15-05-2018 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

15-05-2018 om 23:30 geschreven door peter  

OOK APOCALYPTISCHE GELUIDEN IN BELGIË ( VIDEO )

{  http://www.niburu.co/ }

15-05-2018 om 23:08 geschreven door peter  

The controversial theory that mysterious and biologically complex octopus is so unique that it had to come from another planet just got a scientific paper backing it.

“Thus the possibility that cryopreserved Squid and/or Octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted as that would be a parsimonious cosmic explanation for the Octopus’ sudden emergence on Earth circa 270 million years ago.”

OK, “should not be discounted” is not exactly a bet-your-life savings-on-it endorsement, but it’s still a big deal. In a paperentitled “Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?” published in the Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biologyjournal, 33 scientists researching the cause of the Cambrian Explosion – the mysterious point in Earth’s history when single-cell organisms were suddenly overshadowed by complex animals – linked the panspermia or cosmic cause to the equally mysterious and sudden appearance of octopuses.

“The transformative genes leading from the consensus ancestral Nautilus to the common Cuttlefish to Squid to the common are not easily to be found in any pre-existing life form – it is plausible then to suggest they seem to be borrowed from a far distant “future” in terms of terrestrial evolution, or more realistically from the cosmos at large. One plausible explanation, in our view, is that the new genes are likely new extraterrestrial imports to Earth – most plausibly as an already coherent group of functioning genes within (say) cryopreserved and matrix protected fertilized Octopus eggs.”

“Cryopreserved and matrix protected” sounds like a Superman origin story with creatures sent by another civilization to populate the galaxy (let’s take a moment to remember Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane to Christopher Reeve’s movie Superman and passed away this week), but the paper leans more towards the idea that Earth received a bombardment of comets and asteroids that could have been carrying organisms that somehow managed to survive the cold, the radiation and the long trip. Only a complex species could devise a way to do this … an advanced species with a really big brain like … an octopus?

Yes, that seems to be the flying octopus in the panspermian ointment of this particular paper. It singles out octopuses as an (or possibly the only) advanced species that sent preserved eggs during the same period that it speculates asteroids and comets were involuntarily bringing other hardy cells and viruses en masse to ignite the Cambrian Explosion some 540 million years ago. “Speculates” because there’s no physical proof yet of the real cause of the Cambrian Explosion – so panspermia, climate change, evolution and others are in play.

If they’re an advanced species, do they know about this?

Octopuses are a special and highly unusual species that can edit their own RNA and slow down their evolution – a process that science can’t explain yet. It’s interesting that many scientists think the idea of intentional panspermia as their origin on Earth “should not be discounted.” Does this mean octopuses are aliens? Only an eight-legged, squishy Jor-El knows for sure.

{http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-05-2018 om 22:55 geschreven door peter  

While the search for extraterrestrial life here in this universe is complicated enough, the problem becomes even murkier when you account for the multiverse theory—our universe might one of many “universes” that make up a collective multiverse. Theoretical physicists have long assumed that the vast majority of parallel universes would be unable to harbor alien life, but that assumption is being challenged.  A research team of scientists from Durham University, Western Sydney University, and the University of Western Australia have now found evidence that upends previously held notions of why the universe formed as it did, and suggests that the conditions to create a habitable universe are much more likely that previously imagined.

Just as Earth is an assumed rarity in our universe—a Goldilocks planet, not too hot, not too cold, and full of liquid water—our universe as a whole was previously considered to be an extreme rarity among potential alternate universes. Why? Dark energy, the strange and baffling invisible force that is driving our universe’s expansion.  Jaime Salcido, postgraduate student at Durham University told Newsweek:

“The multiverse theory suggests that our universe is only one of many, baby universes being born like bubbles in a bigger multiverse, with a wide range of physical laws and fundamental constants. The existence of life seems to depend on a small number of fine-tuned fundamental physical constants, such as the strength of gravity and the amount of dark energy. The formation of stars and galaxies is the result of a tug-of-war between these values: gravity causing matter to clump together, the dark energy causing the universe to fly apart.”

The multiverse theory states that our universe is just one in a perhaps never ending series of other universes.

Scientists thought that if there were any less or any more dark energy in a parallel universe than what we find in our own—dark energy makes up about 70 percent of our observable universe—the alternate universe wouldn’t have the physical laws that allow galaxies, stars, and planets to form in the first place.

To test this, the Australian research team studied computer models of the formation of the universe (because we can do that now…) using EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments), the most advanced computer simulation of how our universe was formed. They found something surprising.

It seems that celestial bodies like stars and galaxies form even when they amount of dark energy is no where near the amount predicted to be necessary. In one case, the researchers added one hundred times the amount of dark energy to the system, and a functioning, potentially habitable universe still formed. Salcido says:

“Our research shows that even if there was much more dark energy, or even very little, in the universe, then it would only have a minimal effect on star and planet formation, raising the prospect that life could exist throughout the multiverse.”

Inter-dimensional aliens are objectively more awesome than regular aliens, so that’s pretty cool.

New research shows that a universe will form galaxies regardless of the amount of dark energy.

The findings do cause a bit of a problem though. The multiverse theory was created as a way to explain the amount of dark matter, and the relationship it has with the fundamental formation of the universe. It doesn’t work anymore. While the researchers say this doesn’t disprove a multiverse, it does mean that our understanding of dark energy was rather flawed:

“It seems that we need a new physical law to understand dark energy. The puzzle remains.”

It wouldn’t be fun if it was easy, right?

{http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-05-2018 om 22:44 geschreven door peter  

What Happened In Deep Space?

Streetcap1 has recorded a strange and unusual astral phenomenon that showed up on the Stereo Ahead satellite.

The footage shows a normal picture of the solar system when suddenly ‘something’ completely disturbed the images resulting in a picture of a distorted solar system.

It is unclear what caused the disruption, but it looks like a huge shock wave is travelling through space.

  

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

15-05-2018 om 22:32 geschreven door peter  

Local Geologist Films UFO Sighting Over Cairns

People staring at the night sky over the Trinity Park a couple of months ago might have seen a UFO.

A local geologist Adam Murfet caught an apparent UFO while recording on video an intense storm activity with his camera.

Mr Murfet said that he saw the strange light in the sky during the end of a lightning storm. He explained that there was no lightning going on by the time he noticed what could be described as an unidentified flying object.

The video shows a small object hovering, zipping around erratically and seemingly vanish before reappearing.

He said that it shot up and disappeared.

Then all of a sudden, the pitch black sky reignites with lightning quickly after the light vanished.

The possible existence of little green men in the skies makes Mr Murfet to consider starting a Northern Beaches UFO watchers group.

He said that he has never created one before, but believes they could form a group together to see what they could see.

He sent the footage to Mutual UFO Network for consideration.

Mr Murfet said that UFOs have always fascinated him, but it was the first time he has seen one.

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

15-05-2018 om 22:23 geschreven door peter  

Why Is Life On Earth Carbon-Based?

Speculation about the existence of extraterrestrial life has been a perennial occupant of humanity’s endless capacity for wonder. To see if there is anyone out there, we sent both Voyagers, not to study a particular star, but to leave our shores and explore other islands in the vast oceans of outer space. Astrophysicists have also wondered (if we do discover one) about the nature of such an alien civilization.

If we were to infer the biochemistry of any life form from what we have already encountered, which is well, us, we’d conclude that it would be based on carbon. Carbon, or as science fiction regularly depicts, carbon’s closest cousin, silicon. However, Carl Sagan called this parochial view Carbon chauvinism. He believed that we shouldn’t limit our imagination and ridiculed the assumption that alien life would resemble life on Earth.

Life in all its variety.

Still, due to its sheer dominance on Earth, carbon remains our best guess. Given that, what makes carbon so special?

Life is complex

Every life form, whether plant or animal, is the embodiment of complexity. The first self-replicating organism evolved more and more complex biological functions by incorporating more and more molecular complexity. Here, complexity refers to fostering millions of intricate chemical bonds and reactions that are imperative to sustain higher forms of life. A primitive life form, such as an amoeba, fosters far lesser molecular complexity than a higher mammal, such as a dog.

Molecular complexity enabled the synthesis of functions, such as breathing, excretion, digestion and most importantly, reproduction. None of this would have been possible without carbon. Without carbon, there would have been no DNA, proteins, lipids, sugar, fat, muscle tissue or anything else that makes up the stuff of life.

(Photo Credit: Pixabay)

Considering the 118 elements known to man, it’s strange why only 5-6 of them are used to construct organic life. The most common of them is, of course, carbon, dedicated to whose antics is an entire branch of chemistry. It is carbon’s extraordinary thermodynamic and chemical properties that render it so superior to other elements.

Carbon amiability

A carbon atom consists of four valence electrons, allowing it to form four single bonds (methane), two double bonds (carbon dioxide) and a triple bond (acetylene, a welding fuel and a raw material for synthesizing plastic). The dominance of carbon, however, isn’t a result of its ability to form these complex bonds, but rather the ease and pliancy with which it forms them. In fact, all the elements residing in the column that carbon occupies in the periodic table possess four valence electrons, but the stability of the bonds they form is incomparable to carbon.

The chemical structure of a four base pair fragment of a DNA double helix.

(Photo Credit: Thomas Shafee / Wikimedia Commons)

Even silicon, the element that resides right below carbon, forms countless molecules, but a double-bonded silicon molecule, unlike double-bonded carbon, is transient – its instability eventually forces it to part into single-bonded silicon atoms. Carbon molecules, such as hydrocarbons, one of the most crucial species of molecules to sustain life, are neither too frail to easily break down, nor too rigid to deter plasticity and adaptability. This allows enzymes to easily manipulate carbon molecules. Furthermore, reactions with silicon aren’t all that efficient; silicon dioxide is a huge molecule (sand), as compared to carbon dioxide, which comfortably exists as a gas.

Silicon-based life can’t survive on Earth anyway. Silicon is more reactive than carbon and can form long ‘chains’ of molecules, reminiscent of hydrocarbons, but it will also react violently with oxygen at relatively low temperatures. This means that silicon chains or ‘silanes’ couldn’t have survived within our atmosphere. Carbon-based life also wouldn’t have survived if organisms stored energy directly as hydrocarbons — alkanes are quite flammable themselves (petrol and kerosene), but carbon-based organisms store energy as sugars, lipids, alcohols and other hydrocarbons that exhibit very different chemical properties.

A strawberry poison frog from a tropical rainforest in Panama.

(Credit: Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock)

All of these properties can be explained by a single statement: carbon is the smallest atom that possesses four valence electrons. Its size renders it the ideal friend to make. Bonds on one branch are unaffected by bonds on other branches. However, life would have been impossible to manufacture if nature lacked the raw materials itself. Carbon is abundant on Earth, so nature couldn’t have missed the opportunity. It leveraged its properties to build life right from scratch!

References

1. Harvard University
2. NC State University
3. The University of Maryland
4. Wikipedia

The short URL of the present article is: http://sciabc.us/rnO7U

15-05-2018 om 00:20 geschreven door peter  

We could live inside a multiverse that is full of alien life, new study suggests

Andrew Griffin 

There might be plenty of aliens – living in other universes, according to a new study.

Whether we live in a universe that is just one of many, inside a multiverse, is a question that has long troubled astronomers. And, after asking that, another question that is even more perplexing follows: would those other universes contain life of their own?

Now new research has shown that if that multiverse exists it could be filled with many examples of different alien life.

Scientists used vast computer simulations to predict that other parts of the multiverse would be far more hospitable to life than we had previously thought.

But it also causes major problems for the idea of the multiverse. In fact, the strangeness of our own universe might better be explained by an undiscovered natural law, they said.

The idea of the multiverse comes about because in physics terms, our universe is very lucky to exist at all.

• READ MORE

Scientists launch huge survey to find alien life

Current theories predict there should be much more dark energy inside of our own universe than there is. That is a problem because adding more dark energy would lead it to expand so quickly that any matter would be diluted before it could form the stars or planets that we need to live.

In response to that, some have suggested that we might in fact be living inside of a multiverse. There are in fact lots of different universes – many of which will have more dark energy and so could not host life – and we simply live inside one that worked out in the right way.

But the new study suggests that we might have been overstating how lucky we are. It might actually be possible for stars and planets to form even if there is much more dark energy.

“We asked ourselves how much dark energy can there be before life is impossible,” said Pascal Elahi, a research fellow at the University of Western Australia. “Our simulations showed that the accelerated expansion driven by dark energy has hardly any impact on the birth of stars, and hence places for life to arise. Even increasing dark energy many hundreds of times might not be enough to make a dead universe.”

It is still true that our universe could be very special. But it does not need to be quite so special, the researchers showed.

“The multiverse was previously thought to explain the observed value of dark energy as a lottery – we have a lucky ticket and live in the Universe that forms beautiful galaxies which permit life as we know it,” said Luke Barnes, a John Templeton research fellow at Western Sydney University.

“Our work shows that our ticket seems a little too lucky, so to speak. It’s more special than it needs to be for life. This is a problem for the multiverse; a puzzle remains.”

That puzzling fact might suggest that the multiverse theory is not true in the first place. The study does not rule out the idea but does suggest that the small amount of dark energy in our universe would be better explained by a law of nature that we do not yet know about.

More about: 

• Multiverse
• universe

{ https://www.independent.co.uk/ }

15-05-2018 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Is there ALIEN LIFE near Earth? NASA make breakthrough to change EVERYTHING

NASA scientists have made an alien breakthrough that could lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial life just a stone’s throw from Earth.

By Henry Holloway 

Space probe Dawn has uncovered evidence of an ancient ocean and evidence of an underground sea on the dwarf planet Ceres.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

14-05-2018 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

Astrophysicists found 12 possible black holes near the supermassive black hole at our Milky Way’s heart. They could be the 1st known members of a black hole swarm.

When you look at this image, you’re looking toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy, toward the giant black hole called Sagittarius A*. The white circles indicate likely binary systems containing white dwarf stars. The red circles indicate possible black holes.

Image via Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Scientists using X-ray data said on May 9, 2018, that they now have evidence for a swarm of stellar-mass black holes – typically weighing between five to 30 times the mass of our sun – within three light-years of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The galactic center is already known to be inhabited by a supermassive black hole, with some 4 million times the sun’s mass. Astronomers call this behemoth Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A-star), and they’re calling the possible swarm of smaller black holes near it the Sagittarius A* Swarm.

The evidence takes the form of the discovery of just 12 stellar-mass black holes, identified via X-ray data near our galaxy’s center. Chuck Hailey of Columbia University in New York led the team that made the discovery, which was published in April in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. He said in a statement from Columbia:

Everything you’d ever want to learn about the way big black holes interact with little black holes, you can learn by studying this distribution. The Milky Way is really the only galaxy we have where we can study how supermassive black holes interact with little ones because we simply can’t see their interactions in other galaxies.

The scientists said this new evidence is the first confirmation of decades of theoretical studies of the dynamics of stars in galaxies, which have indicated that a large population of stellar mass black holes could drift inward over the eons and collect around the galaxies’ central supermassive black holes.

The researchers used Chandra data to search for X-ray binaries – systems where a black hole is locked in a close orbit with a star and is pulling matter from the star, resulting in X-ray emission – near Sagittarius A*. They studied the X-ray spectra — that is, the amount of X-rays seen at different energies — of sources within about 12 light-years of the galaxy’s heart. A statement from Chandra X-ray Observatory explained:

… they detected 14 X-ray binaries within about three light-years of Sgr A*. Two X-ray sources likely to contain neutron stars based on the detection of characteristic outbursts in previous studies were then eliminated from the analysis.

The dozen remaining X-ray binaries are identified in the labeled version of the image [above] using red colored circles. Other sources with relatively large amounts of high energy X-rays are labeled in white, and are mostly binaries containing white dwarf stars.

Hailey and his collaborators concluded that a majority of these dozen X-ray binaries are likely to contain black holes.

Sagittarius A* is about 26,000 light-years from Earth. The scientists said that – at this distance – only the brightest X-ray binaries containing black holes are likely to be detectable. Therefore, they said:

… the detections in this study imply that a much larger population of fainter, undetected X-ray binaries — at least 300 and up to 1,000 — containing stellar-mass black holes should be present around Sagittarius A*.

Read more via Chandra and Columbia University

Artist’s concept of the stellar-mass black holes found near the giant supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, via Columbia University.

Bottom line: Astrophysicists found 12 possible black holes within three light-years of Sagittarius A*, the 4-billion-solar-mass black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The smaller black holes could be the 1st known members of a black hole swarm.

Source: A density cusp of quiescent X-ray binaries in the central parsec of the Galaxy

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

14-05-2018 om 23:27 geschreven door peter  

30 Images That Prove The End Is Near

Because sometimes we, as a society need help to realize what exactly is going on around us, and how things have changed, and not for the better, here are 30 images that prove the end is near.

Take a look at the largest diamond mine in the world. The Mir Mine. What exactly is mankind ready to do to get what they want? Does mother nature stand a chance against destructive humans?

This image above is a satellite view of the metropolitan area of New Delhi in India. It is the world’s third-largest metropolis, and it continues to grow.

A Plastic Bag was recently discovered at the deepest point on Earth.

Black Friday: Need I say more? Sigh.

Remember the Fukushima Disaster in Japan? Why not resort to eco-friendly energy?

Yeah, this was once an elephant.

The Ancient Temple of Ain Dara reduced to rubble after the war.

Chemtrails. Not a conspiracy anymore.

This is an oilfield in California.

Deforestation in Canada.

This image was shot in Java, Indonesia where people still surf beautiful turquoise waves, despite the trash and filth.

Yeah, that’s Toxic plume.

Melting ice is producing an incredible waterfall right on top of an iceberg in this stunning yet worrying image.

Welcome to the Concrete Jungle. L.A., evidence of a consumption-oriented, car-dependent society.

As ecosystems change and ice caps melt, changes occur. This image shows a polar bear that starved to death. Experts say that ice caps are disappearing alarmingly.

Scenes like these are common all around the globe.

After stripping electronic devices of any ‘precious’ metals, this is what remains. Plastic, plastic, and yeah, more plastic.

Rising sea levels could see places like the Maldives disappear beneath the ocean.

Satellite image of the tar sands region. As we can see in the image, mining operations and tailing ponds are so widespread; they are visible from space.

That ‘colorful scenery’ inside the albatross is plastic.

And if our waste doesn’t get the animals, poachers will hunt them down to extinction level.

We cut down trees without thinking about the consequences.

Wildfires have become frequent around the globe. These destructive fires are another consequence of a warming planet.

In this image, we can observe a waste treatment plant in India. There are surely better ways to treat waste?

Oil is not the energy of the future. But those who profit from it don’t really care, right?

A shepherd photographed in Inner Mongolia cannot stand the smell as he navigates the Yellow River.

In Peru, the rainforest has survived mercury poisoning coming from the south produced by diamond mines.  To the North, oil companies destroy everything they find along the way. This image shows the rainforest burning.

Greenhouses cover the landscape in Almeria, Spain

Mexico City. Need I say more?

An oil platform on Fire in the Gulf Of Mexico.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

14-05-2018 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

Check Out The Floating Pyramid City That Makes 100% Of Its Food, Water And Electricity

I’ve got to admit, every once in a while, I get tired from the life in a big city.

Modern ways of life have twisted the fabrics of our society to a point where people live by the clock without consideration, by the routine.

We live in a monotony, where every day is similar to the previous one and a strictly embedded pattern in our society unconsciously dictates how our lives unfold.

Society, our communities, and life, in general, has drastically changed, and we have become hugely dependent on things that did not matter previously.

So if you have become tired of Suburbia, you may have a pretty awesome alternative: applying to live on the ocean, in a community made of self-sufficient, solar powered, Pyramid-shaped buildings.

Need I say more?

The Waya Adobes were designed by Pierpaolo Lazzarini a man who managed to blend the past and the future, inspired by ancient Mayan and Japanese architecture.

A pretty awesome project, right? Image Credit: Pierpaolo Lazzarini

His pyramid-shaped buildings come in a variety of designs and sizes and are specifically built to serve different purposes.

According to New Atlas some exist as floating homes, whereas others function as greenhouses, hotels, and cinemas.

The largest of the structures was designed to be around 30 meters tall, above the water line.

Floating Pyramid City. Image Credit: Pierpaolo Lazzarini

According to Lazzarini, the Pyramid-shaped Waya modules are to be built of fiberglass, carbon fiber as well as steel. The buildings are to be installed on massive floating platforms, containing basements locate beneath the water, suitable for bedrooms or living rooms.

As the floating Pyramid-shaped city aims to be fully autonomous and self-sustaining, the Waya modules will have solar-powered motors that will propel the structures.

Image Credit: Pierpaolo Lazzarini

The Pyramid-city would also have a small marina where the inhabitants could accommodate their boats and other water vehicles.

Lazzarini envisioned how each Waya module would obtain electricity from solar panels and water turbines.

Sounds interesting right?

Image Credit: Pierpaolo Lazzarini

However, the city, Wayaland, is still in concept stage, and Lazzarini is currently raising funds to begin the construction of the pyramid-shaped floating city with a crowdfunding campaign.

The Smallest Waya module will cost around $422,000 USD.

The modules would also be available for rent, with a cost of around $1,200 USD per night.

Image Credit: Pierpaolo Lazzarini

All of those who purchase a Waya module will participate in the community giving them rights like voting for where the Pyramid-shaped city would be located, based on a pre-selected list of optimal locations.

Lazzarini plans the inauguration of Wayaland to take place in 2022.

Image Credit: Pierpaolo Lazzarini

So, if you have a bit of cash to space, like Pyramids–floating pyramids–and want to live in a fully autonomous and self-sustaining city, hop over to Lazzarini’s website and found more about this revolutionary project.

Source: Inhabitat -This floating pyramid city generates 100% of its own food, water, and electricity

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

14-05-2018 om 22:21 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Find Genetically ‘Different’ Humans Adapted For Diving

No, scientists didn’t discover fish people, nor did they find a new species of humans. 

A mystery people living in Southeastern Asia has baffled scientists for years.

The people of the Bajau tribe, in Southeast Asia, only need a breath of air to dive up to 70 meters underwater and fish, remaining submerged for several minutes. This has led experts to question how dey manage to do it.

These people were almost like “super-humans” and have “extraordinary” capabilities…

Image Credit: Melissa Ilardo

A recent study published in the Journal cell describes how a certain population of humans has genetically adapted to dive underwater.

Experts describe a population that has remarkably larger organs, which help them stay underwater for greater periods of time.

This isn’t the first time that experts have found genetic mutations in humans.

The more we peer into our genes, the more we discover how people from around the world have adapted to their surroundings, making them remarkably unique in a number of ways.

For example, people in Tibet and the Ethiopian highlands have ‘evolved’ to better adapt to living at extremely high altitudes.

People in East Africa and Northern Europe have adopted a genetic mutation that allows them to better digest milk as adults.

And now, scientists reported a new type of genetic mutation different from the above-mentioned in sea-dwelling people in Southeastern Asia.

This genetic mutation allows them to become exceptional divers.

According to experts, the Bajau people, who are scattered in several communities across Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines have evolved to longer survive underwater.

These people traditionally live on houseboats, reports the New York Times.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

14-05-2018 om 22:09 geschreven door peter  

“Exiled” asteroid shouldn’t be where it is

 BY MIHAI ANDREI 

In the dark, frozen wasteland that lies just beyond Neptune, few things really stand out — and now, astronomers have found one of them: a carbon-rich asteroid, the first asteroid of its kind to be discovered at the outskirts of our solar system.

Artistic depiction of the exiled asteroid 2004 EW95, the first carbon-rich asteroid confirmed to exist in the Kuiper Belt and a relic of the primordial solar system.

Image credits: ESO/M. Kornmesser.

It really shouldn’t be there, and as it so often happens in such studies, researchers first thought it was a mistake. Astronomers would have expected this kind of space rock in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but instead, it was drifting along just beyond Neptune.

The asteroid, which was named 2004 EW95, might be the first of a new class of space objects lurking the frigid area we call the Kuiper belt — the circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending outward from the orbit of Neptune.

So how did the asteroid, which likely originated in the inner parts of our solar system, migrate so much?

It probably has a lot to do with our solar systems’ gas giants, which, in their infancies, caused quite a ruckus in the solar systems. During their early days, the gas giants probably orbited much closer to the Sun than they do today. But they started their outwards migration not long after the solar system was formed, and as they did so, they created all sorts of chaos.

Among this chaos, chunks of ice and rock such as 2004 EW95 were hurled away, which explains how it could have gotten there — and it also supports previous theoretical models of early planetary evolution. But even more interestingly, this means that the asteroid (and others of its kind) could provide insight as to how the solar system looked in its earlier days.

A lone rock far away from home

It’s not the first time objects that originated in the inner solar system were found so far away, but none were confirmed to the level of quality of 2004 EW95. It all started when Tom Seccull, a doctoral student at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope to look at the light signatures of icy objects in the Kuiper Belt. When they found a 90-mile-long object, located 2.5 billion miles from Earth, something just wasn’t right — the object wasn’t exhibiting the same properties as its neighbors. Further analysis revealed that the object did not share the same icy past as other rocks drifting nearby. Instead, it appeared to have formed in a hotter environment, closer to the Sun.

“When we first looked at this, we thought it was wrong,” said Mr. Seccull, the lead author of the paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “The rock had been altered by the presence of liquid water.”

The team also determined the asteroid’s chemistry, using a technique called spectrometry. Since Kuiper Belt Object 2004 EW95 has a strong spectrum, its light can be broken down into different wavelengths, enabling researchers to determine what the asteroid is made of. However, identifying the chemical composition of such a distant object is extremely difficult.

The dramatic distance and the asteroid’s relatively small size make it an extremely difficult target to track, and the fact that it features carbon molecules, which makes it appear darker in color, doesn’t make it any easier.

“It’s like observing a giant mountain of coal against the pitch-black canvas of the night sky,” said Thomas Puzia, an astronomer at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and co-author of the research paper.

Still, the team was able to overcome these difficulties, finding that the asteroid contains carbon, iron oxides, and phyllosilicates (sheet-like silicate minerals). This is the first object ever found in the Kuiper belt containing these elements, all of which indicate that the asteroid formed in the inner parts of the Solar System.

With all this information, the research team concluded that 2004 EW95 probably formed between Mars and Jupiter, and was dragged along as the gas giants moved to their current orbits, thus offering important information about the dynamics of the early solar system.

We should also probably be thankful for this migration of the gas giants. Astronomers have found strong evidence that in many cases, these planets don’t move outwards, and stay in very close orbit to the Sun, creating what is called Hot Jupiters. Hot Jupiters are believed to deter the formation of rocky planets such as the Earth.

Whatsmore, as they migrate, they can destroy everything in their path, including the proto-Earth. So we should be grateful that they moved in just the right way to allow our planet to be formed, and ultimately, enable a species of primates we call humans emerge and evolve on this blue dot we claim as home.

• The study “2004 EW95: A Phyllosilicate-bearing Carbonaceous Asteroid in the Kuiper Belt” by T. Seccull et al., which appeared in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

14-05-2018 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

NASA shuttle finds evidence of water plumes on Europa — sparking more hopes signs of life

BY MIHAI ANDREI

NASA’s Galileo shuttle has found evidence of water plumes on Jupiter’s Moon Europa, transporting material from the internal ocean out into space. This not only confirms that Europa has liquid water beneath its frozen surface, but opens up the possibility of sampling Europa’s water without needing to get down to the surface.

A graphic showing water emissions detected above Europa in Hubble Space Telescope observations from December 2012.

Credit: NASA/ESA/L. Roth/SWRI/University of Cologne.

When people first considered the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the Moon or Venus seemed likely candidates. Then, as we understood that isn’t really the case, Mars became the main point of interest. But once again, rovers showed that life isn’t really thriving on Mars — though that might have been the case at some point in the past. Now, unlikely candidates have emerged: frigid satellites like Europa.

Researchers believe that beneath its frozen surface, Europa features an ocean of liquid water which may very well host life.

Europa is archetypical of the outer Solar System’s ‘ocean worlds’ — frozen satellites with liquid water hidden beneath a few kilometers of ice. Naturally, an ocean of warm, liquid water sounds like a great place for life to emerge and develop — but how do you study that? The most straightforward way would be to send a lander to places like Europa, drill through the ice, and take samples, but that’s problematic for numerous reasons.

First, it would be extremely costly and pose several technical difficulties. Not only do you need to somehow land on the rough and unforgiving ice, but you also need to drill several kilometers deep. Then, there’s also the risk of contamination, the problem of analyzing the results, and about a million things that could go wrong in the process. But there’s another way which might offer similar results: instead of digging down to the liquid water, what if the liquid water comes to us?

Telescope observations have indicated the existence of water plumes — columns of liquid water flowing to the surface, and even way above it. In 2012 and 2016, Hubble Space Telescope observed plume-like phenomena, but it’s still unclear if what Hubble saw was actually a plume, since the observation was made very close to the telescope’s maximum resolution.

Now, however, NASA has found much clearer evidence of these plumes, thanks to the Galileo spacecraft.

Galileo studied the planet Jupiter and its moons from 1989 to 2004. Looking through the data of a Europa flyby, Xianzhe Jia and colleagues spotted something unusual. During this flyby, which dropped below 400 km altitude, the shuttle’s magnetic instruments detected some unusual magnetic waves and plasma — which they interpreted as a plume.

Reconstructing Galileo’s path, they found that the magnetic anomaly coincides with a region of anomalous temperatures. This unusually hot area can only be fully explained by a transport of heat from Europa’s interior — something was carrying heat from Europa’s depths to the surface. In other words, all the evidence points towards a plume.

This finding could be extremely helpful for future missions to Europa, such as NASA’s Europa Clipper and ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer spacecraft, which are scheduled to arrive in Jupiter’s system in the 2020s and 2030s respectively. Being able to study surface water or even better, plumes high up in the atmosphere would make a big difference for these missions.

It’s also not just Europa — Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Titan are also top priorities for extraterrestrial life in our solar system, and they’re also frozen moons with a subsurface ocean of liquid water. We certainly live in exciting times.

Journal Reference: “Xianzhe Jia et al. Evidence of a plume on Europa from Galileo magnetic and plasma wave signatures,” Nature Astronomy. DOI 10.1038/s41550-018-0450-z.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

14-05-2018 om 21:23 geschreven door peter  

Geisers op Jupitermaan Europa doen hoop op buitenaards leven toenemen - HLN.be

Bron: Belga

De Amerikaanse sonde Galileo, die van 1995 tot 2003 het Jupiterstelsel heeft geëxploreerd, zag reeds aanwijzingen voor de aanwezigheid van een oceaan van vloeibaar water die twee keer zoveel water zou omvatten als alle oceanen op Aarde samen. Die oceaan zou onder een extreem koude en harde ijskorst liggen. Het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartbureau NASA zag daarop Europa als één van de meest plausibele plaatsen voor buitenaards leven in ons zonnestelsel.

Lees ook

De ‘koelkast’ die nieuwe planeten moet ontdekken

Op basis van data van de Amerikaans-Europese Hubble Ruimtetelescoop opperden vanaf 2012 astronomen de aanwezigheid van bundels van waterdamp op de Jupitermaan.

Zonder het bestaan ervan te bewijzen doen nieuwe data van de Galileo, verkregen tijdens een overvliegen van Europa in 1997, de balans opnieuw naar die mogelijkheid overhellen. Volgens de nieuwe studie laten immers veranderingen in het magnetisch veld en plasma rondom de maan zich gemakkelijk verklaren door de aanwezigheid van “jets” van waterdamp.

Indien die geisers er effectief zijn, kunnen zij op een dag de mogelijkheid bieden om met behulp van robots stalen te nemen van het water dat zich onder de ijskorst bevindt. Zodoende is boren doorheen de ijslaag, waarvan de dikte onbekend is, niet nodig. Zo is ook onderzoek naar mogelijke tekenen van leven mogelijk.

Zowel de VS als het Europese Ruimtevaartbureau ESA plannen respectievelijk met de sondes Europa Clipper en Juice naar Europa te trekken. De verkenners zouden tussen het einde van het volgende decennium en het begin van de jaren dertig het Jupiterstelsel moeten bereiken. 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

14-05-2018 om 20:46 geschreven door peter  

The Sumerians and their cuneiform language have done it again. Tablets found in Bassetki, in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Iraq, have been translated by a cuneiform expert and they indicate that the location was once the ancient and lost royal city of Mardaman, which was mentioned in many writings but never found. The tablets date back to around 1250 BCE and give details about this mysterious city and kingdom that once occupied a powerful position on the trade routes between Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Syria.

The translation of the 92 tablets, discovered in the summer of 2017, was announced last week by the University of Tübingen’s Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies where the archeologists, led by Professor Peter Pfälzner, are based. The translation was performed by University of Heidelberg philologist Dr. Betina Faist, one of the world’s few experts in cuneiform, who worked both with some of the small, crumbling tablets and with detailed photographs of those too fragile to be handled. The translations give a clear location of the lost city and change some previously-held assumptions. (Photos of the excavation and tablets here.)

Example of cuneiform – Gilgamesh Flood Tablet

Some information about Mardaman had been gleaned previously from other sources. It appears to have started between 2800 BCE and 2650 BCE and its history of destruction and rebuilding began around 2250 BC when it was destroyed by the Akkadian Empire led by Naram-Sin. Later Babylonian sources mention Mardaman being rebuilt, only to be destroyed again in 1786 BCE by Shamshi-Adad I and integrated into the Upper Mesopotamian empire. It became an independent kingdom for a time, but was then destroyed by the Turukkaeans from the Zagros Mountains. Most historians defined this as the end of Mardaman and the beginning of its designation as a lost city.

The cuneiform tablets have changed that. They show Mardaman continuing to exist as a Middle Assyrian trade powerhouse until around 1200 BCE, which was about the time they were written. In fact, it appears the tablets were stored in pottery in the governor’s palace of Assur-nasir and were preserved under its post-destruction rubble … perhaps intentionally, says Pfälzner.

“[They] may have been hidden this way shortly after the surrounding building had been destroyed. Perhaps the information [the tablets contain] was meant to be protected and preserved for posterity.”

Example of cuneiform – Tablet V of Epic of Gilgamesh

Why were they preserved? Cuneiform is the oldest documented language and, because it seems to have simply appeared rather than evolved, it has often been linked to ancient aliens. Without it, we would not have the literary works of Mesopotamia such as Epic of Gilgamesh and would not know that other documents besides the Bible contained stories of a Garden of Eden, a great flood and biblical figures such as Job.

Why did the last residents of the lost city of Mardaman hide these tablets in hopes that future generations or civilizations would find them?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

14-05-2018 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

Was Something Fired From Earth Into Space?

Did two UFOs just leave the earth or was something fired from earth into space. Conspiracy Depot spotted the two anomalies on the ISS live feed on May 13, 2018.

He noticed each anomaly as he was reviewing the footage in slow motion as they must be moving at an incredible speed.

After the two anomalies a purple colored anomaly became visible on the live feed.

  

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

14-05-2018 om 19:53 geschreven door peter  

UFO Flying Beneath A Plane With A Fire Glowing Light Wakes Up Passenger Onboard

A strange brightly coloured UFO flying beneath an aircraft woke up a passenger with a confused expression on their face.

A man known only as Mr Chang captured the strange event on a video, which shows a bright line of fire.

The bizarre footage was taken during a flight over Texas

(Image: Secure Team 10 / YouTube)

A plane passenger woke up to see a 'UFO' in the sky outside 

(Image: Secure Team 10 / YouTube)

The footage was taken on a domestic US flight from Atlanta to LA, according to YouTube channel Secure Team 10, which has been exposing UFO sighting videos.

The passenger, who had taken the clip, claimed that he observed a strange object hovering nearby after he woke up due to a raging thunderstorm.

He further stated that he saw lightning flashes around a thin cigar-shaped object through the window.

While travelling through the skies, it appears to shadow the plane.

Mr Chang believed that during that time they were above Texas, and he only managed to take a few seconds of video through his phone before it went out of battery.

Tyler Glockner, a UFO enthusiast, said that the footage was one of the bizarre footage that was taken from an aircraft he had seen.

Viewers of the video have been debating whether the light that was seen was a UFO or just the light on the wing of the plane.

The lightning appears to be below the bright line which might indicate that the light on the video is a part of the plane.

Some other viewers think that it may be a reflection of a laptop screen or sunlight based on the break of the clouds that is shown in the video.

But many also believe that it is a UFO.

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

14-05-2018 om 19:38 geschreven door peter