Despite the fact that humans have never, as far as we know or the powers-that-be are willing to admit, ventured past the Moon, there’s plenty of talk recently about establishing a permanent colony on Mars. Those conversations cover topics such as transportation, living quarters and profit potential, but they leave out two questions that most humans living on Mars and on Earth will want answered … will there be reunions between the new Martians and old Earthlings, and can they renew old acquaintances in the manner of the time-honored tradition of high school reunions and old flames … with sex? There may be a good reason why these discussions about what may happen under the Martian covers is being kept under the covers … it will probably be fatal to the new Martians.

“What’s interesting to me as an evolutionary biologist is thinking about, what if we’re actually successful?” he asked the site. “I don’t think there has been nearly as much discussion about what would become of the people that are living in these colonies generations later.”

One person has been speaking about the unspeakable – Scott Solomon, an evolutionary biologist, professor at Rice University in Houston and author of “Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution.” He recently spoke with Inverse concerning his cautionary TEDx talk in January 2018 warning about sex with human Martians that has had surprisingly few views. His conclusion may be one reason:

“With no immune system, sex between Martian humans and Earthlings would be lethal.”

Wait … what?

“If a mutation pops up for people living on Mars, and it gives them a 50-percent survival advantage, that’s a huge advantage, right? And that means that those individuals are going to be passing those genes on at a much higher rate than they otherwise would have.”

That condom may not be enough protection.

Solomon points out that all babies on Earth are born with 60 new mutations on average, but most don’t get passed on to the next generations because there’s no need for them. That wouldn’t be the case on Mars where humans will need to quickly evolve to develop radiation-resistant skin, bodies that can survive on less oxygen and bones that can survive less gravity. However, the most critical mutation would be the result of living in a pristine, climate-controlled environment – the need for a tough immune system would be eliminated. Without that, assuming their diminished lung capacity can endure the heavy breathing, Solomon says their total lack of immunity would not survive the inevitable sexual exchange of bodily fluids.

“That could impose an artificial limit on how the two populations will be able to interact and co-mingle. The inability to form families or send offspring back and forth between the two planets could drive the two groups even further apart.”

Is there any hope for future family and high school reunions? Solomon offers one potential solution – CRISPR editing of Earthlings to give them the mutations their Mars relatives and friends have developed to survive.

Martian high school reunions will definitely need name-tags.

Solomon even suggests that we could use CRISPR to more purposefully design these helpful mutations.

“Why wait around for this mutation to occur if you can just go in and make them yourself.”

Of course, that means the artificial mutants couldn’t come back to Earth either. Perhaps he’s hinting at the inevitable – that Earth will someday become uninhabitable to normal humans and we’ll either have to move to another planet where we will quickly become a new species … or CRISPR-ly create the mutations for survival and stick around.

Speeding up evolution to accommodate space colonization and apocalyptic survival … sci-fi or our next reality?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-05-2019 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

It appears as though a  is presently underneath Sputnik Planitia on the dwarf planet Pluto. It was believed that the temperate needed for an ocean to remain in liquid format on Pluto would have been too high because the thick ice would have melted. However, Japanese astronomers claim there is a layer of gas located underneath the ice and above the liquid which works as a type of insulation between the two.

Pluto in all of its phases

This is very exciting news for scientists as they previously believed that all the water on Pluto would have been in a frozen state. The research, which was published in Nature Geoscience, read in part, “To maintain an ocean, Pluto needs to retain heat inside. On the other hand, to maintain large variations in its thickness, Pluto’s ice shell needs to be cold.” Additionally, they wrote, “Here we show… that the presence of a thin layer of clathrate hydrates (gas hydrates) at the base of the ice shell can explain both the long-term survival of the ocean and the maintenance of shell thickness contrasts.” They better explained how the clathrate hydrates work by writing, “Clathrate hydrates act as a thermal insulator, preventing the ocean from completely freezing while keeping the ice shell cold and immobile.”

As for the type of gas, they explained that “The most likely clathrate guest gas is methane, derived from precursor bodies and/or cracking of organic materials in the hot rocky core. Nitrogen molecules initially contained and/or produced later in the core would probably not be trapped as clathrate hydrates, instead supplying the nitrogen-rich surface and atmosphere.”

Pluto’s size compared to Earth

Researchers created a simulation of Pluto’s evolution, with and without a gas hydrate layer between the ice and the ocean in order to calculate how long it would take for the subsurface oceans to freeze over. They calculated that without the gas hydrate layer, the ocean would have been totally frozen around 800 million years ago. However, with the gas hydrate layer, the ocean hardly froze at all. In conclusion, without a gas hydrate layer, it would have taken the subsurface ocean approximately 100 million years to freeze over, but with the gas layer, it would take more than a billion years.

The simulation based on observations conducted by New Horizons not only shows the real possibility of a liquid ocean on Pluto, but it also gives a plausible explanation as to how the most iciest planets can still contain water in liquid format.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-05-2019 om 23:28 geschreven door peter  

What’s better than finding aliens? Finding dead aliens. Why? Because it might be the only thing that gets humanity to straighten up and fly right. At least, that’s according to Harvard University professor Avi Loeb who said as much at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington D.C., in a talk which I assume was titled “Scared Straight in Space.”

Professor Loeb appears to believe, like many people do, that humanity is at a crossroads and our shortsightedness and technological progress combined may be a lethal mixture. At the summit, Loeb argued that we may be such wayward children that we might need to see the direct consequences of horsing around with nuclear weapons and all of the other potential big bungles we’ve got cooking up. He says that a propensity for planetary suicide might be more common than we think, and might be one of the solutions to the famous Fermi paradox, which basically states that there’s a whole bunch of reasons why we should have found aliens by now, but we haven’t. So what gives? Loeb says:

“One possibility is that these civilizations, based on the way we behave, are short-lived. They think short term, and they produce self-inflicted wounds that eventually kill them.”

“I don’t know what happened here, but let’s try not to do it.”

According to Loeb, finding evidence of an alien civilizationthat almost made it to the stars would serve as a wake-up call to humanity, and thus why what he calls “space archaeology” is of vital importance to the future. He says along with looking for living alien civilizations, we should widen our search to include the wreckage of alien civilizations that got a little too rambunctious for their own good: scorched planets, radioactive fallout, broken tech half buried in grey alien sands. Loeb says:

“The idea is we may learn something in the process. We may learn to better behave with each other, not to initiate a nuclear war, or to monitor our planet and make sure that it’s habitable for as long as we can make it habitable.”

But for Loeb, there are more reasons to explore the stars than just the space version of that movie you’re required to watch in driver’s ed. While his views seem to suggest a pessimistic view of the universe, there’s a sense of whiplash when he muses on what might happen if we find a living alien civilization:

“Our technology is only a century old, but if another civilization had a billion years to develop space travel, they may teach us how to do it,”

“Let’s not do this either.”

No, they would eat us. But Avi Loeb, who is the chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department and sits on the board of Breakthrough Starshot, also happens to have co-authored the recent paper suggesting that the interstellar object Oumuamua might be an alien spaceship. So it’s clear he’s got the gift of sensationalism, which might be necessary to drum up public support for space exploration. And he may be right, it’s not that crazy to think that humanity might need some evidence of a larger game to bring us all together.

But maybe we wouldn’t get scared straight. Chances are if we found the ruins of an alien civilization, nuked to oblivion, we’d look at it and say “get a load of these idiots, we’d never be that dumb.”

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

27-05-2019 om 23:19 geschreven door peter  

On May 19, 2019 a drone at an altitude of 400 meters caught two fastwalkers but each object comes from a different direction. The most remarkable fact is that both fastwalkers crossing each other above the same landmark.

This is not only the first time that a drone caught 2 fastwalkers at once it also shows that these objects follow coordinated flight paths.

These mysterious objects are under intelligent control and remote controlled by someone behind the scenes using a complete network of coordinates where these highs speed UFOs fly by.

  

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

27-05-2019 om 23:04 geschreven door peter  

Suddenly the cigar-shaped UFO changes into two bright orbs, then one of the orbs moves away and disappears into thin air.

Although the quality is not so good, this is a great catch of a UFO phenomenon that cannot be easily explained.

  

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

27-05-2019 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

3 Mile Alien Tower Erases All Doubt That You May Have, Aliens On Our Moon, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: April 15, 2019
Location of discovery: Earths moon

Here is a alien obelisk structure at the center of a crater on Earths moon. The structure is amazingly beautiful and highly detailed. It has a tall square base its built upon and it can easily be compared to the Empire State Building in New York City. However this structure is over 3 miles tall. It was found by a little known Youtuber called UFOsAboveUs. He doesn't site his source, but its probably better he doesn't so that NASA wont delete the original photo of it. 

Absolutely amazing isn't it? The truth...always is. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 22:28 geschreven door peter  

Alien Drone Close Up In NASA Lunar Module Take Off Video, UFO Sighting News.

Long ago I found this video on the NASA site. I slowed it down and saw several UFOs shoot past. 

This video was taken of the lunar module taking off from the moon. As it did the camera recorded a UFO about 1 meter in size shot over the module, but got caught on camera. The drone UFO looks to be all metal construction, but has some areas that are whitish which I assume are clear areas for scanners to shoot through. 

 

Watch the video I made below in slow motion as the UFO appears. This video was taken directly from the NASA archive by me. I will not cite the source because I fear it will be deleted by NASA. 

Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 22:25 geschreven door peter  

UFO Seen In Earths Orbit From Space Station, May 26, 2019, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: May 26, 2019
Location of sighting: Earths orbit at ISS

I recorded this yesterday while my family was watching TV and talking, so there is no sound. I noticed a triangle looking cloud that I believed to be a cloaked ship at the bottom of the screen. After it had risen a little...the screen when blank and said transmission interrupted. This often happens when a UFO is seen, its SOP (standard operating procedure) for NASA. 

The days where UFOs can hide in clouds are numbered. The public is taking notice and no longer believe these are just clouds. This object is several miles across. It has a raised upper deck. 

Honestly, for hundreds and maybe thousands of years, humans have been misidentifying these flying cloaked ships. Its time for humanity to raise their awareness of the world around them. There is so much information in the details all around us. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 22:23 geschreven door peter  

UFO fleet spotted above moon could be proof of alien life, claims extraterrestrial enthusiasts

After watching the video, conspiracy theorists have assured that this fleet of UFO above the moon is a solid proof of alien existence.

By : Nirmal Narayanan

Conspiracy theorists have several times claimed that moon, Earth's only natural satellite is home to an advanced alien civilization. Adding heat to their seemingly outlandish claims, a conspiracy theory YouTube channel named 'Mavi xxx' has now uploaded a mysterious video that shows multiple UFOs flying above the moon.

The conspiracy theory channel revealed that the video was shot by a user named 'Fotohota' from Moscow, Russia. After witnessing the bizarre sighting through the telescope, the amateur astronomer revealed that these flying objects were travelling between Earth and the moon.

"They are not near the moon because there is no shadow. They are between the Earth and the moon, but not far from the moon. Their sizes are not small," said the eyewitness, Daily Star reports.

The video uploaded by 'Mav xxx' soon went viral on online spaces, and it has already racked up more than 35,000 views on YouTube. Most of the viewers who watched the video claimed that this is irrefutable proof of alien existence. These alien enthusiasts claim that alien life is real, and space agencies like NASA are well aware of their presence.

"OMG! Thanx for sharing. I think we all know it is going on. It is so disgusting we don't have full disclosure at this point in our human existence," commented Bo, a YouTube user.

A section of other conspiracy theorists claimed that these flying objects could be actually Donald Trump's space force which has already started surveilling our cosmic neighborhood.

"Our government is finally letting us see where our money goes to, SPACE Force the black budget fleet," commented Nicholas Santos, another YouTuber.

This is not the first time that UFO fleets are being spotted while viewing the moon through telescopes. A few months back, an amateur astronomer from Turkey spotted two unidentified flying objects hovering low above the lunar surface. After analyzing the video, self-proclaimed alien researcher Scott C Waring also assured that the sighting is a proof of extraterrestrial presence on the moon. 

{ https://www.ibtimes.co.in/ }

27-05-2019 om 21:59 geschreven door peter  

Pilot Reports UFO Sighting in Turkish Skies; Says ‘Never Seen Something Like This Before’

The pilot, Atilla Senturk, revealed that the UFO moved in an incredible speed across the skies on May 10.

By : Nirmal Narayanan

{ https://www.ibtimes.co.in/ }

27-05-2019 om 21:50 geschreven door peter  

Hidden Winds on Jupiter May Be Messing with Its Enormous Magnetic Field

By Rafi Letzter

This image illustrates Jupiter's magnetic fields at a single moment in time.

(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard/Moore et al.)

Jupiter's magnetic field has changed since the 1970s, and physicists have proved it.

That's not exactly a surprise. Earth's magnetic field, the only planetary field for which we have good ongoing measurements, changes all the time. But the new information is important, because these small changes reveal hidden details of a planet's internal "dynamo," the system that produces its magnetic field.

In a paper published May 20 in the journal Nature Astronomy, a team of researchers looked at magnetic field data from four past missions to Jupiter (Pioneer 10, which reached Jupiter in 1973; Pioneer 11, which reached Jupiter in 1974; Voyager 1, which reached Jupiter in 1979; and Ulysses, which reached Jupiter in 1992). [10 Places in the Solar System We'd Most Like to Visit]

They compared that data to a map of the planet's magnetic field produced by the spacecraft Juno, which conducted the most recent and most thorough probe of the giant planet. In 2016, Juno orbited very close to Jupiter, passing from pole to pole, gathering detailed gravitational and magnetic field data. That allowed researchers to develop a thorough model of the planet's magnetic field and some detailed theories as to how it's produced.

The researchers behind this paper showed that data from those four older probes, though more limited (each of them just swung by the planet once), didn't quite fit with the 2016 model of Jupiter's magnetic field.

"Finding something as minute as these changes in something so immense as Jupiter's magnetic field was a challenge," Kimee Moore, a Juno scientist at Harvard and lead author on the paper, said in a statement. "Having a baseline of close-up observations over four decades long provided us with just enough data to confirm that Jupiter's magnetic field does indeed change over time."

One challenge: The researchers were only interested in changes to Jupiter's internal magnetic field, but the planet also has magnetism coming from its upper atmosphere. Charged particles from volcanic eruptions on Io, Jupiter's most volatile moon, end up in the Jovian magnetosphere and ionosphere (a region of charged particles in the outer reaches of Jupiter's atmosphere) and can also change the magnetic field. But the researchers developed methods to subtract those effects from their data set, leaving them with data based almost entirely on the internal dynamo of the planet.

So the question was, what caused the changes to happen? What's going on in Jupiter's dynamo?

The researchers looked at several different causes of magnetic field changes. Their data most closely matched the predictions of a model in which winds in the planet’s interior change the magnetic field.

(Image: © Gerald Eichstädt/Seán Doran/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS)

"These winds extend from the planet's surface to over 1,860 miles (3,000 kilometers) deep, where the planet's interior begins changing from gas to highly conductive liquid metal," the statement said.

In truth, researchers can't see that deep into Jupiter, so the depth measurements are really best estimates, with several uncertainties, the researchers wrote in the paper. Still, scientists have robust theories to explain how the winds behave.

"They are believed to shear the magnetic fields, stretching them and carrying them around the planet," the statement said.

Most of those wind-driven changes seem to be concentrated in Jupiter's Great Blue Spot, a region of intense magnetic energy near Jupiter’s equator. (This is not the same thing as the Great Red Spot.) The northern and southern parts of the blue spot are shifting east on Jupiter, and the central third is shifting west, causing changes to the planet's magnetic field.

"It is incredible that one narrow magnetic hot spot, the Great Blue Spot, could be responsible for almost all of Jupiter's secular variation, but the numbers bear it out," Moore said in the statement. "With this new understanding of magnetic fields, during future science passes we will begin to create a planetwide map of Jupiter's [magnetic] variation. It may also have applications for scientists studying Earth's magnetic field, which still contains many mysteries to be solved."

• 5 Mars Myths and Misconceptions
• The Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics
• Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds

Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 21:35 geschreven door peter  

Could We Move the Entire Planet Earth to a New Orbit?

How difficult would it be to move our planet into another orbit?

(Image: © Shutterstock)

In the Chinese science fiction film The Wandering Earth, recently released on Netflix, humanity attempts to change the Earth's orbit using enormous thrusters in order to escape the expanding sun — and prevent a collision with Jupiter.

The scenario may one day come true. In five billion years, the sun will run out of fuel and expand, most likely engulfing the Earth. A more immediate threat is a global warming apocalypse. Moving the Earth to a wider orbit could be a solution — and it is possible in theory.

But how could we go about it and what are the engineering challenges? For the sake of argument, let us assume that we aim to move the Earth from its current orbit to an orbit 50% further from the sun, similar to Mars'.

We have been devising techniques to move small bodies — asteroids — from their orbit for many years, mainly to protect our planet from impacts. Some are based on an impulsive, and often destructive, action: a nuclear blast near or on the surface of the asteroid, or a "kineticimpactor", for example a spacecraft colliding with the asteroid at high velocity. These are clearly not applicable to Earth due to their destructive nature.

Other techniques instead involve a very gentle, continuous push over a long time, provided by a tugboat docked on the surface of the asteroid, or a spacecraft hovering near it (pushing through gravity or other methods). But this would be impossible for the Earth as its mass is enormous compared to even the largest asteroids.

Electric thrusters

We have actually already been moving the Earth from its orbit. Every time a probe leaves the Earth for another planet, it imparts a small impulse to the Earth in the opposite direction, similar to the recoil of a gun. Luckily for us — but unfortunately for the purpose of moving the Earth — this effect is incredibly small.

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is the most capable launch vehicle today. We would need 300 billion billion launches at full capacity in order to achieve the orbit change to Mars. The material making up all these rockets would be equivalent to 85% of the Earth, leaving only 15% of Earth in Mars orbit.

An electric thruster is a much more efficient way to accelerate mass — in particular ion drives, which work by firing out a stream of charged particles that propel the vessel forward. We could point and fire an electric thruster in the trailing direction of Earth's orbit.

The oversized thruster should be 1,000 kilometres above sea level, beyond Earth's atmosphere, but still solidly attached to the Earth with a rigid beam, to transmit the pushing force. With an ion beam fired at 40 kilometres per second in the right direction, we would still need to eject the equivalent of 13% of the mass of the Earth in ions to move the remaining 87%.

Sailing on light

As light carries momentum, but no mass, we may also be able to continuously power a focused light beam, such as a laser. The required power would be collected from the sun, and no Earth mass would be consumed. Even using the enormous 100GW laser plant envisaged by the Breakthrough Starshot project, which aims to propel spacecraft out of the solar system to explore neighbouring stars, it would still take three billion billion years of continuous use to achieve the orbital change.

But light can also be reflected directly from the sun to the Earth using a solar sailstationed next to the Earth. Researchers have shown that it would need a reflective disc 19 times bigger than the Earth's diameter to achieve the orbital change over a timescale of one billion years.

Interplanetary billiard

A well-known technique for two orbiting bodies to exchange momentum and change their velocity is with a close passage, or gravitational slingshot. This type of manoeuvre has been extensively used by interplanetary probes. For example, the Rosetta spacecraft that visited comet 67P in 2014-2016, during its ten-year journey to the comet passed in the vicinity of the Earth twice, in 2005 and 2007.

As a result, the gravity field of the Earth imparted a substantial acceleration to Rosetta, which would have been unachievable solely using thrusters. Consequently, the Earth received an opposite and equal impulse — although this did not have any measurable effect due to Earth's mass.

But what if we could perform a slingshot, using something much more massive than a spacecraft? Asteroids can certainly be redirected by the Earth, and while the mutual effect on Earth's orbit will be tiny, this action can be repeated numerous times to ultimately achieve a considerable Earth orbit change.

Some regions of the solar system are dense with small bodies such as asteroids and comets, the mass of many of which is small enough to be moved with realistic technology, but still orders of magnitude larger than what can be realistically launched from Earth.

With accurate trajectory design, it is possible to exploit so-called "Δv leveraging" — a small body can be nudged out of its orbit and as a result swing past the Earth, providing a much larger impulse to our planet. This may seem exciting, but it has been estimated that we would need a million such asteroid close passes, each spaced about a few thousand years apart, to keep up with the sun's expansion.

The verdict

Of all the options available, using multiple asteroid slingshots seems the most achievable right now. But in the future, exploiting light might be the key — if we learn how to build giant space structures or super-powerful laser arrays. These could also be used for space exploration.

But while it is theoretically possible, and may one day be technically feasible, it might actually be easier to move our species to our planetary next-door neighbour, Mars, which may survive the sun's destruction. We have, after all, already landed on and roved its surface several times.

After considering how challenging it would be to move the Earth, colonising Mars, making it habitable and moving Earth's population there over time, might not sound as difficult after all.

• Matteo Ceriotti, Lecturer in space systems engineering, University of Glasgow
• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

NASA Live: Earth From Space - Nasa Live Stream | ISS LIVE FEED : ISS Tracker + Live Chat

Earth From Space HD 1080p Nova - YouTubeDez

{ https://www.space.com/news }

27-05-2019 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

George Dvorsky

A satellite tracker in the Netherlands has captured stunning video of dozens of SpaceX Starlink satellites passing overhead. Launched together late last week, the chain of satellites looked like a giant, brightly lit train chugging away in the night sky—a rare sight that understandably prompted UFO sightings.

Marco Langbroek, a spy satellite tracker and astronomer, spotted the string of Starlink satellites from a tracking station located in Leiden, the Netherlands. Using data from last week’s launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, he calculated a probable search orbit, got his camera ready, and was duly rewarded.

Just before 1:00 a.m. local time on May 25 (10:55 pm UT on May 24 to be exact), the Starlink train drifted into Langbroek’s view. The satellites had only recently been deployed and were still parked in orderly, soldier-like formation. On his website, SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log, Langbroek wrote:

My search orbit turned out to be not too bad: very close in sky track, and with the objects passing some 3 minutes early on the predictions. And what a SPECTACULAR view it was!

It started with two faint, flashing objects moving into the field of view. Then, a few tens of seconds later, my jaw dropped as the ‘train’ entered the field of view. I could not help shouting “OAAAAAH!!!!” (followed by a few expletives...).

Langbroek uploaded the video to Vimeo, writing on his site, “be prepared to be mind-blown!”

Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 23, these 60 satellites are the first build-out of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet constellation. Eventually, the plan is for this telecommunications system to provide low-cost broadband internet access to paying customers around the planet, including remote areas where internet service is hard to come by. Starlink won’t reach “significant operational capacity” until at least 800 satellites are placed in orbit, so the private company still has a way to go.

Late last week, the 60 Starlink satellites, each weighing 500 pounds (227 kg), were placed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 400 kilometers (250 miles). The intended orbit is much higher. Accordingly, each satellite is equipped with a Hall ion thruster, which will enable the units to adjust their positions in orbit, hold an intended altitude, and even deorbit themselves when the time comes. SpaceX doesn’t expect these satellites to last more than five years, after which time they’ll dip back into Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrate during reentry; SpaceX intends to replace old satellites with newer models over the course of the project.

Importantly, this Starlink train is a temporary feature. The satellites will drift further and further apart with each successive orbit of Earth. This train, as Langbroek wrote at his website, “will probably quickly dissipate.”

Langbroek wasn’t the only person to see the amazing sight; commenters at his website said they saw the formation in Minnesota, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and elsewhere. Understandably, the strange sight prompted concerns of UFOs, as AFP reported via CTV News:

Shortly afterwards, Dutch website www.ufomeldpunt.nl was inundated with more than 150 sighting reports, with astonished spotters describing a “bizarre train of stars or lights moving across the skies at constant speed.”

“There’s a long line of lights. Faster than a plane. Huh?” one spotter reported, while another called it a “star caravan” and one saying “I have it on film”.

One spotter simply texted: “WTF?”

“I didn’t know what to make of it,” an unnamed witness later told the NOS public broadcaster.

“Is it Russia attacking the US? Are they UFOs? Seriously, I didn’t know,” the witness said.

Thankfully it wasn’t an alien invasion—but this likely won’t be the last Starlink train we’ll get to see, and as a result, not the last time we’ll experience a wave of related UFO sightings. SpaceX needs least 800 Starlink satellites in orbit to gain full functionality of the system, and a total of 1,000 for the project to become economically viable for the company. Incredibly, Elon Musk also envisions as many as 12,000 Starlink satellites as part of the constellation. If that’s true, we can expect many more transient Starlink trains in the coming months and years.

{ https://gizmodo.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 20:57 geschreven door peter  

George Dvorsky

Artist’s impression of Bajadasaurus pronuspinax, a newly discovered sauropod dinosaur from South America.

Illustration: Jorge A. González

Paleontologists in Argentina have uncovered a dinosaur unlike anything ever seen before. Alive some 140 million years ago, these majestic herbivores featured long, forward-pointing spikes running along their necks and backs. These spikes may have served a defensive role, but their exact purpose now presents a fascinating new mystery.

New research published this week in Scientific Reports describes a new species of dinosaur its discoverers are calling Bajadasaurus pronuspinax (pronounced “BA-HAD-AH-SAURUS” “PRONE-OO-SPIN-ACKS”). The first half of its binomial references to the geological formation where its fossils were found, the Bajada Colorada Formation in Northern Patagonia, Argentina. The latter part of its name means “bent over forward spine,” owing to its most distinctive feature. The fossilized remnants of this extraordinary creature, including a nearly complete skull with some teeth, were uncovered in 2013 by paleontologists from CONICET, Universidad Maimónides, and several other institutions.

Bajadasaurus was a sauropod, a wildly successful group of long-necked, four-legged dinosaurs. A Lower Cretaceous dinosaur, it lived 140 million years ago in what is now Argentina, and it belonged to a subgroup of sauropods called dicraeosaurids—medium-sized sauropods with distinctive vertebrae and long spines along their necks and backs.

Lead author Pablo Gallina posing with the new reconstructions.

Image: Secretariat of Science

Analysis of the Bajadasaurus skull and teeth suggests they grazed on low-lying plants. Their eye sockets were located near the roof of the skull, allowing them to keep watch for predators while they munched on foliage. In the beautiful art produced by Jorge A. González, a small pterosaur can be seen perching on a Bajadasaurus spike—a nice touch, given how prolific these winged reptiles were in South America at the time. Reconstructions of the spikey beast were recently unveiled at the Cultural Science Center in Buenos Aires (pictured above).

Prior to this latest discovery, paleontologists had uncovered another South American dicraeosauridae with spikes, Amargasaurus cazaui. This sleek-looking sauropod lived around 15 million years after Bajadasaurus, but its spikes were much shorter and they leaned backward instead of forward. Bajadasaurus is notable both for the size of its spikes and their forward-leaning orientation. The longest of the rod-like neural spines measured nearly 5 feet in length, close to 150 centimeters.

“We’re barely into February, but Bajadasaurus might end up being the most awesome dinosaur of 2019. The name looks a lot like Badassasaurus, which is actually pretty fitting, as this looks like a punk dinosaur,” Steve Brusatte, a University of Edinburgh paleontologist not directly involved with the research (though he edited the paper for Scientific Reports), told Gizmodo. “The long, spindly spikes sticking out of the neck give the appearance of a Mohawk haircut, or the spiky hair of Johnny Rotten. I can’t help but think that the spines functioned in the same way as Johnny Rotten’s hair: to get attention. These must have been display structures, to attract mates or intimidate rivals, or maybe to rock out in other ways that only the dinosaurs would have known.”

Indeed, the exact function of the spikes isn’t clear. Possibilities include heat regulation (an issue for large-bodied sauropods), sexual display (horns to make dinos horny), a fat reservoir (the fat stores would be located between the spikes, and similar to a camel’s humps), and defense against predators. The authors of the new study, led by Pablo A. Gallina from Universidad Maimónides, favor the idea that the spines served as “passive defense structures.” Any would-be predator, the authors surmised, would risk impaling themselves on these formidable structures during an attack. For that hypothesis to work, however, the long spines would need to be strong enough to avoid shattering or fracturing.

Fossil elements of Bajadasaurus pronuspinax.

Image: P. A. Gallina et al., 2019

“We believe that the long, pointed spines—extremely long and thin—on the neck and back of Bajadasaurus... should serve to deter potential predators,” said Gallina in a CONICET statement. “However, we think that if they were only bare bone structures or covered only with skin they could have broken or fractured easily with a blow or when attacked by other animals. This leads us to suggest that these spines should have been protected by a corneal keratin sheath similar to what [is observed] in the horns of many mammals.”

Brusatte isn’t convinced.

“The paleontologists who described the new dinosaur suggest that the spines may have been used for defense, but it’s hard for me to imagine that such thin, delicate, gaudy structures would have been much use in deflecting the bite of a big meat-eating dinosaur,” said Brusatte. “It’s an interesting idea, and maybe the authors are correct, but I think display is much more likely.”

Eric Gorscak, a postdoctoral research scientist at The Field Museum in Chicago who wasn’t affiliated with the new study, said “Bajadasaurus is certainly a bizarre discovery,” but like Brusatte, he’s skeptical about the authors’ defense hypothesis.

“Their reconstruction is somewhat speculative as it is based on only one recovered neck vertebra with the curved neural spines,” Gorscak told Gizmodo. “The trouble with such unique features in extinct animals is that there are rare, if any, living examples to compare to better understand potential functions. But at the very least, Bajadasaurus demonstrates that life will find a way to modify pre-existing structures in response to ever-changing ecological and biological demands—even if we’re not entirely sure what those were.”

Stephen Poropat, a paleontologist from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, thought the new discovery was significant owing to how much of the skull was recovered, but he was “intrigued” by the significance the authors afforded to the forward-pointing spines, which appeared on only one of the three neck vertebrae recovered.

“They seem not to consider the possibility that these processes [fossils]—which are very long and exceedingly thin—might have been subjected to some degree of post-mortem deformation due to geological processes,” Poropat told Gizmodo. “In other words, when Bajadasaurus was alive they might have pointed forward to a lesser degree, or not pointed forward at all.”

He also said it’s difficult to know the kind of soft tissue that once covered these spines. He agreed that keratin is a possibility, as the authors suggest, but it’s also possible the spines were surrounded by soft tissue, or used to support a frill, he said.

“It is important to remember that these structures were actually part of the vertebrae of these animals, unlike the plates of stegosaurs or the armor of ankylosaurs, which were separate bones, not fused to the spine,” Poropat said, adding that “the conclusions the authors draw about Bajadasaurus using its spines for defense are speculative.” 

A reasonable next step for the authors would be to put their theories to the test, and conduct some experimental paleontology. This could be done using computer simulations or with materials that approximate the strength of the Bajadasaurus spikes. Similar experiments have been done before, for example, with researchers using models to estimate the maximum running speed ofTyrannosaurus rex before it would snap its legs with its tremendous bulk.

The exact purpose of the spikes aside, there’s no question Bajadasaurus is one of the more spectacular dinosaurs we’ve seen in quite some time. It’s incredible to think of all the things we’re still learning—and still hope to learn—about the remarkable creatures that lived long before humans.

• This post was updated to include comments from Stephen Poropat.

[Scientific Reports]

{ https://gizmodo.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 20:43 geschreven door peter  

Evolution: What is it? How does it work?

BY ZOE GORDON

This is an odd start, but before we get into complicated things I want to talk about something near and dear to my heart—corn. Once upon a time, the corn we know and love (at least I do), used to be something called teosinte, a small green plant that doesn’t look anywhere near as appetizing. It is hard to believe, I know, but something very interesting happened. In the area that is now Mexico, this plant was identified as having potential as a food crop, so farmers began intentionally growing it. Being good farmers, they thought that maybe if they kept the seeds of the biggest ones and kept planting those they would get more food out of it. As it turns out, they were right. After ten thousand years of only planting the ones that produced the biggest kernels, we ended up with maize as we know it today. It’s bizarre but entirely true and it happened through a process we call artificial selection.

In nature similar, very strange changes can happen to species over time given enough pressure by the environment around them. Evolutionary biology is essentially the study of how organisms have changed over time to develop into new species. The topic is a bit contentious, as we all know, but there are also many common misconceptions about exactly how this process works. Thinking about it as a whole is difficult, with many points where it is easy to get hung up and confused. So, instead of looking at the big strange picture, we should start with a closer look at the little parts that make up the concept. As we move into this article, remember that, ultimately, every species needs to survive and reproduce because that’s how species continue to exist. With that said, let us take a look!

Credit: Pixabay.

Getting Fit

Let us consider two individuals, Tom and Jack. Tom is long-limbed, athletic, lightweight, and doesn’t have much body hair. Jack is shorter, has a fair amount of hair, and a larger, higher-fat build. If you put both of these men in a forest, it is likely that Tom will have a bit of an advantage with traversing, climbing, et cetera. However, take the same pair and put them in a windy tundra and Jack will likely do a lot better in the harsh weather.

Every environment poses its own unique challenges. If you live in an area that has a lot of water, you will do a lot better if you can swim. If you live in an area that has a lot of plants and cover, predators are less likely to see you if you’re small and green. These factors contribute to something we call fitness which is a measure of how well you are built to survive and how likely you are to reproduce. In some ways, it’s a bit like physical fitness in humans. And, similarly, this fitness affects more than just your looks.

Genetics plays a huge role in this, and your genes (genotype) are expressed through your outward characteristics, called your phenotype. Small brown lizards living in a forest are displaying (‘expressing’) genes that give them the small and brown phenotype, and maybe even more that tell them to like staying on surfaces that match their color. Which brings us to the next main idea, a process called natural selection.

Selection Bias

Natural selection looks at the differences in the likelihood of survival and reproduction based on a species’ phenotype. Ultimately, in nature, creatures that have genes that result in fit phenotypes will survive and reproduce. This concept is where the term “survival of the fittest” comes from. The survivors live to have offspring and so genes in that population will, therefore, start leaning towards that fitter survivor genotype. Let us use an example.

Imagine that in a grassland there is a population of mostly large, green grasshoppers. They are doing well here because nature provides a lot of cover. This season, though, there isn’t much rain and the grassland starts turning brown and sparse. This means that the larger, brighter grasshoppers become much easier to see by predators and many of them get eaten. So, the next generation of grasshoppers ends up being mostly smaller and perhaps a bit less green, because the ones that best survived the change in the grasslands were the ones that were harder to see.

This is natural selection. Those built to survive in an environment will live long enough to have offspring, changing the gene variety in the next generation. The same process happens with plants, fungi, and microorganisms. An important thing to note here, though, is that this is only possible because a healthy population has a wide range of genes to choose from. Not all organisms of a species will be the same size or the same color or have the same features.

Charles Darwin is considered the father of modern evolutionary biology. He developed his theory of natural selection by observing the variations among the species of the Galapagos Islands. He was best known for his study of birds, which all occupied different niches on these far islands but bore obvious resemblances to mainland species.

Image credits: John Gould. 

Over a long period of time and given a lot of pressure, a population of organisms can change in significant ways. The reason we are now having an antibiotic crisis is that, after many years of exposing bacteria to chemicals designed to kill them, the ones that had the gene quirks allowing them to survive are the ones which were able to multiply. So now we have a large number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to contend with which have whole sections of DNA that exist only to counteract these drugs—but that, of course, raises a question. If they didn’t have these genes before, why do they have them now?

Mutant Power

Credit: Pixabay.

Mutation is a major factor influencing the process of evolution. Every so often, when cells are dividing, the mechanisms that copy bits of genetic data make a mistake. While it can often result in problems, it sometimes creates just what an organism needs to survive. One reason why HIV has been so hard to cure is that its reproduction process is unstable and prone to genetic errors. What this means is that the medication will work on most viral particles, but not all of them. The virus is, therefore, constantly evolving and the ‘error’, mutant forms that help it survive persist due to natural selection.

Some mutations are overtly harmful, like mutations in hemoglobin genes that cause sickle cell disease, where red blood cells curve into a “sickle” shape. The mutation makes the cells less efficient oxygen carriers and more fragile, and sometimes they cause painful blockages and organ damage. However, these mutations continue to persist because if a person is only a carrier, having received the variant gene from only one parent, it has a protective effect against malaria—a common disease in the parts of Africa where sickle cell is most prevalent. The fragility of the cell due to the hemoglobin structure means the cell will often rupture before the parasite can reproduce. But, since the remainder of their hemoglobin is normal, they don’t experience most of the severe effects seen in persons with the full form of the disease. The carrier phenotype is, therefore, fit. Natural selection is a strange process indeed.

So we have looked at mutation, natural selection, and fitness. We have looked at bacteria and viruses and how these factors have made them survive and evolve on a smaller faster scale. Now, how does that translate to bigger more complex things?

Making Sense of it All

Imagine that there is a ground-dwelling species of mammal that lives in a forest. Many of them are competing for the same food sources. A few of them, have started climbing in the hopes of finding another food source. A mutation comes which makes one offspring’s claws curve a bit more, causing that individual to be better at climbing. It survives to reproduce. A few generations down the line, all its descendants may have these curved claws. Somewhere along the line, a descendant is born with unusually long limbs which makes it better at both climbing and jumping, this individual’s offspring may well, do better than others—and so on. These minor changes can add up over time, just like the biggest teosinte kernels being intentionally planted. In nature, however, it takes far longer than a neat ten thousand years to produce something as different as maize.

Let this mammal group adapt for many thousands of years with natural selection favoring climbing habits and hunting in trees. At the end of that time if you were to take one of these climbing adapted creatures and put them alongside the ground dwellers they would look very different. They may have a different body form, make different sounds, have eyes that are adapted to seeing at a distance, and so on. And, because of the amount of mutation and genetic changes that brought them to this point, any offspring born of a mix of these two creatures would be sterile like a liger or mule. Just like that, you now have two different species. This also speaks to a common misconception, the idea that if one organism advanced from another, the first one should be gone. That simply isn’t how the process works.

In nature, creatures will exist side by side as one group remains the same and others experience changes due to environmental pressure. It is strange, and hard to fully appreciate, but we have a bit of evidence that can follow the trail. Think even of the liger I just mentioned, the mere fact that a lion and tiger—two distinct species from two different regions—can produce offspring means that their genotypes must be similar enough to make an embryo viable. We interpret this to mean that these big cats must have some ancestry in common.

What Do We Know?

Though it happens over a very long period of time in creatures that take longer to reproduce than bacteria or viruses, there are a few ways we can observe that evolution is an acting process. If an organism has advanced from one form to another, it stands to reason that there had to be some forms in between. Well, though we don’t always have all the bits of the puzzle, the fossils we find often help us fill these gaps. For example, between dinosaurs and birds we have found species of feathered, winged dinosaurs like Archaeopteryx.

There are also several odd cases in nature of organisms growing parts they have no need for. Some snake species and legless lizards retain a pelvic girdle with no real function, dolphin embryos in development still start to grow hind limb buds that retract after a time, and many cave dwelling or burrowing species retain non-functioning eyes. The fact that the genetic machinery required to make these structures happen exists, presents as evidence that these genes had a purpose at some point in the organism’s history.

There are other factors to consider as well. Genetic evidence frequently shows fairly small differences between one species and another of a similar type that cannot reproduce with each other. In fact, genetic evidence shows that a large variety of organisms have a surprising number of genes in common—whales, humans, bats, and cats all have the same bones making up their forelimbs. But, this gets into very complex discussion and murky waters. This article really just serves to give a background of a concept. Take the information here, interpret and think about it as you will and, of course, there are many other great sources of information on the topic out there. Whether evolution on a larger scale makes sense to you or not, hopefully we can at least agree that these smaller processes of change are things we can observe. By now, I hope, the idea of what evolution is and how it works is at least a little bit clearer.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 20:20 geschreven door peter  

Multiple pilots have reported encounters with UFOs, Navy says

27-05-2019 om 18:56 geschreven door peter  

‘Wow, What Is That?’ Navy Pilots Report Unexplained Flying Objects

By Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean

WASHINGTON — The strange objects, one of them like a spinning top moving against the wind, appeared almost daily from the summer of 2014 to March 2015, high in the skies over the East Coast. Navy pilots reported to their superiors that the objects had no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes, but that they could reach 30,000 feet and hypersonic speeds.

Related Coverage

• Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program

• 2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’

• On the Trail of a Secret Pentagon U.F.O. Program

• People Are Seeing U.F.O.s Everywhere, and This Book Proves It

{ https://www.nytimes.com/ 

27-05-2019 om 09:25 geschreven door peter  

“Here is the video I shot, be prepared to be mind-blown!” Marco Langbroek wrote on his website SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log, where he shared an amazing capture of dozens of SpaceX Starlink internet satellites chugging along, in a straight line, across the heavens.

SpaceX Starlink objects train May 24, 2019, from Marco Langbroek on Vimeo.

Netherlands-based satellite tracker Marco Langbroek stunned space fans this weekend with this video of dozens of Starlink internet satellites soaring overhead. SpaceX had launched its first 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Thursday, May 23, 2019. It plans to launch nearly 12,000 of these satellites; from low-Earth orbit, they’ll beam internet coverage to the world. Though precise tracking figures for the satellites aren’t available yet, Marco was able to make a rough prediction of where to spot them. His prediction turned out to be close enough to catch the satellites soaring over his location.

He shared his jaw-dropping capture of the view at his website SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log, writing:

On 24 May 2019 at 2:30 UT, SpaceX launched STARLINK, a series of 60 satellites that is the first launch of many that will create a large constellation of satellites meant to provide global internet access.

Just short of a day after the launch, near 22:55 UT on May 24, this resulted in a spectacular view over northwestern Europe, when a ‘train’ of bright satellites, all moving close together in a line, moved across the sky. It rained UFO reports as a result, and the press picked it up as well.

There were no orbital elements for the objects available yet on Space-Track, but based on the orbital information (53 degree inclination, initially 440 km orbital altitude) I had calculated a search orbit and stood ready with my camera.

My search orbit turned out to be not too bad: very close in sky track, and with the objects passing some 3 minutes early on the predictions. And what a SPECTACULAR view it was!

It started with two faint, flashing objects moving into the field of view. Then, a few tens of seconds later, my jaw dropped as the ‘train’ entered the field of view. I could not help shouting
‘OAAAAAH!!!!’ (followed by a few expletives…)!

Marco Langbroek captured the SpaceX Starlink satellites the night after their launch, moving like a train across the heavens.

µImage via SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log.

Marco said he counted at least 56 objects as the satellites flew overhead. He wrote:

Over the coming days the ‘train’ of objects will be making two to three passes each night. As they are actively manoeuvering with their ion thrusters, they will be more spread out with each pass, so the ‘train’ will probably quickly dissipate.

The objects were launched into a ~440 km altitude, 53 degree inclined orbit. Using their ion thrusters, they will raise their orbits to ~550 km the coming days/weeks.

A view of SpaceX’s first 60 Starlink satellites in orbit, still in stacked configuration, with the Earth as a brilliant blue backdrop on May 23, 2019.

Image via SpaceX/ Space.com.

Marco isn’t the only stargazer who caught the view. Karoline Mrazek and Erwin Matys of Project Nightflight in Austria were taken by surprise when, while outdoors for a night of observing on May 24, they saw the satellites, too. They said in an email to EarthSky:

We were testing a new imaging system at our dark-sky observing site in Austria. Suddenly a weirdly slow moving streak of light appeared on the horizon, due northwest from our location. The object slowly moved eastward across the sky, stretching in length all during the pass. A few stragglers appeared to trail behind the larger bulk of objects. The several dozen individual objects of the bulk were soon resolvable with the unaided eye. They had approximately 2 magnitudes each. The spooky wagon train of dots culminated near Polaris, before it disappeared in the Earth’s shadow shortly before 22:57 UT. The spectacular show lasted several minutes. We literally stood and watched, stunned speechless.

All in all that was one of the most amazing observations we had in a long time. It was amazing to see this show of a totally unfamiliar object appearing unexpectedly in the sky. We look forward to the next deployment. We can only recommend it to other stargazers to look out for new deployments next time SpaceX launches another Falcon rocket.

And, of course, others were caught unawares on May 24 and, judging from our email today, were stunned by what they saw.

By Saturday night, May 25, the satellites apparently were already fading in brightness, as they were being moved to a higher orbit. Dave Chapman in Canada, another veteran observer of the skies, wrote to EarthSky:

I observed the Starlink train from rural Nova Scotia on Saturday night, May 25 at 10:20 pm ADT. I knew it existed and had seen the video, but I was not expecting it. It appeared to me like a dim jet contrail, but the binoculars resolved it into a train of lights. I was showing beginners the night sky and they were amazed to see it. Very exciting, but worrisome. This could get old very fast!

As for your chances of seeing the Starlink satellite train in the nights ahead, we checked the tried and true website Heavens-Above.com, but didn’t find any predictions. The satellites are currently being maneuvered via their ion thrusters to a higher orbit; as they get higher, they’ll become fainter to earthly observers (hopefully notstill bright enough to be seen, because thousands of them would not be a pretty sight above us). They are also dispersing and so aren’t as likely to appear train-like. Our advice is to keep checking Heavens-Above.com, as well as Marco’s site SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log. Also, try Marco’s Twitter page (@Marco_Langbroek). If predictions do become available, you’ll likely find them at one of those places.

This just in: We got an email Sunday morning, with word of a new tool for finding out when the Starlink satellites will pass over your location. We can’t vouch for its accuracy, but it’s very easy to use. Find the Starlink prediction tool here. Thank you, dev@cmdr2!

And, as always, keep looking up!

Dr Marco Langbroek@Marco_Langbroek

 · 25 mei 2019

WHOAAA!!!! Just had a SPECTACULAR view of the train of @SpaceX #Starlink objects passing over! Video to follow. FAN-TAS-TIC!!!!

Dr Marco Langbroek@Marco_Langbroek

VIDEO! Prepare to be mind-blown!
The train of @SpaceX #Starlink satellites passing over Leiden, the Netherlands, some 25 minutes ago. Camera: WATEC 902H with Canon FD 1.8/50 mm lens. I was shouting when they entered FOV!@elonmusk https://vimeo.com/338361997 

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Bottom line: Marco Langbroek shared an amazing video capture of dozens of SpaceX Starlink internet satellites – marching in a straight line across the heavens – at his website SatTrackCam Leiden (b)log.

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

27-05-2019 om 01:48 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 01:35 geschreven door peter  

© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, www.newdawnmagazine.com. Permission granted to freely distribute this article for non-commercial purposes if unedited and copied in full, including this notice.

© Copyright New Dawn Magazine, www.newdawnmagazine.com. Permission to re-send, post and place on web sites for non-commercial purposes, and if shown only in its entirety with no changes or additions. This notice must accompany all re-posting.

{ https://www.newdawnmagazine.com/ }

27-05-2019 om 01:11 geschreven door peter