The Hubble Telescope's Deep View of the Universe Is Now Even More Astounding!

"What we have done is to go back to the archive of the original images, directly as observed by the HST, and improve the process of combination, aiming at the best image quality not only for the more distant smaller galaxies but also for the extended regions of the largest galaxies," study leader Alejandro Borlaff, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, said in a statement.

The new work revealed that some of the galaxies in the HUDF view are nearly twice as big as previously thought, study team members said.

The Hubble Space Telescope launched to Earth orbit in April 1990 aboard NASA's space shuttle Discovery. The scope got off to an inauspicious start; its initial images were blurry, a problem that mission team members traced to a slight flaw in Hubble's primary mirror.

Spacewalking astronauts fixed that problem in December 1993, giving Hubble the sharp focus it's known for today. 

That was the first of five servicing missions that repaired, maintained and upgraded the telescope over the years. The most recent of these, which occurred in May 2009, installed what is today Hubble's main eye on the universe, an instrument called the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

The HUDF image has long been a work in progress. The first version combined data gathered by Hubble from late 2003 to early 2004; later updates have incorporated additional imagery in various wavelengths of light.

The new study, which was published this month in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, looked at the 2012 incarnation of the HUDF, which relied heavily on data gathered by the WFC3. 

• Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate) is out now.
• Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall.
• Follow us @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
• Originally published on Space.com. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

30-01-2019 om 15:22 geschreven door peter  

Can moons have moons? Yes, and they're called 'moonmoons'! Earth, Saturn and Jupiter's natural satellites may have objects the size of SKYSCRAPERS in orbit around them

• Astronomers have yet to confirm the existence of so-called moonmoons 
• They could exist around at least four larger moons in the solar system
• These include Earth's moon, Jupiter's moon Callisto, and Saturn's moons Titan and Iapetus

By HARRY PETTIT FOR MAILONLINE 

Earth's moon may be orbited by a mysterious smaller moon that has alluded scientists for decades, according to a new study.

This submoon, also known as a moonmoon, could be as large as a skyscraper but has yet to be spotted by astronomers.

It is one of at least four moonmoons that may exist in our solar system, according to new calculations.

Earth's moon, Jupiter's moon Callisto, and Saturn's moons Titan and Iapetus all have the perfect conditions to host one - if they exist in our star system at all.

Earth's moon (file photo) may be orbited by a mysterious smaller moon that has alluded scientists for decades, according to a new study. This submoon, also known as a moonmoon, could be as large as a skyscraper but has yet to be spotted by astronomers

Scientists at Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the University of Bordeaux team up for the new study.

Following decades of speculation, the team's calculations revealed for the first time the conditions required for a moonmoon to form.

Computer models showed such an object could only exist around large moons that are relatively distant from their parent planets.

It would need to orbit close enough to remain within the gravitational pull of its moon rather than the larger planet - but far away enough to avoid being torn apart or pulled out of orbit by its moon.

Meeting these stringent requirements would be difficult, but not impossible, according to the calculations.

A moonmoon would have to orbit within a very fine distance margin to avoid being pulled away by the larger planet. Jupiter's moon Callisto (top left), and Saturn's moons (top right) Titan and Iapetus all have the perfect conditions to host one. Uranus and Neptune do not

Four moons in the solar system could host a mini-satellite, including Earth's moon, Jupiter's moon Callisto, and Saturn's moons Titan and Iapetus.

Even if these moons have the right conditions to host a moonmoon, it remains extremely unlikely that one has landed in the right spot.

'Something has to kick a rock into orbit at the right speed that it would go into orbit around a moon, and not the planet or the star,' study coauthor Dr Sean Raymond, of the University of Bordeaux, told New Scientist.

If that moon shifted its position during the course of its evolution, as Earth's moon has, its unlikely that the moonmoon would have remained in its orbit, he said.

This may explain why a moonmoon has yet to be spotted in our solar system, experts said.

'I think we can say for sure that there's not a moonmoon that's kilometres across around Jupiter or Saturn,' Queen's University Belfast astronomer Michele Bannister, who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist.

'A moonmoon down to the size of a skyscraper could exist out there, but I'd call it moonmoonlet.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

30-01-2019 om 15:01 geschreven door peter  

Most of the planets in our solar system have orbiting moons, and even some asteroids have their own moons. But do any moons have moons? Is it possible? Could there be so-called submoons? Carnegie Science’s Juna Kollmeier said her 4-year-old son sparked her interest in this subject by asking this seemingly logical question. It’s a simple enough question. If most other objects in the solar system can have moons, why not moons themselves?

• EarthSky lunar calendars are cool! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

Kollmeier decided to try to answer the question, along with her colleague Sean Raymond of Université de Bordeaux. Their results have now been published in a new peer-reviewed paper in the February 2019 issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

As explained by Raymond in a statement from Carnegie Science:

Planets orbit stars and moons orbit planets, so it was natural to ask if smaller moons could orbit larger ones.

So far at least, no submoons have been found orbiting any of the moons considered most likely to support them – Jupiter’s moon Callisto, Saturn’s moons Titan and Iapetus and Earth’s own moon. According to Kollmeier:

The lack of known submoons in our solar system, even orbiting around moons that could theoretically support such objects, can offer us clues about how our own and neighboring planets formed, about which there are still many outstanding questions.

The researchers found that only large moons on wide orbits from their host planets would be capable of hosting submoons. Usually, any submoons orbiting smaller moons closer to their planet would have their orbits destabilized by tidal forces. Jupiter’s large moon Callisto, Saturn’s large moon Titan, another Saturn moon called Iapetus and Earth’s moon could all theoretically have submoons, so why don’t they?

There may be other sources of submoon instability, such as the non-uniform concentration of mass in Earth’s moon’s crust, according to the researchers.

Part of the answer might also have to do with how the primary moons formed in the first place. Earth’s moon is thought to have been born out of a collision between Earth and another body about the size of Mars – and that collision may have helped life on Earth to get started. But some other moons, like those orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, originated from the same cloud of gas and dust that the planets themselves formed from. Kollmeier added:

And, of course, this could inform ongoing efforts to understand how planetary systems evolve elsewhere and how our own solar system fits into the thousands of others discovered by planet-hunting missions.

It may be that in many or even most cases, there are multiple factors that make the orbits of submoons inherently unstable. Knowing whether that is true or not may have to wait for discoveries of moons orbiting distant exoplanets. Moons themselves are much harder to detect and only one promising candidate has been found so far – a possible exomoon orbiting the Jupiter-sized exoplanet Kepler-1625b. That possible moon – about the size of Neptune – is large enough and far enough from its planet that submoons should be possible as well. Astronomers will need to verify that primary moon first – if it does exist – before looking for any submoons.

Even though Earth’s moon doesn’t have a submoon now, it may in the future, according to the researchers – an artificial one, perhaps NASA’s planned Lunar Gateway. The Lunar Gateway would help to establish humanity’s presence in deep space, as outlined by William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator of Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters:

The Gateway will give us a strategic presence in cislunar space. It will drive our activity with commercial and international partners and help us explore the Moon and its resources. We will ultimately translate that experience toward human missions to Mars.

Raymond has also written a cool poem about moons having moons, which you can enjoy on his blog here.

Bottom line: The possibility of moons having their own moons is a fascinating one, even though we haven’t found any examples yet. This new research from Carnegie Science shows that it is indeed possible, but only under the right circumstances.

• Source: Can moons have moons?
• Via Carnegie Science

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

30-01-2019 om 14:42 geschreven door peter  

Climate Collapse: Wind Chill Temperatures Will Hit Minus 60 in the Midwest This Week as Global Weather Patterns Shift

By Michael Synder  /  Economic Collapse

The experts are telling us that the Midwest could experience the coldest weather that it has ever seen this week.  Wind chill temperatures of -40 and -50 degrees will be common throughout the region, and it is being projected that some spots will actually get hit by wind chill temperatures of up to -60 degrees.  A shift in the polar vortex is being blamed for this life-threatening weather, and we are being told to expect the coldest temperatures to arrive on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.  But all-time records are already being set.  For example, according to Accuweather the temperature in the city of International Falls, Minnesota hit 45 below zero on Monday morning…

The coldest weather in years will put millions of people and animals throughout the midwestern United States at risk for hypothermia and frostbite to occur in minutes during the final days of January.

The deep freeze continued across the Upper Midwest on Sunday with temperatures plummeting well below zero in the morning. The low of 45 below zero F in International Falls, Minnesota, shattered the day’s record of 36 below zero F from 1966.

Please keep in mind that was not a wind chill temperature.

That was the actual temperature outside.

As the week progresses, bitterly cold temperatures will be accompanied by heavy snow and strong winds across the Midwest.  The polar jet stream has weakened, and as a result the polar vortex will “dip into parts of North America”…

The wintry onslaught will be driven by the Northern Hemisphere’s polar vortex, the pocket of cold air sitting atop the North Pole. When temperatures rise in the Arctic, the polar jet stream — the torrent of westerly winds that hold the polar vortex in place — can weaken and dip into parts of North America.

“Occasionally this ring of winds deforms or even splits, which allows the cold air to spill southward over mid latitudes — this is exactly what’s happening now,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior research scientist with Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, in an email. “It just so happens that the lobe of cold air is located over central North America, with Chicago in the crosshairs.”

This is an extremely dangerous situation, and we will probably read about some people that underestimate the danger and end up dead.

According to weather.com, the air will be so cold that it “could lead to frostbite on exposed skin in a matter of minutes”…

This bitter cold will be accompanied by strong winds at times Tuesday through Thursday, leading to life-threatening wind chills in the Midwest that could lead to frostbite on exposed skin in a matter of minutes. A large swath of the Midwest will have wind chills in the 30s, 40s and 50s below zero by Wednesday. A few spots in Minnesota and eastern North Dakota may see wind chills in the 60s below zero.

Unless you absolutely must go out for some reason, if you live in the Midwest you should stay inside until temperatures begin to warm up again.

This weather is so unusual that even President Trump is tweeting about it…

In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!

Now that even the president of the United States is acknowledging that this winter could be “the coldest ever recorded”, I want to remind everyone that we were warned about this months in advance…

• –“Climate Chaos: Following Record Heat This Summer, Experts Are Predicting There Will Be A Nightmarishly Cold Winter”
• –“November Snow In Texas? Experts Warn Decreased Solar Activity Will Shatter All Global Climate Models”
• –“The Coldest And Snowiest November Ever? Here Is Why America’s Freakish Weather Is Only Going To Get Worse…”
• –“A Mini Ice Age? NASA Scientist Warns That Diminished Solar Activity Could Mean The Coldest Winter In Modern Times”
• –“-75 Wind Chill On Thanksgiving??? Why This Could Be The Coldest Winter In America EVER…”

I wrote article after article warning that this would happen, and now it is happening.

At this hour, schools and businesses are closed throughout North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin as blizzard-like conditions sweep through both states.  And Chicago is bracing for what will likely be the coldest day ever in the history of the city…

After seeing a high around 34 on Monday at O’Hare International Airport, temperatures will drop to near zero before the end of the day, according to the National Weather Service. By Tuesday night, temperatures are expected to take another plunge, to 23 below zero, flirting with Chicago’s coldest temperature ever: minus 27 on Jan. 20, 1985.

Temperatures are forecast to inch up to a daytime high of about minus 14 on Wednesday — the first subzero high temperature in five years and the coldest winter high ever recorded in Chicago — before dipping, again, to about minus 21 overnight. The coldest daytime high in Chicago was minus 11 on Christmas Eve 1983.

Our planet is changing, our climate is collapsing, and this is going to put an increasing amount of strain on social order.

And we are already starting to see evidence of this.  In fact, Chicago police are telling us that in recent days people have been getting robbed of their expensive winter coats at gunpoint…

Chicago police are reporting gunpoint robberies targeting people wearing pricey Canada Goose jackets as temperatures plunge in the city.

Over the past two weeks, police say there’s been a spate of the thefts in which people wearing the luxury coats have been targeted and forced to give up the jackets. The coats can cost upward of $1,000 and are often seen on celebrities.

Six people had their Canada Goose coats stolen last week and two more were targeted Wednesday.

Unfortunately, this is only just the beginning.

Global seismic activity is rising, weather patterns are becoming more extreme, and a worldwide environmental collapse is already well underway.  If you have any doubts that this worldwide environmental collapse is happening, just read this excellent article by Chris Martenson.

We have been making the wrong decisions for decades, and now the consequences of those decisions are starting to catch up with us.  The clock is ticking, but most Americans are still completely and utterly clueless about what is coming.

About the author: Michael Snyder is a nationally-syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is the author of four books including Get Prepared Now, The Beginning Of The Endand Living A Life That Really Matters.  His articles are originally published on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News.  From there, his articles are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the nation.  If you would like to republish his articles, please feel free to do so.  The more people that see this information the better, and we need to wake more people up while there is still time.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/climate-collapse-wind-chill-temperatures-will-hit-60-in-the-midwest-this-week-as-global-weather-patterns-shift

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

30-01-2019 om 12:59 geschreven door peter  

30-01-2019 om 12:25 geschreven door peter  

Not only is it clear that the next war will be fought in space, but it looks like we’re inching ever closer to it breaking out any day now. Many of my favorite topics to cover here at MU (space weaponry, mystery booms, unidentified aircraft) all seem to be making the headlines with increasing frequency, suggesting a new space race is underway – one that will end with the fiery wrecks of satellites and space stations crashing to the ground and one of the world’s superpowers becoming the new undisputed king of space. Who will come out on top?

“GET SOME, SPACE COMMIES!”

Certainly not the average schmoes like you and me. Whether or not we’re actually standing on the precipice of a shooting war in space is still up in the air, but one thing is certain: the U.S. Air Force is hard at work preparing for it. Since 2010, the Air Force has been testing its secretive X-37B space plane in orbit above the Earth, and nobody really knows what it’s been doing up there. Well, someone knows, but not us average schmoes. Schmoes never know the good stuff.

The X-37B has once again reached another milestone this week, surpassing 500 days in continuous flight above the Earth. The X-37B is operated by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and controlled by the 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. Despite the numerous milestones and records the super-secret spacecraft has chalked up, Air Force officials are still tight-lipped about its true purpose. Interestingly enough, the craft was also caught on camera yesterday; it’s quite a spooky sight as it zooms quickly by stars in the background. What’s the X-37B doing up there?

The X-37B is essentially hiding in plain sight.

When the craft was first put into orbit in 2010, officials with the USAF assured everyone the X-37B has no offensive capabilities and was there to support “technology risk reduction, experimentation and operational concept development.” It’s long been suspected that the craft has something to do with surveillance, tracking spy satellites, or is even a type of reusable spy “satellite” itself, one which can land and be serviced when needed. Could it be that whatever the craft is spying on or doing up there is so sensitive that the Air Force can’t risk transmitting data back to Earth at all, hence why it must land every once in a while?

Who knows. Everything is pure speculation at this point. It’s also unknown when the X-37B might come back down to Earth. Will we ever know what this secretive craft is up to?

Anyway, happy 500th day, supersecret scary spaceplane. Please don’t blow us all up.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-01-2019 om 12:07 geschreven door peter  

Airplane passenger captures an alien craft "Fast Mover" under the water

Interesting footage of a USO also called a “Fast Mover” at high velocity under the water filmed from an airliner en route to LAX.

A plane passenger has filmed a USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) at the moment the commercial plane flew above the Sea of Japan and even the plane is flying at a cruising speed of almost 1,000 km per hour the USO goes even faster.

Some people will say that the long dark trail/object underwater is just a shadow of the plane but if we compare the shadow of a plane on water with the USO then we see that is completely different.

What we are seeing is the USO with a long trail of water displacement behind it, indicating that the USO is moving through the water at high speed.

The plane passenger is not the only person who has witnessed such an underwater alien craft also Marc D’Antonio, an astronomer and chief video analyst for UFO organisation MUFON witnessed what he believes must have been an alien craft travelling at impossible speeds under the water while he was on board a US Navy submarine in the North Atlantic ocean.

According to Marc D’Antonio the US Navy is running a top secret programme to detect unidentified submerged objects “fast movers” beneath the sea.

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

30-01-2019 om 11:49 geschreven door peter  

White UFO Shoots Past Drone At 300 meters per second over Spain, Jan 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 2019
Location of sighting: La Rioja, Spain
News source: 

• https://nuevecuatrouno.com/2019/01/29/video-avistamiento-ovni-rioja/
  
  

This UFO was recorded by a drone in Spain last week. The UFO was sitting on the mountain side and noticed the flying drone...so it immediately did a flyby to investigate it. The object moved incredibly fast, so fast it appears to be a tube, when actually its an oval disk. In the close up you can see that its actually caught four times in the photo...thats how fast this is moving. Those four time are stretched out touching each other so that it appears to be long, when its not. UFOs are often atrracted to aircraft and this one was no exception. Yes UFOs can be small like this one. Aliens have drones, because not all species of aliens can walk among us without being noticed, and many breath different gases. 
Scott C. Waring

News states (translated from Spanish: 

According to his conclusions, the object captured by the camera of the drone is "cylindrical shape, with a length of about 2 meters". "It comes out of a brush and travels about 600 meters in a time of about two seconds, which would be about 1,080 kilometers per hour," something that "completely discards the explanation of an insect or any animal." "We may talk about a vehicle about two meters long that I doubt very much that it is human technology and that it goes out to see what is approaching," he concludes. Do you believe it? Do not? The truth is out there.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

30-01-2019 om 11:38 geschreven door peter  

Giant Glowing UFO Over Homes In Colombia Frighten Residents, Jan 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 2019

Location of sighting: Velez Santander, Colombia, South America

 

Check out this video of a huge glowing white ball behind a cloud. The object is big and right above a neighborhood thats staring in awe at the UFO above them. The craft his hiding 75% inside of a cloud that it made, but part of it is exposed, probably so that the aliens on board can see out their windows first hand. Staring at a computer screen would seem less personal and so really, who could blame them? I placed the screenshot in negative format below and the UFO turns dark black...and really stands out. 

Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

30-01-2019 om 11:32 geschreven door peter  

Here's Why Auroras on Earth Are Different in the North and South

It all comes down to Earth's magnetic tail, which is created by interactions between our planet and the sun. Those interactions begin with Earth's magnetic field, which scientists believe springs from the innards swirlingthrough Earth's core and creating an electrical charge. Magnetic fields — from refrigerators to planets — create invisible magnetic field lines arcing between the North and South Poles that can govern the behavior of material around them.

But Earth's magnetic field isn't the only one out there — the sun also has one, which affects the constant flow of highly charged plasma particles that streams out in every direction. The magnetic field embedded in that stream, called the solar wind, interferes with the one Earth produces, squishing it on the daylit side of Earth facing the sun and stretching it on the nightside facing away from the sun into a tail-like shape.

Magnetic field lines carry through the contorted field, and they aren't fixed in place — they break and reform in dramatic events called reconnections. This phenomenon in the tail is what scientists had thought caused nonmatching northern and southern auroras. (It's the tail that matters for the aurora because that's the side of the magnetic field that's in darkness, and auroras are only visible at night.)

Instead, the team behind the current research realized that the solar wind's magnetic field doesn't always line up precisely with Earth's. When it's skewed, it introduces asymmetry between the North and South Poles into Earth's magnetic field — and that, in turn, causes the mismatch between northern and southern auroras.

Auroras from Space Station

Credit: Tim Kopra/NASA via Twitter (@astro_tim)

NASA astronaut Tim Kopra captured this stunning view of auroras over Earth as seen from his window on the International Space Station on May 4, 2016.

Aurora and the Pacific Northwest

Credit: ESA/NASA

Colorful aural lights dance exquisitely across the Pacific Northwest in this amazing photo from the International Space Station captured in early 2016.

Unusual Aurora Over Canada

Credit: Jeff Williams (via Twitter as @AstroJeff)

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, aboard the International Space Station, tweeted a photo of an aurora over Canada on April 5, 2016.

Aurora Corona and the Moon Over Sweden

Credit: Mia Stålnacke

Astrophotographer Mia Stålnacke sent in a photo of an auroral display alongside the moon on Jan. 23, 2016, taken in Sweden

Tim Peake Tweets Aurora Australis

Credit: ESA/NASA

Tim Peake tweeted an image of the Aurora Australis taken from his vantage point on the International Space Station, April 17, 2016.

So, the researchers gathered simultaneous far-infrared observations of northern and southern lights and tracked how closely the two auroras matched. Then, they added in data about reconnections in Earth's magnetic tail. But when they compared the two sets of measurements, they saw exactly the opposite of what they had expected to see — instead of these dramatic reconnections increasing the asymmetry of auroras, they nudged the auroras back into matching.

Understanding the auroras themselves isn't vital, as auroras are just symptoms of how the sun affects the Earth through a set of phenomena called space weather. But space weather can interfere with navigation and communication satellites and even put power grids out of commission. And scientists are still trying to figure out precisely how space weather works and how they can better predict it. Auroras are just the prettiest phenomenon to start cracking.

The research is described in a paper published last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.

• Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels.
• Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook.
• Original article on Space.com
  

{ https://www.space.com/ }

30-01-2019 om 01:23 geschreven door peter  

NASA Probe Snaps 1st Photos from Just a Mile Above Asteroid Bennu and the View's AMAZING!

30-01-2019 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

Some scientists are pushing for NASA to make looking for alien technology an official goal

BY LISA GROSSMAN 

WE’RE LISTENING  A radio telescope in Green Bank, W.Va., was the first to listen for signals from intelligent aliens in 1960. Now scientists are using another instrument, the Green Bank Telescope (shown), to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

JOHN M. CHASE/SHUTTERSTOCK

Long an underfunded, fringe field of science, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence may be ready to go mainstream.

Astronomer Jason Wright is determined to see that happen. At a meeting in Seattle of the American Astronomical Society in January, Wright convened “a little ragtag group in a tiny room” to plot a course for putting the scientific field, known as SETI, on NASA’s agenda.

The group is writing a series of papers arguing that scientists should be searching the universe for “technosignatures” — any sign of alien technology, from radio signals to waste heat. The hope is that those papers will go into a report to Congress at the end of 2020 detailing the astronomical community’s priorities. That report, Astro 2020: Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics, will determine which telescopes fly and which studies receive federal funding through the next decade.

“The stakes are high,” says Wright, of Penn State University. “If the decadal survey says, ‘SETI is a national science priority, and NSF and NASA need to fund it,’ they will do it.”

SETI searches date back to 1960, when astronomer Frank Drake used a radio telescope in Green Bank, W.Va., to listen for signals from an intelligent civilization (SN Online: 11/1/09). But NASA didn’t start a formal SETI program until 1992, only to see it canceled within a year by a skeptical Congress.

Private organizations picked up the baton, including the SETI Institute, founded in Mountain View, Calif., in 1985 by astronomer Jill Tarter — the inspiration for Jodie Foster’s character in the movie Contact (SN Online: 5/29/12). Then in 2015, Russian billionaires Yuri and Julia Milner launched the Breakthrough Initiatives to join the hunt for E.T. But the search for technosignatures still hasn’t become a more serious, self-sustaining scientific discipline, Wright says.

“If NASA were to declare technosignatures a scientific priority, then we would be able to apply for money to work on it. We would be able to train students to do it,” Wright says. “Then we could catch up” to more mature fields of astronomy, he says.

Wright himself is a relative newcomer to SETI, entering the field in 2014 with a study on searching for heat from alien technology. He was also one of a group to suggest that the oddly flickering “Tabby’s star” could be surrounded by an alien megastructure — and then to debunk that idea with more data (SN: 9/30/17, p. 11).

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

30-01-2019 om 00:41 geschreven door peter  

This shift both prevented the protective magnetic field from collapsing and recharged it

BY  CAROLYN GRAMLING 

 

SOLAR SHIELD  Earth’s magnetic field (illustrated) is powered by circulation of iron-rich fluid in the core. New research suggests Earth’s solid inner core formed about 565 million years ago, saving a weakening magnetic field from collapse.

MARC WARD/SHUTTERSTOCK

Earth’s inner core solidified around 565 million years ago — just in time to not only save the planet’s protective magnetic field from imminent collapse, but also to kick-start it into its current, powerful phase, a new study suggests.

The finding, reported online January 28 in Nature Geoscience, supports an idea previously proposed by simulations that Earth’s inner core is relatively young. It also provides insight into how, and how quickly, Earth has been losing heat since its formation 4.54 billion years ago —key to understanding not only the generation of the planet’s magnetic shield but also convection within the mantle and plate tectonics.

“We don’t have many real benchmarks for the thermal history of our planet,” says Peter Olson, a geophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the new study. “We know the interior was hotter than today, because all planets lose heat. But we don’t know what the average temperature was a billion years ago, compared with today.” Pinning down when iron in the inner core began to crystallize could offer a window into how hot the interior of the planet was at the time, Olson says.

The planet’s iron-nickel core is made up of two layers: a solid inner core and a molten outer core. When that solid inner core formed is a long-standing mystery (SN: 9/19/15, p. 18). “Proposed ages have been anywhere from 500 million years ago to older than 2.5 billion years,” says coauthor John Tarduno, a geophysicist at the University of Rochester in New York.

The interplay of the two layers drives the geodynamo, the circulation of iron-rich fluid that powers the magnetic field. That field, surrounding the planet, protects Earth from being battered by the solar wind, a constant flow of charged particles ejected by the sun. As the inner core cools and crystallizes, the composition of the remaining fluid changes; more buoyant liquid rises like a plume while the cooling crystals sink. That self-sustaining, density-driven circulation generates a strong magnetic field with two opposing poles, north and south, or polarity.

Traces of magnetism in ancient rocks suggest that Earth had a magnetic field as far back as 4.2 billion years ago. That earlier field was likely generated by heat within the planet driving circulation within the molten core. But over time, computer simulations suggest, the heat-driven circulation wouldn’t have been strong enough alone to continue to power a strong magnetic field. Instead, the field began to shut down, signaled in the rock record by weakening intensities and rapid polarity reversals over millions of years. And then, at some point, Earth’s inner core began to crystallize, jump-starting the geodynamo and generating a new, strong magnetic field.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

30-01-2019 om 00:27 geschreven door peter  

This shift both prevented the protective magnetic field from collapsing and recharged it

BY  CAROLYN GRAMLING 

 

SOLAR SHIELD  Earth’s magnetic field (illustrated) is powered by circulation of iron-rich fluid in the core. New research suggests Earth’s solid inner core formed about 565 million years ago, saving a weakening magnetic field from collapse.

MARC WARD/SHUTTERSTOCK

Earth’s inner core solidified around 565 million years ago — just in time to not only save the planet’s protective magnetic field from imminent collapse, but also to kick-start it into its current, powerful phase, a new study suggests.

The finding, reported online January 28 in Nature Geoscience, supports an idea previously proposed by simulations that Earth’s inner core is relatively young. It also provides insight into how, and how quickly, Earth has been losing heat since its formation 4.54 billion years ago —key to understanding not only the generation of the planet’s magnetic shield but also convection within the mantle and plate tectonics.

“We don’t have many real benchmarks for the thermal history of our planet,” says Peter Olson, a geophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the new study. “We know the interior was hotter than today, because all planets lose heat. But we don’t know what the average temperature was a billion years ago, compared with today.” Pinning down when iron in the inner core began to crystallize could offer a window into how hot the interior of the planet was at the time, Olson says.

The planet’s iron-nickel core is made up of two layers: a solid inner core and a molten outer core. When that solid inner core formed is a long-standing mystery (SN: 9/19/15, p. 18). “Proposed ages have been anywhere from 500 million years ago to older than 2.5 billion years,” says coauthor John Tarduno, a geophysicist at the University of Rochester in New York.

The interplay of the two layers drives the geodynamo, the circulation of iron-rich fluid that powers the magnetic field. That field, surrounding the planet, protects Earth from being battered by the solar wind, a constant flow of charged particles ejected by the sun. As the inner core cools and crystallizes, the composition of the remaining fluid changes; more buoyant liquid rises like a plume while the cooling crystals sink. That self-sustaining, density-driven circulation generates a strong magnetic field with two opposing poles, north and south, or polarity.

Traces of magnetism in ancient rocks suggest that Earth had a magnetic field as far back as 4.2 billion years ago. That earlier field was likely generated by heat within the planet driving circulation within the molten core. But over time, computer simulations suggest, the heat-driven circulation wouldn’t have been strong enough alone to continue to power a strong magnetic field. Instead, the field began to shut down, signaled in the rock record by weakening intensities and rapid polarity reversals over millions of years. And then, at some point, Earth’s inner core began to crystallize, jump-starting the geodynamo and generating a new, strong magnetic field.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

30-01-2019 om 00:27 geschreven door peter  

Why the Easter Island statues were built where they were

BY MIHAI ANDREI 

A new study suggests that the mysterious moai statues on Easter Island were placed to mark sources of fresh water.

Image in public domain.

A Polynesian population called the Rapa Nui arrived on Easter Island in 1200 AD. Despite the unpredictable weather and nutrient-poor soil, they established a thriving and industrious culture, leaving behind many impressive artifacts. Most famous among these artifacts are the giant moai: giant basaltic statues scattered across the island.

Although they are still shrouded in mystery, several explanations have been proposed. The most straightforward one is that the moai represent the inhabitants’ gods or ancestors, watching over them. But a new study has a new idea: the statues are marking valuable sources of freshwater.

As if Easter Island wasn’t inhospitable enough, there’s another problem: freshwater. Easter Island is a volcanic high island, consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced volcanoes. While there are freshwater lakes inside the volcano craters, there are no streams or other sources of surface freshwater. This must have been quite a worry for the Rapa Nui people, and the megaliths may have been built in to indicate freshwater, researchers suggest. The relationship isn’t straightforward, however: it’s not that all moai are indicators of freshwater, but everywhere there is some subsurface water source, there’s always moai nearby.

“Our results suggest that ahu locations are most parsimoniously explained by distance from freshwater sources, in particular coastal seeps, with important implications for community formation and inter-community competition in precontact times,” researchers write.

The team analyzed the connection between the moai (and the platforms they were placed on, called ahu) and rock mulch agricultural gardens, marine resources, and freshwater sources — the three most important resources for the Rapa Nui civilization. They didn’t find any connection to the first two, but the third one provided a good fit. The fresh water would pass through the ground into aquifers, seeping into caves as well as emerging around the coast. Controlling these places would have been quite valuable to the natives.

This may mean that, at least in part, the statues were built to indicate territorial domination over a sparse resource.

“What is important about it is that it demonstrates the statue locations themselves are not a weird ritual place — represent ritual in a sense of there is symbolic meaning to them, but they are integrated into the lives of the community,” said Prof Carl Lipo from Binghamton University in New York, who was co-author of the research.

However, not everyone is convinced by this theory. Jo Anne Val Tilburg, an Easter Island expert from the University of California, Los Angeles believes that these freshwater seeps would have been minor resources, so it is highly unlikely that the moai were built in relation to them.

Whatever the case may be, the enigma of the moai and their creators will undoubtedly continue to puzzle us and stir debates for many years to come

The study has been published in PLoS.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

30-01-2019 om 00:15 geschreven door peter  

The Mysterious Genius Who Patented the UFO

Alexander Weygers, a Renaissance man in the mold of the tech industry’s stated ideal, inspired an art dealer to become an acolyte.

Alexander Weygers made numerous detailed drawings of an aircraft called the “Discopter”, a vertical liftoff aircraft that looked very much like what was to be later termed “flying saucer” and other drawings of an American cities specifically flying saucers in San Francisco and as well as a port in Chicago.

He sent these detailed plans to all the branches of the U.S. Military and was eventually told that they were intrigued by the concept and the design of the craft but were not prepared at that time because the war effort superseded its development.

However he did indeed patent the design for the “Discopter” in January 1944 with the U.S. Patent Office and it served as the prototype for other similar aircraft that have been developed up to the present day.

Ashlee Vance visits the dealer whose curiosity about Weygers has evolved into an obsession.

https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

29-01-2019 om 23:56 geschreven door peter  

A mysterious and unexplained security breach at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) turned deadly this week, highlighting the serious nature of the Air Force’s secretive desert research facilities which include Area 51. According to a press release issued yesterday, at 5:18 pm local time on January 28, an unidentified male sped through a security checkpoint at the entrance to the site. Both the Nye County Sheriff’s Office and the NNSS Security Protective Force Officers pursued the man in what became a high-speed chase which lasted eight miles.

Eventually, the man came to a stop and exited his vehicle. That’s when things got weird – and dangerous. According to the NNSS, the man got out of his car and began approaching security officials carrying an unknown “cylindrical object.” The man did not respond to officers’ verbal commands to stop, forcing security personnel to open fire. The man was pronounced dead at the scene; no officers were harmed.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal says the FBI is investigating the incident. The Nevada National Security Site, formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, is home to the U.S. military’s underground nuclear testing program, weapons development programs, and many nuclear research projects. The infamous Area 51 is a remote detachment of the NSS found just an hour to the east of the main site.

I’m sure you’re wondering the the same thing I am: what exactly was the “cylindrical object” the man was holding when he got out of his car? What would someone want to smuggle into the secretive research facility? The vague way the object has been described in both the press statement and news reports is rather curious. Was this an attempt at sabotage? A foreign intelligence operation gone wrong? Or did the man take a wrong turn fleeing Area 51 with some type of exotic alien material?

While it’s much more probable the object was an empty can of Icehouse or a flashlight, the lack of details released to the public so far leaves the imagination free to wander. Even if this happens to be a case of bad decision making due to mental illness or intoxication, it highlights the deadly seriousness of the many “No Trespassing” signs surrounding Area 51 and other secretive research sites in America’s deserts. No grainy cellphone photo of alleged alien technology or an experimental black triangular drone is worth risking your life.

But seriously: what was the mysterious “cylindrical object” the man was carrying? Why was he trying to get into such a heavily guarded facility? Does this have anything to do with the other Area 51-related revelation this week about secret ‘motherships’ possibly being tested at the site?

Stay tuned.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-01-2019 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

UFO LANDT IN ENGELSE ACHTERTUIN ( VIDEO )

Het klinkt natuurlijk als iets dat echt niet kan, maar toch is dit wat er gebeurde in de tuin van een huis in het Engelse Doncaster. 

Een gebeurtenis die veel lijkt op wat een bange Amerikaanse dame enkele dagen eerder filmde in de staat West Virginia.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

29-01-2019 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

UFO LANDT IN ENGELSE ACHTERTUIN ( VIDEO )

Het klinkt natuurlijk als iets dat echt niet kan, maar toch is dit wat er gebeurde in de tuin van een huis in het Engelse Doncaster. 

Een gebeurtenis die veel lijkt op wat een bange Amerikaanse dame enkele dagen eerder filmde in de staat West Virginia.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

29-01-2019 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Unlike U.S. political party members, Chupacabra fans seem to break down into three groups: those who believe in the traditional Puerto Rican, upright, lizardish kind of bloodsucker; those who believe in the hairless coyote-like Texas kind; and those who put the moniker on any unidentifiable dead creature with fangs in any country. (Actually, U.S. political party members break down too, but it’s a breakdown of the other kind.) A mysterious creature discovered and photographed by a boy in Colombia seems to fall into the third category … but maybe not.

“I arrived and I looked out and then there was something all weird like a dog, so I came and told her aunt see that, and my aunt handed me the cell phone to take pictures.”

Thus begins the strange tale of Joan Sebastian Arboleda Lombana, a boy living in La Sierra, a village in the Magdalena River valley region of the mountainous Department of Antioquia in central northwestern Colombia. The rough googly translation comes from Noticias Caracol TV (see the video report here), which sent a reporter to interview Joan, his aunt and La Sierra locals who were said to be “dismayed” at the appearance of the corpse of such a strange creature. The pictures (way to go, Joan!) support the boy’s description that the beast looked like a cross between an opossum and a bush dog. While opossums are common in the area, bush dogs (Speothos venaticus) – a remote relative of the South American maned wolf and the African wild dog – are an extremely rare canid found mostly in Suriname, Guyana and Peru. Is the bush dog making a comeback in La Sierra?

Bush dog at the Prague Zoo (Wikipedia)

“We came to see and we found an animal that was more or less, 70 centimeters long, had a face or a fox head, and hands that were like a kind of gorilla, like a miquito, then it has us. This strange species is quite impacted.”

La Sierra resident Martin Prada, one of many locals concerned about the mysterious creature, thought (again, a rough Google translation) it looked more like a gorilla or a monkey (miquito). At 70 cm (27.5 inches) in length, gorilla seems unlikely. Why did some residents, as reported by HDB Noticias, think it was a Chupacabra?

“According to versions of some locals, the creepy creature had been hanging around the homes in the area for several days; especially at night … Several barnyard animals disappeared from the homes of this hot Magdalena Medio population, as a victim of this four-legged ‘monster’ and an unpleasant aspect.”

Ah-ha! What other creature sneaks around at night and pilfers pets and barnyard animals? OK, a lot of them do, but this corpse didn’t look like any of the more common ones. It’s also 50% larger than the largest opossums. That was enough to call in Corantioquia, the environmental protection organization that is part of integrated urban water management in Medellín, the largest city in Antioquia. Adriana Molina, deputy director of ecosystems of Corantioquia, looked at the creature and had this to say:

“The corporation has already begun the verification process for the identity of this individual, the invitation is for the entire community to report any anomalous or conflictive situation that may occur with wildlife and to maintain calm in these situations.”

Yep – they took away the corpse and are verifying its identity. Preliminary observations suggest the creature was suffering from advanced dermatitis – a skin condition related to poor diet, bacteria and fungi. That, in addition to the decay, make it look more like the Texas mangy coyote version of the alleged Chupacabra.

Possum or opossum — depending on your political persuasion.

If it’s anything other than an opossum, will they tell the public? It would be nice in a way if it were a bush dog, since that species was just placed on the Near Threatened Species list and this might be a sign it’s surviving and spreading its habitat.

The best part of this story is that Joan got some pictures before the authorities took the creature away. Keep those phones handy and shutter fingers ready and steady — that thing you spot in your garden could be a Chupacabra!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-01-2019 om 18:07 geschreven door peter