Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS.
ON 06/04/2024 MORE THAN 1.951.050
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
17-07-2018
SpaceX: 'Mr Steven' Giant Net Tested at High Speeds in Stunning Video
SpaceX: 'Mr Steven' Giant Net Tested at High Speeds in Stunning Video
SpaceX’s component-catching ship has got an upgrade. Mr Steven, the vessel designed to catch the fairing from the Falcon 9 as it returns to Earth after launch, has been demonstrating its larger net around the port of Los Angeles. New images on Tuesday and a video earlier this week show the ship conducting sea trials at speeds of up to 20 knots, or 20 mph.
Images captured by Teslarati and video captured by YouTuber “Drone Dronester” show the ship conducting tests between July 12 and 15, with the crew and recovery technicians sending the ship out after a multi-week installation of the new net. The ship is what’s known as a “fast supply vessel,” meaning it’s ranked to move 400 metric tons of cargo at regular speeds of 23 knots, or 27 mph. The ship itself weighs almost 200,000 pounds and is around 200 feet long. The crew focused on sharp corners at high speed less than half an hour after setting sail, testing the stability with a net that’s four times bigger than its predecessor with an area of 0.9 acres.
The upgrade was much needed, as its predecessor first deployed in February never caught a fairing. The component protects the satellite on its way to orbit, normally discarded at the end of the mission. SpaceX is aiming to reuse as much of its rockets as possible to reclaim some of the $62 million construction costs. CEO Elon Muskdescribed the fairing as “a pallet of cash worth $6 million dollars falling through the sky” at around eight times the speed of sound, so capturing the component is highly lucrative.
On the fairing side, SpaceX has made some key changes to make Mr Steven’s job a bit easier. Modifications like onboard thrusters and a guidance system are aimed at positioning the fairing for a landing before the parafoil deploys to assist with the final landing on the ship’s netting. Those weren’t enough to catch the component, so SpaceX changes the ship’s net. Musk joked on Twitter that the new netting “looked smaller on paper.”
Mr Steven is expected to make its debut at the Falcon 9 launch scheduled for July 25 at 7:39 a.m. Eastern time from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Another Volcano? Jupiter Probe Sees Hotspot on Roiling Moon Io (Photo)
Another Volcano? Jupiter Probe Sees Hotspot on Roiling Moon Io (Photo)
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
This annotated image highlights the location of a new heat source close to the south pole of the Jupiter moon Io. The image was generated from data collected on Dec. 16, 2017, by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper instrument aboard NASA's Juno probe when the spacecraft was about 290,000 miles (470,000 kilometers) from Io. Higher temperatures are characterized in brighter colors; lower temperatures in darker ones.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM
NASA's Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft may have just boosted the already-impressive volcano tally on the gas giant's lava-spewing moon Io.
Juno's Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper instrument, or JIRAM, detected a sizable "hotspot" near Io's south pole on Dec. 16, 2017, during one of the probe's close Jupiter flybys. Juno was about 290,000 miles (470,000 kilometers) away from Io at the time, NASA officials said.
"The new Io hotspot JIRAM picked up is about 200 miles (300 kilometers) from the nearest previously mapped hotspot," Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator from the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome, said in a statement. [Amazing Photos: Jupiter's Volcanic Moon Io]
"We are not ruling out movement or modification of a previously discovered hotspot, but it is difficult to imagine one could travel such a distance and still be considered the same feature," Mura added.
Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, with its insides roiled and churned by Jupiter's powerful gravity and the tugs of its fellow Galilean satellites, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. Thanks to the efforts of ground-based telescopes and NASA probes such as the Jupiter-orbiting Galileo and the Saturn-studying Cassini, astronomers have already mapped about 150 volcanoes on the moon, some of which blast lava 250 miles (400 km) out into space.
So, confirming a new Io volcano wouldn't come as much of a shock. Indeed, according to NASA officials, about 250 additional volcanoes likely await discovery on Io, which is the fourth-largest moon in the solar system. (With a diameter of about 2,260 miles, or 3,640 km, Io is slightly larger than Earth's moon.)
Space SCIENCE As the Juno spacecraft orbits Jupiter, new discoveries about the giant planet continue to be made.
The $1.1 billion Juno mission arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. The spacecraft loops around the gas giant on a highly elliptical path, making close flybys like the Dec. 16 encounter every 53 days. During these passes, Juno studies Jupiter's composition, structure, and gravitational and magnetic fields, looking for clues about the huge planet's formation and evolution (and also collecting a wealth of other data, as the Io observations show).
Juno's next close science flyby of Jupiter occurs today (July 16).
The mission is scheduled to run through July 2021.
How Engineers Are Practicing for the BepiColombo Mission to Mercury (Video)
How Engineers Are Practicing for the BepiColombo Mission to Mercury (Video)
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
Within just six months, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are planning to launch a new mission to Mercury called BepiColombo — but they're already acting like the mission has launched.
That's because the team is simulating a whole range of conditions to make sure that once the spacecraft leaves Earth, everything will go as smoothly as possible, no matter what happens, as they explain in a new video released by ESA.
It may seem odd to practice fora missionthat will become reality soon enough, particularly when the two space agencies have plenty of other projects in the works. But because so many things can go wrong during a space mission, preparation is crucial.
An artist's depiction of the BepiColombo spacecraft approaching Mercury. The mission is due to launch in 2018.
Credit: ESA/ATG medialab/NASA/JPL
"The failures can be anything," Elsa Montagnon, BepiColombo's operations manager, said in the video. "The failures can be a problem on the spacecraft, a problem on the ground, it can be a problem with computers, a problem with ground software, communication lines, ground stations, control rooms here, it can even be a problem with the operators themselves."
So, until August, ESA scientists and engineers are using a replica of the spacecraft and its computer to practice for perilous situations on the long flight, like instruments getting overheated as it flies closer to the sun.
Then, all the practice will become reality once BepiColombo launches between Oct. 5 and Nov. 29 of this year. The spacecraft will take seven years to reach its destination: orbit around Mercury. After the long journey, it will separate into two orbiters peeling off to study the tiny planet's geology, atmosphere and magnetosphere.
BEPICOLOMBO Face aux Mystères de Mercure – LDDE
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels.
Astronomers created this all-sky map of the cosmos using data collected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The map shows gamma-rays detected by the telescope from 2008 to 2017.
Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
The Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope is a space observatory designed to study the universe in highly energetic frequencies known as gamma-rays. It includes participation from NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and several partners both in the United States and internationally. The mission was launched in 2008 and remained operational as of mid-2018.
Development and timeline
In 2000, the National Academies of Sciences' Decadal Survey, which identifies the scientific community's top priorities for research in the coming years, a mission studying energetic gamma-rays was the top priority for a mid-sized project, according to NASA.
Scientists saw Fermi as a successor to NASA's Compton-Gamma-ray Observatory, which operated between 1991 and 1999. NASA said that Fermi's field of view and sky survey capabilities were twice as large as one of Compton's instruments, and 30 times as sensitive. Fermi was also designed as a complement to the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory; Swift is optimized to look at the locations of gamma-ray bursts, as well as their afterglows.
NASA described Fermi as "an astrophysics and particle physics partnership," which included development by NASA in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy. International partners from France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden also contributed, as well as other institutions in the United States. The mission cost $690 million (with a U.S. contribution of $600 million and an international contribution of $90 million).
Fermi, which was called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) until it reached its operational orbit, launched on June 11, 2008, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a Delta II Heavy rocket. It was placed into a circular orbit around Earth with an altitude of about 350 miles (560 kilometers). It circles the planet every 90 minutes. "This orbit is chosen to minimize the effects of charged particles that surround Earth, and which would create additional unwanted background signals in the detectors, while still ensuring the full mission lifetime," NASA stated.
Fermi was designed to last five to 10 years. The mission passed its 10th anniversary in June 2018 and was still operational as of mid-2018, although it is expected to end operations in fall 2018.
Fermi is designed to examine gamma-ray radiation, the most energetic form of light that there is. Like the visible light that humans can see, gamma-rays are on the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Gamma-rays, however, have billions of times more energy than visible light.
In gamma-rays, several types of exotic objects shine brightly. Researchers have seen gamma-ray bursts, which are the most energetic types of explosions in the universe and may have caused a large extinction on Earth. Solar flares – eruptions from our sun – are bright both in visible light and in gamma-rays. Rapidly rotating and ultra-dense stars known as pulsars are also sources of gamma-rays.
Researchers also want to examine gamma-rays to better understand a substance known as dark matter. (Initially, scientists thought that "excess" gamma-rays might be a signal of dark matter, but later research put this hypothesis into doubt.) Dark matter probably makes up most of the known universe, but dark matter can't be "seen" by conventional telescopes. The only way it's visible to us right now is through its effect on other objects, such as gravitational influences. Better understanding dark matter will help researchers make better predictions about things such as star movements and the fate of the universe.
In NASA's words, these are the main mission objectives for Fermi:
Explore the most extreme environments in the universe, where nature harnesses energies far beyond anything possible on Earth.
Search for signs of new laws of physics and what composes the mysterious dark matter.
Explain how black holes accelerate immense jets of material to nearly light speed.
Help crack the mysteries of the stupendously powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.
Answer long-standing questions across a broad range of topics, including solar flares, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays.
To perform its investigations, Fermi carries two instruments: its primary instrument that is called the Large Area Telescope (LAT), and a complementary instrument known as the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM), according to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
To best understand what energy frequencies they see, here's a quick explanation of an electronvolt (eV). An electronvolt is defined as how much energy a single electron gains when its electric potential increases by one volt, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. (Electric potential is the amount of work to move a unit charge from one spot to another against an electric field.)
Visible light has a photon energy of between 1.6 eV and 3.4 eV. The scale for electronvolts continues as follows: kilo-electron volt (keV, one thousand eV), mega-electron volt (MeV, one million eV), giga-electron volt (GeV, one thousand million eV), etc. For a quick idea of how much energy we're talking about, a single nuclear fission event is measured at about 200 MeV, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Fermi can view objects at a wide range of scales – anywhere between 8 keV to 300 GeV.
The GBM can view the entire sky and is designed to spot about 200 gamma-ray bursts every year, as well as events such as solar flares. It detects X-rays and gamma-rays that have an energy range between 8 keV and 30 meV, Goddard says.
The LAT can view 20 percent of the sky at once, and if it is left in its default "sky-survey" mode, it will move around the entire sky once every three hours. Researchers can also choose to swing the LAT to view interesting objects. The telescope is also designed to move itself when either the LAT or the GRB sees a gamma-ray burst. LAT is supposed to see photons with energies of between 30 MeV to at least 300 GeV, Goddard says.
Fermi discovered two massive bubbles of material emanating from the Milky Way's center in 2010. Follow-up observations have been performed in X-rays and radio wavelengths, including a Hubble Space Telescope study released in 2015 that clocked these bubbles moving at 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h).
In April 2013, NASA said Fermi had "dodged a 1.5-ton bullet" just over a year before, in March 2012. An automatic report showed that Fermi was only a week away from a potentially devastating collision with Cosmos 1805, a dead Soviet-era spy satellite that used to be operational during the Cold War in the 1960s. The two satellites were forecast to pass each other by only a few hundred feet, which is a very small margin of error when calculating spacecraft trajectories. Engineers commanded Fermi to fire its thrusters for one second, avoiding the possibility of disaster.
That August, NASA announced it would extend the Fermi mission into 2018 to allow investigators more time to search for links between gamma-rays and dark matter.
A 2014 story on Space.com sister site LiveScience examined the phenomenon of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, which are gamma-rays that originate from the Earth during intense storms. Fermi can view these Earthly sources of gamma-rays, as well as those originating further out in the universe. The same year, Fermi spotted a gamma-ray's light being focused by a gravitational lens, which occurs when the gravity of a massive object distorts the light of a more distant object.
In 2015, research from Fermi suggested that gamma-rays it found could indicate a magnetic field that originated only a few nanoseconds after the Big Bang that formed the universe. At the time, however, the researchers said the detected signal was weak and required more follow-up observations to be sure.
Solar energy is a contributor to gamma-rays as well, as a 2017 study showed. Hidden solar eruptions were linked to gamma-ray bursts observed by Fermi.
In March 2018, Fermi had an issue with one of its solar array drives, which put the telescope into an automatic "safe hold." With the solar array stuck, engineers moved Fermi into a fixed angle relative to its orbit. "This direction put the most sunlight on a solar panel that stopped moving," NASA stated. By May 2018, Fermi was back to science operations; NASA was still studying the cause of the failure.
TR-3B Black Triangle ∇ Code Name: ASTRA | Magnetic Field Disruptor Plane
TR-3B Black Triangle ∇ Code Name: ASTRA | Magnetic Field Disruptor Plane
TR-3B Black Triangle ∇ In recent years, countless people have reported seeing flying objects of strange shapes (including triangular) and spectacular trajectories. Without ever challenging the existence of UFOs of alien origin, we must make it clear that some of such aircraft are in fact owned and used in the greatest secrecy by the US government.
TR-3B Black Triangle | Code Name: ASTRA
Only with the tremendous courage of some people who worked in different military bases, the truth about these aircraft’s was able to come to light, which is likely to hurry their future use in civil society for the benefit of all mankind.
This is not just about the use of the aircraft itself but primarily about the technology behind its propulsion system – a technology that is also called “black technology” and which, as Steven Greer mentions in his Hidden Truth,
Prohibited information is about 10,000 years more advanced than space-based space technology currently used globally.
The TR-3B vehicle’s outer coating is reactive to electrical stimulation and can change color, reflectiveness, and radar absorptiveness.
In this regard, it is very interesting, the account of an American specialist who worked on a secret military base near Groom Lake City, about an unimaginable aviation technology for the general public, which the Americans already have.
Since this report, originally published online at http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/tr-3b/, is no longer accessible at that address, we offer it below:
“A friend told me at some point he would never forget the image of the TR-3B aircraft in the Papoose Base, which looks exactly like an alien ship.
Black as triangular pitch, TR-3B was rarely mentioned (and only whispering) in Groom Lake, where he worked.
At one point, the aircraft flew over the Groom Lake track in complete silence, and as if by surprise, it suddenly stopped above the S-4. Floated silently in the same position for about 10 minutes, after which he left softly on the asphalt of the track.
Sometimes a bright blue-silver crown surrounds the massive circumference of the TR-3B.
The operational model is approximately 183 meters in diameter.
The TR-3B aircraft also has the ASTRA code name.
The first operational reconnaissance flight took place in the early 1990s.
The triangular nuclear platform of the aircraft was built in the highest secret of the AURORA Program, funded with money from the “black budget” (at least $ 3 billion invested in this project).
“Aurora” is now the most secretive US aerospace program and TR-3B is the most “exotic” vehicle that was created under the Aurora Program, funded and coordinated by the NSA (National Security Agency), the NRO National Recognition) and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).
The functionality of TR-3B is not a fiction, it was built with technology already available in the mid-1980s. So, not every UFO spotted is necessary of alien origin.
The material covered by the TR-3B aircraft is a radar-reactive polymer, which can change its reflectivity, radar absorption, and color.
This polymer, when used in conjunction with some internal TR-3B electronic systems, can give the vehicle such a look that it looks like a small ship or a flying cylinder on the radar screen.
TR3B Astra is at the same time a strategic vehicle of recognition and a combat vehicle.
A circular ring, filled with acceleration plasma, called the Magnetic Field Disruptor (MFD), surrounds the crew’s rotating compartment and outperforms any currently known technology.
The Sandia and Livermore laboratories have developed this secret technology, and the [American] government will do everything to protect it.
The plasma generated by bringing mercury to 250,000 atmospheres and at a temperature of -123 degrees Celsius, if accelerated to 50,000 rpm, becomes a superconducting plasma, the ultimate result of this process being the cancellation of gravity (levitation).
More specifically, by generating this rotating magnetic field, the effect of gravitational attraction on the ship is neutralized to 89%.
In other words, the weight of the circular accelerator, as well as all the weight of the accelerator – crew cap, avionics (navigation and operation devices and appliances), fuels, crew environment systems and a nuclear reactor, etc. – are reduced by 89%.
This makes the vehicle extremely easy and has the ability to far exceed the performance and manoeuvrability of an aircraft built so far (except, of course, UFOs).
The TR-3B aircraft evolve at high altitudes in an undetectable way (using STEALTHtechnology), thus providing an undetermined flight time recognition platform.
Once it reaches (at a high speed) at that altitude, it needs only very little propulsion to maintain its altitude.
In addition, I remember that at the Groom Lake secret base there were rumours about a new element that would act as a plasma catalyst.
Having the weight reduced by 89%, the vehicle can travel at a speed of 9 Mach [9 times the sound speed: approx. 10,000 km / h], both vertically and horizontally.
Sources say that performance is limited only by the biological limitations of pilots – which are many, given that the gravitational force is reduced by 89%.
The propulsion of the TR-3B is provided by three multimodal propellers mounted in each corner at the bottom of the triangular platform (see Fig. …). TR-3B moves at a speed of up to 9 Mach (Mach is a unit of measurement used in aerodynamics to express the speed of a body moving in a fluid: projectile, aeroplane, rocket, etc.
The Mach 1 speed is equal to the sound velocity in that fluid; Under standard conditions, Mach 1 is equal to 1224 km / h (or 340 m / s) until it rises to 120,000 meters (120 Km), then God knows how fast it can move.
The three multimode rocket engines that are mounted on each corner of the platform use hydrogen or methane and oxygen for propulsion.
In a rocket system that uses hydrogen and liquid oxygen, 85% of the propulsion provides oxygen.
The rocket nuclear engine uses a liquid hydrogen and oxygen boost for additional power.
The reactor heats liquid hydrogen and injects liquid oxygen through supersonic nozzles so that hydrogen combusts at the same time with liquid oxygen.
The multimodal propulsion system can operate in the atmosphere with the propulsion offered by the nuclear reactor in the upper atmosphere with hydrogen propulsion and in the combined orbit (hydrogen/oxygen) circumferential orbit.
What you need to keep in mind is that the three rocket engines actually propel only 11% of the mass of the Top Secret TR-3B aircraft. Engines are built by Rockwell.
Therefore, when triangular UFOs are recorded, it does not necessarily mean they are of extraterrestrial origin, and may also be ultra-sensitive flight apparatus, such as the TR-3B.
The TR-3B Craft
The National Security Agency (NSA), the National Recognition Office (NRO), the CIA and the United States Air Force (USAF) intentionally created a certain ambiguity about the names of these aircraft: they created the TR-3, which was modified in TR-3A, TR3-B, plus 2, 3, or 4 suffixes that actually mean completely different aircraft.
Thus, the TR3-B model is just as different from TR3-A as banana grapes. Some of these are designed to have a human crew, others are designed to operate unmanned. ”
Independent journalists who courageously reveal all this secret information hope that their emergence on more and more media channels will greatly help to “wake up” people in the face of these occult realities and thus lead them to their use for the good of the whole mankind.
On the other hand, disclosure in the press of this information will prevent and completely dismantle the various manipulations of an eventual alien invasion or other similar rumours that are being made to escape the “black operations” of the satanic “elite” of so-called “enlightened”.
Robot orbiters circling Mars have acquired images of ghost dunes. They’re pits where, scientists believe, tall crescent-shaped sand dunes once existed on this red desert world.
Ghost dunes in the Noctis Labyrinthus region on Mars, west of the more famous Valles Marineris. The crescent-shaped pits are the remains of active barchan-type dunes from billions of years ago.
Mars is a desert planet, a lot like some deserts on Earth, but much colder. Also just like Earth, the Martian deserts have vast dunes, ranging from small sand ripples (technically not dunes) to towering, cliff-like true dunes of fine sand. But – while various types of dunes have been seen from orbit and up close by Mars rovers, currently still active and gradually making their way across the landscape – now another kind of dune has been found on Mars as well. Scientists call these ghost dunes, and they are very ancient. They reported the finding in GeoSpace on July 10, 2018. The new research paper was just published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.
These ghost dunes are not active dunes today. Rather, they are the remains of previous ancient dunes that left pit-like depressions in the ground after they eroded away. Hundreds of these crescent-shaped pits have been discovered, each about the size of the U.S. Capitol building. As Mackenzie Day, a planetary geomorphologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and an author of the new study, explained:
Any one of these pits is not enough to tell you that it’s a dune, or from an ancient dune field, but when you put them all together, they have so many commonalities with dunes on Mars and on Earth that you have to employ some kind of fantastic explanation to explain them as anything other than dunes.
Current and active crescent-shaped sand dunes in the Hellespontus region on Mars, west of the Hellas basin.
How do ghost dunes form? On Earth, ghost dunes may have been partially buried by lava or water-borne sediments. For these Martian ghost dunes, when the lava or sediments hardened, they preserved the contours of the dunes. The remaining top portions of the dunes were then eroded away by winds, which scoured them out, leaving only the “mold” outlines of the former dunes. Now they look like pits with hardened edges.
These dunes’ existence on Mars provide more clues as to what conditions were like billions of years ago, in particular, winds. As Day noted:
One of the cool things about the ghost dunes is that they tell us, for sure, that the wind on Mars was different in the ancient past, when they formed. The fact that the wind was different [when the ghost dunes formed] tells us that the environmental conditions on Mars aren’t static over long time scales, they have changed over the past couple billion years, something we need to know to interpret the geology on Mars.
Crescent-shaped barchan dunes in Egypt’s Western Desert.
The Martian ghost dunes were found in orbital images of Hellas Planitia basin and Noctis Labyrinthus. They are similar to ones discovered in the Snake River Plain in eastern Idaho in 2016. More than 480 potential dune molds were discovered in orbital images of Noctis Labyrinthus alone, and more than 300 in Hellas Planitia, by Day and co-author David Catling. Noctis Labyrinthus is a region of jumbled plateaus just west of Valles Marineris, the largest-known canyon in the solar system. Hellas Planitia is a massive 4-billion-year-old impact crater over 1,678 miles (2,700 km) across in the southern hemisphere.
The shapes of the ghost dunes on Mars are crescents, just like barchan dunes on Earth, meaning that the original dunes would have been very similar to barchan dunes, the most common type on both Mars and Earth. The “horns” or tips of the crescents point in the direction of the prevailing wind. This type of dunes tends to form on flat terrain where there is little or no vegetation. The fact that there are so many of these pits in each location points to them being the remains of once-active dune fields. As Day noted:
They are all going the same way, which you would expect for dunes because they are all migrating and forming in the same wind regime. So just the shape and size tell us that these are features that are coming from an ancient dune system.
Ghost dunes on Idaho’s eastern Snake River plain. Image via Google Earth.
Analysis of the ghost dunes on Mars indicates that the original dunes were quite large – about 130 feet (40 meters) tall at Noctis Labyrinthus and 246 feet (75 meters) tall at Hellas basin. By comparison, the Curiosity rover has studied a series of dunes near the base of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. The striking Namib Dune is about 16 feet (5 meters) tall.
As well as providing fascinating clues about ancient environmental conditions on Mars, these ghost dunes may also be a good place to search for evidence of past life. As mentioned in the summary in the new paper:
Ancient dunes in two places on Mars were partially buried and then eroded away, leaving behind dune-shaped pits that preserve information about the ancient environment. These pits may contain ancient dune sandstones around the edges of the pits and could be a good place to look for evidence of ancient life. The shapes of the pits also tell us how the winds behaved in the past.
Namib Dune in Gale Crater on Mars, as seen by the Curiosity rover. It is about 16 feet (5 meters) tall.
We know that dunes on Earth can support life, and dunes on Earth are very similar to dunes on Mars. One problem that Mars has that Earth doesn’t is the surface radiation. If you are inside a dune, or at the bottom of a dune, and you are microbial life, the dune is protecting you from a lot of that radiation. There is probably nothing living there now. But if there ever was anything on Mars, this is a better place than average to look.
Bottom line: As well as being common on Earth, dunes have also been found on Mars, Venus, Titan and even comet 67P. Now another type of dune has been discovered on Mars – “ghost dunes,” the pit-like remains of ancient, once-active dunes which have mostly eroded away. They bear a strong similarity to present-day dunes and may even hold clues to past life on the red planet.
This Is The Center Of The Milky Way In Its Clearest View Yet... Breathtaking
This Is The Center Of The Milky Way In Its Clearest View Yet... Breathtaking
A mega-telescope gives the clearest breath-taking view of the center of the milky way.
The MeerKAT radio mega-telescope has given us a glimpse of the center of the Milky Way that is stunning. The image reveals the red center in all its glory, showing in clear detail the region around the black hole, some 25,000 light years away.
Galactic Center of the Milky Way Galaxy in the Infrared
The MeerKAT Telescope with 64 Dishes is More Sensitive than Any Telescope Before
The telescope is a combination of 64 individual dishes with all of them being able to detect radio waves. The MeerKAT radio telescope is situated in South Africa in the Karoo region with it being more sensitive than any other telescope according to Sciencealert. com.
The starling red colors in the image reveal just how bright the radio waves are when the telescope picks them up. They range in color, with the faintest emissions being red, while the stronger of the emissions vary orange, yellow and white. The whole image looks like a photograph from hell with a fiery swirling mass. The telescope has managed to give us a never before seen glimpse of the features in the center of the Milky Way. It also gives a view that is clearer than those offered by other telescopes of the remnants of the supernova along with the star-forming regions.
The line at lower left is 240 light years
Long Narrow Filaments Have Been a Riddle For Three Decades
The filaments, which are narrow and long, were first seen during the 1980s, but scientists did not know the origin of them. They lie close to the middle of the black hole, however, they are not found in any other location in the Milky Way. Farhad Yusef-Zadeh from the Northwestern University in Evanston in Illinois said, "This image is remarkable", Farhad is an expert on filaments such as these. He went on to say, "It could provide the key to cracking the code and solve this three-decade riddle."
Because the Milky Way is 25,000 light years away, it has been very difficult to capture images of it in the past. Along with this, the Milky Way lies behind Sagittarius constellation, which means it is obscured by gas clouds along with dust. The telescopes used on Earth have not been able to pick it up before the MeerKAT telescope was used. The MeerKAT telescope makes use of x-ray, infrared and radio wavelengths, which penetrate the dust, giving a unique view of the region. It is also ideally located in South Africa as for 12 hours each day there is a visible view of the Milky Way.
The MeerKAT Telescope Shows Science Capabilities Never Before Seen
Fernando Camilo, the chief scientist of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory who was responsible for the building along with the operation of the MeerKAT telescope, said:
"We wanted to show the science capabilities of this new instrument. The center of the galaxy was an obvious target: unique, visually striking and full of unexplained phenomena – but also notoriously hard to image using radio telescopes. Although it's early days with MeerKAT, there is a lot that remains to be optimized, we decided to go for it – and were stunned by the results."
Scientists are not the only ones who are stunned by the results of the telescope. People alike are amazed at the clarity of the image along with the breath-taking views of the center of the Milky Way.
Milky Way Galaxy Center in Infrared (2006.01.10) [720p]
Chinese Airports Shut Down After Mass UFO Sighting
Chinese Airports Shut Down After Mass UFO Sighting
The thing that struck me about that incident was that it was a mass sighting with photographs from independent people taken from different angles in different areas of the city. Each of the photos depicts the same elongated structure, none resembling a helicopter.
Sure, you could fake photos from the same angle taken from the same camera, but you'd have to enlist the help of many confederates from all over the city to photograph the object with long exposures, then also convince the myriad of eyewitnesses to change their stories from helicopter to UFO to perpetuate the deception.
I don't think it was ever adequately explained. It happened, then nobody really talked about it after.
UPS AND DOWNS This view shows Pluto’s highest mountains, which rise 3 to 6 kilometers above the smooth nitrogen-ice plains of Sputnik Planitia. New maps of Pluto’s topography show more details of familiar landscapes like this one.
PAUL SCHENK/LUNAR AND PLANETARY INSTITUTE
The first global maps of Pluto and its moon Charon are now available, putting a bookend on NASA’s New Horizons mission.
“From a completionist’s point of view, they are all the good data we have, stitched together into a coherent, complete mosaic,” says planetary scientist Ross Beyer of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
The charts focus on the 42 percent of Pluto and 45 percent of Charon where New Horizons snapped images from at least two angles during its 2015 flyby, revealing the landscapes’ height and depth (SN: 6/27/15, p. 16).
These measurements add topographic detail to already familiar features. For instance, the smooth plains of Pluto’s distinctive, heart-shaped ice sheet, known as Sputnik Planitia, lie two to three kilometers below the region’s rim.
The biggest surprise on Pluto is a 3,200-kilometer-long system of ridges and troughs that traces a single, long line across the dwarf planet. That streak may stretch all the way around the globe, Beyer and colleagues report online June 11 in Icarus. This feature was only visible with all the data put together, Beyer says. The team doesn’t have a good explanation for its formation yet.
LONG AND LEAN This subset of the new Pluto map (bottom) shows part of a long series of ridges and troughs that extends over at least 3,200 kilometers. Astronomers aren’t sure how it formed. The digital elevation model (top) shows the same area. White arrows highlight the edge of Sputnik Planitia, the planet's heart-shaped plains of nitrogen ice.
P.M. SCHENK ET AL/ICARUS 2018
Charon’s map confirmed that the moon is made up of two large zones: smooth plains in the southern hemisphere and fractured blocks and canyons in the north, Beyer and colleagues report online July 3 in another paper in Icarus (SN: 4/2/16, p. 20). Initially, scientists thought both terrains were at the same elevation, but the new map shows that the plains are situated a kilometer or two lower than the northern terrain.
“We don’t know quite why that is yet, but it sure is interesting,” Beyer says.
Other planetary scientists will use these charts to continue unearthing Pluto and Charon’s secrets. “These maps really form the basis, the cartographic foundation, for anything any other scientist will do,” Beyer says.
On Saturn’s small moon Enceladus, perpetual fountains of alien seawater launch all sorts of curious stuff into space: water, salt, silica, and even simple carbon-containing compounds fly into the void—many of which are ingredients for life as we know it.
Now, scientists working with data from a dead spacecraft have discovered something even more potentially intriguing: heavy organic compounds containing hundreds of atoms arranged in rings and chains. These are the most complex organic molecules uncovered so far at Enceladus, and—sorry, Europa—they may make the moon the most promising place in our solar system to search for life beyond Earth.
“What we know today is telling us that Enceladus is an outstanding target to go look for life, and there may be microbes living in that ocean today,” says Cornell University’s Jonathan Lunine.
SATURN 101
How did the rings around Saturn form? How many moons does the planet have? See stunning NASA images of the gas giant studied by Christian Huygens and Giovanni Cassini.
Discovered by the Saturn-exploring Cassini spacecraft in late 2005, icy jets erupting from Enceladus were a surprise to most scientists. Blasting through fissures in the south polar region, the jets contain seawater from a global ocean locked beneath the moon’s icy shell. Over the years, scientists have been able to study those jets and calculate the salinity and acidity of the ocean, identify ejected organic compounds such as methane, and determine that hydrothermal vents in the seafloor are providing heat and energy.
But these newly detected complex molecules spin that story forward and raise questions about whether they’re the work of lifeless chemistry or a sign pointing toward alien life.
“We cannot decide this hundred-million-dollar question, but it certainly shows that something is going on there, that complex organic chemistry is happening and that we can probe it from space,” says Frank Postberg of the University of Heidelberg, lead author on the paper describing the results today in the journal Nature.
“The moon freely delivers its organic inventory at high concentrations to the Cassini spacecraft. That’s just an amazing finding.”
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus sinks behind the planet in a farewell portrait from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which destroyed itself by diving into the ringed giant on September 15, 2017.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL- CALTECH, SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
That includes information Cassini gathered while flying near the planet’s E ring. Thin and diaphanous, this ribbon is formed by dust and ice ejected by Enceladus. As Cassini skirted the E ring’s edge, some of its particles collided with an onboard instrument designed specifically to study cosmic dust and return information about its ingredients.
Postberg and his colleagues decided to look at data gathered during E ring flybys between 2004 and 2008, when the instrument was least contaminated by interplanetary dust from elsewhere in the solar system. Over 15 separate intervals, the spacecraft collected and studied about ten thousand dust particles. And in roughly one percent of those, Postberg and his colleagues identified the signatures of complex organic compounds.
“It was kind of a needle in a haystack problem,” he says.
Clinging to grains of water ice ejected by Enceladus, these heavy, carbon-containing molecules had been launched into space, just waiting for Cassini to come by and collect them upon impact. What’s more, the large compounds are likely fragments of even larger parent molecules that could weigh thousands of atomic mass units, Postberg says.
Floating Film
It’s the first time such heavy organics have been identified at Enceladus. Previously, Cassini detected lighter, gassy molecules such as methane and ethane, which contain one or two carbon atoms and a smattering of hydrogens; these molecules weigh in at around 15 atomic mass units.
But the newly detected molecules are as heavy as 200 atomic mass units and comprise anywhere between seven and 15 carbon atoms, handfuls of hydrogens, as well as nitrogen and oxygen.
“While we have found large molecules outside of Earth before, this is the first time they have been detected emerging from a liquid water ocean,” says Morgan Cable of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who looks for life in improbable places on Earth. (Recently, scientists also found complex organics on cold, dry Mars.)
“Many large organic molecules are not stable in liquid water for extended periods of time, so one of the next questions to ask is, where are these organic molecules coming from?”
Postberg and his colleagues think it’s likely that newly formed heavy organics rise to the top of the moon’s buried ocean and end up floating in a layer near areas where water erupts from fissures at the south pole. There, they stick to ice grains that are carried into space by bubbles rising from the seafloor to the surface.
“Our oceans have a thin film of organic molecules floating on top—think 'oil slick' but made up of life and its byproducts—that covers the ocean to a significant extent,” Cable says. “Now it seems that Enceladus has this too. But is it also made by life?”
Lying in Wait
Though tantalizing, this soup of carbon-containing riches is not an indication of life yet. Many processes could have crafted such structures in the absence of extraterrestrial metabolisms.
“Are they being made by abiotic processing at the bottom of the ocean, where the rock and water meet, or are they the waste products of microbes? That’s the question, with a capital Q,” Lunine says.
Fundamentally, the molecular soup tells scientists that the environment beneath Enceladus’s icy shell is capable of extremely complex chemistries. Whether those reactions are completely independent of life and fueled simply by chemistry and geology, are part of a prebiotic mix from which life could one day emerge, are currently building alien microbes, or are perhaps the waste products of extraterrestrial lifeforms already living in the Enceladian sea is still unknown.
Fractures in the icy shell snake along the south polar region of Enceladus in this Cassini picture.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA, JPL-CALTECH/SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE
“We should try to go back to Enceladus as soon as we can,” Lunine says. “It’s waiting for us. It’s not going anywhere, and think of all that microbial poo that could be spewed out into space and analyzed today.”
The instruments needed to answer these questions already exist—all it takes is a return trip. One such mission, designed by Lunine and his colleagues and called the Enceladus Life Finder, could have flown in the near future. But NASA declined to fund the project.
Soon, though, a fleet of spacecraft will be sent to explore another icy ocean world: Europa, which orbits Jupiter. Scientists don’t yet know what kinds of chemistry take place in that alien sea, or if the ingredients needed for life as we know it are similarly abundant.
For now, Enceladus will have to wait. And so will scientists, who will continue hoping that maybe someday soon, they won’t need to mine archival data to answer one of humanity’s most pressing questions, and instead coax this promising astrobiological target into revealing its secrets in real time.
CASSINI'S FATAL CRASH
A three billion dollar spacecraft is hurtling towards destruction, and it's no accident.
Un OVNI a été aperçu dans le ciel australien le mois dernier et la scène a été immortalisée par un habitant de la région. Elle a beaucoup tourné sur YouTube et les réseaux sociaux depuis, alimentant d’innombrables théories complotistes sur fond de vaisseaux extraterrestres. La réalité est cependant beaucoup moins excitante.
L’affaire remonte donc au mois dernier. Junelyn Bitalac venait de dép.oser sa mère au travail et elle était en train de se promener à Hastings lorsqu’elle a aperçu une étrange forme ronde filer à travers le ciel
Intriguée, elle a immédiatement sorti son téléphone pour filmer la scène. La séquence a ensuite été partagée sur les réseaux sociaux.
Un OVNI a été aperçu dans le ciel australien en juin
Très vite, la vidéo a commencé à être massivement relayée par les internautes sur la toile. Le lendemain, elle a été reprise par plusieurs chaînes spécialisées dans le domaine de l’ufologie avant de se retrouver en une d’un certain nombre de médias anglo-saxons.
En tout, la vidéo a été vu plusieurs centaines de milliers de fois en moins d’une semaine.
Certains ufologues se sont alors lancés dans une véritable enquête en ligne et de nombreuses théories fantaisistes ont commencé à voir le jour.
Pour certains, la soucoupe volante immortalisée en vidéo était un vaisseau extraterrestre venant d’un monde lointain. Pour d’autres, il s’agissait d’un drone ou d’un appareil testé par l’armée australienne. Il faut dire aussi que la scène s’est produite à quelques kilomètres à peine de HMAS Cerberus, une base appartenant à la Royal Australian Navy à Victoria.
Une soucoupe volante… sans le moindre alien à son bord
Mais voilà, dans les faits, il ne s’agissait ni d’un vaisseau alien ni même d’un nouvel aéronef militaire… mais plutôt d’un avion construit par un amateur.
Si vous vous intéressez un peu à l’aéronautique, alors vous avez peut-être entendu parler de David Rowe. C’est tout à fait logique, car cet ingénieur travaille depuis plusieurs années sur un prototype de soucoupe volante.
En 2016, il a même été assez loin en faisant une démonstration de son quatrième prototype, un prototype parfaitement fonctionnel et capable de voler comme n’importe quel avion. La performance avait été assez relayée à l’époque avant de tomber dans l’oubli.
Toutefois, depuis, David Rowe a multiplié les essais et ce étrange OVNI aperçu dans le ciel australien n’était en réalité rien d’autre que l’un de ses derniers prototypes.
Disk-shaped UFO goes in and out the water of Lake Michigan
Disk-shaped UFO goes in and out the water of Lake Michigan
The witness has taken several photographs of a disk-shaped UFO with port holes that according to the photographer goes in and out the water of Lake Michigan known for its many mysterious UFO sightings.
Below the statement of the witness:
On the night of March 31st 2018, about 10:20pm, it was a very clear, calm night with a bright full moon. I was driving along the coastline from Kewaunee to Algoma when I noticed a very long, brightly lit ship.
I initially thought it was a cargo ship. But the more I watched it, the more erratic the movements and lights became.
I decided to park at a local wayside right before entering Algoma, that overlooks the water of Lake Michigan where this UFO is.
I can now see it flashes different patterns of lights all long it's structure. The shape seemed to shift between a long rectangular object to a disc shape object.
The colors would vary from bright white, red, green, white blue, lights. It made a couple sharp turns than would correct itself on what seemed to be a Northeastern path.
It would sporadically hover over the water than seem to land on the water all the while gradually going northeast.
Then, when it seemed to have been completely aligned with my vehicle (maintaining a good mile out or less distance in front of me), all the electronics, my vehicle radio, dashboard lights, headlights, cell phone turned on by themselves bright and loud. After about 3 seconds they all suddenly turned off at once.
I took that as my sign to take off. I sat there another few minutes, trying to calm myself and locked my vehicle doors (out of instinct). After I got my wits about me, I left with the UFO still just meandering on it's way over the water going northeasterly.
The witness has submitted the sighting including the images to Mufon , case 93368
UFO Over Mountains of Sierra Cabrera, Spain June 28, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Over Mountains of Sierra Cabrera, Spain June 28, 2018, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: June 28, 2018 Location of sighting: Mountains of Sierra Cabrera, Spain This UFO was recorded and sent into us at UFO Sightings Daily by Twitter user@RoyGibbo. This is a awesome sighting of a cigar UFO. Its very long and looks like a disk viewed from the side. He says it looks big and boy is he right. This is one big UFO! It looks like its rotating and almost has the appearance of a submarine from the side. A rare sighting indeed. Scott C. Waring Eyewitness states:
I was taking my dogs for a walk in the evening before going to bed, I enjoy looking at the sky while walking but I hadn't looked up until I was at the end of my driveway on this occasion so when I did look up I was so shocked to see this craft. It was absolutely enormous! I could tell where it was in the distance as it was over some local mountains around Mojacar in southern Spain, I could tell that the size of the thing was like the Empire State building on its side and it wasn't moving at all, it stayed very very still. I ran back to my house in flip flops as fast as I could with my dogs behind thinking what's up.
Well I captured this video and I was still in shock at the size off the thing, it slowly faded out slowly in a seemingly controlled manner so it wasn't bright at all so my phone that I took the video on couldn't see it but I could still see it a very little bit for a few more seconds and then it was totally gone, it didn't fly off or move, it just disappeared. It was so strange!!
Two Black Triangle UFOs Seen Over Bay Area, California On July 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Two Black Triangle UFOs Seen Over Bay Area, California On July 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: June 24, 2018 Location of sighting: Bay Area, California, USA This UFO report was sent into us from Twitter user @IsaacShapil. He caught two dark triangle UFO shooting across the sky. They appear to be very high up. Although these could be stealth fighters being flown from a nearby USAF base. Hard to tell for sure, but still awesome catch. They don't move like jets. Lots of dark UFOs have been seen around the world, so this can't be dismissed so easily. If you live in the Bay Area and have seen these UFOs, please let us know on Twitter at @UFO_Sightings_X Scott C. Waring Eyewitness states:
June 24th 2018, Bay Area, California. I saw two triangular objects in the sky, I reached for my phone to take a video and a few seconds later the objects made a strange noise and then they disappeared.
As members of both the ufology community and mainstream media (whatever that means) still work to make sense of the disclosures of the Pentagon’s UFO research program and alleged declassified footage of truly anomalous flying objects stalking military vessels, more and more voices are being raised in support of taking the study of UFO phenomena seriously.
The latest voice to join that chorus is Dr. Kevin Knuth, a former NASA research scientist who is currently a professor of physics at the University of Albany and the director of both the Knuth Information Physics Laboratory and the Knuth Cyberphysics Laboratory. Writing on The Conversation, Knuth argues that “blanket skepticism about extraterrestrial craft is not sustainable” in light of recent developments. Is this yet another sign of the beginning of a major step towards disclosure and discovery?
I sure hope so. In his wide-ranging article, Knuth touches upon such topics as the Fermi paradox, the recently disclosed Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, and international agencies devoted to studying UFOs. Knuth admits that he’s always been interested in UFOs and the possibility of interstellar travel, and that after years of skepticism, he now believes “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.”
Knuth points out that despite the growing evidence that militaries and government agencies worldwide have taken the UFO phenomenon seriously for some time, the study of anomalous aerial phenomena remains taboo among professional scientists:
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.
It’s not only the scientific community that’s to blame for this perception, Knuth adds, noting that popular culture and mass media have played right into this narrative as well:
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.
Despite this widespread skepticism, Knuth is confident that “many of these encounters – still a very small percentage of the total – defy conventional explanation.” Knuth also points the fact that UFO sightings are fairly common among astronomers, more than half of whom feel that the UFO phenomenon deserves serious scientific study.
What will it take to remove the stigma surrounding the study of UFOs? A mothership landing on the 50-yard line during the Super Bowl halftime show and unleashing a cybernetic hive mind? A little green woman using the Voyager 2 probe to take an intergalactic selfie? Or could the support of enough credible scientists turn the tide in favor of ufology as a legitimate science? On that note, Knuth closes with the observation that “while there is no single case for which there exists evidence that would stand up to scientific rigour, there are cases with simultaneous observations by multiple reliable witnesses, along with radar returns and photographic evidence revealing patterns of activity that are compelling.”
And then there’s stuff like this.
Science is based on replicability, testable explanations, and empirical evidence; since UFOs don’t typically fit this model, they’re excluded from most scientific study. As history has shown, however, scientific paradigms can change as we discover or invent new methods of studying the phenomena around us. What will be the tipping point that brings ufology into the realm of the hard sciences?
The YouTube channel A51:S published a video clip that prompted debates among conspiracy theorists online. The clip shows a mysterious spherical UFO moving across deep space. The alleged imprinted drawings on its body add to the mystery. According to the YouTube channel, they found the strange object while researching the website of NASA’s stereo mission.
The video did not gain much attention after it was uploaded, but that has been changed after conspiracy theory channel UFOmania shared it online. On the video description, UFOmania wrote that the UFO has a planetarium and appears to have a force field around it.
The uploader described the UFO to be so massive, which approximately the same size as a planet. Many conspiracy theorists commented that the mysterious, gigantic object might be an alien mega-ship from deep space.
Some other commenters suggested the object could be an alien space station.
One user believed that Trump knew about it and that he formed a space force to prepare for something big.
Another user revealed that the massive thing had been out there moving around for at least a year and NASA won’t comment on it. The same user wrote that it could look bizarre sometimes like it is shooting a missile.
Some other commenters on the video argued that it could be planet Nibiru, which could collide with Earth.
If you think the world is strange right now, wait until you watch HISTORY's new series, Project Blue Book.
Blue Book chronicles actual U.S. Air Force-sponsored investigations into the reported sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in America during the 1950s and '60s. Some 12,000+ cases were reported, and close to 10 percent of those cases remain unexplained today. And they're fodder for some great television: documented government investigations on UFO sightings makes it a real-life X-Files, complete with conspiracy theories, Russian spies, and military coverups.
Game of Thrones alum Aidan Gillen plays the main character in the series, Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He's an astrophysicist, family man and UFO skeptic who is appointed as the Chief Scientific Advisor to Project Blue Book.
Hynek encounters a variety of Air Force Generals, who each have their own agenda including his partner, decorated World War II hero, Captain Michael Quinn, played by The Vampire Diaries' Michael Malarkey. Quinn's instincts and impulsive behavior clash with Hynek's scientific mind.
SYFY WIRE visited the set of Project Blue Book in Vancouver for a close-up look at the production and to learn about the series with creator David O'Leary. We are also revealing one of the first images used to promote the series, an image of Hynek and Quinn, that's going to wrap one of the walls of Petco Park by San Diego Comic-Con. We've also got one of the early looks at Gillen as Hynek below.
Project Blue Book Petco Wrap
Setting the stage:
The government began looking into UFO studies under Project Sign at the end of 1947. A year later, it launched Project Grudge, which was more of a debunking operation. But to the dissatisfaction of United States Air Force generals, Project Blue Book replaced Grudge in March 1952 and ran through 1969. History's Project Blue Book begins in the fall of 1951.
"The conception of the show was always like Mad Men, beginning in the 1950s and ending in the late 1960s and every season we would move forward in time a little bit," O'Leary told SYFY WIRE. "All the cases we explore (this season) happened in 1953 and before. By the 10th episode, the Season 1 finale, we're definitely planting seeds for future story, we're closing some loops while opening and expanding other loops."
X-Files came up again as a way to describe the series, but during this earlier era, there was still an innocence to the idea of UFOs. Fortunately, Project Blue Book doesn't have to fill 22 episodes and do odd one-off episodes, like the long-running Fox series. It can stay focused. "Blue Book could go deeper, and not be forced to do vampires. Don't get me wrong, I was a big X-Files fan, but I always thought it was at its best when it felt real and plausible," he said "I love that we're doing 10 episodes in this first season, because we're able to craft one large mystery. Then there's a dark undercurrent of something mysterious, like a David Lynch-ian, tweaky X-Files thing happening underneath. It's like a grounded sci-fi noir."
Real people, real stakes
The historical aspect of the series sets the show apart. These are real people, or amalgamations of many real people, living real lives with real consequences; scientific minds trying their hardest figure things out but finding things beyond the limits of human knowledge. Members of the military acting on morals, others following orders. There are plenty of gray areas explored in Blue Book, where the government wanted to define it as black or white.
Nearly 1,000 cases were left officially unexplained, and even that number is hard to verify as there was pressure to explain cases, whether or not facts could actually do so. O'Leary tells me that the official explanations of many cases never sat right with those investigating it. They didn't sit right with Hynek, who would eventually conclude two things over the course of his time working on the project:
"One, that Bluebook became a misinformation campaign, a government front used to control the public perception to UFOs. And two, something of intelligence of an unknown origin — and he never said 'alien' definitively — but something unearthly, something that is not mankind is flying in our skies."
Aidan Gillen as Dr. J. Allen Hynek encounters alien subject.
Photo by Eduardo Araquel / HISTORY.
The work of Dr. J. Allen Hynek
Hynek was also the father of the close encounter classification system, creating the terms, creating the first, second and third kind rating. Appropriately, he was the consultant on Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind and made a cameo in the film. One of his five children, Joel, grew up to become a special effects supervisor and was part of the Oscar-nominated team that created the camouflage effect in Predator.
"Hynek was born amidst Haley's Comet in 1910 and died when it returned in 1986," O'Leary shared. "So there's this cool cosmic something with him, which we touch upon a little bit, like he was destined to do this work. He was the father of what we know as the language of UFOs. If you look at his books, he's a detail-oriented guy. He's meticulous, with just endless sightings and pages of data, looking for patterns."
Hynek wrote five books after Project Blue Book closed, delving into his studies on UFOs that he pursued on his own. The scope of Blue Book, should it continue to run, is vast considering how long the actual project ran, the number of historical and legendary UFO sightings, as well as Hynek's gradual change in belief.
"We were pretty good about sticking with history," O'Leary explained. "For example, there would be a case that we would love, but it happened in 1956. Fortunately, there were so many great cases that it wasn't hard to find some really good ones in that little slice. If we were to get a second season, maybe we advance our scope to cases from 1953-1957. As a writer, you then just have to figure out how to take that framework and build the spookiest thing, inside of what was reported, known, and documented."
Living History
There's a natural curiosity from viewers, who want to know how much of what they just saw was real and seek out more knowledge. HISTORY has taken this approach first with Vikings, Six, Knightfall, and now Blue Book. The title of each episode will be named after an actual case, so viewers can go back and look these cases up. There is also potential for HISTORY to track down people who are still connected to these cases for new specials.
Another influence on the series is FX's The Americans, in the way that series had multiple layers. It was a family drama, a contained spy drama, with the backdrop of the government and military, and an attention to detail from the set design to prop generation. "That sense of paranoia, conspiracy, that sense of, 'can I trust my neighbor?' – all of those elements we try to layer into Blue Book," O'Leary said. "My hope is that people feel like it's real. Our production team has made authentic, accurate, and time-appropriate sets and props."
Other supporting cast members include Laura Mennell (Alphas, Man in the High Castle) who will play Mimi Hynek, Allen's wife who goes from being a stay-at-home wife and mother to something much more; Ksenia Solo (Lost Girl, Orphan Black) is Susie Miller, Mimi's friend; Michael Harney (Orange is the New Black) is General Hugh Valentine and Neal McDonough (Justified, Minority Report) is General James Harding who may or may not be allies to Captain Quinn.
Changing minds
Besides creating the show, O'Leary co-executive produces with Sean Jablonski (Suits, Nip/Tuck) the showrunner, and with Robert Zemeckis(Contact, Back to the Future) and his partners Jack Rapke and Jackie Levine of Compari Entertainment. The first two episodes are directed by Robert Strongberg (Maleficent) and the last two are directed by Alex Graves (Game of Thrones).
"The biggest goal of the show is that people take a real hard look at America's history with UFOs as much as I did and many other people before me, when researching the show," he said. "That's when I realized that there's something here. I believe. We're dramatizing it as a piece of entertainment but it is also this weird, strange era of American history that if half of this stuff is for real, it changes the nature of the reality we live in. It could be a huge story."
In this current era of "fake news" and the government trying to control the narrative of truth and misinformation, Project Blue Book is a study into a moment of time when the control of information was as relevant as it is today. Even though UFOs are not making headlines in sheer quantity like they once did in the 50s and 60s, new sightings are still being reported and hastily recorded on cellphone cameras. The curiosity about our place in the vast universe remains healthy, and whether or not we are alone is intrinsic to our very nature.
Stay tuned to SYFY WIRE for more exclusive stories about Project Blue Book and the series in the near future.
The central portion of Osuga Valles on Mars resembles features found in the arid deserts of Arizona, rather than those formed by emerging groundwater in Florida.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The Martian surface is crisscrossed with what looks like the scars of running water cut into its dusty dry surface. For years, researchers have argued over the source of this water, whether it was fed by rainwater falling from the sky or from ice melting beneath the surface. By taking a statistical approach to the features, a trio of researchers now argue for rivers of rainwater.
The team studied all the mapped river valleys on Mars, measuring the angles where they divided from one another. These angles are determined by how dry an area is and whether water has emerged from the ground, among other things. They found that the angles are comparatively low, allowing them to rule out the influence of groundwater as a major formation process for the channels.
The narrow angles of the valleys bear a stronger resemblance to those found in Earth's arid landscapes, such as in the deserts of Arizona. In Florida, where groundwater re-emerges, the river networks have much wider angles between their tributaries. [Amazing Mars Rover Curiosity's Latest Photos]
The emergence of groundwater and the dryness of a region both play a role in determining the angle between the branches of a river.
Credit: Seybold 2018, Science Adv
According to lead author Hansjörg Seybold, this implies there must have been a similar hydrological environment with sporadic heavy rainfall on Mars over a prolonged period. The rainwater would have quickly run off over the surface, shaping the network of valleys.
Seybold, a physicist at ETH Zurich, worked with terrestrial geologist James Kirchner, also at ETH Zurich. Edwin Kite, a planetary specialist at the University of Chicago, was the third team member. Their research was published June 27 in the journal Science Advances.
Although Mars is dry today, scientists think it once held an ocean of water in much of its northern hemisphere nearly 4 billion years ago. The thicker atmosphere it used to have kept the liquid on the surface. As water evaporated, it would have condensed around the volcanoes in the highlands south of the ocean, then rained down, carving out the river valleys.
The Colorado River from space on March 12, 2013.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
"Recent research shows that there must have been more water on Mars [in the past] than previously assumed," Seybold said in a statement.
But the Red Planet's wet period was short-lived, lasting only a few hundreds of millions of years. The atmosphere was lost to space, and any liquid on the surface quickly disappeared, leaving scientists to ponder where the water went.
"It's likely that most of it evaporated into space," Seybold said. "But it could still be in the vicinity of Mars."
"This is a question for a future space mission," he said.
FALSE REPORTS CLAIM NASA DESTROYED PROOF OF ALIEN LIFE ON MARS
The base of Mars' Mount Sharp - the rover's eventual science destination - is pictured in this August 27, 2012 NASA handout photo taken by the Curiosity rover ( REUTERS/NASA/Handout )
FALSE REPORTS CLAIM NASA DESTROYED PROOF OF ALIEN LIFE ON MARS
There almost certainly wasn't any such proof to destroy
Nasa has been falsely accused of destroying proof of alien life on Mars.
But despite a huge number of reports to the contrary, there was no proof of aliens, and Nasa might not even have destroyed anything relevant.
In truth, the report was looking at why organic molecules – an important building block of life – were only found recently when the space agency had explored the surface of the planet decades ago. It revealed that might have been the result of a slip-up by Nasa, when it burnt away those molecules during the testing process.
But there is no truth to the claim that Nasa destroyed proof of alien life – because the agency did not have it in the first place. Those organic molecules are important parts of the building blocks of life, but they are not aliens themselves.
And the molecules themselves might not even have been there. In fact, the report speculated that the reason Nasa's Viking mission failed to find the molecules – despite searching for things that we now know are there – was because they were burnt away during the testing process.
Despite all of that number of reports claimed that Nasa had found evidence of aliens on Mars and then accidentally destroyed it.
"Life on Mars? NASA may have accidentally BURNED evidence of aliens on the red planet almost 50 years ago," read one headline. "NASA may have 'accidentally BURNED' evidence of life on Mars 40 years ago, says study," another said.
The controversy arrived because of a new report that study that looked to explain the mystery of why the Viking mission's on-board Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer, which was intended to look for proof of organic molecules, failed to actually find them. The twin Viking spacecraft's primary goal was to test whether life could survive on Mars, and their results were surprisingly pessimistic.
To solve the mystery of why it failed to find those organic molecules, or building blocks of life, the new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research suggested that it could be the result of a mistake in the testing process that burnt them away.
It is important to note, however, that the building blocks of life are entirely distinct from the life itself. Even now, Nasa has never reported evidence of life anywhere else in the universe – despite having found those building blocks in a range of different places.
Hawaiian Asteroid-Warning Telescope Passes Key Test
Hawaiian Asteroid-Warning Telescope Passes Key Test
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Impact time and location predictions for asteroid 2018 LA. The long blue bar shows the predictions prior to ATLAS data being obtained. The much shorter red bar shows the prediction including ATLAS data, while the yellow star marks the actual location.
If you're someone who worries about death from above, this should make you sleep a little easier.
A telescope that's part of the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii showed its chops on June 2, spotting an incoming space rock about 5 hours before the interloper smashed into Earth's atmosphere.
The asteroid, called 2018 LA, was tiny — on the order of 6 feet (1.8 meters) across or so — and the ATLAS scope picked it up as part of an automated survey, not a directed search, researchers said. (ATLAS didn't discover 2018 LA, however; the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona did, a few hours earlier that same day.) [Asteroid Threat: Potentially Dangerous Space Rocks in Pictures]
"This is a great test of the system," ATLAS principal investigator Larry Denneau, of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy (IfA), said in a statement. "We've confirmed that ATLAS can find impactors. If 2018 LA had been big enough to cause a dangerous explosion, like the asteroid that hit Russia in 2013, we'd have had enough warning that people could evacuate the impact zone."
Almost all of 2018 LA burned up over southern Africa on June 2. ATLAS' observations allowed scientists to pinpoint the rock's entry point and tie it to a fireball spotted that day by observers in Botswana. Researchers later journeyed to the fall zone and nabbed a few bits of the asteroid that managed to survive the trip to Earth's surface.
A fragment of the asteroid 2018 LA, which a team of experts found in Botswana on June 23, 2018, three weeks after the space rock fell to Earth.
Credit: Peter Jenniskens
"This is only the second time in history that fragments have been found from an asteroid whose orbit was known prior to its impact with Earth — and when they have been chemically analyzed, we'll know what kind of asteroid 2018 LA was," officials with the IfA, which operates ATLAS, wrote in the same statement.
ATLAS consists of two 1.6-foot (0.5 m) telescopes about 100 miles (160 kilometers) apart — one on the Big Island's Mauna Loa volcano and the other on the Maui mountain Haleakala. The two-scope system became fully operational in June 2017.
The ATLAS telescopes scan the sky autonomously several times every night, looking for potentially hazardous asteroids and other objects of interest. Together, they find about 100 space rocks that are 100 feet (30 m) wide or bigger per year, IfA representatives said.
Asteroids of that size have the potential to wipe out a city. And that's where ATLAS comes in: It's designed to spot such rocks with enough lead time to allow folks in the projected impact zone to scurry to safety.
Actually steering a big, incoming asteroid away from Earth would require much more warning time — likely several years at the minimum, experts have said.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
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