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...
07-10-2018
Incredibly Weird Microbes Found Deep Underground Could Change Search for Life on Mars
Incredibly Weird Microbes Found Deep Underground Could Change Search for Life on Mars
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
A microscopic view of cyanobacteria, colored fuchsia, growing on a rock fragment.
Credit: PNAS
Life on Earth just got weirder, and that may have intriguing implications for life beyond this planet.
That's one takeaway from new research that identified cyanobacteria — a class of microbes known for turning sunlight into sugar — living deep below Earth's surface, far away from any ray of sunlight.
Because they're so tiny, cyanobacteria don't always get much love, but they're what turned Earth from an inhospitable rock (to us, anyway) into a green, growing world and first put the oxygen we rely on into the atmosphere. "What the cyanobacteria have invented has been brilliantly important through the history of life on Earth," Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California not involved in the new research, told Space.com. [Photos: Ancient Mars Lake Could Have Supported Life]
"They were able to turn our Earth into a place that is habitable for the animals that evolved here," Rothschild said. She called cyanobacteria "one-stop shopping" for turning what was easily accessible about 2.7 billion years ago in the early days of Earth — compounds like water and carbon dioxide — into the oxygen and sugar that animals need to survive. Some cyanobacteria can even turn the nitrogen that makes up most of our atmosphere into biologically useful ammonia.
All of that relies on the bacteria getting enough sunlight to conduct photosynthesis, the reaction that allows cyanobacteria, plants and similar organisms to feed themselves. So, deep within the surface of Earth is an unlikely hideout for cyanobacteria. But that's what the authors of the new research say they've found: cyanobacteria living 2,000 feet (600 meters) deep below the surface of a region called the Iberian Pyrite Belt in southwest Spain.
If the new research holds up, it suggests that some cyanobacteria found themselves unable to gather enough sunlight to complete photosynthesis, then threw in the towel and figured out how to feed themselves on hydrogen instead. (Hydrogen also fuels microbes found at the ocean bottom near deep-sea hydrothermal vents, which are also studied as potential analogues of extraterrestrial life.)
That big switch from photosynthesis to chemical subsistence is intriguing, because while Mars today isn't the sort of place life as we know it could thrive, it was many, many years ago. So, if cyanobacteria on Earth snuck below the surface and found a new way to make a living, does that increase the odds something similar happened with hypothetical cyanobacteria-like organisms on Mars?
It's an exciting proposal, Rothschild said. "The idea of surface organisms going underneath [the ground] is something that a lot of us talk about all the time," Rothschild said, but usually not in the context of cyanobacteria, which are considered too reliant on sunlight. "It provides a nice example of a test case of organisms that started at the surface and then were able to adapt to deep biosphere life."
This isn't the first time cyanobacteria have been spotted doing something unexpected, Daniela Billi, an astrobiologist at the University of Rome not involved with the new research, told Space.com. Just this year, a different team of scientists found that certain cyanobacteria could conduct photosynthesis using just infrared light, which is beyond the visible spectrum. The new research goes one step further, Billi said.
"It is a new metabolism that is really very challenging," she said, and an unexpected way of surviving. "It shows that there are pathways that we were not thinking about." [The Search for Life on Mars (A Photo Timeline)]
The new research, which was published yesterday (Oct. 1) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, underscores one of the loudest choruses in astrobiological research: that life is weird, hardy and ubiquitous.
"Every time that we look in strange, extreme environments on Earth, life is always surprising us. We always find a form of life we were not thinking of or thought could not be there," Billi said. "We are very far from knowing life and its extremes."
This controversial footage is causing a stir among UFO fans and conspiracy theorists as records a bizarre conversation between a "nervous" astronaut and mission control.
The outer-space experts claim that during a live feed from the International Space Station the astronaut mentions the word "gospel" as a strange red-coloured UFO appears on the screen.
Blogger Scott C Waring(Image: Secureteam10)
According to Mr Waring, the appearance of the UFO on the ISS live video feed as the astronaut mentions the gospel" was significant and could not be a coincidence."
Talking his viewers through the footage he drew the attention of viewers to the moment in the recording that the astronaut said the word “gospel,” and the moment that ground control replied to the astronaut, saying, “we will pray for you."
Secure Team 10's Tyler Glockne r also noted how odd it was for the astronaut to be talking about religion ans said the conversation was "very unusual".
Is this a UFO?(Image: Secureteam10)
He said: "You can hear the astronaut speaking about God as a UFO appears, which is strange.
“Although it is not strange to think there may be astronauts who may be religious, but I think it would be uncommon due to the training and scientific knowledge they have.”
But his fans asked whether the reference to "gospel" was actually code for "aliens".
Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the astronaut’s statement that he was looking “forward to this partnership with the gospel,” could be coded language and he was actually telling ground control he was about to meet a delegation of extraterrestrials and hold "talks" with them.
UFO over Jacksonville, North Carolina – May 17, 2018
UFO over Jacksonville, North Carolina – May 17, 2018
Case File Information
TBV Investigations Case Number: 595176
Date of Event / Case File: 05/17/2018 Name of Witness: Anonymous
Case File Status: Likely Explainable
Background
The following case was submitted to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on May 19, 2018. It was assigned to TBV Investigations’ researcher Michael Glenn for analysis.
Witness Testimony
The witness submitted the following report:
“At approximately 19:30 on May 17, 2018 I saw something extremely bright horizontal to the setting sun. I’ve seen sundogs before and have many photographs of them. This was no sundog. It hung in the air. It was huge. It had a shape. I ran inside and grabbed my phone and snapped a few shots. I also manipulated a couple of them and brought out what looks like a glowing cigar shape object of some kind. I took a few close ups and a couple of wide angles. I have to say I was amazed. I also caught a secondary object that looks geometrical with antennae protruding from the corners when you zoom in on one of the frames. Look at the photographs and you tell me what that is in the sky. Feel free to download and examine them for yourselves.”
The Evidence
The witness also submitted many photographs of the event in question. This took place over Jacksonville, NC.
The Analysis
The image was examined using several filters, settings, and adjustments in Photoshop. The object appears to be part of the sky, and has its own brightness, equal to the sunlight. To the left of the large shape is a small, geometric object hanging in the sky. The pixelated nature of the image makes it impossible to tell for sure what we are looking at. The witness stated that the object was not noticed until examining the images later. The witness further states that the cloud shape hung there as the ones around it moved, dissipated. Some swirling can be seen in the image, but again, not definitive shapes. The event lasted ten minutes.
Image Analysis
Gamma Adjusted to 11.
Inverted.
Levels Maxxed for Dark
Conclusion
It is impossible to draw a conclusion for the geometric shape hanging in the air to the left of the elliptical shape as the image is not clear enough. The elliptical shape could be described on first look as a Fallstreak hole (hole punch cloud), but the cloud type is not right for this phenomenon since Fallstreak holes occur in cirro and alto cumulus clouds. A search of images on Google turned up this example of a similar sky effect. This cloud feature is the only conclusion that can be drawn at this time as there is no discernible anomaly in the image.
The Pentagon Is Building An Army Of Insects To 'Protect Crops'
The Pentagon Is Building An Army Of Insects To 'Protect Crops'
The Pentagon has been researching for a program with the title of “Insect Allies”.
The program has the intention of creating insect armies that defend crops; however, they could also be used as a biological weapon with the Pentagon not denying they have the potential for dual use.
DARPA created Insect Allies to protect against threats to the food supply. An opinion piece in @sciencemagazine questions motives & value of the research. Here we reassert the need for Insect Allies and map the efforts we've taken to proceed responsibly.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institution for Evolutionary Biology along with researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of Montpellier in France have criticized the program. They believe that the knowledge that has been gained from the research along with the program is limited in the ability to be able to enhance agriculture in the US. They also don’t believe it could be used in response to any national emergency.
Researches believe that the program "may be widely perceived as an effort to develop biological agents for hostile purposes and their means of delivery."
Program Was Developed to Protect Food Supplies
The insect armies are under development by DARPA with the intention of them being able to protect food supplies against any threats. However, the program along with the motives and values of it has been questioned by many researchers.
The program manager of Insect Allies, Dr. Blake Bextine tried to quell any fears by saying that DARPA was "not producing biological weapons, and we reject the hypothetical scenario," though they "accept and agree with concerns about the potential dual use of technology."
While Bextine had tried to persuade people that there were no intentions of using the insect army for bioweapons, a later response by him by way of a two-page document did not have any strong denials about the insect armies becoming bioweapons. He came up with the argument that the program was intended only as a "respond rapidly to threats to the food supply."
Nothing Can Go Wrong With Modified Virus Technology
Bextine was adamant that there was nothing that could go wrong with the program. He put emphasis on "every performer in the program is required to include at least three independent kill switches in their systems to shut down functionality of the technology." Essentially meaning that if the technology, the insects, went rogue they could be killed off.
The aim of the Insect Allies program is to use the modified insects to spread infectious viruses that have been genetically modified to edit the DNA of crops in the fields. Of course, there is nothing to say that they could not be sent out to kill off crops of other countries to bring about famine and death.
After some prompting by Congress, NASA is again getting involved in SETI. Last week, it held a Technosignatures Workshop in Houston, exploring new ways scientists could seek intelligent aliens.
A Dyson sphere megastructure is one type of hypothesized alien technosignature.
Here’s a buzzword you might or might not have heard before: technosignatures. SETI pioneer Jill Tarter has proposed that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) be renamed the search for technosignatures. Although the question of whether we’re alone in the universe is one of humanity’s oldest (are there “others” who share the universe with us or are we all alone?), most searches for advanced alien life have sought radio waves of artificial origin. More recently, astronomers have suggested looking for visible laser pulses; this is called optical SETI. And there’ve been some exotic ideas, like the possibility that an advanced civilization might use neutron star mergers to signal across the cosmos.
But do we really know what to look for, from an alien civilization that might be millions of years ahead of us?
NASA focused on that question last week (September 26-28, 2018), by hosting a NASA Technosignatures Workshop in Houston, Texas.
Technosignatures are any signs of advanced technology in any one of various plausible forms. They’re analogous to biosignatures, which could be any element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon that provides unmistakeable scientific evidence of past or present life on another world, whether intelligent or not. Technosignatures encompass a much larger conception of alien technology than just intelligent radio or light signals. They could also include such things as massive artificial structures or a planet’s atmosphere full of pollutants. In this way, the search for technosignatures extends beyond the more familiar SETI-type scenarios of looking for radio or light signals.
The workshop was formed after Congress expressed a renewed interest in looking for intelligent alien life last April, urging NASA to expand on its search for technosignatures. The three main facets of the workshop included assessing the current state of the field of research, the most promising avenues of research in technosignatures and where investments could be made to advance the science. Another goal was to determine how NASA could best support the endeavor through partnerships with both private and philanthropic organizations. The workshop had four main specific objectives:
Define the current state of the technosignature field. What experiments have occurred? What is the state-of-the-art for technosignature detection? What limits do we currently have on technosignatures?
Understand the advances coming near-term in the technosignature field. What assets are in place that can be applied to the search for technosignatures? What planned and funded projects will advance the state-of-the-art in future years, and what is the nature of that advancement?
Understand the future potential of the technosignature field. What new surveys, new instruments, technology development, new data-mining algorithms, new theory and modeling, etc., would be important for future advances in the field?
What role can NASA partnerships with the private sector and philanthropic organizations play in advancing our understanding of the technosignatures field?
On September 27, several speakers from the workshop also addressed questions in a Reddit AMA.
The NASA Technosignatures Workshop was recommended by Congress back in April 2018 as means for NASA to expand its search for evidence of alien civilizations.
There may be many ways that an alien civilization, especially one more advanced than us, could affect or alter its environment. Searches for alternative evidence such as this have been done to some extent, but primarily only in the private and philanthropic sectors, not NASA. SETI itself used to be a NASA program until budget cuts ended it in 1993. SETI is now a privately-funded venture. NASA shifted its focus to understanding the origin of life itself, and the potential habitability of other bodies in our solar system and galaxy. This is especially true with its Mars rover missions in recent years, looking for evidence of past habitability, but not life itself. There was even some talk at the conference of the possibility of a technological civilization existing on Earth itself before humans.
Expanding the search to include other possible signs of alien intelligence is a good thing. According to NASA’s2015 Astrobiology Strategy;
Complex life may evolve into cognitive systems that can employ technology in ways that may be observable. Nobody knows the probability, but we know that it is not zero.
SETI is still valuable but limited in scope, currently looking for intentional signals that are strong enough to be detected from many light-years away. Many signals, including ones simply “leaking” out into space, may simply be too weak to be easily detected with current technology. One promising development, however, was noted by Gavin Schmidt on Twitter – it should soon be possible to detect Earth-level leakage of radio waves (not just intentional signals) from nearby stars:
SETI has typically been based on a lot of assumptions about ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence), as Andrew Stewart, a student at Emory University and lead researcher of the Trillion Planet Survey explained in The Current:
First and foremost, we are assuming there is a civilization out there of similar or higher class than ours trying to broadcast their presence using an optical beam, perhaps of the ‘directed energy’ arrayed-type [such as weapons] currently being developed here on Earth. Second, we assume the transmission wavelength of this beam to be one that we can detect. Lastly, we assume that this beacon has been left on long enough for the light to be detected by us. If these requirements are met and the extraterrestrial intelligence’s beam power and diameter are consistent with an Earth-type civilization class, our system will detect this signal.
Traditional SETI effort have used radio telescopes such as the Allen Telescope Array in California.
Image via SETI Institute.
We really don’t know what the first evidence for an alien civilization may look like. It could indeed be radio or light waves, or something even more profound, like a Dyson sphere – a hypothesized massive artificial structure built around a star to harness all of its energy. Or maybe ruins of some now long-dead civilization on some distant planet or moon. Or perhaps intelligent, autonomous probes such as Bracewell probes sent into our solar system.
As one example, Tabby’s Star (aka Boyajian’s Star) has generated a lot of excitement in recent years due to its bizarre episodes of sudden, rapid dimming – up to 22 percent – leading to speculation it may be home to a Dyson sphere or something similar. The sharp dimmings, as well as a much longer overall dimming pattern on the order of decades or centuries, are now thought to be caused by very fine dust, but the origin of the dust and how it’s replenished is still unknown.
The enigmatic Fast Radio Bursts coming from deep space have also sparked much interest, in particular the ones that have now been seen to repeat many times from one single source. They are still unexplained, and probablyhave a natural explanation as per Occam’s razor, but the jury is still out.
Tabby’s Star was an example of what a potential technosignature might look like, although the star’s weird dimmings are now thought to be caused by dust. This artist’s illustration of exocomets orbiting a distant star is suggestive of what might be occurring there.
Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech.
The renewed search for technosignatures is fueled in part by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets in recent years, including ones that are Earth-sized and orbit in the habitable zones of their stars. There are also the ocean worlds – moons such as Europa, Enceladus, Titan and others – which have vast subsurface oceans beneath their icy surfaces. What kind of life might be found in such exotic environments? Such findings increase the likelihood that life – at least of some kind – will be found elsewhere.
Bottom line: When it comes to searching for alien technosignatures – evidence of advanced technology – it has mostly been through the efforts of private organizations. But NASA getting involved again would be a hugeboost, increasing the possibility that some kind of signal or other artifact of intelligent alien life will be found in the not-too-distant future.
Intelligent Extraterrestrial Beings Visited Earth in Prehistoric Times, This Contact Is Connected With the Origins or Development of Technologies and Religions (Video)
Intelligent Extraterrestrial Beings Visited Earth in Prehistoric Times, This Contact Is Connected With the Origins or Development of Technologies and Religions (Video)
Why do people believe in the ancient aliens theory? The ancient astronaut theory is:
Ancient aliens is the idea that aliens visited earth in the past. The idea of ancient aliens is not a new one either. Imagination is one of the most powerful tools in humanity’s evolutionary struggle for survival. As a race, we are hardwired to consider important concepts, such as the creation of life on Earth and the history of people on this planet.
At some point, we are all presented with various explanations and theories regarding the expansion of human life on Earth. In the long history of mankind, the majority of these concepts have followed religious teachings, and the power of a spiritual God or Gods. In modern times, many people have come to challenge these claims. The idea of evolution has been used to describe the gradual change of traits that living organisms undergo over time, which is related to the environment, but it doesn’t explain how the biological cells of human’s first ancestor were spawned.
Because of the fact that everyone is interested in the creation of life on Earth, and concurrently we have been taught to believe in the power of religion and the impossibility of alien life, the idea that this article will be examining is controversial.
It will be based around some concepts that have been labeled absurd by the scientific community, but let your imagination go, and have some fun with the list.
The idea surrounding ancient aliens is a basic one. It states that the human population was influenced by a group of extraterrestrials that visited Earth in the past. The ancient aliens were directly involved in the evolution of primates, including humans. It has been suggested that this was accomplished by way of genetic engineering, cross-breeding, or a combination of both, ultimately helping in the development of human cultures, technologies and religion. The idea first gained widespread exposure with the 1968 publication of Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken, but the concept has been around since the middle of the 19th century. A common variant of the idea includes proposals that deities from most, if not all, religions, including angels and demons, are actually extraterrestrials whose advanced technologies were taken by people as evidence of a divine status.
This concept is related to the religious practice of a cargo cult, which can be seen in modern day pre-industrial tribal societies. Especially during World War II, when indigenous people were contacted by soldiers with advanced equipment, such as guns and tanks.
The cults subsequently attempted to obtain wealth through magic and religious rituals and practices. The ancient alien theory states that extraterrestrials purposely tricked the human population into believing they were Gods, creating religion to help people evolve more efficiently.
The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations. It has been proposed that, with the current age of the universe and its vast number of stars, if the Earth was typical, extraterrestrial life should be common. In response to this paradox, the zoo hypothesis has been suggested. It states that aliens generally avoid making their presence known to humanity, or avoid exerting an influence on development, somewhat akin to zookeepers observing animals in a zoo, or experimental scientists observing a study of life.
Adherents of the hypothesis feel that the Earth and humans are being secretly surveyed using equipment located on Earth, or elsewhere in the Solar System. Charles Fort’s unpublished 1915 manuscript, novel X, describes how Martian beings or Martian events control life on Earth.
Fort ultimately burnt the manuscript, but one surviving quote from it is “The Earth is a farm. We are someone else’s property.”
US Air Force: Don't Worry About Those Weird Lights and Booms Sunday, It's Just a Space Ship
US Air Force: Don't Worry About Those Weird Lights and Booms Sunday, It's Just a Space Ship
By Rafi Letzter, Staff Writer
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Dec. 22, 2017, with bystanders on the ground getting a gorgeous light show.
Credit: Maxwell Harris/Getty Images
If you're in the vicinity of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Sunday evening (Oct. 7), you might hear some strange booming and see some weird lights in the sky. But the Air Force would like you to know that there's no need to worry; something entirely normal is going on — a rocket that heaved its way up into space will be falling back to Earth, correcting its trajectory with "multiple engine burns," and then (if all goes well) settling comfortably back on its landing struts in the vicinity of its launch site.
The Air Force released the warning because, while Floridians have had ample time to grow comfortable with the spectacle of SpaceX landings, this will be the first attempt to land a Falcon 9 rocket on the West Coast. It will not, however, be the first launch from Vandenberg:
The rocket is currently scheduled to launch at 7:21 p.m. local time, carry the SAOCOM 1A satellite into space, and return to Earth shortly afterward.
According to a Facebook post by the Air Force's 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg, "local residents" can expect to see something of the rocket itself as it returns to the base, while people as far as Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties may hear thunderclap-like sonic booms, depending on the weather.
IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING Up-close views of the “ring rain” falling from Saturn’s rings into the planet’s atmosphere taken by Cassini (shown in this artist’s illustration) have scientists scratching their heads.
NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
The “ring rain” of material falling from Saturn’s rings into the planet’s atmosphere is a much more intense, contaminated downpour than scientists thought.
For decades, astronomers have suspected that Saturn’s rings pelt the planet with grains of water ice, but some of the final observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provide the first detailed views of these celestial showers(SN: 4/14/18, p. 6). Ring rain is highly contaminated with organic matter and other molecules, and hammers Saturnat thousands of kilograms per second, researchers report in the Oct. 5 Science. Understanding the rain’s surprising quantity and quality could help clarify the origins and evolution of Saturn’s rings.
Researchers analyzed data collected by Cassini’s Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer during the spacecraft’s final few orbits in 2017, as it sailed through the gap between Saturn and its innermost ring, known as the D ring (SN Online: 9/15/17). Water constituted only about 24 percent of the material tumbling from Saturn’s ring system into its atmosphere; the rest was methane, carbon monoxide, dinitrogen, ammonia, carbon dioxide and fragments of organic nanoparticles.
The ring rain’s diverse chemical composition “was a big surprise,” because remote observations show that Saturn’s ring system, on the whole, is almost entirely water ice, says Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who wasn’t involved in the study. Researchers aren’t sure why ring rain is so deprived of water.
Cocktail conundrum
The ring rain that Cassini’s Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer caught falling from Saturn’s rings into its atmosphere is only about 24 percent water — a major surprise, given that Saturn’s ring system is almost entirely water ice. The rest of the ring rain is composed of organic material and other molecules.
The chemical breakdown of Saturn’s ring rain
J.H. WAITE JR. ET AL/SCIENCE 2018
A belt of radiation tucked inside Saturn’s rings could be responsible, says study coauthor Jeff Cuzzi, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Cassini’s end-of-life observations also provided the first closeup views of this band of energetic protons, described in another study in the Oct. 5 Science. The belt’s high-energy radiation may have blasted away much of the water in the D ring very close to Saturn, leaving behind heavier materials like organic compounds, Cuzzi speculates.
Whatever its cause, the ring rain’s peculiar composition may reshape our understanding of the carbon and nitrogen content of Saturn’s atmosphere, says Hunter Waite, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and a coauthor of the ring rain study. Saturn’s presumed chemical makeup may be “just a veneer” created by falling material masking the gas giant’s true composition, he says.
In addition to the ring rain’s chemistry, the Cassini observations also revealed how quickly this material is falling into Saturn’s atmosphere: between 4,800 and 45,000 kilograms per second.
I spy
Observations from Cassini’s final few months revealed a radiation belt composed of high-energy protons tucked inside the gas giant’s ring system. This belt (bright colors below) passes through Saturn’s thin, innermost D ring, and might be stripping water out of the ring material closest to Saturn.
E. ROUSSOS ET AL/SCIENCE 2018
“It’s just an enormous amount of mass flowing into the planet,” Cuzzi says.
Saturn’s rings probably haven’t sustained this rate of rainfall over the course of the planet’s history, he says. If that were the case, the spindly little D ring would have long since eroded away. But a comet or other rogue object may have hit Saturn’s ring system recently, jostling grains out of their usual orbit and making them more vulnerable to Saturn’s gravitational pull.
But if the current deluge is, in fact, Saturn’s normal rate of ring rain, then perhaps the D ring continually siphons material from Saturn’s outer rings, says Kelly Miller, a cosmochemist at the Southwest Research Institute and a coauthor on the ring rain study.
The exact nature of Saturn’s relationship to its rings “is still a puzzle,” Spilker says. But devising more detailed theoretical simulations of what’s going on between the planet’s atmosphere and rings, and testing these theories against the trove of data collected by Cassini could help fill in the picture.
Such work may help scientists better understand not only Saturn, but also any ring-bearing planets that might circle other stars in the universe, she says.
The European Space Agency’s next big planet-hunting mission – the Plato space telescope – will continue the search for rocky and potentially habitable worlds orbiting other stars.
Artist’s concept of ESA’s upcoming Plato space telescope.
The search for exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars – has really ramped up in recent years, with new telescopes, both space and ground-based, being launched, built and on the drawing board. Those efforts have already discovered thousands of exoplanets, both confirmed and additional candidates. On October 4, 2018, the initial construction of one of the latest additions to the exoplanet-hunting family was announced – the European Space Agency’s Plato mission. The announcement was made at the 69th International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany, where the new contract was signed.
The contract includes delivery of the satellite, the testing phase leading to launch, support during the launch campaign and the in-orbit commissioning phase. Plato will be built and assembled by satellite manufacturer OHB System together with Thales Alenia Space (in France and the U.K.) and RUAG Space in Switzerland, as well as by contributors from many other ESA member states. The primary scientific instrument, an array of 26 cameras and electronic units, will observe a large patch of the sky. According to Ana Heras, Plato project scientist at ESA:
Plato is a next-generation exoplanet mission that will monitor thousands of bright stars over a large area of the sky in search of tiny, regular dips in their brightness caused by transiting planets. Since planets only block a minute portion of the light radiated by their parent star, this quest requires extremely precise, long-term photometric observations.
The Thales Alenia Space design for Plato.
Image via ESA.
The EADS Astrium design for Plato.
Image via ESA.
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has found the majority of these new worlds, but that mission is now winding down as the spacecraft runs out of fuel. The TESS telescope, which launched just a few months ago, has already found its first couple of planets after beginning science operations more recently. Kepler focused on finding planets of various sizes and masses around stars many light-years away, and TESS will observe brighter stars much closer to our solar system, focusing on planets about the same size as Earth, including in the habitable zones of their stars, where liquid water could exist on their surfaces.
So how does Plato compare? Plato – the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars mission – won’t launch until 2026, but it should be well worth the wait. Like TESS, its main goal will be to will search for rocky planets orbiting in the habitable zones of relatively close sun-like stars. It will seek to answer a key question, according to Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Director General of ESA:
Does a second Earth exist in the universe? is one of the exciting questions in astrophysics today. With our Plato satellite we are focusing on Earth-like planets orbiting up to the habitable zone around other stars which are similar to our sun. This will be a major step towards finding another Earth.
Comparison of areas of the sky already observed by Corot and Kepler and future Plato targets. The lighter “step-and-stare” target areas are tentative as their exact location has not yet been determined.
While Plato’s focus will be on finding the planets, it will also examine the their masses, sizes and ages with unprecedented accuracy, as well as study the properties of the host stars, even the stars’ seismic activity – known as asteroseismology – which will help scientists better understand stellar interiors and evolution. Plato will be able to determine a star’s mass with 1 percent accuracy. By looking at the properties of the planets themselves in detail, scientists will be able to determine the architecture of exoplanetary systems and whether they might host habitable worlds.
Plato will operate at the L2 Lagrange point in space – 0.93 million miles (1.5 million km) beyond Earth as seen from the sun. Its nominal mission will last for six years, in three stages. The first two will be long-duration observations, focused on two sky fields thought to hold a high density of cold dwarf stars and designed to detect transits with an orbital period similar to Earth’s. The first observation phase will last 2-3 years and the second will last two years. The third and last phase of the mission will be a “step-and-stare” phase, during which different parts of the sky will be monitored for a few months each, and will last for at least one year.
Plato will operate at the second sun-Earth Lagrange point (L2), 0.93 million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth.
Image via ESA.
Plato will be a follow-up mission to Cheops, ESA’s next planet-hunter. Cheops will be launched much sooner – next year – and conduct more detailed studies of already-known exoplanets, in particular super-Earths – rocky planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune – and Neptune-sized analogs.
Studying the planets’ atmospheres is vital in trying to determine which ones may be habitable – or even inhabited. JWST will even be able to look for biomarker gases in the atmospheres, which, if found, would be compelling evidence for active biology.
Plato will search for rocky exoplanets in the habitable zones of their stars.
The start of construction of Plato is exciting, even if the launch is still a long way off. As noted by Filippo Marliani, ESA’s Plato Project Manager:
We are pleased to kick off construction of this exciting mission. With the prime contractor and the support of European space industry, we are looking forward to building a spacecraft that will tackle some of humankind’s most profound questions.
Bottom line: The Plato mission will be an important one in the search for rocky and potentially habitable planets like Earth orbiting other stars. Such worlds are a primary focus for astronomers as they are the ones most likely to be able to support life.
A new simulation by scientists lets you witness supermassive black holes about to collide. One shows them from outside the system, just 40 orbits from merging. The other places you in their midst.
NASA released the two videos on this page on October 2, 2018. Both are based on a new computer simulation by scientists, showing what happens when two supermassive black holes orbit closely, spiraling toward each other before merging. The scientific simulation is described in a paper published this month in the peer-reviewedAstrophysical Journal. The new work depicts three orbits of a pair of supermassive black holes, only 40 orbits from merging. The videos on this page stem from this simulation, and they’re a lot of fun to watch!
Meanwhile, scientists are most excited by new results of the work, showing which kinds of light – mostly ultraviolet (UV) light with some high-energy X-rays – are emitted as two supermassive black holes spiral closer. They’re excited because – if scientists can understand what to look for – they might be able to observe supermassive black holes prior to merging. They haven’t accomplished this yet or anything close to it; in fact, so far, although supermassive black hole mergers should be relatively common in space, astronomers haven’t yet observed one. What’s been seen, so far, are gravitational waves originating in the merger of two stellar-mass black holes. More about that below.
These researchers said that, based on their new simulation, they expect X-rays emitted by a near-merger of supermassive black holes will be brighter and more variable than X-rays seen from single supermassive black holes. NASA also said in a statement that the new simulation:
And that’s why, for example, in the video above, we see complex effects caused by gravitational lensing, when one supermassive black hole passes in front of the other. The degree to which light is bent can be predicted via Einstein’s theory.
Scientists also said some exotic features came as a surprise, such as the eyebrow-shaped shadows one black hole occasionally creates near the horizon of the other.
This next video is a result of the new simulation, too. It’s an interactive 360-degree video, which places the viewer in the middle of two circling supermassive black holes around 18.6 million miles (30 million km) apart with an orbital period of 46 minutes. The simulation shows how the black holes distort the starry background and capture light, producing black silhouettes. A distinctive feature called a photon ring outlines the black holes. The entire system would have around a million times the sun’s mass.
As you may know, scientists have detected merging stellar-mass black holes — which range from around three to several dozen solar masses — using the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). The mergers produce gravitational waves, which are space-time ripples traveling at the speed of light.
But supermassive black holes should be merging, too, in various places across the universe. Astrophysicist Scott Noble at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland – a co-author on the study – explained:
We know galaxies with central supermassive black holes combine all the time in the universe, yet we only see a small fraction of galaxies with two of them near their centers. The pairs we do see aren’t emitting strong gravitational-wave signals because they’re too far away from each other.
Our goal is to identify – with light alone – even closer pairs from which gravitational-wave signals may be detected in the future.
Stéphane d’Ascoli, a doctoral student at École Normale Supérieure in Paris, is lead author of the new paper. These scientists’ statement further explained:
… supermassive binaries nearing collision may have one thing stellar-mass binaries lack – a gas-rich environment. Scientists suspect the supernova explosion that creates a stellar black hole also blows away most of the surrounding gas. The black hole consumes what little remains so quickly there isn’t much left to glow when the merger happens.
Supermassive binaries, on the other hand, result from galaxy mergers. Each supersized black hole brings along an entourage of gas and dust clouds, stars and planets. Scientists think a galaxy collision propels much of this material toward the central black holes, which consume it on a time scale similar to that needed for the binary to merge.
As the black holes near, magnetic and gravitational forces heat the remaining gas, producing light that astronomers should be able to see.
At least, they hope that will someday be so. At the moment, much is unknown. And that’s one reason co-author Manuela Campanelli, director of the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, who initiated this project nine years ago, said:
It’s very important to proceed on two tracks. Modeling these events requires sophisticated computational tools that include all the physical effects produced by two supermassive black holes orbiting each other at a fraction of the speed of light.
Knowing what light signals to expect from these events will help modern observations identify them.
Modeling and observations will then feed into each other, helping us better understand what is happening at the hearts of most galaxies.
Bottom line: A new simulation by scientists lets you witness supermassive black holes about to collide. One shows them from outside the system, just 40 orbits from merging. The other places you in their midst.
Mysterious 5-kilometer object on Mars. Great discovery on Mars
Mysterious 5-kilometer object on Mars. Great discovery on Mars
This was published in an important newspaper the Inquisitr. The discovery was made by the Argentine researcher Marcelo Irazusta and he published it in a YouTube video
The images of the supposed UFO are very eloquent. It will be a system error? The fact that the object has more than 5 kilometers in diameter. Because of the shadow it displays, it would be flying over its surface. Amazing, right? Watch the video and broadcast.
A new UFO on Mars has been sighted in NASA images compiled by Google — and easily accessible to anyone using the Google Earth app, in its “Google Mars” setting. Whatever this strange ...
Engine Burn Puts New Horizons on Track for New Year's Flyby of Ultima Thule
Engine Burn Puts New Horizons on Track for New Year's Flyby of Ultima Thule
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
An artist's depiction of 2014 MU69, which New Horizons will flyby on Jan. 1, 2019.
Credit: Steve Gribben/JHUAPL/SwRI
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft successfully completed a brief engine burn on Oct. 3, the first maneuver in which it was able to rely on actual photographs it had already taken of its eventual target.
According to a NASA statement about the engine burn, it was successful and sped the spacecraft up by 4.6 mph (2.1 m/s). At the time, the spacecraft was about 3.95 billion miles (6.35 billion kilometers) away from Earth, temptingly close to its next destination.
That target is a Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69 and nicknamed Ultima Thule, which is about 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion kilometers) away from Earth. In mid-August, the spacecraft was able to take its first image of the object, and its images now help the spacecraft's trajectory team design the small path corrections that will help it reach its target.
"Thanks to this maneuver, we're right down the middle of the pike and on time for the farthest exploration of worlds in history — more than a billion miles beyond Pluto," mission principal investigator Alan Stern, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute,said in the statement. "It almost sounds like science fiction, but it's not. Go New Horizons!"
The flyby is currently scheduled for 12:33 a.m. ET on Jan. 1, 2019, which will still be Dec. 31 in the rest of the U.S. As the flyby approaches, that time estimate will be honed ever more precisely, an important step in ensuring the maneuver's success.
"Since we are flying very fast and close to the surface of Ultima, approximately four times closer than the Pluto flyby in July 2015, the timing of the flyby must be very accurate," Derek Nelson, New Horizons optical navigation lead, said in the statement. "These first images give us confidence that Ultima is where we expected it to be, and the timing of the flyby will be accurate."
L'ASTRONOME CAPTURE UN OVNI AVEC TOUTE LA CLARTÉ QUI PASSE À GRANDE VITESSE DEVANT LA LUNE
L'ASTRONOME CAPTURE UN OVNI AVEC TOUTE LA CLARTÉ QUI PASSE À GRANDE VITESSE DEVANT LA LUNE
Pendant longtemps, certains experts en OVNIS pensent qu'il existe une base extraterrestre de l'autre côté de la Lune. En supposant qu'ils viennent d'une planète lointaine au-delà de notre système solaire, ils devraient disposer d'une base à partir de laquelle ils pourraient se rendre sur Terre. Et quel meilleur endroit que la face cachée de la Lune ? Mais non seulement sur la base d’hypothèses, il existe également des preuves de la présence extraterrestre dans notre satellite naturel. Milton William Cooper, un ancien officier des services de renseignement de la marine américaine, a révélé dans un communiqué de presse en 1989, sous serment, que le gouvernement des États-Unis. J'étais conscient de l'existence de vaisseaux spatiaux extraterrestres sur notre planète.
Et cela allait plus loin, en veillant à ce que la face cachée de la Lune abrite une base extraterrestre. Il a été vu et enregistré par les astronautes Apollo. Selon Cooper, sur cette base, les opérations minières sont menées à l’aide d’énormes machines et d’un grand navire extraterrestre. Aussi connu sous le nom de Bill Cooper, il a écrit sur ses théories dans les livres "Le gouvernement secret: l'origine, l'identité et la raison d'être de MJ-12 (1989)", "Operation Majority (1989)" et "Voici un cheval pâle ( 1991) ". Cooper a été tué par des agents du bureau du shérif du comté d'Apache en 2001 lors d'une descente dans son domicile, en Arizona, pour fraude fiscale. Selon la version officielle, l'ancien officier du renseignement a ouvert le feu.
Y a-t-il une meilleure preuve ? Apparemment, c’est un objet en forme de soucoupe qui a été enregistré par mon astronome qui passe devant la Lune.
La meilleure observation d'OVNI à ce jour ?
Mon astronome amateur a découvert le 6 juillet 2017, un étrange objet qui a traversé la Lune. Je révèle que la vidéo a été enregistrée, et tentais alors d'approcher les cratères lunaires lorsque cette étrange observation a eu lieu.Dans la vidéo, on voit un géant objet se déplacer de bas à haut sur la surface lunaire Aristarchus Crater. Même si j’ai essayé de suivre l'objet volant non identifier, le faible éclairage de la Lune l'a fait perdre de vue. Et comment pourrait-il en être autrement, alors que la vidéo devenait virale, les théoriciens du complot disaient que c'était la meilleure preuve que les extraterrestres avaient une base secrète à la surface de la Lune. Ils ajoutent que les gouvernements du monde entier et les agences spatiales comme la NASA sont très conscients de l'existence d'aliens. Voici quelques images incroyables d'un OVNI se déplaçant à la surface de la Lune. Les images ont été prises avec un télescope en cherchant des cratères. Ce navire noir coïncide avec les nombreux autres OVNIS qui ont été enregistrés en mouvement à la surface de Luna au cours des dernières années. Il y a encore des extraterrestres qui vivent sur notre Lune, même aujourd'hui, qui vont et viennent dans ces navires ... tout le temps en riant de la façon dont l’humanité croit encore qu’elle est seule dans l’univers. " Mais d'autres théoriciens du complot ont une version très différente de l'ovni d'origine extraterrestre. Il serait clair que la US Space Force C'est opérationnel, et ils expliquent que l'augmentation du nombre d'observations d'OVNIS est une autre preuve de leurs activités dans l'espace.
Le vice-président américain Mike Pence, lors d'un discours prononcé au Pentagone en août dernier, a annoncé que le "Corps spatial" ferait partie du ministère de la Défense et s'appellerait la "United States Space Force", qui commenceront à fonctionner en 2020. Mais apparemment, ils avaient déjà commencé ces opérations, sans qu'aucun autre pays ne le sache.
Et les sceptiques qui pensent ? La vérité, c’est qu’ils ont été vraiment surpris par la vidéo, mais ils croient néanmoins qu’il peut s’agir d’un montage ou tout simplement de débris spatiaux. Comme d'habitude. Maintenant, nous avons seulement besoin de connaître votre version.
Est-ce la meilleure vidéo d'OVNI de l'histoire ? Une preuve évidente de l'existence de bases extraterrestres sur la Lune ? La force spatiale Trump ? Ou avez-vous une autre explication ?
WETENSCHAPEen Amerikaan uit de staat Michigan heeft ontdekt dat de steen die hij al tientallen jaar gebruikt als deurstopper, een heel waardevolle meteoriet blijkt te zijn die zo’n 100.000 dollar (87.000 euro) waard is.
Nadat David Mazurek in januari vernam dat kleine stukjes meteoriet voor duizenden dollars verkocht werden, wilde hij weten of die bizarre, tien kilogram zware steen die hij al jaar en dag gebruikte om zijn staldeur open te houden, ook wat zou kunnen opbrengen.
Mazurek trok ermee naar de Central Michigan University. Daar had hoogleraar geologie Monaliza Sirbescu meteen in de gaten dat ze niet zomaar een steen in handen kreeg.
Sirbescu werkt al achttien jaar aan de universiteit van Michigan. Geregeld vragen mensen haar of een steen die ze hebben gevonden misschien een meteoriet is. “Achttien jaar lang was het antwoord altijd nee”, vertelt ze. “Maar nu wist ik dat het iets bijzonders was.” De professor stuurde twee kleine fragmentjes van de steen naar het Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, waar haar bevindingen bevestigd werden.
Uitgegraven
Mazurek had de meteoriet al sinds 1988 in zijn bezit. Hij kreeg de steen erbij toen hij een boerderij kocht. Volgens de oorspronkelijke eigenaar was de steen in de jaren 1930 met een zware klap neergestort op het terrein. Toen hij samen met zijn vader de meteoriet gingen uitgraven, was hij nog steeds warm. De kinderen namen de steen wel eens mee naar school voor een spreekbeurt, maar verder deed het ding dienst als deurstopper.
Vroegste zonnestelsel
Uit onderzoek van de steen blijkt dat hij voor 88,5 procent uit ijzer bestaat en voor 11,5 procent uit nikkel. “Dit is het waardevolste dat ik ooit in handen heb gehad, zowel in prijs als in wetenschappelijke waarde”, aldus Sirbescu. “Het is een stukje van het vroegste zonnestelsel dat ons in de schoot viel.”
“Wat er op dit ogenblik meestal gebeurt is dat meteorieten ofwel verkocht en tentoongesteld worden in een museum, of verkocht worden aan verzamelaars en kopers die er winst op willen maken”, aldus Sirbescu.
Zowel het Smithsonian Museum en een museum in Maine zijn geïnteresseerd in het exemplaar, dat naar schatting 100.000 dollar (87.000 euro) waard is.
Mazurek wil een deel van de opbrengst van de verkoop aan de universiteit schenken. “Ik ben het beu om hem als deurstopper te gebruiken. Tijd om een koper te vinden”, zegt de man.
You expect some UFO witnesses, especially those who also encounter extraterrestrials, to be somewhat eccentric. You don’t expect them to be terrorists. Yet that’s what an investigative team in Brazil found out recently while researching 50-year-old unpublished documents concerning terrorist acts discovered they were committed by a group under the direction of a UFO cult leader and used to justify repression by a military dictatorship.
“He was seen as a crazy guy, but he had a relationship with the authorities.”
Vasconcelo Quadros, the investigative journalist who broke the story this week in Publica, released the documents just days before a highly controversial presidential election expected to be won by Jair Bolsonaro, the controversial far-right presidential candidate referred to by many as Brazil’s Donald Trump. Bolsonaro has often praised the time of the dictatorship as being a good thing for Brazil. Well, it wasn’t so good for the victims of the terrorist attacks of Aladino Felix, the paramilitary group leader who claimed to have been contacted by aliens.
“In November 1952 I was touring with a friend in the State of Sao Paulo. On reaching the top of the Angatuba range coming up from Parana, we were confronted by five Flying Saucers hovering in the air. It was a rainy day and visibility was bad. I went back to the same spot later and spent three days and nights there in the hope of seeing a Flying Saucer again. On the last night, after a series of episodes which we will not go into here for fear of digression, a Flying Saucer landed and we were given the chance of going inside it and meeting its crew. We stayed on board for about an hour looking at the various pieces of equipment in the machine. The Captain was kind enough to explain how they all worked. At the end of our visit, this fascinating individual promised to come and see us as soon as he was able. And now, four or five months later, he had come as promised.”
Aladino Félix was the author of the book My Contact with Flying Saucers under the name Dino Kraspedon. Published in Brazil in 1957 and in the US and UK in 1959, it describes his various contacts with the Captain and other aliens who he claimed were from a satellite of Jupiter. In the book, Felix presents detailed drawings and descriptions of the flying saucers, including how they defeat gravity and navigate among the planets. He also relays warnings from the Captain about atomic energy and a second sun entering the solar system.
The Captain talks quite a bit about God, which may have itself been a warning about Felix’s other interests. He declared himself to be the messiah of the Jewish people and founded a UFO cult based on that belief. However, the current investigation found this was or became a front for a right-wing paramilitary organization of police officers which carried out a series of terrorist attacks – bombings, bank robberies, and more – that egged on left-wing groups to do the same, allowing the government to use it as a way to justify repression by force in an era that became known as the Anos de Chumbo, or Years of Lead.
“The Earth is not the center of the planetary system, as was previously believed, but the center of evil. If man were to reform himself, it is possible that the Creator would have compassion on him. Avoid war, because man can thereby destroy his planet with his own hands without the intervention of the forces of Nature. It is not difficult to be good; it is sufficient to do no evil. God will do the rest.”
Do no evil.
Despite that advice from The Captain in My Contact with Flying Saucers, Aladino Félix seemed to have chosen the opposite path. Perhaps that’s why he wrote the book under another name. He was arrested in 1968, spent three years in prison and died in 1985.
Did he ever talk to the Captain again? Did he ever talk to the Captain at all?
Officially, the U.S. Government got out of the UFO issue in 1969 when the Air Force’s Project Blue Book closed its doors. Of course, that doesn’t mean that agencies have not taken an interest in UFOs post-1969. They certainly have. A perfect example is the so-called “Flying Triangle” phenomenon. It took off in the early-to-mid 1980s and reached its peak in the following decade. Although, a careful study of the history of Ufology demonstrates that the large, black, triangular-shaped UFOs have, in fact, been reported since the 1940s – although, admittedly, not on the scale they were reported in the eighties and the nineties.
One of the more interesting documents that demonstrates post-1969 interest in the UFO puzzle focuses on those strange Flying Triangles – specifically over Belgium in the 1989-1990time-frame. It originates with the U.S. Department of Defense and is titled “Belgium and the UFO Issue.” Circulated widely among the U.S. Intelligence community, it reveals the following: “Numerous UFO sightings have been made in Belgium since Nov 89. The credibility of some individuals making the reports is good…Investigation by BAF [Belgian Air Force] continues.”
Then, the document digs into the matter of witness reports. We’re told that…
“Source A cites Mr. Leon Brenig,a 43-year-old professor at the Free University of Brussels in the field of statistics and physics…Mr. Brenig was driving on the Ardennes autoroute in the Beaufays region east of Liege, Sunday, 18 March 1990 at 2030 hours when he observed an airborne object approaching in his direction from the North. It was in the form of a triangle…and had a yellow light surrounding it with a reddish center varying in intensity. Altitude appeared to be 500-1000 meters, moving at a slow speed with no sound. It did not move or behave like an aircraft.”
“Source B,” the document reveals, “…discusses a Belgian television interview with Colonel Wil De Brouwer, Chief of Operations for the BAF…De Brouwer noted the large number of reported sightings, particularly in NOV 89 in the Liege area and that the BAF and MOD [Ministry of Defense] are taking the issue seriously. BAF experts have not been able to explain the phenomena either.”
Moving on, we have the following: “De Brouwer specifically addressed the possibility of the objects being USAF B-2 or F-117 Stealth aircraft which would not appear on Belgian radar, but might be sighted visually if they were operating at low altitude in the Ardennes area. He made it quite clear that no USAF overflight requests had ever been received for this type of mission and that the alleged observations did not correspond in any way to the observable characteristics of either U.S. aircraft.”
We’re then provided with the story of a very credible source: “[Deleted] related a similar UFO sighting which apparently happened to a Belgian Air Force officer in the same area near Liege during November 89. The officer and his wife were allegedly blinded by a huge bright object as they were driving on the autoroute. They stopped their car, but were so frightened they abandoned the vehicle and ran into the woods…The BAF is concerned to a point about the UFO issue and is taking action to investigate information they have…The USAF did confirm to the BAF and Belgian MOD that no USAF Stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area during the periods in question.”
Nick Pope
There ends the document. But, not the interest in the Flying Triangles over Belgium. Following a wave of similar FT encounters in the U.K. in March 1993, Nick Pope – who, between 1991 and 1994, handled UFO reports for the British Ministry of Defense – approached the Belgian military to get its views on the Flying Triangle phenomenon (there is, however, a down to earth explanation for the UK sightings). In a January 1997 interview, Pope told me:
“I approached the Belgians to get a comparison after their sightings. I phoned the Air Attaché at the British Embassy in Brussels and he spoke to one of the F-16 pilots who had been scrambled to intercept a Flying Triangle over Belgium back in 1990. Well, the Air Attaché reported back to me that the corporate view of the Belgian Defense Staff was that they did believe that they were dealing with a solid, structured craft. Apparently, the word from the Belgians was: ‘Thank God it was friendly.’ If it hadn’t been, it was made clear to me that there was very little that the Belgian Air Force could have done anyway – despite the fact that the F-16 is no slouch.”
Pope also approached the U.S. Department of Defense to discuss the Flying Triangle phenomenon. Pope outlined the nature of the discussion: “We decided that we couldn’t ignore the various rumors that were doing the rounds about a supposed Top Secret aircraft developed by the U.S. Government and called Aurora – or, indeed, any hypersonic and/or prototype aircraft operated by the Americans. There had been persistent rumors in the aviation world and among the UFO lobby that the SR71 Blackbird had been replaced by a hypersonic aircraft code-named Aurora and that that was what the Flying Triangles really were.”
Pope continued: “I was well aware that there had been some interesting stories about visual and radar sightings around certain air bases; however, I hadn’t put much store in these rumors – not least because there had been some very definitive denials from the Americans. I know there’s a lot of cynicism about government and the military. And although officialdom may refuse to answer a question and may sometimes give a misleading answer, outright lying is incredibly rare. And when it does occur, if it’s uncovered it almost certainly leads to resignation.
“But with the March 1993 sightings – and in spite of the denials from the Americans that they were responsible for the Flying Triangles – we did contact them to make inquiries. This was because they have the responsibility pertaining to the U.S. presence in Britain. Those inquiries bore absolutely no fruit at all. The Americans said: ‘No. We can shed no light at all on the UFO sightings that have led to your inquiry.'”
Pope told me that the liaison with the Americans was not without its moment of intrigue: “If anything, there was an interesting little hint that the Americans, too, were seeing these Flying Triangles over their territory. As we were making our inquiries, they turned the question around and wanted to know if our Royal Air Force had a triangular-shaped, hyper-sonic prototype aircraft of some sort. So, presumably, the Americans were having Flying Triangle sightings, too.”
Pope’s final words on the matter are well worth keeping in mind: “But this was interesting, in light of the fact that the Americans supposedly got out of UFO investigations back in 1969 when the Air Force’s Project Blue Book closed down. Of course, you may not officially be in the UFO game, but you are certainly going to be aware of – and take an interest in – reports of structured craft in your airspace.”
It was thirty years ago this month that a wave of UFO activity broke out in the skies of the United Kingdom. As October 1988 drew to a close, a puzzling encounter was reported by Tony Silvestri, a mechanic from Ciliau Aeron, Wales. In an interview with a journalist from the Western Mail newspaper, Mr. Silvestri recalled the encounter, which occurred while driving with his wife and daughter. He said: “Gwendoline, my wife, and Allana, who is eight, were both scared stiff by it. The whole interior of the car was lit up by a greenish light. It was so bright that I could not see through the windscreen or out of the windows.”
Tony Silvestri continued: “Fortunately, it only lasted for a few seconds. It couldn’t have been caused by the headlights of other cars because it was too bright and the wrong color. I pulled up and stopped at the side of the road but could see nothing that might have caused the strange light inside the car. Next day I gave the car a complete electrical check and there was nothing wrong with it. I didn’t think there would be because the light was too brilliant to be caused by an electrical fault.”
Sea Hawks at RNAS Brawdy
On October 27, Mr. Silvestri was interviewed by Flight Sergeant Dave Pengilly, of Royal Air Force Brawdy, Pembrokeshire. “Each report of this kind is always investigated,” explained Sergeant Pengilly. “I make checks and then pass it on to the powers that be in the Ministry of Defense, who are now looking into this case. We don’t like unidentified things in our airspace.”
“Until now,” said Mrs. Silverstri, “we’ve had no time for UFO stories. We didn’t really believe in them. But, nothing like this has ever happened to us before and we hope it won’t again. We were terrified.”
The latter part of October 1988 also saw a significant amount of UFO activity in the counties of both Kent and Sussex, England. One incident in particular stands out. It was reported by Police Constables Norman Sells and Robin Buxton. They were driving through High Halden at around 3:45 a.m. on an autumn morning when “the whole of the night sky became as bright as daylight.” The curious light display lasted for three or four seconds before normality was restored. The officers quickly filed a report with police headquarters at Maidstone. Notably, other unusual events were reported by people in the same area for several days.
Teenagers Joanna Dickinson and Julie Jessop were walking near to Julie’s home at Woodlands Caravan Park, Biddenden, when they saw an oval-shaped object displaying four bright white lights, with a red light in the center. Both girls estimated that the object was at a height of around 500 feet; it emitted a deep humming sound. As they watched, the object suddenly climbed vertically into the evening sky.
Shortly after the sighting at Biddenden, Stephen Button, the brother of a Tenterden policeman, reported seeing a strange object while driving his car in the area. When Mr. Button first caught sight of the object, which was likened to “a blue ball,” it was at a height of between fifty and 100 feet, but began to descend as Mr. Button looked on. He finally lost sight of the object as it disappeared behind a line of trees. Staff at Royal Air Force Manston were duly informed and details were passed on to the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense for analysis.
Never a dull moment at Cannock Chase
Then, on October 29, a huge, “Flying Triangle”-type UFO was seen flying – and very briefly hovering – over the Cannock Chase woods, Staffordshire, England. In this case, the witness was a police-officer heading home after finishing up his late-night/early hours shift. He described the craft as being “massively big,” black in color, and giving off a loud hum. The officer watched, stunned, for a few moments as the object flew across the tree-shrouded road at a speed of barely 20 miles per hour. Then, suddenly, the triangular craft shot into the star-filled skies above. The stunned officer chose not to share the story with his colleagues at work, but did give the details to a local UFO group.
Black doughnut-shaped UFO flying above the Moon’s Surface caught by Skywatcher
Black doughnut-shaped UFO flying above the Moon’s Surface caught by Skywatcher
Skywatcher Jason Callum from Bracknell, Berkshire, England pointed his telescope at the moon’s surface when a black doughnut shaped UFO came into view, flying past the moon.
The unknown object has led to much discussion about its origin. Besides the possibility that the object is an alien craft, some people say the UFO could be a craft of the secret space fleet, while others suggest it is the black knight.
It is worth mentioning that in the past similar doughnut shaped UFOs have also been observed in the vicinity of the sun.
The video shows the black UFO flying above the moon’s surface till the moment it disappears into the darkness of space.
Black Arrowhead UFO With Static Charge Seen Over British Colombia, Canada, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Black Arrowhead UFO With Static Charge Seen Over British Colombia, Canada, Photos, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: 8-9-2012, but reported today.
Location of sighting: Abbotsford, British Colombia, Canada
Source: MUFON #95361
Here is a UFO report just in. It took place back in 2012, but reported today. A black arrowhead shaped UFO shot over Abbotsford. The witness said it had a static charge around it. Such UFOs have been reported before during lighting storms when bolts of lighting were frequent. Its thought the they can deliberately cause a lighting storm in order to use the energy from the bolts in some way.
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
It looked like a dark grey arrowhead with a glowing static charge around it.
Cassini's Death Dive into Saturn Reveals Weird Ring 'Rain' & Other Surprises
Cassini's Death Dive into Saturn Reveals Weird Ring 'Rain' & Other Surprises
By Meghan Bartels, Space.com Senior Writer
An artist's depiction of the Cassini mission during its "Grand Finale" in 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
To distant, Earthling eyes, the gap between Saturn and its rings looks calm, like a deep breath of empty space between one beautifully intricate structure and another. But in 11 new papers, born from the demise of one of NASA's most beloved planetary science missions, scientists destroy that illusion, laying out a set of unexpectedly complicated phenomena dancing through that emptiness.
Those papers, published today in two key science journals, represent the first research to be published with data from the Cassini mission's so-called "Grand Finale," a daring set of orbits during which the spacecraft threaded itself between Saturn and its rings. Taken together, the papers paint a detailed picture of what's happening between the planet's innermost rings and its upper atmosphere — surprising, eye-catching phenomena like a pounding hail of compounds pummeling the planet's equatorial region and an electric current produced merely by the planet's winds and magnetic field.
"We really did think of it as a gap," Linda Spilker, project scientist for the Cassini mission at NASA, told Space.com of the region between Saturn and its rings. The team was optimistic about what Cassini could learn during its demise, but the operation ended up producing what she called "a much richer science return than we had imagined" — she went so far as to compare it to a brand-new mission. [Amazing Saturn Photos from NASA's Cassini Orbiter]
The Cassini spacecraft spent a total of 13 years studying Saturn and its moons. But when it was due to run out of fuel, the scientists behind the mission designed a daring trajectory that would send the spacecraft looping through Saturn's rings before burning up in its atmosphere. That destruction ensured that potentially habitable moons in the system wouldn't catch any Earth germs that might have hitched a ride aboard the spacecraft.
But it also let scientists squeeze a little extra data out of its instruments — and pushed the spacecraft further than they thought might be possible, since neither Cassini nor its instruments was designed to accomplish such an incredible feat. Scientists gathered for the first dive, wondering whether the spacecraft would survive long enough to even begin the Grand Finale.
Spilker and other Saturn scientists say the spacecraft's revelations sifted from the data are far from complete, even after the papers published today (Oct. 4). "You look at basically the firehose of data that's come back from Cassini in the past 13 years, really, we've only skimmed the cream across the top of the data set," Spilker said. That work has helped scientists begin to understand individual phenomena taking place at Saturn. "The next step that's happening even now is to take those pieces and put them together into a coherent picture to look across all of the data sets and ask is there one common story," Spilker said.
But in the meantime, here's a peek at what scientists have already learned about the ringed planet.
An artist's depiction of the Cassini spacecraft's view as it completed the "Grand Finale" of its mission in 2017.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
It's raining, it's pouring
One new discovery was prompted by instrument results so strange that scientists on the team and beyond it at first thought there had to be a mistake. That instrument, called the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer, or INMS, can sniff out the chemical composition of material it catches.
Scientists are particularly excited to see these results because word had gotten out that the instrument was onto something. "Since the end of the mission, there's been a lot of talk about these INMS results," Bonnie Meinke, a Saturn scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, who was not involved in any of the new research, told Space.com. "At first glance, it's the kind of thing that you almost don't believe, and as a scientist, you have to do a little gut check," Meinke said.
The instrument had a good track record, having gathered critical data earlier in the mission while Cassini explored moons like Titan and Enceladus. "Then we really got to focus in on Saturn and let it be the star for that final part of the mission," Rebecca Perryman, the operations lead for INMS at the Southwest Research Institute, told Space.com. "We'd done a lot of work to get everything planned initially and had really boasted that INMS would be able to get some fantastic results once we started dipping down into the atmosphere." [In Photos: Cassini Mission Ends with Epic Dive into Saturn]
They had expected those results to be measurements of the masses of "ring rain," which scientists knew as a trickle of tiny particles falling from Saturn's innermost ring down toward the planet's upper atmosphere — some hydrogen and helium mostly — nothing fancy.
But what they seem to have found was far more material than they had expected, coming from far more exotic compounds. The instrument spotted not just hydrogen and helium but also carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen and the unidentifiable remains of organic molecules.
"The complexity of what was going on there and the amount of material that was infalling was very surprising," Hunter Waite, the principal investigator on INMS and a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, told Space.com. And the discovery doesn't just reveal an intriguing phenomenon about a distant world — scientists say that if the finding holds up, it might have much deeper implications in our own solar system and beyond.
Waite said that the unexpected diversity of compounds in the ring rain might affect scientists' estimates for the composition of the atmosphere, which could in turn mean adapting hypotheses about how Saturn and its neighbors formed and evolved. "It might just have this facade," Waite said of Saturn. "[That might have] been a little bit deceptive in steering our thinking about formation and evolution."
Moreover, because there's so very much of the material, the new results pose a puzzle: Where does it all come from? "This can't be a continuous process, or the rings wouldn't be there," Meinke said. They would run out of material in perhaps tens of thousands of years, leaving Saturn bare. "The real story that [the paper is] telling is about the churn of Saturn's rings … rings can be long-lived because they're constantly moving and turning over."
A planet's magnetic appeal
Cassini was also equipped to measure Saturn's magnetic field. Although scientists had studied the magnetic field before, they were only able to do so briefly during flybys like those done by Pioneer and Voyager, and Cassini's Grand Finale brought them deeper into that field than ever before.
And the measurements gathered during those tight loops have offered their own surprises. Scientists already knew that Saturn's magnetic field seemed to line up awfully well with the axis it spins on — which is a tricky feat, since as far as anyone can figure out, magnetic fields are by definition created by crossing spins. [Cassini's Greatest Hits: The Spacecraft's Best Images of Saturn]
But a new analysis of Grand Finale measurements shows that those two phenomena line up even more perfectly than scientists had expected. That means scientists have to go back to the drawing board, trying to coax an answer out of magnetic-field and gravitational data. "We know there's something weird," Michele Dougherty, a physicist at Imperial College London and lead author on the paper, told Space.com.
She and her colleagues think that there may be something blocking scientists' views of the real magnetic heart of Saturn, creating the illusion of near-perfect alignment and stymying their theories. "We haven't got the answer yet, but whatever answer we come up with is really going to change people's understanding of the interior structure of planets," Dougherty said.
Until they sort out what's going on, scientists won't be able to precisely measure how long it takes Saturn to spin. "It's a bit embarrassing, we were in orbit there for 13 years and we still can't say how long a day on Saturn is," Dougherty said. With neither fixed features on a solid surface nor a magnetic field to track, they're stuck with just an estimate of 10.7 hours.
The hunt for the heart of the magnetic field was muddled in part by another surprise lurking in the magnetic data: a new phenomenon produced by that magnetic field interacting with bands of winds flowing at different rates in Saturn's upper atmosphere — an electric current rippling through a layer of atmosphere called the thermosphere.
Here's how it works: Saturn is wrapped in bands of winds, with the one at the equator traveling fastest and those to the north and south moving more slowly. When a loop-like structure of magnetic field aligns so that one end is in that equatorial band and the other is not, the equatorial wind tugs at the charged particles of plasma around it, which in turn skews the magnetic-field line.
The result that Cassini measured is an electric current as strong as 200 large terrestrial power plants combined. As a side effect, that current also produces heat in the atmosphere around it, which may help explain a long-standing mystery about Saturn. "One of the enigmas of Saturn's thermosphere is, it's hotter than expected," Krishan Khurana, a magnetosphere scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and lead author on the paper, told Space.com. "This provides a part of the answer."
And while Saturn is the star here, the results may explain a second solar system mystery as well. "Jupiter's atmosphere is highly turbulent and so the same phenomenon applied to the magnetic field of Jupiter would create pretty large currents and would heat the thermosphere pretty rapidly," Khurana said. That includes the Great Red Spot, the giant storm that infamously gnarls Jupiter's southern hemisphere, and that scientists have realized is awfully toasty. [Wave at Saturn: Images from NASA's Cosmic Photo Bomb by Cassini Probe]
An artist's depiction of the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn near the end of its mission.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Grand Finale isn't the end
That's just a sampling of the research published today — which is in turn only the beginning of the flood of science that Cassini's Grand Finale will eventually produce. One paper focused on the region of Saturn's atmosphere that produces auroral radio emissions to try to understand how those radio waves are produced.
In another paper, a team of researchers identified a long-predicted but previously unknown radiation belt reaching from the planet's upper atmosphere across its innermost ring. That means it's completely distinct from Saturn's main magnetosphere, trapping charged particles in this stretch of space between upper atmosphere and inner ring. A further study of this new radiation belt shows that because of the interference of the bulky rings, this radiation belt is fairly weak compared to other such structures.
A different instrument on board Cassini measured the density of electrons in Saturn's ionosphere, mapping out two separate layers. The lower layer sports larger neutral and charged molecules around the equator, below the rings and their flood of material; the upper layer features a much more scanty array of tiny, charged particles.
And that same INMS instrument that helped identify so many strange compounds in the so-called ring rain also allowed scientists to calculate the approximate temperatures of the thermosphere layer of atmosphere that Cassini was flying through. Those measurements ranged from 150 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (67 to 97 degrees Celsius).
Two more papers that weren't quite ready to be published highlight topics like the tiny moonlets embedded in Saturn's rings and gravity measurements taken of the giant planet. And then, of course, there are far more discoveries to be made as scientists continue to dig into and analyze the Grand Finale data and the rest of Cassini's work — not to mention the observations of whatever successor spacecraft the mission's discoveries inspire.
"I think it's a really exciting time," Meinke, the Saturn scientist who is unaffiliated with any of the new research, said. "After 13 years of Cassini data, that last little bit was really the most exciting, the stuff that left us wanting to go back and really taught us even more than we thought we were going to learn."
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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.