Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
15-04-2019
Secret Space Program Whistleblowers Claim We Have Technology 1000 Years Ahead of Anything Seen
Secret Space Program Whistleblowers Claim We Have Technology 1000 Years Ahead of Anything Seen
If you are interested in learning more about is really going on out in space then you need to watch this video. Special access programs can be massive in scope and can remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy for decades.In recent years, several credible whistleblowers have stepped forward to disclose the highly advanced technologies and the highly compartmentalized systems. Faster-than-light interstellar travel allowing humankind to reach the stars is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Interviews with insiders including Emery Smith, Clifford Stone, William Tompkins, Niara Isley and Corey Goode confirm that specific factions of humans here on Earth do have autonomous possession of interstellar travel technology, and the existence of a superluminal space naval fleet comprising various sizes and classes of vessels employing tachyon drive has been concealed from the public for many years.
Secret Space Program Whistleblowers Claim We Have Technology 1000 Years Ahead of Anything Seen
Secret Space Program Whistleblowers Claim We Have Technology 1000 Years Ahead of Anything Seen
If you are interested in learning more about is really going on out in space then you need to watch this video. Special access programs can be massive in scope and can remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy for decades.In recent years, several credible whistleblowers have stepped forward to disclose the highly advanced technologies and the highly compartmentalized systems. Faster-than-light interstellar travel allowing humankind to reach the stars is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Interviews with insiders including Emery Smith, Clifford Stone, William Tompkins, Niara Isley and Corey Goode confirm that specific factions of humans here on Earth do have autonomous possession of interstellar travel technology, and the existence of a superluminal space naval fleet comprising various sizes and classes of vessels employing tachyon drive has been concealed from the public for many years.
A Legend That Turns Out To Be Real? Hibernating Alien Discovered Inside Secret Chamber In The Great Pyramid
A Legend That Turns Out To Be Real? Hibernating Alien Discovered Inside Secret Chamber In The Great Pyramid
A strange story about the Great Pyramid of Giza appeared in the March 2000 issue of the Egyptian magazine Rose El-Yussuf.
According to the article, in 1988, French Egyptologist Louis Caparat, discovered this mummy in 1988 in a secret room of the Great Pyramid and, “was found in a crystalline transparent case. At first the alien appeared to be hibernating,” or in a state of suspended animation. It’s believed to be a “humanoid,” which is a mix between an extraterrestrial race and human DNA.
A papyrus found near the body tells of this being’s encounter with the Pharaoh Khufu. Apparently, it said that this convinced the Pharaoh to build the Great Pyramid as a tomb for this being after he had announced the future arrival of other beings of his species (Source: the Egyptian magazine “Rose El-Yussuf” relayed by “The World Of The Unknown” in Issue 283 April 2000).
It was also determined from the papyrus that the people whom lived in Egypt during the Neolithic period was already very mixed, mostly consisting of people from the Mediterranean and Negroid that were dolichocephalic (Greek word meaning to have an elongated head).
The last update on this was that “Caparat sent a message to a colleague in Spain, Francisco de Braga, a biologist, inviting him to come to Egypt” to take blood, cell, tissue and DNA samples from the dead alien.” But when Dr. de Braga arrived in Cairo, he was detained by the Egyptian Ministry of State Security and put on a plane back to Madrid. According to Rose El-Yussuf, the dead alien was taken to a laboratory at an undisclosed location by Egyptian military intelligence.
Editor’s Note: Please take this story with a grain of salt. Mysterious dead bodies have been turning up in the Great Pyramid since Abdullah Al-Mamun first broke into the Great Pyramid in 813 A.D. Abdullah, who was the son of the famous caliph, Haroun Al-Raschid, hired a crew of Egyptians who laboriously bored a hole right through the Pyramid’s wall.
According to author Peter Tompkins:
“Some Arabian authors have reported that Al-Mamun found in the sarcophagus a stone statue in the shape of a man. They say that within the statue lay a body wearing a breastplate of gold set with precious stones, an invaluable sword on his chest, and a carbuncle ruby on his head the size of an egg, which shone as with the light of day.” – Secrets of the Great Pyramid by Peter Tompkins
On the other hand, there have been a lot of strange goings-on at the Great Pyramid since 1996, including secret UNESCO teams visiting, unmarked military vehicles and black helicopters seen at Giza, and the recent round of heavy construction.. It’s anyone’s guess what is really going on out there.
Another mummified alien (5’ 3”) was also found buried in an ancient pyramid, but this time by the archaeologist, Dr. Viktor Lubek. This one was found near Lahun, when exploring a small pyramid south of the Dynasty doceaba of Senusret II, which contains the queen of the pharaoh. This of course was not revealed immediately to the public either, and dates back to about 1880 B.C. According to a source at the Egyptian Antiquities Department, “The mummy of what appears to be an alien, dates back (to about 1880 B.C.) and it seems it would be a humanoid.” Apparently this statement, along with details and photographs of the find, were made under the condition of remaining anonymous. Inscriptions on the tomb of the mummy showed that this being was a counselor to the pharaoh and was named Osirunet, meaning “star” or “sent from heaven.” The body was said to be buried with great respect and care, and was accompanied by a number of strange artifacts made of a synthetic material that is not found in any other Egyptian tomb. Also the source claimed, “It’s unclear what sex it was, but we do know it had unusual reptilian-type skin, no external ears and overly large, almond-shaped eyes.”
A lot of the popularity of firearms is due to the fact that anyone can use them effectively, not only the strong and agile. The young, the old, men, women and child can take up firearms in defense of home and family and do so effectively.
The anonymous person that provide this find’s details claimed that the discovery has caused great controversy among Egyptian officials, who want to keep it hidden until a “plausible explanation” for the strange mummy can be made. The Egyptian government has consulted a number of respected archaeologists, but to date none can explain the finding in ordinary terms. According to the source, “The Egyptians refuse to believe that their heritage came from outer space.” The last update on this was that the mummy was to be flown to a university in Florida where specialists will examine it more closely.
It turns out that the CIA has banned archaeologists to excavate in certain areas. Some journalists had already noticed that the CIA was very interested in making their own excavations before the ban was put in place. So far there are three “hidden” openings around the Sphinx that lead to underground tunnels that are prohibited. One opening is located in-between the two front paws, another on the south side, and one on the north side.
According to the British journalist Graham Hancock, the CIA has discovered not one, but 9 chambers under the Sphinx, some of which containing metal objects. These hidden underground chambers were actually recorded in the Emerald Tablets that were supposed to be written by Thoth/Hermes. The Emerald Tablets were said to be each molded out of a single piece of emerald (green) crystal, with its true origin (possible Atlantis) lost in legends that go back over 10,000 years. Its first known translation was made into Greek by Alexandrian scholars and was actually put on display in Egypt in 330 B.C. However, around 400 A.D. it was reportedly buried somewhere on the Giza plateau to protect it from religious zealots who were burning libraries around the world at that time.
If the intelligence agencies want to get their hands on a device or documents, it means they think that the civilization of ancient Egypt was, in some areas, much more advanced than ours. Two of the most well-known descriptions of aliens mating with humans, thereby creating humanoids, comes from Robert Temple’s “The Sirius Mystery” (which tells the story of the African Dogon Tribe) and Genesis in the Bible.
“The son of God saw the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took them wives which they chose among them. (…) There were giants in the earth in those days, and also later, because the son of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children: these are powerful men who, from ancient times, were men of renown “(Genesis 6: 2-4)
Greek mythology refers to these giants as Nephilim, or fallen angels who have taught men: math, writing, music, witchcraft/alchemy, astrology, etc. These lessons were also listed in the Kabbalah, which caused many crusades to chase these secrets in Jerusalem.
Graham Hancock: America Before-Exposing the Cover-Up of Ancient Advanced Civilizations
Graham Hancock: America Before-Exposing the Cover-Up of Ancient Advanced Civilizations
GoingundergroundRT speaks to Graham Hancock about his new book America Before: The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization.
Graham Hancock has for decades been questioning the facts revolving around humanities past attempting to uncover what mainstream archaeology failed to even look at and is well worth a listen.
He discusses how dogmatism in archaeology has covered up 130,000 years of human history in the Americas and evidence of advanced civilizations that lived in the Americas thousands of years ago, which challenges colonial narratives of uncivilized natives incapable of high culture.
I reported finding these two photos in the NASA Image Atlas back in 2013, but between then and now, they got deleted. It looks as if NASA is using the research I do at this site to help edit out the existence of aliens.
These photos are much more important than you may think. The evidence that NASA deleted is not just a UFO, but is also 100% evidence that the moon is not real, but actually an alien space station. Thats right. The moons surface appears real, but as you see, the surface can open up huge doors that allow ships to exit and enter at any given time. How do you think the public would react if they knew the moon was not real, but an alien space station with its surface covered with debris to make it look like a moon? The public would panic, chaos would ensue and world governments would be in turmoil. All from two little photos, but they stopped all that from ever happening with a single stroke of a delete key. Thats why NASA exists. To control what the public knows.
Einstein’s theory was confirmed in 1919, when British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington measured the bending of starlight around the sun during a total solar eclipse. And it’s been re-confirmed since. How about now?
Black holes are long-time superstars of science fiction. But their Hollywood fame is a little strange given that no-one has ever actually seen one – at least, until now. If you needed to see to believe, then thank theEvent Horizon Telescope(EHT), which has just produced the first ever direct image of a black hole. This amazing feat required global collaboration to turn the Earth into one giant telescope and image an object thousands of trillions of kilometers away.
As stunning and ground-breaking as it is, the EHT project is not just about taking on a challenge. It’s an unprecedented test of whether Einstein’s ideas about the very nature of space and time hold up in extreme circumstances, and looks closer than ever before at the role of black holes in the universe.
To cut a long story short: Einstein was right.
Capturing the uncapturable
A black hole is a region of space whose mass is so large and dense that not even light can escape its gravitational attraction. Against the black backdrop of the inky beyond, capturing one is a near impossible task. But thanks to Stephen Hawking’s groundbreaking work, we know that the colossal masses are not just black abysses. Not only are they able to emit huge jets of plasma, but their immense gravity pulls in streams of matter into its core.
When matter approaches a black hole’s event horizon – the point at which not even light can escape – it forms an orbiting disk. Matter in this disk will convert some of its energy to friction as it rubs against other particles of matter. This warms up the disk, just as we warm our hands on a cold day by rubbing them together. The closer the matter, the greater the friction. Matter closer to the event horizon glows brilliantly bright with the heat of hundreds of suns. It is this light that the EHT detected, along with the “silhouette” of the black hole.
Producing the image and analyzing such data is an amazingly hard task. As an astronomer who studies black holes in faraway galaxies, I cannot usually even image a single star in those galaxies clearly, let alone see the black hole at their centers.
The EHT team decided to target two of the closest supermassive black holes to us – both in the large elliptical shaped galaxy, M87, and in Sagittarius A*, at the center of our Milky Way.
To give a sense of how hard this task is, while the Milky Way’s black hole has a mass of 4.1 million suns and a diameter of 60 million kilometers [37 million miles], it is 250,614,750,218,665,392 kilometers [155,724,785,574,924,740 mi] away from Earth – that’s the equivalent of traveling from London to New York 45 trillion times. As noted by the EHT team, it is like being in New York and trying to count the dimples on a golf ball in Los Angeles, or imaging an orange on the moon.
To photograph something so impossibly far away, the team needed a telescope as big as the Earth itself. In the absence of such a gargantuan machine, the EHT team connected together telescopes from around the planet, and combined their data. To capture an accurate image at such a distance, the telescopes needed to be stable, and their readings completely synchronized.
How the researchers captured the first image of a black hole.
To accomplish this challenging feat, the team used atomic clocks so accurate that they lose just one second per hundred million years. The 5,000 terabytes of data collected was so large that it had to be stored on hundreds of hard drives and physically delivered to a supercomputer, which corrected the time differences in the data and produced the image above.
General Relativity vindicated
With a sense of excitement, I watched the live stream showing the image of the black hole from the center of M87 for the first time.
The most important initial take-home is that Einstein was right. Again. His general theory of relativity has passed two serious tests from the universe’s most extreme conditions in the last few years. Here, Einstein’s theory predicted the observations from M87 with unerring accuracy, and is seemingly the correct description of the nature of space, time, and gravity.
The measurements of the speeds of matter around the center of the black hole are consistent with being near the speed of light. From the image, the EHT scientists determined that the M87 black hole is 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun and 40 billion km [25 billion mi] across – that’s larger than Neptune’s 200-year orbit of the sun.
The Milky Way’s black hole was too challenging to image accurately this time around due to rapid variability in light output. Hopefully, more telescopes will be added to the EHT’s array soon, to get ever clearer images of these fascinating objects. I have no doubt that in the near future we will be able to gaze upon the dark heart of our very own galaxy.
They say not to stare at the sun - but for a whole five months, physicist Emily Mason spent every day doing nothing but that, by examining images taken of our star's surface.
Ms Mason and her colleagues have found parts of the sun where superheated gases cool to fall back down onto the star's surface as a form of rain.
The findings create a link between two of the sun's biggest mysteries - the nature of the heating which causes the sun's outer atmosphere to be around 300 times hotter than its underlying surface, and the source of the slower and denser parts of the solar wind.
Researchers studied previously-overlooked small magnetic structures (pictured, here, in two wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light) that loop out from the sun's surface. The discovery of rain in the smaller magnetic loops has helped to narrow down the region in which coronal heating must be taking place
The sun is an enormous ball of plasma - super hot, electrically-charged gases - from which arc magnetic field lines that form giant fiery loops into space.
The notion of rain on the sun may seem absurd - but the familiar weather phenomenon is a great analogue for some of the processes that take place on the surface of our neighbourhood star.
On the Earth, rain is a key part of the water cycle. Liquid water on the Earth's surface - whether found pooled in rivers, lake or oceans - evaporates when heated by energy from the Sun. After rising into the atmosphere, water cools, condensing into clouds.
When the water droplets in clouds become too heavy to remain suspended in the air, they fall back to the Earth as rain. And thus, the cycle repeats.
On the sun, coronal rain works in a similar fashion, explains Ms Mason. 'But instead of 60-degree water you’re dealing with a million-degree plasma,' she said.
However, rather than pooling on the ground, the plasma runs along magnetic loops that extend out in arcs from the sun's surface.
At the end of each loop, where the lines emerge from the star's surface, plasma is super-heated up from a few thousand to more one million degrees Celsius (1.8m°F)
The heated plasma expands up its loop until it gathers at the apex - furthest from the source of the heat - where is can cool, condense and fall back down the loop as coronal rain.
Coronal rain had been previously observed in the wake of solar eruptions, where the heating associated with a solar flare cuts off abruptly, leaving erupted plasma to cool and fall back onto the sun’s surface.
Based on computer simulations and past observations of the solar wind, Ms Mason had been expecting to also find coronal rain in so-called 'helmet streamers' - magnetic loops millions of miles tall that stick out from the sun during solar eclipses.
Helmet streamers are so named because of their semblance to a knight's point helmet.
Scientists have known since the mid-nineties that helmet streamers are one source of the slow solar wind - the relatively sedate and dense stream of gas that escapes the sun independently of its faster-moving counterpart.
Measurements of the gas in the slow solar wind had show that it had once been heated to an extreme degree before it cooled and escaped out from the sun.
As coronal rain would undergo similar heating and cooling, it had seemed likely that such rain would play a part in the activity along helmet streamers and the resulting formation of the slow wind.
At the same time, as simulations predict that coronal rain can only form when heat is applied to the very bottom of the host magnetic loop - the lower 10 per cent, or less - identifying the size of a loop containing rain would provide a form of measuring rod to determine the limited region above the sun's surface in which the corona gets heated.
The search for coronal rain in helmet streamers, therefore, was on.
Ms Mason studied images taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory - a spacecraft which has been photographing the sun every twelve seconds since it was launched back in 2010.
However, she spent almost half a year searching for coronal rain in helmet streamers without avail.
'I probably looked through three or five years' worth of data,' Ms Mason said. 'It was a lot of looking for something that never ultimately happened.'
Coronal rain (pictured in this image taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2012) had previously been observed in the wake of solar eruptions, when the heating associated with a solar flare cuts off abruptly, causing the plasma to cool and fall back on the sun’s surface. In the new study, Ms Mason and colleagues were not looking at coronal rain from such eruptions, but instead those caused by the cyclical process of heating and cooling of plasma along magnetic field lines
Instead, Ms Mason kept finding coronal rain in other magnetic structures - tiny loops only 30,000 miles (48,000 km) high, a mere per cent of the size of the helmet streamers she had been intending to concentrate on.
'They were really bright and they kept drawing my eye,' said Ms Mason. “When I finally took a look at them, sure enough they had tens of hours of rain at a time.'
However, being focused on her objective of locating rain in helmet streamers, she initially dismissed these findings - until colleagues realised that her observations were quite novel.
'She came to group meeting and said, "I never found it — I see it all the time in these other structures, but they’re not helmet streamers," ' said solar scientist and paper co-author Nicholeen Viall.
'And I said, "Wait…hold on. Where do you see it? I don’t think anybody’s ever seen that before!" '
The discovery of rain in the smaller magnetic loops has helped to narrow down the region in which coronal heating must be taking place.
'We still don’t know exactly what’s heating the corona, but we know it has to happen in this layer,' said Ms Mason.
Some of the findings forced the researchers to reconsider previous theories, too.
It had been thought that coronal rain can only form on closed magnetic loops - where the superheated plasma can gather at the far end of a loop and cool without any means of escape.
However, as Ms Mason studied the data on the small loops, she also found cases where rain appeared to be forming on open magnetic field lines.
Such open lines are only anchored to the sun at one end - with the other extremity reaching out into space, feeding the solar wind.
Plasma, the researchers now suggest, always begins it journey on a closed magnetic loop - but can switch to an open loop through a process known as magnetic reconnection.
Reconnection occurs frequently on the Sun, happening when closed loops bump into open field lines, changing the ways the field is lain out.
Like train switching tracks, superheated plasma can thus find itself on on open loop - meaning that on cooling some of it will inevitably fall back on to the sun as coronal rain, but the rest is free to escape.
This, the scientists suggest, is how part of the slow solar wind is released.
Mason hunted for coronal rain in helmet streamers like the one pictured on the left of the sun, as seen during a 1994 eclipse photographed from South America. Helmet streamers extend far into the sun’s faint corona. A smaller, 'pseudostreamer' can be seen on the right hand side of the image
Ms Mason is working on creating a computer simulation to support this new explanation.
Further evidence may come from the Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, which will be able to fly though burst of the slow solar wind and trace its origin point on the sun - such as, perhaps, one of Ms Mason's coronal rain events.
'Potentially we can make that connection with Parker Solar Probe and say - that was it,' said Dr Viall.
Despite these fortuitous findings, the search for coronal rain in helmet streamers carries forth - with simulations still predicting that the two phenomena should be found together.
“Maybe it’s so small you can’t see it?” muses paper author and solar physicist Spiro Antiochos, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He admits: “We really don’t know.”
The sun and its atmosphere are made of plasma – a mix of positively and negatively charged particles which have separated at extremely high temperatures, that both carries and travels along magnetic field lines.
Material from the corona streams out into space, filling the solar system with the solar wind.
But scientists found that as the plasma travels further away from the sun, things change.
Views of the solar wind from NASA's STEREO spacecraft (left) and after computer processing (right). Scientists used an algorithm to dim the appearance of bright stars and dust in images of the faint solar wind
The sun begins to lose magnetic control, forming the boundary that defines the outer corona – the very edge of the sun.
The breakup of the rays is similar to the way water shoots out from a squirt gun.
First, the water is a smooth and unified stream, but it eventually breaks up into droplets, then smaller drops and eventually a fine, misty spray.
A recent Nasa study captured the plasma at the same stage where a stream of water gradually disintegrates into droplets.
If charged particles from solar winds hit Earth's magnectic field, this can cause problems for satellite and communication equipment.
Rain takes different forms on the planets and moons of our solar system. But it also “rains” on the sun, as electrified gas drips from giant magnetic loops in the sun’s outer atmosphere. Read about the sun’s coronal rain.
Coronal rain in a prominence, or solar eruption, as seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) in 2012.
Gif via Solar Dynamics Observatory/Scientific Visualization Studio/Tom Bridgman (Lead Animator).
Rain comes in various forms throughout the solar system – water on Earth, methane/ethane on Titan and sulfuric acid on Venus. But did you know it also rains on thesun? Well, kind of. Huge drops ofplasma – electrified gas – can drip fromprominences(giant magnetic loops of gas) in the sun’s outer atmosphere, thecorona, onto the scorching surface. This unusual phenomenon, calledcoronal rain, was the focus of study of a NASA undergraduate student who wanted to document it better.
In a new peer-reviewed paper in Astrophysical Journal Letters – published on April 5, 2019 – Emily Mason at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center outlines how she found evidence for the coronal rain, but in an unexpected place.
When Mason first started searching for the evidence of coronal rain, she first looked at helmet streamers – million-mile-tall prominences named for their resemblance to a knight’s pointy helmet – seen protruding from the sun during a total solar eclipse. Computer simulations had suggested that would be the location most likely to have coronal rain. Mason searched for nearly half a year … but found no signs of the plasma rain, even though she had images taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which has photographed the sun every 12 seconds since it was launched in 2010. As Mason said:
I probably looked through three or five years’ worth of data. It was a lot of looking, for something that never ultimately happened.
Giant loops of plasma gas on the sun, called helmet streamers. It was thought that the coronal rain would be found in them, but the search turned up empty.
Image via Úpice Observatory/Vojtech Rušin (1994)/Miloslav Druckmüller (2007).
So where was it? It should be there, Mason knew. As it turned out, Mason and her colleagues had been looking in the wrong place. Instead of the helmet streamers, the rain was found in a smaller kind of magnetic loop on the sun. It was there, just not in the place that the researchers had expected to find it. The discovery should help scientists figure out the unusual heating of the sun’s corona and the source of the slow solar wind, two mysteries about the sun that still perplex scientists. The rain was observed as a slew of tiny magnetic structures, Mason said:
They were really bright and they kept drawing my eye. When I finally took a look at them, sure enough they had tens of hours of rain at a time.
As Spiro Antiochos, a solar physicist at Goddard and a co-author of the paper, explained:
These loops were much smaller than what we were looking for. So that tells you that the heating of the corona is much more localized than we were thinking. Maybe it [the coronal rain] is so small you can’t see it? We really don’t know.
As Nicholeen Viall, a solar scientist at Goddard, also noted, it took a while to recognize the structures for what they were:
She came to group meeting and said, ‘I never found it — I see it all the time in these other structures, but they’re not helmet streamers.’ And I said, ‘Wait … hold on. Where do you see it? I don’t think anybody’s ever seen that before!’
The coronal rain was found in smaller magnetic loops like these, the newly-found Raining Null-Point Topologies (RNTPs).
Image via Solar Dynamics Observatory/Emily Mason.
So just how does this “rain” happen? In general terms, the process is similar to what occurs on Earth, Mason said:
But instead of 60-degree water you’re dealing with a million-degree plasma.
Unlike water, though, plasma is an electrically-charged gas. It follows the prominences coming out from the sun’s surface, and is extremely hot – from a few thousand to over 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million degrees Celsius). At the peak of the prominence, it condenses and then falls back down to the sun’s surface as coronal rain.
In Earth’s hydrological cycle, water evaporates on the surface and rises up into the atmosphere. It then cools and condenses into clouds, and when there is enough moisture in the clouds, it falls back to the surface as rain. Coronal rain is a somewhat similar process, but with a completely different composition of the rain itself.
As for helping to solve some of the sun’s mysteries, the coronal rain provides some clues.
Measurement of the gas in the slow solar wind – separate from the other fast-moving solar wind – indicated it had been heated to extreme degrees before cooling and escaping the sun. But how? If the process happened within the helmet streamers, then the cyclical process of heating and cooling behind coronal rain could explain that. But since the rain seems to happen more in the smaller loops, that idea may need some more work.
The many different parts of the sun, including the corona and prominences.
In previous theories, it was thought that coronal rain only occurred in closed loops, where the plasma heats and cools, but can’t escape into space. Mason’s work suggests, however, that the rain begins in a closed loop, but then switches – through a process called magnetic reconnection – to an open one, like a train switching tracks. Some of the plasma will then escape, but some will fall back to the surface as rain. The plasma that does escape forms part of the slow solar wind.
Then there is the other, long-standing puzzle of why the sun’s outer atmosphere is 300 times hotter than its surface. On the face of it, that observed fact doesn’t seem to make logical sense. As Mason found, the rain in the loops can provide a cutoff point to determine just where the corona is getting heated:
If a loop has coronal rain on it, that means that the bottom 10 percent of it, or less, is where coronal heating is happening.
These scientists now hope that NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which is making the closest passes of the sun ever – even flying right through the corona – will help to further confirm, or not, Mason’s findings.
Bottom line: Rain on the sun may sound nonsensical, but it is real – albeit in a form unlike anything on Earth – and may help to solve some long-lingering puzzles about how our sun works.
Posted by Larry Sessions in ASTRONOMY ESSENTIALS | BRIGHTEST STARS
We see this nearly star system as a single star in our sky, but it’s really 3 stars. Of the 3, Proxima is closer to our sun than any other known star.
The foreground of this image shows the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). In August 2016, ESO announced a planet orbiting the star Proxima in the Alpha Centauri system. Astronomers call it Proxima b, and it’s now the nearest known exoplanet to Earth. See a list of the nearest exoplanets.
The Alpha Centauri system is the closest star system to our sun. On our sky’s dome, we see this multiple system as a single star and the third-brightest star visible from Earth. Alpha Centauri is part of a double, or triple, star system. The two main components are Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. The third star, a red dwarf called Proxima Centauri, is about 4.22light-yearsdistant and is actually our sun’s closest neighbor among the stars. Is it gravitationally bound to the other two stars? Scientists are still arguing about that. More about it below.
If you looked through a small telescope at the Alpha Centauri system, you’d see the two main stars, but you wouldn’t see Proxima Centauri. It’s too faint and appears too far (four diameters of the full moon) away to be easily recognized at part of the system.
A comparison of the sizes and colors of the stars in the Alpha Centauri system with our sun.
Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Proxima is the closest of Alpha Centauri’s three stars to Earth.
Faint red Proxima Centauri is nearly a fifth of a light year from Alpha Centauri A and B. This great distance is what calls into question its status as part of a triple star system. In other words, there’s some debate about whether Proxima is truly bound to the other two stars of the system. Is it? Its status is unclear. It might simply be passing nearby but not part of the system. Still, we say – and others say – that Alpha Centauri is the closest star to our solar system, with the assumption that Proxima is a true part of the Alpha Centauri system.
Let’s look at Proxima’s distance from the other two stars in the Alpha Centauri system another way. Proxima’s orbit around the two primary stars is thought to take as long as half a billion years.
What’s more, Proxima Centauri is a pipsqueak of a star. It’s a red dwarf star with only about an eighth of the mass of our sun. If Proxima replace the sun in our solar system, it would shine only as brightly as 45 full moons. Meanwhile, our sun is 400,000 times brighter than a full moon.
Proxima is also a flare star subject to sudden changes in brightness. Its flares are really feeble, though. On a brighter star, they might not have been noticed.
So let’s assume, as most astronomers do, that Proxima is part of the Alpha Centauri system, just a very strange, small and distant part.
And no matter whether it’s gravitationally bound to Alpha Centauri A and B or not, Proxima is still the closest known star to our Earth and sun. It’s about a trillion kilometers (620 billion miles) closer than the other two stars in the Alpha Centauri system.
Hence the name Proxima, from the Latin root prox, which means close or near.
Unluckily for us in the Northern Hemisphere, Alpha Centauri is located very far to the south on the sky’s dome. Most North Americans never see it. The cut-off latitude is about 29 degrees north, and anyone north of that is out of luck. In the U.S. the line passes near Houston and Orlando, but even from the Florida Keys, the star never rises more than a few degrees above the southern horizon. Things are a little better in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, where it can get 10 or 11 degrees high.
Northern Hemisphere dwellers might glimpse Alpha Centauri at roughly 1 a.m. (local daylight saving time) in early May. That is when the star system would be highest above the southern horizon. By early July, the system reaches its highest point to the south at nightfall.
Meanwhile, in Australia and much of the southern hemisphere, Alpha Centauri is circumpolar, meaning that it never sets. Also called Rigel Kentaurus or Rigel Kent, this neighboring star is probably the most famous star that almost no one in the Northern Hemisphere has actually seen.
You must be south of 29 degrees N. latitude even to glimpse Alpha Centauri. This chart shows the view from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. From there, Alpha Centauri’s constellation – Centaurus the Centaur – is circumpolar. It circles around and around the sky’s south pole.
For northern observers, there really are no good pointer stars to Alpha Centauri. When the bright star Arcturus is high overhead, Alpha Centauri might be low in your southern sky, assuming you are south of 29 degrees N. latitude.
Observers in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere can find Alpha Centauri by first identifying the distinctive Southern Cross. A short line drawn through the crossbar (Delta and Beta Crucis) eastward first comes to Hadar (Beta Centauri), then Alpha Centauri.
If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, you can identify Alpha Centauri using the Southern Cross as a guide. A line drawn through the crossbar of the Cross, eastward, first comes to Hadar (Beta Centauri), then Alpha Centauri.
To the eye – taken by itself – Alpha Centauri A appears as the fourth-brightest star seen from Earth, just slightly outshone by Arcturus. However, the combined light of Alpha Centauri A and B is slightly greater than Arcturus, so the system appears as the third-brightest star visible in Earth’s sky. These stars are an average of 4.3 light-yearsaway.
Yellow Alpha Centauri A is the same stellar type as our sun (G2), although a bit larger. It looks bright in our sky because of its nearness to Earth. Just a few degrees away, the star Hadar (a separate star sometimes called Beta Centauri, not to be confused with Alpha Centauri B) appears dimmer in our sky than Alpha Centauri. But in fact, Hadar is much farther away at 525 light-years.
So you see that Alpha Centauri A isn’t a fabulously brilliant star, as stars go.
Alpha Centauri A and B are a double-star system, and a third star Proxima – whose location with respect to the other two is indicated here by an arrow – might or might not be gravitationally bound to them. Proxima is the closest star to Earth.
Image via the European Southern Observatory.
Alpha Centauri A’s surface temperature is a few degrees Kelvin less than our sun (that is, about 5770 K [5,500 degrees C or 10,000 F]), but its greater diameter (about 25 percent more than the sun) and the overall larger surface area gives it a luminosity nearly 1.6 times that of our star.
The smaller member of the system – orangish Alpha Centauri B – is slightly smaller than our sun, with a spectral type of K2. With a lower temperature (about 5300 K [5,000 C or 9,000 F) and only half the luminosity of the sun, Alpha Centauri B would shine – by itself – as the 21st brightest star in our sky.
These two brighter components of the system orbit a common center of gravity once every 80 years. The orbit is notably elliptical (non-circular), with average distance between the two stars of about 11 astronomical units, or Earth-sun distances.
The Alpha Centauri system appears to the eye as a single bright star, the brightest star in the southern constellation Centaurus the Centaur. Two alternative names for this star, Toliman and Bungula, are rarely used any more. The derivations are somewhat questionable, but Toliman may be from the Arabic for ostriches and Bungula apparently derives from Latin meaning hoof.
Thousands of years ago, a motion of Earth called precession – which causes the identity of the Pole Star to change over time – caused Alpha Centauri to appear higher in the sky as seen from the Northern Hemisphere than it does now. But it was still far to the south and often difficult to see.
Classical myth-makers didn’t spend much time with this constellation, although it was thought to represent an uncharacteristically wise centaur that figured in the mythology of Heracles and Jason. The centaur was accidentally wounded by Heracles, and placed into the sky after death by Zeus.
Alpha Centauri itself marked the right front hoof of the Centaur, although little is known of its mythological significance, if any. Ancient Egyptians revered it, and may have built temples aligned to its rising point. In southern China it was part of a star group known as the South Gate.
Astronomers determined the distance to the Alpha Centauri system for the first time in 1839, only a few months after they made the first-ever distance determination to a star (61 Cygni).
Alpha Centauri’s position is RA: 14h 39m 41s, dec: -60° 50′ 07″
Bottom line:The Alpha Centauri system is the closest star system to our sun. On our sky’s dome, we see this multiple system as a single star – the third-brightest star visible from Earth. Charts, photos and info about this fascinating star system.
Come one, come all and behold the future of space travel:steam power!
No, seriously; half a century after the world's first manned space mission, it seems that interplanetary travel has finally entered the steam age. Scientists at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have teamed up withHoneybee Robotics, a private space and mining tech company based in California, to develop a small, steam-powered spacecraft capable of sucking its fuel right out of theasteroids, planetsandmoons it's exploring.
By continuously turning extraterrestrial water into steam, this microwave-sized lander could, theoretically, power itself on an indefinite number of planet-hopping missions across the galaxy — so long as it always lands somewhere with H20 for the taking. [Hyperloop, Jetpacks & More: 9 Futuristic Transit Ideas]
"We could potentially use this technology to hop on the moon, Ceres, Europa, Titan, Pluto, the poles of Mercury, asteroids — anywhere there is water and sufficiently low gravity," Phil Metzger, a UCF space scientist and one of the chief minds behind the steampunk starship, said in a statement. Metzger added that such a self-sufficient spacecraft could explore the cosmos "forever."
Metzger and his colleagues call the lander WINE (short for “World Is Not Enough”), and a prototype of the craft recently completed its first test mission on a simulated asteroid surface in California. Using a compact drilling apparatus, the lander successfully mined the fake comet for water, converted that H20 into rocket propellant and launched itself into the air using a set of steam-powered thrusters.
While the phrase "steam-powered spaceship" might initially evoke images of a rusty, gear-laden, fog-belching bucket of bolts, the technology behind WINE is far more complex than it sounds. To get the prototype working just right, Metzger spent three years developing new steam propulsion computer models and equations to help WINE optimize its operations in response to the varying gravitational demands of its surroundings. If a WINE-like robot ever makes it to space, built-in solar panels could provide it with the initial energy needed to start its off-world drilling operations.
The successful test run is a big feather in WINE's proverbial steampunk top hat, but there's a long way to go before the lander can be tested in an actual space environment. NASA sees value in the potentially self-sufficient starship and helped fund the early stages of the project; now, the developers are seeking new partners to help take WINE out of the lab and onto another world.
Mankind has been gazing into space for some time now, but scientists still haven’t found any evidence that intelligent life exists in our neck of the cosmic woods. The universe is, of course, huge, so we normally just assume that our inability to detect alien civilizations is due to the fact that they’re just too far away. A new report by researchers at the University of Cadiz in Spain suggests that maybe that’s not actually the case, pointing to a very different possibility: we’re simply blind to their existence.
Human scientist have an unfortunate tendency to look for alien civilizations that are, well, human-like. This preconceived notion that life as we know exists elsewhere could be hampering our ability to detect alien life hiding in plain sight, the study explains.
The work, which was published in the journal Acta Astronautica, discusses the possibility of alien life existing in a way that humans quite literally cannot fathom. It’s both scary and fascinating to imagine, but it does make a good bit of sense when you suspend your disbelief for a moment.
“What we are trying to do with this differentiation is to contemplate other possibilities,” Gabriel de la Torre, a neuropsychologist who co-led the study, explains. “For example, beings of dimensions that our minds cannot grasp; or intelligences based on dark matter or energy, which make up almost 95 percent of the universe and which we are only beginning to glimpse. There is even the possibility that other universes exist, as the texts of Stephen Hawking and other scientists indicate.”
To prove that humans are often misguided by their own expectations, the researchers conducted an experiment where they asked 137 people to determine whether structures and features in a number of aerial photographs were either manmade or natural. In one of the photographs, the researchers hid a tiny image of a gorilla to see whether or not the subjects would spot it. The participants did as they were told, but many of them completely missed the gorilla simply because they weren’t specifically looking for it.
The team calls this unintentional bias is called inattentional blindness, and they suggest that a similar phenomenon may be happening with astronomers and the scientific community on a larger scale. Put simply, if we don’t know what we should be looking for, we likely won’t find anything at all, which is exactly what has happened up to this point in the search for alien life.
Even on the clearest, darkest night far from city lights, you can see only about 1% of the Milky Way galaxy's100 billion to 400 billionstars.
Here's the real trip though: For every star in the Milky Way, there's a unique galaxy drifting through the universe, each with it's own billions of stars, and approximately one planet orbiting each of those stars. That's billions and billions and billions of worlds.
And yet decades' worth of missions by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), an organization which listens for signs of life in space, have come up completely empty handed. Every. Single. One.
Physicist Enrico Fermi is famous for posing the natural question that follows: Where is everybody?The scale of the universe and basic math tell us alien life must be common, yet there's no evidence for it.
Welcome to the Fermi paradox.
Philosophers, physicists, and astronomers have tried to answer the Fermi paradox since its unofficial inception in 1950. Even Edward Snowden, a digital surveillance expert and former NSA contractor,recently shared his best explanation on StarTalk, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's podcast.
These and other answers proposed by experts are deeply unsettling — especially if you spend too much time researching them, like I did.
Keep scrolling down to get a little background on why it's so inconceivable we are utterly alone in the universe, and why it's so spooky we have yet to hear from anyone.
Aliens 101: The Kardashev Scale & Fermi Paradox
Think about how far humanity has progressed in its short 200,000 years of existence. Now consider that our galaxy is roughly 10 billionyears old.
If we can go from cave-dwelling hominids to an internet-using and robot-building society in 200,000 years, what could an alien race achieve in 10 billion years?
That's more than enough time for a civilization to develop sophisticated rockets — possibly faster-than-light travel, wormhole technology, or some other kind of cosmic shortcut that would allow them to rapidly colonize the galaxy and beyond.
The Kardashev Scale, created by astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev, is helpful when considering such technological advancement by a developing civilization. It has three types:
A Type-I civilization has figured out how to harness all the energy on its planet. Humans are getting close to achieving this, but that's just the first tier.
Type-II civilizations are so intelligent they've figured out how to harness all the energy of their own star — an incomprehensibly larger amount of energy than what's available on one puny planet.
That's nothing compared to the Type-III civilizations, though. Those have harnessed all the energy available in their galaxy.
Any type of civilization on the Kardashev Scale would be more than capable of colonizing the universe. But we haven't detected any of these civilizations — and that's the heart of the Fermi Paradox.
You can group the best explanations for the paradox into two distinct categories: one in which aliens don't exist, and we're completely alone in the universe, and one in which aliens do exist, but for some reason we haven't made contact.
Let's start with leading ideas in the former category.
Aliens don't exist #1: The Rare Earth Hypothesis
Life on Earth might simply be a freak accident of nature, and it may not exist anywhere else in the entire universe.
This idea is called the rare Earth hypothesis. It suggests a perfect storm of things like Earth's protective magnetosphere, temperature, size, axis tilt, etc., all came together to create a very precise cradle for life to arise. These are the only conditions that life can exist in, and they don't exist anywhere else.
While it's certainly possible, the odds aren't in this idea's favor — the universe is far too vast.
For example, the European Space Agency estimates there's about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 10 24) stars in the observable universe.
There's no scientific consensus as to how many of those stars might be like our own Sun, and how many may have Earth-like planets orbiting around them. But if you take even the most conservative estimate out there, then about 5% of those 10 24 stars are like the Sun. That means there are 500 billion billion other Sun-like stars.
Next, if you take the lowest estimate of how many of those Sun-like stars have an Earth-like planet orbiting it (22%), that means about 100 billion billion other Earth-like planets are out there.
Put another way, roughly 100 Earth-like planets exist for every grain of sand on Earth. Surely one of those would have life on it?
Aliens don't exist #2: The Great Filter
If Earth isn't the only planet capable of supporting life, and there are definitely no aliens out there, then something grim is going on.
That something is called the great filter, and it's kind of terrifying.
The idea is that before a civilization can make it very far along the Kardashev scale of intelligence, it hits a wall — a filter — and it dies. That's why we haven't heard from anyone: Life regularly evolves to where we're at here on Earth, then some powerful, inevitable force snuffs it out. (Nuclear weapons? Overpopulation? Asteroids? Disease?)
The problem is that there's no way to know where on the timeline of life that the great filter sits. Did we already make it past the filter, or are we are on our way to inevitable doom?
There are three possible scenarios to explain why we're still here.
a) We made it past the great filter.
This is the most optimistic interpretation. Maybe we're so clever and rare that we somehow found our way past the Great Filter while all other lifeforms have failed.
There's no way to tell what critical moment in our history may have gotten us past the filter though. It may have happened at very beginning of life. Maybe the great filter is the likelihood that life arises at all in the first place.
Or it could be the jump from simple cells to complex ones. Or the jump from semi-intelligent animals (apes) to intelligent hominids.
b) The great filter is still ahead of us, but we're the first form of life that has a shot of making it past.
If you don't buy into the idea that we're so rare and special that we're the only ones to make it past the great filter, there's another pretty optimistic view point to which you can subscribe.
Maybe it's pretty easy to make it past the great filter, but the conditions in the universe have only just become ripe to support intelligent life that makes it to the other side.
That would make us the first form of life that has a chance to survive beyond the great filter. We're simply in the right place at the right time to have a shot.
c) The great filter is still ahead of us and we're all screwed.
Being in the right place at the right time would take a lot of luck. So if you don't think we're past the great filter, and you don't think we're the first life forms with a shot at making it past the great filter, there's only one remaining conclusion: Humans are toast.
A cataclysmic natural disaster, such as a huge asteroid impact or gamma ray burst, could obliterate the planet. Or we could invent some kind of super-advanced tech that will destroy us all.
That's why some scientists and philosophers are praying that we don't discover even simple microbial life somewhere like Mars or Europa. If we find life elsewhere, that will mean that it's much more likely that the great filter is still ahead of us and we're headed for disaster.
"So this is why I conclude that the silence in the night sky is golden, and why, in the search for extraterrestrial life, no news is good news," Oxford philosophy professor Nick Bostrom writes on his website. "It promises a potentially great future for humanity."
...Or maybe we just haven't heard from anyone yet.
Let's now move past that depressing "great filter" idea of inevitable doom.
Instead, we can consider the possibility that extraterrestrial life is abundant — but for a number of reasons, we haven't been able to get in touch with any of it.
Aliens do exist #1:They just visited Earth before intelligent life existed here
Humans have only existed for about 200,000 years out of the Earth's 4.5-billion-year existence. That's just a tiny sliver of our planet's timeline.
Aliens might have visited the Earth when is was still a molten ball of lava or a stew of primordial soup.
Or, for all we know, the dinosaurs might have seen some crazy aliens that left long before humans arrived on the scene.
Aliens do exist #2: The galaxy is colonized but we live out in the boonies
When Europeans landed in the Americas, it took a long time before they reached some distant Native Americans living far out on the West Coast.
It might be possible that alien civilizations just haven't traveled far enough to stumble upon us yet. Sort of like the remote ice planet Hoth in "Star Wars," or the wild west of space travel, as is portrayed in the TV show "Firefly."
Aliens do exist #3: Other civilizations live in a utopia and can't be bothered by us
Intelligent alien life may have discovered a way to upload their minds into a completelyself-sustaining virtual reality world where they don't need access to outside resources or energy.
They're perfectly content in the world they created, and not only completely unconcerned about getting in touch with us but reticent to do so.
Aliens do exist #4: Super-intelligent civilizations prey on lesser civilizations like ours
It's possible we haven't heard from anyone else because they know better to broadcast any signals, or at least encrypt them (as Snowden suggests) — lest one of these killer civilizations pick it up. That's why some experts are vehemently opposed to a Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) mission: the controversial next step to SETI, where instead of just passively listening, we actively send messages out into the cosmos.
You can take this creepy idea even farther. Maybe the first civilization that managed to achieve super intelligence is the ruler of the universe and it's out there destroying anyone else that gets close to its level.
So unfortunately, once again, we might be on a dangerous path — this time by blasting any and all communications into space.
Aliens do exist #5: Aliens are broadcasting all kinds of signals, but we're so laughably primitive we can't pick them up
Aliens might be actively broadcasting signals and trying to communicate with us, we just might not have the means to detect any of it.
Maybe we can't access the right frequencies. Maybe we don't have the right technologies yet. Maybe other life forms only communicate via telepathy.
Or perhaps super-advanced aliens might exist, and they don't want to blow our minds by visiting us with their incomprehensible technology and intelligence. They're simply waiting until we catch up, treating us as an exhibit at a zoo — look but don't touch...
Aliens do exist #6: They're everywhere, but we can't wrap our puny Type-I minds around what they are
If you've seen Interstellar, think about the aliens that exist in a fifth dimension and built a wormhole.
...Or we're completely wrong about all of this, and reality is nothing like what we perceive
We could be living in the Matrix, and we were put here by another super-intelligent race as an experiment. Or maybe we're all just one big computer simulation.
The bottom line is we don't know. The most intelligent people in the world have wildly different opinions about the answer to the Fermi paradox.
Humanity could be completely alone — the king of the cosmos, as our Earth-bubble has already led us to believe. Or other Type II and Type III lifeforms exist and we're a tiny, insignificant piece of a vast universe full of life. It's humbling, but also oddly comforting to consider that there could be far more to existence than we think there is.
Whatever the answer is, there's a lot to think about the next time you look up at the night sky.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Dark Forest theory: A terrifying explanation of why we haven’t heard from aliens yet
Dark Forest theory: A terrifying explanation of why we haven’t heard from aliens yet
The Fermi paradox asks us where all the aliens are if the cosmos should be filled with them. The Dark Forest theory says we should pray we never find them.
The Milky Way galaxy has 200 billion stars and perhaps 100 billion planets. If even a small fraction of those planets harbored life, and even if only a pathetic scattering of those planets had lifeforms which became intelligent, our galaxy would be teeming with alien civilizations, some of whom would be either looking for us or discoverable for at least a little while.
The number of alien civilizations the galaxy should have can be determined by an equation, the Drake equation, that turns the above factors into variables. When you plug them into the formula, you find that there should be at least 20 civilizations in our cosmic neighborhood.
This makes the fact that we have yet to find any other life in the cosmos almost shocking when you think about it. This seeming discord between how many advanced civilizations ought to be in space and the lack of evidence for any is known as the Fermi paradox. It has lead to dozens of hypotheses and potential solutions over the last few decades.
Many of the solutions aim at one of the variables in the Drake equation and try to make the supposed number of civilizations lower so it is more reasonable for us to not have met anybody yet.
Some propose that life starting at all is rare, others suggest that the development of intelligence is the bottleneck, others still posit that most civilizations would live for a short time before blowing themselves up or, conversely, never even manage to invent the radio.
One solution, however, is a bit darker than the others
The Dark Forest solution explains why we haven't heard from aliens by positing that they are purposefully keeping quiet.
The reasoning is laid out best in the science fiction novel The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin. The plot of the book, the second in a series, concerns questions of how to best interact with potentially hostile alien life.
In the novel, the argument is laid out like this:
All life desires to stay alive.
There is no way to know if other lifeforms can or will destroy you if given a chance.
Lacking assurances, the safest option for any species is to annihilate other life forms before they have a chance to do the same.
Since all other lifeforms in the novel are risk-averse and willing to do anything to save themselves, contact of any kind is dangerous, as it almost assuredly would lead to the contacted race wiping out whoever was foolish enough to give away their location. This leads to all civilizations attempting to hide in radio silence.
The reasoning behind the paranoia is explained in this paragraph from the novel:
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds another life—another hunter, angel, or a demon, a delicate infant to tottering old man, a fairy or demigod—there's only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them.
Some propose that life starting at all is rare, others suggest that the development of intelligence is the bottleneck. Others posit that most civilizations would live for a short time before blowing themselves up or, conversely, never even manage to invent the radio.
Is there a non-literary approach to this solution? Or is it just an idea that is good for a story?
It was also put forth by scientist David Brin as a potential solution to the lack of radio evidence for alien life. While the variant he describes relies on robotic probes carrying out the task of killing off civilizations other than the one that created it, the core concept remains the same. In this excerpt, he explains why this solution an attractive one for scientific purposes and terrifying for existential reasons:
“It is consistent with all of the facts and philosophical principles described in the first part of this article. There is no need to struggle to suppress the elements of the Drake equation in order to explain the Great Silence, nor need we suggest that no ETIS anywhere would bear the cost of interstellar travel. It need only happen once for the results of this scenario to become the equilibrium condition in the Galaxy. We would not have detected extraterrestrial radio traffic- nor would any ETIS have ever settled on Earth- because all were killed shortly after discovering radio."
He then reminds us that broadcasts of I Love Lucy are racing across the cosmos, ready to reveal our location and sense of humor to anybody who can pick them up.
How plausible is this theory?
This theory has the advantage of only affecting one of the variables in the Drake equation and affecting the one that is the most open to speculation. It also doesn't require us to make broad assumptions about how all alien civilizations behave; a single advanced race that acts this way would be enough to cause the observed situation.
This would also explain why we haven't found any mundane alien radio signals despite a century of being able to pick them up. Just as we accidentally send our radio signals, meant for us, out into space, another civilization would be likely to as well. One possible reason for this is that other civilizations are so fearful of being detected that they purposely avoid sending out any radio evidence of their existence.
It does, however, assume that other species have a similar risk aversion level and reasoning process as we do or that there really is one civilization out there killing off anybody they think can harm them. This is a big assumption.
Why is this theory dark?
We've been screaming our existence to the cosmos for almost one hundred years now. Any aliens within a one hundred light year radius of us would be receiving a barrage of radio signals from our direction. If we had reason to avoid letting aliens know about us, as Stephen Hawking thought we did, we might have a problem.
Why haven't we heard from aliens yet? If this solution is correct, they are purposely hiding in the darkness of space for fear of death. Should we stop broadcasting our existence to the universe too then? Or would alien life be a little nicer than we've been in our history.
From 1935 to 1943, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed millions of (mostly) men unemployed by the Great Depression for public works projects such as building roads, bridges and schools. The WPA also employed musicians, writers and actors in arts and literacy projects. One little known activity in Texas involved hunting for and collecting fossils across the state. Those fossils – tens of thousands of them – were taken to a storage facility at the University of Texas and, once the Depression was over, forgotten … until now. A researcher found them and traced many of the most unusual fossils to an area in Beeville that had such a diverse animal population, it has been given a new name: the Texas Serengeti.
“It’s the most representative collection of life from this time period of Earth history along the Texas Coastal Plain.”
Steven May is the research associate at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences who found and studied the fossils and traced them to four dig sites, including one in Bee County in southern Texas. According to a press release by UT, finding where they came from was necessary because, while the collection was huge, there were many missing pieces.
“They collected the big, obvious stuff. But that doesn’t fully represent the incredible diversity of the Miocene environment along the Texas Coastal Plain.”
Did Texas once look like this?
Using aerial photography and notes from the WPA program stored in the university’s archives, May and his team found the exact location of one of the dig sites along a creek on a private ranch near Beeviille, the Bee country seat. In his paper, “The Lapara Creek Fauna: Early Clarendonian of south Texas, USA,” published in Palaeontologia Electronica, May describes the breadth of the diversity that earned the spot the title of “Texas Serengeti.”
“Of the 50 species of fossil vertebrates, five species are fish, seven are reptiles, two are birds and 36 are mammals. The 36 species of mammals represent 31 genera of which four are rodents, five are carnivores, two are proboscideans, 10 are artiodactyls and 10 are perissodactyls.”
For those not up on their Clarendonian age animals, proboscideans are elephant ancestors, artiodactyls are hoofed animals that bear their weight on two of their five toes (cattle, sheep, llamas, etc.) and perissodactyls are hoofed animals that bear their weight on one toe (horses, rhinos, etc.). If that’s not enough to get you excited and yelling “Go Texas” and “Hook ‘em Horns,” May points out that the collection includes new genus of gomphothere, an extinct relative of elephants, an extinct cousin of modern dogs and the oldest fossils of the American alligator.
Don’t mess with Texas. Go do your business in Oklahoma.
After being kept in the dark for 80 years at UT and about 10,000 years in Beeville dirt before that, the Texas Serengeti fossils are moving around more now than they did on the Texas plain. They’re being used in UT classes to teach archeology students how to carefully find and remove fossils so they can resume the work started in the 1930s when it was just an activity to keep people whole, active and earning a decent wage until the Depression ended. These students will have the advantage of better equipment, computerized analysis tools and educators who won’t forget where the bones are.
The Texas Serengeti … an archeological Lone Star goldmine or a new adventure movie starring Matthew McConaughey?
Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI has declassified thousands of pages ofmaterial on L. Ron Hubbardand the Church of Scientology. One of those documents references a letter that Hubbard penned to the FBI. It dealt with something very strange, indeed. According to the FBI, Hubbard said that on February 23, 1951, “… about two or three o’clock in the morning his apartment was entered. He was knocked out. Aneedle was thrustinto his heart to produce a coronary thrombosis and he was given an electric shock. He said his recollection of this incident was now very blurred, that he had no witnesses and that the only other person who had a key to the apartment was his wife.”
L. Ron Hubbard
Moving on, there’s the strange story of Kenneth Goff. A one-time communist, he’s portrayed in now-released FBI papers of May 1955 as “a self-styled freelance Evangelist who for the past number of years has been speaking around the U.S. regarding the threat of communism to the U.S.” Lectures that Goff routinely delivered to interested parties included: Treason in our State Department; Should we use the Atom Bomb?; Red Secret Plot for Seizure of Denver; and Do the Reds Plan to Come by Alaska? As the FBI additionally noted: “Also, some of the titles of Goff’s books, which he publishes voluminously are: ‘Will Russia Invade America?’, ‘One World, A Red World’, and ‘Confessions of Stalin’s Agent.’”
In the same year that Hubbard was hit with a needle, Goff alsogot a visit – and also in the middle of the night. It came from a character who pumped his, Goff’s, arm full of mind-expanding chemicals. A smartly dressed human-looking alien appeared before an astonished Goff, or so he claimed, at least. It was an E.T. that wished Goff to spread the word that (a) communism was a very bad thing; and that (b) E.T. hated Reds. Goff might have been an odd character, but he was most certainly no fool. After the strange figure vanished and Goff finally regained all of his senses, he recognized it simply could not have been a coincidence that he, of all people – with a fairly significant background in matters of a communist nature – should have been warned about the perils of communism. Goff strongly doubted that the stranger in the night really was an extraterrestrial. Rather, Goff came to a very different conclusion:
Coupled with his well-publicized fears about chemicals being introduced into the water-supply to affect the mindset of the American populace, Goff – perhaps very astutely – came to believe that he had been targeted by some government agency that had, at its heart, a program involving (a) the creation of fabricated UFO-themed events; (b) the use of drugs (and needles) to instill altered states in the targeted individuals; and (c) a bigger picture of widespread manipulation and control of the populace via hoaxed UFO events. As Goff said in his 1959 publication, Red Shadows: “During the past few years, the flying saucer scare has rapidly become one of the main issues, used by organizations working for a one-world government, to frighten people into the belief that we will need a super world government to cope with an invasion from another planet. Many means are being used to create a vast amount of imagination in the minds of the general public, concerning the possibilities of an invasion by strange creatures from Mars or Venus.”
He added: “This drive began early in the 40’s, with a radio drama, put on by Orson Welles, which caused panic in many of the larger cities of the East, and resulted in the death of several people. The Orson Welles program of invasion from Mars was used by the Communist Party as a test to find out how the people would react on instructions given out over the radio. It was an important part of the Communist rehearsal for the Revolution.”
Interestingly, in the following year a man named Karl Hunrath – who, like Goff, also hailed from Wisconsin – had a very similar experience to that of Hubbard and Goff. In July 1952 Hunrath complained to his local police department about something sinister. In the early hours of a Sunday morning, someone – a man dressed in a black suit, no less – broke into Hunrath’s home, and injected his arm full of chemicals. It rendered him into a distinctly altered state of mind. Hunrath, the MIB/alien said, had been chosen to play a significant role in the alien mission on Earth. A very groggy Hunrath could only look on amazed from his bed as the somewhat foreign-sounding – but perfectly human-appearing – alien told him: “I am Bosco. You have been chosen to enter our brotherhood of galaxies.”
The suit-and-tie-wearing Bosco advised Hunrath that the space brothers from beyond were deeply worried by our warlike ways, and so, as a result, action had to be taken against those dastardly elements of the Human Race that wanted to spoil everyone else’s fun. There was not to be any The Day the Earth Stood Still-style ultimatum for one and all, however. No: The aliens wished to recruit sympathetic humans to aid their righteous cause. Hunrath, like Hubbard and Goff, had a fascination for alien life/UFOs. Rather notably, on November 10, 1953, Hunrath, with a colleague named Wilbur Wilkinson, vanished. The pair took to the skies in a small, two-seat plane, from a small California airport. Neither of them were ever seen again.
Three men, all having a deep interest in the issue of alien life. All hit in the night by needles. All in roughly the same time-frame. And, all with a connection to theories concerning extraterrestrials and UFOs. My view on all of this? I would not be at all surprised if some strange, early MKUltra type operation was at work, seeking to see how easy it might be to screw with the human mind.
Every once and a while something is dug up or discovered somewhere that seems to defy all attempts to understand it. These anomalous objects are poked, prodded, and studied, yet refuse to give up their answers, sparking talk of aliens and extraterrestrial intelligences. One very well-known account of such an object was found by chance in the U.S. State of Florida by an unsuspecting family. A perfect sphere with various unusual properties, it has gone on to fuel talk of all manner of UFO theories and conspiracy rumors, and remains an enigma to this day.
One very intriguing and rather well-known artifact of possible alien origin was discovered on March 26,1974. A raging brush fire had swept through the 88-acre property of the Betz family, on Fort George Island, Florida, leaving a vast swath of burnt and blackened land behind. As Antoine and Jerri Betz, accompanied by their 21-year-old son Terry, surveyed the damage they came through a grove of trees that had been completely incinerated by the fire, yet sitting there in the middle of what would have been an inferno was a metallic sphere of some sort, approximately the size of a bowling ball, shining there in the sunlight and seemingly untouched and not affected in the least by the fire that had torn through. In fact, it was found to be completely smooth, polished, and without a single blemish upon it except for a small triangular shape carefully etched within the metal, and it was apparently without any scratch or scorch mark on it.
It was an incredibly odd thing to see sitting there all shiny and polished in the middle of al the charred and scorched earth, and the baffled family tried to figure out what it could possibly be. They considered that it may have been a downed satellite or something dropped from a plane, but then why was there no sign of damage upon it at all? They then came to the conclusion that it was some old relic cannonball from some forgotten battle in centies past, but the lack of any rust or signs of age didn’t seem to fit. Curious, they loaded it into their truck and hauled it back home to take a better look, and this is when things would get even more bizarre.
The odd sphere was soon found to have some very peculiar properties. The first clue to this was when Terry was in the same room as the sphere one day while practicing the guitar. As he played he became aware that the metal sphere seemed to be reacting somehow to the music, throbbing in tune to the beat and emitting a vibrating sound not unlike a tuning fork. Even when the sounds stopped the family dog refused to go anywhere near it, suggesting that there were still sub-audible sounds emanating from within it. They decided to keep a closer eye on the sphere and soon noticed that it seemed to occasionally emit these thrumming hums on its own, and that it was more active on sunny days, leading them to think that it was somehow solar powered. They also accidentally discovered that it could roll around on its own and guide itself, often turning around to make its way back to whoever pushed it and able to roll on without aid for long periods of time. It seemed to react to different situations and almost have a mind of its own, leaving the whole family and anyone they showed it to in awe. This was increasingly obviously no 16th century cannonball.
Considering that the Betz family would supposedly often show off the sphere to family and neighbors, it is perhaps no surprise that word began to get out on its strange properties. Journalists began showing up to snoop around, and some of them were able to see some of the phenomena for themselves. On was a photographer from the Jacksonville Journal, who went to the residence and apparently saw the mysterious sphere in action, writing of it:
It rolled a ways then stopped. So what? She said, ‘Just wait a minute.’ It turned by itself and rolled to the right about four feet. It stopped. Then it turned again and rolled to the left about eight feet, made a big arc and came right back to my feet.
At around this time the sphere began to escalate its strange phenomena, causing other objects to move or doors to slam around the house, as well as producing loud music that sounded as if it were coming from an organ. More people came to investigate, and before long it had even attracted the attention of government organizations such as NASA, the U.S. Navy, and the the Arial Phenomena Research Organization. The Navy purportedly examined the sphere and did tests and X-rays on it, proclaiming that it was not anything they had ever seen before and that it seemed to be made of an incredibly dense, absurdly heat resistant from of stainless steel, with two other objects somewhere within its hollow frame surrounded by a halo made of material that had an unusual density, as well as a total of two negative and two positive poles. A researcher named Carl Wilson found that the ball exhibited strange magnetic characteristics and even seemed to be putting out some sort of signal, even going to say that it possessed certain properties that seemed to defy physics and that it was not made of steel at all. Another named J. A. Harder concluded that there were elements within the sphere that were unknown.
After this the trajectory of the sphere becomes unclear, the story slowly fading away from the media blitz it had enjoyed and its location sinking into obscurity, and we are left with the question of what this ball was and what happened to it. There have been theories ranging from the rational to the more fringe. The rational explanation is that this was a misidentified component of a satellite or an otherwise manmade construction such as a piece of industrial machinery such as a ball valve, but how would this explain its strange behavior and properties? One ball valve manufacturer was nevertheless sure reasonably sure that it was just a ball valve, saying of the “Betz Sphere”:
I’m not saying that this thing didn’t come from outer space because I’ve never seen it. All I’m saying is that the physical description of it matches exactly the type of ball we have in stock.
Others say that the analyses done would have immediately determined whether it was manmade or not, but that they failed to conclusively come to this conclusion, suggesting that it was something else, perhaps something alien in origin. Yet looking through the Navy records on the case it seems this may have been exaggerated somewhat by the media, as one Navy spokesman is on record having said of the ball’s purported strange ability to rove about on its own:
I believe it’s because of the construction of the house… It’s old and has uneven stone floors. The ball is almost perfectly balanced, and it takes just a little indentation to make it move or change direction.
So what are we to believe? What was this thing? It seems this story has been watered down and warped through retellings and a clear lack of information, leaving us merely scratching or heads. Perhaps an even more important question we should be asking ourselves is just where did this thing go? It was all over the news for a time and then just disappears? How can that be? Conspiracy theories say that the military or NASA had it whisked away, while others say the family got tired of all of the attention and hid it away from the world, but we really have no idea what the truth is. In the end the only way to know whether this was truly some sort of alien probe or piece of technology would be to study that sphere, and that seems to not be happening any time soon. Whatever it was, the Betz Sphere will likely remain a mystery for a long time to come.
Cataclysmic Pole Shift: Last Generation of Humans?
Cataclysmic Pole Shift: Last Generation of Humans?
The interior of the Earth is like a large lava lamp. The movement of the liquid core creates the magnetic field that deflects solar radiation from impacting the Earth’s atmosphere. The molten matter moves in globs. At some point there is a tipping point where the acceleration of shift will occur much more rapidly. We can survive this event but our technology will not. People need to prepare to live without electricity. It’s just a matter of relearning domestic and agricultural skills. Fawn 17
cat·a·clysm
(kăt′ə-klĭz′əm)
n.
1. A violent upheaval that causes great destruction or brings about a fundamental change.
2. A violent and sudden change in the earth’s crust.
There Are Multiple Races of Aliens Visiting Planet Earth Right ow via Tom Delonge
There Are Multiple Races of Aliens Visiting Planet Earth Right Now via Tom Delonge
COAST TO COAST AM. According to the information DeLonge received, there are multiple races of beings visiting Earth, some for thousands of years or more, and they don’t necessarily get along with each other.
Levenda compared the contact between these beings and humans as akin to a Cargo Cult, in which religions are created around what is perceived as a supernatural event.
In regards to concerns that government insiders could be feeding disinformation to DeLonge, Levenda noted that DeLonge respectfully came to them, rather than the insiders seeking him out.
Description: 6 flickering red/white lights linked together in a broken “V,” converged to form a hexagon, then flew away.
Driving down I-35 westbound and Rendon Crowley Rd., next to Texas Health Huguley Hospital, I was on the phone with my girlfriend, driving ahead of me, and we both witness strange red/white flashing lights in the sky a little in the distance.
We drove parallel to these lights and it looked like they were linked in a chain together 3 lights majority stay red followed by one majority staying white, then 2 more majority red (still flickering the opposite color red to white or white to red). They formed a broken V-shape, while spread out seemingly linked together somehow.
I wanted a better look so we exited the highway, turned around, and then came into the view of the strange lights. They were remaining still the first time we drove by them. As we approached they seemed to form a hexagonal shape, and started to glow the same color, but would randomly flicker the opposite light individually (red to white).
As we got closer to the spot we first witness them, they drifted away further and further ahead.
Background: I don’t have any UFO viewing experiences, but have always wanted to see something out of the ordinary. Absolutely love watching documentaries about UFO’s. I had some slight doubt at first.
Just so absolutely happy I was finally able to witness this wonderful event. I am 25 years old, white male, manage an electronic retail store. NOTE: The above image is CGI.
Linda Moulton Howe: Our Universe is Not What You Think
Linda Moulton Howe: Our Universe is Not What You Think
COAST TO COAST AM. Investigative reporter Linda Moulton Howe presented an in-depth look at whether the universe could be a computer simulation.
Back in April 2016, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and a panel of physicists and mathematicians, including Prof. James Gates, discussed the issue, and the surprising consensus was that the universe probably is a simulation.
Linda spoke with physicist Tom Campbell, who had a 30-year-career working for US Army Intelligence, and concurs with the notion. “You look into reality close enough and what you find is that it’s not material,” he told her. “It’s information based. Information based means it’s computed.”
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
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.