dominate the region, which they have never managed to accomplish while the Earth spins in its current direction, the researchers discovered.
But for Ziemen, the greening of the Sahara was the most intriguing change that appeared in their "backward" model of Earth.
"Seeing the green Sahara in our model got me thinking about the reasons why we have a desert in the Sahara, and why there is none in the retrograde world," Ziemen said. "It is this thinking about the most basic questions that fascinates me about the project."
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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.
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