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 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 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...
04-10-2018
WE JUST LEARNED SOMETHING NEW ABOUT “ONE OF THE WEIRDEST OBJECTS IN THE MILKY WAY”
WE JUST LEARNED SOMETHING NEW ABOUT “ONE OF THE WEIRDEST OBJECTS IN THE MILKY WAY”
The star system SS 433 is something of a celebrity in the world of astronomy.
It’s the first known example of a microquasar — a black hole that feeds off a nearby companion star and emits two powerful jets of material. Plus, at just 15,000 light-years away, it’s relatively close to us.
And now, an international team of researchers has discovered something new about SS 433: it emits a type of electromagnetic radiation known as high-energy gamma rays. This new insight could help astronomers understand what’s going on at the centers of galaxies, where huge quasars sometimes feed on many stars at once.
HAWC features more than 300 water tanks, each about 24 feet across. When gamma rays reach Earth’s atmosphere from elsewhere in the universe, they cause showers of particles that hit the water in these tanks, causing shockwaves of light. Special cameras detect these, and from their recordings, researchers can pinpoint the source of the gamma rays.
For their study, published Wednesday in Nature, the team examined 1,017 days’ worth of HAWC data and determined that SS 433 was a source of gamma rays. Perhaps even more remarkably, they figured out that the rays were coming from the ends of the microquasars’ jets — a source of gamma rays they’d never seen before.
CLOSER LOOK
“This new observation of high-energy gamma rays builds on almost 40 years of measurements of one of the weirdest objects in the Milky Way,” said study co-author Segev BenZvi in an emailed press release. “Every measurement gives us a different piece of the puzzle, and we hope to use our knowledge to learn about the quasar family as a whole.”
Of the roughly one dozen microquasars in the Milky Way, only two appear to emit high-energy gamma rays. The fact that the closest microquasar to Earth also emits these rays — and in a previously unknown way — could afford researchers a better way to study them, all while helping us get to know our favorite microquasar a little bit better.
Cmdr. David Fravor says in 2004 he had an unforgettable encounter with a strange aircraft he believes was defying the laws of physics - maybe a UFO. #Tucker
An American pilot who claims to have chased an alien aircraft has warned world leaders to take UFO sightings seriously.
Elizondo secured the release of previously classified US Defense Department videos of UFO encounters - one of which shows the craft Fravor saw darting off at an incredible speed.
Commander Fravor, 53, was flying one of two fighter jets on a routine training mission about 100 miles into the Pacific ocean off San Diego when they were diverted to check out an aircraft spotted on radar from their navy cruiser the USS Princeton.
The operations operator said they had been tracking up to a dozen mystery aircraft over two weeks but hadn't had manned planes deployed when they showed up.
The object first appeared at 80,000 ft, then hurtled towards the sea, stopping at 20,000 feet and hovering before dropping out of radar.
When Commander Fravor arrived he saw a white aircraft hovering 50 feet above above a disturbance in the ocean.
He said: “It was just moving randomly around - this 40 foot long white tic tac looking thing, with no wings.
“It was a clear day with a blue background and it was perfectly white. We didn't see any windows, no form of propulsion, nothing, just a big white object.
"It was rounded on both ends and had a cylindrical body which rounded in, same front to back.
“I couldn't tell what it was made of, it was bright white but it wasn't reflecting a bunch of light."
Fravor flew towards it and the aircraft began ascending towards him, passing him at about 12,000 ft. He thinks he got within half a mile of it.
He said: “I literally chased the thing and it started to mirror us, it was like it became aware we were there. I cut across to see if I could get closer and it rapidly accelerated and disappeared. Within a matter of a second it was gone.”
Asked what was going through his mind, he said: "I was thinking 'That's pretty strange'. In 16 years of flying I had never seen anything like that. Nothing that can hover and climb at that rate up and then accelerate and just disappear.
“I was more curious then afraid. I wanted to see how close I could get to it, to see what it was.”
The two fighter jets were told to head to a rendezvous point 60 miles away.
However the radio operator on the Princeton then radioed and said the mystery aircraft had turned up before them.
At this point another aircraft was sent to investigate and recorded radar footage of the aircraft. The 90 second video shows the oblong shaped object hovering before it darts off to the left at what appears to be an unprecedented velocity.
Fravor said: “It jammed the radar, you couldn't lock it with a conventional radar, you could passively track it and see it, but if you tried to grab a lock it wouldn't allow you to do that.
“When it takes off and goes to the side that's a significant amount of distance to travel in a very short period of time, we're talking miles, that thing just goes poof and in about a second it's off the side of the screen.
"You look at the video of it there's no exhaust flume, there's no indication of how that thing is moving around. Having seen a lot of different airplanes, you can always at least hot spots where the exhaust is coming out. I was close enough visually to go 'we don't have anything like that'."
He insisted the object was alien in origin.
He said: “I know what I saw, it was impressive, it had incredible performance, obviously I wasn’t in a hostile act with it, you’d have your hands full if you were.
"I honestly don’t think humans have that technology to do what that thing did. Nor could the human body withstand accelerations like that. It’s an incredible technology to be able to go up to space, and back down and hang over the water.
"I know what I saw and the other three people that were there saw at the same time. I think you would be hard pressed to question my credibility flying experience wise. I’m totally sane, in good health, I don’t do drugs.
"We physically saw and chased it and are the only ones that have actually got close to one of these things.”
Fravor is now calling on British space expert Stephen Hawking to view the video and give his take on it.
Physicist Stephen Hawking exits the stage during an announcement of the Breakthrough Starshot initiative with investor Yuri Milner in New York April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson - RTX29N6G (File photo: Physicist Stephen Hawking exits the stage during an announcement of the Breakthrough Starshot initiative with investor Yuri Milner in New York April 12, 2016.
(REUTERS/Lucas Jackson))
He said: “They should be talking to Stephen Hawking. He’s a brilliant man, I would like to hear his thoughts on it. They said they’re talking to some other theoretical physicists like him about the possibilities.”
And in a stern warning to governments around the world he added: “We all need to take these seriously as a species, because right now we don't know the intent of these things, if they're like ET it's great, if they're like War of the Worlds not so much.
“You can ignore them and hope they're just going to observe, or you can do something about it and try to understand what they’re doing and develop technology, in case they do have a bad intention.”
In another video released by the US government into the existence of extraterrestrial life a pilot can be heard muttering: "This is a f****** drone, bro," the New York Post reported.
The footage shows another pilot saying: “There’s a whole fleet of them,” before exclaiming, “It’s rotating!”.
The footage captures a glowing whitish oval and a darker orb as the jets, dispatched from the aircraft carrier Nimitz, chase the craft.
The footage was released by the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, which spent $22 million between 2008 and 2012 to investigate reports from military and commercial pilots of unidentified flying objects.
Lockheed Martin Unveils Plans for Huge Reusable Moon Lander for Astronauts
Lockheed Martin Unveils Plans for Huge Reusable Moon Lander for Astronauts
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
This isn't your grandfather's lunar lander.
Today (Oct. 3), aerospace giant Lockheed Martin revealed its concept for a reusable, single-stage spaceship capable of ferrying four astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface of the moon.
For comparison, the expendable lunar lander that NASA used during the Apollo program carried two people and weighed 4.7 tons (4.3 metric tons) without propellant. Lockheed's craft would weigh 24 tons (22 metric tons) dry and tip the scales at 68 tons (62 metric tons) when fully fueled. [Lunar Legacy: 45 Apollo Moon Mission Photos]
The Lockheed lander would use as its home base the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a small space station that NASA aims to start building near the moon in 2022.
An artist's illustration of Lockheed Martin's crewed lunar lander, which is designed to let astronauts spend two weeks at a time on the moon's surface.
Credit: Lockheed Martin
The lander would depart from the Gateway, taking astronauts and up to 1.1 tons (1 metric tons) of cargo down to the lunar surface, according to a newly published Lockheed white paper. The craft (and crew) could stay on the surface for up to two weeks, then launch back to the Gateway without the need to refuel. (The lander would be refueled between missions — eventually, perhaps, with propellant derived from water ice extracted from the moon or asteroids.)
The lander design leverages many technologies from the Orion capsule, which Lockheed is building for NASA. Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which is also in development, will help astronauts explore deep-space destinations, such as the moon and Mars, NASA officials have said.
"There's a lot of development that we've accomplished on Orion, so that helps," Tim Cichan, space exploration architect at Lockheed Martin Space, told Space.com. (Cichan presented the lunar-lander concept today at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany.)
Orion already has one flight under its belt, an uncrewed test mission to Earth orbit in December 2014. NASA intends to fly the capsule again in 2020, on an uncrewed flight called Exploration Mission 1 that will also serve as the SLS' debut. (The 2014 Orion flight employed a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket.) On EM-1, Orion will loop around the moon and spend about three weeks in space. The first crewed Orion-SLS flight, Exploration Mission 2, is currently targeted for 2023.
An artist's illustration of Lockheed Martin's proposed moon lander attached to the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, a small space station that NASA aims to start building in lunar orbit in 2022.µ
Credit: Lockheed Martin
Lockheed's proposed lander could be up and running by the late 2020s, in keeping with the timeline NASA has targeted for getting boots back on the moon, said Rob Chambers, Lockheed Martin Space's director of human spaceflight strategy and business development. The lander would also launch atop the SLS, at least for the foreseeable future, he told Space.com.
The Lockheed concept vehicle is quite a bit bigger than the crewed lunar lander that NASA seems to be envisioning. In March, for example, the space agency asked industry to contribute ideas that would aid in the development of a lander capable of carrying between 0.55 tons and 6.6 tons (0.5 to 6 metric tons) to the lunar surface.
Artist's illustration of Lockheed Martin's proposed lunar lander on the surface of the moon. The lander could carry four people and up to 1 ton of cargo to the surface from lunar orbit.
Credit: Lockheed Martin
But there's a good reason for the extra heft: Lockheed sees the moon lander as a precursor for a Red Planet lander, which is a key part of the company's proposed "Mars Base Camp" exploration architecture. That base camp is a space station in Mars orbit that would serve as an exploration hub as well as a jumping-off point for crewed sorties to the surface (as the Gateway would do at the moon) and for trips to the Red Planet's two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.
Lockheed has long envisioned testing the Mars Base Camp lander at the moon, Chambers said. But the company's Red Planet plans aren't dependent on NASA selecting the vehicle for Gateway operations.
"A precursor lander would be very beneficial but not absolutely required," Cichan said.
Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There," will be published on Nov. 13. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+.
Schematic view of the Milky Way showing six isotropic extraterrestrial emission processes forming spherical shells filled by radio signals. The outer radii of the spherical shells are proportional to the time at which the signals were first emitted, while the thicknesses are proportional to the duration of the emissions. In this example, the Earth is illuminated by one of these signals. Credit: Claudio Grimaldi / EPFL
Could there be another planet in the universe with a society at the same stage of technological advancement as ours? To find out, EPFL scientist Claudio Grimaldi, working in association with the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a statistical model that gives researchers a new tool in the search for the kind of signals that an extraterrestrial society might emit. His method, described in an article appearing today in PNAS, could also make the search cheaper and more efficient.
Atrophysics initially wasn't Grimaldi's thing; he was interested more in the physics of condensed matter. Working at EPFL's Laboratory of Physics of Complex Matter, his research involved calculating the probabilities of carbon nanotubes exchanging electrons. But then he wondered: if the nanotubes were stars and the electrons were signals generated by extraterrestrial societies, could we calculate the probability of detecting those signals more accurately?
This is not pie-in-the-sky research — scientists have been studying this possibility for nearly 60 years. Several research projects concerning the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have been launched since the late 1950s, mainly in the United States. The idea is that an advanced civilization on another planet could be generating electromagnetic signals, and scientists on Earth might be able to pick up those signals using the latest high-performance radio telescopes.
Renewed interest
Despite considerable advances in radio astronomy and the increase in computing power since then, none of those projects has led to anything concrete. Some signals without identifiable origin have well been recorded, like the Wow! signal in 1977, but none of them has been repeated or seems credible enough to be attributable to alien life.
But that doesn't mean scientists have given up. On the contrary, SETI has seen renewed interest following the discovery of the many exoplanets orbiting the billions of suns in our galaxy. Researchers have designed sophisticated new instruments — like the Square Kilometre Array, a giant radio telescope being built in South Africa and Australia with a total collecting area of one square kilometer — that could pave the way to promising breakthroughs. And Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner recently announced an ambitious program called Breakthrough Listen, which aims to cover 10 times more sky than previous searches and scan a much wider band of frequencies. Milner intends to fund his initiative with 100 million dollars over 10 years.
"In reality, expanding the search to these magnitudes only increases our chances of finding something by very little. And if we still don't detect any signals, we can't necessarily conclude with much more certainty that there is no life out there," says Grimaldi.
Still a ways to go
The advantage of Grimaldi's statistical model is that it lets scientists interpret both the success and failure to detect signals at varying distances from Earth. His model employs Bayes' theorem to calculate the remaining probability of detecting a signal within a given radius around our planet.
For example, even if no signal is detected within a radius of 1,000 light years, there is still an over 10% chance that Earth is within range of hundreds of similar signals from elsewhere in the galaxy, but that our radio telescopes are currently not powerful enough to detect them. However, that probability rises to nearly 100% if even just one signal is detected within the 1,000-light-year radius. In that case, we could be almost certain that our galaxy is full of alien life.
After factoring in other parameters like the size of the galaxy and how closely packed its stars are, Grimaldi estimates that the probability of detecting a signal becomes very slight only at a radius of 40,000 light years. In other words, if no signals are detected at this distance from Earth, we could reasonably conclude that no other civilization at the same level of technological development as ours is detectable in the galaxy. But so far, scientists have been able to search for signals within a radius of "just" 40 light years.
So there's still a ways to go. Especially since these search methods can't detect alien civilizations that may be in primordial stages or that are highly advanced but haven't followed the same technological trajectory as ours.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Original written by Sarah Perrin. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
More information: Claudio Grimaldi et al, Bayesian approach to SETI, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(2018). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1808578115
Success! Hopping, Shoebox-Sized Lander Touches Down Safely on Asteroid Ryugu
Success! Hopping, Shoebox-Sized Lander Touches Down Safely on Asteroid Ryugu
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer
Two tiny, hopping robots now have a companion on the surface of the big asteroid Ryugu.
A shoebox-sized lander called the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) deployed from its mothership, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, as planned at 9:57 p.m. EDT Tuesday (Oct. 2; 0157 GMT on Oct. 3) and came to rest on Ryugu shortly thereafter. The lander's first photo of asteroid Ryugu shows a rocky world, and even MASCOT's own shadow.
"It could not have gone better," MASCOT project manager Tra-Mi Ho, from the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, Germany, said in a statement. (DLR is the German acronym for the German Aerospace Center, which built MASCOT in collaboration with the French space agency, CNES.) [Japan's Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu Mission in Pictures]
The German-French Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander captured this photo of asteroid Ryugu during landing operations on Oct. 3, 2018. The lander's shadow is visible at upper right.
Credit: German Aerospace Center (DLR)
"From the lander's telemetry, we were able to see that it separated from the mothercraft and made contact with the asteroid surface approximately 20 minutes later," Ho added.
MASCOT has already started gathering data with its four onboard science instruments — a camera, a radiometer, a spectrometer and a magnetometer — mission team members said. The 22-lb. (10 kilograms) lander must make haste, because its battery is expected to die just 16 hours after touchdown.
MASCOT took 20 photos during its slow descent toward Ryugu, and these images are stored aboard Hayabusa2 at the moment, mission team members said. And observations made by the magnetometer before separation (which occurred when Hayabusa2 was about 167 feet, or 51 meters, above Ryugu) have already made it down to Earth.
"The measurements show the relatively weak field of the solar wind and the very strong magnetic disturbances caused by the spacecraft," MASCOT team member Karl-Heinz Glaßmeier, from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, said in the same statement. "At the moment of the separation, we expected a clear decrease of the interference field — and we were able to recognize this clearly."
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully dropped the MASCOT lander on the asteroid Ryugu on Oct. 3, 2018 (Japan Standard Time). Left: Illustration of the MASCOT lander separating from the Hayabusa2 mothership. Right: Illustration of MASCOT landing on the surface of the asteroid Ryugu.
Credit: JAXA
MASCOT is following in the footsteps of MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, two 2.4-lb. (1.1 kg) rovers that deployed from Hayabusa2 on the night of Sept. 21. Both of those little robots aced their touchdowns and soon began exploring the surface of Ryugu.
Like the Japanese-built MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B, the autonomous MASCOT can move by hopping, which it does by manipulating a metallic "swing arm" inside its body. The lander can also use this arm to right itself on Ryugu's surface — an important feature, because MASCOT needs to be right side up to gather data and beam it up to Hayabusa2.
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft descends toward the asteroid Ryugu on the night of Oct. 2, 2018, ahead of the deployment of the MASCOT lander. This photo was taken at an altitude of about 430 feet (130 meters) above Ryugu.
Credit: JAXA
The $150 million Hayabusa2 mission launched in December 2014 and arrived in orbit around Ryugu in late June of this year. The mothership may have one more rover deployment to go: It still carries the "optional" hopper MINERVA-II2, which could make its way to Ryugu's surface next year.
And the orbiter itself will make its way down to the space rock in 2019 as well, after sending a nonexplosive impactor barreling into Ryugu. Hayabusa2 will grab pristine, previously subsurface samples from the newly created crater; this material is scheduled to come down to Earth in a return capsule in December 2020.
Data gathered by the mission at Ryugu and by scientists who examine its returned sample should shed considerable light on the solar system's early history and the role that carbon-rich asteroids like Ryugu may have played in life's emergence on Earth, Hayabusa2 team members have said.
The MASCOT landing site candidate region (light blue area) on the asteroid Ryugu. Since MASCOT was expected to bounce several times after first touching down, a reasonably wide region was selected.
Credit: AXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST, CNES, DLR
NASA has an asteroid-sampling mission of its own in operation, with broadly similar goals. The OSIRIS-REx probe is scheduled to arrive in orbit around the 1,650-foot-wide (500 m) asteroid Bennu on Dec. 31 and return samples to Earth in September 2023.
This story was updated at 2:45 a.m. EDT on Oct. 3 with the news that MASCOT landed safely and has begun gathering data.
“Star Wars,” “Her,” and “iRobot.” What do all these movies have in common? The artificial intelligence (AI) depicted in there is crazy-sophisticated. These robots can think creatively, continue learning over time, and maybe even pass for conscious.
Real-life artificial intelligence experts have a name for AI that can do this — it’s Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). For decades, scientists have tried all sorts of approaches to create AGI, using techniques such as reinforcement learning and machine learning. No approach has proven to be much better than any other, at least not yet.
Indeed, there’s a catch here: despite all the excitement, we have no idea how to build AGI.
Either way, most experts think it’s coming — sooner rather than later. In a poll of conference attendees, AI research companies GoodAI and SingularityNet found that 37 percent of respondents think people will create HLAI within 10 years. Another 28 percent think it will take 20 years. Just two percent think HLAI will never exist.
Almost every expert who had an opinion hedged their bets — most responses to the question were peppered with caveats and “maybes.” There’s a lot that we don’t know about the path towards HLAI, such as questions over who will pay for it or how we’re going to combine our algorithms that can think or reason but can’t do both.
Futurism caught up with a number of AI researchers, investors, and policymakers to get their perspective on when HLAI will happen. The following responses come from panels and presentations from the conference and exclusive interviews.
Irakli Beridze, Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, UNICRI, United Nations
At the moment, there is absolutely no indication that we are anywhere near AGI. And no one can say with any kind of authority or conviction that this would happen within a certain time frame. Or even worse, no one can say this can even happen period. We may never have AGI, so we need to take that into account when we are discussing anything.
Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Executive Director of the Cambridge Center for the Study of Existential Risk
There’s still a lot of work to be done; there are still many things we don’t understand. Given we have this understanding, maybe it’s possible that it happens within 50 years.
I think we should enjoy the technology while it advances. We should be looking out for where to go in the future. But on the other hand, it’s not like we have human-level AI right now and I don’t think it’s going to happen very quickly. I think that if I’m lucky it’ll happen in my lifetime.
A worm’s level of intelligence is actually pretty doable. If you try to look at vision and planning, this is kind of narrowly doable. The integration of planning and learning, planning as its own thing is pretty well solved. But planning in a way which works with [machine learning] is not very well solved.
I think we are almost there. I am not predicting we will have general AI in three years, 30 years. But I am confident it can happen any day.
Ben Goertzel, CEO at SingularityNET and Chief Scientist at Hanson Robotics
I don’t think we need fundamentally new algorithms. I think we do need to connect our algorithms in different ways than we do now. If I’m right, then we already have the core algorithms that we need… I believe we are less than ten years from creating human-level AI.
I don’t think we’re almost there in the technology for General AI. I think general AI is almost a branding for a very general idea. Lifelong learning is an example of that — it’s a very particular type of AI. We know the theoretical foundation of that already, we know how nature does it, and it’s very well defined. There is a very clear direction, there is a metric. I think we can reach it in a close time.
On the last day of the conference, a number of participants participated in a lightning round of sorts. Almost entirely for fun, these experts were encouraged to throw out a date at which they expected us to figure out how to make HLAI. The following answers, some of whom were given by the same people who already answered the question, should be taken with an entire shaker of salt — some were meant as jokes and others are total guesses.
John Langford
Maybe 20 [years]?
Marek Rosa
I really have no idea which year, but if I have to say one year I’d say ten years in the future. The reason is its kind fo vague, you know like anything can happen in ten years.
A sluggish, yet precise robot designed by Japanese engineers demonstrates what construction sites might look like in the future.
Credit: AIST.
The prototype developed at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology was recently featured in a video picking up a piece of plasterboard and screwing it into a wall.
The robot, called HRP-5P, is much less productive than a human worker. However, its motions are very precise, meaning that this prototype could evolve into a rugged model that’s apt for real-life applications in demanding fields such as constructions.
While most manufacturing fields are being disrupted by automation, with robots doing most of the work in microchip plants or car assembly lines, supervised by human personnel, the same can’t be said about construction. This field is way too dynamic — with every project being unique — and filled with all sorts of obstacles that are too challenging for today’s robots to navigate. HRP-5P, however, suggests that automation could one day become feasible in construction works as well.
For Japan, construction bots are not meant to put people out of jobs, but rather to supplement a dwindling workforce. There’s a great shortage of manual labor in the island state, which is suffering from declining birthrates and an aging population.
Previously, a New York-based company demonstrated a mason-bot capable of laying down 3,000 bricks a day — six times faster than the average human, and cheaper too. Elsewhere, such as at MIT, researchers are experimenting with 3-D printing entire homes in one go.
EPADe gelande toestellen hebben een diameter van nauwelijk 18 centimeter. Japanse wetenschappers tonen hoe de landing in zijn werk gaat.
WETENSCHAPTwee kleine robotjeeps van een onbemand Japans ruimtetuig zijn op een asteroïde op 300 miljoen kilometer van de Aarde geland. Dat meldt het Japanse ruimtevaartbureau Jaxa.
De sonde Hayabusa-2 kwam na een reis van 3,5 jaar in juni aan bij de steenklomp Ryugu die een diameter van 900 meter heeft. De nuttige lading bestond onder meer uit twee cilindrische jeeps met een diameter van nauwelijks 18 centimeter. Zij zullen op het hemellichaampje rondhoppen en daarbij foto’s maken van het oppervlak en de temperaturen meten, zegt het Jaxa.
De tweede Hayabusa voerde drie “jeeps” en de tien kilo wegende lander MASCOT van het Duitse en Franse ruimtevaartbureau, DLR en CNES, mee. De Hayabusa-2 werd in december 2014 gelanceerd. De sonde moet tegen eind 2020 stalen van de asteroïde naar onze planeet brengen.
Wetenschappers hopen door het onderzoek van Ryugu meer te leren over het ontstaan en de evolutie van ons zonnestelsel.
EPAEen foto van het oppervlak van Ryugu, doorgestuurd door Rover-1B tijdens een sprongetje op de asteroïde.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETAsteroïde Ryugu, die rond de zon draait, heeft opnieuw bezoek gekregen van de mensheid. Vorige maand landden al twee Japanse verkenners, vandaag kregen die gezelschap van een Duits-Franse sonde, de Mascot. Die landde heel voorzichtig op zijn nieuwe woonplaats, 300 miljoen kilometer van de aarde.
De Japanse sonde en zijn Frans-Duitse broer waren in december 2014 samen gelanceerd. Ze zaten in de satelliet Hayabusa2. Die kwam in juni aan bij de asteroïde. Vandaag vloog de satelliet 51 meter boven het oppervlak van de rots, toen hij de Mascot losliet. Die zakte in 20 minuten naar beneden.
De Mascot heeft genoeg energie aan boord om na de landing zestien uur lang allerlei metingen te verrichten. Daarna zit zijn werk er op. Wetenschappers willen onder meer weten waaruit de asteroïde bestaat.
Vorige maand landden de Japanse verkenners Rover-1A en Rover-1B op Ryugu. Die kunnen rondspringen over het oppervlak, zodat ze meerdere plekken kunnen meten. Ze hebben al een paar kleurenfoto’s van Ryugu naar de aarde gestuurd.
Later deze maand moet de Hayabusa2-satelliet vlak boven de asteroïde gaan vliegen. Hij vuurt dan een kogel op het oppervlak af en vangt de opvliegende stofdeeltjes op. Die moet hij eind 2020 terugbrengen naar de aarde, zodat wetenschappers ze zelf kunnen onderzoeken. Japan deed dat in 2010 ook, met de ruimtesonde Hayabusa. Die haalde stofdeeltjes op bij de asteroïde Itokawa en bracht die naar de aarde.
AFP
Een foto gemaakt door Rover-1A.
EPA
Een foto gemaakt door Rover-1A
EPA
Een foto gemaakt door Rover-1B.
AP
Foto gemaakt vanuit Hayabusa2.
EPA
De twee Japanse rovers toen ze nog niet op een asteroïde huppelden.
REUTERSAmazon-baas Jeff Bezos - de rijkste man op aarde - wil een permanente maanbasis.
WETENSCHAPHet ruimtevaartbedrijf van Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin, is begonnen met de ontwikkeling van een grote maanlander, die geschikt is voor hergebruik.
Amazon-oprichter Bezos, met bezittingen van meer dan 100 miljard de rijkste man ter wereld, heeft het plan opgevat de maan te gaan exploiteren. Als het aan hem ligt, komt er onder meer een permanente basis en zware industrie die op aarde minder gewenst is. Het bouwen van een maanlander, die heen en weer kan vliegen, is een belangrijke stap. Bezos hoopt het ruimtevaartuig al over twee jaar in gebruik te kunnen nemen.
REUTERSEen tekening toont de exoplaneet Kepler-1625b met daarnaast de pas ontdekte exomaan.
WETENSCHAP Astronomen hebben mogelijk een eerste maan buiten ons zonnestelsel - een exomaan - gevonden. Dat bericht de Amerikaanse nieuwszender CNN.
Rond gasgigant Kepler-1625b - een exoplaneet die op 8.000 lichtjaren van ons rond een ster cirkelt - is met de Hubble- en de Keplerruimtetelescoop een object gevonden dat een maan kan zijn. Ze zou de grootte hebben van “onze” planeet Neptunus.
In ons zonnestelsel komen manen veel voor: er zijn er bijna tweehonderd. De zoektocht naar natuurlijke satellieten buiten ons stelsel leverde tot nu toe niets op. Exomanen zijn immers door hun kleinere omvang moeilijker te spotten. “Dit zou de eerste keer zijn dat een maan wordt gedetecteerd buiten ons zonnestelsel”, zegt David Kipping, een van de ontdekkers van de mogelijke exomaan.
Afwijkingen
Kipping ontdekte samen met collega Alex Teachey enkele eigenaardigheden in de data van de Keplertelescoop. “We zagen kleine afwijkingen in de lichtcurve”, legt Kipping uit. Daarom hebben de wetenschappers de Hubble ingezet om het gedetailleerder te onderzoeken.
Toen de planeet Kepler-1625b voor zijn ster (de zonachtige ster Kepler-1625, nvdr.) passeerde, detecteerde de Hubble dat de lichtsterkte van de ster niet enkel verminderde door de passage van de gasgigant, maar dat enkele uren later ook een tweede bron voor lichtvermindering zorgde. “Het was alsof een maan de planeet achtervolgde zoals een hond die zijn baasje volgt”, zegt Kipping. “Helaas eindigde de observatie door Hubble nog voor de volledige doorgang van de maan kon gemeten worden.”
Voorzichtig
De wetenschappers achter de vondst blijven echter voorzichtig en willen nog meer observaties uitvoeren. Zo is de grootte van de kandidaat-exomaan zeer ongewoon en met geen enkele maan uit ons stelsel te vergelijken. Van de aarde bekeken, zou ze twee keer groter zijn dan onze eigen Maan.
“De aanwezigheid van een maan is de simpelste en meest vanzelfsprekende verklaring voor die tweede duik in de lichtsterkte van de ster”, zeggen de onderzoekers. Kipping en Teachey hebben bij NASA een aanvraag ingediend om de Hubble opnieuw in te zetten voor extra observaties, in de hoop dan met zekerheid te kunnen zeggen dat het om een exomaan gaat.
Toekomst
“Als verdere observaties met de Hubbletelescoop aantonen dat het een exomaan is, dan kan dat belangrijke hints geven over de ontwikkeling van planetaire systemen. Mogelijk moeten experts hun theorieën over de ontwikkeling van manen rond planeten herbekijken”, zegt Kipping.
“Dit is niet zoals de exomaan in “Avatar” of Endor van “Star Wars”, benadrukt Teachey. “Maar deze ontdekking kan in de toekomst wel deuren openen naar de vondst van gelijkaardige werelden.”
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'Super Earth' really may lie at the edge of the Solar System: Astronomers spot new mystery object 2.5 times further from the sun than Pluto which suggests Planet X IS orbiting our star
'Super Earth' really may lie at the edge of the Solar System: Astronomers spot new mystery object 2.5 times further from the sun than Pluto which suggests Planet X IS orbiting our star
Object is one of the most distant bodies ever identified within the sun's range
Its unusual orbit supports the theory that a mysterious 'Planet X' exists
The presence of such a planet would pull distant objects into strange orbits
A mysterious tenth planet really may lie at the edge of the solar system, according to new research.
Astronomers have discovered an object two and a half times further from the Sun than Pluto that adds to evidence of the existence of 'Planet X'.
It is one of the most distant bodies ever identified within the sun's gravitational range.
And its unusual orbit supports the theory there is a huge, rocky world ten times bigger than Earth on the outskirts of our star system.
Scroll down for video
A mysterious tenth planet really may lie at the edge of the solar system, according to new research. Astronomers have discovered an object two and a half times further from the Sun than Pluto that adds to evidence of the existence of 'Planet X'
(artist's impression)
WHAT IS PLANET X?
Astronomers believe that the orbits of a number of bodies in the distant reaches of the solar system have been disrupted by the pull of an as yet unidentified planet.
First proposed by a group at CalTech in the US, this alien world was theorised to explain the distorted paths seen in distant icy bodies.
In order to fit in with the data they have, this alien world - popularly called Planet Nine - would need to be roughly four time the size of Earth and ten times the mass.
Researchers say a body of this size and mass would explain the clustered paths of a number of icy minor planets beyond Neptune.
Its huge orbit would mean it takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make a single pass around the sun.
The theoretical Planet Nine is based on the gravitational pull it exerts on these bodies, with astronomers confident it will be found in the coming years.
Those hoping for theoretical Earth-sized planets proposed by astrologers or science fiction writers - which are 'hiding behind the sun' and linked with Doomsday scenarios - may have to keep searching.
Nicknamed 'Planet Nine', the idea first emerged in 2014 when Dr Scott Sheppard and Professor Chad Trujillo sought to explain a strange cluster of six small objects in the Kuiper Belt, a field of icy and rocky objects beyond Neptune.
Their orbits all tilted in the same way, an arrangement that is nearly impossible to generate without the help of some external force.
Dr Sheppard and Prof Trujillo suggested a large planet was lurking in the shadows, warping the orbits of objects that came near.
Now the same team has found a similar body whose orbit is being similarly affected. At about 300 km (186 miles) wide, it is on the small side of being a dwarf planet.
It is about 80 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, a measurement defined as the distance between the Earth and Sun. For context, Pluto is around 34 AU.
Called 2015 TG387, it has a very elongated orbit meaning it never comes close enough to the Solar System's giant planets, like Neptune and Jupiter, to have significant gravitational interactions with them.
Dr Sheppard, of Carnegie Institution of Science, said: 'These distant objects are like breadcrumbs leading us to Planet X.
'The more of them we can find, the better we can understand the outer Solar System and the possible planet that we think is shaping their orbits - a discovery that would redefine our knowledge of the Solar System's evolution.'
Prof Trujillo, of Northern Arizona University, ran computer simulations for different hypothetical Planet X orbits that explained how 2015 TG387 would actually be shepherded by its gravity.
It never comes closer to the Sun, a point called perihelion, than about 65 AU.
Only two other objects, known as 2012 VP113 and Sedna at 80 and 76 AU respectively, have more-distant perihelia.
Dr Sheppard said: 'These so-called Inner Oort Cloud objects like 2015 TG387, 2012 VP113, and Sedna are isolated from most of the Solar System's known mass, which makes them immensely interesting.
Pictured is a predicted orbit of the new dwarf planet, nicknamed 'the goblin' (left). It never comes closer to the Sun, a point called perihelion, than about 65 AU. Only two other objects, known as 2012 VP113 and Sedna at 80 and 76 AU respectively, have more-distant perihelia
'They can be used as probes to understand what is happening at the edge of our Solar System.'
The simulations showed why the most-distant objects in our Solar System have similar orbits that keep them from ever approaching the proposed planet too closely.
Prof Trujillo said: 'What makes this result really interesting is that Planet X seems to affect 2015 TG387 the same way as all the other extremely distant Solar System objects.
'These simulations do not prove that there's another massive planet in our Solar System, but they are further evidence that something big could be out there.'
It follows research by mathematicians at Caltech who found the existence of a massive ninth planet was the only explanation for the sculpting of the orbits of these other, smaller objects.
The object was discovered as part of the team's ongoing hunt for unknown dwarf planets and Planet X. It is the largest and deepest survey ever conducted for distant Solar System objects.
The mysterious object is one of the most distant bodies ever identified within the sun's gravitational range
They first observed 2015 TG387 in October of 2015 at the Japanese Subaru 8-metre telescope located atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
Follow-up observations at the Magellan telescope at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile and the Discovery Channel Telescope in Arizona were obtained in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 to determine 2015 TG387's orbit.
The location in the sky where 2015 TG387 reaches perihelion is similar to 2012 VP113, Sedna, and most other known extremely distant trans-Neptunian objects, suggesting that something is pushing them into similar types of orbits.
Its discovery was announced by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre in Washington DC.
A paper describing it has also been submitted to the Astronomical Journal.
Astronomen ontdekken mysterieus object aan rand van zonnestelsel. Leidt dit ons naar Planeet X?
Astronomen ontdekken mysterieus object aan rand van zonnestelsel. Leidt dit ons naar Planeet X?
Aan de rand van ons zonnestelsel, ver voorbij alle planeten, bevindt zich een mysterieus object. Het is een klein rotsblok dat er 44.000 jaar over doet om een baan rond onze zon te draaien.
Het object heeft de naam 2015 TG387 gekregen. Hij is ongeveer 300 kilometer in doorsnee. Mogelijk gaat het om een dwergplaneet, net als Pluto.
De ontdekking is dinsdag bekendgemaakt door de Internationale Astronomische Unie.
Verste punt
2015 TG387 draait in een ovale baan rond de zon. Toen hij werd ontdekt, was de afstand tot de zon tachtig keer zo groot als de afstand van de aarde tot de zon.
Als hij het dichtst bij de zon staat, is dat nog altijd 65 keer de afstand zon-aarde, twee keer zo ver weg als Pluto.
En op het verste punt is de afstand tot de zon 2300 keer de afstand van de aarde tot de zon.
Te vaag
Er zijn mogelijk duizenden van zulke objecten in de buurt, maar ze zijn erg moeilijk te vinden vanwege de enorme afstand. Tot nu toe zijn er maar een paar gevonden.
“We konden 2015 TG387 alleen ontdekken toen hij het dichtst bij de zon kwam. Tijdens 99 procent van zijn omloop was hij te vaag om te zien,” aldus onderzoeker David Tholen.
De ontdekkers denken dat er mogelijk een negende, nog niet ontdekte planeet in die uithoek van het zonnestelsel te vinden is.
Planeet X
Rotsblokken als 2015 TG387 zijn volgens hen ‘broodkruimels’ die naar die Planeet X kunnen leiden.
De zwaartekracht van die planeet kan de baan van de rotsblokken namelijk beïnvloeden.
Als ze de omloopbanen van de dwergplaneten weten, kunnen ze uitrekenen waar de mysterieuze planeet zich bevindt.
Min Min lights are a mysterious phenomenon that have spooked many people in the outback of Australia.
But is there any scientific proof that Min Min lights exist? Or is it simply an Aboriginal folktale that has been passed down for generations?
The lights have been described by witnesses as floating, fast-moving balls of colour that glow in the night sky and stalk people, leaving some feeling confused and frightened.
Sometimes the lights are blue and other times they are white or yellow.
In Queensland, the Boulia Shire Council notifies visitors "in the interest of tourism" that they are in the land of the Min Min lights and that they may spot them as they drive for the next 120 kilometres.
In the Kimberley in Western Australia some Aboriginal people believe the Min Min lights are the spirits of elders.
"As a kid growing up the old people used to tell me, they [Min Min lights] were old people's spirits looking after country," Wyndham local James Birch said.
Mr Birch, a Balanggarra ranger, said everyone from his childhood grew up hearing the stories.
"If you've lived in the Kimberley you would have experienced spotting a Min Min light once in your life," he said.
Mr Birch has not seen the Min Min lights for two years but said the lights tend to distract people and take them off their chosen path.
"We were heading back into town after hunting. I was driving towards town when all of sudden a Min Min light appeared," he said.
"We all stared at the light and all of a sudden we were going in the opposite way, going back into the bush and following the light without even realising."
What does science say?
Curtis Roman, a senior lecturer at Charles Darwin University, is gathering stories from Indigenous Australians about Min Min lights as part of an ongoing research project.
Dr Roman said there were several scientific theories that could explain the phenomenon.
"One is that they're a mirage, [caused by] natural gases or warm air and cold coming together," Dr Roman said.
"Some of the other theories are that they are bioluminous insects, owls or birds."
Although he is only in the early stages of his research, Dr Roman said that all the Indigenous people he had interviewed so far had described how frightened they felt when they saw the lights.
Outback lights star in movie
From a young age, writer and director Jub Clerc heard the tales about the Min Min lights and how they would follow people and take them if they stopped to watch the lights.
In 2015, Ms Clerc directed a short film called Min Min Light based upon her own experiences of the lights when she was growing up in the Pilbara.
"When I was a young girl lying in my backyard, these lights came down," Ms Clerc said.
"Two of them came down in front of me and then suddenly shot off. I was in awe.
"It could be our spirits that look after country. Who knows what it is? I like to think there's more to life that what we think."
Hoofdbrekens over mysterieuze lichten die mensen achtervolgen. Is hier een verklaring voor?
Hoofdbrekens over mysterieuze lichten die mensen achtervolgen. Is hier een verklaring voor?
In de Australische outback stellen mysterieuze lichten lokale bewoners voor een raadsel. Veel mensen hebben de zogeheten Min Min-lichten gezien, maar niemand heeft er een sluitende verklaring voor.
Getuigen omschrijven de lichten als zwevende, snel bewegende, gekleurde ballen die de avondhemel verlichten en mensen stalken.
Soms zijn de lichten blauw en op andere momenten wit of geel.
Geesten
In Queensland word je er door middel van een groot bord op gewezen dat je je in het land van de Min Min-lichten bevindt.
In Kimberley in de deelstaat West-Australië geloven sommige Aboriginals dat de lichten geesten zijn van oudsten.
“Als kind vertelden de ouderen me dat de Min Min-lichten de geesten van oude mensen zijn die voor het land zorgen,” zei lokale bewoner James Birch.
“Als je in Kimberley hebt gewoond, heb je vast een keer een Min Min-licht gezien,” voegde hij toe.
Afleiden
Hij zei dat de lichten mensen kunnen afleiden.
“Na het jagen gingen we terug naar huis,” zei hij. “Ik reed richting het dorp, toen plotseling een Min Min-licht verscheen.”
“We keken allemaal in de richting van het licht en voordat we het wisten reden we in tegengestelde richting,” vervolgde Birch.
“We volgden het licht zonder dat we het doorhadden,” klonk het.
Luchtspiegeling
Curtis Roman van de Charles Darwin University verzamelt voor een onderzoeksproject verhalen van Aboriginals over de Min Min-lichten.
Hij zei dat er verschillende wetenschappelijke theorieën zijn die het fenomeen zouden kunnen verklaren.
Zo zou het kunnen gaan om een luchtspiegeling veroorzaakt door natuurlijk gas of warme en koude luchtlagen, aldus dr. Roman.
Volgens andere theorieën zijn het lichtgevende insecten, uilen of vogels.
Volgen
Schrijver en regisseur Jub Clerc hoort de verhalen over de Min Min-lichten en hoe ze mensen volgen al van jongs af aan.
In 2015 maakte ze een korte film over de mysterieuze lichten, gebaseerd op haar eigen ervaringen.
“Toen ik op een dag als jong meisje in mijn achtertuin lag verschenen de lichten opeens,” zei Clerc.
“Twee lichten kwamen omlaag en bleven voor me hangen, om vervolgens weer weg te schieten,” voegde ze toe. “Ik was erg onder de indruk.”
“Het zouden onze geesten kunnen zijn die voor het land zorgen,” besloot ze. “Wie weet wat het is. Ik denk dat er meer is in het leven dan we denken.”
On August 30th, pressure dropped on the International Space Station. While not life-threatening, the Russian space agency, NASA and the crew conducted an extensive search and found a tiny hole in the Soyuz space capsule docked at the station. Initial reports suggested its skin had been pierced by a micrometeorite, but that story quickly changed as evidence strongly suggested the hole was manmade, possibly during assembly of the capsule, and may have been patched to avoid detection during inspections. That sinister theory has continued to hold up and it appears Russia is honing in on the culprit.
“The commission of [Roskosmos] is working. One commission (RSC Energia – TASS note) has already completed its activities, it actually concluded that it excluded manufacturing defects, which is important for finding the truth. Now there is a version of intentional impact, and where this was done, set the second commission.”
Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, confirmed to the TASS news agency that his organization is treating the incident as a deliberate act, but stopped short of calling it sabotage. However, that charge was tossed around early in the investigation, implying that a US astronaut may have caused the leak to force an early return home. While Rogozin himself has expressed dissatisfaction with dealings between Roscosmos and NASA, he has aimed his recent dissatisfaction at a different American organization.
“Americans have this thing, the X-37. We don’t understand its purposes. Rather, we do understand, but we have not received an official explanation. Essentially, this thing can be used as a weapons carrier.”
The X-37 is the mysterious unmanned Orbital Test Vehicle belonging to the US Air Force whose last launch was handled by SpaceX. As if he doesn’t have enough problems with Tesla, now Elon Musk is possibly being targeted by the Russian space agency for aiding in the militarization of space … as if Russia hasn’t also done this. Could Rogozin be stoking backdoor controversy by criticizing SpaceX for a military connection as a cover for his real frustration … that the US is moving towards using SpaceX as the new ISS shuttle and cutting off Roscosmos’ income spigot as the space Uber?
At this point, anything is possible and more intrigue is probable. A spacewalk is scheduled for November 15, when Russian cosmonauts are expected to remove and inspect a piece of the Soyuz MS-09 anti-meteorite protection shield. We’ll just have to wait for that report … if there is one. Will American astronauts be involved with the inspection? Let’s hope the ISS crew members are not becoming pawns in a dangerous chess game between these two space superpowers.
We know for a fact that India, like Africa, has elephants. Each continent also has lions and monkeys that are distant relatives. However, it doesn’t appear that India ever had any hippos or rhinos (expect for a few remote area). So, how are archaeologists going to explain the thousands of rock carvings discovered on hillocks in the Konkan region of western Maharashtra that show images of hippos, rhinos and other never-seen-in-India creatures interacting with humans 12.000 years ago? There are thousands of large petroglyphs that appear to be the oldest ever found, yet were unknown to the people in the villages where they were discovered. Are there hippos still hiding there too?
All sorts of animals are depicted in the petroglyphs, including sharks, whales, and turtles. They also show human figures and geometrical designs. But, according to the researchers, some of the images include animals that are not found in India, such as hippos and rhinoceroses
The mysterious petroglyphs are located in the narrow Konkan Coast region of the far western state of Maharashtra, with the Arabian Sea (northern Indian Ocean) to the west and the Western Ghats mountain to the east. According to a report by the BBC, in that band are 52 villages near the coastal cities of Ratnagiri and Rajapur whose residents had no idea they were living on so many carvings. Just a very few were exposed and the locals considered them sacred. Those few glyphs provided the curiosity and incentive for archaeologists to look for more.
“We walked thousands of kilometres. People started sending photographs to us and we even enlisted schools in our efforts to find them. We made students ask their grandparents and other village elders if they knew about any other engravings. This provided us with a lot of valuable information.”
Sudhir Risbood and Manoj Marathe led a group of explorers through the area looking for more exposed or partially-exposed glyphs, along with indicators that there were some hidden under the soil. Aerial views seem to indicate that the carvings are smaller but more numerous and more densely packed that the Nazca lines of Peru. (Pictures and videos here and here.) However, it’s not the size that makes these petroglyps so exciting – it’s their age and the strange animals depicted in them, says Tejas Garge, director of the Maharashtra state archaeology department.
“Our first deduction from examining these petroglyphs is that they were created around 10,000 BC. “We have not found any pictures of farming activities. But the images depict hunted animals and there’s detailing of animal forms. So this man knew about animals and sea creatures. That indicates he was dependent on hunting for food. Most of the petroglyphs show familiar animals. There are images of sharks and whales as well as amphibians like turtles.”
And then there’s the hippos and rhinos. It’s possible that the animals lived there prior to 10,000 BCE, although no fossils have been found. It’s also possible that the people who carved the images came to the coast from Africa. Less likely but still a possibility is that they traveled between both continents.
While Garge is excited about determining the answer to their origin, the Indian government has other priorities. The state gave him 240 million rupees ($3.2m; £2.5m) to study 400 of the thousands of petroglyphs. They obviously don’t yet see the tourist potential of the rock carvings.
Did hippos once roam India? Were they sacred like cows or just tasty with curry, leading to their ultimate disappearance?
Last year I wrote four articles here at Mysterious Universe on the matter of numerous people who had experienced nightmares of terrifying nuclear explosions, of cities destroyed, and of civilization in ruins. A number of those same nightmares revolved around a wave of sightings of Mothman-type creatures in the Chicago, Illinois area – also last year. You can find the first article here, the second here, the third here, and the fourth here. There is, however, a new development (well, I assume it’s a new development) on this matter. It all revolves around the issue of the creepy Black-Eyed Children (BEC). A few months back, Lisa Hagan Books published my book, The Black Diary. It details my research – from 2014 to 2018 – into the MIB, the Women in Black, the BEC, the Shadow People and more of a related nature. As is always the case when I have a new book out, I got a lot of feedback from people who read the book.
Ron told me that a week or so after reading my book (it was published in May 2018 and Ron bought his copy a couple of weeks later), he woke up in the dead of night with a pounding headache, a dry mouth, and a rash on his arms (which was gone by morning). Worse still, he was unable to move. This is a real phenomenon that many of you will have heard of: sleep paralysis. As is typical in such cases, Ron immediately found himself filled with fear. This is hardly surprising: standing at the side of the bed were two young children – maybe ten or eleven years in age – who stared at Ron through completely black eyes. Their skin was pale and they were both dressed in black hoodies. In seconds, Ron’s bedroom was flooded with apocalyptic images of a flattened, of millions dead, and of the sky filled with blackness. Ron knew what the cause was: a huge, nuclear mushroom cloud dominated what was left of the city. Suddenly, the image was gone – as were the BEC. Ron told me that he had near-sleepless nights for the next three nights. Thankfully, the BEC did not return. Nor did the nightmare.
Adrian Clarke, of England, told me a similar story. In Adrian’s case, it was around 3:00 a.m. in September 2018 and he too suddenly found himself wide awake and with a pair of Black-Eyed Children looking at him from the foot of the bed. Both had the completely black eyes, but were dressed in orange robes. Suddenly, and similar to Ron’s experience, Adrian briefly found himself deep in the heart of a nightmarish world of billions dead and the Earth devastated. He fought against the paralysis and finally managed to break the spell. In seconds, the image was gone – as were the BEC.
Moving on, there is the account of Jennifer, who I met at the September 2018 Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia – and who lives in Point Pleasant. After I gave my lecture on my The Black Diary book, Jennifer came up to my table and shared with me her experience – which occurred in April 2018. She too was woken from her sleep by a pair of pale kids with huge, dark eyes. One of them pointed to one of the walls in Jennifer’s bedroom, which was suddenly transformed into an approximately eight-foot-by-eight-foot image of a nuclear explosion. Jennifer told me that, for reasons she wasn’t sure, she somehow knew that the city was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has never been to Milwaukee, nor does she have friends or family there. Like Ron and Adrian, Jennifer was shaken to the core by her experience.
It should be noted that both Adrian and Ron had read my book, which in part does focus on the BEC. And, Jennifer had read about the book online, and which had specifically prompted her to speak with me at the Mothman gig. As a result of this, skeptics might be inclined to say that the nightmares were driven by exposure to the book. Maybe so. On the other hand, though, the almost identical experiences do make me wonder if we are seeing the start of something that mirrors the “nuclear nightmare” phenomenon of last year. Time may tell…
Could there really be a hidden Planet X lurking on the far edge of our solar system? For years, astronomers around the world have been searching for the mysterious planet or whatever it may be, but so far very little definitive evidence has been collected. There are theories that the object is perhaps a rogue star hurtling through our solar system or even that Planet X is on a trajectory to collide with the Earth and split it in half, but you know how theories go. So far, all that’s definitively known is that the orbits of the outer planets and other objects at the edge of our solar system appear to be affected by something with significant mass, like a small planet.
A new discovery announced this week adds to the growing gravitational evidence for Planet X: A small object with a diameter of 300 km (186 miles) has been found lurking at the farthest edges of our solar system with an orbit that suggests the existence of an undiscovered planet several times larger than Earth. Astronomers working with the Carnegie Institution for Science discovered the object, known technically as 2015 TG387, some 80 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun – two and a half times farther away from the Sun than Pluto. 2015 TG387, affectionately referred to as “The Goblin,” lies so far away that it’s difficult to even detect.
One of the astronomers behind the discovery, the University of Hawaii’s David Tholen, says that it’s possible that The Goblin has other neighbors, hard-to-see planetoids or dwarf planets which could be lying at the edge of our Solar System just beyond our ability to detect them:
We think there could be thousands of small bodies like 2015 TG387 out on the Solar System’s fringes, but their distance makes finding them very difficult. Currently we would only detect 2015 TG387 when it is near its closest approach to the Sun. For some 99 percent of its 40,000-year orbit, it would be too faint to see.
The official study of The Goblin has been submitted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. Chad Trujillo of Northern Arizona University adds that while The Goblin does seem to corroborate some of the other existing evidence for Planet X, it’s not the smoking gun we’re all waiting for – yet:
These simulations do not prove that there’s another massive planet in our solar system, but they are further evidence that something big could be out there.
Let’s just hope it is another massive planet and not something far more sinister or mind-meltingly weird. Remember that ball of anti-lifeforce in The Fifth Element? Life imitates art sometimes.
We don’t know where anything comes from. We’re a bunch of self-replicating bundles of confusion, completely unaware of how all this nonsense got here in the first place. We know life took a long and meandering road from the first single-celled organisms to your weird neighbor with way too many bumper stickers, but how did life get here in the first place? Possible answers to life’s origin include the heat and pressure of deep sea thermal vents, a jump-start by lightning strikes, and the structure of DNA falling into place on beds of clay (as boring as that is, many mythologies talk of humans created out of clay, probably because it’s poetic).
Another possible solution is that life was brought here from space by a comet or asteroid. There’s “panspermia,” the idea that Earth was seeded with life from another world. That’s a useless idea, because it just says that life can hop from rock to rock and doesn’t explain the genesis of it. That’s not the only space-centric proposal for the origin of life, however. New research from the University of Hawaii at Manoa provides “compelling evidence” that a key component of life—phosphorous oxoacids, building blocks of chromosomes and crucial for life’s ability to self replicate—came from outer space.
The root cause of all our problems.
Up until this research, it was unclear how these crucial building blocks came to exist. According to this research, the conditions on a comet are just right for creating phosphorus oxoacids: deadly poisonous phosphine, ice and carbon dioxide, hurtling through the dark getting burned and warped by radiation. That’s a recipe for a delicious stew, right there.
The paper, published in the journal Nature Communicationsdetails an experiment in which the researchers recreated the conditions that one might find on a comet. They made some artificial space-ice and blasted it with the same types of radiation found outside the warm blanket of our atmosphere. This caused chemical reactions that ended up spitting out exactly what the researchers hoped to find: phosphorus oxoacids like those that make up chromosomes. Here’s the paper’s lead author Andrew Turner on the experiment:
“On Earth, phosphine is lethal to living beings, but in the interstellar medium, an exotic phosphine chemistry can promote rare chemical reaction pathways to initiate the formation of biorelevant molecules such as oxoacids of phosphorus, which eventually might spark the molecular evolution of life as we know it.”
Phosphorus oxoacids are key to life’s ability to self-replicate.
Cornelia Meinert of the University of Nice in France, who collaborated on the work, elaborated:
“Since comets contain at least partially the remnants of the material of the protoplanetary disk that formed our solar system, these compounds might be traced back to the interstellar medium wherever sufficient phosphine in interstellar ices is available.”
If this is the true origin of life on Earth, it combines a lot of elements from other proposed theories. You’ve got the jump-starting from the sky like the lightning theory, the remote, exotic environment of the thermal vents, and hey, it would mean that at least part of life is extraterrestrial. A little something for everyone. Well, no. We all know what really happened. Say it with me: trans-dimensional, egg-laying bigfoot.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.