Over the last few decades, NASA has managed to find a number of unusual things in our solar system. Among these discoveries, perhaps the most novel have been the odd shapes of various asteroids that are found to occasionally traverse our galactic region.

While the now famous, cigar-shaped ‘Oumuamua is probably first to come to mind, other oddly-shaped spacefaring objects have been discovered in recent times, which are teaching us new things about space objects, their origins, and formation.

One recent example was afforded us by Japan’s space mission Hayabusa2, which managed to capture photographs of an asteroid of unusual appearance from a distance of just 40 kilometers. Dubbed “Ryugu” by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the object is considered a potentially hazardous object possessing a rare kind of reflectivity (otherwise known as “spectral type,” the official designation used by astronomers) defined as Cg. This means the surface of the asteroid has a “linear, generally featureless spectra,” with varying degrees of UV absorption.

Ryugu, as seen from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft

(Image Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, Aizu University, AIST.)

Since JAXA released its photos of Ryugu, there has been much discussion about the object’s unusual appearance. Specifically, its polyhedral shape has been likened by some to a multi-sided die, the likes of which are used in the classic fantasy roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons.

Ryugu’s shape isn’t the only association it has with myth and lore surrounding dragons; according to Spaceflight Now, its name is also evocative of these mythical creatures, borrowed from “an undersea dragon’s palace visited by Urashima Taro, a fisherman in a Japanese folk story who brings back a mysterious treasure box from the underwater castle.”

Hayabusa2 was launched in 2014, and in the days since photographs were obtained of Ryugu’s unusual shape, the spacecraft has closed its distance to approximately 20 km, with the objective of landing and extracting material for analysis, which it will retrieve and bring to Earth by the end of 2020.

Art depicting Hayabusa2 landing on Ryugu.

(Image Credit: JAXA)

In a statement, Yuichi Tsuda, the Hayabusa2 Project Manager, said of the odd space rock:

“The shape of Ryugu is now revealed. From a distance, Ryugu initially appeared round, then gradually turned into a square before becoming a beautiful shape similar to fluorite. Now, craters are visible, rocks are visible and the geographical features are seen to vary from place to place. This form of Ryugu is scientifically surprising and also poses a few engineering challenges.”

Tsuda further noted that “The Project Team is fascinated by the appearance of Ryugu,” expressing excitement on behalf of his colleagues. “I feel this amazing honor as we proceed with the mission operations.”

Ryugu may not be the strangest space rock we’ve managed to discover (especially when compared with objects like ‘Oumuamua, the newly-designated comet mentioned at the beginning of this post). Nonetheless, it bears enough unusual characteristics that its further study may bear some promise for new discoveries pertaining to off-planet affairs in our universe.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

01-07-2018 om 21:34 geschreven door peter  

01-07-2018 om 21:20 geschreven door peter  

WETENSCHAPPER BESCHULDIGT NASA VAN VERZWIJGEN WAARHEID OVER ASTEROÏDEN 

NASA betekent volgens velen: Never A Straight Answer, maar eigenlijk gaat het nog veel verder dan dat en verbergen ze zelfs dingen voor de mensheid. 

Deze van oorsprong occulte organisatie wordt nu aangevallen door een goed aangeschreven wetenschapper die ze beticht van “wetenschappelijk wangedrag”. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

01-07-2018 om 21:15 geschreven door peter  

Linda Miller has taken several photos in June, 2018 with a Canon Sl2 50mm at 12,9 sec exposures and in one of the images she discovered a strange unusual object what is something that isn't obvious a star, star movement or a rocket launch.

It is not clear what the phenomenon could be, but the image clearly shows a bright luminous UFO or portal-like object.

Since the image has been captured at 12,9 sec exposures the object seems to move very slowly in the sky.

  

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

01-07-2018 om 21:04 geschreven door peter  

Two Silver UFOs Over Easter Island On March 14, 2018, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: March 14, 2018

Location of sighting: Easter Island

Source: MUFON #93005

 

This UFO was one of two seen and when they were noticed by the eyewitnesses, they darted into the clouds to hide. As I have said before, UFOs use the easiest way possible to hide...within clouds. They are even capable of making a cloud around them, but this can often take minutes to do. 

Scott C. Waring

 

Eyewitness states: 

My wife and I were sightseeing on Easter Island and saw two silver-shaped flying objects entering the cloud. I was able to photograph one of the objects.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

01-07-2018 om 18:50 geschreven door peter  

Ex-NASA physics professor claims 'many governments' have covered up alien encounters and says humanity must 'face the possibility' UFO sightings really ARE alien craft

• A physics professor from University at Albany, State University of New York and former NASA researcher believes there is 'plenty of evidence to support UFOs'
• He believes skepticism around UFOs prevents serious scientific research
• Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been declassifying their UFO files since 2008 

By KEVIN KNUTH FOR THE CONVERSATION

Are we alone? Unfortunately, neither of the answers feel satisfactory. 

To be alone in this vast universe is a lonely prospect. 

On the other hand, if we are not alone and there is someone or something more powerful out there, that too is terrifying. 

Scroll down for video 

A 1990 picture of a 'UFO' taken in Wallonia, Belgium. A physics professor from University at Albany, State University of New York and former NASA researcher believes there is 'plenty of evidence to support UFOs'

As a NASA research scientist and now a professor of physics, I attended the 2002 NASA Contact Conference, which focused on serious speculation about extraterrestrials. 

During the meeting a concerned participant said loudly in a sinister tone, 'You have absolutely no idea what is out there!' 

The silence was palpable as the truth of this statement sunk in.

Humans are fearful of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. Perhaps fortunately, the distances between the stars are prohibitively vast. 

At least this is what we novices, who are just learning to travel into space, tell ourselves.

I have always been interested in UFOs. Of course, there was the excitement that there could be aliens and other living worlds. 

But more exciting to me was the possibility that interstellar travel was technologically achievable. 

In 1988, during my second week of graduate school at Montana State University, several students and I were discussing a recent cattle mutilation that was associated with UFOs. 

A physics professor joined the conversation and told us that he had colleagues working at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, where they were having problems with UFOs shutting down nuclear missiles. 

At the time I thought this professor was talking nonsense. But 20 years later, I was stunned to see a recording of a press conference featuring several former US Air Force personnel, with a couple from Malmstrom AFB, describing similar occurrences in the 1960s. Clearly there must be something to this.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders reaches to a question about UFOs in the White House Press Briefing Room in Washington, DC, USA 19 December 2017. The question was in response to the Pentagon's secret UFO program, recently revealed in the New York Times

With July 2 being World UFO Day, it is a good time for society to address the unsettling and refreshing fact we may not be alone. 

I believe we need to face the possibility that some of the strange flying objects that outperform the best aircraft in our inventory and defy explanation may indeed be visitors from afar – and there's plenty of evidence to support UFO sightings.

The nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi was famous for posing thought provoking questions. 

In 1950, at Los Alamos National Laboratory after discussing UFOs over lunch, Fermi asked, 'Where is everybody?' 

He estimated there were about 300 billion stars in the galaxy, many of them billions of years older than the sun, with a large percentage of them likely to host habitable planets. 

While the general public has been fascinated with UFOs for decades, our governments, scientists and media, have essentially declared that of all the UFO sightings are a result of weather phenomenon or human actions, Knuth claims.

Even if intelligent life developed on a very small percentage of these planets, then there should be a number of intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. 

Depending on the assumptions, one should expect anywhere from tens to tens of thousands of civilizations.

With the rocket-based technologies that we have developed for space travel, it would take between 5 and 50 million years for a civilization like ours to colonize our Milky Way galaxy. 

Since this should have happened several times already in the history of our galaxy, one should wonder where is the evidence of these civilizations? 

This discrepancy between the expectation that there should be evidence of alien civilizations or visitations and the presumption that no visitations have been observed has been dubbed the Fermi Paradox.

Carl Sagan correctly summarized the situation by saying that 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.' 

The problem is that there has been no single well-documented UFO encounter that would alone qualify as the smoking gun. 

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that many governments around the world have covered up and classified information about such encounters. 

A black and white colored video from a 2004 encounter shows fighter jets closing in on an unidentified object (circled red) before it quickly accelerates out of sight

But there are enough scraps of evidence that suggest that the problem needs to be open to scientific study.

When it comes to science, the scientific method requires hypotheses to be testable so that inferences can be verified. 

UFO encounters are neither controllable nor repeatable, which makes their study extremely challenging. But the real problem, in my view, is that the UFO topic is taboo.

While the general public has been fascinated with UFOs for decades, our governments, scientists and media, have essentially declared that of all the UFO sightings are a result of weather phenomenon or human actions. 

And no aliens have visited Earth.

Essentially, we are told that the topic is nonsense. 

UFOs are off-limits to serious scientific study and rational discussion, which unfortunately leaves the topic in the domain of fringe and pseudoscientists, many of whom litter the field with conspiracy theories and wild speculation.

I think UFO skepticism has become something of a religion with an agenda, discounting the possibility of extraterrestrials without scientific evidence, while often providing silly hypotheses describing only one or two aspects of a UFO encounter reinforcing the popular belief that there is a conspiracy. 

A scientist must consider all of the possible hypotheses that explain all of the data, and since little is known, the extraterrestrial hypothesis cannot yet be ruled out. 

In the end, the skeptics often do science a disservice by providing a poor example of how science is to be conducted. The fact is that many of these encounters – still a very small percentage of the total – defy conventional explanation.

The media amplifies the skepticism by publishing information about UFOs when it is exciting, but always with a mocking or whimsical tone and reassuring the public that it can't possibly be true. 

But there are credible witnesses and encounters.

I am often asked by friends and colleagues, 'Why don't astronomers see UFOs?' The fact is that they do. 

In 1977, Peter Sturrock, a professor of space science and astrophysics at Stanford University, mailed 2,611 questionnaires about UFO sightings to members of the American Astronomical Society. 

He received 1,356 responses from which 62 astronomers – 4.6 percent – reported witnessing or recording inexplicable aerial phenomena. This rate is similar to the approximately 5 percent of UFO sightings that are never explained.

As expected, Sturrock found that astronomers who witnessed UFOs were more likely to be night sky observers. Over 80 percent of Sturrock's respondents were willing to study the UFO phenomenon if there was a way to do so. 

More than half of them felt that the topic deserves to be studied versus 20 percent who felt that it should not. The survey also revealed that younger scientists were more likely to support the study of UFOs.

Pictured: An example of a 'UFO' triangle formation that the UK government investigated as part of its report into alien sightings

UFOs have been observed through telescopes. I know of one telescope sighting by an experienced amateur astronomer in which he observed an object shaped like a guitar pick moving through the telescope's field of view. 

Further sightings are documented in the book 'Wonders in the Sky,' in which the authors compile numerous observations of unexplained aerial phenomena made by astronomers and published in scientific journals throughout the 1700s and 1800s.

Some of the most convincing observations have come from government officials. In 1997, the Chilean government formed the organization Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos, or CEFAA, to study UFOs. 

Last year, CEFAA released footage of a UFO taken with a helicopter-mounted Wescam infrared camera.

The countries of Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been declassifying their UFO files since 2008. 

The French Committee for In-Depth Studies, or COMETA, was an unofficial UFO study group comprised of high-ranking scientists and military officials that studied UFOs in the late 1990s. 

They released the COMETA Report, which summarized their findings. They concluded that 5 percent of the encounters were reliable yet inexplicable: The best hypothesis available was that the observed craft were extraterrestrial. They also accused the United States of covering up evidence of UFOs. 

Iran has been concerned about spherical UFOs observed near nuclear power facilities that they call 'CIA drones' which reportedly are about 30 feet in diameter, can achieve speeds up to Mach 10, and can leave the atmosphere. 

Such speeds are on par with the fastest experimental aircraft, but unthinkable for a sphere without lift surfaces or an obvious propulsion mechanism.

In December 2017, The New York Times broke a story about the classified Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, which was a $22 million program run by the former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo and aimed at studying UFOs. 

Elizondo resigned from running the program protesting extreme secrecy and the lack of funding and support. 

Following his resignation Elizondo, along with several others from the defense and intelligence community, were recruited by the To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science, which was recently founded by Tom DeLonge to study UFOs and interstellar travel. 

In conjunction with the launch of the academy, the Pentagon declassified and released three videos of UFO encounters taken with forward looking infrared cameras mounted on F-18 fighter jets. 

Pictured: A 1948 Top Secret US Air Force UFO extraterrestrial document. In December 2017, The New York Times broke a story about the classified Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, which was a $22 million program run by the former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo and aimed at studying UFOs

While there is much excitement about such disclosures, I am reminded of a quote from Retired Army Colonel John Alexander: 'Disclosure has happened. … I've got stacks of generals, including Soviet generals, who've come out and said UFOs are real. My point is, how many times do senior officials need to come forward and say that this is real?'

There is a great deal of evidence that a small percentage of these UFO sightings are unidentified structured craft exhibiting flight capabilities beyond any known human technology. 

While there is no single case for which there exists evidence that would stand up to scientific rigor, there are cases with simultaneous observations by multiple reliable witnesses, along with radar returns and photographic evidence revealing patterns of activity that are compelling.

Declassified information from covert studies is interesting, but not scientifically helpful. 

This is a topic worthy of open scientific inquiry, until there is a scientific consensus based on evidence rather than prior expectation or belief. 

If there are indeed extraterrestrial craft visiting Earth, it would greatly benefit us to know about them, their nature and their intent. 

Moreover, this would present a great opportunity for mankind, promising to expand and advance our knowledge and technology, as well as reshaping our understanding of our place in the universe.

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

30-06-2018 om 23:41 geschreven door peter  

30-06-2018 om 23:11 geschreven door peter  

30-06-2018 om 23:05 geschreven door peter  

OUMUAMUA VERSNELT PLOTSELING EN VERANDERT VAN KOERS

Eind vorig jaar hadden we een unieke situatie, waarbij een “komeet” uit een ander zonnestelsel bij ons op bezoek kwam. 

De wetenschap zat met de handen in het haar, want hoe ze ook dachten en puzzelden, Oumuamua paste in geen enkel hokje. 

Accordingly, the object A/2017 U1 receives the permanent designation 1I
and the name ʻOumuamua. The name, which was chosen by the Pan-STARRS team, is
of Hawaiian origin and reflects the way this object is like a scout or
messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to us (ʻou means reach out
for, and mua, with the second mua placing emphasis, means first, in advance of).

Volgens de European Southern Observatory (ESO) is Oumuamua een object dat we nog nooit eerder hebben gezien en bestaat het uit rots of metaal met een roodachtige kleur. 

Het object moet er ongeveer als volgt uit zien. Een ander fenomeen is dat het om haar eigen as lijkt te draaien en dat de lichtintensiteit varieert. 

Men probeert wanhopig om voor dit alles logische verklaringen te vinden, maar slaagt daar niet zo erg in. 

Men vermoedt dat het uit de buurt komt van de ster Vega, maar ook dat schijnt niet te kunnen omdat in de tijd dat Oumuamua daar is vertrokken, die ster op een heel andere plek stond. Nu denken ze dat het object misschien wel helemaal nergens thuishoort en als een soort los projectiel door de ruimte zwerft. 

De wetenschap zit (ook) wat dit object betreft met de handen in het haar, want niet één van de normale verklaringen past.

Waar we hier over praten, is een groot moederschip dat ons hier met een bezoek heeft vereerd. Dat is de enige logische verklaring en ook is er ook één die past in de omschrijving van het object en de gedragingen. 

Nu komen er via NASA berichten dat een team van wetenschappers met behulp van gegevens van de Hubble ruimtetelescoop en andere bronnen heeft vastgesteld dat Oumuamua opeens accelereert en van koers is veranderd. 

Marco Micheli van de Europese Ruimtevaartorganisatie heeft bevestigd dat de bewegingen van het object aantonen dat er onder invloed van iets anders dan de zwaartekracht van de zon en andere planeten in ons zonnestelsel iets met Oumuamua is gebeurd. 

Dan Davide Farnocchia van het NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) die volhoudt dat het object zich gedraagt als een normale komeet en dat de versnelling en koersverandering misschien wel te maken hebben met de uitstoot van gas vanaf het oppervlak van de komeet. 

Echter, volgens Olivier Haunaut van het European Southern Observatory zijn er geen waarneembare tekenen van het uitstoten van gas. 

Maar, omdat de wetenschappelijke gelederen gesloten dienen te blijven, komt er een soort gezamenlijke verklaring van wetenschappers waarbij ze dan concluderen dat Oumuamua een hele kleine hoeveelheid stofdeeltjes heeft uitgestoten die verantwoordelijk zouden zijn geweest voor de koersverandering. De uitstoot van die stofdeeltjes zou zo subtiel geweest zijn de wetenschappers niet in staat zijn geweest om dit op te pikken. 

De Volkskrant sust op de volgende manier haar lezers in slaap: 

De verklaring: het hemellichaam bevat wél vluchtig materiaal, en via barsten en spleten in het oppervlak stromen gassen en dampen de ruimte in. Zo’n klein raket-effect beïnvloedt de beweging – denk maar aan een losgelaten feestballonnetje, dat ook alle kanten op kronkelt. 

Het effect was heel klein, aldus een internationaal team van onderzoekers deze week in Nature, maar elke andere mogelijke verklaring wordt vakkundig naar de prullenbak verwezen. Conclusie: de kosmische binnendringer verloor een paar kilogram gas per seconde, vermoedelijk waterdamp en koolmonoxide. Dat is niet veel, maar volgens het astronomische hokjesdenken ben je dan toch een komeet. 

Héhé, dat was even zweten, maar gelukkig is er nu een wetenschappelijke verklaring die de stofdeeltjes de schuld geeft, zodat we vooral niet hoeven zeggen dat het gewoon een groot buitenaards, intelligent bestuurd ruimteschip is.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

30-06-2018 om 22:49 geschreven door peter  

A mysterious "sonar anomaly" had NOAA explorers diving off the coast of North Carolina on Wednesday, hoping for an explanation.

NOAA has not been afraid to notch up suspense about the area, noting it could be "an archaeology site, a geological formation or otherwise."

Image credit NOAA.

It's anybody's guess what "otherwise" means, but UFO enthusiasts might be tingling with ideas.

The site is being called the “Big Dipper Anomaly" by the crew aboard NOAA's Okeanos Explorer, which launched a remotely operated vehicle in the area at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Experts believed the anomaly might be a shipwreck, but were leaning toward "a geological formation with biological communities and other debris" later in the day, according to TV station WTKR in Virginia.

Image credit NOAA.

But an official accounting of their findings has not been released yet and since the location of the anomaly is being kept confidential it becomes clear that NOAA has found something very strange and unusual off the coast of North Carolina. We will keep an eye on this strange event.

Watch three live stream cameras NOAA at the following link: 

Sonar Anomaly Off The NC Coast

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

30-06-2018 om 22:31 geschreven door peter  

Three-Fingered Mummified Aliens Found In Peru, UFO Researcher Claims

A UFO researcher has claimed he has unearthed alien remains in Nazca, Peru in 2015. Some UFO fans quickly labelled it as evidence of ancient aliens. They argued that the strange creatures may have inhabited the Earth long before the people.

According to UFO researcher Steve Mera, DNA tests show one body to be 98.5 per cent primate, related to humans, and 1.5 per cent unknown.

Steve said they have proof that the Maria body constitutes a fantastic find. He stressed that it may alter history books forever and would go down as the most significant find of the 21st Century.

However, the World Congress on Mummy Studies has described the discovery as a fraud and called it an irresponsible organized campaign of disinformation.

Hoax debunkers offered a detailed analysis, including the fact that Gaia.com, the one spreading the information about the mummy discovery, has been alleged of promoting the idea of ancient aliens of which no actual evidence was presented.

UFO author Nigel Watson said that mummy discoveries such as this one are very probably fakes. He explained that humanoid aliens with three long fingers could not survive as they would be clumsy and incapable of making a cup of tea let alone flying a spaceship.

Nigel also pointed out the fact that the news was fed to the people via a website that you need to subscribe. He said that it could be fake news designed to indulge the fascination of people with ancient aliens and UFOs.

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

30-06-2018 om 22:21 geschreven door peter  

Best evidence yet for alien life on Saturn's moon found by scientists

Enceladus is only body besides Earth known to 'simultaneously satisfy all of the basic requirements for life as we know it', say scientists

29-06-2018 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

29-06-2018 om 23:45 geschreven door peter  

New Mexico geologist discusses suspected UFO crash site findings

By Elena Mendoza

ROSWELL, N.M. (KRQE) - The Bureau of Land Management is taking an interest in a New Mexico geologist's discoveries that he claims are out of this world. He believes he has found parts of the alleged UFO crash near Roswell in 1947.

"Some of it could be trash, camper trash, but some of it could be interesting,” said Geologist Frank Kimbler.

Kimbler distinctly remembers the moment he discovered debris from the suspected 1947 UFO crash site.

"I started looking around all over the place, looking to see if the helicopters were going to fly over, because you get paranoid when you read the stories of about Roswell and what's happened to people when they've come forward with stuff,” he said.

Over the past eight years, Kimbler has dedicated himself to finding physical proof of the UFO, going out to the suspected site 75 miles northwest of Roswell about a dozen times.

Using a metal detector, he's collected about 20 metallic fragments the size of a fingernail.

"Some of the material that I found out there has been tested and it has anomalies that suggest that it might be of extraterrestrial origin,” said Kimbler.

Recently, Kimbler became afraid his research was in jeopardy when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) contacted him, wanting to meet. 

Kimbler said he was positive he was just a test away from discovering the truth.

When the BLM called, he became a little paranoid and even removed his findings from the International UFO Museum in Roswell.

"I said sure, about had a heart attack. I'm going, ‘Oh, they're going to arrest me, they're going to confiscate this material,’” said Kimbler. “I always thought that I was within my legal rights as a citizen of the U.S. to go out and metal detect."

Much to his relief, that wasn't the case.

"It had a happy ending. I got clarification on the rules and regulations from the BLM and there was no confiscation of materials,” Kimbler said.

He believes the recent commercial interest in the site played a role in how the BLM got alerted to his presence and findings there.

Kimbler, a researcher with the International UFO Museum who has been featured in several documentaries, says he will continue to try and find suspected debris but will work with the BLM to do it the right way.

Mysterious metals collected near sight of the alleged 1947 Roswell UFO crash - Spacing Out! Ep. 14

Frank Kimbler, a geology and earth science teacher at the New Mexico Military Institute, spends considerable time searching the area of the alleged UFO crash near Roswell, New Mexico. This professor and geologist has recovered mysterious metals from the area, and he recently appeared on the NatGeo show Chasing UFOs. We talk with Frank about his experience on the show, and about his mystery metals. We also talk about a UFO at the Olympics, William Shatner vs. Wil Wheaton, and other space and UFO news on this episode of Spacing Out!

{ https://www.krqe.com/ }

29-06-2018 om 23:35 geschreven door peter  

29-06-2018 om 23:22 geschreven door peter  

HET IS GEEN ASTEROÏDE, HET IS EEN RUIMTESCHIP ( VIDEO )

De Europese ruimteorganisatie ESA heeft miljarden euro’s uitgegeven om een komeet te onderzoeken die radiosignalen uitzendt en waar meer vreemde dingen mee aan de hand lijken.

Nu is er iets vergelijkbaars bij de Japanners gaande die de komende dagen een sonde zullen laten landen op een vreemd uitziende asteroïde. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

29-06-2018 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

Men in Black is the new book from Conrad Bauer. Its subtitle: Evidence and True Stories About Earth’s Most Mysterious Cover Agents. Certainly, it’s not the longest book ever written on the phenomenon (it’s pretty slim), and it’s not a deeply extensive study of the mystery. But, where the book really scores, is the way in which Bauer approaches his story. What Bauer has done is to write a book on the Men in Black for those who are, perhaps, largely new to the phenomenon – and who want a basic, quick rundown on the puzzle and without having to dig through the 10 or so MIB-themed books that are currently available. And, it helps that Bauer has a good, atmospheric style of writing, one which makes his book a cool page-turner.

Bauer begins with a summary of the extremely controversial saga of the Maury Island incident of the summer of 1947; an incident involving an exploded UFO. Or, which was nothing  but a crazy hoax, one that tragically led to the deaths of two military personnel. True or not, the Maury Island affair became notable for its link to a sinister character in black who warned one of the key witnesses, Harold Dahl, to keep his mouth shut. Or else.

There is a great deal of information in Men in Black on Albert Bender, the one guy who, in almost single-handed fashion, “created” the MIB mystery. Or, who at least brought it to the attention of the UFO research community and – eventually – to the military, the FBI and the public, in a roundabout way. So many researchers have claimed that the trio of MIB who visited Bender’s home in 1953 were from the government. They certainly were not.

Albert Bender

Bauer, in his section on Bender, skillfully demonstrates that Bender’s MIB were not agents from the U.S. Government. They were ghoulish, menacing things that didn’t even look completely human. On top of that, Bauer points out how the MIB that Bender crossed paths with had far more links to the occult and the supernatural than they did the likes of the CIA, the Air Force, etc. Bauer, in a persuasive fashion, make it clear that whoever – or whatever – that trio of terrors in black that plagued Bender really were, they were clearly something paranormal and dangerous.

As Bauer notes, Bender’s story was filled to the brim with paranormal activity, dangerous beings from other planes of existence, and things that sounded like they had just stepped out of the pages of a Victorian era Penny Dreadful. Shadowy figures in black follow him to his home late at night. Strange balls of light appear in his attic bedroom – which becomes overwhelmed by a powerful odor of sulfur, no less.

Bauer then moves onto the matter of Gray Barker’s 1956 book on the Bender affair. Its title: They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. Barker’s book is a controversial one. It is filled with rumors fleshed out as facts, and Barker’s imagination going into overdrive. Add to that a few outright hoaxes undertaken by Barker, and what you get is hardy non-fiction: They Knew Too Much…

Strange characters impersonating employees of NORAD crop up, as do a couple of genuinely weird sagas of MIB from the U.K., in the early 1970s. I liked these sections particularly, as Bauer makes it clear just how inhuman these things really are. Of course, it wouldn’t be a book on the Men in Black without a good look back at the MIB presence in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where the Mothman lurked from late 1966 to December 1967. The dark atmosphere that enveloped the area is well-handled, making it abundantly clear that they were truly strange times – and that Point Pleasant was even home to pale-faced Women in Black, as well as the equally creepy MIB. And with the specter of the Mothman hanging over the good people of Point Pleasant.

In the next couple of chapters, Bauer makes an even greater argument to the effect that the Men in Black are not human. Inhuman would be far better. Bauer ends his book with a look at the possible origins of the Men in Black – and their  strange, and almost theatrical, activities, which are particularly in evidence when they are terrorizing witnesses to UFOs.

In conclusion, Conrad Bauer’s book, Men in Black, is the perfect one for people who don’t know too much about the MIB subject – but who would like to – and who don’t want to have to wade through 300 pages or more to get the answers and to learn about the classic cases. In a well-structured, and well-written, fashion Bauer gives the reader the key moments in MIB history, the theories for what they are, their possible motivations and much more. And it’s all presented in a very creepy, bizarre and surreal fashion – which is highly appropriate for a book on the Men in Black!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-06-2018 om 23:07 geschreven door peter  

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an asteroid! It’s a weird spaceship from another galaxy! It’s a comet! It’s … Oumuamua! The interstellar visitor didn’t stay long but it has captivated the hearts and minds and computer models of astronomers and space scientists worldwide who want to know what it is. Researchers watching the trailing end of the cigar-shaped visitor as it left the solar system noticed that it was accelerating. While it could have just been trying to get away from the all of the chaos it saw on Earth, the real reason seemed to be that gas coming off of the back end was pushing it to a slightly higher speed … a trait that is commonly seen on … sorry, it’s too late to place your bets … comets!

Is ‘Oumuamua an Interstellar Asteroid or Comet?

“After ruling out solar-radiation pressure, drag- and friction-like forces, interaction with solar wind for a highly magnetized object, and geometric effects originating from ‘Oumuamua potentially being composed of several spatially separated bodies or having a pronounced offset between its photocentre and centre of mass, we find comet-like outgassing to be a physically viable explanation, provided that ‘Oumuamua has thermal properties similar to comets.”

A team led by Marco Micheli, a European Space Agency astronomer, released their study this week in the journal Nature. The acceleration of Oumuamua was actually expected since it would be affected by the gravitational pulls of the Moon and outer planets, but the speed at which it was moving could not be attributed to gravity alone.

“It’s an unusual comet, and that’s pretty exciting.”

Karen Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu and a team member, explained to Hawaii’s KHON that the unusual lack of dust and ice on Oumuamua meant it didn’t have a tail and that initially led observers to think it was a rocky asteroid rather than an icy comet. In addition, Meech says astronomers were looking for evidence of cyanide, which gives comets a blue hue. They didn’t see it, which means that Oumuamua is still a comet but one with a different chemical composition that those passing thought the solar system before.

Halley’s comet

If you’re looking for a career exploring the stars and you’re too tall or too scared to be an astronaut, Meech recommends astronomy as the job of the future.

“This is the first time we’ve ever seen anything like this. Astronomers have been predicting this for decades, so it was very exciting to see the first one come through. I think the Pan-STARRS in particular is going to start to see a lot more of these with the second telescope now starting its survey, so it’s an exciting time to be an astronomer.”

Exciting, yes … unless you’re the astronomer who spots the deadly asteroid or comet heading straight for Earth.

Oumuamua - New Facts and Discoveries About First Interstellar Visitor

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-06-2018 om 22:19 geschreven door peter  

Nathan Myhrvold thinks NASA is up to something. The “modernist cookbook“ author, physics PhD, and former Microsoft executive has just published a peer-reviewed paperrefuting NASA’s data concerning NASA’s analysis of near Earth objects, the potentially deadly asteroids and meteoroids and other objects whizzing about in the area of space just outside of our orbit. According to Myrhvold’s calculations, NASA’s data “suffer from systematic errors and inconsistencies.” Does this mean we’re in a lot more danger than NASA is letting on?

The last thing most of us will ever see: our phones.

Let’s hope not, especially given how utterly unprepared we still are for the event of even a minor asteroid impact. In a blog post, Myhrvold doesn’t specifically state that NASA is intentionally under-reporting the amount of near Earth objects tracked by their NEOWISE project (short for Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), but does accuse NASA scientists of “scientific misconduct” and “further misconduct, apparently to cover up the issues” he previously pointed out in their data:

The issues I am calling misconduct in the NEOWISE papers were not inadvertent. They appear to have been deliberate choices made repeatedly by the NEOWISE team over a long period of time. These actions have caused the astronomical community to work under the false belief that the NEOWISE results are more accurate (have smaller errors) than the evidence warrants.

Myhrvold goes on to accuse scientists working on the NEOWISE project of reacting “extremely deceptively,” claiming that NEOWISE scientists ignored his attempts to point out the inaccuracies in private and that “the very NASA managers who should have been supervising the project were more interested in protecting it from scrutiny.”

NASA wouldn’t lie to us, would they?

The reason the NEOWISE data are so important is because hundreds of scientists and even space agencies around the world have used the data for their own separate studies and missions. With so much riding on our ability to understand the NEO activity above our heads, it’s imperative that scientists have the most accurate data available in order to someday be able to protect us from a potentially cataclysmic impact.

For their part, NEOWISE has yet to comment on Myhrvold’s critique of their data. “The NEOWISE team stands by its data and scientific findings that have been published in several peer-reviewed journal articles,” a NASA spokesperson said in a statement. “NASA is confident the processes and analyses performed by the NEOWISE team are valid, as verified by independent researchers.” Meanwhile, UCLA’s Edward L. Wright, head of the NEOWISE project, called Myhrvold’s publication “a waste of paper.”

Is this merely a case of scientists splitting methodological hairs, or might there be some sort of attempt to hide the truth about NEOs? Furthermore, do we really want to know the truth? Personally, I like sleeping at night. Some threats are better left in the dark.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-06-2018 om 22:04 geschreven door peter  

Geologist Frank Kimbler has spent the last eight years making periodic trips out to the location armed with a metal detector in the hopes of picking up something left behind after the infamous 1947 event.

And, as a result of these excursions, he claims to have recovered nearly 20 small metal fragments.

Image credit Frank Kimbler.

"Some of the material that I found out there has been tested and it has anomalies that suggest that it might be of extraterrestrial origin,” said Kimbler.

Believing that his research is getting very close to a proverbial smoking gun, Kimbler became incredibly worried last week when the Bureau of Land Management called and asked to meet with him.

Kimbler thought that they were going to confiscate the pieces of UFO metal and his concern was so serious that he went so far as to pull all of his discoveries from Roswell's International UFO Museum where they had been on display.

Image credit Frank Kimbler.

Fortunately, it turned out that his fears were unfounded as the meeting largely consisted of Kimbrel being reminded of the BLM's rules regarding the collection of materials and his own discoveries remained safely in his possession.

• Frank Kimbler discusses his findings at the 1947 UFO crash site here.

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

29-06-2018 om 21:54 geschreven door peter