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
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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...
06-04-2019
What Are UFOs? Terrestrial, Extraterrestrial & Metaterrestral Theories…
What Are UFOs? Terrestrial, Extraterrestrial & Metaterrestrial Theories…
If there’s one thing we learn from studying UFOs, there is no simple answer to what it’s all about. Most of the public – and even many Ufologists – tend to lump together all UFO incidents into a single phenomenon. But the evidence indicates there is no single explanation for all the material categorised under “UFO experience.”
According to author and researcher John White, we are actually looking at a multilevelled phenomenon – terrestrial, extraterrestrial and metaterrestrial – and each is qualitatively different from the others. Each has its own unique forms of UFOs, and each form has to be distinguished from the others of that level.
John White has extensive experience in the fields of consciousness research and paranormal phenomena. He has personally investigated the UFO phenomenon.
John holds degrees from Dartmouth and Yale, and is the author of 15 books. He has lectured at educational institutions and spiritual centres throughout the United States and Canada, and before public and professional organisations.
He is a contributor to a newly compiled collection of the knowledge and insight of the world’s leading experts on modern Ufology. Exposed, Uncovered, and Declassified: UFOs & Aliens reveals startling evidence of famous sightings and contact with aliens, and uncovers classified files from archives.
In the following interview with New Dawn magazine, John White defines ‘UFO’ and outlines three different levels of understanding this mysterious phenomenon that has both a physical and metaphysical dimension.
NEW DAWN (ND): What is the definition of UFO?
JOHN WHITE (JW): I use the one developed by the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, which is an international group of lay people and scientists who’ve been investigating the subject for decades. MUFON says UFOs are objects observed in the skies or on the surface of the Earth which defy conventional explanation after a thorough study and investigation by competent people.
Now, lots of sightings have been shown to be due to misperception of more familiar things such as balloons, planets, meteors, satellites, stars, advertising aircraft, falling aerospace debris, and so forth. These are IFOs or identified flying objects. The sightings which are yet to be explained are what MUFON calls daylight discs – objects with unusual lights which are simultaneously tracked visually and on radar at fantastic speeds. Also, some sightings involve objects which leave physical evidence after landing. Still other sightings involve authenticated photographs. And of course there are cases involving visitations or close encounters by humanoids or entities.
The UFO phenomenon is multilevelled and can’t be explained in a unified fashion. Little green men in spaceships with Martian license plates may be part of the puzzle, but that is only one piece of it. There is much more.
ND: Such as?
JW: In my judgment, the evidence of Ufology falls into three major categories, and so I say there are three “answers” to the UFO problem – three qualitatively different answers. Those answers – all genuine, all real – relate to what can be called different levels of reality or different aspects of our existence.
To put it simply, the levels or aspects are: terrestrial, extraterrestrial and metaterrestrial. Metaterrestrial is a term coined by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the US astronomer-ufologist. He meant it to denote an unseen world beyond the familiar three-dimensional world we know. (He also coined the term “close encounters of the first, second and third kind.”) This three-part explanation for the UFO problem is the overview I hold. We don’t have time to go into the evidence in detail, so I’ll just sketch it in very broad strokes in order to give an outline of the overview I’ve come to hold of the UFO phenomenon.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL
I’ll start with the most common idea of what UFOs are, namely, extraterrestrial. It’s most common simply because it’s been around longest and has gradually gained widespread acceptance.
ND: The question is whether there’s any truth to it.
JW: I think there is. In fact, judging from the Humanoid Catalog data base of more than 3,000 modern UFO sightings in which a wide variety of humanoids were present, I regard Earth as one of the major crossroads of local space. Some UFO experiences seem best understood exactly as the public does – namely, as constructed physical vehicles occupied by ETs. The case for the existence of ETs somewhere in the universe has been solidly established over the last five decades by astrobiology, quite apart from the data of Ufology. Astrobiologists are pushing SETI, or the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, by using radio telescopes to listen for signals from space. And although the scientific community, by and large, does not accept Ufology as a colleague discipline, that rejection really is illogical and unscientific. But even that is changing as astronomy discovers planets revolving around other stars than the Sun – and the list of planets is now more than 1,200.
ND: What is the evidence astrobiologists should consider?
JW: There’s the world-famous case of Barney and Betty Hill, which was reported in a 1965 book entitled The Interrupted Journey. For me, the most persuasive aspect of the case is the Hill Star Map.
ND: Tell our readers about it.
JW: While driving on a deserted road near Exeter, New Hampshire in 1961, the Hills were reportedly abducted by small, thin, gray beings with large heads who took the couple aboard a UFO. Betty was shown a hologram-like map of space with the route indicated which the beings followed from their home star to Earth. She saw the route which the aliens followed and she saw it in full 3-D, as if she were looking out a porthole into space.
In 1964, Betty and Barney underwent hypnotic therapy for symptoms which, they discovered, arose from their abduction experience. At the suggestion of their therapist, Boston psychiatrist Benjamin Simon, Betty drew a picture of the three-dimensional map she’d seen on board the craft in 1961. Her map was a flat reconstruction on paper which showed our Sun and other stars from the perspective of the aliens’ home star. When it was published in The Interrupted Journey, an Ohio school teacher named Marjorie Fish saw the picture and got the idea to use an astronomical catalogue of stars to help her build a model of space by stringing beads on a wooden framework. The beads represented stars up to 40 light-years away, accurately placed around the centre, representing Earth, in accordance with the astronomical catalogue data. It took Fish three years, working off and on, to finish her model. When she was done, she looked at it from every angle in an attempt to find the pattern of stars which matched Betty Hill’s map. But she couldn’t find a matching pattern. All her attempts at the time failed.
Then, in 1969, a new catalogue with revised astronomical data made it possible for Fish to construct a more accurate model of nearby space. It took another three years, but when she was done, she found a pattern of beads which matched the pattern in the Hill Star Map almost perfectly. The home base of the aliens appeared to be the star Zeta Reticuli, in the constellation Reticulum, about 37 light-years from Earth. Astronomers and Ufologists debated the matter and it is now settled in favour of Fish rather than being just a random matching of stars.
Now, here’s the reason this is persuasive. The Hill Star Map was drawn in 1964 yet it contained information unknown to anyone on Earth at the time. Fish had to wait until the revised astronomical catalogue was published in 1969, before human knowledge was sufficient for her to construct an accurate representation of local space. So how did Betty Hill get her knowledge of stars in space eight years before the catalogue? Logic tells us that the holographic map she claimed to see aboard a UFO was real and thus the information on which Betty Hill based her map strongly suggests that it was of extraterrestrial origin.
TERRESTRIAL
ND: What about the second category of UFOs you mention – the terrestrial?
JW: It would be nice if all UFO cases proved to be extraterrestrial in nature, but some are best understood as originating from Earth itself. In other words, these are terrestrial.
Some UFO sightings have taken place at sea and on large bodies of water, and involve craft which observers say burst through the surface of the water and take off into the sky. The late American biologist Ivan Sanderson wrote about this in his book Invisible Residents, which gives the best description of this aspect of the UFO phenomenon. Sanderson felt these sightings might be due to the presence of an undersea civilisation native to Earth. He reasoned that since life began in the sea, when some organisms came ashore it slowed their development while sea-living organisms continued to evolve. Look at cetaceans, Sanderson said. Although porpoises, dolphins and whales are not technological, they are highly intelligent. We humans are able to weld metal under water and we can mix concrete which sets under water. So today there may be advanced forms of sea life more intelligent than humans and capable of UFO technology, living invisibly on Earth under the oceans and other large aquatic bodies. Of course, it may also be that ETs have established undersea bases.
ND: What else is in the terrestrial category?
JW: Some UFO experiences seem best understood as human contact with a lower form of animal life native to Earth’s atmosphere. The discovery of these strange aerial creatures is told in Trevor James Constable’s 1976 book The Cosmic Pulse of Life. He simply calls them “critters.” His text and photographs reveal a class of elemental fauna unknown to official science. These amoeba-like aeroforms are neither solid, liquid nor gas. The exist in the fourth state of matter – plasma – and are normally invisible for several reasons. First, their native habitat is high in the atmosphere far beyond human gaze but nevertheless well below the astronomers’ usual telescopic focus. Second, they are bioenergetically propelled and move at a very high speed – thousands of miles per hour. Last, their usual condition is in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, they have the capacity to change their density and thereby pass from one level of tangibility to another. Thus, they sometimes do appear in the visible portion of the spectrum where, if seen by humans, they are quickly labelled UFOs – which, of course, they are. But they are not mechanical spacecraft; they are living creatures. They grow anywhere from the size of a coin to at least half a mile in diameter. They give a solid radar return, even though invisible to the naked eye. When they’re visible, they pulsate with a reddish-orange glow. They can change their form, but generally are seen as discs or spheroids. Their diaphanous structure allows a limited view of the interior. When Ivan Sanderson saw Constable’s photos, he said they made him feel like he was looking through a fishbowl. Some critters have been seen close up on the ground in full physical density, according to Constable’s research.
ND: Do you have other evidence for terrestrial UFOs?
JW: Still another plausible terrestrial explanation for some UFO sightings is given in the term “earth lights.” It was coined by the English researcher Paul Devereux in his 1982 book Earth Lights and amplified in his 1989 book Earth Lights Revelations. The books present evidence to show that geophysical activity in crystalline rock structures, especially along fault lines, produces a piezoelectric effect. That subsurface pressure generates electromagnetic fields above the fault lines, and in those fields, hot electrified balls of gas are formed – ionized plasmas. Those ionized plasmas are luminous atmospheric phenomena, and that is what Devereux calls earth lights.
Now, aerial luminosities have been noted throughout history around the world, but their origin has been attributed to supernatural causes and labelled as “will-o’-the-wisp,” ignis fatuus, ghost lights, and so forth. Dr. Michael Persinger, a psychologist at Laurentian University in Canada, and Gyslaine Lafrenière, a research scientist there, demonstrated in their 1977 book entitled Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events that such phenomena may have a terrestrial origin and be capable of inducing many effects in the minds of human observers, depending on their distance from the site, such as have been noted in UFO sightings and even abductions. Devereux and his colleagues’ research, independent of Persinger and Lafrenière’s, has enlarged upon the possibility that tectonically generated earth lights may account for some UFO sightings and mysterious ghostly figures.
This line of research is collectively known as the tectonic strain theory. Geophysicists have investigated this phenomenon for a long time because of reports during earthquake activity that the shaking earth was accompanied by aerial lights. The lights weren’t called UFOs, of course – just strange luminosities which sometimes appeared in association with earthquakes. In the mid-1980s, the US Geological Survey, in its journal Earthquakes and Volcanoes, published the first photo of one ever. It was snapped by someone with enough presence of mind to shoot it during an earthquake here in the US. A vaguely defined ball of light about six feet wide is clearly visible in the air.
So there you have several terrestrial-based phenomena which seem to me to explain some UFO sightings and, except for the possibility of undersea ET bases, they have absolutely nothing to do with craft from outer space. But the list of terrestrial-based explanations needs to be enlarged by one – and a very strange one, indeed. It takes us right up to the border of physical nature and passes over into the metaphysical, or more precisely, into the parapsychological. I’ll call it the psychokinetic explanation.
ND: Psychokinetic? As in mind over matter?
JW: Yes. The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung is known for his contribution to psychology of the concept he termed “the collective unconscious.” He hypothesised that we human beings have not only a personal unconscious, which Freud demonstrated, we also have a deeper layer of mind which is somehow shared by everyone, and this aspect of our minds includes memories of human experiences from the beginnings of our race. Ancient symbols reside in our minds, such as the Wise Old Man, the Hero and the Evil One, representing the collective experience of humanity in certain basic categories. In his book Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Sky, Jung proposed that UFOs are symbolic projections of deep human yearnings for wholeness and transformation in the collective psyche of humanity. Without denying their physical nature – because, of course, UFOs have been photographed and tracked on radar – Jung speculated that UFOs are either our own psychic projections perceived objectively in the sky or they are the appearance of real objects which afford humans an opportunity to project mythological symbols from deep in the collective psyche. The oldest symbol of wholeness or totality is the circle. So flying saucers, Jung said – those round shining objects in the sky – require a psychological interpretation as a symbol of the human yearning for certainty and completeness in an age of rapid change and uncertainty.
Some UFOs may be the creation of our own minds. Sounds wild, doesn’t it? But there is some research supporting that. In the 1970s, Dr. Gertrude Schmeidler, a parapsychologist at City College of New York, conducted research with the well-known psychic Ingo Swann. In a completely darkened laboratory, she photographed Swann as he used mental intention and his psychokinetic power of mind over matter to envision light streaming from his outstretched arms. Guess what? The photos showed a visible glow around Swann’s hands. So if one person’s mental intention can produce a physical effect such as that, what might the collective intention and unconscious psychic ability which everyone seems to have in some degree produce?
I don’t think that’s far-fetched. In fact, one psychic I know, Stella Lansing of Massachusetts, used to get photos of UFOs which no one else ever saw in the sky. They were beautiful 35 mm colour slides of well-formed, clearly visible, apparently metallic craft. The only problem with her photos was this: in at least one instance which I examined, the image of a UFO extended from one frame across the intervening section of film onto the succeeding frame! Now, as you know, that intervening section of film is not exposed to light from outside the camera. It’s mechanically impossible to do that. There’s absolutely no way those two frames could represent an actual object in space outside the camera. So the image had to have been generated directly inside the camera by Stella’s own psychokinetic power. This psychic phenomenon is called thoughtography, and psychiatrist Jules Eisenbud, who investigated the phenomenon in a man named Ted Serios, has established the case for such mind over matter photography.
This interaction between mind and matter, between the physical brain and the metaphysical mind, and taking place at a distance, points toward the last major category of UFO phenomena which I see as yet another piece of the puzzle.
METATERRESTRIAL
Metaterrestrial means something which originates outside the ordinary three-dimensional space-time framework in which we normally function. The word is synonymous with metaphysical, meaning “beyond the physical,” but it has a more scientific connotation to it, like hyperspace and quantum space do. Some people call that realm extradimensional, interdimensional, ultraterrestrial and supraphysical. Whatever word we use for it, this category of answer provides evidence that some UFO experiences are due to nonphysical but real entities which come not from other locations in our physical universe but from other sets of dimensions or other realms which interpenetrate our more familiar space-time.
In short, and as Dr. Jacques Vallée first pointed out in his 1968 book Passport to Magonia, many UFO incidents appear to be contemporary versions of what was recorded long ago in mythology, religious scripture and spiritual traditions as encounters with angels, demons and the various inhabitants of other planes of existence. Through a process we don’t understand, these metaterrestrial beings materialise into our space-time from other levels or other realms of reality. Those levels or realms have a wide range of beings which are native to them, just as our own level of reality has creatures ranging from viruses to whales and from algae to redwoods.
I think the best case to illustrate this is the famous miracle at Fatima, Portugal, which occurred in 1917. It’s popularly known in Roman Catholic tradition as “the day the Sun danced” and as “the day the Sun fell” because a brilliant Sun-like object came near the ground. Thousands of people witnessed it.
Some Ufologists regard the Fatima events as a display of advanced technology in which ETs are manipulating human belief systems via holographic projections. I acknowledge that possibility. But there is another tradition – namely, Eastern religion – which offers detailed information about a class of celestial beings whose characteristics are remarkably similar to what was seen at Fatima.
Moreover, some UFO contactees describe meetings with nonphysical entities who materialise into our space-time continuum from other sets of dimensions or higher planes of existence. Those nonphysical entities have been called names such as Space Brothers, extradimensionals and ultraterrestrials, and their existence is said to be on a scale enormously beyond the human, just as ours is beyond that of insects, which in turn are similarly beyond microbes. From the metaterrestrial level of reality, it is said, these higher forms of life influence and even guide human affairs.
The most common name for them is deva, a Sanskrit word which means “shining one” or “radiant being.” It is the conceptual equivalent of what we moderns call an angel. More generally, it means a being of light. Devas are said to belong to another kingdom of life. They are a separately created, very high order of existence which has the role of supervising lower orders. Devas exist in a nonphysical but ontologically real form magnitudes of cosmological order beyond the human level. Considered abstractly in scientifically oriented terms, devas can be described as conscious, formative principles which guide and regulate life forms below them in the ladder of creation or the great chain of being, irrespective of space-time coordinates.
Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism are especially rich in information about devas. Some signs which announce the presence of these normally unseen entities are the sudden appearance of rainbows and perfume, multicoloured flower blossoms falling from the air, sudden high winds, various celestial phenomena such as shooting stars and lights in the sky, and multicoloured clouds forming themselves into unusual shapes. That sounds a lot like the Fatima UFO to me.
ND: Please sum up what you’ve told our readers.
JW: The UFO phenomenon appears to be multifaceted and there is no neat, simple answer to what it’s all about. In my judgment, the public and even many Ufologists are indiscriminately lumping together UFO sightings and incidents into a single phenomenon. But the evidence indicates that no single explanation can cover all the experiences and events brought together under the label “UFO experience.” It is a multilevelled phenomenon. And each level – terrestrial, extraterrestrial and metaterrestrial – is qualitatively different from the others. Each has its own unique forms of UFOs, and each form has to be distinguished from the others of that level.
Our understanding of the UFO phenomenon can be compared to our evolving understanding of the atom. In ancient Greece, the atom was regarded as the ultimate unit of matter. However, the rise of science demonstrated that the atom was not “rock-bottom reality.” Rather it was composed of protons, electrons and neutrons. Thus, a new level of reality emerged – the subatomic. Continuing scientific research discovered a host of new particles, such as neutrinos, quarks, mesons, bosons, and other exotic forms of matter below that of the atom. Most recently, science has discovered a still more basic or fundamental aspect of reality, the quantum level. Our present understanding regards it as the level from which all the particles and the four fundamental forces – gravity, electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces – arise.
The UFO experience can be regarded in a somewhat similar manner. There is no single “unit” of the UFO experience. There are different phenomena, outwardly appearing to be the same thing, but actually qualitatively distinct from one another. And they can be classified not only in the horizontal dimension as discrete phenomena, they also can classified vertically as belonging to one or another level of reality.
Only when we understand the UFO phenomenon as multilevelled and multifaceted will we move to a deeper understanding of this intriguing and mysterious topic, and begin to solve the puzzle called the UFO experience.
Linda Moulton Howe, Jim Marrs: We Are Coming Close To Full UFO Disclosure
Linda Moulton Howe, Jim Marrs: We Are Coming Close To Full UFO Disclosure
Features indepth knowledge of whats really going on with ufo and aliens, with Linda Moulton Howe, Jim Marrs, Roger Leir, James Gililland, UFO Tvs Tim Crawford.
These experts, experts have experienced of paranormal or anomalous phenomena from all over the world.
Jim Marrs, born James Farrell Marrs Jr., was an American newspaper journalist and New York Times best-selling author of books and articles on a wide range of alleged cover-ups and conspiracies. Wikipedia
8 Feet Tall Creature filmed making its way up the mountainside of Lone Peak
8 Feet Tall Creature filmed making its way up the mountainside of Lone Peak
When Tanner Hargis on March 23, 2019 was in his backyard observing a nearby location known as Lone, he spotted a creature making its way up to the snowy mountainside.
Hargis was able to capture some of the scene on video and subsequently sent the footage to a research group known as the Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization.
According to Hargis, the creature was located a 8,600 feet above sea level, and by estimate, it appeared to be around eight feet tall and he could see the arms of the creature hanging by its side and they seemed to reach down to its knees.
By virtue of the location in which the oddity was spotted, it seems unlikely that it was a person hiking on the mountain, since the conditions at the time looked to be particularly perilous.
The Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization was on the scene 3 hours after the creature was filmed, scanning the the peaks and ridges trying to track down the elusive giant ,which is supposed to be a Bigfoot, recalling the history of Bigfoot sightings in this area of Utah.
The NASA archives are filled with photos of planets and moon with alien artefacts littering them. Most people dismiss that its impossible to find such things...so they never try. Those that try usually succeed within hours.
This long dark structure really stands out from its environment because of its color and shape. Its ends are curved like a Marine barracks might have. Its top center has several floors or layers on it. Its not small despite what you see. This area of Mars is called the Valles Marineris and is 300 km across and over 10 km deep in places. That means this structure is 5km across and 1km wide. Thats a huge structure!
If this structure is abandoned as I think it is, then it may be the perfect location for the first human city on Mars. The outer structure seems complete and the interior area needs investigating, but it gives humanity a bit of a head start on a base on Mars.
They say “seeing is believing” when examining evidence for Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). And the latest proof of an alien spaceship visiting Earth has landed this week, according to wild online reports. The eye-opening footage is said to show a rectangular-shaped UFO flying at high speeds over English skies.
Self-proclaimed UFO researcher Scott C. Waring uploaded the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it footage this week.
It is mind-blowing that something could fly that fast
UFO researcher Scott C. Waring
He said: “This UFO is seen in only three frames of this video, but it is mind-blowing that something could fly that fast.
“The UFO is a rectangle shape from the side, but a diamond shape from a tilted position.
“Also the fact that unusual tunnel clouds appear in the background make me believe this is a UFO and it may be responsible for making that cloud tunnel.
YouTube viewer Melissa Smidt appeared convinced, writing: “Clearly, not a plane or bird. Plus, it traverses the entire bridge ‘cloud’ in just 2 frames.”
And viewer UpNorthOfThe49th agrees, adding: “26 sec mark there in a few frames but at the 46 sec mark it is like it is in two places at once. You can catch two then one then two then one again like skipping.”
However, not all the viewers of the bizarre and grainy footage are completely certain about the video’s veracity.
YouTube viewer YouSaltyD0g commented: “Looks like a bug to me.”
Curiosity is entering what may be the best area to find life on Mars
Curiosity is entering what may be the best area to find life on Mars
By Leah Crane
NASA’s Curiosity rover is just beginning to explore what may be the best region on Mars for life to flourish now or in the past, according to an analysis of the kind of Martian clays it will study.
Patricia Craig at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona and her colleagues placed microbes in test tubes with clay minerals found on the Martian surface, and left them for 195 days to see whether they would survive.
The results were encouraging, says Craig: “We didn’t kill them!” In fact, the microbes continued to produce methane when fed on only Mars-like clays, indicating that they were drawing nutrients from the material. Methane gas has been repeatedly detected in the Martian atmosphere, and some researchers have suggested that microbes like these could be producing it.
However, the changes inside the test tubes were difficult to spot, with both X-ray and infrared examinations showing no differences in the clay. Only with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), which shines a beam of electrons on a sample and creates a picture from its reflection, could any changes be detected. The SEM showed differences in the spacing of the clay mineral layers, as well as imaging what seemed to be a living microbe.
Curiosity has just entered a region of Mars that is likely to have more clays than the rest of the surface, so these results may mean we are rolling into the best place to spot life there. Unfortunately, SEMs are too large to fit on a rover, so even if Curiosity sees signs of life it probably won’t be able to tell what they are.
The methane in Mars’s atmosphere could be produced by microbes or by geological processes like outgassing from ice deposits, and without an SEM it will be nearly impossible to tell its true origin, says Craig. He presented the results of the experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas on 18 March.
In 2013, Curiosity detected a burst of methane that some thought hinted at the possibility of life. A new analysis published today in Nature Geoscience has found that the orbiting Mars Express spacecraft also spotted the burst. The methane seemed to come from just east of Gale crater, which is where the rover is now. There may be shallow ice deposits in this region that could periodically release the gas, according to the study.
Curiosity ziet Marsmaantjes voor de zon langs bewegen
Curiosity ziet Marsmaantjes voor de zon langs bewegen
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Nieuwe beelden laten zien hoe Phobos en Deimos voor de zon langs bewegen.
Halverwege maart zag Curiosity hoe maantje Deimos voor de zon langs bewoog. Het maantje is slechts 2,3 kilometer groot en – zoals op de beelden hiernaast te zien is – niet in staat om de zon te verduisteren.
Anders is dat voor maantje Phobos dat Curiosity eind maart voor de maan langs zag bewegen. Deze maan is zo’n 11,5 kilometer groot en verduistert de zon deels (zie afbeelding hieronder). Volgens NASA – eigenaar van Marsrover Curiosity – zou deze overgang beschouwd kunnen worden als een ringvormige zonsverduistering.
Curiosity zag Phobos niet alleen voor de maan langs bewegen. Met behulp van één van zijn navigatiecamera’s legde de rover tevens de schaduw vast die Phobos tijdens de overgang op Mars wierp (zie beelden onderaan dit artikel).
Het is niet voor het eerst dat een Marsrover ziet hoe enkele maantjes van Mars voor de zon langs bewegen. De Marsrovers Spirit, Opportunity en Curiosity hebben samen al acht keer gezien hoe Deimos voor de zon langs beweegt. En Phobos heeft voor de ogen van deze rovers al zo’n 40 keer voor de zon gestaan. Toch zijn de nieuwe waarnemingen van Curiosity waardevol. Ze helpen onderzoekers om de baan van de maantjes nauwkeuriger in beeld te brengen.
Mars Express bevestigt: Gale-krater op Mars bevat methaan
Mars Express bevestigt: Gale-krater op Mars bevat methaan
Vivian Lammerse
Had marsrover Curiosity het toch bij het juiste eind!
Marsrover Curiosity wist het zeker: de Gale-krater op Mars zou methaan bevatten. Echter schaarden niet alle wetenschappers zich aan de kant van de marsrover en trokken sommigen de bevinding in twijfel. En dus werd er met grote afwachting gekeken naar de Mars Express, die al sinds 2003 de rode planeet nauwlettend in de gaten houdt. Deze ruimtesonde komt nu met groot nieuws. Want de Mars Express bevestigt onafhankelijk dat er inderdaad methaan nabij de krater te vinden is.
Methaan Methaan werd meer dan een decennium geleden ontdekt in de atmosfeer van Mars. Dit bracht een verhit debat los. Want zou dit misschien een teken van leven zijn op de rode planeet? Sommige wetenschappers dachten destijds dat het methaan misschien een biologische oorsprong had en afkomstig kon zijn vanuit de bodem van de rode planeet. Toch werd niemand het echt met elkaar eens en bleef het bij wat flauwe suggesties.
Fluctuaties Vervolgens ontdekte marsrover Curiosity in 2013 dat de hoeveelheid methaan in de atmosfeer van Mars fluctueert. De hoeveelheid methaan op Mars zou normaal gesproken zo rond de 0,7 ppbv (deeltjes per miljard in volume) liggen. Maar gedurende 60 Martiaanse dagen steeg dat naar het tienvoudige: 7 ppvb. De vraag is natuurlijk hoe dat gas precies ontstaat. Zou het misschien dan toch afkomstig kunnen zijn van biologische activiteit?
Het spannende verhaal gaat nu verder. De Mars Express heeft namelijk onafhankelijk van marsrover Curiosity in een nieuwe studie de aanwezigheid van methaan rond de Gale-krater bevestigd. En hiermee worden er weer nieuwe stappen gezet. Want zou dit toch kunnen betekenen dat er vanuit de diepte methaan naar boven wordt getransporteerd? Dat zou wellicht op leven kunnen duiden. Toekomstig onderzoek naar de oorsprong van methaan op Mars zou dat moeten uitwijzen.
NASA's record-breaking solar mission silently completed another close pass of the sun yesterday (April 4).
The maneuver, called a perihelion, resulted in a closest approach at 6:40 p.m. EDT (2240 GMT) yesterday, when theParker Solar Probe was about 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) above the surface of the sun. That's about the same distance as the spacecraft reached onNov. 5, 2018, during its first perihelion.
Both of the close grazes broke the previous record, set by the Helios 2 mission in 1976, for the closest a spacecraft has ever come to the sun. But the Parker probe will continue to break its own records during the mission, eventually skimming just 4 million miles (6 million km) above the star's surface.
A similar process is playing out with the probe's speed: At the peak of its first two perihelions, the spacecraft traveled at about 213,200 mph (343,000 km/h), also breaking records, but future close approaches will see the Parker Solar Probe moving still faster.
These close grazes are anxious times for scientists and engineers on the mission because the spacecraft is out of communication with Earth for several days before and after each perihelion. The radio silence is designed to let the spacecraft focus on keeping its instruments tucked safely behind the thick shieldthat protects them from the incredible heat of the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona.
After the spacecraft retreats from the sun again in its orbit, the data gathered during the maneuver is sent back to scientists eagerly awaiting the information. The researchers hope to use that data to better understand the corona, where temperatures reach millions of degrees in Fahrenheit and Celsius alike.
The corona is also the source of the solar wind, a constant flow of charged particles that stream off of the sun and across the solar system. Because the solar wind can interfere with communication and navigation satellites in orbit around Earth, scientists hope to use the Parker Solar Probe data to better understand how the solar wind works, at its source.
The spacecraft will conduct another perihelion on Sept. 1 and then use Venus' gravity to adjust its path. The orbital tweak will mean the probe's subsequent close approaches will come just a bit closer to the sun's surface. All told, the spacecraft will complete 24 perihelions over the course of its seven-year mission, inching ever closer to the sun and its secrets.
NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars got lucky last month and spotted not one but two eclipses — in less than two weeks, one for each of the Red Planet's moons.
The result is two stunning animations of the moons crossing the sun, as well as one showing the brief darkening that the rover itself experienced during the latter of these events.
During the first event, on March 17, Curiosity watched Mars' tiny moon Deimoscross the face of the sun. From the surface of Mars, Deimos is so small in comparison to the sun that this event doesn't technically qualify as an eclipse; it is officially be called a transit instead.
The second event, on March 26, was more dramatic, a proper eclipse of Mars' larger moon, Phobos. Phobos is about 7 miles (11.5 kilometers) wide, compared to Deimos at just 1.5 miles (2.3 km) across, and Phobos is also closer to Mars than Deimos. The combination of those two factors makes its eclipse much more dramatic than Deimos' transit.
Both sequences were captured by Curiosity's Mast Camera, which is armed with a solar filter that lets it stare directly at the sun. Curiosity and its predecessors, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, have observed a total of 40 eclipses by Phobos and eight transits by Deimos.
Each set of observations helps scientists further refine each moon's orbit of Mars — when the rovers first started watching for eclipses, scientists' estimates for where Deimos should be were about 25 miles (40 kilometers) off.
"More observations over time help pin down the details of each orbit," Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University in College Station, said in a statement. "Those orbits change all the time in response to the gravitational pull of Mars, Jupiter or even each Martian moon pulling on the other."
At the same time Mastcam was capturing its images of Phobos eclipsing the sun, another Curiosity instrument, its navigation cameras, watched the scene unfold on the Martian surface.
The eclipse came during twilight at the rover's perch near Mount Sharp, so the sun was below the horizon. Curiosity's cameras spotted the moon's shadow cast against the light streaming up.
While this sequence isn't as helpful as the solar disk sequences, it has a different type of appeal, Lemmon said. "Eclipses, sunrises and sunsets and weather phenomena all make Mars real to people, as a world both like and unlike what they see outside, not just a subject in a book."
Japan's space agency (JAXA) has used its Hayabusa2 spacecraft to drop a bomb the size of a baseball on the distant asteroid Ryugu.
JAXA hopes to use the fall-out from the explosion to make a crater and collect rock samples from underground.
The space agency intends to study these subterranean samples for clues to help explain the origin of the solar system.
Hayabusa2 had to perform a rapid getaway after sending the explosive on its way in order to avoid the ensuing debris shooting up from the surface.
Scroll down for video
Japan's space agency (JAXA) has used its Hayabusa2 spacecraft to drop a bomb the size of a baseball on the distant asteroid Ryugu. This image shows the explosive dropped from Hayabusa2 spacecraft to make a crater on the asteroid Ryugu
JAXA hopes to use the fall-out from the explosion to make a crater and collect rock samples from underground. This image shows surface matter ejected from Ryugu’s surface following the explosion
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, said that Hayabusa2 dropped a 'small carry-on impactor' made of copper onto the asteroid Friday morning, and that data confirmed the spacecraft safely evacuated and remained intact.
JAXA is analysing data to examine if or how the impactor made a crater.
The copper explosive is the size of a baseball weighing 4.4 pounds (2kg).
It was designed to come out of a cone-shaped piece of equipment.
A copper plate on its bottom was to designed turn into a ball during its descent and slam into the asteroid at 1.2 miles (2km) per second.
JAXA plans to send Hayabusa2 back to the site later, when the dust and debris settle, for observations from above and to collect samples from underground that have not been exposed to the sun or space rays.
Scientists hope the samples will be crucial to determine the history of the asteroid and our planet.
If successful, it would be the first time for a spacecraft to take such materials. In a 2005 'deep impact' mission to a comet, NASA observed fragments after blasting the surface but did not collect them.
This artist's impression reveals what it may have looked like as JAXA released its 4.4lbs bomb towards Ryugu and before it made a desperate escape to dodge the ensuing debris
This image released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) shows the asteroid Ryugu. This mission is the riskiest for Hayabusa2, as it has to immediately get away so it won't get hit by flying shards from the blast
WHAT DO THE NAMES OF THE HYABUSA MISSION MEAN?
Names of the mission come from the Japanese fairy tale Urashima Tarō.
Ryugu was the name of a dragon king's palace at the bottom of the ocean.
The landing site has been given the moniker Tamatebako.
This is a sacred treasure box of huge worth inside the palace.
The tale states that when it is opened, smoke pours out.
The names were chosen due to the cloud of dust kicked up when Hyabusa 2 collided with the asteroid's surface.
Scientists also say the rocks due to be returned to Earth represent the treasure mentioned in the story.
After dropping the impactor, the spacecraft was to move quickly to the other side of the asteroid to avoid flying shards from the blast. While moving away, Hayabusa2 also left a camera to capture the outcome. One of its first photos showed the impactor being successfully released and headed to the asteroid.
'So far, Hayabusa2 has done everything as planned, and we are delighted,' said mission leader Makoto Yoshikawa. 'But we still have more missions to achieve and it's too early for us to celebrate with 'banzai.''
Hayabusa2 successfully touched down on a tiny flat surface on the boulder-rich asteroid in February, when the spacecraft also collected some surface dust and small debris. The craft is scheduled to leave the asteroid at the end of 2019 and bring surface fragments and underground samples back to Earth in late 2020.
The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about 300 million kilometers (180 million miles) from Earth.
Artist's impression of a Rover-1A (back) and Rover-1B (foreground) from MINERVA-II1 as they explore the surface of Ryugu. JAXA announced previously, that after a three-and-a-half-year journey, the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft dispatched two small probes towards the asteroid Ryugu in an attempt to land them on the one-kilometre-wide rock
How it would've looked: An artist's detailed impression of the historic spacecraft approaching the fast-travelling meteor, before it fired a metal object into it at 300 meters per second
This image shows the shadow, centre above, of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft after its successful touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu
WHY IS JAXA STUDYING THE ASTEROID RYUGU?
Jaxa's Hayabusa Two probe is on a mission to study the ancient asteroid Ryugu in a bid to help scientists better understand the origins of the universe.
The probe launched in December 2014 and arrived at the dice-shaped space rock on June 27, 2018.
Hayabusa Two is studying soil and rock samples using several pieces of equipment.
Hayabusa Two (artist's impression) carries a number of experiments including four surface rovers and an explosive device designed to gouge out 'fresh' rock samples
The probe is loaded with four surface landers, an array of cameras and even an explosive device that will dig out subsurface rock samples.
Ryugu, a Type C asteroid, contains traces of water and organic material and it is hoped that analysing this material will reveal what the early conditions were like at the time the solar system formed around 4,6 billion years ago.
Hayabusa Two is expected to return to Earth in late 2020 carrying samples for further analysis.
It may take some time to determine how the operation went.
The Small Carry-On Impactor separated from Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft April 4, 2019 (April 5 JST) in order to slam down into asteroid Ryugu. This image was captured by Hayabusa2's optical navigation camera from about 500 meters above Ryugu.
Update: JAXA officials announced this morning (April 5) that the impactor did indeed hit Ryugu. Mission team members are now working to confirm that a detectable crater was generated.
A Japanese spacecraft deployed a heavy, explosive-packed copper plate toward the asteroid Ryugu in an attempt to create an artificial crater last night (April 4), but it's still unclear how the dramatic operation went.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft, which has been studying the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) Ryugu up close since last June, released a 4.4-lb. (2 kilograms) hunk of copper late last night, along with a camera known as DCAM3 to record this "Small Carry-on Impactor" (SCI) operation.
"The spacecraft state is normal and it was confirmed that the evacuation operation, the separation of the SCI and DCAM3 went as planned. The SCI separation and evacuation sequence were a success," mission team members wrote on Twitter around 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT and 3 p.m. Japan time) today (April 5).
An onboard explosive charge was scheduled to detonate last night at 10:36 p.m. EDT (0236 GMT and 11:36 a.m. Japan time this morning), sending the plate hurtling toward Ryugu's boulder-strewn surface at about 4,500 mph (7,240 km/h).
But the detonation, and the resulting impact, had not yet been confirmed as of the time of this writing.
[SCI] April 5 at 12:45 JST. The operation is steadily progressing. The control room was crowded with people, but now about 20 people are working here.
HAYABUSA2@JAXA@haya2e_jaxa
[SCI] April 5 at 13:45 JST: Gate 5 was confirmed. The spacecraft state is normal and it was confirmed that the evacuation operation, the separation of the SCI and DCAM3 went as planned. The SCI separation and evacuation sequence were a success.
This procedure wasn't for entertainment — instead, it will help scientists understand Ryugu's interior.
During the carefully choreographed procedure, the Hayabusa2 mothership retreated behind the asteroid, for safety. (That's the "evacuation" the mission team mentioned in the above tweet.)
The main drama played out over the course of about 40 minutes, from the impactor's deployment to the (presumed) impact itself. But, provided it was successful, the operation will occupy scientists for much longer as they pore over images captured during the procedure. The researchers hope that by watching how debris flies away from the crater, they'll be able to better understand what Ryugu is made of.
Over the next two weeks or so, the main Hayabusa2 spacecraft will slowly creep out of hiding and return to its "home position" about 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) above Ryugu's surface.
If all goes well, Hayabusa2 will take a closer look at the crater itself to study the interior of the asteroid, where radiation hasn't affected the rock. The team running the mission even hopes they'll be able to grab a sample of material from this location, to add to the surface sample the probe collected in February.
Indeed, Hayabusa2 has been extremely busy during its time at Ryugu. In addition to the sample-collection and SCI activities, the probe has studied the asteroid in detail and released two hopping minirovers and a 22-lb. (10 kg) lander onto the space rock's surface.
And Hayabusa2 still has one more tool to deploy: MINERVA-II 2, a third, tiny, hopping rover, similar to those the probe deployed in September. The mission team currently hopes to send MINERVA-II 2 out onto Ryugu's surface late this summer.
After that task is complete, all that's left for Hayabusa2 to do is head back to Earth, carrying with it precious souvenirs of the space rock it will have spent a year and a half studying.
That sample is scheduled to come down under parachute in December 2020, in a special return capsule.
The Chitauri in the Zulu traditions: an alien race reptile beyond fiction.
The Chitauri in the Zulu traditions: an alien race reptile beyond fiction.
We should not be surprised if we discover that some themes and characters that appear in science fiction movies or, as in this case, superheroes are not totally false, but in fact the old traditions and stories talk about it. That is the case of «Los Chitauri», a "fictitious" alien race popularized after the premiere of the movie "Avengers"....
The Chitauri in "Avengers" are an extraterrestrial race that aims to conquer Earth and subdue us all. The Chitauri in reality, according to some ancient Zulu traditions, would be extraterrestrial beings of reptilian aspect and that would have had direct contact with humans in the past and that they would even have carried out their sinister plans, and that possibly t...
Interview with Credo Mutwa
The writer and lecturer David Icke , known and questioned for disseminating in his works the idea that there is a hidden force that controls humanity, interviewed in 1998 the African Shaman Credo Mutwa , which transmitted ancient traditions of Zulu wisdom. Here it is worth noting that Credo Mutwa possesses the degree of Zanuzzi (Zulu Shaman...
The knowledge that the Shaman Credo Mutwa gives in the conversation with David Icke comprises a legacy of wisdom, coming from African ethnic groups, with respect to the existence of ancient and diverse races apparently of extraterrestrial origin, that arrived centuries ago to the Earth. One of these races is known as: Chitauri ( beings Reptiloides or Reptilians )....
The word Chitauri means "dictators, those who dictate the law". In other words, "they tell us, secretly, what we have to do."...
Mutwa described them as very tall, almost 3 meters tall, and with different social classes. The upper class, royalty, are described with several horns on their heads, with wings and a huge tail. On the other hand, the warrior class or lower class are described with large eyes of vertical pupils, round face without horns, without wings and without tail....
The following text is an excerpt from the testimonies about Chitauri beings, which David Icke received in the interview with Credo Mutwa:...
Human beings of past times could not speak, they did not have the gift of language, they only made sounds similar to those made by monkeys and baboons. People communicated through the mind (telepathy). A man could call his wife thinking about her, thinking about various characteristics of her body, such as her face, or aroma, her hair. Men and women could also move o...
A hunter went out into the bush and called the animals, the animals sent the specimen that was older and more tired, he knelt before the man so that he could kill him quickly and take the meat. At that time there was no violence against animals. There was no violence against nature. The man asked for food from nature, he approached one of the trees and thought about ...
Until, one day up in the sky, terrible objects appeared, similar to giant spheres that shone like the brightest gold, they were as big as mountains and more. They came from the sky making a tremendous noise, emanating fire. "...
The story of Credo Mutwa continues:...
From those huge objects came others that looked like deep plates that threw fire and noise, and winds that raised a lot of dust and blinded the view. From those objects came: the Chitauri, which according to Credo Mutwa can be hybrid, humanoid and intelligent creatures, the product of an ancient realization of extraterrestrial genetic engineering, which was based on ...
The Chitauri, they told the humans (who were gathered using violence, that is lightning bolts of energy), that they were the great gods of heaven, and that they would give them the great gifts, as long as they worshiped them and accept as their creator gods. They also promised to return gods to humans, if they accepted them; and the humans agreed....
When the Chitauri arrived, the humans were divided, both in spirit and language. Then, the Chitauri gave strange feelings to human beings. The humans began to feel insecure, and began to build villages with strong wooden fences. They began to create tribes and the borders between territories were created, which defended themselves to death; thus originating wars, gre...
They (the Chitauri) like to put humans against humans; they enjoy making us their slaves without us being aware of it. "...
Credo Mutwa continues:...
The Chitauri feed on the energy that human beings provide them. They are the cause of the disputes between groups, fear and terror. When a large mass of people are angry or fearful, the Chitauri feed on that energy. They feed on what we call 'The Dark Power'....
The following video shows the interview conducted by David Icke with Credo Mutwa , where the legacy of old African ethnic groups is transmitted and they have to do with extraterrestrial races that came into contact with humans in antiquity, in order to submit....
Science fiction is fast becoming a reality now! Sci-fi has inspired serious real-life researches where Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a buzzword.
India embarked on the high road of automation by using a robot for police work. Police Headquarters in the state capital of Kerala, the southwestern state of India, has sworn in a robot cop named KP-Bot.
The humanoid robot wouldn’t be out on the streets fighting crime
Its primary responsibility is to greet visitors in the front lobby, arranging appointments with officers, filing grievances, provide identity cards and direct the visitors to different locations in the police station.
If someone tries to bribe it, it will register a case against that person
This female-featured robot has been given the rank of a Sub Inspector and it knows how to salute the officers. The idea was made into reality by state based start-up Asimov Robotics. Its CEO Jayakrishnan said “In the next phase, we will be training KP-BOT to recognize and respond to Malayalam speech. There would be various kinds of petitioners, and so she would be trained in understanding their emotional state of mind and also in booking those who attempt to bribe her”
WETENSCHAP & PLANEETDe Japanse ruimtesonde Hayabusa2 heeft met succes een ‘bom’ op asteroïde Ryugu gegooid. Na het afwerpen van de zogenaamde ‘impactor’, een twee kilogram wegend projectiel van koper dat een krater in het oppervlak van de ruimterots moest blazen, maakte het ruimtevaartuig zich snel uit de voeten. Dit om opspattende scherven te ontwijken. Met succes.
Het doel van Hayabusa is het achterhalen van de samenstelling van Ryugu en daarmee aanwijzingen over het ontstaan van ons zonnestelsel. Het afwerpen van het projectiel was de meest risicovolle opdracht voor de sonde tot nu toe. Het koperen explosief ter grootte van een basketbal boorde zich met een vaart van twee kilometer per seconde in de asteroïde. Uit data van de sonde kon worden afgeleid dat Hayabusa zich in veiligheid had kunnen brengen. Alles doet het nog.
Na lancering van het projectiel vloog Hayabusa snel naar de andere kant van Ryugu. Terwijl de sonde de benen nam, liet hij een camera achter om opnamen van de inslag te maken. De eerste foto’s lieten zien hoe de ‘bom’ zich succesvol richting de asteroïde begeeft. “Tot nu toe heeft Hayabusa2 alles volgens plan gedaan”, zegt missieleider Makoto Yoshikawa. “We zijn in de zevende hemel, maar het is nog te vroeg voor een feestje.”
Monsters
Ruimtevaartorganisatie JAXA stuurt de ruimteverkenner later, als het opgeworpen stof en puin is neergedaald, terug naar de plek van de inslag. Hayabusa zal dan monsters nemen van het bij de inslag vrijgekomen materiaal, dat gedurende miljarden jaren onder de grond nooit is blootgesteld aan de zon of ruimtestraling. De wetenschappers hopen dat het ruimtepuin iets kan vertellen over het ontstaan van Ryugu én onze planeet.
In februari zette Hayabusa2 met succes voet aan de grond op Ryugu, dat zich in een baan tussen die van de Aarde en Mars bevindt. Op een vlak stukje van de ruimterots, die is vernoemd naar een onderwaterpaleis uit een Japanse legende, nam de verkenner al wat stofmonsters. Als alles verder volgens plan verloopt, verlaat het apparaat Ryugu tegen het einde van dit jaar. Met zijn voor de wetenschap kostbare lading zien de Japanners hem terug op aarde in het najaar van 2020.
Als het vervolg van de operatie net zo goed verloopt als vandaag is het de eerste keer dat een ruimtesonde gruis van een asteroïde meeneemt. NASA voerde in januari 2005 de missie ‘Deep Impact’ uit. Na een reis van zes maanden kwam de Amerikaanse sonde op 3 juli aan bij de komeet Tempel 1. Ook die blies een hap uit het ruimteobject, maar zag geen kans materiaal te verzamelen.
AP
Vreugde bij de missieleiders van JAXA na de geslaagde inslag op de asteroïde.
AP
Vandaag liet Hayabusa2 een projectiel los op het oppervlak van asteroïde Ryugu.
EPA
Het plan is dat Hayabusa2 later nogmaals afdaalt op Ryugu en monsters neemt.
A photograph of a recent UFO sighting over Arizona has many people comparing its shape to a famous painting that has come to be known as the “Madonna of the UFO” because of a strange flying-saucer-ish object in an upper corner. Is the Arizona object a ship? Is the Madonna UFO? Are they related or the same? Is this a ploy by art majors and museum curators to get people interested in paintings again?
“Oval in shape, on zoom appeared to have some sort of landing appendages.”
They had UFO trackers at “landing apendages.” This summary and the single photograph was sent to MUFON on April 3, 2019, but was taken on March 23, 2019. According to case #99519, the sighting took place in San Tan Valley, a Phoenix suburb near Arizona’s San Tan mountains. The “landing appendages” can be seen under severe magnification (see magnified photos here courtesy of TexasUFOs) and, while the appendages description is true, the ‘landing’ part is … imaginative.
Oval in shape, on zoom appeared to have some sort of landing appendages.
“A black speck in the sky above plane contrails. From the camera image on zoom the shape was a dome like 1/2 of a ball. There were appendages from the sides and the bottom of the rim of the structure.”
Always throw in “contrails” if you want to get picked up by search bots, even if they’re not obvious in the photo. Comments compare the object to a jellyfish-type UFO and it definitely could be an unusual drone (where are the props?) or a balloon. The most interesting observations noted its resemblance to the “Madonna of the UFO” painting.
Madonna of the UFO
The painting is generally referred to as “Madonna and Child with the Infant St John,” which is a common grouping painted by many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci. The web site Florence Inferno says this one’s artist is unknown but suspected to be either Sebastiano Mainardi, Jacopo del Sellaio or Filippo Lippi. The UFO version is located in the Hall of Hercules on the second floor of the Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall of Florence and a major museum of art. Prior to that, it was at the convent of Sant’Orsola in the district of San Lorenzo in Florence.
This particular Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John is the only one with what appears to be a UFO in the background being watched by a shepherd and his dog. While it looks like a flying blob, many have come to believe it’s a flying saucer or alien ship and proof that ETs visited Earth either at the time of the birth of Jesus or at least at the time it was painted. Art historians say it’s most likely a representation of an angel in a cloud, possibly a depiction of the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would bear the Messiah. The rays fit the descriptions of angels being surrounded by bright light and a shepherd covering his eyes in the presence of a clouded angle is seen in other paintings of that era. To further confuse both UFO believers and Christians, in the upper left-hand corner is the Nativity Star and three smaller stars meant to represent the Madonna’s virginity before, during, and after childbirth. Throwing all of these events into one painting of Jesus playing with his cousin John the Baptist means it’s far from historically accurate, but at least it explains the UFO.
Or does it?
What about the sighting in Arizona? There don’t seem to be any other eyewitness reports, which puts the needle on the balloon or drone side. On the other hand, Phoenix news stations were recently playing an audio account released by the FAA of two commercial pilots discussing a UFO, possibly reflections off of a weather balloon, over Arizona in February. The Fox news reportmentions that Arizona has had “more than 4,500 reported UFO sightings dating back to 2001.” And … Phoenix! You know, the lights. Like a high fly ball to deep left field, they’re all up in the air.
Spring training is over, Arizonans! Get back to watching for UFOs!
While some groups are lobbying governments to ban sending messages into space revealing our existence to possibly hostile aliens, the Raelian movement – a UFO religion whose members believe Earth was created by humanoid extraterrestrials – are asking the United Nations to help them choose a country where they can build an embassy for welcoming the ETs to our planet with open arms. They designated the first Saturday in April as “ET Embassy Day” and claim a number of countries are interested in hosting the embassy. Why?
“More and more countries are showing interest as it becomes obvious that an extraterrestrial civilization is preparing our Humanity for an official contact, through an ever-increasing number of UFO appearances and very complex crop circles all over the world.”
The announcement about ET Embassy Day was made by Daniel Turcotte, a Raelian Guide (guides are religious leaders) and assistant to Rael, the founder of the religion when he was known as Claude Vorilhon, a French race car driver and racing journalist until a fateful day in 1973 when he was visited by a member of the Elohim, the alien beings he now believes started the human race some 25,000 years ago. You may recognize ‘Elohim’ as a name for God from the Hebrew bible, but it means “those who came from the sky” to Raelians. The Elohim visitor told Vorilhon he was chosen to write a book (Le Livre qui dit la vérité or The Book Which Tells the Truth), change his name to Rael and spread the word that the Elohim will be coming back someday. In fact, they did in 1975 to take him to another planet to meet Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.
As unbelievable as that sounds, Rael managed to recruit members into the movement – it appears to have over 100,000 in 90 countries – and is spreading the Elohim message of peace and love through guides like Turcotte, who delivered his call to the UN from Geneva.
“We are confident that the UN will hear out and acknowledge the growing number of people who care for a proper and formal welcome for an out-worldly civilization. While some countries wrongfully anticipate an invasion by an armed extraterrestrial civilization and are preparing to go to war against them, we must offset such an outdated and belligerent position with a worldwide movement of peace, and educate people that only peace can come from the stars. And if the UN doesn’t take the lead, then the countries we are in discussions with will.”
“The countries we are in discussions with will.” Is that a veiled threat? It seems strange that an extraterrestrial species that allegedly created the human race and has visited the planet before suddenly needs an embassy to host its return visit. They certainly don’t need a safe haven for running their operation on Earth. However, Rael and the Raelians might. Their religious views include very open sexual relations of all types and very early sex education, which some governments object to (Switzerland and South Korea are two).
We definitely could use more peace and love around the world. Do we really need Rael and the Elohim to accomplish that? And even if they could, why do they need the UN’s help?
Let’s see what happens on ET Embassy Day. I hope there’s a parade.
The late Mac Tonniestold me only a couple of months before his death: “After devouring countless books on the UFO controversy and the paranormal, I began to acknowledge that the extraterrestrial hypothesis suffered [from] some tantalizing flaws. In short, the ‘aliens’ seemed more like surreal caricatures of ourselves than beings possessing the god-like technology one might plausibly expect from interstellar visitors. I came to the realization that the extraterrestrial hypothesis isn’t strange enough to encompass the entirety of occupant cases.” It was this same realization which made Tonnies look elsewhere. Not to the stars. Not to the galaxies. And not to the world around us. Rather, to the world directly and deeply below us. The theory Tonnies developed was that, perhaps, some of the intelligences behind the UFO phenomenon are not extraterrestrial or inter-dimensional, as many assume or believe them to be, after all. He calledthem the Cryptoterrestrials.
Rather, he was following the idea that the so-called “Grays” and many of the other bizarre humanoid creatures seen and presumed to have alien origins, were from right here, on Earth. Tonnies offered the theory that his aliens of the terrestrial variety are, actually, a very ancient and advanced body of people. They are closely related to us, and have lived alongside us in secret – deep underground – for countless millennia. And, perhaps in fortified mountains too, not unlike the U.S. military’s Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which exists under 2,000-feet of granite. Tonnies added to me: “If we’re dealing with humanoid beings that evolved here on Earth, some of the problems vanish. I envision the Cryptoterrestrials engaged in a process of subterfuge, bending our belief systems to their own ends. And I suggest that this has been occurring, in one form or another, for an extraordinarily long time. I think there’s a good deal of folkloric and mythological evidence pointing in this direction, and I find it most interesting that so many descriptions of ostensible ‘aliens’ seem to reflect staged events designed to misdirect witnesses and muddle their perceptions.”
Tonnies offered me the following, too, on the matter of what have become known as Contactees – those to whom the very human-looking aliens of the 1950s and 1960s appeared. Tonnies noted to me of these extremely human-looking entities: “Commentators regularly assume that all the Contactees werelying or else delusional. But if we’re experiencing a staged reality, some of the beings encountered by the Contactees might have been real; and the common messages of universal brotherhood could have been a sincere attempt to curb our destructive tendencies. The extraterrestrial guise would have served as a prudent disguise, neatly misdirecting our attention and leading us to ask the wrong questions; which we’re still asking with no substantial results.”
As for why the cryptoterrestrials opted to head and dwell deep underground – when they had the entire planet above them on which to reside – it may have been due to nothing less than critical, panic-filled necessity provoked by war, suggested Tonnies. In eras long gone, and faced with irradiated landscapes, flattened cities, and untold millions dead, heading deep below the surface of the planet may have been the only way for the survivors to continue to live on, he suggested. The deadly fall-out – coupled with the “every man for himself”-style carnage that was undoubtedly breaking out among the ragged, sick survivors of the wars who stayed topside – would be a dark but vital incentive to stay way below the surface. And, maybe they chose to remain there permanently, rather than one day surfacing to reclaim the territory that was once theirs. Until, that is, they destroyed it.
In addition, Tonnies theorized that in today’s world the cryptoterrestrials may well be declining, in terms of both their numbers and their health. He mused on the possibility that this may be due to continuing genetic issues provoked by the effects of ancient atomic wars. If, one day, we resort to the unthinkable, and global, atomic war erupts all around us, the after-effects – massive death and destruction, the onset of a so-called “nuclear winter,” and the terrible toll that radiation poisoning would wreak upon the straggling survivors – would ensure recovery would likely take not just centuries. It would probably take thousands of years. Far more likely, however, our civilization would never recover. It would be largely erased from the planet and, eventually, from memory, too.
Instead, we would eventually see the birth of a new, savage and primitive civilization – one far smaller than ours in size and scope, probably almost completely lacking in technology, and filled with stunted, illiterate, sick people possessing nothing but legend-like memories of the mysterious people who came before them and who suddenly vanished in a violent, fiery, planet-wide Armageddon. Namely, us. And, with the progression of time, those memories would almost certainly fragment to the point where, eventually, we would become like the Atlanteans – nothing but the fabled inhabitants of a fantastically advanced society that most people believe to be little more than folklore and mythology. Tonnies also suggested that the cryptoterrestrials might make use of a great deal of subterfuge, camouflage and deception to try and ensure they appear far more in advance of us, when – in reality, today – they may not be struggling to hang onto their society and their ailing health.
Mac Tonnies also had a very interesting theory as to why our supposed aliens – who may well have been his cryptoterrestrials – constantly warn abductees and contactees that we should not destroy, or pollute, our planet. Let’s face it, why would extraterrestrials from countless light-years away care even in the slightest about our small, insignificant world, about what we decide to do with it, and about our massive atomic arsenals? A most reasonable argument could be made that they wouldn’t care. Why should they? If, however, some of them are actually cryptoterrestrials who – due to circumstances beyond both their and our control – are forced to secretly share the planet with us, then their need to see the Earth preserved wouldn’t just be a wish or a desire. It would, for their continued survival, be an overwhelming necessity – even if they dwell deep below the planet’s surface. They would be all too well aware of the terrible mistakes they made thousands of years ago.
Therefore, they would also know how important it would be to try and ensure we don’t follow their mistake-filled path. In that sense, their seeming concern for us is actually a concern for them. And, considering what they may have gone through in the distant past, they could hardly be blamed for that. Such theories are most assuredly not new ones: tales, stories, myths and legends of advanced, humanoid entities living deep below the planet’s surface have circulated not just for decades or hundreds of years, but for thousands of years. Of course, there’s nothing new about tales and theories of ancient “underground civilizations.” Mac Tonnies just brought the scenario to a new audience in a new era.
Going back through the centuries and embedded within the folklore of a wide range of regions is the idea of a species of demon in female form, which appear to seduce men and steal their life energy. Most commonly called the succubus, which comes from the Latin word succuba, meaning “paramour,” these demons take on various appearances and are endowed with different powers depending on the tradition, but most generally follow the idea that they use sexual activity to target their prey, often in the realm of dreams, enticing and pulling their victims in to hold close and feed off of. Sex demons of this variety are represented in one form or another across geographical boundaries and religions including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as the legends of myriad far-flung cultures. Considering that it is men we are talking about here, many of the legends describe the experience as rather enjoyable in the heat of the moment, but the aftermath often is said to bring exhaustion, stupor, hallucinations, insanity, and even death, but this must surely be just myths, right? Surely there can’t be anything to the idea of sex-starved demons preying on men? Well, you might be surprised to know that there are numerous accounts throughout the centuries of supposed encounters with these demonic vixens.
Supposed encounters with real succubi go way back in time. An very early supposedly real account comes from the 11th century, when Gerbert of Aurillac, who became Pope Sylvester II (999-1003), one day met a mysterious woman as a young man. The woman called herself Meridiana, and offered him all of the sins of the flesh and lust-filled sex that he could ever want beyond his wildest dreams, as well as wealth, good fortune, and knowledge of the mystical arts, if he would only stay faithful to her and her alone. Gerbert would purportedly agree to these terms, and subsequently rose quickly up the ranks of the church, all while satisfying his every carnal desire with Meridiana, quite against his vows and all kept secret, of course. This went on until one day the woman predicted that Gerbert, who was by that time Pope, would die for his sins. He would repent and die just as predicted, and to this day it is said that his grave “sweats” just before the death of a Pope. Legend or not? Whatever it was, it is widely said that this mysterious woman was a succubus.
In the 17th century we have the tale of a man named Johannes Junius, who was the Burgomeister of Bamberg and convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake in 1628. Before his execution, he had confessed that in 1624 he had been seduced by a woman who revealed herself to be a succubus and demanded that he renounce God. The frightened man had then taken the name “Krix,” a warlock name, and had even been provided with his own familiar, and from then on he became further and further hopelessly involved with the world of witches and their sabbats, attending black masses and often reported as riding about on a horrific flying black dog. Through all of this he adamantly insisted that he had refused to sacrifice humans, despite being implored by his succubus lover to do so, but he paid for his ways nevertheless. It seems that the era was rife with accused witches blaming succubi for their actions, because this account is similar to a 16th century account recorded by author Nicholas Remy, who said that there had once been a sheep herder who had been accused of witchcraft and sentenced to die. Before he was burned he too claimed that he had been seduced and corrupted by a succubus disguised as a milkmaid, who had come to him in a dark time for him and twisted his mind and soul with her charms.
In later centuries there is an account from the 19th century, when a popular French author named J.K. Huysmans claimed that he had fallen under the spell of a succubus. At the time he had purportedly been on a pilgrimage to a monastery. One night during his retreat he apparently was visited in his dream by the foul demon, who pleasured him right to the point of intense climax before he woke up to see her fading away right before his eyes. Thinking it all to be a dream, he was soon convinced it was real when he discovered the form of the woman indented into his bed next to him and could smell her scent int the air. He believed at the time that the succubus had spirited away his semen in order to use to fertilize human women by the male form of the demon, the incubus. Reports like this have gone on all the way into much more modern times, such as one in 2007, with a commenter on Unexplained Mysteries, who says he was kept awake for 3 days straight by some seductive demonic force, after which things escalated quickly. He says:
I felt something touch my hand, not physically, but something deeper, down to my soul, and it warmed me while I was lying in bed wondering what was going to happen to me. I was completely awake, but another post could describe the world I saw. I remember most of what happened so vividly. Her touch was perfect, and her master in the art beyond my imagination. I couldn’t see her – I just felt sensations on my body and talked with her in my mind. She bid me to take her to a quiet place where my parents wouldn’t hear, so I went out to the car in the dark.
Things further progressed sexually, and my energies were absolutely phenomenal – she always did the perfect thing to keep me going. As things progressed, I could begin to see more of her. The one thing that caught my eyes the most were hers – when I looked into them, I saw the stars and the heavens and thought of the atoms and matter that make each one, but all of that was still not enough to justify the eyes. They pointed me to another world, and all of what I saw in them pointed to an innocent desire to make love. Her body was effervescent, it changed according to what would arouse me the most, and I could not see her breasts or private parts – they were numb to the eyes. It was her hair, body type, skin color, ethnicity that all changed. She would morph seamlessly, moment by moment.
Another prominent feature of the experience was her scent. It was incredibly intoxicating, like a sort of indescribable flower with intimate features. It reminded me of everything that is good and beautiful in the world, and it described what I saw in her eyes. All of her touch – it wasn’t so much physical as it was much, much deeper. The whole nature of the experience was so innocent. I felt no guilt, no darkness, no lust whatsoever. The focus was on pleasing her, and in turn she wished to please me. She would often giggle and I felt as though we were in the Garden of Eden, making love for the first time in all creation, and that God had given her such a magnificent gift of doing so – I didn’t believe that, but that’s the closest way my mind could describe it.
She brought me to a certain point where I felt I could go no further, never achieving climax yet during the experience. All of a sudden, she broke down crying, telling me that I would be going through a very hard time. Just then, I saw a vision and felt presences around me. I was reminded of Christ and his experiences leading up to his crucifixion with visual hallucinations, and I saw the spiritual side of what was happening to him. I asked her who she was, and she didn’t answer. I saw that she understood that she could not understand the pain that i had just witnessed. After 6 hours from her first touch, she worked me to an incredible climax.
In another report from 2010, a commenter on the same site says he was accosted by a succubus as he lay down to sleep one night. The witness says:
It was a night like any other. Before going to bed I usually meditate for 15-30 minutes, I do this to clear my mind so that I can get a good nights sleep. I had in the past tried to call a succubus, but always with questionable results. Nothing that would convince me that something really came. At this particular night in February 20010 I had made no special preparations. No spells or rituals. Just simple breath exercises and a blank mind.
It happened suddenly and without forewarning. My chest tightened. I felt as if I was jolted by electricity. A sensation that started in my chest and spread out to my abdomen. The sensation was so strong that at first I thought I was fiercely hugged. But I opened my eyes and saw nothing. I decided to lay down and relax. The next thing I felt was a gentle touch on both my legs which slid upwards. Not just a breeze but a real touch. I could feel fingers below my pajamas. My legs parted and felt as if they where floating on air.
The next thing I felt I can only describe as the most intense sexual feeling that I ever had. It was like a pulse vibrated throughout my own body. So strong that I actually moaned in ecstasy. And it did not stop. The feeling of hands over my body. The erotic spasms, and a pressure on my legs that felt as if someone was sitting on them. At the height of my pleasure I actually saw a very hazy shape over me. Although i could not see a distinct form, I could feel that it was female in nature.
I had often asked the question in the past “What is your name”. And I would get all kinds of names in my head. But I was always pretty sure that it was just my imagination. But when I asked that night, I got a clear name, so alien to the thoughts of my own mind that it was clear that it was not my own mind playing tricks. I remember going to bed at 10pm. The next thing I knew it was almost 2am. It felt like 10 minutes for me. This was my first real encounter with a “Succubus”, and I can say that my life forever changed after this first encounter.
Were these just some randy and very naughty dreams or something more? In around the same time period was another report relayed on Reddit, by a poster who says his mental and physical health had begun to take a turn for the worse. He was experiencing delusions of worthlessness and being driven to suicidal thoughts as a result, and one evening during this dark time he says he had a rather odd encounter. He says:
I was having a dream, semi-lucid or maybe just really vivid. a old friend was there, we or they were getting on a bus. For whatever reason I focus on this lady who was trying to get on the bus that’s when I wake up. It’s gross even to think about but this entity, what i call the succubus, was trying to get back into my body, the dream triggered something or maybe the dream was a reflection of some subconscious action I took but the “reiki” weakened it’s grip on me and it was trying to get back in.
Purely by instinct I just concentrated on keeping this thing out and it was working and I just sat up in anger and this thing is cast away. I call it a succubus only because I feel like it was attached near my genitals, influenced/drove me sexually. It wasn’t much how it’s portrayed in popular media for me though in the dream I guess It was disguised as a women. Also it was a feminine entity whatever that means. I could draw a pic but it was about the size of a big cat, it’s silly but it’s lower body is how they portray ghost I guess like Casper but its upper half was more humanoid. So a ghost like tail and a humanoid head.
The humanoid part always creeps me out because this thing was sentient and fairly intelligent but still behaved like a parasite. And worse it was attached in me for a long time….a humanoid like being, ugh. So this is what I think. I was more promiscuous back then so I think I “caught it”. I’m one of those sensitive types so I think that’s why it was attracted to me. I think it was feeding on me for a long time and those leeches things were babies in a sort of way. It was all feed, reproduce, spread. I read online that these entities also “feed” on negative energies which is why it was driving me to kill myself like one of those parasites that affects ants and forces them to kill itself so it can feed, bloom and spread.
It does seem to feed into the lore of the succubus, with her feeding on negative energies and using sexual angle to do so. Is this a tall tale or what? In 2011 we have an account from a witness on the site Your Ghost Stories, who says this happened at his home in San Rafael, California. He had just broken up with his ex, and he had been left alone in that empty apartment they had once shared. One evening he says he was visited by something not wholly of this earth, of which he says:
I was just chilling in my room on Facebook when I felt a light tingling sensation on the back of my neck. I reached back and felt nothing there. I resumed what I was doing. About 5 minutes later, I felt a hand close gently on my shoulder. I felt secure. I closed my eyes. I heard a voice in my head saying that everything would get better. I asked it if it really meant it. As soon as the words had come out of my mouth, it kissed the back of my neck, and said that it would be there for me.
I closed my computer and turned to face whoever it was. What I saw next only cannot be described with mere words. It was like a goddess and a demon in one. I was speechless. It led me to my bed and had me lie down. I did as I was told. She then proceeded to lie down next to me and curl up in my arms. I kissed her head. She ran a hand down from my cheek to my chest and slowly lifted my shirt up and off. You can probably imagine what happened next. I then woke up and she was still there next to me. She whispered in my ear that she would come back and reveal who she was when the time came. Since then, I have not had any contact with her.
In 2012 there is also a witness named Ethan on ThoughtCo, who says this happened as he was living in Bakersfield, California. He says that this bizarre encounter happened one day after he had returned from school and tried to get ready for the homework that lie ahead. He lay down for a moment and ended up crashing out, but this was not meant to last. According to the report:
He fell asleep instantly but did not sleep soundly. He dreamt that an evil being was in his home and it was trying to get into his room. It finally broke in, and as soon as it did, Ethan jolted awake with a ringing sound in his ears. Ethan felt the demon; it was on the wall behind his head, holding Ethan’s limbs down. It had something in his ears, and his left ear began to vibrate violently. The strange sensation spread to his right ear, as well.
Ethan fought as best he could, but could not break free. He cursed at the being and tried to free his arms or legs. The demon only laughed at him, an eerie and horrific sound that was neither deep nor high-pitched. The demon cried out “soon!” and released Ethan. Ethan sat up rapidly, leaping out of the bed to turn on the lights. But when light flooded his bedroom, there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, Ethan’s dogs were acting abnormal, barking, leaping at the door and trying desperately to get to their owner.
He went to the bathroom and was startled to see his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were bloodshot, with the whites of the eyes completely red. Ethan realized he had been visited by a succubus demon. Ethan remains terrified of the demon returning but has not had another incident ever since.
There are many more such reports, and it leaves us asking a question. Are these just legends born of men being horny and having suggestive thoughts or dreams, or is there something more to the whole succubus phenomenon? The main rational explanation for all of this is that it is legends based around a phenomenon known as “sleep paralysis,” in which we wake in a domain between sleep and wakefulness, where dreams can continue on and be perceived as being very real. Since we are kept in our paralytic sleep state we can feel as if we cannot move, and the dream figure can take on many forms depending on what we expect to see. This explanation has been used to try to explain away everything from ghost sightings to alien abductions, to of course succubi. Is that what we are dealing with here? Our sleepy mind playing tricks on us and invoking these illusions and hallucinations, perhaps in this case flavored with sexual frustration? It is unknown, but the fact is that the phenomenon of the succubus has been with us across cultures for hundreds of years, and shows no signs of waning.
Scientists are taking a closer look at a set of ancient teeth, first discovered in the 1970s but thought to have originated more than 200,000 years ago, under the suspicion that they could reveal a previously unknown human relative.
The four teeth were first discovered in the Yanhui Cave, located in Southern China's Tongzi county, between 1972 and 1983.
At the time, they were classified as Homo erectus, a primitive human species that could walk upright and dates back 1.8 million years ago.
Now, a team of researchers from the Centro Nacional de Investigacion sobre la Evolucion Humana (CENIEH) believe the teeth could have originated from either Homo erectus or their more advanced counterpart, Neanderthals, or possibly some other mysterious, hybrid group.
Scientists are taking a closer look at a set of ancient teeth, first discovered in the 1970s, under the suspicion that they could reveal a previously unknown human relative
To come to this conclusion, the researchers used modern methods like geometric morphometrical analysis, which primarily examines the change of shape, and Micro-Computed Tomography, or x-ray imaging in 3D.
Researchers said the teeth can be dated back to approximately 172,000 to 240,000 years ago.
As part of their analysis, they compared the Tongzi teeth to hominims from the same chronological period - the later part of the Middle Pleistocene epoch - and the surrounding areas of East Asia, according to the study.
While they looked at many comparative samples, the researchers are unsure just who exactly the teeth belong to.
Scientists believe the teeth may be linked to Homo erectus (reconstruction, pictured) or the Neanderthals. However, without more fossilized evidence, they can't really be sure
The teeth were first discovered in the Yanhui Cave, located in Southern China's Tongzi county, between 1972 and 1983. Scientists are unsure just who exactly the teeth belong to
In an attempt to pinpoint their origin, researchers looked at the structures and patterns of the Tongzi teeth, according to National Geographic.
They also compared the teeth to modern-day tooth samples from East Asia, as well as other regions including West Asia, Africa and Europe.
It proved to be even more puzzling, when they discovered the dentine, or tissue below the enamel, didn't appear to have the same crinkles found in Homo erectus, National Geographic reported.
Pictured is Jose Maria Bermudez, one of the co-authors of the CENIEH research
Instead, the teeth had more simple features akin to those in Neanderthals, but they still weren't a perfect match.
One possible theory is that the teeth could originate from the Denisovan ancestry, a mysterious hominim population that split off from the Neanderthals about 400,000 years ago.
The teeth had some similarities to tooth fossils from the Denisovans, but they weren't located in the same place in the mouth, making it hard to reach a definite conclusion.
'An abundant amount of genetic information has been collected from the Denisovans but there are very few fossil remains,' CENIEH explained.
'Therefore, both their physical appearance and their identification in the fossil record remain a mystery.'
Another possibility could be that the teeth came from a hybrid of two different hominims.
The teeth are thought to have originated as far back as 172,000 to 240,000 years ago. They were found in the Yanhui Cave, in China's Tongzi country in Guizhou Province (pictured)
For example, if the Denisovans crossed paths with Homo erectus, they could have interbred to create the group that produced this particular teeth sample, National Geographic noted.
Until they can get their hands on more fossilized evidence, the origination of the teeth remains unclear, however.
'More genetic and fossil discoveries would be necessary to evaluate the taxonomy of the non-erectus populations of the Middle Pleistocene, such as the Tongzi hominids, which could be good candidates for the Denisovan ancestry,' said Maria Martinon-Torres, one of the co-authors of the study.
WHEN DID HUMAN ANCESTORS FIRST EMERGE?
The timeline of human evolution can be traced back millions of years. Experts estimate that the family tree goes as such:
55 million years ago - First primitive primates evolve
15 million years ago - Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon
7 million years ago - First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge
A recreation of a Neanderthal man is pictured
5.5 million years ago - Ardipithecus, early 'proto-human' shares traits with chimps and gorillas
4 million years ago - Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee's but other more human like features
3.9-2.9 million years ago - Australoipithecus afarensis lived in Africa.
2.7 million years ago - Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing
2.6 million years ago - Hand axes become the first major technological innovation
2.3 million years ago - Homo habilis first thought to have appeared in Africa
1.85 million years ago - First 'modern' hand emerges
1.8 million years ago - Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record
800,000 years ago- Early humans control fire and create hearths. Brain size increases rapidly
400,000 years ago - Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia
300,000 to 200,000 years ago - Homo sapiens - modern humans - appear in Africa
50,000 to 40,000 years ago - Modern humans reach Europe
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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 74 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.