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
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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...
28-04-2018
Wondermooie en zeldzame ‘vuurregenboog’ bedekt Californië - HLN.be
Wondermooie en zeldzame ‘vuurregenboog’ bedekt Californië - HLN.be
WETENSCHAP In het Pinnacles National Park in Californië spotte een loper eerder deze week een uiterst zeldzaam natuurfenomeen. Boven het park hing een ‘vuurregenboog’ die bestond uit een wondermooie combinatie van kleuren. Volgens meteorologen gaat het om een optische illusie.
De National Weather Service Bay kondigde afgelopen woensdag een wel heel bijzonder natuurfenomeen aan. Een loper werd in het Pinnacles National Park van Californië verrast door een spectaculaire vuurregenboog.
Het fenomeen staat onder wetenschappers beter bekend als een circumhorizontale boog. Die ontstaat wanneer de zon hoger dan 58 graden boven de horizon staat. Enkel wanneer de zon zo hoog staat, kan de boog vorm krijgen.
De mooie kleuren van de boog ontstaan nadat het zonlicht door ijskristallen, die zich in de wolken bevinden, wordt gebroken. Volgens Roger Gass, meteoroloog bij de National Weather Service, gaat het om een optische illusie.
De kans om een vuurregenboog te zien, is het grootst tijdens de zomermaanden. De regenboog is wel uiterst zeldzaam in Noord-Europa. Wie toch een vuurregenboog wil spotten, kan het best richting Noord-Amerika trekken.
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UFO Over Chile Shoots Off After Being Spotted, Leaving Long White Trail, 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Over Chile Shoots Off After Being Spotted, Leaving Long White Trail, 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Feb 2018
Location of sighting: Parque Do Carmo, Chile
This UFO is hiding in the clouds, and decides that its been seen and must leave immediately to a new location. The UFO shoots off so fast it pulls the cloud behind it in a long think trail. As I have said before, most UFOs and alien drones have the ability to read peoples minds from long distances. Its like a radar for them. It immediately alerts the craft that its been spotted and must fix the situation.
These photos were taken over Taiyuan city, China last night. Many residents thought the object was a UFO, but there is a Satellite Launch Center 200km away which may be responsible. Such UFO sightings have been seen before world wide, but I have to admit, the photos do resemble those that Ellon Musk posted about his rocket launch...or a failed rocket launch. Still, it is a strange sight to see. Scott C. Waring
News states:
The base , Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, located 200 kilometers southwest of Taiyuan, is the long-range missile launch base of the General Assembly , taking into account the satellite launch mission. The first-stage trail is serpentine and the second stage is spiral . It does not rule out rocket launch failure. At dusk, although the ground was dark, there was still sunshine above 100 kilometers. When the rockets were launched to this altitude , the trails were illuminated very brightly, and the scene just appeared. Of course, many people think that it is UFO, but basically all atmospheric optical phenomena of space activities , is not surprising. However, this scene is also very rare, cherish it, and generally can not see.
White Holes' May Be the Secret Ingredient in Mysterious Dark Matter
White Holes' May Be the Secret Ingredient in Mysterious Dark Matter
By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor
The distribution of dark matter in the galaxy cluster Abell 3827 appears as blue contour lines in this photo by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit: ESO/R. Massey
White holes, which are theoretically the exact opposites of black holes, could constitute a major portion of the mysterious dark matter that's thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, a new study finds. And some of these bizarre white holes may even predate the Big Bang, the researchers said.
Black holes possess gravitational pulls so powerful that not even light, the fastest thing in the universe, can escape them. The invisible spherical boundary surrounding the core of a black hole that marks its point of no return is known as its event horizon. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]
A black hole is one prediction of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Another is known as a white hole, which is like a black hole in reverse: Whereas nothing can escape from a black hole's event horizon, nothing can enter a white hole's event horizon.
Previous research has suggested that black holes and white holes are connected, with matter and energy falling into a black hole potentially emerging from a white hole either somewhere else in the cosmos or in another universe entirely. In 2014, Carlo Rovelli, a theoretical physicist at Aix-Marseille University in France, and his colleagues suggested that black holes and white holes might be connected in another way: When black holes die, they could become white holes.
In the 1970s, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking calculated that all black holes should evaporate mass by emitting radiation. Black holes that lose more mass than they gain are expected to shrink and ultimately vanish.
However, Rovelli and his colleagues suggested that shrinking black holes could not disappear if the fabric of space and time were quantum — that is, made of indivisible quantities known as quanta. Space-time is quantum in research that seeks to unite general relativity, which can explain the nature of gravity, with quantum mechanics, which can describe the behavior of all the known particles, into a single theory that can explain all the forces of the universe.
In the 2014 study, Rovelli and his team suggested that, once a black hole evaporated to a degree where it could not shrink any further because space-time could not be squeezed into anything smaller, the dying black hole would then rebound to form a white hole.
"We stumbled onto the fact that a black hole becomes a white hole at the end of its evaporation," Rovelli told Space.com.
Black holes nowadays are thought to form when massive stars die in giant explosions known as supernovas, which compress their corpses into the infinitely dense points known as singularities at the hearts of black holes. Rovelli and his colleagues previously estimated that it would take a black hole with a mass equal to that of the sun about a quadrillion times the current age of the universe to convert into a white hole. [Supernova Photos: Great Images of Star Explosions]
However, prior work in the 1960s and 1970s suggested that black holes also could have originated within a second after the Big Bang, due to random fluctuations of density in the hot, rapidly expanding newborn universe. Areas where these fluctuations concentrated matter together could have collapsed to form black holes. These so-called primordial black holes would be much smaller than stellar-mass black holes, and could have died to form white holes within the lifetime of the universe, Rovelli and his colleagues noted.
Even white holes with microscopic diameters could still be quite massive, just as black holes smaller than a sand grain can weigh more than the moon. Now, Rovelli and study co-author Francesca Vidotto, of the University of the Basque Country in Spain, suggest that these microscopic white holes could make up dark matter.
Although dark matter is thought to make up five-sixths of all matter in the universe, scientists do not know what it's made of. As its name suggests, dark matter is invisible; it does not emit, reflect or even block light. As a result, dark matter can currently be tracked only through its gravitational effects on normal matter, such as that making up stars and galaxies. The nature of dark matter is currently one of the greatest mysteries in science.
The local density of dark matter, as suggested by the motion of stars near the sun, is about 1 percent the mass of the sun per cubic parsec, which is about 34.7 cubic light-years. To account for this density with white holes, the scientists calculated that one tiny white hole — much smaller than a proton and about a millionth of a gram, which is equal to about the mass of "half an inch of a human hair," Rovelli said — is needed per 2,400 cubic miles (10,000 cubic kilometers).
These white holes would not emit any radiation, and because they are far smaller than a wavelength of light, they would be invisible. If a proton did happen to impact one of these white holes, the white hole "would simply bounce away," Rovelli said. "They cannot swallow anything." If a black hole were to encounter one of these white holes, the result would be a single larger black hole, he added. As if the idea of invisible, microscopic white holes from the dawn of time were not wild enough, Rovelli and Vidotto further suggested that some white holes in this universe might actually predate the Big Bang. Future research will explore how such white holes from a previous universe might help to explain why time flows only forward in this current universe and not also in reverse, he said.
Rovelli and Vidotto detailed their findings online April 11 in a paper submitted to the Gravity Research Foundation's annual contest for essays on gravitation.
Icy Mars Crater Shines in European Probe's 1st Photo from New Orbit
Icy Mars Crater Shines in European Probe's 1st Photo from New Orbit
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
A portion of the first image captured by the Trace Gas Orbiter from its new science orbit, on April 15, 2018. This view shows a stretch of Korolev Crater, in the Red Planet's far north
Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS
A European Mars spacecraft's first photo from its new orbit is a real doozy.
A few weeks ago, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) slid into a nearly circular path at an altitude about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Red Planet's surface. And we've now seen the first image from this perch: a gorgeous photo showing a 25-mile-long (40 km) stretch of the ice-rimed Korolev Crater, in the Martian far north.
TGO snapped the photo on April 15, during the testing phase of its Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) camera, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said. CaSSIS is scheduled to begin its bona fide science work on Saturday (April 28). [Photos: Europe's ExoMars Missions to Mars in Pictures]
"We are excited to finally be starting collecting data at Mars with this phenomenal spacecraft," Håkan Svedhem, ESA's TGO project scientist, said in a statement. "The test images we have seen so far certainly set the bar high."
TGO is part of the ExoMars program, a project led by ESA with assistance from the Russian federal space agency. The orbiter launched in March 2016 along with a landing demonstrator named Schiaparelli, which was designed to test out tech needed for the ExoMars rover. That rover is scheduled to lift off in 2020.
TGO and Schiaparelli arrived at Mars in October 2016; TGO achieved its initial orbit as planned, but the lander crashed on the Red Planet's surface.
The Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System camera aboard the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured this view of the rim of Mars' Korolev Crater on April 15, 2018. The picture is a composite of three images in different colors that were taken almost simultaneously. The dimensions are about 6 by 25 miles (10 by 40 kilometers).
Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS
Soon after that, TGO embarked upon a yearlong "aerobraking" campaign, during which it used dives through the thin Martian atmosphere to sculpt its orbit. This phase ended in February 2018, and the probe reached its 250-mile-high science orbit shortly thereafter.
TGO's main job involves sniffing for methane and other low-abundance (or trace) gases in the Martian atmosphere, which it began doing using its two onboard spectrometers on April 21. Methane is a possible sign of life; most of the methane in Earth's air is generated by microbes and other organisms. But the stuff can also be produced by geological processes. TGO's observations could help researchers better understand where, and how, Mars methane is being generated, ExoMars team members have said.
CaSSIS' photos will contribute to this work, by pinpointing the locations of possible geological methane sources (such as volcanoes). The cameras' images will also help mission team members decide where to land the rover in 2021, ESA officials said.
TGO also carries one other science instrument, a neutron detector that will allow the probe to map out deposits of buried water ice.
Ancient aliens on Earth: Do these PREHISTORIC UFO drawings prove we are not alone?
Ancient aliens on Earth: Do these PREHISTORIC UFO drawings prove we are not alone?
THE idea of alien UFOs visiting Earth since the dawn of mankind is a popular conspiracy theory, but this bizarre collection of ancient drawings from around the world could stun even the hardest of sceptics.
From the raising of the Egyptian pyramids to the mysterious Nazca Lines and the ominous heads of Easter Island, the creation of many ancient constructions has been attributed to interstellar visitors.
For decades, these impressive man-made sites have been scoured by crypto-archeologists in the hopes of discovering evidence of extraterrestrial intervention.
Over the years many claimed to have uncovered concrete proof of ancient carvings, cave paintings and other iconography that is indisputable proof of UFOs.
But what are some of the most convincing of these supposedly alien depictions from a time long past?
1. The Helicopter Hieroglyphs in the Temple of Seti I
The magnificent great Pyramids of Giza are popular fodder for conspiracy theories and the whole of the ancient Egyptian civilisation has in one way or another been linked to bizarre alien conspiracies.
But one of the most convincing bits of evidence aliens have in fact helped raise the ancient civilisation is a set of unusual hieroglyphs in the 3,000-year-old Temple of Seti in Abydos, Egypt.
Among conspiracy forums, the icons have become known as the “Helicopter Hieroglyphs” for supposedly showing eerie pictures of what appears to be a helicopter and futuristic aircraft.
Some pseudo-archeologists who have seen the glyphs in person claimed they were left behind by time travellers while other suggested they were left behind to honour alien visitors.
Most genuine archeologists however will agree the icons are the simple result of typographical errors – overlapping symbols in a day and age where typos were quite literally set in stone.
OLEK95
Egyptian mystery: These hieroglyphs appear to show helicopters and space ships
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Ancient alien evidence? Some believe the Charam mural depicts a UFO
2. The UFO ancient murals of Charama
This bizarre looking painting found in a cave in India has baffled scientists for its supposed depiction of an alien UFO beaming in the sky.
The fan-like antenna and the three legs of the vehicle's stand clearly show a similarity to UFO type craft
JR Bhagat, Archeologist
The puzzling mural from Charama, Chhattisgarh, dates back some 10,000 years to a time before humans have invited the wheel.
Archaeologist JR Bhagat who studied the cave paintings in 2014 argued they were concrete evidence Aliens have walked among us in the past.
He said: “The findings suggest that humans in prehistoric times may have seen or imagined beings from other planets which still create curiosity among people and researchers.
“Extensive research is needed for further findings. Chhattisgarh presently doesn't have any such expert who could give clarity on the subject.”
He added: “The fan-like antenna and the three legs of the vehicle's stand clearly show a similarity to UFO type craft.”
3. The alien astronaut rock murals of Val Camonica
The rock carvings in the Alpine valley of Val Camonica, Italy, are one of the world’s largest collection of prehistoric petroglyphs.
Most of the glyphs were carved out some 8,000 years before the Bronze Age, and typically depict the everyday trappings of early man, such as scenes of people and animals.
But a set of particular carvings has convinced conspiracy theories some of the glyphs represent alien astronauts walking among them.
The glyphs in question appear to show men with radiating helmets on their heads, wielding oddly shaped weapons – perhaps in battle.
UFO hunters from around the globe believe these images to be indisputable proof.
UNESCO/NHK
Bizarre theory: Some think these etchings depict alien astronauts
NO DIFFERENCE YOUTUBE
Anciet Assyrian: Conspiracists think this is an image of an alien spaceraft
4. Mysterious winged object on the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, King of Assyria
A piece of stone panel on the walls of the once mighty ancient palace contains the depiction of the Mesopotamian god Ashur inside of an orb with outstretched wings.
Although the stone carving clearly harks back to ancient Mesopotamian religious beliefs, some conspiracists believe this depiction of Ashur to be that of an alien traveller.
One UFO conspiracist going by the username of Luissaade, claimed the embossment is “early man’s way of drawing alien beings that were seen pilots flying machines, alien high technologies, on Earth.”
The Palace of Ashurnasirpal II, or the Palace of Kalhu, is an ancient site dating back to 879 BC in modern-day Iraq, just north of Baghdad.
Most of the palace was excavated in the 1840s by British archeologists, with its stunning findings found in museums across the planet today.
YOUTUBE
Alien spacecraft: This Mayan sarcophagus lid supposedly depicts a space traveller
5. The bizarre sarcophagus lid of Mayan king Pacal
Ancient Mayan artwork is known for its intricately detailed, weaving and geometric designs and the sarcophagus lid of the Mayan king Pacal is a testament to the Mayan’s prowess.
However the 1968 book Chariots of the Gods, by Erich von Däniken, has pointed out that far from being an extremely lavish coffin, the sarcophagus contains references to alien UFOs.
According to Mr von Däniken, the central figure in the middle of the sarcophagus is an extraterrestrial alien riding what appears to be a rocket or some sort of space ship control centre.
He wrote: “In the center of that frame is a man sitting, bending forward. He has a mask on his nose, he uses his two hands to manipulate some controls, and the heel of his left foot is on a kind of pedal with different adjustments.
“The rear portion is separated from him; he is sitting on a complicated chair, and outside of this whole frame, you see a little flame like an exhaust.”
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
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.
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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.
was captured over @PinnaclesNPS yesterday. The more scientific name is a circumhorizontal arc. For more details http://bit.ly/2qUuFCm #cawx #atmoshpericoptics 
M. Jimenez
OSIRIS 
