This Map Lets You Travel Back In Time And See What Earth Looked Like 600 Million Years Ago

A stunning new interactive map lets you travel back in time and see how our planet’s continents have changed through more than 600 million years.

The ancient Earth Globe lets viewers appreciate how Earth’s continents have transformed while ocean levels advanced and receded through 600 million years of our planet’s history.

The stunning map was built using research gathered by Northern Arizona University. According to one of the interactive map’s creators, a former Google engineer, it shows how humans are ‘just a blip in history.’

The stunning map allows you to travel through 600 million years of our planet’s history. To understand what occurred at a certain time, the map features a small description of the period you are currently viewing.

For example, if we decide to see what the Earth looked like 600 million years ago, the ancient Earth Globe map tells us that we are looking at the Ediacaran Period. Life is evolving in the sea, and multicellular life is just beginning to emerge.

Earth 600 million years ago.

Image Credit: dinosaurpictures.org

In the menu, we can scroll through different ages. 560 million years ago, we see the Late Ediacaran. Life is evolving in the sea, and multicellular life is just beginning to emerge.

A mass extinction is about to take place, tells the map while we see an unrecognizable Earth.

500 million years ago we traveled to the Late Cambrian. The interactive map explains how the ocean is teeming with life following a dramatic expansion of animal diversity in the sea, known as the “Cambrian explosion.” The forms of some animals show ancestry to modern animals.

Traveling further in time, we decided to stop by and see how our planet looked like 430 million years ago, during the Silurian Period.

The interactive map tells us that a mass extinction took place, wiping out nearly half of marine invertebrate species. The first land plants emerge, starting at the edge of the ocean. Plants evolve vascularity, the ability to transport water and nutrients through their tissues. Ocean life becomes larger and more complex, and some creatures venture out of reefs and onto land.

300 Million years ago we arrived at the Late Carboniferous.

Our planet as seen 300 million years ago. 

Image Credit: dinosaurpictures.org

Plants developed root systems that allowed them to grow larger and move inland. Environments evolved below tree canopies. Atmospheric oxygen increased as plants spread on land. Early reptiles have evolved, and giant insects diversify. Earth still looks unrecognizable.

If we travel to 200 million years ago, to the Late Triassic, we see a more familiar planet, although continents we see today have still not formed.

During the Late Triassic, an extinction event is about to happen, resulting in the disappearance of 76% of all terrestrial and marine life species and significantly reducing surviving populations. Some families, such as pterosaurs, crocodiles, mammals, and fish were minimally affected.

The first true dinosaurs emerge.

Earth, 105 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period begins to take a more familiar shape. During this period, Ceratopsian and pachycephalosaurid dinosaurs evolve. Modern mammal, bird, and insect groups emerge.

20 million years ago we see planet Earth during the Neocene Period where mammals and birds continue to evolve into modern forms. Early hominids emerge in Africa.

Check out the map and enjoy scrolling through Earth’s long history.

The map offers a unique educational experience that will surely help us understand not only how continents have shifted and changed through history, but it will also help us understand how they will continue doing so.

Continental Drift: 3.3 Billion Years

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

06-05-2018 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

How Would Humanity React If We Really Found Aliens?

If aliens reach out to us, what would happen first?

It’s a question that has puzzled science-fiction fans and scientists alike for decades, and we already may have a hint of how people will react. On Oct. 30, 1938, a dramatized version of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel “The War of the Worlds” played on the CBS Radio system across the United States. The story details how Martians attacked Earth.

The radio broadcast caused a reaction when people mistook it for a real radio report, but accounts vary as to how much of a reaction there was. Some accounts describe nationwide panic, while others say not very many people actually listened to the broadcast. The promise of alien life stars in Episode 1 of “AMC Visionaries: James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction,” which debuts on AMC tonight. Still, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) researcher Duncan Forgan told Space.com the “War of the Worlds” broadcast may be instructive to think about as SETI scientists worldwide update their “first contact” protocols.

“If you pick the right science fiction — the hard science fiction — it’s placed in the best possible educated guesses about what will happen,” said Forgan, who is a research fellow at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He explained that “hard” science fiction refers to science fiction that emphasizes accuracy (think the 2015 movie “The Martian,” for example).

If researchers find a signal today, Forgan said, one of the things they will have to manage is a public used to getting constant news updates on Twitter and other forms of social media. It’s something Forgan and his colleagues are already working on. The International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Committee created a post-detection protocol in 1989 that was slightly updated in 2010; a new update is starting soon and should be finished in a few years, Forgan said.

Scientific work

For the most part, scientists assume alien contact would happen through a signal purposely sent toward Earth. The “acid test” is to make sure the signal is verified by multiple observatories, said SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak. “It would take a while to verify, and then the people who like to think about these matters say you would have a press conference and announce this to the world,” he said, but he added that wouldn’t work unless everyone in the project were sworn to secrecy. In this era of news leaks, he said that situation is very unlikely to hold.

So, scientists try instead to stick to a protocol that includes informing the public. The 2010 IAA protocol is only two pages and covers facets such as searching for a signal, handling evidence and what to do in the case of a confirmed detection.

If the evidence gets out to the public while the scientists are still analyzing the signal, Forgan said they could manage the public’s expectations by using something called the Rio Scale. It’s essentially a numeric value that represents the degree of likelihood that an alien contact is “real.” (Forgan added that the Rio Scale is also undergoing an update, and more should be coming out about it in May.)

If the aliens did arrive here, “first contact” protocols likely would be useless, because if they’re smart enough to show up physically, they could probably do anything else they like, according to Shostak. “Personally, I would leave town,” Shostak quipped. “I would get a rocket and get out of the way. I have no idea what they are here for.”

But there’s little need to worry. An “Independence Day” scenario of aliens blowing up important national buildings such as the White House is extremely unlikely, Forgan said, because interstellar travel is difficult. (This feeds into something called the Drake Equation, which considers where the aliens could be and helps show why we haven’t heard anything from them yet.)

Early SETI work

To find a signal, first we have to be listening for it. SETI “listening” is going on all over the world, and in fact, this has been happening for many decades. The first modern SETI experiment took place in 1960. Under Project Ozma, Cornell University astronomer Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope (located at Green Bank, West Virginia) at two stars called Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. He scanned at a frequency astronomers nickname “the water hole,” which is close to the frequency of light that’s given off by hydrogen and hydroxyl (one hydrogen atom bonded to one oxygen atom).

In 1977, The Ohio State University SETI’s program made international headlines after a project volunteer, Jerry Ehman, wrote, “Wow!” beside a strong signal a telescope there received. The Aug. 15, 1977, “Wow” signal was never repeated, however.

There have been many, many projects since then. As a taste: The SETI Institute was founded in 1984; while it may be the most famous of the SETI projects, there are many other independent SETIs at universities and institutions worldwide that have done work over the decades. One of the center’s major initiatives was Project Phoenix, which scanned nearby, sun-like stars. Currently, the SETI Institute, in collaboration with other institutes, is working on a concept called the Allen Telescope Array, which has dozens of radio dishes in northern California.

In 2015, the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking and many other researchers launched Breakthrough Listen, a project that will scan 1 million Milky Way stars and 100 nearby galaxies for extraterrestrial life.

Space-based SETI

While searches of alien messages aren’t ongoing in space, there have been efforts to communicate with any beings that may come across our spacecraft.

The Pioneer 10 and 11 probes flew by Jupiter (and in Pioneer 11’s case, Saturn) to eventually make their way out of the solar system. Before their launches in 1972 and 1973, respectively, a Pioneer plaque was mounted on board each spacecraft. It shows the form of the human body and where the Earth is located in the galaxy.

The twin Voyager probes launched in 1977 to examine the outer solar system. Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2012, while Voyager 1 is still at the edge of the solar system. Each of the spacecraft includes two golden records with sounds recorded on Earth, ranging from whale calls to music to the word “hello” in many languages. The record also has diagrams of the human body and where our solar system is located.

Scientists also transmitted a radio message from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974. The so-called Arecibo Message includes such things as the numbers 1 through 10; the atomic numbers of elements such as hydrogen and oxygen; information about DNA; and diagrams of a human body, the Earth and our solar system.

In a related field, the study of exoplanets has accelerated in recent years with the Kepler mission, which has found more than 2,000 confirmed exoplanets alone, as well as other observatories on the ground and in space. Scientists are now trying to characterize which of these planets may be the most habitable. Atmospheric studies and more detailed looks at star activity will be some of the activities scientists undertake with future telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which will launch in 2020.

This story was inspired by Episode 1 of “AMC Visionaries: James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction,” which airs tonight at 10 p.m. EDT/PDT (9 p.m. CDT). A companion book is available on Amazon.com.

Attribution: Elizabeth Howell, Space.com

{ http://www.etupdates.com/ }

06-05-2018 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

NASA Technology Helps Reveal Hidden Texts On Dead Sea Scrolls In Stunning Discovery

Who says that NASA only makes fantastic discoveries in space?

Using a specialized camera initially developed by NASA, researchers in Israel made a stunning discovery while analyzing texts on the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.

According to an announcement by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), experts have uncovered previously hidden text on the Dead Sea Scrolls, raising many questions whether there are more ancient manuscripts featuring writings invisible to the naked eye.

After analyzing the ancient manuscripts with infrared using a multispectral imaging camera, experts from Israel have revealed that dozens of ancient scroll fragments, previously thought to be blank, actually contain traces of ink.

The Dead Sea Scrolls fragments, which are believed to be around 2,000 years old are extremely fragile.

Image Credit: Shai Halevi Israel Antiquities Authority

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a massive historical collection featuring more than 900 religious manuscripts, as well as miniature text fragments recovered in a cave system (Qumran Caves) near the shores of the Dead Sea, near the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran.

Oren Ableman, a researcher on the manuscripts of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and a Ph.D. student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, discovered the new writing while examining a dozen fragments of finding in the Qumran Caves, revealed the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The detailed study, conducted by Ableman has allowed deciphering the writing of many of the fragments and even knowing which manuscripts probably belong to some of the new fragments.

Oren Ableman, a scroll researcher at the Dead Sea Scrolls unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, examining the ink traces that have been discovered.

Image Credit: Shai Halevi, The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

“I do feel honored to be part of it. Sometimes I feel like, I’m just a Ph.D. student, and I’m finding these discoveries,” said Abelman. “It’s exciting.”

The discovery was presented at a conference in Israel called “The Dead Sea Scrolls at Seventy: Clear a Path in the Wilderness.”

“As part of the project each of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls is imaged to monitor its physical condition and make the best possible images available to the public,” the organization wrote in a statement.

As noted in the statement, the discovery made by experts features fragments from the books of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Jubilees (also known as the Lesser Genesis), and The Temple Scroll, which is the longest of all the Dead Sea Scrolls found to date. These ancient manuscripts have been dated to range from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century CE.

The hidden writings reveal a script that belongs to a third copy of the temple scroll, an ancient text where God explains to Moses how a temple should be erected, and how services within the temple should be performed.

Until now, experts were only aware of the existence of two Temple Scrolls, but the discovery adds another one to the collection.

Also, researchers have identified a fragment belonging to the Scroll of the Great Psalms (11Q5); retaining a part of the beginning of Psalm 147: 1.

And, finally, another fragment contains letters written in an ancient Hebrew script (paleo-Hebrew alphabet).

This fragment could not be attributed to any of the known manuscripts, so it is possible that it belonged to a still, hitherto unknown manuscript.

According to Head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Dead Sea Scrolls Lab Pnina Shor, “Multispectral imaging lets us read what is invisible to the eye.”

“Every image is an act of preservation,” said Shor. “If God forbid, something happens to the scroll; we still have 100% accurately reliable images.”

Source: The Times Of Israel

Featured Image Credit: The Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5) together with the new fragment containing Psalm 147:1. Shai Halevi, The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

06-05-2018 om 21:03 geschreven door peter  

Underwater Drones Are Exploring Shipwrecks Below The Gulf Of Mexico—And What They’ve Found Is Incredible

Among many incredible finds, researchers have discovered never-before-seen, unidentified shipwrecks located thousands of feet below the surface.

That there are many secrets hidden beneath the ocean is no mystery. That we haven’t had the time nor interest in exploring these secrets also isn’t a mystery.

However, Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are conducting an expedition to explore the many shipwrecks located in the uncharted water in some of the deepest parts of the Gulf of Mexico, and what they’ve recorded is beyond fascinating.

In order to explore the unknown, researchers used remote-controlled submersible vehicles, discovering never-before-seen details and investigating different shipwrecks on the ocean floor, located in the most remote, least-explored pars of the Gulf of Mexico.

Among the discoveries, researchers uncovered German U-boats, as well as pirate vessels believed to date back to the 19th century.

Now, using modern technology, experts are trying to learn as much as they can about the histories and fates of these ships, which the ocean claimed in the distant past.

Among the discoveries, experts from NOAA found the remains of a tugboat, named New Hope, which sank in a tropical storm in the 1960’s. While the ship sank, the Coast Guard luckily saved the crew from going down with the ship.

Seen here is the bow and view into the hull of what is believed to be the wreck of the tugboat New Hope.

Image credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.

Speaking about the shipwreck of the New Hope, experts from NOAA said:

“On September 29, 1965, New Hope encountered the strong winds and high seas of Tropical Storm Debbie off the Louisiana coast. With the crew having trouble pumping water out of the hull, the U.S. Coast Guard received a distress call around 1 AM and dispatched an aircraft to deploy a backup pump. Also, on board, the aircraft was the latest in Search and Rescue technology: a floating radio beacon for use with a radio direction finder. In use, the beacon is dropped close to the distressed vessel to mark its position and to act as a drifting reference.

The seven-member crew boarded a life raft and abandoned the foundering New Hope at 3 AM, just as the aircraft arrived to mark its position with the beacon. Staying on the scene until daylight, the aircraft vectored a Coast Guard helicopter to the raft to conduct a safe rescue of the entire crew.”

But New Hope is just one of the many shipwrecks photographed by the underwater mission.

Check out some more images courtesy of NOAA.

An unidentified shipwreck discovered by industry mapping surveys. According to NOAA, it appeared to be a portion of a wooden vessel with a few metal items inside.

Image credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.

Deep Discoverer explored an unknown shipwreck identified by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management simply as “ID Number 15377.”

Image credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.

Not a shipwreck but a natural extrusion of tar on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2012.

View inside the conning tower of the German U-boat U-166.

Image courtesy of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Seen here is the bow of a ship that’s believed to be a privateer.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2012.

Source: NOAA

Image Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

06-05-2018 om 20:51 geschreven door peter  

The moon’s shadow launched a ripple that was seen from Brazil an hour later

BY  LISA GROSSMAN 

IN THE SHADOW  

The solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, was seen from space by the DSCOVR satellite. The moon’s shadow spurred an atmospheric wave that propagated around the world for hours after the eclipse was over.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

06-05-2018 om 20:37 geschreven door peter  

Listen to the sound of our galaxy rotating. The variation of musical pitches portrays the motion of gas as it orbits around the center of our galaxy.

Scientists often transform astronomy data into pictures, but University of Californa Santa Barbara postdoctoral fellow Greg Salvesen went in a different direction. He decided to map raw data to sound.

Salvesen’s recently launched website, Astronomy Sound of the Month or AstroSoM, features different sounds produced from actual astronomy data, with an explanation by an astronomer. Salvesen said in a statement:

AstroSoM explores how sound complements more traditional astronomy data analysis. Besides, making sounds out of real astronomy data is just plain cool!

For his latest feature (above), Salvesen collaborated with University of Massachusetts astronomy professor Mark Heyer to turn complex data into visual and aural components that track the movement of gas through our galaxy. The resulting Milky Way Blues allow you to “hear” how our galaxy rotates.

For the composition, Heyer developed an algorithm that transforms astronomical data about galactic gases into musical notes. By assigning different tones and length of notes to the observed spectra of each gas phase, said Heyer, an astronomer can express a crucial feature of the galaxy that is missing in astronomical images – movement.

Heyer chose to compose this piece using a pentatonic scale – with five notes in the octave instead of seven – and in a minor key, because, he said:

When I heard the bass notes it sounded jazzy and blue.

But, he added:

I’ve been true to the data, I haven’t massaged it to make it sound nice, but by turning what we actually observe with a radio telescope into a musical scale it gives us familiar tones that sound surprisingly like music with which we’re familiar.

Here’s the explanation of the Milky Way Blues, from AstroSoM:

Radio telescopes observe different spectral emission lines to probe different phases of gas (atomic, molecular, ionized). Astronomers measure the Doppler shifts of these lines to determine gas velocities along the path that the telescope is pointing. To turn one of these observations into musical notes, the measured gas velocities are mapped to a pentatonic minor blues scale.

Each note and circle represents gas that is either coming toward Earth (high notes and blue color) or moving away from it (low notes and red color). Different gas phases are played by different instruments — acoustic bass (atomic), wood blocks (molecular), saxophone (ionized) and piano (molecular) — and are represented by different colored borders on the circles.

A line showing where the telescope was pointing represents each observation, and the positions of the circles along a line show the locations of the gas in the galaxy. The star symbol shows the location of the sun. The intensity of the emission coming from the gas is heard as longer note durations and shown as larger circles.

With every new measure, the lines swing around to new observations. Putting it all together, the variation of musical pitches heard in Milky Way Blues portrays the motion of gas as it orbits around the center of our galaxy.

Check out more pieces on the AstroSoM website, such as The Inner Solar System Plays Radiohead’s Saddest Song, or Never a Mundane Supernova in the Sky. Each post includes a short summary and links for more detailed explanations.

Greg Salvesen.

Image via Sonia Fernandez.

Bottom line: An astronomer transforms raw astronomy data into music.

Read more from UC Santa Barbara

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

06-05-2018 om 20:23 geschreven door peter  

NASA PLUTO PROBE MAY CARRY CROWDSOURCED MESSAGE TO ALIENS

A NASA Pluto probe may end up with one final mission after its work exploring the outer solar system is done — carrying a message to advanced alien civilizations.

NASA is considering allowing a team of researchers, teachers, artists and engineers to upload an interstellar message to the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft, which will perform the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14.

This project, known as the One Earth Message, is being led by Jon Lomberg, who was design director for the “golden records” that were placed aboard NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft before their 1977 launch to teach any aliens that might encounter the probes about humanity and its home planet. 

The goals of the One Earth Message are similar, but the new project would be a more global and collaborative effort, asking people around the world to contribute images, sounds and ideas for this farflung “message in a bottle.”

“This is really a chance to try to think about ourselves from the long perspective,” Lomberg told Space.com. “We’ll never know if this extraterrestrial audience that we’re designing it for will receive it. But we do know that the people of Earth who participate, who play a role in it — it can literally change their lives.”

A digital message

Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012, and Voyager 2 will join its twin in this rarefied realm soon. The two probes’ golden records are actual records — 12-inch-wide (30 centimeters) gold-plated copper disks that come with cartridges, needles and instructions about how to play them. The identical records contain 115 analog-encoded images, as well as audio of thunder and other natural sounds, music and spoken greetings in 55 different languages.

The One Earth Message, by contrast, would be digital. If NASA greenlights the project — the space agency has expressed enthusiasm but has yet to approve it officially, Lomberg said — the team will be allowed to beam 150 megabytes of data to New Horizons.

The One Earth Message would therefore hold about the same amount of information as Voyager’s golden records — perhaps 100 images and about an hour of audio, Lomberg said. (Videos would take up too much memory.)

“We’re writing a haiku, not a novel,” he said.

The digital format would allow the One Earth Message to be more flexible, layered and integrated than was possible with the golden records, Lomberg added. For example, the message could be changed over time by beaming more files to New Horizons. It could also include a map of the world, and every picture and every sound could be tagged to the spot from which it came. 

Crowdsourced content and funding

There’s another key difference between the Voyager and New Horizons efforts: While the golden records carry information chosen by a small committee (which was chaired by famed astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan), the One Earth Message would be a crowdsourced affair, with contributions from people around the globe.

“It’s not simply a photo contest,” Lomberg said. “It’s a process that’s going to find out what people want to send.”

Just as the One Earth Message’s content would be crowdsourced, a chunk of its funding would be too. (The team is not asking NASA to pay for the project.) Lomberg and his colleagues hope to raise at least $500,000 from people around the world via a Fiat Physica campaign, to build and maintain a Web presence and to figure out the best way to program the message.

Additional money raised would be used for education and outreach, among other things.

“The total budget is a couple of million [dollars], to do everything we’d like to do,” Lomberg said.

People would be able to contribute a certain number of photos for possible inclusion in the One Earth Message for free, he added. Anyone who wants to submit additional pictures would be able to do so, for a fee that would help cover the costs of the project’s website.

The One Earth Message Fiat Physica campaign runs through July 15. As of yesterday evening (May 17), the crowdfunding effort had raised about $12,000 of its $500,000 target. You can learn more about the campaign here: http://www.fiatphysica.com/campaigns/oem/

The group is also looking for private support, Lomberg said. 

Plenty of time

Drawing up a message designed to be understood by alien civilizationsis not a simple or straightforward task. For example, how would any hypothetical extraterrestrials that chance upon New Horizons even know that humanity is trying to say something to them?

“How can you send files so that aliens can figure them out? They’re not going to know what a jpeg is,” Lomberg said. “Our challenge is to find ways of coding the message so that it calls attention to itself as a message.”

But there’s plenty of time to work on such issues. The transmission to New Horizons would occur in July 2016 at the earliest, Lomberg said, and it could even be postponed until after the probe flies by a second faraway object in 2019 during a potential extended mission that NASA is mulling.

While the One Earth Message is designed to be interpreted by aliens, it’s a worthwhile exercise even if New Horizons zooms through space alone for all of its days, Lomberg said. The project, he stressed, has the potential to get people more excited about the New Horizons mission and space exploration in general — and possibly to bring people around the world together in a perspective-altering experience.

“For almost 40 years, I’ve seen how the Voyager record has inspired people,” Lomberg said. “It seems like it’s time for another generation to have that same type of inspiration.”

Source www.space.com

Also published on Medium.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

06-05-2018 om 20:11 geschreven door peter  

NASA PLUTO PROBE MAY CARRY CROWDSOURCED MESSAGE TO ALIENS

A NASA Pluto probe may end up with one final mission after its work exploring the outer solar system is done — carrying a message to advanced alien civilizations.

NASA is considering allowing a team of researchers, teachers, artists and engineers to upload an interstellar message to the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft, which will perform the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14.

This project, known as the One Earth Message, is being led by Jon Lomberg, who was design director for the “golden records” that were placed aboard NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft before their 1977 launch to teach any aliens that might encounter the probes about humanity and its home planet. 

The goals of the One Earth Message are similar, but the new project would be a more global and collaborative effort, asking people around the world to contribute images, sounds and ideas for this farflung “message in a bottle.”

“This is really a chance to try to think about ourselves from the long perspective,” Lomberg told Space.com. “We’ll never know if this extraterrestrial audience that we’re designing it for will receive it. But we do know that the people of Earth who participate, who play a role in it — it can literally change their lives.”

A digital message

Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in 2012, and Voyager 2 will join its twin in this rarefied realm soon. The two probes’ golden records are actual records — 12-inch-wide (30 centimeters) gold-plated copper disks that come with cartridges, needles and instructions about how to play them. The identical records contain 115 analog-encoded images, as well as audio of thunder and other natural sounds, music and spoken greetings in 55 different languages.

The One Earth Message, by contrast, would be digital. If NASA greenlights the project — the space agency has expressed enthusiasm but has yet to approve it officially, Lomberg said — the team will be allowed to beam 150 megabytes of data to New Horizons.

The One Earth Message would therefore hold about the same amount of information as Voyager’s golden records — perhaps 100 images and about an hour of audio, Lomberg said. (Videos would take up too much memory.)

“We’re writing a haiku, not a novel,” he said.

The digital format would allow the One Earth Message to be more flexible, layered and integrated than was possible with the golden records, Lomberg added. For example, the message could be changed over time by beaming more files to New Horizons. It could also include a map of the world, and every picture and every sound could be tagged to the spot from which it came. 

Crowdsourced content and funding

There’s another key difference between the Voyager and New Horizons efforts: While the golden records carry information chosen by a small committee (which was chaired by famed astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan), the One Earth Message would be a crowdsourced affair, with contributions from people around the globe.

“It’s not simply a photo contest,” Lomberg said. “It’s a process that’s going to find out what people want to send.”

Just as the One Earth Message’s content would be crowdsourced, a chunk of its funding would be too. (The team is not asking NASA to pay for the project.) Lomberg and his colleagues hope to raise at least $500,000 from people around the world via a Fiat Physica campaign, to build and maintain a Web presence and to figure out the best way to program the message.

Additional money raised would be used for education and outreach, among other things.

“The total budget is a couple of million [dollars], to do everything we’d like to do,” Lomberg said.

People would be able to contribute a certain number of photos for possible inclusion in the One Earth Message for free, he added. Anyone who wants to submit additional pictures would be able to do so, for a fee that would help cover the costs of the project’s website.

The One Earth Message Fiat Physica campaign runs through July 15. As of yesterday evening (May 17), the crowdfunding effort had raised about $12,000 of its $500,000 target. You can learn more about the campaign here: http://www.fiatphysica.com/campaigns/oem/

The group is also looking for private support, Lomberg said. 

Plenty of time

Drawing up a message designed to be understood by alien civilizationsis not a simple or straightforward task. For example, how would any hypothetical extraterrestrials that chance upon New Horizons even know that humanity is trying to say something to them?

“How can you send files so that aliens can figure them out? They’re not going to know what a jpeg is,” Lomberg said. “Our challenge is to find ways of coding the message so that it calls attention to itself as a message.”

But there’s plenty of time to work on such issues. The transmission to New Horizons would occur in July 2016 at the earliest, Lomberg said, and it could even be postponed until after the probe flies by a second faraway object in 2019 during a potential extended mission that NASA is mulling.

While the One Earth Message is designed to be interpreted by aliens, it’s a worthwhile exercise even if New Horizons zooms through space alone for all of its days, Lomberg said. The project, he stressed, has the potential to get people more excited about the New Horizons mission and space exploration in general — and possibly to bring people around the world together in a perspective-altering experience.

“For almost 40 years, I’ve seen how the Voyager record has inspired people,” Lomberg said. “It seems like it’s time for another generation to have that same type of inspiration.”

Source www.space.com

Also published on Medium.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

06-05-2018 om 20:11 geschreven door peter  

The Great Filter Hypothesis – Where Are All The Alien Civilizations?

It’s difficult to not be pessimistic when considering humanity’s future prospects. Many people would agree that it’s more likely than not that we’ll eventually do ourselves in. And in fact, some astrobiologists theorize that all advanced civilizations hit the same insurmountable developmental wall we have. They call it the Great Filter. It’s a notion that’s often invoked to explain why we’ve never been visited by extraterrestrials.

With no evidence of intelligent life other than ourselves, it appears that the process of starting with a star and ending with “Advanced Universe Exploring life” must be unlikely. This implies that at least one step in this process must be improbable. This list, while incomplete (I am sure), describes the following nine steps in an “evolutionary path” that results in the colonization of the observable universe:

1. The right star system (including organics and potentially habitable planets)
2. Reproductive molecules (e.g., RNA)
3. Simple (prokaryotic) single-cell life
4. Complex (eukaryotic) single-cell life
5. Sexual reproduction
6. Multi-cell life
7. Tool-using animals with big brains
8. Where we are now
9. Colonization explosion.

The Great Filter is the idea that although there is lots of matter, we observe no “Advanced Universe Exploring life”, like space-faring intelligences. So there is some filter through which almost all matter gets stuck before becoming expanding, lasting life. One question for those interested in the future of humankind is whether we have already ‘passed’ the bulk of the filter, or does it still lie ahead? For example, is it very unlikely matter will be able to form self-replicating units, but once it clears that hurdle becoming intelligent and going across the stars is highly likely; or is it getting to a humankind level of development is not that unlikely, but very few of those civilizations progress to expanding across the stars. If the latter, that motivates a concern for working out what the forthcoming filter(s) are, and trying to get past them.

According to the Great Filter hypothesis, at least one of these steps — if the list were complete — must be improbable. If it’s not an early step (i.e., in our past), then the implication is that the improbable step lies in our future and our prospects of reaching step 9 (interstellar colonization) are still bleak. If the past steps are likely, then many civilizations would have developed to the current level of the human species. However, none appear to have made it.

However, none appear to have made it to step 9, or the Milky Way would be full of colonies. So perhaps step 9 is the unlikely one, and the only thing that appears likely to keep us from step 9 is some sort of catastrophe or the resource exhaustion leading to rampant consumption of the available resources (like for example highly constrained energy resources). So by this argument, finding multicellular life on Mars (provided it evolved independently) would be bad news, since it would imply steps 2–6 are easy, and hence only 1, 7, 8 or 9 (or some unknown step) could be the big problem.

Although steps 1–8 have occurred on Earth, any one of these may be unlikely. If the first seven steps are necessary preconditions to calculating the likelihood (using the local environment) then an anthropically biased observer can infer nothing about the general probabilities from its (pre-determined) surroundings.

One concern is that advancing technology gives the possibility of civilizations wiping themselves out, and it is this that is the main component of the Great Filter – one we are going to be approaching soon. There are several candidates for which technology will be an existential threat (nanotechnology/’Grey goo’, nuclear holocaust, runaway climate change), but one that looms large is Artificial intelligence (AI), and trying to understand and mitigate the existential threat from AI is the main role of the Singularity Institute consider AI the main existential threat.

The concern with AI is something like this:

1. AI will soon greatly surpass us in intelligence in all domains.
2. If this happens, AI will rapidly supplant humans as the dominant force on planet earth.
3. Almost all AIs, even ones we create with the intent to be benevolent, will probably be unfriendly to human flourishing.

Or, you can think of it this way.

… AI leads to intelligence explosion, and because we don’t know how to give an AI benevolent goals, by default an intelligence explosion will optimize the world for accidentally disastrous ends. A controlled intelligence explosion, on the other hand, could optimize the world for good.

So, the aim of the game needs to be trying to work out how to control the future intelligence explosion so the vastly smarter-than-human AIs are ‘friendly’ (FAI) and make the world better for us, rather than unfriendly AIs (UFAI) which end up optimizing the world for something that sucks.

Where is everybody?

Yes, it is possible that the extreme difficulty and rarity of life’s origin or some early step, so that, other than here on Earth, all life in the universe is stuck before this early extremely hard step. But even if you find this the most likely outcome, surely given our ignorance you must also place a non-trivial probability on other possibilities. You must see a great filter as lying between initial planets and expanding civilizations, and wonder how far along that filter we are. In particular, you must estimate a substantial chance of “disaster”, i.e., something destroying our ability or inclination to make a visible use of the vast resources we see. (And this disaster can’t be an unfriendly super-AI because that should be visible.)

This made me realize that UFAI should also be counted as an ‘expanding lasting life’, and should be deemed unlikely by the Great Filter.

Alternatively, if the Great Filter still lies ahead of us, and a major component of this forthcoming filter is the threat from UFAI, we should expect to see the UFAIs of other civilizations spreading across the universe (or not see anything at all, because they would wipe us out to optimize for their unfriendly ends). That we do not observe it disconfirms this conjunction.

It also gives a stronger argument – as the UFAI is the ‘expanding life’ we do not see, the beliefs, ‘the Great Filter lies ahead’ and ‘UFAI is a major existential risk’ lie opposed to one another: the higher your credence in the filter being ahead, the lower your credence should be in UFAI being a major existential risk (as the many civilizations like ours that go on to get caught in the filter do not produce expanding UFAIs, so expanding UFAI cannot be the main x-risk); conversely, if you are confident that UFAI is the main existential risk, then you should think the bulk of the filter is behind us (as we don’t see any UFAIs, there cannot be many civilizations like ours in the first place, as we are quite likely to realize an expanding UFAI).

This is, of course, a variant on the Fermi paradox: We don’t see clues to widespread, large-scale engineering, and consequently, we must conclude that we’re alone. But the possibly flawed assumption here is when we say that highly visible construction projects are an inevitable outcome of intelligence. It could be that it’s the engineering of the small, rather than the large, that is inevitable. This follows from the laws of inertia (smaller machines are faster, and require less energy to function) as well as the speed of light (small computers have faster internal communication). It may be – and this is, of course, speculation – that advanced societies are building small technology and have little incentive or need to rearrange the stars in their neighbourhoods, for instance.

They may prefer to build nanobots instead of Dyson spheres. It should also be kept in mind that, as Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“… I would like to add to the phrase “or be unrecognizable altogether“.

So, if the Great Filter is behind us, it would do much to explain the Fermi Paradox and the absence of extraterrestrial influence on the cosmos. Should that be the case, we may very well have a bright future ahead of us. The Milky Way Galaxy is literally ours for the taking, our future completely open-ended.

But before we jump to conclusions, it’s only fair to point out that we’re not out of the woods yet. There could very well be another Great Filter in the future — one just as stingy as the filters of our past. The universe, while giving the appearance of bio-friendliness, may, in reality, be extremely hostile to intelligent life.

{ http://www.theangryufologist.us/ }

06-05-2018 om 19:05 geschreven door peter  

Zwaarste aardbeving in 40 jaar en vulkaanuitbarsting richten ravage aan op Hawaï. Bekijk spectaculaire beelden van de lavastroom

Het grootste eiland van Hawaï is getroffen door de zwaarste aardbeving in 40 jaar tijd. De aardbeving met een kracht van 6,9 op de schaal van Richter was één van de honderden aardbevingen van de afgelopen week.

Het epicentrum laag bij de zuidkant van de vulkaan Kilauea, die sinds donderdag al lava spuwt. Er zitten grote scheuren in een aantal wegen.

De Kilauea, één van de actiefste vulkanen ter wereld, spuwde gedurende twee uur lava. Zo’n 1700 mensen moesten hun huizen verlaten omdat lava uit scheuren in de grond kwam.

Tienduizend

De lava stroomde onder meer een woonwijk binnen. Tienduizend Hawaïanen is gevraagd hun woning te laten.

De autoriteiten hadden na eerdere schokken, die heel wat schade hebben aangericht, al een evacuatie bevolen in de omgeving van de actieve vulkaan.

De aarde beefde vrijdag rond 12.32 uur lokale tijd (23.32 uur in Nederland) en een uur later opnieuw, zo meldde het Amerikaanse geologische onderzoekscentrum USGS.

Tulsi Gabbard

✔@TulsiGabbard

I'm glad to be in Hawaiʻi to help mobilize federal support and assist those who are having to flee their homes. What matters the most is the community coming together to help support the families who were directly impacted through the evacuations.

5:00 AM - May 5, 2018

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Helemaal niet stabiel

Donderdag was er al een aardbeving van 5,0 met tientallen naschokken geweest op het eiland. De autoriteiten waarschuwen dat de toestand helemaal niet stabiel is.

Op videobeelden is te zien hoe magma omhoog komt door een gat in de weg en hoe lava door het bos stroomt.

© Copyright (c) NineForNews.nl

06-05-2018 om 18:54 geschreven door peter  

When is a UFO not a UFO? When the government says it isn’t. When is something that looks like a rocket launch not a rocket launch? When the government says it isn’t. When is the government lying about a mysterious object in the sky? That’s the question thousands of witnesses in China are asking after seeing what appeared to be a rocket launch that the Chinese government vehemently denies it was not (pictures here). OK, Beijing, then what was it?

“Bizarre scene appeared in the sky over Beijing. Have you seen it?”

The social media posts began immediately after an unidentified flying object appeared over western Beijing, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Qingdao and across a wide area of northeastern China on the night of April 27th. Unlike most sightings, these posts included clear pictures and videos of the UFO, which looked suspiciously like the mysterious UFO seen over California on December 23, 2017, that turned out to be a nighttime SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The editor of a science website confirmed that the vast area of sightings at the same time showed the object was in the upper atmosphere. However, the lights seemed to change colors and directions that were not indicative of a rocket carrying a satellite payload.

An example of a high-altitude directional change

The mass speculation didn’t stop the Chinese government from doing what it always does … nothing. This silence came despite the fact that everyone knows the airspace over the country, and especially Beijing, is strictly regulated. Proving that everyone in the world wants to believe, social media sites exploded with the usual comments on aliens, flying saucers and the like. Proving that governments worldwide are more concerned about their image than keeping their people informed, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (a national scientific think tank) and The People’s Daily (the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party) issued what now constitutes an official government statement … a tweet.

“The alleged “#UFO” seen in the sky above northern China on Friday evening was a noctilucent contrail, possibly caused by aircraft engine exhaust or air pressure changes, says the Chinese Academy of Science, warning the clouds as a sign of #globalwarming.”

A glowing pink contrail … what a relief. Or is it, conspiracy fans? “Noctilucent” (Latin for “night shining”) is used to describe clouds in the upper atmosphere whose altitude makes them visible during the twilight portion of night. This is a new term for the highest known and extremely rare clouds which only occur in the summer (it’s still spring) and only when the conditions include water vapor, dust and very cold temperatures. “Contrail” is short for “condensation trail” … not “Contrary to what they say, the government is using jets to poison us without fail.” While noctilucent vapor clouds have been linked to space shuttle launches and a few rocket launches, their main causes are believed to be volcanic eruptions and climate change.

Noctilucent clouds photographed by the crew of the ISS

Despite the facts (not summer, no recent nearby volcanic eruptions, seemingly later than twilight), the Chinese Academy of Sciences stuck with the noctilucent contrail from “aircraft engine exhaust” explanation. All together now … what aircraft?

Proving that governments worldwide don’t like to be asked tough questions … or even seemingly easy ones … there were no further comments.

They probably wouldn’t even like it if some Chinese teens thought “Noctilucent Contrails” would be a great name for their band.

{http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

06-05-2018 om 16:24 geschreven door peter  

Just about everyone has heard of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), but what about Unidentified Future Objects? Alien encounters have been reported for decades. If there is one thing that the aliens are keen to tell us and have us believe, it’s that they originate on other worlds. But, are they being truthful with us? Might they really be time-travelers? In H.G. Wells’ classic novel of 1895, The Time Machine, an adventurous Londoner heads off into a dark future, where he clashes with cave-dwelling monsters, explores ruined cities and witnesses the final moments of life on Earth. In the 1968 movie, Planet of the Apes, Charlton Heston’s character, Taylor, an American astronaut, arrives on a nightmarish world run by a race of talking apes. Only at the film’s climax, as he stumbles upon the remains of the Statue of Liberty, does Taylor realize with horror that he has not set foot on some far-off planet, after all. Rather, he is home, 2,000 years in the future and after a worldwide holocaust has destroyed human civilization.

Then there is Michael J. Fox’s character, Marty McFly, who in the 1985 Hollywood comedy blockbuster, Back to the Future, travels through time to 1955. On doing so, he almost makes out with his then-teenage mom, comes perilously close to wiping out his own existence as a result of his time-traveling antics, and in single-handed fashion invents rock ‘n’ roll. And let’s not forget Bruce Willis in 1995’s 12 Monkeys. At least as far as mega-bucks movies and literary classics are concerned, the theme of time-travel is a spectacularly successful one. But what of the real world? Are time-travelers really among us? Is there a direct connection between the world of time-travel and that of UFOs?

Why is it that our “aliens” conveniently speak our languages? How is it that, with no trouble at all, they can they breathe our atmosphere? Why do they abduct us and use us in bizarre genetic experiments? Surely we are not physically and genetically compatible with creatures from faraway solar-systems? They assure us that we are indeed compatible. It all sounds far too convenient and carefully stage-managed. Maybe that’s because they are not from faraway worlds, after all. Perhaps, they are from right here, on Earth. Not our Earth (so to speak), but the Earth of the future; the distant future. An Earth that is in ruins and at a time when the Human Race is perilously close to extinction.

They travel into their distant past – our present – and engage in clandestine programs to reap DNA, cells, sperm and eggs as a means to try and save what is left of us, thousands of years from now. Keenly aware of the fact that the people of the 20^thand 21^st century held deep beliefs with regard to the concept of extraterrestrial life, they chose to adopt the guises of the alien things we believe in, as a means to camouflage their real identities. Could that be the shocking truth?

Formerly of the U.S. Air Force, and one of the key military players in the famous UFO encounter at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England in December 1980, Sergeant Jim Penniston – in 1994 – underwent hypnotic regression, as part of an attempt to try and recall deeply buried data relative to what occurred to him during one of Britain’s closest encounters. Very interestingly, and while under hypnosis, Penniston stated that our presumed aliens are, in reality, visitors from a far-flung future. That future, Penniston added, is very dark, in infinitely deep trouble, polluted and where the Human Race is overwhelmingly blighted by reproductive problems. The answer to those same, massive problems, Penniston was told by the entities he met in the woods, is that they travel into the distant past – to our present day – to secure sperm, eggs and chromosomes, all as part of an effort to try and ensure the continuation of the severely waning Human Race of tomorrow.

“Time travel is not theoretically possible, for if it was they’d already be here telling us about it,” British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking famously said. And even if time-travel did one day become a possibility, it would be beset by major problems, claimed Hawking: “Suppose it were possible to go off in a rocket ship, and come back before you set off. What would stop you blowing up the rocket on its launch pad, or otherwise preventing you from setting out in the first place?”

Not everyone agrees with Hawking. One possible way of traveling through time is via what are known in physics as wormholes, a term coined in 1957 by theoretical physicist John Wheeler. The wormhole is basically a shortcut through both space and time; and although firm evidence for the existence of these so-called “time-tunnels” has not yet been firmly proven, they do not fall outside of the boundaries presented in Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Then, there is the matter of the sinister Men in Black. They are perceived by UFO researchers as human-looking alien creatures or government agents, whose secret role it is to silence UFO witnesses, something that history has shown they are very good at. Maybe, though, the MIB are not the bad guys, after all. Perhaps they are “time-cops,” working to ensure that UFO witnesses don’t get too close to the truth – namely, the time-travel angle. After all, just about everything about the MIB is out of time. They almost always wear 1950s-era black suits. Their mode of transport – old-time Cadillac cars – is out of time, too. They have even asked witnesses, on more than a few occasions: “What time is it?”

Maybe they’re actually asking what year they’re in. Or even which century. Perhaps, in the distant future, little is known of our time. Maybe we destroyed ourselves and, as a consequence, the people of the future are tasked with repairing the planet and doing their utmost to save what is left of our species. Possibly, they have limited knowledge of our culture and even our fashions, apart from what they know from the pages of aging, crumbling old magazines from the 1950s. So, they adopt the attire they assume will allow them to blend in with the people of the 21^st century, when, in reality, it’s the exact opposite. The MIB stand out like a sore thumb. Or, like a man out of time.

Paranormal researcher Joshua P. Warren comments on this link between time-travel and the Men in Black: “It could be that the Men in Black follow all this UFO stuff around; that’s their job. Not that they are causing these things to happen, but they’re alerted to it when there’s a dangerous timeline issue that needs to be corrected. They’re not necessarily the bad-guys at all; they might be doing damage control, and maybe that includes warning and silencing witnesses to protect the time-travel secret. They might be weird, and they might look weird, but their overall mission may be just to keep order and protect the timelines.”

Of course, we need to remain grounded on all of this. So far, there is no definitive proof whatsoever that we have (or have ever had) time-travelers in our midst. And, there’s no evidence that UFOs are really time-machines. So, in other words, everything is very much theoretical and speculative – and just about nothing else. But, it doesn’t hurt to speculate!

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/

06-05-2018 om 16:18 geschreven door peter  

Hawaii Eruptions and Earthquakes are they Related to Cosmic Ray Increases?

With the powerful 5.4 and 6.9 quakes, numerous aftershocks and volcanic eruption on Hawaii Island, you need to ask yourself it is correlated to solar activity or has something to do with the intensifying grand solar minimum.

A 6.9 earthquake and explosive eruption at the Pu O'o vent is rare, but looking at the intensity ramp up of the magnetic wave cancelling on our Sun, well the we get into some interesting similarities

Adapt2030 provides a timeline for the grand solar minimum intensification and incredible images of the lava events on the island.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.be/ }

06-05-2018 om 16:10 geschreven door peter  

Weird Norfolk: Abiding mystery of the county’s 1954 UFO sightings

Stacia Briggs and Siofra Connor

It was the year J RR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was published, Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister and rationing came to an end. And 1954 was also the year that a series of Unidentified Flying Objects were seen in the skies above Norfolk, just a year after the term ‘UFO’ had been coined by the United States Air Force.

The first major sightings came in the first week of March, as winter’s grip remained in the east with uncommonly low temperatures and snow flurries holding back the onset of spring and sending most people indoors to stay warm by the fire.

But on Alexandra Road in Norwich on March 1 at around 6.15pm, it wasn’t snow that led Mr and Mrs Goreham to look up to the skies: the couple had spotted a “very bright round ball” which moved across the sky, spinning and then forming into the shape of a triangle.

“It had a bright ray of light round the whole of it. It disappeared three times while we were watching it.”

At nearby Lawson Road, Mr and Mrs Cubitt watched a round object in the sky “like a child’s humming top with a white or light-coloured band and blue to green top... it seemed as if the top of the ball was opening like a domed lid.” Both couples sketched what they had seen. Edith Capes of Paston saw a similar craft at 7pm - her description was almost identical: the object looked like a top, coloured blue and green and with a band of light round the middle. Letters to the EDP on the subject led to two further reports, a sighting on March 4 in Lowestoft and another on March 8 in Norwich.

After one sighting in Aylsham in June of a large cigar-shaped craft which roared and was “flaming red” at one end, the reports dried up. Until September.There were six witnesses in Overstrand, North Elmham, Trunch and Norwich who all reported seeing something strange in the sky between September 15 and 21.Mr Rayner of North Elmham reported seeing “flying shapes, one resembling a cigar, the other a saucer. The round thing was as big as a Canberra bomber, the other was like a double-sized Flying Fortress fuselage”.

A day later, a similar object was seen in Overstrand, four days after that there were two sightings, one in Overstrand and one in Trunch.

On September 21, 12-year-old Jasmine Morton reported seeing a green, egg-shaped object moving across Earlham Park. It was the last reported sighting until October 2, when in Costessey, a blue-white square craft was seen, silently revolving with several large and small lights.

There were then four sightings on October 21 from Blakeney to North Birmingham, Smallburgh and Rocklands when a UFO was spotted travelling at “tremendous speed” across the night sky.

In North Burlingham, Keith Watts was cycling towards Norwich when he spotted something unusual: “...a vivid object streaked across the sky, leaving in its rear a brilliant glow for a brief moment.” The object sped towards Great Yarmouth.

At around the same time in Smallburgh, David Coley saw an object travelling at speed which looked like a comet with its “glowing trail”.

Ten minutes later, in Rocklands, Ronald Lincoln saw a bright ball of light apparently drop 600 feet like a stone before stopping and speeding off.

The very last reported sighting came at the end of November in Norwich - as darkness fell at 4pm, an anonymous witness saw something unexplained: “I got my boy’s field glasses and continued watching it from upstairs. It was moving very slowly away towards the south - it was sausage-shaped and aluminium in colour.”

Did the witnesses see top secret military aircraft being tested over the skies of the county? Or did they catch sight of extraterrestrial visitors taking a closer look at the east of England?

The truth is out there.

For more Weird Norfolk click here.

For a daily dose of Weird Norfolk follow our Instagram here or our Facebook group here.

{ http://www.edp24.co.uk/home }

06-05-2018 om 00:26 geschreven door peter  

Britain’s Area 51 EXPOSED? Group chased by ‘men in black’ after entering UFO centre

FOOTAGE has emerged of the moment a group of blokes were confronted by authorities after entering a site known as Britain’s Area 51.

By Callum Hoare 

RAF Rudloe Manor in Bath gained its nickname after secret files were released at the National Archives indicating the site was the centre for UFO investigations in the 1950s.

It shows the four blokes sneaking around the buildings and capturing various bizarre footage. 

But they suddenly become spooked as they hear people approaching them.

Sirens then begin to ring out in the background as the four men rush to get in their car. 

And as they drive off, one of the men suggest they are being followed by government officials. 

“It's men in black”

Exploring With Fighters

One of them states: “We are currently being tailed by an unmarked police car, they’ve been following us for 15 minutes.”

Before someone else in the car suggests: “It's men in black.”

Their car is finally pulled over, for what they are told is a routine check, after a vehicle with the same registration had been spotted in London. 

The video was uploaded to YouTube on May 2 and has already racked up more than 100,000 hits.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

06-05-2018 om 00:18 geschreven door peter  

Fermi Paradox: Where Are the Aliens?

05-05-2018 om 23:42 geschreven door peter  

This Mind-Boggling Illusion Will Hurt Your Brain

I’ve seen a fair share of incredible illusions while surfing the internet, but for a long time have I not seen a mind-boggling illusion like this one.

A Mathematician has created a refreshing optical illusion that will surely hurt your brain.

Professor Kokichi Sugihara is a Mathematician and doctor of engineering at Meiji University in Tokyo, and his ‘arrow’ illusion has left the internet baffled.

via GIPHY

He essentially created an arrow that seems to always point to the right.

No matter how you rotate the arrow, it always turns right. Right?

The trick of the eye is one of the many illusions carefully crafted by professor Sugihara.

The arrow which was rigidly mounted on a wooden stand was built with great care to feature this brain-hurting event.

However, this duplicity (always right) can only be seen when observing the ‘arrow’ from above.

Professor Sugihara is famous for crafting mind-bending optical illusions that appear to question the very foundations of physics.

But with careful observations and a bit of time, the secrets are unfolded.

Professor Sugihara took the internet by storm after it was posted on the Instagram page Physicsfun, where it had been viewed nearly 400,000 times at the time of publication.

The post was accompanied by a brief description where the author explains:

“Spin this arrow 180 degrees and it still points to the right – only in a mirror will it point left, and only to the left. A clever combination of reflection, perspective, and viewing angle produce this striking illusion.”

The post on Phyiscsfun’s Instagram page reveals the secret of the illusion. The arrow is shown tilted up which allows the viewer to appreciate its true shape: an oblong with two pointed ends, featuring a number of upward and downward gradients.

And precisely this awkward symmetrical layout is what plays around with your mind. These features are also characteristic of Professor Sugihara’s work.

When you observe the ‘arrow’ from above, the object seems perfectly symmetrical. However, from a different perspective, like the first video of the arrow, the undulations visible from above make the arrow appear as if it was always pointing in the same direction: right.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

05-05-2018 om 23:20 geschreven door peter  

LUX: THE PARASITIC ALIEN PRESENT ON OUR PLANET

Lux: The parasitic alien present on our planet

According to several researchers, the Lux also known as The Being of Light is an otherworldly being present on our earth that does not need a physical body to enter and move in our world. This being, baptized with the name of Lux, has a small form, made of light.

As ancient scriptures teach us, human beings are made up of 4 elements: body, mind, spirit and soul. In our case, the body acts as a container for the other three elements. But the Lux is formed only by two elements: mind and spirit.

Lux: The parasitic alien present on our planet

Lux is a metamorphic plasma being that parasites about 80% of the population of our planet. The Lux comes from nebulous areas of our Galaxy (impossible for us to determine location) where they find the necessary elements (matter and antimatter) whose interaction is able to generate intelligent life forms without a physical body.

THE EXISTENCE AND THE BIRTH OF THE LUX

To explain the existence of Lux , we must take a step back and understand some of the dynamics of our Universe, still in many ways, completely unknown. Around the 60s of the twentieth century the Nobel Prize in physics in 1970 Hannes Alfven theorized the cosmology of plasma. An expert in the field of magnetodynamics, Alfven argued that magnetic fields had and played a fundamental role in the composition of cosmic structures.

It was he who proved that the Milky Way had a magnetic field that was not the mere sum of the stellar ones and hypothesized that such a galactic magnetic field was due to interstellar plasma motions. The Nobel Prize winner hypothesized that intergalactic plasma also has, with its motions, the ability to generate strong magnetic fields able to overlap with the action of gravity. He also thought that there were huge clashes between matter and antimatter, giving rise to multitudes of mini Big Bang. The common theories on the Universe are based on weak forces (magnetic force + gravitational force) and on the electrical neutrality of matter in terrestrial laboratories, but which can not be applied in the space in which the “Plasma” dominates, ie the 4th state of the matter, where the other 3 are gaseous, liquid and solid.

So this means that the Plasma has as main property that of transporting the electric current, forming “filaments” of energy that follow the lines of the magnetic fields, in fact in the cosmos these filaments are everywhere present. Summing up: in physics and chemistry, a Plasma is an ionized gas, consisting of a set of electrons and ions, globally neutral, but being made up of charged particles, the overall motions of the Plasma particles are largely due to the long range that come to create, and that tend to keep the plasma neutral. As such, Plasma is considered as the fourth state of matter, which is distinguished from solid, liquid and gas. The free electrical charges mean that Plasma is a good conductor of electricity, and that it responds strongly to electromagnetic fields.

From a higher perspective, this Alien corresponds to an attempt at the last minute of the Black Demiurge to create an alternative life base with the ability to operate with one’s own will and independence in our Universe. As if it were a cancer, the Lux is consumed in an unstoppable way to exhaust all the available energy at hand. These operations of true energetic drainage are obtained by means of different modes and formulas of parasite or interference, both on the human body and on the extraterrestrial animal and body.

THE LUX AND THE MAN

Once you realize that the matter that generates them has a limit and is unable to keep them alive forever, since once they were exhausted they would also end up existing, they went in search of other sources of alternative energy.

By dividing one’s being from a giant Lux-Mother to smaller, much more numerous and able to take on the most varied forms, they have spread everywhere, in search of worlds in which to absorb as much energy as possible, becoming at the same time same a metastasis. First they began their work of “vampirism” on animal and plant forms present in many planets scattered in the galaxy, then just met intelligence and other sentient forms like them, they gave life to a real parasitic, both subtle and consenting, with the host body.

In this long wandering, as far as the Lux of our galaxy is concerned, millions of years ago they came into contact with the Sauroidi race, which had long since settled among the planets of the stars of the Orion belt.

At first this vampirism began in a subtle and silent way, then when the Sauroidi evolved so much that they arrived to discover their presence, an exchange of information began, up to mutual mutual aid. The Sauroids needed to acquire more knowledge of the created and of the Universe, feeding their voracity of conquest thanks to a greater knowledge, while the Lux found in it an impressive force and a container to live and in which it would be able to draw a lot of energy, albeit for a limited time (here is born the myth of the “Fruit of Knowledge” of which the Serpents are the carriers and who will then also donate to the current Man, or the “knowledge of the Lux”). Writing what happened next would be too long and complicated and I will do it elsewhere,

Found Man on a wonderful planet, Eden or the Earth, (the First Man or the Giants of whom I speak in the Archeogenesis) but realizing that it was not possible to subject him to their will, they decided in common accord with other alien races that in the meantime had joined the project, to create a smaller container, able to contain that energy and then exploit it. Here the current human being appears on the scene, a synthesis of a genetic operation that saw the unification of the alien genome, with that of the First Man and the monkeys. 

All this part is deepened in several parallel studies and analogous to this, but from this reconstruction it is possible to draw many food for thought. The Sauroidi, which in the mythology are the Snakes, grant to man in the Garden of Eden, the “Fruit of Knowledge”, in reality this fruit is what they have been carrying within for a long time, the “knowledge of the Lux”, this entity of light generated by the same matter of which the stars, the Universe and the creators are formed. But Lux in reality, was not and is not only an entity of Light able to know in depth the secrets of the cosmos, but also an intelligent entity that, aware of its mortality, is able to make any gesture and stratagem to survive. and because his very existence is not lost. 

As soon as the New Man (the current Human Being) was created, he installed himself inside his container, parasitizing him and manipulating all his future evolution. But Lux in reality, was not and is not only an entity of Light able to know in depth the secrets of the cosmos, but also an intelligent entity that, aware of its mortality, is able to make any gesture and stratagem to survive. and because his very existence is not lost. As soon as the New Man (the current Human Being) was created, he installed himself inside his container, parasitizing him and manipulating all his future evolution. But Lux in reality, was not and is not only an entity of Light able to know in depth the secrets of the cosmos, but also an intelligent entity that, aware of its mortality, is able to make any gesture and stratagem to survive. and because his very existence is not lost. As soon as the New Man (the current Human Being) was created, he installed himself inside his container, parasitizing him and manipulating all his future evolution.

For millions of years, Lux has kept the entire humanity subjugated to its will, creating a false mysticism which, acting on the partly animal and suggestible side of man, has been able to direct it towards a certain objective.

He made it possible to spread and multiply the men on the planet, contributing to the development of the various races, then from them were born the countless cultures, the first peoples, the first kingdoms, the first nations, the empires, but above all the religions. On religion he has conducted an intense and systematic work, because by acting on the human psyche, inclined to mysticism, he was able to manipulate the mass of Humans that slowly increased over the millennia; passing his “Fruit of Knowledge” as a divine gift of which Man had become the only universal bearer.

For this reason the parasitic modes of the Lux are ambivalent, they put in doubt, they keep in a continuous state of doubling the man who hosts him, gratifies him and at the same time submerges him with the sense of guilt, because it is the internal divine voice that speaks to you and makes you understand what is right or wrong. His being a vampire is all-encompassing, because the more he leads man in a millennial game of manipulation, the more he feeds on his experiences and his inexhaustible energy source. It continually draws energy from Humans alone endowed with Mind and Spirit, creating contrasts, misunderstandings and wars, and withdraws energy from Humans endowed with Soul, because they are the creatives and those who possess the true divine spark.

A CURIOSITY:

As written at the beginning of the reconstruction, Plasma on Earth, unlike in the cosmos, is very rare, so when the Lux came to Earth at the beginning it was able to move only through approaching and physical contact with others individuals (typical of passages from demonic possession), currently, however, thanks to human technological development, is able to move on the entire globe thanks to electricity and enter our homes with extreme speed and ease, even by a grip of the light or a light bulb.

Also published on Medium.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

05-05-2018 om 22:25 geschreven door peter  

Ancient Manuscripts Contain Evidence of Planet Nine Claim Scientists

By analyzing ancient manuscripts and data gathered by Anglo-Saxon Astronomers, in combination with modern data by NASA and other space agencies, experts from Queen’s University hope to narrow down the location of elusive Planet Nine.

In the distant past, ancient astronomers spotted countless things in the night sky.

For example, thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians discovered a star located 92 light years away.

We have reported in earlier articles how a study by scientists from the University of Helsinki analyzed an ancient Egyptian papyrus and found it is the oldest preserved historical text of naked-eye observations of a variable star located 92 light years away, the eclipsing binary star Algol.

An 1145 depiction of ‘Halley’s Comet’.

Image Credit: Queen’s University Belfast.

Now, scientists at Queen’s University in Belfast believe how trails of dust and gas in the night sky, spotted by Anglo-Saxon astronomers may provide evidence of the mysterious Planet Nine.

In 2016, astronomers from Caltech published a study reporting the existence of an undiscovered planet, located in the outermost reaches of our solar system.

It is estimated that Planet Nine has ten times the mass and two to four times the diameter of the Earth.

According to Caltech astronomers, Planet Nine has a massive orbit, meaning that it takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make a single pass around the sun.

But even before 2016 have astronomers debated whether such a rogue planet may exist at the edge of our solar system.

But despite searching for the elusive world, astronomers on Earth have still not managed to find it.

According to news reports of January 2016, astronomer Michael Brown suggests there is a ninety percent probability that such a planet really exists. Astronomers say that the existence of such an alien world would explain the strange way distant objects in space move.

This is the Bayeux Tapestry and it features a depiction of the 1066 Halley’s Comet. Now, experts from Queen’s University Belfast say that trails of dust and gas in the night sky recorded by ancient Anglo-Saxon astronomers may contain evidence of the elusive Planet Nine.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

And since planet nine has eluded discovery, scientists from Queen’s University believe how ancient depictions of comets in the Dark Ages may provide crucial data on the whereabouts of the mysterious alien world.

Experts believe how ancient Anglo-Saxon accounts, together with modern scientific methods could be used to investigate the effects of such a world and spot it in the sky.

According to medieval historians and astronomers from Queens University, we may learn about the enigmatic planet by exploring the Anglo-Saxon understanding of the cosmos.

Experts combine record of comets spotted by Anglo-Saxon astronomers, as well as contemporary images of space objects, including data obtained from NASA and The Northern Ireland Amateur Astronomy Society.

By combining modern data with ancient accounts, researchers believe they could narrow down the location of planet nine.

“This research project renegotiates the meaning and importance of medieval science and demonstrates how medieval records of comets can help test the theory of the existence of the elusive ‘Planet Nine’.”

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

05-05-2018 om 22:16 geschreven door peter  

11 UNUSUAL CAVES AROUND THE WORLD

A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. Caves form naturally by the weathering of rock and they often extend deep underground. Because of their uniqueness and beauty, some caves have become very interesting places for tourists and photographers worldwide. 

1. Sea Cave in Algarve, Portugal

 2. Crystal Cave, Iceland

This cave in the glacier ice is the result of glacial mill, or Moulin where rain and melt water on the glacier surface are channeled into streams that enter the glacier at crevices. The waterfall melts a hole into the glacier while the ponded water drains towards lower elevations by forming long ice caves with an outlet at the terminus of the glacier.

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The fine grained sediments in the water along with wind blown sediments cause the frozen meltwater stream to appear in a muddy colour while the top of the cave exhibits the deep blue colour. Due to the fast movement of the glacier of about 1 m (3 ft) per day over uneven terrain, this ice cave cracked up at its end into a deep vertical crevice, called cerrac. This causes the indirect daylight to enter the ice cave from both ends resulting in homogeneous lighting of the ice tunnel.

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The cave is accessible through a 22-foot (7 m) entrance on the shoreline. At the end it tapers to a tight squeeze no more than four feet high (1,2 m). Ice caves are in general unstable things and can collapse at any time. They are safe to enter only in winter when the cold temperatures harden the ice. Even so one could hear constant cracking sounds inside the cave. It was not because it was going to collapse but because the cave was moving along with the glacier itself. Each time the glacier moved a millimeter loud sounds could be heard. [link, map]

3. Devetashka Cave, Bulgaria

link Devetashka cave is one of the biggest caves in Bulgaria but it is most famous for its amazing history. It is also currently home to nearly 30,000 bats.  The man on the floor of the Devetashka cave  link  Devetashka cave is located 18 km (11mi)  northeast of Lovech and 2 kilometers (1.2mi) away from the village of Devetaki. The cave is also known as Maarata or Oknata for its seven different-sized holes in the ceiling, through which sunlight penetrates and illuminates the central hall and part of its two fields.  Old building inside of entrance area  link  The entrance of the cave is 35 meters (115ft) wide and 30 meters (100ft) high. About 40 meters (130ft) after the entrance, the cave widens, forming a spacious hall with an area of 2,400 sqm (0.6 acres). The height of the hall is 60 meters (197ft); at some places it reaches 100 meters (330ft). [link, map]

4. Glow Worm Caves, New Zealand

link Waitomo, New Zealand is famous for one thing. Every year, heaps upon heaps of travelers come here to see the infamous glow worms that line the ceilings of the nearby caves. The glow worms emit a phosphorescent glow that shines from the roofs of the caves like a starry night.

link The interesting thing about the glow worms is that they aren’t really glow worms. They’re fly larvae. And what glows? Well, that’s their waste and snot. The larva glow to attract prey into its threads by making the prey believe they are outdoors as the roof of a cave looks much like a starry night. Hungry larva glow brighter than ones that have just eaten. There are a couple of ways to see the glow worms. There’s the three hour black water tubing trip, the five hour trip that includes abseiling and climbing, or, if you like it easy, a boat. [link, map]

5. Cueva de Arpea, Spain

link Cueva de Arpea is located below the twisted rock layers in Aezkoa valley in northern Spain. That area is home to some truly amazing caves.

6. Minnehaha Falls Cave, USA 

Near where the Minnehaha Creek meets the Mississippi River, a 53 ft (16m) waterfall that freezes during the winter creates a temporary cave behind a wall of ice. Due to the extremely cold temperatures in the area during the winter months, the falls freeze, creating a dramatic cascade of ice that can last well into the spring.

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Minnehaha Creek is located in Hennepin County, Minnesota that extends from Lake Minnetonka in the west and flows east for 22 miles through several suburbs west of Minneapolis and then through south Minneapolis. Including Lake Minnetonka, the watershed for the creek covers 181 square miles.

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The creek might have been unremarkable except for the 53 foot (16m) Minnehaha Falls located near the creek’s confluence with the Mississippi. The site is not far from Fort Snelling, one of the earliest white settlements in the region. [link, map]

7. Fingal’s Cave, UK

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Fingal’s Cave is a sea cave on the uninhabited island of Staffa, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, part of a National Nature Reserve owned by the National Trust for Scotland. It is formed entirely from hexagonally jointed basalt columns.

link

Its size and naturally arched roof, and the eerie sounds produced by the echoes of waves, give it the atmosphere of a natural cathedral. The cave’s Gaelic name, An Uaimh Bhinn, means “the melodious cave“.

link

The cave has a large arched entrance and is filled by the sea. Several local companies include a pass by the cave in sightseeing cruises from April to September. However, it is also possible to land elsewhere on the island and walk to the cave overland, where a row of fractured columns forms a walkway just above high-water level permitting exploration on foot. [link, map]

8. Giant Crystal Cave, Mexico

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Cave of the Crystals or Giant Crystal Cave is a cave connected to the Naica Mine 300 metres (980 ft) below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico. The main chamber contains giantselenite crystals (gypsum, CaSO4·2 H2O), some of the largest natural crystals ever found.

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The cave’s largest crystal found to date is 12 m (39 ft) in length, 4 m (13 ft) in diameter and 55 tons in weight. The cave is extremely hot with air temperatures reaching up to 58 °C (136 °F) with 90 to 99 percent humidity. The cave is relatively unexplored due to these factors. Without proper protection people can only endure approximately ten minutes of exposure at a time.

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A group of scientists known as the Naica Project have been heavily involved in researching these caverns. [link, map]

9. Cenote Ik Kil, Mexico

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Ik Kil is a well known cave with no roof, or a sinkhole outside Pisté in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán, Mexico, It is located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula and is part of the Ik Kil Archeological Park near Chichen Itza. It is open to the public for swimming and is often included in bus tours.

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This cave is open to the sky with the water level about 26 metres (85 ft) below ground level. There is a carved stairway down to a swimming platform. Ik Kil is about 60 metres (200 ft) in diameter and about 40 metres (130 ft) deep. There are vines which reach from the opening all the way down to the water along with small waterfalls. Also, there are black catfish which swim in the sinkhole. [link, map]

10. Blue Lake Cave, Brazil

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Mato Grosso do Sul region in Brazil (and especially the quiet town of Bonito) boasts many marvelous underground lakes: Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do Mimoso, Aquário Natural. The world famous “Gruta do Lago Azul” (Blue Lake Cave) is a natural monument whose interior is formed by stalactites, stalagmites and a huge and wonderful blue lake.

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The beauty of the lake is something impressive. The Blue Lake Cave has a big variety of geological formation but impresses mainly for the deep blue colored water of its inside lake. [link]

11. Blue Marble Caves, Chile

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In Patagonia, South America, General Carrera Lake is shared by Argentina and Chile. But on the Chilean side of the beautiful emerald-green to turquoise-blue waters, there are breathtakingly beautiful marble caves carved into passageways and caverns.

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These amazing marble formations were sculpted by erosion into three main marble formations: La Capilla (the Chapel), El Catedral (the Cathedral), and La Cueva (the Cave).

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The impressive labyrinth of marble caves are large enough for a small boat to glide into. [link,map]

Source www.myscienceacademy.org

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

05-05-2018 om 22:03 geschreven door peter