Meteor fireball explodes over Costa Rica – Meteorite crashes into home (videos)

A large meteor fireball exploded in the sky over Costa Rica on April 23, 2019 at 9:09pm. People reported seeing flashes in the sky. Others reported hearing loud booms and feeling rumblings. On the same evening a rock fell from the sky, making a hole in a roof in Aguas Zarcas, San Carlos, Alajuela. Now experts will analyse the rock to determine its origin. But I bet it is a meteorite!

The woman who found the space rock in her house explains she heard a loud rumble, went to the back of her house, discovered the hole in the roof and found the warm rock on the floor.

Now, cosmochemist (I am one of those ) will have to analyse the chemical composion of the rock to determine where this rock comes from… But it is … the meteorite!

The lyrid meteor shower peaked on April 22-23, 2019. So it is not quite a coincidence.

Several people as well as cameras located near Poás and Turrialba volcanoes have captured bright flashes of light in the sky, most probably from the disintegration and explosion of the meteor.

Here some videos of the sky event:

UCR@UniversidadCR

Las cámaras de la @RSNcostarica de la UCR captaron los destellos de luz generados por un #meteoro que ingresó el día 23 de abril del 2019, a la atmósfera terrestre sobre el territorio costarricense. Videos editados por el Dr. Pablo Ruiz, de la RSN / UCR-ICE.

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6:18 PM - Apr 24, 2019

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{  https://meteorshowertonight.org/ }

05-06-2019 om 17:53 geschreven door peter  

Mars is a desert world, with sand dunes similar to those on Earth. But the processes that create them can be quite different from those on our planet, according to a new study from the University of Arizona.

Linear sand dunes in Proctor Crater as seen by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on June 10, 2007.

Image via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Like Earth, Mars has sand dunes, a lot of them, but scientists are now learning that the processes involved in their formation and movement can be quite different from what happens on our own planet. A team of planetary scientists from the University of Arizona (UA) has conducted the most detailed study yet of how sands move around on Mars, and how that movement differs from sand movement in deserts on Earth.

The new research was led by Matthew Chojnacki at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at UA and the peer-reviewed results were published in the current issue of the journal Geology on March 11, 2019.

The team found that processes not involved in sand movement on Earth are very much involved in how sand gets transported on Mars, most notably large-scale features on the landscape and differences in landform surface temperature. As Chojnacki explained:

Because there are large sand dunes found in distinct regions of Mars, those are good places to look for changes … If you don’t have sand moving around, that means the surface is just sitting there, getting bombarded by ultraviolet and gamma radiation that would destroy complex molecules and any ancient Martian biosignatures.

Another stunning set of rolling sand dunes, big and small, in Proctor Crater on Mars, as seen by MRO on February 9, 2009.

Image via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

It may seem surprising that Mars even has sand dunes, since its atmosphere is so thin – about 0.6 percent of Earth’s air pressure at sea level – but it does, and they can range from just a few feet tall to hundreds of feet in height. They have been seen from spacecraft in orbit and close-up on the ground by rovers. The sand dunes on Mars do move much more slowly, however, about two feet per Earth year (about one Martian year), while sand dunes on Earth can migrate as much as 100 feet per year. According to Chojnacki:

On Mars, there simply is not enough wind energy to move a substantial amount of material around on the surface. It might take two years on Mars to see the same movement you’d typically see in a season on Earth.

There were other questions the researchers wanted to address, such as whether the Martian sand dunes are still active today, or just relics from millions or billions of years ago when the atmosphere was thicker. As Chojnacki stated:

We wanted to know: Is the movement of sand uniform across the planet, or is it enhanced in some regions over others? We measured the rate and volume at which dunes are moving on Mars.

Sand dunes inside Victoria Crater, near the Opportunity rover landing site as seen by MRO on October 3, 2006.

Image via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Barchan sand dunes in the Hellespontus region, as seen by MRO on March 16, 2008.

Image via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Spotted sand dunes near the Martian north pole, as seen by MRO on April 13, 2008. The spots are where carbon dioxide ice has sublimated off the dunes.

Image via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

Frosted sand dunes near the Martian north pole, as seen by MRO on February 19, 2008.

Image via NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.

In order to help figure out the causes of sand movement on Mars, the researchers used high-resolution images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). MRO has been orbiting Mars since 2006, taking thousands of detailed images of the surface all over the planet. For this particular work, the researchers mapped sand volumes, dune migration rates and heights for 54 dune fields, encompassing 495 individual dunes. Chojnacki said:

This work could not have been done without HiRISE. The data did not come just from the images, but was derived through our photogrammetry lab that I co-manage with Sarah Sutton. We have a small army of undergraduate students who work part time and build these digital terrain models that provide fine-scale topography.

What the researchers found was surprising. While there are some ancient, inactive sand dunes, there are also many still active today. They fill and sweep across craters, canyons, rifts, cracks, volcanic remnants, polar basins and plains surrounding craters. Mars’ atmosphere may be thin, but it is still good at transporting sand grains across a diverse array of landscapes.

There are three regions that have the most activity: Syrtis Major Planum, a dark area larger than Arizona; Hellespontus Montes, a mountain range about two-thirds the length of the Cascades; and Olympia Undae(North Polar Erg), a sea of sand surrounding the north polar ice cap. What makes these areas unique is that they experience conditions not known to affect terrestrial sand dunes: stark transitions in topography and surface temperatures. According to Chojnacki:

Those are not factors you would find in terrestrial geology. On Earth, the factors at work are different from Mars. For example, ground water near the surface or plants growing in the area retard dune sand movement.

Close-up view of a sand dune called Namib Dune, part of the Bagnold Dunes near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater, as seen by the Curiosity rover on December 18, 2015. Namib is about 16 feet (5 meters) tall.

Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Another view from Curiosity of part of the Bagnold Dunes near Mount Sharp in Gale Crater.

Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

The researchers also found that small basins filled with bright dust had higher rates of sand movement as well, as Chojnacki noted:

A bright basin reflects the sunlight and heats up the air above much more quickly than the surrounding areas, where the ground is dark, so the air will move up the basin toward the basin rim, driving the wind, and with it, the sand.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has studied a field of dunes in Gale Crater up close, called the Bagnold Dunes, and the Mars Odyssey orbiter also recently saw an unusual hexagonal-shaped dune field created by the Martian winds.

Mars is often referred to as a desert world, for good reason. Sand dunes flow across the surface just as they do in deserts on Earth, like the Sahara. In some locations, you could swear you were in the American Southwest, with the scenery being uncannily similar-looking. But Mars is not Earth, and different geological and other environmental factors play a key role in how sand dunes behave, and differ, on both worlds.

Bottom line: This new study shows how sand dunes on Mars – while visually and aesthetically similar to their earthly counterparts – can differ significantly in how they are formed and how they migrate across the surface of this cold desert world.

• Source: Boundary condition controls on the high-sand-flux regions of Mars
• Via UANews

{https://earthsky.org/ }

05-06-2019 om 17:52 geschreven door peter  

“Mud ball” meteorites – full of clays, organics and water – are unique among space rocks. And a lot of them fell in April 2019 on a small town in Costa Rica, much to the delight of scientists.

This meteorite from the fall at Aguas Zarcas, Costa Rica, in April hit a doghouse. Luckily, the dog – Rocky – was unharmed.

Image via Michael Farmer/ASU.

Meteorite falls on Earth are fairly common, but not all meteorites are the same. Some of them are “mud balls,” rich in clays, organic compounds and water-bearing minerals, called carbonaceous chondrites. They are of great interest to scientists, due to their unique composition, and now a bunch more prime specimens have been found, which rained down after a large fireball was seen over Aguas Zarcas, a small town in Costa Rica, on April 23, 2019.

The fireball was a meteor, or space rock, entering the Earth’s atmosphere that broke apart into hundreds of smaller pieces. When the pieces of this rock hit the ground, their name changed to meteorite. One meteorite fragment weighed about two pounds and smashed through the roof of a house, destroying the owner’s dining table. Another one crashed through the roof of a dog house, narrowly missing a sleeping dog. Close calls!

The doghouse with the hole in its roof from the April 2019 meteorite in Costa Rica. The dog, Rocky, was sleeping in the doghouse at the time; he was unharmed, but probably surprised!

Image via Michael Farmer/ASU.

Several of the meteorites were collected and sent to Arizona State University (ASU) for study, donated by meteorite collector Michael Farmer. ASU will also be able to purchase additional meteorites from the fall, thanks to a private donor. This is the first time in 50 years that the university has had a chance to analyze such pristine samples of extraterrestrial mud balls. As Laurence Garvie, a research professor at ASU and a curator for its Center for Meteorite Studies, said:

Many carbonaceous chondrites are mud balls that are between 80 and 95 percent clay. Clays are important because water is an integral part of their structure. These had to be collected quickly and before they got rained on. Because they are mostly clay, as soon as these types of meteorites get wet, they fall apart.

Luckily, the researchers were able to collect their samples before it rained again, and they got a nice little haul, too, about 55 pounds (25 kilograms) of the precious space rocks.

A composite element map from one of the meteorites showing the distribution of different minerals. Orange-yellow colors show tochilinite, deep-blue colors represent olivine, and red colors are pentlandite and pyrrhotite.

Image via ASU.

Analysis of the meteorites was carried out at ASU’s campus in Tempe, Arizona. According to Garvie:

I was in the lab by 5 a.m. the next morning after picking up the samples to get them ready for the initial analyses. Classification of new meteorites can be like a race with other institutions, and I needed ASU to be first so that we’ll have the recognition of being the collection that holds and curates the type specimen material.

Air-sensitive meteorites like these are kept in special nitrogen cabinets. The nitrogen gas helps to preserve the meteorites, which can degrade easily due to their composition. As Garvie explained:

If you left this carbonaceous chondrite in the air, it would lose some of its extraterrestrial affinities. These meteorites have to be curated in a way that they can be used for current and future research, and we have that ability here at ASU.

This mud ball meteorite fragment from April’s meteorite fall in Aguas Zarcas, Costa Rica, looks a bit like an arrowhead.

Image via ASU.

The classification of these meteorites is part of a broader international classification effort. Garvie is also working with Karen Ziegler from the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico. They studied the oxygen isotopes of the meteorites, to determine how similar they are to other carbonaceous chondrites.

Sandra Pizzarello, an organic chemist from ASU’s School of Molecular Sciences, is also involved in the studies, focusing on the organic content of the meteorites. These kinds of organics could have provided the material needed for life to begin on Earth.

Additional scientific analysis will follow later, but first the meteorites need to be approved, classified and named by The Meteoritical Society‘s nomenclature committee. This group of 12 scientists is responsible for approving all meteorite samples for study.

These new meteorite samples are currently on display at ASU’s Tempe campus in the Center for Meteorite Studies collection.

So, why are mud ball carbonaceous chondrite meteorites so significant?

They are thought to originate from asteroids that are leftovers from early planetesimals, planets that started to form in the early solar system billions of years ago but now no longer exist. Those planets had organic materials and water, making them places where the chemical precursors to life could have started. In the case of the asteroid that these new meteorites originated from, Garvie said:

It formed in an environment free of life, then was preserved in the cold and vacuum of space for 4.56 billion years, and then dropped in Costa Rica last week.

As CMS Director Meenakshi Wadhwa also said:

Carbonaceous chondrites are relatively rare among meteorites but are some of the most sought-after by researchers because they contain the best-preserved clues to the origin of the solar system. This new meteorite represents one of the most scientifically significant additions to our wonderful collection in recent years.

Because these meteorites contain so much mineral-bound water, they could also be useful in learning how water can be extracted from asteroids, a great resource for future astronauts. According to Garvie:

Having this meteorite in our lab gives us the ability, with further analysis, to ultimately develop technologies to extract water from asteroids in space.

Location of Aguas Zarcas in Costa Rica.

Image via Google Maps.

The last time a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite fall similar to this one occurred was in 1969 near Murchison, Australia. Those meteorites were curated by another ASU professor and founding director of ASU’s Center for Meteorite Studies, Carleton Moore.

The meteorites in Aguas Zarcas have also been found to be similar in composition to asteroid Bennu, now being explored by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Bennu is thought to be a remnant carbonaceous chondrite planetesimal. OSIRIS-REx is carrying ASU’s Phil Christensen-designed Thermal Emissions Spectrometer (OTES) instrument, which is being used to make mineral and temperature maps of the asteroid.

Garvie and other scientists will be studying these mud ball meteorites for years to come, unlocking more secrets as to how our solar system formed and evolved, and how the ingredients of life originated and were spread throughout the solar system, including to Earth.

Bottom line: This new meteorite fall in Costa Rica has provided scientists with a great opportunity to study multiple mud ball meteorites, one of the most unusual kinds of meteorites known to exist, and one that could help answer the question of how life started on Earth.

Via ASU

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

05-06-2019 om 17:51 geschreven door peter  

This Morning viewers mock 'Fairy Whisperers' who claim to see the mythical creatures everywhere 'disguised as insects'

• Karen Kay, Rebecca Broomfield and Jesse Smart all believe in fairies
• The three women have all had experiences with the mythical creatures 
• According to Karen fairies are all around and they often disguise themselves
• Sceptical viewers watching This Morning were not so convinced about fairies

By NATALIE CORNER FOR MAILONLINE

Three women who believe in fairies were met with some scepticism from This Morning viewers - and Philip Schofield.

Karen Kay, Rebecca Broomfield and Jesse Smart all appeared on the ITV daytime show dressed up in their own fairy costumes, complete with glitter and wings.

They explained how they'd all encountered the mythical creatures in different ways through meditation, yoga, and seeing them with their own eyes.

But viewers were not that convinced mocking the women for talking 'utter s***' and that fairies were not real despite their 'proof' they exist. 

Jesse recorded a video of a day out with her husband and after watching the footage back claimed the 'flickering green' object was a fairy 

Jesse Smart, Rebecca Broomfield and Karen Kay (L-R) all shared how they believe in fairies during an appearance on This Morning

Karen explained that she had even seen a fairy with her own eyes and it was 'as big as a tree'.

Jesse Smart explained that she even had 'proof' of a real fairy sighting, from footage she recorded on a trip with her husband.

In the clip Jesse points out a 'flickering green' object moving across the water that she believes was a fairy that she didn't notice until she watched the video back.

But This Morning presenter Phil wasn't convinced: 'That could have been a moth...'

Karen explained: 'It could have been a moth, but it could have been a fairy. Fairies can disguise themselves as insects.'

'That’s very convenient,' Phil sniped.

Holly Willoughby was a little more interested in the fairies than a sceptical Phillip Schofield who suggested the fairies they've seen were just moths

Karen Kay is an author of Oracle Fairies and she also hosts fairy festival events where like-minded people can join in 

Karen added: 'Yes it is convenient but it is because they are at one with nature. Anyone can see one if they want to show themselves with you.' 

One viewer took to Twitter: 'Ah bless them but do they have to dress as fairies just because they see them.'

'Omg this lady on This Morning thinks she has seen a fairy and it's literally just a reflection of the sun onto her camera. This happens all the time when you get those green dots,' said another.

'What utter s*** fairy whisperers!' fumed one.

One added: 'Omg seeing these 3 'fairies' mentioning a fairy festival in Glastonbury, makes me embarrassed to come from Glastonbury.'

Rebecca explained that she had turned to fairies because her son who previously battled cancer loved them and she found Karen's events

Jesse explained that she had never seen a fairy before this moment, while Rebecca, who had a pair of peacock wings on, shared that she connected to fairies through yoga and meditation.

'I found fairies a different way as my son was battling cancer. He had a real affiliation with fairies, he adored them. 

'When he was getting better we were hoping to go away, and we stumbled across Karen’s events and we never looked back,' Rebecca said.

Karen also recently had the chance to see Madonna live in concert and commented that she saw the singer surrounded with fairies.

'Madonna has fairies with her, she has fairy energy around her. Most definitely. I can sense it and see it around people.'

This Morning airs weekdays on ITV at 10.30am

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

05-06-2019 om 15:58 geschreven door peter  

05-06-2019 om 15:42 geschreven door peter  

WAT GEBEURT ER ALLEMAAL OP DWERGPLANEET CERES? ( VIDEO )

We zien regelmatig berichten over de ruimte en verre sterren, maar over onze eigen directe omgeving in ons zonnestelsel, weten we eigenlijk maar bitter weinig. 

Hoeveel mensen weten dat er net voorbij Mars, een andere kleine planeet haar rondjes draait; een planeet waarop vreemde dingen gebeuren.

Voor wat meer achtergrond, hierna een deel uit een eerder artikel dat we schreven in januari 2015: 

Ceres is de kleinste dwergplaneet in ons Zonnestelsel en de enige in de planetoïdengordel. Hij is ontdekt op 1 januari 1801 door Giuseppe Piazzi, was een halve eeuw geclassificeerd als de achtste planeet en is vernoemd naar Ceres, de Romeinse godin van de akkerbouw en de moederliefde. 

Om je een idee te geven waar hij zich bevindt in ons zonnestelsel. 

NASA ruimteschip Dawn nadert Ceres en heeft een aantal foto’s genomen waarop een vreemd flikkerend wit licht is te zien. 

Wetenschappers bij NASA hebben geen idee wat dit licht kan zijn. Volgens missie directeur Marc Rayman is het een plek die meer zonlicht weerkaatst dan de rest, maar ook hij heeft geen flauw benul wat het is. 

Waar iedereen verwachtte dat het raadsel van de vreemde lichten op Ceres door NASA zou worden opgelost, kwam bedrogen uit. Enkele maanden later schreven wij het volgende: 

Formeel is er nog steeds geen antwoord op de vreemde lichten op Ceres en blijft men zeggen dat het mysterie steeds groter wordt. 

De ruimtesonde bevindt zich voorlopig aan de schaduwzijde van de dwergplaneet en zal zich pas in de loop van deze maand weer in een positie bevinden waar het foto’s kan maken. 

Voordat Dawn echter verdween in de schaduw heeft het nog enkele foto’s gemaakt, waarop volgens ufoloog Scott Waring duidelijk te zien is dat we hier te maken hebben met buitenaardse gebouwen. 

Hij komt met de volgende foto waarop inderdaad de vorm van een bepaalde structuur is waar te nemen, met naast de gebouwen een soort roodachtig en groen licht.

Volgens Scott is het heel opmerkelijk dat de camera’s die NASA gebruikt slechtere beelden geven dan een mobiele telefoon uit, zeg, 2008. Ze geven miljoenen en miljoen Dollars uit aan een ruimtesonde zoals Dawn en slagen er niet in om goede kwaliteitsfoto’s te maken. 

Dit is volgens Scott omdat ze bewust slechte kwaliteit foto’s tonen aan het publiek. Beelden die zodanig vaag zijn dat je niet de details kunt zien van de gebouwen op Ceres. Hij zegt dat de gemaakte foto’s worden bewerkt op een manier waardoor de kwaliteit van beelden waar bijvoorbeeld buitenaardse gebouwen op voor komen met 30 tot 60 procent wordt gereduceerd. In een poging uiteraard om het publiek zoveel mogelijk onwetend te laten. 

En weer enkele maanden later schreven wij het volgende: 

Daarnaast is er nu nog een bijzondere ontdekking aan het licht gekomen op één van de foto’s die door NASA is gemaakt en dat is een piramide. 

Hier zie je hoe deze eruit ziet:

Het is ook niet bepaald een kleine piramide. De lengte bedraagt zo’n 18 kilometer en de hoogte bijna 5 kilometer. 

Duidelijk is dat we ook in dit geval niet te maken hebben met een natuurlijke rotsformatie of iets dergelijks, wat betekent dat ergens ooit iets of iemand deze piramide gebouwd moet hebben. 

We zijn nu inmiddels aanbeland in 2019 en nog steeds is er geen echte verklaring voor de lichten op Ceres, noch voor de vreemde structuren en de piramide. 

Duidelijk is dat we ook in dit geval niet te maken hebben met een natuurlijke rotsformatie of iets dergelijks, wat betekent dat ergens ooit iets of iemand deze piramide gebouwd moet hebben. 

Dan denk je uiteraard aan buitenaardsen, maar dit hoeft niet perse het geval te zijn. We weten dat er in vroegere tijden hoogwaardige beschavingen op aarde waren en het is natuurlijk ook best mogelijk dat zij de ruimte in gingen en op diverse planeten constructies hebben neergezet. 

Het blijft speculeren, maar een fascinerende ontdekking is dit zeker. 

De man die onverdroten doorgaat met het minutieus bestuderen van NASA afbeeldingen is Scott Waring. 

Nu komt hij met de mededeling dat hij honderden gebouwen heeft ontdekt op de zuidpool van Ceres. Het resultaat is een 18 minuten durende video waarin, naar zijn zeggen, iedere halve minuut een nieuw gebouw voorbij komt. 

Sommigen zijn duidelijk te herkennen, anderen wat minder, maar in combinatie met al het bovenstaande geeft het toch een beeld van een planeet die allesbehalve verlaten is. 

Planeten vlak naast de deur waar we zo goed als niets vanaf weten, behalve dingen die via amateuronderzoekers naar buiten sijpelen. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

05-06-2019 om 14:26 geschreven door peter  

When humans thought the land was endless, they threw their garbage in a hole and moved on. When they found there was nowhere left to move, they invented recycling and self-decomposing plastics. When humans thought the waters were endless, they threw their garbage in a river and watched it move on. When it came back, they invented more recycling and water cleanup programs. When humans thought space was endless, they left their junk in orbit forever. When they found it was falling back on them or blocking their paths for exploration, they invented … what? In the case of one British satellite company, it invented a satellite that can initiate its own self-destruct sequence by deploying a sail that will drag it slowly into the upper atmosphere where it will burn up safely. Not exactly elegant or completely mess-free, but it’s better than letting a Dyson sphere of space junk build up around Earth.

“We are delighted to see our Icarus de-orbit technology demonstrated successfully in orbit—again. With the Icarus sails now deployed on both TechDemoSat-1 and Carbonite-1, SSTL and Cranfield have demonstrated clear leadership in this technology. We hope to see many more satellites following TechDemoSat-1’s example to keep space clear of debris. It’s been great to work with SSTL on this mission.”

Stephen Hobbs, Head of Cranfield University’s Space Group, announced the deployment of the aptly named “Icarus” sailswhich will enable satellites developed by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) to end their missions in a ball of fire about 100 km (60 miles) above the Earth’s surface – away from the Space Station, other satellites and commercial and military aircraft. The tiny (6.7 square meters or 8 square yards) four-panel sails made of Kepton (a thin film made by Dupont) were sprung open with a simple cord-cutting maneuver and will remove them from their orbits within an internationally agreed-upon time-frame of 25 years from their initial deployments. (See the picture here.)

Carbonite-1 was launched in 2017 and contains a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) telescope and an imaging system. TechDemoSat-1 was launched in 2014 with eight separate payloads, including MuREM, a flexible miniature radiation and effects monitor from Surrey Space Centre; ChaPS, a prototype compact instrument to detect electrons and ions from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory; HMRM, a lightweight, ultra-compact radiation monitor designed to measure total radiation dose, particle flux rate and identify electrons, protons and ions from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Imperial College; and LUCID, a device to measure characterization of the energy, type, intensity and directionality of high energy particles from the Langton Star Centre. It also has an onboard inspection camera to allow the morbidly-curious space engineers like Sarah Parker, Managing Director of SSTL, to watch its self-cremation.

“It is fantastic to see an image of TechDemoSat’s deployed drag sail captured by the onboard inspection camera. This in-orbit image of a deployed drag sail on one of our satellites is a first for us and is a fitting culmination of mission operations for this highly innovative small satellite.”

Sure it’s morbid and sad, but it’s also simple yet elegant and inexpensive. While the blow-it-out-of-space proponents (we’re looking at you, Space Force) get all of the money and attention, the smart and efficient are already living up to their end of the space junk removal bargain.

Kudos to SSTL and Cranfield U for finally giving Icarus a story he could be proud of.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

05-06-2019 om 13:06 geschreven door peter  

A couple of days ago, I wrote an article here at Mysterious Universe titled “The Men in Black in Today’s World.” You can find it at this link. I thought that today I would share with you another case that reached me in recent times – and which continues to demonstrate that there’s no shortage of such MIB cases surfacing. This one surfaced on October 28, 2016. I was spending the weekend at Kent Senter’s Night Siege conference in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was a fun gig and one that was well-attended. My agent Lisa Hagan was there too, as was her mom, Sandra Martin, who is the brains behind Paraview Books. I hadn’t seen either of them for a few years, so it was great to catch up again. It was during a quiet few moments in the event, and before I was due to do a presentation on the MIB/Women in Black issue, that a man came up to me and gave me a manila envelope. He introduced himself: Wayne LaPorte.

Wayne was a significant figure in 1970s-1990s era U.S.-based Ufology, having written for a number of UFO-themed magazines and journals back then. I opened the envelope to find a couple of MIB-based cases that Wayne investigated in the 1970s. He very generously let me keep the reports; he also gave me permission to reproduce them. One of them was written to Wayne by a now-retired employee of the Gaston Gazette newspaper, which covers the town of Gaston, North Carolina. Dated July 23, 1977, it read as follows:

“As a part of my work as a reporter for the Gaston Gazette, I wrote a number of stories during the last three months of 1976 which dealt with UFO sightings in Gaston County. I think it is important for anyone who reads this recollection to know that I was interested in these stories mainly for their sensational news appeal. I have never attempted to make a study of UFOs or occupants and know virtually nothing about the subject. During the Oct.-Dec. 1976 period in which I was writing stories about hundreds of UFO sightings in Gaston County, I received a telephone call from an unidentified woman. I believe the call was made sometime in November. I do remember it was on a Saturday afternoon between 4-6 p.m. The woman would not reveal her identity because, she said, too many people would think that she was ‘crazy.’

“I pushed for a story during the call which lasted about 45 minutes, but the woman – she sounded middle age – would not consent. In fact, it was her really strong desire to remain unidentified, even to me, that made me believe she was serious about what she was saying. My recollections are vague, but I do remember her beginning her story by telling me about UFO visitations to her home. She would not tell me where she was located, other than in Gaston County. She said something about strange noises outside her bedroom window, rocks being thrown on the window panes. The noises caused her dog to bark continuously.

“During the several times that she believed UFOs to be outside her home, she and her mother and child would close themselves in a bedroom, the same bedroom I referred to earlier. I remember her telling me that she read the Bible when she heard the noises and that the reading seemed to drive the noises away. At some time after she experienced the visitations, a stranger came to her home. She told me the name he used but I do not recall it. He told her he was from Chapel Hill and she said that he had some knowledge of the Chapel Hill area. I believe she told me that the man had blond hair and wore a black turtle-neck sweater or knit shirt. The turtle-neck part I am sure of. She also described him as having a larger than normal head.

“She and her husband talked to him in their home for a while then took the man to Shoney’s for a meal. She told me that he held the menu upside down and did not know what to order. She ordered fried chicken for him. He told her, she said, that he did not know what fried chicken was. He ate it anyway, she said. That’s about all I can remember her telling me about the visit. But she said that later she tried to call him in Chapel Hill. There was no listing for the name he gave.

“I remember that she told me the reasons she believed he was an extra-terrestrial being, but I do not remember what those reasons were. I can’t be sure, but it seems that she said he left an address and that she wrote to him at the address and the letter was returned. I begged her to tell me if she ever had another similar experience. She promised to call me. She has not and I do not think she ever will because she knows that I want her story and she is 100 per cent against even a no-name type story. I have been a newspaper reporter since 1969 and I have never talked to an unidentified caller who, I sensed, was so careful to give no hints about her identity or her residence. And at the same time, I felt she was completely convinced about her experiences. In any event, I am convinced that she was not playing a prank to see if we would bite for a story.”

It’s important to note there are several issues that place this case in the MIB category. First, of course, there’s the fact that the mysterious man was dressed in black. Second, like so many of the Men in Black, the curious character didn’t seem to fully understand what food was. And, third, he didn’t look entirely human – there was a difference in the head. Another case of a weird Man in Black encounter to add to an already huge number.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

05-06-2019 om 12:50 geschreven door peter  

No one could have predicted what would soon confront the world's most advanced naval war ships and fighter jets.

Aerial craft would appear that forever changed all those that encountered them. The answers to the question of “what are they?” remains unanswered by the sailors and the US Gov. After years of cloaked secrecy the true story can finally be told. With multiple witnesses from the ships, their first hand testimony is impossible to deny.

Our film features CGI re-creations as told by the sailors and naval aviators that witnessed them. Aside from the historical fictionalized dialog (no one recorded the radio conversations), the story itself is based on the facts of the case, including official US government docs, witness statements, news reports and official timelines.) See www.thenimitzencounters.com for links to the official documents.

Some military personnel have requested their names be removed or remain anonymous, out of respect for their privacy we have changed names and details to protect their identity. All similarities to persons living or dead is unintentional. The producers have made every attempt to verify details and deny any liability for errors or omissions.

  

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

05-06-2019 om 12:44 geschreven door peter  

In a milestone for synthetic biology, colonies of E. coli thrive with DNA constructed from scratch by humans, not nature.

By Carl Zimmer

Scientists have created a living organism whose DNA is entirely human-made — perhaps a new form of life, experts said, and a milestone in the field of synthetic biology.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Britain reported on Wednesday that they had rewritten the DNA of the bacteria Escherichia coli, fashioning a synthetic genome four times larger and far more complex than any previously created.

The bacteria are alive, though unusually shaped and reproducing slowly. But their cells operate according to a new set of biological rules, producing familiar proteins with a reconstructed genetic code.

The achievement one day may lead to organisms that produce novel medicines or other valuable molecules, as living factories. These synthetic bacteria also may offer clues as to how the genetic code arose in the early history of life.

“It’s a landmark,” said Tom Ellis, director of the Center for Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London, who was not involved in the new study. “No one’s done anything like it in terms of size or in terms of number of changes before.”

Each gene in a living genome is detailed in an alphabet of four bases, molecules called adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine (often described only by their first letters: A, T, G, C). A gene may be made of thousands of bases.

Genes direct cells to choose among 20 amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, the workhorses of every cell. Proteins carry out a vast number of jobs in the body, from ferrying oxygen in the blood to generating force in our muscles.

Nine years ago, researchers built a synthetic genome that was one million base pairs long. The new E. coli genome, reported in the journal Nature, is four million base pairs long and had to be constructed with entirely new methods.

The new study was led by Jason Chin, a molecular biologist at the M.R.C. laboratory, who wanted to understand why all living things encode genetic information in the same baffling way.

Instead of requiring six codons to make serine, this genome used just four. It had two stop codons, not three. In effect, the researchers treated E. coli DNA as if it were a gigantic text file, performing a search-and-replace function at over 18,000 spots.

Now the researchers had a blueprint for a new genome four million base pairs long. They could synthesize the DNA in a lab, but introducing it into the bacteria — essentially substituting synthetic genes for those made by evolution — was a daunting challenge.

The genome was too long and too complicated to force into a cell in one attempt. Instead, the researchers built small segments and swapped them piece by piece into E. coli genomes. By the time they were done, no natural segments remained.

Much to their relief, the altered E. coli did not die. The bacteria grow more slowly than regular E. coli and develop longer, rod-shaped cells. But they are very much alive.

Dr. Chin hopes to build on this experiment by removing more codons and compressing the genetic code even further. He wants to see just how streamlined the genetic code can be while still supporting life.

The Cambridge team is just one of many racing in recent years to build synthetic genomes. The list of potential uses is a long one. One attractive possibility: Viruses may not be able to invade recoded cells.

Many companies today use genetically engineered microbes to make medicines like insulin or useful chemicals like detergent enzymes. If a viral outbreak hits the fermentation tanks, the results can be catastrophic. A microbe with synthetic DNA might be made immune to such attacks.

Recoding DNA could also allow scientists to program engineered cells so that their genes won’t work if they escape into other species. “It creates a genetic firewall,” said Finn Stirling, a synthetic biologist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the new study.

Researchers are also interested in recoding life because it opens up the opportunity to make molecules with entirely new kinds of chemistry.

Beyond the 20 amino acids used by all living things, there are hundreds of other kinds. A compressed genetic code will free up codons that scientists can use to encode these new building blocks, making new proteins that carry out new tasks in the body.

James Kuo, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, offered a note of caution. Tacking bases together to make genomes remains enormously costly.

“It’s just way too expensive for academic groups to keep pursuing,” Dr. Kuo said.

But E. coli is a workhorse of laboratory research, and now it’s clear that its genome can be synthesized. It’s not hard to imagine that prices will fall as demands for custom, synthetic DNA rise. Researchers could apply Dr. Chin’s methods to yeast or other species.

“In theory, you could recode anything,” said Mr. Stirling.

Carl Zimmer writes the “Matter” column. He is the author of thirteen books, including “She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity.” 

@carlzimmer • Facebook

{ https://www.nytimes.com/ }

05-06-2019 om 01:48 geschreven door peter  

Area 51 Bombshell: Could Papers Prove FBI Raided Property Looking For Substance?

by Callum Hoare  

• Thirty years ago, Bob Lazar (pictured above) was a scientist working on extraterrestrial technology and spacecraft at the government’s top secret military installation known as S-4, near Area 51 in Nevada. He revealed this to journalist, George Knapp in 1989. Lazar then went silent for thirty years.
  
• Recently, filmmaker Jeremy Corbell convinced Lazar to retell his story for a documentary called “Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers”, which went to number one on iTunes. One of the film’s scenes showed an FBI raid on Lazar’s business, United Nuclear.
• The FBI claimed that they were looking for a purchase receipt for ‘potentially toxic materials’ that may have led to a death of a past client of United Nuclear. But Lazar and Corbell found it curious that in a private conversation the day before, they had been discussing an anomalous, non-Earthly material known as Element 115, which Lazar had secreted from the top secret military base thirty years prior. (In the 2 minute video below, Lazar and Corbell relate how they had their cell phones in their pockets during the conversation, and they strongly suspect that the government was monitoring their conversation.) The FBI’s extensive multi-agency raid turned up nothing.
• “Lazar was able to acquire some of the element when it was being machined at Area 51,” Corbell told Express.co.uk. “Lazar did have a stabilized version of Element 115 in his possession at one time… He did tests on it – and filmed the element bending light due to its unique gravitational characteristics. A handful of witnesses observed these tests – including investigative reporter, George Knapp. There is footage of one of these tests in my film.”
• Corbell believes that the raid was meant as a direct threat to Lazar. “I suspect the raid was used as a tactic to apply pressure to Lazar because he was about to talk publicly again – regarding his role in a top-secret government UFO back-engineering program,” said Corbell. “This admittedly bizarre raid comes off the heals of the exact moment Lazar was planning to speak out publicly again – after essentially 30 years of silence.” “[P]eople have been trying to debunk Lazar for 30 years, they have not succeeded.”

Bob Lazar became a conspiracy legend when he sparked a frenzy more than 30 years ago, claiming alien technology was being tested inside Area 51. In 1989, with the help of journalist George Knapp, Mr Lazar detailed a story where he claimed he was stationed at a base known as S-4, south of the USAF’s Homey Airport. He speculated the auxiliary facility in the Nevada Desert was being used by the US Government to reverse engineer technology used by UFOs.

Following the revelation, Mr Lazar went quiet for three decades, until investigative filmmaker Jeremy Corbell finally convinced him to retell his story.

Together, the pair filmed “Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers”, which aimed to prove the claims of Mr Lazar.

During the show, which shot to number one on the iTunes chart in just days, a scene showed Mr Lazar’s business “United Nuclear” allegedly being raided by federal agents.

Many critics claimed the FBI were simply carrying out a standard investigation due to the nature of Mr Lazar’s claims.
However, Mr Corbell claims that documents shared with Express.co.uk suggest that the FBI, alongside assistance from Laingsburg Police Department, were following up on an investigation using a material believed to have been purchased from United Nuclear.

The papers discussed the search for a “poison” explaining why a HAZMAT (Hazardous Materials) truck was present.

However, Mr Corbell believes they were actually looking for something known as Element 115, which Mr Lazar is said to have taken from Area 51.

2:00 minute video clip of Lazar and Corbell on Larry King (Hulu) discussing the FBI raid

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

{ https://exonews.org/ }

05-06-2019 om 01:17 geschreven door peter  

Stratolaunch, Builder of World's Largest Airplane for Rocket Launches, May Be Closing: Report

Stratolaunch's rocket carrier plane, the largest aircraft ever built, takes off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California during its first test flight on April 13, 2019.

(Image: © Stratolaunch)

Roc's wingspan is a record-breaking 385 feet (117 m) — longer than an entire football field, including the two end zones. The aircraft is designed to haul a launch vehicle up to about 35,000 feet (10,700 m), at which point the booster will separate and make its own way to space.

Another company, Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit, plans to air-launch satellites in a similar manner, though with a much smaller carrier plane. And Virgin Orbit's sister outfit, Virgin Galactic, employs a carrier plane to get its six-passenger SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceliner aloft.

Stratolaunch Systems' impending demise is not official, however; a spokesperson told Reuters that the Seattle-based company is still kicking. And Space.com got the same message when we reached out to the company.

"Stratolaunch remains operational," a company spokesperson told Space.com via email on Friday. "We will provide an update when there is news to share."

• Stratolaunch Images: Paul Allen's Giant Rocket-Launching Plane
• Stratolaunch: Biggest Aircraft in History to Launch Spaceships (Infographic)
• Paul Allen: Billionaire Backer of Private Space Ventures

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/ }

05-06-2019 om 00:52 geschreven door peter  

Sailing on Sunbeams: Planetary Society's LightSail 2 to Soar Higher Than Space Station

05-06-2019 om 00:37 geschreven door peter  

(Image: © Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)

There's something flashing us on the moon, and we don't know what it is. But that might be about to change.

We have known about the mysterious flashes since at least the late 1960s, when the astronomers Barbara Middlehurst and Patrick Moore reviewed the scientific literature and found nearly 400 reports of strange events on the moon. Small regions of the lunar surface would get suddenly brighter or darker, without obvious explanation. The scientists' survey of the flashes and dimming, which they called "lunar transient phenomena," was published in the journal Scienceon Jan. 27, 1967. (Later, astronomers flipped the words around, terming the events "transient lunar phenomena.")

"The emitted light is usually described as reddish or pinkish, sometimes with a 'sparkling' or 'flowing' appearance," wrote the astronomer A. A. Mills in the March 1970 journal Nature.. "The coloration may extend for a distance of 10 miles [16 kilometers] or more on the lunar surface, with brighter spots 2 to 3 miles [3 to 5 km] across, and is commonly associated with veiling of the surface features. The average duration of an event is some 20 minutes, but it may persist intermittently for a few hours."

Amateur astronomers can sometimes spot the flashes with the help of a decent telescope, though the flashes are unpredictable and finding one can involve hours or days of waiting. [See Spectacular Images from the Lunar Mission in 3D]

Mills noted, bafflingly, that the events leave no obvious marks on the lunar surface after they pass.

Scientists have returned to the subject periodically in the five decades since, but without turning up conclusive explanations. These events are now known to happen a few times a week. This year, a new team of astronomers has returned to the question with an observaotry specially designed for the task.

The new instrument observes the moon constantly using two cameras located 60 miles (100 km) north of Seville in Spain. When both cameras spot a flash, according to a statement from the telescope's designers, they record detailed photos and videos of the events, and send an email to Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, which runs the telescopes.

(Image: © Hakan Kayal)

The observatory is still under development, according to the statement, with ongoing improvements to its software since it went online in April. Still, researchers have their suspicions as to what it will discover.

"Seismic activities were also observed on the moon. When the surface moves, gases that reflect sunlight could escape from the interior of the moon," Hakan Kayal, a researcher at JMU and head of the telescope project, said in the statement. "This would explain the luminous phenomena, some of which last for hours." Kayal said that, given current plans to establish a base on the moon, it's important to know just what's going on up there, so folks living at the base can be prepared for their environment.

But even if that base never happens, it would be nice to know why the moon keeps flashing us.

• 11 Fascinating Facts About Our Milky Way Galaxy
• 10 Interesting Places in the Solar System We'd Like to Visit
• Science Fact or Fantasy? 20 Imaginary Worlds

{ https://www.space.com/ }

05-06-2019 om 00:23 geschreven door peter  

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

05-06-2019 om 00:14 geschreven door peter  

BUITENAARDSE INVASIE KOMT STEEDS DICHTERBIJ ( VIDEO )

Je kon natuurlijk op je vingers natellen dat er een gegronde reden was dat Amerika plots begint met disclosure van het ufo fenomeen. 

Overal in de mainstream media duiken nu ufo’s op en wordt de reden waarom dit gebeurt steeds duidelijker.

Die voorbereidingen begonnen eigenlijk al in de jaren tachtig toen Ronald Reagan tijdens een toespraak bij de VN al sprak over hoe prachtig het zou zijn als de mensheid zich zou verenigen op het moment dat we een gezamenlijke vijand hadden, een vijand uit de ruimte. 

In die periode was Amerika al heel druk bezig met de geheime ruimtevloot, ontwikkeld op basis van buitenaardse technologie, afkomstig van gecrashte ufo’s en tot stand gekomen met al dan niet vrijwillige medewerking van buitenaardsen.

Ook een voormalig directeur van Lockheed, Ben Rich, gaf op zijn sterfbed het volgende toe: “Het Amerikaanse leger kan naar de sterren reizen en buitenaardse bezoekers bestaan echt”. “We beschikken al over de middelen om naar de sterren te kunnen reizen, maar deze technologieën zitten opgesloten in zwarte projecten en er zou een handeling van God voor nodig zijn om hier ooit voordeel voor de gewone mensen uit te halen. Alles wat je je maar voor kunt stellen, kunnen we nu al doen”. 

En dan is er uiteraard de waarschuwing van Wernher von Braun: 

Die luidde dat de door mensen gecreëerde ultieme dreiging voor de mensheid uit de ruimte zou komen en dat dit uiteindelijk de wereld zal verenigen in de New World Order. 

Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) was de wellicht meest controversiële raketbouwer ooit. Hij maakte de dodelijke V2-raketten voor Hitler en nadien de ruimtevaartraketten voor de NASA, waarmee onder andere de eerste landing van een mens op de maan werd uitgevoerd. 

Ongeveer drie jaar voor zijn dood kwam hij in aanraking met Dr. Carol Rosin. Misschien kreeg hij aan het eind van zijn leven iets van wroeging, want haar vertelde hij een groot aantal geheimen. Om de gigantische kosten en de mega verdiensten voor de ruimtewapensystemen enigszins te rechtvaardigen en de agenda voor de New World Order te promoten, zouden er kunstmatige vijanden worden gecreëerd. 

Eerst zou dat Rusland zijn. Daarna de terroristen. Vervolgens de landen in het Midden-Oosten. Dan de laatste troefkaart: Een bedreiging uit de ruimte. 

De mensheid beschikt over verregaande (van oorsprong buitenaardse) technologie die ook regelmatig op aarde wordt ingezet indien nodig, zoals bij de aanslagen van 9/11. 

Bij 9/11 gebeurde er precies hetzelfde en volgde de UFO het volgende traject:

Op de volgende afbeelding zie je de UFO verschijnen, deze komt van rechtsboven.

Vervolgens verdwijnt deze achter het eerste gebouw van het WTC dat al is geraakt.

En dan naar het nu, waar opeens aan alle kanten berichten verschijnen over ufo’s. Het is plots niet meer iets dat je alleen hier bij Niburu tegenkomt, want de mainstream media lijken opeens volledig overtuigd van het bestaan van ufo’s. 

Het Pentagon geeft beelden vrij van piloten die achter onbekende objecten aanjagen. De Amerikaanse marine introduceert nieuwe procedures voor het melden van ufo waarnemingen en de man die het Pentagon onderzoek naar ufo’s leidde vermeld op Fox TV dat de Amerikanen beschikken over wrakstukken van ufo’s. 

En nu gaat het weer een stap verder en wordt ook steeds duidelijke waarom Donald Trump opeens een Space Force moest oprichten. 

Een voormalig Amerikaanse hooggeplaatste defensiefunctionaris, Christopher Mellon, waarschuwt nu in een televisie-uitzending dat deze buitenaardse ufo’s wel eens een bedreiging voor de mensheid kunnen gaan vormen. 

De New York Post vat het als volgt samen:

De kern van het verhaal is eigenlijk samen te vatten in een paar zinnen: 

“Two, there is a vital national security issue which is that our sovereignty is being violated by vehicles of unknown origin.” 

He hinted that the US isn’t alone in its sightings of possible alien life. 

De soevereiniteit van Amerika wordt bedreigd door deze ufo’s en Amerika staat niet alleen in deze, want het gebeurt ook in andere landen. 

Door de manier waarop het scenario zich ontvouwt wordt duidelijk wat de bedoeling is. Er is een bedreiging uit de ruimte, de mensheid moet nu gaan samenwerken en heel veel belasting betalen om de nieuwe Space Force op te tuigen, zodat “wij” de bedreiging het hoofd kunnen bieden. 

Dat zal dan de eerste stap worden en de laatste wordt dan wellicht het verschijnen van Jezus in de lucht. 

Het project Blue Beam, volgens sommigen, is een uiterst geheim plan, voor een deel door NASA ontworpen, dat in vier stadia met behulp van 3D holografische technologie niets minder dan de eerste globale ‘false flag’ tracht te scheppen. Volgens Serge Monast, zal Project Bluebeam bestaan uit vier stadia: het culmineert in een soort apocalyps van ELF-straling: 

Als eerste zullen aardbevingen nieuwe archeologische ontdekkingen blootleggen, openbarend dat alle godsdienstige basisdoctrines verkeerd zijn begrepen en verkeerd geïnterpreteerd. 

Als tweede zal het beeld van God, die in alle talen spreekt, in een gigantische ruimteshow wereldwijd verschijnen, dat wordt getoond met behulp van laserprojecties van meervoudige 3-dimensionale holografische beelden. 

Als derde zal elektronische telepathie door onder andere ELF-, VLF- en LF-golven direct in de hersenen binnendringen, die zich met het natuurlijke denken kunnen verweven, om diffuse kunstmatige gedachten te vormen, en om iedereen daarmee te laten geloven dat God innerlijk via hun eigen zielen tot hen spreekt. 

Als vierde zal een elektronische universele “ bovennatuurlijke ” verschijning, ontworpen om te misleiden, de mensheid willen doen geloven dat er een buitenaardse invasie dreigende is. Het laat Christenen in vervoering geloven dat ‘de Opname’ aanstaande is en weer anderen dat de buitenaardsen hen komen redden en iedereen is ervan overtuigend dat wereldwijd bovennatuurlijke demonische krachten en manifestaties alles hebben doordrongen — reizend door optische vezelkabels, coax- en elektrische kabels en telefoonlijnen — en onontkoombaar zullen zijn.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

05-06-2019 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Humans May Have Been Crafting Stone Tools for 2.6 Million Years

A new study pushes the origins of early human tool-making back by some 10,000 years earlier than previously believed

Members of the Homo genus have been making stone tools for at least 2.6 million years, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests. The findings, based on the discovery of a collection of sharp-edged stone artifacts at the Bokol Dora 1 site in Ethiopia’s Afar Basin, push the origins of early human tool-making back by some 10,000 years earlier than previously believed. Additionally, the research suggests that multiple groups of prehistoric humans invented stone tools on separate occasions, adapting increasingly complex techniques in order to best extract resources from their environment.

Although 3.3 million-year-old stone instruments known as "Lomekwian" tools predate the newly described trove, these were likely made by members of early hominin groups such as Australopithecus afarensis rather than members of the Homo genus. Until now, the oldest known Homo tools—dubbed “Oldowan” in honor of the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania where the first examples of such artifacts were found—dated to between 2.55 and 2.58 million years ago. Excavated in Gona, Ethiopia, the sharpened stones are technologically distinct from the more rudimentary Lomekwian tools, which were first catalogued by researchers conducting fieldwork in West Turkana, Kenya, in 2015. Compared to the Oldowan tools found in Gona and now Bokol Dora, the earlier Lomekwian tools are decidedly less advanced.

The Bokol Dora trove, also known as the Ledi-Geraru collection, consists of 327 stone tools likely crafted by striking two rocks together to create sharp edges capable of carving up animals, as Phoebe Weston reports for the Independent. The ancient artifacts were found three miles away from the site where the oldest known Homo fossil, a 2.8 million-year-old jawbone, was unearthed in 2013, pointing toward the tools’ connection with early modern humans rather than ape-like hominins belonging to the Australopithecus genus.

“This is the first time we see people chipping off bits of stone to make tools with an end in mind,” study co-author Kaye Reed, an anthropologist at Arizona State University, tells Weston. “They only took two or three flakes off, and some you can tell weren’t taken off quite right. The latest tools seem slightly different in the way they’re made from other examples.”

Compared with the Gona tools and other Oldowan artifacts, the latest finds are actually rather crude. The instruments have “significantly lower numbers of actual pieces chipped off a cobble than we see in any other assemblage later on,” lead author David Braun of George Washington University explains to New Scientist’s Michael Marshall, adding that it’s possible the humans making them were less skilled than their later counterparts or simply didn’t have a need for extremely sharp tools. Still, the Ledi-Geraru artifacts are distinct enough from the older Lomekwian tools to warrant their classification as Oldowan.

The 2.6 million-year-old implements “have nothing to do whatsoever with what we see later on,” Braun tells Marshall. “It’s possible there are multiple independent inventions of stone as a tool.”

According to Cosmos’ Dyani Lewis, Lomekwian tools are roughly on par with the primitive instruments fashioned by modern primates such as capuchin monkeys. Oldowan tools, on the other hand, reveal a basic understanding of what Braun calls the “physics of where to strike something, and how hard to hit it, and what angles to select.”

“Something changed by 2.6 million years ago, and our ancestors became more accurate and skilled at striking the edge of stones to make tools,” study co-author Will Archer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the University of Cape Town notes in a press release. “The artifacts at BD 1 capture this shift.”

Given the fact that the Ledi-Geraru tools were found alongside the bones of animals, including gazelles and giraffes, the team argues that early humans’ shift toward skilled stone tool-making coincided with a rise in scavenging opportunities. As Science News’ Bruce Bower points out, Homo individuals inhabited open grassland expanses, whereas their earlier Australopithecus ancestors had to contend with dense tree coverage that limited hunting prospects.

Interestingly, the Independent’s Weston writes, the shift from Lomekwian to Oldowan tools appears to be associated with a change in early humans’ teeth. In the statement, Archer explains that processing food with the help of stone tools led to a reduction in the size of our ancestors’ teeth, offering a striking example of how “our technology and biology were intimately intertwined even as early as 2.6 million years ago.”

To date the Ledi-Geraru trove—likely dropped by early humans at the edge of a body of water and subsequently buried for millions of years—researchers drew on volcanic ash found several feet below the excavation site, as well as the magnetic signature of various sediment samples.

But as Bower notes, some scientists have expressed skepticism regarding these dating methods. Paleontologist Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo of Madrid’s Complutense University says a detailed analysis of sediment formation is needed to verify the artifacts’ age, and Yonatan Sahle, an archeologist at Germany’s University of Tübingen, calls it “simply unwarranted” to deem the tools the oldest known Oldowan specimens without conducting further testing.

For now, Braun says, the team must focus on finding additional evidence of stone tools made between 2.6 and 3.3 million years ago. He concludes, “If our hypothesis is correct then we would expect to find some type of continuity in artefact form after 2.6 million years ago, but not prior to this time period. We need to find more sites.”

{ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/ }

04-06-2019 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

Prehistoric stone tools were invented multiple times before becoming a staple

 BY MIHAI ANDREI 

A new archaeological site reveals that prehistoric stone tools were invented at least 2.58 million years ago, and were invented multiple times between 2.58 and 2.55 million years ago.

A large green artifact found in situ at the Bokol Dora site. Right: Image of the same artifact and a three dimensional model of the same artifact.

David R. Braun.

The site in Ethiopia is called Bokol Dora 1, and is very close to where the oldest fossil of our genus was found in 2013. The fossil, a jaw bone, is important to our understanding of human evolution. It’s also 200,000 years older than the first evidence of flaked stone tools. Researchers have been trying to find a connection between these two elements, and now they finally have it.

The breakthrough came when Arizona State University geologist Christopher Campisano noticed some sharp-edged stone tools sticking out of the sediments on a steep, eroded slope.

“At first we found several artifacts lying on the surface, but we didn’t know what sediments they were coming from,” says Campisano. “But when I peered over the edge of a small cliff, I saw rocks sticking out from the mudstone face. I scaled up from the bottom using my rock hammer and found two nice stone tools starting to weather out.”

It took a few years to delicately excavate the sediments, a dig that exposed hundreds of animal bones and small pieces of stone tools. The site turned out to offer a trove of valuable archaeological data about how and when humans developed and started using stone tools. Remarkably, everything was in excellent shape — the site is close to a water source which quickly buried the remains in sediment.

“Looking at the sediments under a microscope, we could see that the site was exposed only for a very short time. These tools were dropped by early humans at the edge of a water source and then quickly buried. The site then stayed that way for millions of years,” noted geoarchaeologist Vera Aldeias of the Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Behavioral Evolution at the University of Algarve, Portugal.

Kaye Reed, who studies the site’s ecology, also noted something interesting about these tools: they are very similar to those found a few kilometers away, although the environment is very different. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between these tools either, indicating that the invention was made on separate occasions, multiple times.

The overall picture is extremely complex, but it does seem that at some point around 2.6 million years ago our ancestors became more accurate and skilled at producing these tools, which are very different from the ones made by chimps or other animals. It was a crucial and defining moment in human evolution, paving the way for mankind’s emergence as a dominant species.

• The study “Earliest known Oldowan artifacts at >2.58 Ma from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia, highlight early technological diversity,” has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

04-06-2019 om 23:01 geschreven door peter  

Police in rural England have issued warnings after several instances of crop circles have appeared throughout the British countryside. In late May, a crop circle appeared in a field near Norridge Wood, Warminster. The crop circle appears as a series of concentric circles ringed by two spheres on the end of each hemisphere. No access to the field was arranged ahead of time, and it’s unknown who – or what – might have made the circle.

A few weeks later, a pair of crop circles appeared in Gloucestershire just 70 miles (110 km) to the north. One of the crop circles appears as a crescent-shaped line dotted with small solid circles, while the other one looks a little like the adorable Star Wars droid BB8. Both crop circles abut a pair of walking paths which offer easy access to the middle of the field. Photos of these latest crop circles were shared to Twitterby the Gloucestershire Constabulary Rural Crime Team who asked if these crop circles are “art, criminal damage, or some stranger goings on?”

Wiltshire, England is a hub of crop circle activity.

It turns out it’s likely a combination of the first two. While there are some historical anecdotes of unknown geometric formations in fields prior to the 20th century, the modern phenomenon of crop circles took off in the 1960s and ‘70s. During those years, dozens of intricate, massive crop circles began appearing throughout the English countryside, attracting attention from the international media and all manners of paranormal and UFO investigators.

“Muh wheat!”

While many initially believed these crop circles were the work of unknown forces or entities, today it’s widely accepted that these are merely the work of clever humans creating a unique form of art. Not everyone is enthused about this form of expression, though. Like graffiti or other forms of ‘street’ art, crop circles are often decried a form of vandalism that destroys valuable crops.

In the wake of these most recent cases, rural police throughout England are issuing warnings for would-be “vandals” to stay away from crops they have no business flattening. Gloucestershire Chief Inspector Pegler told reporters that crop circles are nothing but a crime that “affects communities, and the livelihoods of people within those communities.” The Gloucestershire Rural Police operates a fleet of drones to catch would-be crop circle makers and catalog instances of crop damage.

Just because crop circles are in most cases the work of quite human ‘vandals’ doesn’t mean that curious occurrences and paranormal phenomena don’t also allegedly accompany the creation of these forms of art; all sorts of claims have been made of crop circles over the years, ranging from claims that they can open portals to other dimensions or planes of existence, or that they may be able to signal and attract extraterrestrial visitors. Is that why Gloucestershire Rural Police are using drones to keep would-be crop circle-makers away, or is this truly all about trespassing and vandalism of crops?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

04-06-2019 om 22:32 geschreven door peter  

As someone who regularly investigates and writes about the Men in Black phenomenon, one of the questions I’m often asked goes like this: “Do you still get reports of the Men in Black? “ The short answer is “Yes.” And: “A lot.” There’s no doubt at all that within the world of Ufology, the MIB phenomenon was at its height from the 1950s to the 1970s. That does not mean, however, that reports of the Men in Black are no more, or are on a decline. Indeed, I regularly receive reports of the MIB, the vast majority of them from very recent times. That’s probably due to the fact that I have written four books on the Men in Black and one on the Women in Black. In other words, when people have had an encounter with the MIB, they seek out someone who can hopefully help them understand what happened and what they encountered: someone like me. I’m sure that it’s very much the same with people who have come across a Crop Circle: they look for a Circle researcher for the answers and not an MIB investigator. And, it’s the same with the Black-Eyed Children: if you’ve seen one, you’re likely to contact an expert on the topic, like David Weatherly. Which brings us back to those recent cases of the Men in Black. Here’s one of hundreds from the last decade that have come my way.

In February 2016, an Englishman named Liam contacted me and said “…I bought your book The Real Men in Black off of Amazon a while ago and would like to share an event that happened to me in 2011, this was before I had read the book or heard about the more sinister alien type MIB you describe but had heard of the government G-Men gathering UFO reports from witnesses. Here’s my experience, it might not be anything relevant but I found it quite interesting.”

Liam continued: “It was either late July or early August and I was on holiday in Weymouth. This was days before the London riots of that year, staying with my parents in a rented accommodation at Whitehead Drive. The room I was in had a lovely view of the bay and Chesil Beach, you could see Portland in the distance. As the view was nice and the weather was hot I would always leave the window open for air and to admire the view. I had a laptop set up on the desk near the window so could look out easily. One evening I kept getting the eerie feeling of being watched, I would look out the window and not see anything of note, the sun was beginning to fade out at this point, I would guess it was about 5-7 pm sort of time, but you could still see the road and the beach easily.

“Every time I went back to using the laptop I would again get this horrible feeling of unease and would look back out of the window, eventually I spotted what appeared to be a man almost comically hidden behind a road sign. He was stood so half of his face was visible from the side of the sign but the other half obscured, his legs were visible underneath the sign, however.

“The man was I guess about 200 yards from my window but I could make out he was wearing a full dark suit, which was very odd considering it was a warm summer and everyone else nearby was wearing shorts and t-shirts. He also had a black hat on, I guess either a fedora or a bowler-hat but it was hard to make out the exact shape at the distance. He didn’t appear to be staring at me but rather straight down the carriageway, his back was to Portland so he was facing towards Weymouth. I watched him for a good few minutes and he stood completely motionless, staring forward, the weird thing was none of the cars driving past seemed to slow at all as they passed him.

At this point I quickly ran into another room to grab some binoculars and went back into the bedroom and he had vanished! I could only have been gone for 30-60 seconds max and his position would be hard to get away from unless he jumped into the harbor or got into a car, however the flow of traffic meant that it would be very difficult to get a car to stop, pick him up and start again without causing horns to blare from other drivers. As I said it could be nothing of note at all, but after reading your book and listening to several radio shows where the Men in Black were discussed it seems very similar to one of those events. Thanks for reading, Liam.”

No doubt, reports of modern day MIB encounters will continue to reach me.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

04-06-2019 om 22:16 geschreven door peter