“I experienced a series of ‘eureka’ moments whilst deciphering the code, followed by a sense of disbelief and excitement when I realised the magnitude of the achievement, both in terms of its linguistic importance and the revelations about the origin and content of the manuscript.”

That was Dr. Gerard Cheshire announcing this week that it took him just two weeks to crack the code of the mysterious Voynich manuscript – a Medieval illustrated codex written in an indecipherable language that has baffled cryptographers (the legendary Alan Turing tried unsuccessfully to decode it) since its discovery, including Wilfrid Voynich, who obtained the codex in 1912 and popularized it enough to have it tagged with his name. in “The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained,” Cheshire claims it is written in proto-Romance, an extinct ancestor of the Romance languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian, etc.) and he was able to translate enough of the document to determine that it was “compiled by Dominican nuns as a source of reference for Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon.”

“Sorry, folks, “proto-Romance language” is not a thing. This is just more aspirational, circular, self-fulfilling nonsense.”

“Ooooh, tough crowd” as comedians like to say when the audience boos rather than laughs. In Cheshire’s case, that crowd includes Lisa Fagin Davis, executive director of the Medieval Academy of America (an organization promoting excellence in the field of medieval studies), who immediatelytweeted her analysis of the announcement. Davis comes by her expertship legitimately – she received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University where the Voynich manuscript is held, and has handily debunked previous announcements of Voynich code-breaking.

“As with most would-be Voynich interpreters, the logic of this proposal is circular and aspirational: he starts with a theory about what a particular series of glyphs might mean, usually because of the word’s proximity to an image that he believes he can interpret. He then investigates any number of medieval Romance-language dictionaries until he finds a word that seems to suit his theory. Then he argues that because he has found a Romance-language word that fits his hypothesis, his hypothesis must be right. His “translations” from what is essentially gibberish, an amalgam of multiple languages, are themselves aspirational rather than being actual translations.”

Davis explains her doubts to Ars Technica and pointed out that the idea of a proto-Romance language “is completely unsubstantiated,” as are Cheshire links between certain glyphs and certain Latin letters.

“One of the reasons the Voynich manuscript is so appealing is because of languages like hieroglyphics and linear B, which were deciphered. But they didn’t come out of nowhere, they were decades in the making and drew on lots of different scholarly expertise. You can’t just have one person saying: ‘I’ve cracked it.’ You have got to have the field, on the whole, agreeing.”

Dr. Kate Wiles, a medievalist and linguist and senior editor at History Today, told The Guardian that such a discovery, if it were true, would need verification by a number of experts before being accepted.

“Regarding the decipherment of the individual symbols, a number of people have come up with a mapping to Latin letters, but those mappings rarely agree with each other, or with this proposal.”

Greg Kondrak, a computer science professor at the University of Alberta who as also tried to crack the Voynich code, also points out that the Romance origins of some of the words in the manuscript has been well known for some time.

Finally, J.K. Petersen, keeper of The Voynich Portal, summarizes his problems with the alleged code-cracking:

But I have trouble accepting the translation in its current form because:

there are a lot of nonsensical word combinations,there’s almost no grammar,
the letter distribution is quite different from Romance languages (it would take a whole blog to discuss this aspect of the text, but take 4 as an example, which almost exclusively is at the beginnings of tokens—Cheshire relates it to “d”, and “9” which is usually at the end and sometimes at the beginning, but almost never in the middle, which he designates as “a”),
the words still match the drawings if the drawings are interpreted differently (which means the relationship isn’t proven yet),
some of the transliterated “words” don’t show any relationship to Romance word-structures (and the author neglected to explain how specific non-Romance words were derived), and the same words (e.g., “na”) are sometimes interpreted differently.

A few things are certain at this point: there are a LOT of people interested in breaking the Voynich code, a large number working to verify the code-breakers and the attempts and debunkings are destined to continue.

It beats arguing about politics, doesn’t it?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

18-05-2019 om 19:16 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

18-05-2019 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Follow the route of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, as it moves to a new part of Mount Sharp, into an area scientists call the “clay-bearing unit”.

This NASA video, released Wednesday (May 15, 2019), shows what it would be like to soar over Mars’ Mount Sharp, following the route of the Curiosity rover, which has been climbing Mount Sharp since 2014, and has now moved to a new area that the science team calls the “clay-bearing unit”.

In the video, Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada gives a tour of the rover’s new home in the clay-bearing unit – or “clay unit” for short – where Curiosity has just started analyzing rock samples. The clay-bearing unit has been an important scientific destination since even before Curiosity launched. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter(MRO) spied a strong clay signal in this region, suggesting that water might have played a role in its formation. On its long trek since landing on Mars in 2012, Curiosity has discovered many examples of mudstones containing clay minerals.

Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson said:

Curiosity has been on the road for nearly seven years. Finally drilling at the clay-bearing unit is a major milestone in our journey up Mount Sharp.

This animation shows a proposed route for NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is climbing lower Mount Sharp on Mars. The annotated version of the map labels different regions that scientists working with the rover would like to explore in coming years.

Image via  

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/University of Arizona/JHUAPL/MSSS/USGS Astrogeology Science Center.

The aerial tour also shows the rover’s proposed path in the years ahead. Targets that are intriguing to scientists include the rocky cliffs of the “sulfate-bearing unit,” where sulfate minerals might indicate the area was drying up or becoming more acidic in ancient times, and an area called Gediz Vallis, where a river may have carved a path through the sulfate unit.

Each region represents a different period in the history of Mount Sharp, which rises about 3 miles (5 km) from the base of Gale Crater. Curiosity’s scientists want to visit these places to learn more about the history of water on the mountain, which slowly dried up as the climate changed.

• Bottom line: Video shows current route of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.
• Via NASA

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

17-05-2019 om 23:17 geschreven door peter  

{ https://sciencetechworld.com/ }

17-05-2019 om 23:00 geschreven door peter  

The Most Credible Recent UFO Sightings

ARE WE BEING VISITED BY ALIENS?

Since the beginning of time, it seems, people have been spotting unidentified objects flying through the sky. These days, it is easy to laugh off UFO sightings or explain them away as planes, drones, or even delusions. However, you may be surprised to discover that there have been numerous recent UFO sightings that many believe to be highly credible. Here are the stories of 10 recent UFO sightings that could be the real deal.

10. UFO Sightings – Breckenridge, Colorado: October 3, 2014

In October of 2014, many residents of Colorado reported spotting three glowing dots hovering in the afternoon sky. Witnesses stated that the objects were round and appeared to be glowing white or silver, likely because of the sun reflecting off of them. The objects didn’t move; instead, they maintained a triangular formation throughout the time they were visible in the sky. As suddenly as they appeared, they vanished from sight.

What makes this report one of the more credible recent UFO sightings is that two local authorities, the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and the Breckenridge Police Department, confirmed that their employees also spotted the flying objects. Although the offices didn’t claim the objects to be extraterrestrial in origin, they admitted that they were at a loss to explain what they actually were. According to locals who witnessed the event, many believe that aliens were the culprit.

9. Midrand, South Africa: May 21, 2011

In May of 2011, numerous citizens of Midrand, South Africa began reporting seeing things in the sky. The reports were eerily similar, lending credence to this recent UFO sighting.

According to reports, witnesses claimed to have seen anywhere from one to seven orange lights floating high in the sky. The witnesses were alarmed by the lights and reported their sightings to authorities.

The official explanation for the lights was that the witnesses were actually spotting evidence of a small meteor shower. Officials claimed that with all of the end-of-days predictions that were circulating at the time, people were more likely to become aware of the residual light from meteors, though it is actually a fairly common occurrence.

Can these lights in South Africa be easily explained as meteors? The numerous people who saw them certainly don’t believe so.

8. Recent UFO Sightings – Houston, Texas: August 12, 2014

The witnesses to this next recent UFO sighting have extra cause to be startled by what they saw; the place where the UFO appeared is exactly 666 miles away from Roswell, New Mexico, the sight of history’s most famous alien facility.

In August of 2014, people living near Houston, Texas were startled to see what appeared to be rings of light in the night sky. Several pictures of the mysterious lights made their way to social media, and other residents began confirming that they, too, saw the lights. The highly suspect distance from Roswell made the sighting credible to many, who believe that it could have been extraterrestrials in search of their lost brethren.

So far, there has been no official explanation for the unidentified objects that shocked Houston.

7. Alborz, Iran: November 11, 2014

Part of the credibility of many recent UFO sightings comes thanks to modern technology. Most people are carrying phones with cameras everywhere they go, allowing them to capture proof of their extraterrestrial experiences.

This is certainly the case in the 2014 sighting in the air above Iran. A passenger in a commercial airplane captured a 34-second video of a large, saucer-shaped object flying rapidly through the clouds just below the plane.

The official explanation is that the object was most likely a government drone. However, the video shows that the object quickly passes the airliner, suggesting that it was moving at a high speed that a drone is not likely to be capable of. In addition, drones do not typically fly at the same altitude as commercial aircraft, leading many to believe that it was, in fact, an alien craft that was captured in this fascinating video.

6. Recent UFO Sightings – Kensington, Canada: June 4, 2014

A man named John Sheppard also caught an impressive UFO video while camping in Canada in 2014. In the video, viewers can see a diamond-shaped light moving over the water of the lake where John had set up camp. Then a second light appears. The lights continue flying over the lake for around 8 minutes before disappearing.

What makes this one of the more credible recent UFO sightings? After capturing the video, John sent it along to the Mutual UFO Network of Canada. Experts there took the video very seriously and made every effort to determine what could have caused the lights in the video. They considered stars, satellites, and drones, but quickly ruled out all of these explanations. The group eventually stated that it believes this to be one of the few confirmed UFO sightings that it has encountered.

5. Ireland: November 9, 2018

In November of 2018, several pilots flying over Ireland called air traffic control to report crafts flying at high speeds near their planes. One pilot claimed that the craft he saw appeared to be moving at Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. Another believed that he was witnessing some sort of military exercise due to the high speed and tight formations of the crafts that he saw. Other pilots didn’t actually see aircraft, but reported strange lights in the clouds around them, inquiring if they could possibly be seeing meteors entering the earth’s atmosphere. Air traffic control could find no record or indication of either military exercises or meteors.

Because of the number of reports from pilots, the sightings were taken seriously. The Irish Aviation Authority believed the pilots were likely seeing dust or debris entering the atmosphere but stated that they would look into the sightings. There has been no official ruling, but many have a hard time believing that the objects the pilots described could have been mere debris

4. Kanpur, India: June 28, 2015

A fifth-grade student in Kanpur, India made headlines in 2015 when he captured a surprisingly clear photo of what appeared to be a flying saucer. He was out taking photos of the clouds, and when he zoomed in on one of his photos, he was shocked to see the saucer flying in the sky.

The photo is so clear, and clearly does not depict a cloud, that many have begun to doubt its authenticity. They believe that the photo was in some way doctored to make it look like there was a UFO in the sky. However, the boy and his family are adamant that the photo is real. They have stated that they will willingly subject the photo to testing, but so far, no tests of authenticity have been forthcoming.

3. Arizona, United States: January 13, 2018

Here is another case of professional pilots giving credibility to one of the most interesting recent UFO sightings. These sightings took place in the sky above Arizona. A pilot contacted air traffic control to ask if any other crafts were flying above them. They reported seeing reflective objects above their planes, which were flying at around 37,000 feet. This means that the objects they saw were flying at around 40,000 feet. Another pilot flying nearby shortly saw the same thing.

The Federal Aviation Administration initially believed that they were seeing balloons launched by Google, weather balloons, or military craft. However, they were unable to find indications that any such crafts would be in the area at that time. The FAA admits that they are stumped, but alien enthusiasts believe the answer is clear.

2. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming: October 23, 2010

Most recent UFO sightings are relatively harmless, but in this case, there were serious consequences. In October of 2010, the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming experienced a massive power failure. The base houses 50 nuclear missiles, so those weapons were completely offline for almost an hour. The air force claimed that hardware failures were to blame, but others working at the base have another theory.

Several anonymous witnesses claim to have seen a cigar-shaped object in the sky above the base before the power outage. They also claim that the power outage was much longer than the official reports say: around 26 hours. The witnesses state that the object in the sky was unlike anything they have ever seen.

Was a UFO to blame for a major issue with United States missiles? If so, was this an intentional sabotage by alien visitors? The implications of this sighting are indeed disturbing.

1. Hangzhou, China: July 7, 2010

On July 7, 2010, China experienced another of the recent UFO sightings that had real fallout. A plane preparing to land at the Xiaoshan Airport reported an unusual object in the sky near the airport. Within minutes, air traffic controllers had grounded all outgoing flights and diverted incoming flights to other airports. Photos of the object that virtually shut down the airport show it reflecting a golden light and being followed by a comet-like tail.

Others near the airport later reported that they, too, saw a bright object streak across the sky. There were many theories about the object, including hidden US bombers and Russian satellites. The Beijing UFO Research Society and the Shanghai UFO Investigative Research Center have agreed to look into the incident. However, no one has been able to confirm what the object was that sent the entire airport into a panic.

{ https://slappedham.com/ }

17-05-2019 om 22:26 geschreven door peter  

A Gentle Kiss: How the Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule Was Born

By Mike Wall  

New Horizons' second flyby target is a primordial object.

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by the distant Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule (2014 MU69) on Jan. 1, 2019. 

(Image: © NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/National Optical Astronomy Observatory)

A surprisingly gentle merger between two small primordial bodies formed the distant object Ultima Thule, a new study suggests.

These two progenitors themselves likely coalesced from the same cloud of icy material at the dawn of the solar system, billions of miles from the newborn sun. They initially circled a common center of mass but spiraled closer and closer, eventually meeting up in decidedly leisurely fashion.

"These guys look like they came together at literally spacecraft-docking speed," said study lead author Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "This really is informative about the origin of planetesimalsout there."

Stern is principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, which flew by Ultima Thule on Jan. 1 of this year. The new study, which was published online today (May 16) in the journal Science, describes the initial science returns from that flyby, the most-distant planetary encounter in the history of spaceflight.

• Related: New Horizons' Ultima Thule Flyby in Pictures

Distant target number 2

New Horizons launched in January 2006 to get the first-ever up-close look at Pluto, which had remained largely mysterious since its 1930 discovery. The spacecraft checked off this main mission goal in July 2015, zooming within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of the dwarf planet and capturing amazing images of its stunningly complex and diverse surface.

The New Horizons team then turned its attention to Ultima Thule (official name: 2014 MU69), a small object that currently lies about 4 billion miles (6.5 billion km) from Earth — 1 billion miles (1.6 billion km) more distant than Pluto.

The Jan. 1 flyby, the centerpiece of New Horizons' extended mission, was an even more challenging spaceflight feat than the Pluto encounter. 

Ultima Thule is much smaller than the dwarf planet, spanning just 22 miles (35 km) in its longest dimension. And New Horizons gave Ultima Thule a much closer shave than it did Pluto, cruising a mere 2,200 miles (3,540 km) above the small object's frigid surface. The probe was barreling along at 32,280 mph (51,950 km/h) relative to its target at the time.

So far, New Horizons has beamed home just 25% of its flyby data, which should all be in hand by mid-2020. The new study is based on just 10% of the expected total haul — the amount available when the researchers submitted the paper in late February, Stern said. But even this limited first look at New Horizons' imagery and measurements has produced some very intriguing results, as the new paper shows.

• Related: Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures

A flattened, reddish snowman

New Horizons found that 2014 MU69 is a "contact binary" composed of two lobes, which the team dubbed Ultima (the bigger one) and Thule. The object therefore looks like a snowman — a crushed and bloody one, anyway. 

Ultima Thule is the reddest object ever explored by a spacecraft, with the exception of Mars, Stern said. The Red Planet owes its hue to iron oxides (rust), but something else is going on with 2014 MU69. The New Horizons team thinks the color comes from complex organic molecules known as tholins, or something like them. 

This would not be unheard of; tholins are thought to be responsible for the reddish swaths that New Horizons spotted on Pluto and its biggest moon, Charon.

And then there's the crushed bit: Ultima Thule, especially the Ultima lobe, is notably flattened — "something that really no one expected or predicted with models, sending the theorists back to the drawing board," Stern told Space.com.

The team isn't sure how Ultima Thule got its pancake-esque shape. It's possible that rapid rotation played a role, Stern said. (The object currently completes one spin every 15.9 hours, but the two constituent lobes may have rotated much faster in their youth, before the merger.) 

"Or maybe there was a lot of aerodynamic erosion," Stern said, invoking the possibility that gas and grains of material that didn't get incorporated into Ultima or Thule could have scoured them down.

Many other mysteries remain as well. For example, Ultima sports a number of similar-sized abutting mounds, which may be the outlines of the smaller pieces that built up the lobe. No such mounds are visible on Thule, however. 

That may be because the two lobes formed in slightly different ways. But Thule has a 4.3-mile-wide (7 km) crater called Maryland. So, it's possible that the lobe had mounds as well, but these features were buried when the Maryland-gouging impact resurfaced Thule, Stern said. (New Horizons did not spy any big craters on the Ultima lobe.)

In addition, both lobes have numerous small pits, whose origin remains undetermined. And multiple formation processes are likely involved, study team members said.

"Our assessment is that the chains of similarly sized pits are more likely to be formed by internal processes than by cratering, but the isolated pits that show approximately circular planform outlines, bowl-shaped interior depressions, and, in some cases, raised rims, are more consistent with impact crater morphology," the researchers wrote in the new study.

The New Horizons team has not yet spotted any satellites or rings orbiting Ultima Thule, and the object has shown no signs of an atmosphere or any comet-like outgassing. But the researchers will keep looking as more and more data comes down to Earth.

A primordial object

Ultima Thule's two-lobed shape strongly suggests that the object is primordial, going all the way back to the solar system's birth. 

Impact speeds in 2014 MU69's neighborhood — the cold, dark depths beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt — are currently around 670 mph (1,080 km/h). A modern meetup of two objects out there would thus be too violent to produce the Ultima Thule we see today; its two lobes would have been destroyed or misshapen, Stern and his colleagues found.

Indeed, modeling work the team presented at a conference last month suggests the collision likely occurred at around 5.5 mph (8.9 km/h) — slower than most joggers go. Such a "gentle dynamical environment" was present long ago, shortly after the sun had formed. 

Other lines of evidence bolster the notion that Ultima Thule is an ancient and relatively unchanged object.  For example, its two lobes are similar in both brightness and color, suggesting that they formed from the same swirling cloud of gas and dust long ago.

"This is the first unquestionably primordial contact binary that we've seen up close with a spacecraft," Stern said.

• Related: The Kuiper Belt: Objects at the Edge of the Solar System

More work to do

New Horizons team members may end up cracking more Ultima Thule mysteries one day; most of the flyby data still hasn't come down to Earth, after all.

And even when that information has all been analyzed, there may be yet more work to do. The spacecraft is healthy and has enough fuel left to fly by yet another deep-space object, Stern said. 

NASA would have to grant another mission extension for this to happen, and the New Horizons team can't apply for such an extension until next year, Stern said. But the researchers definitely plan to do so.

"We came all the way out here to the Kuiper Belt, and we're going to try to squeeze every last thing we can [out of this mission]," Stern said. 

More spacecraft will explore the outer solar system in the future, "but they're not going to be here anytime soon," Stern said. "We're here, and we're going to milk it."

• New Horizons' Historic Flyby of Ultima Thule: Full Coverage
• Destination Pluto: NASA's New Horizons Mission in Pictures
• New Horizons May Make Yet Another Flyby After Ultima Thule
• Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. 
• Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall.
• Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

17-05-2019 om 21:47 geschreven door peter  

Bermuda might hold the key to a whole new type of volcano

BY MIHAI ANDREI 

Researchers studying a volcano in Bermuda report that it is unlike anything else we’ve seen on Earth — it formed through a mechanism we knew nothing about until now.

About 30 million years ago, a disturbance in the mantle’s transition zone supplied the magma to form the now-dormant volcanic foundation on which Bermuda sits.

Image credits: Wendy Kenigsberg/Clive Howard.

With its turquoise seas and pink beaches, Bermuda draws almost 1 million tourists every year. But far beneath the crystalline water, something draws a completely different crowd: scientists.

Cornell researchers had a hunch that there was something off about Bermuda’s volcanoes, so they analyzed a 2,600-foot (800-meter) core sample taken back in 1972. They were looking for isotopes, trace elements, evidence of water content, volatile materials — anything that would give some indication as to how the volcanoes were formed.

“I first suspected that Bermuda’s volcanic past was special as I sampled the core and noticed the diverse textures and mineralogy preserved in the different lava flows,” Mazza said. “We quickly confirmed extreme enrichments in trace element compositions. It was exciting going over our first results … the mysteries of Bermuda started to unfold.”

When the team analyzed the materials from the core, they found a clear signature of the “transition zone” — a layer rich in water, crystals and melted rock that lies beneath the outer and inner mantle. Before now, researchers didn’t know that volcanoes can form from the transition zone.

“We found a new way to make volcanoes. This is the first time we found a clear indication from the transition zone deep in the Earth’s mantle that volcanoes can form this way,” said senior author Esteban Gazel, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University.

Cross-polarized microscopic slice of a core sample. Blue-yellow mineral is augite.

Credits: Gazel lab.

Volcanoes were thought to form through one of two mechanisms: either when two tectonic plates subduct (one moves beneath the other), or when there is a deep mantle upwelling, as is the case in Hawaii. Surprisingly this wasn’t the case in Bermuda.

“We were expecting our data to show the volcano was a mantle plume formation — an upwelling from the deeper mantle — just like it is in Hawaii,” Gazel said. However, 30 million years ago, a disturbance in the transition zone caused the magma to flow towards the surface of what is now Bermuda.

Although geochemical studies of this type have been carried out in most volcanic parts of the world, Bermuda had escaped trialing until now. Now that they know what to look for, researchers say that there’s a good chance they might find these chemical signatures in other volcanic areas as well.

This suggests that the transition zone, which is located at a depth of 410-660 km (250 to 400 mi), is an important chemical reservoir for the Earth, bringing material from that depth and onto the surface.

• The study has been published in Nature. DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1183-6.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

17-05-2019 om 21:14 geschreven door peter  

Do you see the light? Image of Christ-like figure is spotted in the sky as sun bursts through the clouds in Argentina

• Stunning smartphone image was captured in San Salvador de Jejuy, Argentina
• Monica Aramayo photographed the sun shining through the clouds over the city
• It appears to show a Christ-like figure in a white cassock and crown of thorns
• People have compared it to the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro 

By ROSS IBBETSON FOR MAILONLINE

A stunning image of a Christ-like figure has been captured bursting through the clouds over Argentina.

The photo was taken in the city of San Salvador de Jujuy and spread rapidly on social media.

Monica Aramayo used her smartphone to capture the white of the sun lighting up the sky and a figure appearing with his arms outstretched.

Monica Aramayo used her smartphone to capture the striking image in the clouds of San Salvador de Jejuy, Argentina

The fervently Catholic South American country's social media users compared it to the portrayal commonly seen in Renaissance artwork.

Others said it looked like the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Not only is the 'head' of the figure clear in the image but a cassock which the saviour was thought to wear appears to flow down to the ground below.  

Others said the 'head' even appeared to be adorned with a crown of thorns associated with the Crucifixion of Jesus.

The figure has been compared to the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Social media user Mariela Romano commented: 'The Lord will soon come for us all and we should be ready.'

Carlos Daniel Nieva remarked: 'Thanks for the image that allows us to keep on our path and have a better hope for tomorrow.'

While Romina Salinas wrote: 'If Jesus came back, he would make us all disappear because we are worth nothing. I personally only see the sun coming through the clouds, but people see what they want to see.'

Share or comment on this article: 

• Do you see the light? Image of Christ-like figure is spotted in the sky in Argentina

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

17-05-2019 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

17-05-2019 om 20:19 geschreven door peter  

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17-05-2019 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

Wikileaks Releases Unused Footage of Moon Landing

Wikileaks releases unused footage of moon landing showing it was REALLY filmed in Nevada desert…

THIS VIDEO FOOTAGE MAY NOT BE GENUINE

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

17-05-2019 om 19:53 geschreven door peter  

David Wilcock: Secret Space 2019 & Antarctic Atlantis (Video)

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

17-05-2019 om 19:40 geschreven door peter  

Kat Martin has captured something weird flying above Yellowstone. I have seen this type of thing before, but never changing direction so fast as this did.

There are lots of lights which are just reflections. The one this video is about is the bright object which comes in from the upper right of screen. It does turns and then settles near three line where it flashes very bright and appears in different places. It then flies off to the left, then makes a hard right turn.

This was live on the Yellowstone cam at Old faithful on May 5, 2019. Kat slowed the video down because whatever this was moved very fast.

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

17-05-2019 om 19:22 geschreven door peter  

*Something* is blasting “cosmic bullet holes” through our galaxy

 BY MIHAI ANDREI 

We don’t know what it is. We don’t even know if it’s made of regular matter — but we do know that something blasted a series of holes through some stars in the Milky Way.

“It’s a dense bullet of something,” said Ana Bonaca, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who discovered evidence for the impactor.

Bonaca analyzed a series of stars called GD-1 — a very long and thin, Milky Way star stream. Normally, the stream would appear as a straight line, stretched out by the Milky Way’s galaxy. GD-1 stars have been studied ever since they were discovered in 2006, and Bonaca has been using data from the recently launched Gaia telescope to analyze them in more detail.

This type of stellar stream is created by the tidal (gravitational) force of the Milky Way, which bends and stretches the stream, producing a gap in its approximate middle.

This image from Bonaca's presentation shows the most detailed map yet of GD-1, revealing the apparent second gap and spur.

Credit: New Astrophysical Probes of Dark Matter, Ana Bonaca/GAIA

But when Bonaca looked at GD-1 more recently, she found a second gap — and a weird one at that. The second gap is not smooth as the first one but has a ragged edge — as if something was shot through it.

“It’s a dense bullet of something,” Bonaca said.

The “bullet” would have to be something absolutely massive, much bigger than a star, and more massive than all but the largest black holes. It’s not out of the question for a supermassive black hole to be the culprit, but if this is the case, it would have to be one at the scale of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. There isn’t a clear reason why such a black hole would exist towards the edge of our galaxy, and astronomers haven’t seen any effects from it.

This leaves another tantalizing possibility: a massive object made of dark matter.

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total energy density. We don’t know what dark matter is and we’ve never seen it — but we have seen its effects, and astronomers are quite confident in its existence. We also have no idea how dark matter might be distributed through the universe — is it thin and diffusive, or large and clumpy? If dark matter was indeed shot through GD-1 stars, it would suggest the latter. However, a large ball of dark matter is still speculative at this point, although it seems to line up with the evidence quite nicely.

The results have not yet been peer-reviewed, though they were met positively at the conference of the American Physical Society in Denver where they were presented.

At this point, the turbulent history of GD-1 stars is just not well enough known to draw a definite conclusion. But whatever it is, is Bonaca’s hypothesis is true, something shot a massive “bullet” straight through our galaxy — and we don’t know what it is.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

16-05-2019 om 23:51 geschreven door peter  

Scientists solve 100-year-old mystery of yellow desert glass prized by Egyptian pharaohs

BY TIBI PUIU

A piece of Libyan desert glass that weighs 22 grams and is about 55 mm wide.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

An exotic and beautiful type of glass found in the Sahara desert has a cosmic origin, according to a new study. After analyzing the chemical makeup of Libyan desert glass — a naturally occurring glass whose striking yellow color made it a much-sought-after decorative material — researchers found that it was produced by ancient meteorite impacts.

Cosmic glass fit for kings

Breastplate found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb. The scarab is made out of Libyan desert glass.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The rare Libyan desert glass has been prized for its beauty for thousands of years. The glass — the purest natural silica glass ever found on Earth — is generally yellow in color and can be very clear, although most pieces are milky and may even contain tiny bubbles, white wisps, and inky black swirls.

By one estimate, over a thousand tons of Libyan desert glass are strewn across the deserts of eastern Libya and western Egypt. Most are the size of pebbles, although some chunks can have a considerable size and weight — the biggest piece ever found weighs around 26 kg.

Local inhabitants in the Neolithic period made tools out of the glass, and later the Egyptians used it to fashion jewelry. In fact, the carved stone on the breastplate of the famous Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was made of Libyan desert glass. But these piece of glass were created long before King Tut was born — about 29 million years by one estimate.

Silica glass at the Great Sand Sea.

Credit: Mohamed El-Hebeishy.

For more than a hundred years, scientists have debated what forces could have created the enchanting glasses. There are two major hypotheses that explain their formation: either a meteor impact or an airburst (an atmospheric explosion which happens when meteoroids explode in the lower atmosphere) was responsible. A recently published study supports the former theory.

In a new study, Aaron Cavosie from Curtin University in Australia and colleagues performed chemical analyses of Libyan desert glass samples that unequivocally supports the meteorite formation theory.

While they were examining zircon minerals embedded in the glasses, the researchers found traces of another mineral called reidite. This mineral only forms in high pressure and heat — so far, it hasn’t been found anywhere other than meteorite impact craters.

“Both meteorite impacts and airbursts can cause melting, however, only meteorite impacts create shock waves that form high-pressure minerals,” says Cavosie.

“So finding evidence of former reidite confirms it was created as the result of a meteorite impact.”

Whatever meteorite impacted the desert all those millions of years ago, it must have caused a gigantic explosion. It vitrified (glassified) a huge area, resulting in a broad range of glasses ranging from cloudy dark to stunningly luminous lemon yellow — all depending on the kind of contaminants that dissolved into the liquid silica created by the powerful impact.

A variety of Libyan Desert Glasses.

Credit: Corning Museum of Glasses.

The findings published in the journal Geology are useful for establishing how often near-Earth objects come in contact with our planet’s surface. The study seems to suggest that the kind of impacts that are powerful enough to create Libyan desert glass are, thankfully, quite rare.

“Meteorite impacts are catastrophic events, but they are not common,” says Cavosie.

“Airbursts happen more frequently, but we now know not to expect a Libyan desert glass-forming event in the near future, which is cause for some comfort.”

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

16-05-2019 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

NASA deelt foto’s van laatste rustplaats van Israëlische maanlander - HLN.be

Bron: NASA

Nieuwe foto’s die gemaakt werden door de Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - een ruimtevaartuig van het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap NASA - tonen waar de Israëlische maanlander op 11 april precies neerstortte.

Vergeleken met een foto die in december vorig jaar (2018) werd gemaakt, lijkt er wel een witte vlek te zijn verschenen sinds de crash in april. Die vlek zou inderdaad een gevolg zijn van de impact van de Israëlische maanlander.

(Lees verder onder de foto) 

Lees ook

Verovering van de maan: deze landen nemen deel aan de race

Primeurs

Al slaagde de Israëlische maanlander ‘Beresheet’ – vrij vertaald naar ‘Genesis’ – er niet in veilig te landen. Hij zorgde wel voor tal van andere primeurs. De nacht van 21 op 22 februari werd de maanlander gelanceerd. Dat gebeurde vanop Cape Canaveral.

De robot was een onderdeel van de eerste private maanmissie, op initiatief van SpaceIL. Hij droeg een bibliotheek van 30 miljoen pagina’s met zich mee, en maakte onderweg een glorieuze selfie om het moment te vereeuwigen.

In de laatste fase van de afdaling ging het mis. De belangrijkste motor van Beresheet viel uit en het contact werd verbroken. Het toestel is daarna vermoedelijk gecrasht.

AFP 

De maanlander Beresheet maakte een selfie met de aarde en de Israëlische vlag.

 AFP 

De maanlander Beresheet

VIDEOS peter2011

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

16-05-2019 om 23:21 geschreven door peter  

Greenland's biggest glacier suddenly slows down and thickens, baffling scientists

Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier gaining thickness of 20 metres a year

Harry Cockburn

Greenland’s largest glacier has not only slowed its retreat, but has also thickened in recent years, surprising scientists studying the impacts of global warming on ice in the northern hemisphere. 

The island is home to the second-largest ice sheet in the world after Antarctica and rapid warming in the northern hemisphere has major implications for continuing global sea-level rise.

The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier on Greenland’s west coast used to lose more ice from this than anywhere else in the country. 

 

It is known for the huge blocks of ice it calves into Disko Bay, which then drift south into the Atlantic Ocean. It is believed to have calved the iceberg which sank the Titanic.

Between 2000 and 2010, Jakobshavn Isbrae contributed the largest solid ice discharge in all of Greenland’s ice sheet and is estimated to have contributed to nearly 1mm of global sea rise.

Glacier collapse shows climate impact

But despite the trend of rising temperatures, it is no longer the place where the territory loses most of its ice.

Since 2013, when the glacier’s ice loss was at its fastest, the ice at the terminus of the glacier has stopped decreasing in height and started to thicken.

The overall effect is that it is now flowing more slowly, thickening and advancing towards the ocean instead of retreating further inland.

Measurements of the glacier’s elevation changes on its narrow trunk show that instead of losing 20 metres in height a year as it had previously, the glacier is now thickening by 20 metres a year.

New data processing techniques applied to the information gathered by satellites have given a clearer picture of the extent to which the ice is returning to the glacier, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

“The dynamic speedup of Jakobshavn Isbrae observed from the late 2000’s to 2013 was triggered by warm ocean waters in Disko Bay, entering Jakobshavn Fjord and melting ice at the glacier terminus," said Anna Hogg, a researcher in the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds. 

“In recent years, however, temperature measurements show that ocean water in Disko Bay has experienced a series of cooler years – more than one degree lower than mean temperature previously observed. This has reduced the rate of ice melt on Jakobshavn Isbrae.”

However, the glacier does not indicate greater stability in the ice sheet overall. It drains just 7 per cent of all ice on Greenland.

Scientists at the Living Planet Symposium in Milan heard the glacier’s drainage basin as a whole is still losing more ice to the ocean than it gains as snowfall.

It is therefore still contributing to global sea-level rise, albeit at a slower rate.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1128232243401560065

ESA EarthObservation

✔@ESA_EO

We are all used to hearing about the world’s ice being the first casualty of #climatechange. Recent findings show that one glacier is not conforming to the norm – it’s actually been flowing more slowly and getting thicker. 

Read on

https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Space_for_our_

climate/Jakobshavn_Isbrae_Glacier_bucks_the_trend … … #LPS19 #LivingPlanet

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• 62 people are talking about this

Dr Hogg said: “The key question we need to answer now is whether the slowdown of Jakobshavn Isbrae just a pause, or is it more permanent? We will use ESA satellite observations combined with models to monitor change and predict this colossal glacier’s future evolution.”

The ESA’s Mark Drinkwater said further research was required and noted that “large seasonal and year-to-year variability in the dynamics of the Jakobshavn Isbrae Glacier … can easily hide the longer-term climate trend in ice loss.”

The research appears to fit with a study published earlier this year, indicating Greenland’s ice sheet was melting four times faster now than it was in 2003. However, it found the largest amount of ice loss was sustained away from the country's glaciers.

“Whatever this was, it couldn’t be explained by glaciers, because there aren’t many there,” Michael Bevis, the study’s lead author said in January. 

He added: “It had to be the surface mass – the ice was melting inland from the coastline. It’s because the atmosphere is, at its baseline, warmer."

• Another study of Jakobshavn Isbrae’s unexpected thickening indicated the cooling period will pass as ocean temperatures rise, which will then see the glacier retreat even faster than it was before.

{ https://www.independent.co.uk/ }

16-05-2019 om 22:53 geschreven door peter  

Grootste gletsjer van Groenland groeit met 20 meter per jaar. Wetenschappers staan voor een raadsel

De grootste gletsjer van Groenland is de laatste jaren niet verder gekrompen, maar juist gegroeid. Wetenschappers staan voor een raadsel, schrijft The Independent.

Het eiland heeft de op één na grootste ijskap ter wereld, en moet alleen Antarctica voor zich dulden.

Tussen 2000 en 2010 verloor de Jakobshavn-gletsjer veel ijs. Sinds 2013 krimpt de gletsjer niet meer. Sterker nog: hij groeit in de richting van de oceaan.

20 meter

Uit nieuwe metingen blijkt dat de gletsjer niet langer 20 meter per jaar krimpt, maar 20 meter per jaar groeit, laat het Europese ruimtevaartagentschap ESA weten.

Het smelten van Jakobshavn tussen 2000 en 2013 had te maken met de aanvoer van warmer oceaanwater in de Diskobaai, aldus Anna Hogg van de Universiteit van Leeds.

Einde

De afgelopen jaren is het water in de Diskobaai een stuk koeler, waardoor er abrupt een einde is gekomen aan het smeltproces.

Dr. Hogg zei: “De vraag is nu of er sprake is van een pauze of dat het meer permanent is.”

Met behulp van satellieten van de ESA gaan onderzoekers de kolossale gletsjer de komende tijd nauwlettend in de gaten houden.

ESA EarthObservation

✔@ESA_EO

We are all used to hearing about the world’s ice being the first casualty of #climatechange. Recent findings show that one glacier is not conforming to the norm – it’s actually been flowing more slowly and getting thicker.

Read on

https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Space_for_our_climate/Jakobshavn_Isbrae_Glacier_bucks_the_trend … …

#LPS19 #LivingPlanet

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• 62 people are talking about this

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16-05-2019 om 22:21 geschreven door peter  

WAAROM VLUCHT ALLES EN IEDEREEN RICHTING  MAAN? ( VIDEO )

Jarenlang is de maan een soort vergeten gebied geweest waar eigenlijk niemand serieuze belangstelling voor had. 

Nu worden er met grote haast plannen gemaakt voor kolonisatie van de maan en dat moet vóór 2029 klaar zijn.

Wij horen dingen meestal als het te laat is om er nog iets aan te veranderen. En in dat kader roept het volgende verhaal de nodige vraagtekens op. 

De jaren zestig van de vorige eeuw stonden helemaal in het teken van de maan en de diverse Apollovluchten. We gaan er voor vandaag even vanuit dat die vluchten ook daadwerkelijk plaats hebben gevonden en dat er ook daadwerkelijk mensen op de maan zijn geweest. 

Eigenlijk net zo snel als dat hele maan verhaal op kwam, raakte het ook weer in de vergetelheid. Decennialang was er nauwelijks belangstelling voor de maan behalve bij ufo fanaten misschien die er van alles zagen vliegen. 

Maar, nu is het een compleet ander verhaal. Talloze landen en ook grote particuliere ondernemingen zijn bezig met een soort race naar de maan. 

Niet alleen een race, maar meer een totaalplan, waarbij menselijke kolonies op de maan zullen worden gebouwd.

Het zijn niet alleen landen zoals Amerika, Rusland, India en China die druk bezig zijn met plannen richting maan, maar ook grote particuliere ondernemingen, waarbij een opvallend figuur, Jeff Bezos, de grote baas van Amazon, die behoort bij de rijkste mensen ter wereld. 

Bezos is de oprichter van ruimtevaartbedrijf Blue Origin en afgelopen week werden er in een besloten presentatie voor genodigden in Washington verdere details bekend gemaakt over de plannen van Blue Origin. 

En daar kwam uit naar voren dat Blue Origin in 2024 de eerste maanlander operationeel wil hebben genaamd Blue Moon.

Daar blijft het niet bij, want daarna zal in een razend tempo vaart worden gemaakt met de kolonisatie van de maan en wel zo, dat dit uiterlijk 2029 gereed moet zijn. 

Waar je dan aan moet denken zijn leefgemeenschappen zoals te zien op de volgende afbeelding.

Dan is er nog iets merkwaardigs, want ook Israël houdt zich intensief bezig met de maan. Ze hebben afgelopen februari pogingen ondernomen om met de maanlander vaste grond onder de voeten te krijgen op de maan. 

De landing mislukte weliswaar, maar aan boord van de maanlander bevond zich een bibliotheek van 30 miljoen pagina’s waarin alles is vastgelegd wat de moeite waard is om te weten als je de menselijke beschaving opnieuw zou willen opstarten. 

Waarom stuurt Israël een dergelijke bibliotheek naar de maan? Wat weten zij wat wij niet weten? 

Iedere keer komt ook dat jaartal 2029 tevoorschijn, het jaar dat alle voorbereidingen voor het weg kunnen vluchten naar de maan klaar moeten zijn. 

Dan moet je niet denken aan ons gewone mensen die daar naartoe kunnen. Het wordt meer een scene zoals aan het eind van de film 2012, waarbij een geselecteerde elite aan boord van de arken kunnen gaan. 

Alles wijst erop dat er iets met de aarde zal gebeuren, alleen wat dat is, weten we uiteraard niet. 

Het zou een geplande kernoorlog kunnen zijn, waarbij de aarde voor langere tijd onbewoonbaar zal zijn, het kan de komst van een planeet of komeet-planeet zijn die voor de nodige chaos kan zorgen. 

Maar, het jaar waarop alles klaar moet zijn, 2029, ligt ook dicht bij 2032, het jaar waar volgens tijdreiziger Scott de aarde zal worden getroffen door een asteroïde. 

Mocht iemand een andere reden weten waarom men als een gek bezig is om naar de maan te kunnen vluchten, laat het ons weten. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

16-05-2019 om 22:08 geschreven door peter  

Jim Marrs: Remote Viewing Aliens

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/  }

16-05-2019 om 21:41 geschreven door peter