Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
06-06-2019
Massive UFO Fleet Over Moscow, Russia, Indications Of Russian ET Meeting. May 18, 2019 Video, UFO Sighting News.
Massive UFO Fleet Over Moscow, Russia, Indications Of Russian ET Meeting. May 18, 2019 Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: May 18, 2019
Location of sighting: Moscow, Russia
I think these UFOs passing across the moon have a connection with the Russian government. There is no way that Russia would allow anything to enter their airspace without some Migs intercepting them. The fact that we don't hear any jets is clear indication that these objects have flight clearance to pass over the capital city of Moscow. I have long believed that Russia and the USA have worked together to get an to hide alien technology in order to make Asia fall behind in technology. World power is dependent on having the most advanced technology at hand. This UFO fleet over Moscow tells me there is an important meeting taking place with higher ups in the Russian government and aliens.
Nick Pope said that there is now enough evidence about UFOs that 'you can't really ignore it'
THE new claims of UFO sighting by US Navy pilots which The National reported last week should be taken seriously, according to the man who headed up the Ministry of Defence’s 1990s project on UFOs.
Nick Pope, speaking in the US at the weekend, said that there is now enough evidence about UFOs that “you can’t really ignore it”.
Speaking on John Catsimatidis’s “The Cats Roundtable” radio show on AM 970 in New York, Pope said: “There has been an increased number of cases where not only has the radar tracked these objects performing extraordinary speeds and manoeuvres but then the pilots have been vectored to intercept them. And they’ve had visual sightings. So when you have visual sightings and the radar evidence together, at that point, you can’t really ignore it.”
Pope said that sightings of unidentified objects are “happening much more often than people realize. The issue is that a few years ago these sorts of things were often ignored. And it was easier for service chiefs to say, ‘Well, maybe there was a problem with the radar system.’ They can’t say that anymore.”
Pope explained that people used to say that these type of sightings were by those who were unfamiliar with next generation aircraft or drones, but “the US Navy in their most recent statement put this beyond debate”.
Pope said that American usage of the phrase, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” was proof that the incidents were being taken seriously “That is the military and intelligence community’s absolute standard term for UFOs,” said Pope.”These stories are now everywhere.
“The British Government is just in the final stage now of an 11-year project to declassify and release lots of documents about UFOs.
“In fact, around 60,000 documents on UFOs have been declassified and released by the British Government in the last few years.”
This is reportedly a US government video taken by the forward-looking infrared system of a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet that encountered an unidentified aircraft off the East Coast in 2015. The fighter jet’s pilots were excited by what they saw.
Credit: To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science/YouTube
As Politico first reported in late April, the US Navy “is drafting new guidelines for pilots and other personnel to report encounters with ‘unidentified aircraft,’ a significant new step in creating a formal process to collect and analyze the unexplained sightings—and destigmatize them.” In a statement to Politico, the Navy cited “a number of reports of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft entering various military-controlled ranges and designated air space in recent years.”
A former senior intelligence officer recently told the Washington Post that the newly drafted guidelines for pilots mean the Navy has credible evidence of things “that can fly over our country with impunity, defying the laws of physics, and within moments could deploy a nuclear device at will.”
In addition to “unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft,” the Pentagon refers to such sightings as “unexplained aerial phenomena” or “suspected incursions.” But please don’t call them UFOs. By definition, UFOs are nothing more than unidentified flying objects, but in the popular imagination they have become closely associated with creatures from outer space. As the New York Timesnoted in a report last week, “No one in the Defense Department is saying that the objects were extraterrestrial, and experts emphasize that earthly explanations can generally be found for such incidents.”
Many UFOs turn out to be identifiable flying objects, atmospheric phenomena, or hoaxes. Sometimes they are secret military projects. The mother of all UFO narratives, the so-called Roswell Incident, is deeply rooted in the nation’s nuclear history.
In 1995, the US Air Force published a 994-page collection of records and information about the July 1947 incident, the alleged crash and recovery of a flying saucer and its alien occupants in a remote part of New Mexico. An Air Force Declassification and Review Team concluded that the Army Air Forces (as the Air Force was known at that time) did indeed recover material near Roswell in 1947. However, this material was debris from a secret experiment launched in the early days of the Cold War.
Called Project Mogul, the experiment was an attempt to detect Soviet nuclear weapon explosions and ballistic missile launches. Maurice Ewing, a researcher at Columbia University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, had previously discovered an ocean layer that could easily conduct the sound of underwater explosions for thousands of miles, and he hoped to find a similar channel in the upper atmosphere. Launched from New Mexico’s Alamogordo Air Field in June 1947, Mogul was a string of weather balloons more than 600 feet long that carried acoustical sensors and oddly constructed radar-reflecting targets. Ultimately, detecting explosions with seismic sensors and air sampling proved to be more accurate and less expensive than acoustic detection. As the Air Force explained in a 1997 follow-up report, claims that alien “bodies” were recovered near Roswell, which did not begin appearing until the 1970s, were probably references to anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft by high-altitude balloons used in unrelated scientific research.
At the time of the Roswell Incident, the nation’s only nuclear strike force was based at the Roswell Army Airfield—a closely held secret. That may have contributed to the secrecy surrounding the recovery of Project Mogul debris.
Long after the Cold War ended, some observers continue to report a pattern of suspicious UFO activity near missile silos and other nuclear weapons sites. Perhaps it is not surprising that two subjects that have long raised intense fears—nuclear war and alien invasion—should be linked.
While military sightings of unidentified aircraft are getting more attention of late, UFO sightings by the general public have actually been declining for the past few years, according to the National UFO Reporting Center and the Mutual UFO Network, two online sites that collect and analyze reports. One possible explanation: the military’s increased transparency about reporting and investigating alleged encounters.
TOOL TIME Researchers study sediments in Ethiopia where sharp-edged stone tools dating to around 2.6 million years ago were found. Rocks placed over excavated areas protected fragile sediment.
ERIN DIMAGGIO
Discoveries in East Africa of what may be the oldest expertly sharpened stone implements suggest that early members of the human genus, Homo, invented these tools by around 2.6 million years ago, researchers say. But their conclusions are controversial.
New finds at a site in Ethiopia called Ledi-Geraru fit a scenario in which various early Homo groups devised ways to sharpen hand-held stones, assert archaeologist David Braun of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and his colleagues. Ledi-Geraru artifacts date to between 2.58 million and 2.61 million years ago, the team reports online June 3 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Another team previously had unearthed sharpened stones that were 2.55 million to 2.58 million years old at Gona, a nearby Ethiopian site (SN: 4/17/04, p. 254). Until now, those were the oldest examples of cutting and digging devices with systematically sharpened edges. Archaeologists refer to these types of artifacts as Oldowan tools because the first examples were found at East Africa’s Olduvai Gorge.
Age estimates for Ledi-Geraru artifacts were determined by where they were found, between a dated layer of volcanic ash and sediment preserving a known reversal of Earth’s magnetic field. Stone tools at Ledi-Geraru “are probably at least 50,000 years older, but could be up to 100,000 years older than Gona artifacts,” Braun says. His team recovered 300 stone artifacts, including sharp-edged rocks and larger rocks from which those implements were struck. Those finds were strewn among 330 fossilized bones of nonhuman animals.
Sharp end
One of the oldest known sharpened tools, unearthed in Ethiopia, is shown here from different angles in photographs, top, and 3-D computer models, bottom.
D.R. BRAUN
Older stone tools have been discovered. For instance, large stone implements found in Kenya at a site called Lomekwi 3, many perhaps best suited for pounding objects, may date to 3.3 million years ago (SN: 6/13/15, p. 6). Contested evidence, based on possible stone-tool incisions on two 3.4 million-year-old animal bones, suggests that Australopithecus afarensis, ancient hominids best known for Lucy’s partial skeleton, butchered animals before the Homo genus appeared (SN: 9/11/10, p. 8). And present-day chimps and monkeys crack open nuts with stones, a sign that such behavior extends far back in primate evolution (SN: 11/26/16, p. 16).
But the Ledi-Geraru artifacts indicate that Homo, which possibly originated around 2.8 million years ago based on a jaw already found at Ledi-Geraru (SN: 4/4/15, p. 8), took stone-tool making to a new level characterized by skilled edge sharpening, Braun’s group argues.
Archaeologist Ignacio de la Torre of University College London, who did not participate in the new study, agrees. “The association of Oldowan tools with early Homomay be best explained by shifts in diet and access to animal meat through scavenging,” he says.
Animal bones unearthed with the Ledi-Geraru artifacts came from creatures such as gazelles and giraffes that would have inhabited open grasslands with few trees, Braun’s team says. That landscape likely presented frequent scavenging opportunities, the researchers suspect. Lucy’s species would have spied fewer fresh animal carcasses, they contend, because the same part of East Africa featured shrubs with occasional stands of trees and forested areas during her time period.
An ability to cut meat and other food with stone tools may have influenced a transition to smaller teeth observed in early Homo specimens, Braun’s group holds.
No stone tools dating to between 3.3 million and 2.6 million years ago have been found, so it’s unclear if Ledi-Geraru artifacts represented a rapid change in toolmaking or an elaboration of earlier techniques, says archaeologist Sonia Harmand of Stony Brook University in New York. Sharp-edged flakes struck from larger rocks have been found at Kenya’s Lomekwi 3, so precursors of Oldowan techniques might have started developing as early as 3.3 million years ago, says Harmand, who directed Lomekwi 3 excavations.
ANCIENT FLYOVER A drone provides a panoramic tour of Ethiopia’s Ledu-Geraru site and the spot where scientists unearthed what they say are the oldest known stone tools with sharpened edges.
Other researchers doubt both Braun’s and Harmand’s conclusions. Ledi-Geraru discoveries add to an increasingly confusing picture of early stone-tool making, says archaeologist Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo of Complutense University in Madrid. Until a detailed analysis of sediment formation at the Ledi-Geraru site is published, he is skeptical of the claim that the newly discovered artifacts were found where they were originally deposited or are as old as reported. Similarly, Domínguez-Rodrigo suspects that Harmand’s Lomekwi 3 artifacts originally lay in much younger sediment before erosion and water moved them down a slope to 3.3 million-year-old sediment. And animal trampling likely created the reported incisions on animal bones from Lucy’s time, he argues.
Ledi-Geraru artifacts were also found on a slope where they could originally have lain in sediment from after 2.6 million years ago, says archaeologist Yonatan Sahle of the University of Tübingen in Germany. Sahle participated in previous fieldwork at Ledi-Geraru with Braun’s group, but isn’t part of the new paper. It’s “simply unwarranted” to tag stone tools excavated at Ledi-Geraru as the earliest Oldowan specimens without a more thorough sediment analysis, Sahle contends. Even the evolutionary identity and age of the Ledi-Geraru jaw initially assigned to Homo are up for grabs, he says.
Microscopic study of Ledi-Geraru sediment indicates that stone artifacts were dropped at the edge of a lake and quickly covered by earth that held the finds in their original positions, Braun says.
For now, scientists’ clashing positions on the reliability and implications of ancient toolmaking evidence also appear held in place, if not etched in stone.
INSIDE OUT China’s Chang’e-4 mission, which landed in a massive impact basin on the farside of the moon (pictured in false-color blue and purple hues) in January, has detected what appears to be lunar mantle material on the moon’s surface.
The Yutu-2 rover, deployed by the Chinese Chang’e-4 spacecraft that landed on the moon in January, detected soil that appears rich in minerals thought to make up the lunar mantle, researchers report in the May 16 Nature. Those origins, if confirmed, could offer insight into the moon’s early development.
“Understanding the composition of the lunar mantle is key to determining how the moon formed and evolved,” says Mark Wieczorek, a geophysicist at the Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice, France, not involved in the work. “We do not have any clear, unaltered samples of the lunar mantle” from past moon missions.
In hopes of finding mantle samples, Chang’e-4 touched down in the moon’s largest impact basin, the South Pole–Aitken basin (SN: 2/2/19, p. 5). The collision that formed this enormous divot is thought to have been powerful enough to punch through the moon’s crust and expose mantle rocks to the lunar surface (SN: 11/24/18, p. 14). During its first lunar day on the moon, Yutu-2 recorded the spectra of light reflected off lunar soil at two spots using its Visible and Near-Infrared Spectrometer.
When researchers analyzed these spectra, “what we saw was quite different” than normal lunar surface material, says study coauthor Dawei Liu, a planetary scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing.
YUTU-2 ON DUTY The Chang’e-4 mission’s Yutu-2 rover (shown) recorded the spectra of light reflected off the lunar surface in the South Pole–Aitken basin, which contain clues about the minerals that make up the soil.
CHINESE NATIONAL SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Yutu-2’s spectra revealed soil dominated by olivine and low-calcium pyroxene, which are thought to be ingredients in the lunar mantle. One site appeared to contain about 48 percent olivine and 42 percent low-calcium pyroxene; only 10 percent was a component of the lunar crust called high-calcium pyroxene. The other site showed 55 percent olivine, 38 percent low-calcium pyroxene and a mere 7 percent high-calcium pyroxene.
“There need to be some follow-up observations” to confirm that this material really is from the mantle, says Daniel Moriarty, a lunar geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., not involved in the work. That’s because other materials in the lunar crust, such as plagioclase, can create spectral signatures similar to those of olivine.
Yutu-2 could identify mantle material more conclusively by examining the spectra of specific rocks, rather than mineral mixtures in soil, says Jay Melosh, a planetary scientist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., not involved in the study. “It would really be best if we could have samples back on the Earth” for lab analyses to tease apart different mineral components.
The Yutu-2 rover will continue investigating candidate mantle materials on the moon in preparation for a potential future sample return mission to Earth, the researchers say.
If from the mantle, the material’s chemical makeup could help clarify the moon’s early history. Billions of years ago, scientists think, the moon was partially or completely molten. As the moon cooled and solidified, materials of different densities separated into the mantle and crust. “We’re currently in this stage where we have a lot of different models” for how this crystallization process occurred, Moriarty says. These models predict different abundances of minerals like olivine and pyroxene in the upper mantle. Samples of the lunar interior could help determine which models best describe how the moon evolved.
A more detailed picture of the moon’s interior may also shed light on planetary evolution in general, says Briony Horgan, a planetary scientist at Purdue not involved in the research. Unlike Earth, the moon doesn’t have tectonic plates that shuffle surface material around or draw ocean water into the mantle when they slip underneath one another (SN Online: 5/13/19). The moon offers “a unique window” into the inner workings of a planetary body that’s quite different from Earth, she says.
CROWNING ROOTS An analysis of hominid tooth evolution, including specimens from Spanish Neandertals (top row), pushes back the age of a common Neandertal-human ancestor to more than 800,000 years ago. The bottom row shows Homo sapiens teeth.
A. GÓMEZ-ROBLES, ANA MUELA AND JOSE MARIA BERMUDEZ DE CASTRO
People and Neandertals separated from a common ancestor more than 800,000 years ago — much earlier than many researchers had thought.
That conclusion, published online May 15 in Science Advances, stems from an analysis of early fossilized Neandertal teeth found at a Spanish site called Sima de los Huesos. During hominid evolution, tooth crowns changed in size and shape at a steady rate, says Aida Gómez-Robles, a paleoanthropologist at University College London. The Neandertal teeth, which date to around 430,000 years ago, could have evolved their distinctive shapes at a pace typical of other hominids only if Neandertals originated between 800,000 and 1.2 million years ago, she finds.
Gómez-Robles’ study indicates that, if a common ancestor of present-day humans and Neandertals existed after around 1 million years ago, “there wasn’t enough time for Neandertal teeth to change at the rate [teeth] do in other parts of the human family tree” in order to end up looking like the Spanish finds, says paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Many researchers have presumed that a species dubbed Homo heidelbergensis, thought to have inhabited Africa and Europe, originated around 700,000 years ago and gave rise to an ancestor of both Neandertals and Homo sapiens by roughly 400,000 years ago. Genetic evidence that Sima de los Huesos fossils came from Neandertals raised suspicions that a common ancestor with H. sapiens existed well before that (SN Online: 3/14/16). Recent Neandertal DNA studies place that common ancestor at between 550,000 and 765,000 years old. But those results rest on contested estimates of how fast and how consistently genetic changes accumulated over time.
With that molecular debate in mind, Gómez-Robles calculated the rate at which eight ancient hominid species evolved changes in tooth shape. That enabled her to gauge how long it must have taken for Sima de los Huesos teeth to evolve after Neandertals diverged from a common ancestor with H. sapiens.
Gómez-Robles used two possible evolutionary trees for the eight hominid species to estimate dental evolution rates. Aside from the Spanish Neandertals and Stone Age H. sapiens, teeth in her study came from African hominids dating to as early as 3.2 million years ago.
Moving back the date of an evolutionary split between Neandertals and H. sapiens appears reasonable based on the new data, says paleoanthropologist Aurélien Mounier of Musée de l’Homme in Paris. The timing of that split could still change, though, if further research modifies the Spanish fossils’ age, he says.
Other Spanish hominid teeth dating to nearly 800,000 years ago display some Neandertal features, supporting the new study’s conclusions, says New York University paleoanthropologist Shara Bailey. But it’s unclear if Gómez-Robles’ contention that hominid teeth evolved at a steady rate will hold true, Bailey says.
The plan involves lifting the mole's support structure to get a look at the instrument.
The robotic arm on NASA's Mars InSight lander moves in place over the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) and opens the fingers of its grapple in this image from June 1, 2019.
NASA has a new plan to get its Mars "mole" digging again.
The agency's InSight lander touched down on the Red Planet last November, tasked with mapping the Martian interior in unprecedented detail. The spacecraft is equipped with two main science instruments: a suite of supersensitive seismometers and the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), a burrowing heat probe known affectionately as "the mole."
InSight deployed both of these instruments on the Martian surface successfully, and the seismometers have already detected two marsquakes. But the mole stopped digging in February at a depth of just 12 inches (30 centimeters) — far short of the prescribed 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 meters).
The mole may have hit a rock, or the soil surrounding the heat probe may be slicker than expected, mission team members have said. (The mole needs a certain amount of soil friction to dig; otherwise, it will simply bounce in place.)
But it's tough to tell what's holding the mole up, because its support structure blocks InSight's view of the instrument. So, the mission team plans to use the lander's robotic arm to lift that support structure out of the way.
"Engineers at JPL and DLR have been working hard to assess the problem," Lori Glaze, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in a statement. She was referring to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the German Aerospace Center, whose German acronym is DLR. (JPL manages the InSight mission, and DLR built the mole.)
"Moving the support structure will help them gather more information and try at least one possible solution," Glaze added.
The robotic arm on NASA's Mars InSight lander moves in place over the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) and opens the fingers of its grapple in this series of images from June 1, 2019.
The lifting maneuver, which the team has been practicing with mock-ups at JPL, will begin on the Red Planet in late June. And InSight's handlers will proceed carefully.
"Over the course of a week, the arm will lift the structure in three steps, taking images and returning them so that engineers can make sure the mole isn't being pulled out of the ground while the structure is moved," NASA officials wrote in the same statement. "If removed from the soil, the mole can't go back in."
This NASA Insight Mars lander graphic shows the position of the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), better known as the mole, as of early June 2019.
Moving the support structure could help the team both diagnose the problem and test a possible solution, said DLR's Tilman Spohn, the HP3 principal investigator.
"We plan to use InSight's robotic arm to press on the ground" after the lifting maneuver, Spohn said in the same statement. "Our calculations have shown this should add friction to the soil near the mole."
In a computer simulation of spiral galaxy formation, a halo structure partially forms from a pileup of many small galaxies. Even after merged galaxies disintegrate, individual stars retain chemical traces from their original galaxies.
A star in the Big Dipper is an intergalactic alien, according to clues in its chemical fingerprints.
The star's unusual chemistry is unlike that of all known stars in the Milky Way and instead has more in common with stars in nearby dwarf galaxies, new research reveals.
Researchers suspected that the stellar oddball, named J1124+4535, originated in a dwarf galaxy that collided with the Milky Way long ago. According to that theory, when the dwarf galaxy fell apart, it stranded this star in our cosmic neighborhood. [11 Fascinating Facts About Our Milky Way Galaxy]
The star was first discovered in the constellation Ursa Major in 2015, by the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) in China. Higher-resolution images were captured in 2017 by the Subaru Telescope in Japan, the scientists reported April 29 in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Spectrum readings from the star revealed that it was low in metals such as magnesium but had unexpectedly high levels of the heavy element europium; an element ratio that was unique in comparison to other Milky Way stars, the researchers wrote.
Elements in stars reflect the composition of the dust and gas clouds where the star formed. Stars that are close neighbors are usually shaped by the same materials and therefore have similar chemical signatures. When a star stands out from a group, scientists look elsewhere to see where it might have been born.
Prior studies have found that the Milky Way formed by colliding with and absorbing smaller galaxies. Metal-poor stars such as J1124+4535 are common in dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way today, the scientists reported.
Their analysis of J1124+4535 provides "the clearest chemical signature" yet of the ancient galaxy mergers that shaped the Milky Way billions of years ago, according to the study.
And that's not the only cosmic evidence that hints at the Milky Way's turbulent past.
A distinctive bulge at the Milky Way's center is thought to be the result of a collision with a sausage-shaped dwarf galaxy about 10 billion years ago. That event inflated the Milky Way's core with an influx of billions of stars, some of which are among the oldest in the universe.
There may be an even bigger smashup in the Milky Way's future: Our galaxy is currently on a collision course with another spiral galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. Luckily, that won't take place for at least another 2 billion years — and that collision is about 2 to 3 billion years before we're predicted to slam into the Andromeda Galaxy.
Greatest American Military UFO Experiences via The Nimitz Encounters
Greatest American Military UFO Experiences via The Nimitz Encounters
November 2004, 90 miles of the coast of Mexico near San Diego, California, the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was conducting routine training and aerial defense exercises when unexplained events occurred.
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.
Dozens of satellites joining Vega’s ride-share to space
Deploying multiple small satellites
Dozens of satellites joining Vega’s ride-share to space
More than 40 satellite missions will be launched at once by Europe’s Vega launcher this autumn, thanks to the innovative modular “Lego-style” dispenser resting on its upper stage.
Up until now the smallest classes of satellites – all the way down to tiny CubeSats, built from 10 cm modular boxes – have typically ‘piggybacked’ to orbit. They have to make use of any spare capacity as a single large satellite is launched, meaning their overall launch opportunities are limited.
“The new Vega Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) switches this into a ‘ride-share’ model, with multiple small satellites being flown together, splitting the launch cost through economy class tickets,” comments Giorgio Tumino, managing ESA’s Vega development programmes.
SSMS vibration testing
“Our development of this new SSMS dispenser – able to group together different satellites from 1 kg to 400 kg in mass – is a response to the market for these small- and micro-satellite missions, which has grown exponentially in recent years.”
The inaugural ‘proof of concept’ flight of Vega’s SSMS dispenser will take place this September, with 41 separate passengers: seven small satellites plus 35 CubeSats in all. Included in that total are a trio of ESA CubeSats: the SIMBA mission studying Earth’s radiation budget, ozone-measuring Picasso and PhiSat, investigating the application of artificial intelligence to Earth observation.
Giorgio adds: “Regular follow-on SSMS flights are planned for 2020 on, once the more powerful Vega-C launcher begins operations. This will offer an extra 700 kg of capacity and enlarged volume within a wider launcher fairing – at the same Vega launch cost as before – so we will be able to fly even more passengers per individual SSMS launch at significant lower cost per kilo.”
The SSMS dispenser has been designed to be as market-responsive as possible, able to accommodate any combination of customers, from a main large satellite with smaller companions as piggy back to multiple smaller satellites, or dozens of individual CubeSats.
SSMS modular parts
“The idea of how to do this came out of an ESA study,” says Giorgio. “Basically the SSMS is composed of different modular parts, which can be put together as needed, Lego-style: a central column, tower or hexagon, a supporting platform, adjustable rods and dividers.”
In a first for any ESA launcher, part of the payload integration takes place in Europe, streamlining the cost and effort required by lean small satellite companies. Satellites are placed onto the lower part of the SSMS by its manufacturer, SAB Aerospace in the Czech Republic, with the top-level satellites added at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana ahead of launch.
Vega liftoff
This inaugural flight will deliver all its passengers to the same 550 km altitude ‘Sun synchronous orbit’, remaining lined up with the Sun for optimal Earth observing conditions. But in future Vega could deliver satellites to three separate orbits per SSMS flight.
Once its target orbit is achieved the SSMS, controlled through the avionics systems in Vega’s Attitude & Vernier Upper Module (AVUM) upper stage, will deploy its satellites in coordinated fashion, with carefully planned delays in between each separation. In a matter of minutes they will all be pushed away smoothly using springs.
Picasso CubeSat
When deployment is completed the AVUM will deorbit itself and its SSMS dispenser, fulfilling stringent international space debris regulations governing low-Earth orbit.
The three-stage solid propellant Vega launcher with a liquid-fuelled re-ignitable AVUM upper stage has been flying since 2012. Its SSMS dispenser is only one of a range of current developments, to allow Vega to respond to the full portfolio of market needs.
“We aim to affordably fly everything from a 1-kg CubeSat all the way up to a 2.3-tonne satellite, with still greater capacity on the way through our Vega Evolution programme.
Vega-C
“And as well as the SSMS for several small payloads, we have the Vespa adapter for dual medium size payloads, in addition to the baseline Vampire adapter for single large payloads. The reusable Space Rider system is also under development for payloads requiring return to Earth, as well as the Venus electric-propulsion module under definition for missions to higher orbits.”
Adding to Vega’s competitiveness is a perfect safety record, with 14 out of 14 launches successful. “ESA, our prime contractor Avio and all our partner companies are fully committed to delivering a successful product,” says Giorgio.
Vega payload carriers and Space Rider
“And ESA’s core Vega Integrated Programme Team at ESRIN draws expertise from wherever is available, working closely with ESA’s Directorate of Technology Quality and Engineering and Directorate of Operations, Italian space agency ASI and French space agency CNES. Working with all the best available competencies in Europe is a strong reason for our success to date.”
Rockets are the backbone of all space-based endeavours. ESA in partnership with industry is developing next-generation space transportation vehicles, Ariane 6, Vega-C, and Space Rider. At Space19+, ESA will propose further enhancements to these programmes and introduce new ideas to help Europe work together to build a robust space transportation economy. This week, take a look at what ESA is doing to ensure continued autonomous access to space for Europe and join the conversation online by following the hashtag #RocketWeek
Speaking at the company’s Hawthorne factory, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced a new strategy for efficiently recovering its next-gen BFR’s upper stage, describing a process where the spaceship would rely on a number of unintuitive techniques to reliably land on planets or moons with appreciable atmospheres (i.e. Mars, Earth, Titan). In essence, BFS would end up gliding towards the surface in free-fall, controlling its orientation much like an Earthly skydiver.
Chris B - NSF@NASASpaceflight
True physics sim: Very high angle of attack during landing.
Several times throughout the BFR update and private lunar tourism announcement, Musk emphasized just how unintuitive the new procedures would be, stating that “it’s not like anything that people are familiar with – it’s not like an airplane.” His comparison with skydivers is actually rather apt for conveying why this approach is so unusual for a large, flying vehicle like BFR’s spaceship (BFS). Just like skydivers, BFS will have five main control surfaces to control its orientation, pitch, and general dynamics when operating in an atmosphere – two forward fins (like a skydiver’s arms), two rear fins (legs), and a body.
Also like a skydiver, those forward and aft controls are not aerodynamic in the sense of an airplane’s wing or tail fins – in the case of the skydiver and spaceship, they do not generate lift – in pilot and aerospace parlance, a surface that generates no lift is “stalled”. This is likely the main reason that Musk was so intent on conveying his feeling that the spaceship’s new flight regime was unintuitive – in the world of aerospace engineering, particularly for aerodynamicists, intentionally designed stalled control surfaces is almost oxymoronic, akin to an automotive engineer designing a car with square wheels. For all but fighter pilots, stalled aerodynamic surfaces are traditionally avoided like the plague, and can be frequently blamed for aviation-related fatalities.
Chris B - NSF@NASASpaceflight
BFS Update: Thinks they can get to 1100 m3 volume. Actuated fins/flaps. Control surfaces.
Even to a layperson, the spaceship landing animation shown might look more like a rock uncontrollably plummeting to the ground than an advanced spaceship meant to land humans on Earth, Mars, and beyond. In essence, the proposal Musk laid out on September 17th takes the high-speed reentry characteristics of NASA’s retired Space Shuttle (aerobraking, S-turns, nose-up reentry), adopts a skydiver’s intuitive and efficient aerodynamic control scheme in free-fall, and replaces said skydiver’s parachutes with a group of high-performance rocket engines, as if a skydiver somehow managed to strap rockets to their feet to gently land on the ground.
SpaceX should have little trouble with the latter task thanks to 15 successful vertical landings of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters (and many more to come), while the spaceship’s Shuttle-style orbital reentry profile may be new for SpaceX but has been tackled successfully in the past by other companies/agencies. Free-falling to a successful landing with permanently stalled control surfaces, however, will undoubtedly demand an extensive test campaign in Earth’s atmosphere before SpaceX even thinks of placing humans on the craft, something that Musk foreshadowed in a 2017 Reddit AMA focused on BFR.
“Will be starting with a full-scale Ship doing short hops of a few hundred kilometers altitude and lateral distance. Those are fairly easy on the vehicle as no heat shield is needed.”
– Elon Musk, October 2017
BFR’s design and the spaceship’s recovery profile may change further over the next 6-12 months, given that the team’s unintuitive freefall realization seems to be a fresh addition to the Mars rocket. Nevertheless, Musk and COO Gwynne Shotwell have publicly stated that they believe Grasshopper-style spaceship hop tests could commence as early as late 2019 or early 2020, with the first orbital BFR launches starting soon after in the 2020/2021 timeframe.
For prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket recovery fleet check out our brand new LaunchPad and LandingZone newsletters!
The United States Navy created a bit of a buzz recently when it revealed that new guidelines had been issued for pilots who wanted to report encounters with unexplained aerial phenomena. The guidelines were created in response to a rash of unusual sightings over the past several years. Many media outlets equated unexplained aerial phenomena to unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, which in turn was interpreted by a lot of people as meaning “spacecraft flown by aliens.” To the disappointment of believers, most reported phenomena are probably due to something a bit more mundane than extraterrestrials taking a joy ride through our atmosphere. In addition to spotting experimental aircraft being tested, aviators may simply be succumbing to optical illusions or experiencing radar glitches. To date, there has been no documented damage to a plane caused by a UFO.
However, it has been mysterious creatures from inner space rather than outer space that have posed an actual threat to the Navy. As long as there have been sailors there have been tales of sea monsters lurking in the depths that could snatch crewmen and crush ships. There are indeed an unknown amount of animals in the ocean that have yet to be identified. Recent discoveries such as the humpback angler fish and the ninja lanternshark demonstrate that there are still plenty of things in the oceans that can fuel nightmares. It is also true that USOs (unidentified submerged objects) not UFOs have presented the Navy with the greatest hazard.
The recently discovered Humpback Angler fish
In 1978, the USS Stein (DE-1065) was experiencing increased sonar noise which was interfering with operations. Upon inspection, it was found that the protective NOFOUL rubber-like coating on the sonar dome had several cuts and scratches. Within the cuts were the remnants of claws. These claws were the type found in the suction cups on the tentacles of the giant squid. Alarmingly, the only specimens of claws that previously had been collected by scientists were a fraction of the size of those recovered from the Stein. If it was a giant squid that attacked the destroyer escort, it was substantially larger than any cephalopod that had been documented. Old seafarers would probably claim that the Stein had somehow managed to escape the legendary Kraken.
In another incident in 1976, a torpedo recovery boat conducting oceanographic research was dragging a cargo parachute as a sea anchor when it snagged something. The crew did not know what had become entangled in the parachute but it was very powerful and the ship was struggling against it. Fighting the full power of the ship’s winch, the sea beast apparently suffocated when it swallowed part of the chute. The crew pulled aboard the bizarre creature that was 15 feet in length and weighing 750 pounds. They did not realize it but they had caught the never-before-seen megamouth shark. The megamouth shark remains elusive, with only about 100 sightings since the Navy’s inadvertent duel with the first one.
A Megamouth shark
In the April 1955 issue of Proceedings magazine, Commander Vining A. Sherman wrote about when he was called to the bridge of the USS Hale (DD-642) to look at something caught on the destroyer’s ramming stem. There he saw “a monster of such gigantic size” that he was stunned. The beast had been spilt in two and he estimated that 40 feet of the body was being dragged down the port side of the ship while another 12 feet of the body was hanging from the starboard side. It appeared to be a shark but Sherman had never seen one that was over 50 feet in length. He ordered the ship to back clear of the monstrous creature because he was concerned that it would become lodged in the ship’s screws. As the ship freed itself from the impaled body, Sherman took a closer look. Besides being so large that Sherman thought he could easily sit in its mouth, the beast had features different from any shark he had ever encountered. He thought it must be from another world or a survivor from another age. Upon returning to port he continued to conduct research and concluded that it was a whale shark. Sighting of whale sharks at the time were extremely rare. Sherman stated that he spoke to many sailors and fisherman who had heard legends about the whale shark but had never seen one.
Tom DeLonge on ‘Scary’ UFO Footage, Angels and Airwaves and Blink-182’s Future
Tom DeLonge on ‘Scary’ UFO Footage, Angels and Airwaves and Blink-182’s Future
Since leaving Blink-182 to study UFOs, the guitarist has been on one of the strangest odysseys in rock. But as he puts it: “Maybe Tom isn’t so nuts after all”
Tom DeLonge opens up about his UFO research, new music by Angels and Airwaves and his possible future with Blink-182.
Caleb Mallery*
Twenty years ago this month, Blink-182 released Enema of the State, an album that sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and “reimagined Green Day’s Dookie as one big, undeniably catchy fart joke” according to Rolling Stone’s list of the 40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time. Guitarist Tom DeLonge has spent the two decades since on one of the wildest paths in rock history. In the mid-2000s, DeLonge left Blink to start an an ambitious space-rock band called Angels and Airwaves. He then started seriously investigating space himself, launching To the Stars Academy in 2015, an organization devoted to researching UFOs. DeLonge’s company, which Rolling Stone visited for a profile of the guitarist in 2016, has earned some credibility since; a 2017 New York Times story uncovering the existence of the Pentagon’s secret $22 million Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program credited To The Stars as a place where ex-military and government officials such as Luis Elizondo, who formerly ran the government’s aerospace identification program, were continuing their work.
Last week, another major UFO story hit the Times, detailing strange, highly advanced objects that were spotted daily over the East Coast between 2014 and 2015. “These things would be out there all day,” said Lieutenant Ryan Graves, a Super Hornet pilot who has been with the Navy for 10 years. “Keeping an aircraft in the air requires a significant amount of energy. With the speeds we observed, 12 hours in the air is 11 hours longer than we’d expect.” “This was us,” DeLonge said, holding a copy of the New York Times article late last week. He pointed to the work he has done at To the Stars as directly responsible for uncovering the possible sightings. “Everyone is like, ‘Wow! This is real. Maybe Tom is not so nuts after all!'”
DeLonge executive produced the History Channel’s new show Unidentified: Inside America’s U.F.O. Investigation, which airs Fridays at 10 p.m. He appears in the show with former military and government officials such as Elizondo, Lt. Graves as well as John Podesta, President Clinton’s former Chief of Staff. In this interview, DeLonge also discusses new music by Angels and Airwaves and the state of Blink-182, and why he hopes to return to his former band someday.
You just put out “Rebel Girl,” the first Angels and Airwaves song in years. What was the initial reaction to Angels and Airwaves when the band debuted in 2006? It was so different from Blink-182.
I think Angels and Airwaves has always been a little bit ahead of its time. For a kid that grew up on a band like the Ramones like me, these are complex sounds and compositions. I remember that a lot of my fan base wasn’t totally ready for it, because they were still mourning over the fact that I wasn’t playing with Blink at the time. But I tend to realize that everything I’ve done in my life is about five years ahead of its time. It would make a lot of sense that people would revisit what I was doing now and say, “Oh, I kind of get it.” That tends to be the curve that I’m on with everything I do. People thought I was nuts for not being in the band to go chase little green men. I go, “Just trust me for a minute here.” And then now, the article in Rolling Stone, I just posted it right when I walked in the building. It’s like “Wow.”
What did it feel like to see the latest article in the Times?
This is the third New York Times article that we organized and put together at To the Stars. But this one’s dealing directly with the pilots that are current military pilots that we took to the Senate and Congress. A few weeks ago, there was another article that leaked on the Times that Congress is putting together a formal reporting mechanism to the Navy on UFOs. That’s us again. Our show Unidentified is us doing that. Taking these specific pilots to Congress, influencing legislative language for oversight committees and for the appropriations committees. In that process, it leaked and came out in the papers. But our show is what this article specifically is about. And [it’s] very real. Lieutenant Graves [said] they had a fleet of UFO’s follow their carrier battle group for eight months out to the Middle East where they’re intercepting them almost on a daily basis. It’s pretty unnerving.
It’s gun-camera footage. And what people don’t understand is they could be many, many miles away. But they’re zoomed in on an object. And even when the object just bounces an inch on the screen, that means it could’ve gone from zero to 20,000 miles an hour in a snap of your fingers. It’s a big deal even though it just looks like a little blob. But if you’re a pilot, or if you’re a radar operator, or a trained military observer, you know exactly what that is and it’s scary to them. Because things don’t do that. There’s no wings; there’s no plume on the infrared cameras. You will see an outline of a plane. You will see the fire coming out of the back — these crafts don’t have that. They’re circular or disc-like in shape. They have blurred edges. They have observability. They have positive lift and all these different factors that the government has identified. Any one of these things — they call them these five observables, and any one of them, if a country were to get one of these five, it would be a paradigm shift. A game-changing national-security issue. And these craft have five of them.
What we’re showing Congress, and what we’ve been doing in the Senate, that we’re now bringing out to the American people and the world, it’s like, “This is fucking real. And it’s real scary, so let’s get our stuff together and deal with it.”
I know for a fact that this vehicle that I’ve created at To the Stars has already changed the world. People are now taking this seriously and understanding that it’s real. We’ve changed policy, and I’m really proud of that, especially when, for years, people though I was the crazy UFO guy. I didn’t do it alone, by any means. but I created the mechanism for them to do what they’re doing now and I’m really proud of that.
Blink-182’s Travis Barker, Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus in 1999.
Photo credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Why is the footage “scary” and dangerous to you?
Because you’re dealing with something [that] you don’t know what it is, you don’t know who’s in there or who’s operating these things. [Luis Elizondo] says it best: It’s kind of like you go to bed at night, you lock your doors, you set your alarm. And then you wake up in the morning, unlock the door and there’s bloody footprints through your whole living room. And you’re like, “The alarm didn’t trip, the doors were still locked, but someone walked right through my house and I had no clue. Whose footprints are those?” That’s kind of scary, because you have no clue how they could bypass all the security systems of your house effortlessly. Something with this technology is in charge. This is like rolling into some type of indigenous tribe that’s never met man. They’re deep in the forests of some remote Pacific Island and we come in with an aircraft carrier and a stealth fighter and all they have are sticks. Who’s in charge should they choose to impose their will? We don’t even know what this is, but we have to think in terms of that. And that’s a big deal.
“This is fucking real. And it’s real scary, so let’s get our stuff together and deal with it,” DeLonge says of recent UFO discoveries.
And think about the technology of these, too. Think about World War II when we were the only ones that had the nuclear bomb. You could take over the world. This is so far beyond nuclear power. They talk about civilizations, the Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 civilizations. A Type 1 civilization can control the power of the planet, and Type 2 can control the power of the sun and a Type 3 civilization can control the power of their own galaxy. We’re not even a Type 1 civilization yet. This could be a Type 2 or Type 3 that’s operating these things. I have no clue, but the technology that it is, is so far beyond what we can do that it’s unnerving. You have to hope that they’re loving. That’s a stretch probably, right?
There was one person in that Times article, Leon Golub, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard. He said the possibility of an extraterrestrial cause “is so unlikely that it competes with many other low-probability but more mundane explanations … bugs in the code for the imaging and display systems, atmospheric effects and reflections, neurological overload from multiple inputs during high-speed flight.” What do you have to say about those explanations?
It’s so offensive and naïve and ignorant that I go, “How are you even let into such a prestige environment?” They’re planting “Harvard” next to comments [made by] an officer that spent 3 million dollars on his training before he ever touched the throttle of a hundred-million-dollar weapons platform, with security clearances and the ability to fly live weapons over an American city. The two guys that went on the record are Top Gun graduates — these are the best in the world. The system that recorded this stuff is called the Spy-1 Radar, which is the single most classified radar system in the world. It’s the best stuff we got in the United States Government. And the Princeton [a Navy ship which spotted objects in 2004, which the Times reported on in 2017] was a radar ship. The entire ship was an array of hardware that can get 360-degree views of an entire combat awareness. It’s so advanced that they have the Top Gun guys running it. So for someone to say it’s bugs on the system is so offensive.
Is he saying that all these generals and admirals that have the keys to all of our nuclear weapons can’t tell a bug on the best radar system on earth? That they’re literally hallucinating, or something? It’s offensive to them. I’ve met these guys. A general I was working with had multiple PhD’s from MIT and Cal Tech in aerospace engineering. Another general was in charge of 5,000 of our nuclear warheads. He was the commander of this stuff. These guys are not idiots. I think people need to think a little bit more before they say disrespectful comments like that.
When you said that To the Stars was responsible for the footage in the Times, what did you mean?
The video had gone declassified and To the Stars Academy were the ones that received it.
OK.
I don’t want to talk about anything else with that. So we’re the ones that brought it to the Times.The Times then was able to go out and find another copy of the video. That’s why there’s their version without our logo and then there’s the version with the To the Stars logo on it. So somebody at the Pentagon gave the Times the video.
Do you see Trump talking about this?
That’s a good question. I don’t know. I do know that because of our efforts, the White House has been definitely informed of some things. I wouldn’t know what. I do think that there’s the potential that some of his Space Force comments are taking into account some of the data and information regarding the subject.
Do you think the Space Force is a good idea?
I don’t know. It make sense to me because when we wanted to deal with oceans, we created the Navy. We created the Army to deal with land. We created the Air Force to deal with the sky. Space is a real thing now; we can get there. And there’s things out there. One of the radar operators, the guy I was referring to that was a Top Gun graduate, he’s the one that sent out the intercept. Commander Fravor [a retired Navy commander who reported the 2004 U.S.S. Princeton incident] was sent by this guy and he watched 100 craft come in from space over a four-day period. One hundred!
Where?
Over the coast of San Diego. So they came in, they hovered and they would drop in .78 seconds from 80,000 feet to sea level. Do you realize how fast .78 seconds is? 80,000 feet to zero. It’s just there. That’s just unreal! The question would be, “Is it imperative that we create an entire division that deals with space?” It makes sense to me because it’s not like we can tell the Navy to worry about space. Maybe they want to. Maybe they consider space like the ocean or something. I don’t even know. It’s just way above anything that I’ve experienced.
Let’s move on to Angels and Airwaves. You’ve said that you you were on drugs at the time you started the band. The sound of the first two albums is very “druggy.” Did the drugs you were on influence that huge, ambitious sound?
Yeah, it was weird because at the time I broke my back and I had surgery and I had a disc that was broken and tangled up in the largest nerve in my body. I got all addicted to painkillers at that time. I was also dealing with coming out of a really big band. It was a rebirth of who I was, and [my] identity, and insecurities and all that kind of stuff. I learned a hell of a lot about myself at the time. But creating Angels and Airwaves and having that issue in my life, at the time, allowed me to hyper-focus and really go deeply into what I was creating. There’s no mystery that drugs ruined a lot of people and I thank God it didn’t ruin me. What happens, and any artist will tell you, is if you’re not sober and you’re creating something, [drugs are] a very simple way to get deeper into what you’re creating, for better or for worse. But I’m probably the only musician who came out with this space-rock band and then did a pause to create an aerospace company. I’m not just singing about space; I’m actively engaged in that technology and what I can do for the human race and what part I can play in bringing this data, this information, this technology, out to the world.
The new single “Rebel Girl” is a little more punk than other Angels stuff, and the sound isn’t as big as the first two records. I was curious if you’re going to return to that sound.
Maybe. It’s so funny because whenever you have a plan, it always changes the first day you start recording. If you’re a good artist, you don’t force it to be something. You’ve got to evolve with whatever the song’s trying to be. What I want is to bring back a lot of those atmospherics and soaring landscapes. And we are doing that. So far, on the first third of the record, there’s a bit of that in there. The big crescendo when it builds and all that kind of stuff. The second song that we’re planning on releasing, if we still go with it, [could have] lived on the I-Empire and We Don’t Need to Whisper records.
When those early records came out, a lot of the fans thought, “What the hell is this?”
We put out a record called The Dream Walker with an animated short film for Poet Andersonand some books and all this stuff. I think that record was a defining moment because people were like, “Well, happened to the old [sound]?” And then half were like “This is the best stuff you ever …” It was the most critically acclaimed record I’ve ever done in my life. The fans needed a minute. But now I think it’s pretty unanimous that people look at that record as one of the best things we’ve done. This next one is going to be very similar in the sound and the landscape. But melodically, it’s going to be way more in the direction of I-Empire. I think everyone will like where this ends up.
When do you think the Angels album will come out?
It’s coming out with a movie. I co-wrote a movie and it goes into production in just a few weeks. Then when I come out of that and go into post, we’ll score it. That will kind of dictate the second half of the album. Both of those will come out together somewhere around the tour or shortly thereafter. It’s going to be hard to say because this is a big project.
What do you expect from this tour? You’re playing clubs and theaters.
Yeah. This is really for the fans that have been so supportive of us. I expect nothing more than having an overwhelming, emotional response within myself that people care about what I’m doing. It’s a fear of mine because I get real emotional when I play Angels live because it’s a big part of my soul. There’s a lot of meaning in it for me. When I see people respond to it, I’m almost scared of it because it’s personal to me. In a different way than Blink. Blink’s personal to me, but it’s super fun and super loud and fast. But Angels and Airwaves, there’s so much heart in it for me. There’s things in those records and songs that mean a hell of a lot to me. So when people send back that vibration, I’m kind of scared of the overwhelming emotion. It’s hard to describe.
“I get real emotional when I play Angels and Airwave songs live because it’s a big part of my soul. When I see people respond to it, I’m almost scared of it because it’s personal.”
Do you remember the first time you knew there was more to your life than Blink?
Probably when I created Box Car Racer. Box Car Racer was a side project that I did with Travis Barker. But really it was about me and my friend David Kennedy, who plays in Angels and Airwaves. He grew up in hardcore bands, I grew up in punk bands, and we wanted to do something that blended both of those styles. But it was kind of scary because Blink became such a big monster at the time, that you kind of get stuck in this feeling that you need everyone in the band to be good at what you do. Because we really did need each other to do what Blink did. So to step out of that and say, “But what can I do on my own?” That was a very difficult decision. I was super excited to challenge myself. And it was actually pretty cool. And I thought it was really good especially for who I was at the time and where I was at musically. So to come out of that and say, “Wow, I made a dope record just by applying myself and taking a shot at putting myself out there without the safety of the team all around you” — that was a stepping stone to lead me to try a lot of things since then — going into technology, clothing companies, aerospace, making feature films, television series. It’s a bunch of stuff I would never have tried if I didn’t succeed the first time I tried something new and ambitious.
Here at the office, we’re fascinated with YouTube clips of your last Blink shows. You’re playing one of those huge festivals, and you’ve changed your singing a lot. You’re singing way differently on those last shows. I was curious what led you to sing in that different voice.
I kind of learned how to use my voice. I never learned how to sing, so I was always trying to sing like the Descendents. When I got in Angel and Airwaves, the tempo was slower, the melodies were written differently. And then, rather than nasally staccato, it became more like violin, more like a stringed instrument. The notes flow together. And then it came naturally to me. I’m not even a good singer. I’m just a little punk kid. I learned how to do this in a garage. So it’s really hard to make that sound good when you’re not even doing it right to begin with, you know? When you’re singing that way, you can’t even hit the notes. You’ll be flat or sharp 80 percent of the time, because the way you slam your vocal chords together on every single word really messes up [the] pitch. So I think for me, it wasn’t even really conscious. It was just what I’ve been doing for years with Angels and Airwaves. It’s the only way I know how to sing now.
Did you get blowback from the guys — “You’re not singing like you do on the records”?
No. I think kids just want it to sound like it did and I don’t blame them. And I probably could. But it seems funny to try and sound like I was 16 again. I’m not. Authenticity is a big deal for me. Be yourself. If you’re not being yourself, then the whole thing is just a play. You’re just putting on a play every night. And I can’t do that; I feel like a robot. I’ve just got to be myself.
What does the 20th anniversary of Enema of the State mean to you?
It means that time is flying by really quickly and I’ve achieved so much more than I ever thought possible. And I’m really, really thankful that people would even care at all about what I do. I’m just trying to do good things for people.
Were you surprised how well that record did?
Oh, my God, yeah! I’m still surprised about it, yeah. I’m always surprised. I’ve only been really into music and UFOs, and I might have a chance to conquer both.
There’s a lot of online excitement about you talking to the guys in Blink. I’m curious when you last talked to Mark and what that was like.
I just talked to Mark two weeks ago and I talk to Travis all the time. There’s a lot of love and respect and it’s like any set of brothers that have an argument and then, all of a sudden — “Who cares? My bad, my bad.” It’s not a big deal. The only issue right now is we’re so busy. My commitment to my company is the priority in my life. And Angels and Airwaves is a part of my company. The company came from Angels and Airwaves. When we created Angels and Airwaves, it was to be an art project that was trans-media. How do we put out music with film and books and all these things? They often live independently, but they all work together. We created an entertainment division to do that for Angels and Airwaves. One of the stories was about UFOs and that’s the one that got me [in with] the people that mattered, because I knew that subject and I knew things about it and I was getting ready to communicate it on really big platform, make motion pictures about all this stuff. I just felt I would get a lot further if I didn’t socialize what I was planning on doing, because I was also a little bit nervous about that, because I knew that I was playing with national security. But everyone else thinks UFO’s are a joke, and it’s weird tin-foil hats. It’s not. It’s real, serious business. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t ruffle any feathers in the wrong way because I do know a lot about that subject and I do know it’s no joke.
When I did that, it just spiraled into aerospace and science and it just grew into To the Stars Academy of Arts and Science. But this all came from Angels and Airwaves wanting to communicate themes over trans-media projects. And I told this to people 12 years ago when I started the band. I think everyone thought I was nuts then, too. There’s a very consistent thing here where Tom’s crazy and doing these things people don’t understand. But if you look at the path I’ve been on, I’ve done everything I said I’ll do. It’s just taken a little bit longer. It’s all hard stuff.
Do you think you will play with Blink again?
I know you’re probably looking for your headline here, but I think there will be a time, absolutely, that we play together. We all love each other and care about each other. We don’t always see eye to eye. I think people see the differences in our art. I love seeing how they’ve evolved and what they’re doing. I think when people look at Angels and Airwaves and what I’m doing, they can tell the differences. And sometimes it’s hard when you’re all trying to paint the same painting. And every once in a while, I like to see what the painting will be if I do it a different way. Off to the side. I think there’s a healthy respect for everyone to be able to paint their own paintings.
“I think there will be a time, absolutely, that we play together. We all love each other and care about each other.”
So you would be excited to play with Blink again?
Oh, my God, yeah! I started that band. That was a big a deal to me and it’s a big deal to them. And it’s a big deal what we accomplished. There is no animosity; there is no weirdness. It’s just right now, for me, I have a lot going on and the stakes are so big with my company, and with the government and with other governments. I found myself in the driver’s seat of something that’s world-changing. I can’t take my hand off the wheel for, honestly, for a rush of people really loving what we accomplished. Those things are amazing to feel, but I’m doing something I feel affects humanity. But once that is smooth sailing, then I can kind of relax and allow the car to drive itself a little bit. Then I think that conversation becomes more relevant for me.
It was the worst thing ever. Because there was the biggest secret on earth, the most classified, most taboo secret on earth. And I was the only person, ever, that was able to turn the valve and get it open. And I had a full flow of information. And when WikiLeaks dumped all of Podesta’s emails, and my communication with Podesta, that valve got shut off and it scared the death out of me — for the people I was working with, but also for humanity. I was like “Oh, my God, I got so close.” But that brought me the credibility to where everybody else — from CIA, the DOD — all circled around me and said, “You’re for real, and your ideas are good. But they’re not good enough yet. Let’s help design a better better version of the idea.” And that’s how the Academy of Arts and Science became a reality.
You told me that Unidentified gets “gnarly” at the end. What did you mean?
You’re going to see stuff towards the last couple episodes that … you’ve never seen this kind of stuff, dealing with this subject, on television. On television, it’s usually guys chasing lights in the sky and they’re out in the middle of the desert. You will see the Majority Leader of the Senate, Harry Reid. You will see the intelligence agents of other NATO allies. You will see members of the current real program. You won’t see their faces, but you’ll see elements of that. You’ll see the data, you’ll see us dealing with Congress. And what you’re going to see is the world being awakened.
We didn’t do this to make a TV show. We did this as a way to get the people ready to pressure Congress further. That is what the show’s about for me. We did not do this for entertainment. I didn’t just want to sell a show. This is To the Stars Academy doing its job and a camera following us. Because everything we’re doing is gathering the info and getting the Congressional leadership to understand what’s going on. And that’s why it leaked in the press. That’s us, and this is all part of a long, multi-year strategy to awaken everybody.
Regarding Blink, it’s really interesting that you said, “I love what they’re doing.” That’s a pretty big to say because I would think that if there’s another guy singing your music, Matt Skiba …
You journalist, you’re trying to push buttons. So transparent.
It’s true, though!
No, I don’t care. I’m a confident guy. I like what I do regardless if people like it or not. I don’t need admiration or people clapping or cheering at me. I don’t need that validation from an audience. I love the fact that they have a way to do what they love. That’s what I care about. I love that they don’t have to wait for me or rely on me depending on when I can or can’t do something. That’s frustrating for them. Do we have differences in what we like musically? Absolutely. But it’s not like my ideas are any better, or something. They’re just different.
Ministry of Defence releases final ‘X Files’ containing the truth about Britain’s secret UFO investigations
Ministry of Defence releases final ‘X Files’ containing the truth about Britain’s secret UFO investigations
Jasper Hamill
Details of Westminster’s probe into ‘unexplained aerial phenomena’ have been slowly making their way into the public domain over the past 11 years. (Image: Getty)
The Ministry of Defence has quietly released two final ‘X Files’ which detail the secrets of Britain’s quest to understand the phenomenon of UFOs.
Over the past 11 years, the MoD has declassified 60,000 pages exposing the secrets of a government investigation into unexplained sightings over the UK.
In April, the last pair of files were published and made available to the public at the National Archives in Kew, where they must be viewed in person because they have not yet been digitised.
The latest files to be released do not contain a smoking gun which proves the existence of aliens, but they reveal fascinating aspects of investigators’ attempt to understand the phenomenon.
They expose bitter arguments between a division that set the policy on UFOs and the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) resulting in a total breakdown of communications.
The team which set policy on UFOs was shown to be cautious and worried about what the public might think of a probe into unexplained aircraft spotted in the skies, whilst the DIS was more open-minded and called for further investigation into the mystery.
Nick Pope, a former MoD UFO investigator, has been studying the files and said they also demonstrate the UK’s influence on the US, where ‘bombshell revelations about the US Navy’s encounters with UFOs have moved this subject out of the fringe and into the mainstream’.
He told Metro: ‘These last two files are particularly fascinating and I can understand why sensitivities over their contents may have delayed their release.
‘They show how a sceptic versus believer debate was raging at the MoD, with a total breakdown in relations between the division that set the policy on UFOs and the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS), who provided the lead division with scientific and technical intelligence.
‘This all happened a few years after I left, but the documents show the policy division – where I worked – being sceptical and overly-concerned about what the media and the public might think, while the DIS were more open-minded and wanted to conduct more in-depth research and investigation into the phenomenon.’
Nick Pope is a former defence insider who headed up the Ministry of Defence’s UFO investigation department
(Provider: David Howard/ Flickr)
A screenshot from a US Navy pilot’s video of a ‘Tic Tac’ UFO seen in 2004
In America, details of a secret research drive called AATIP are slowly being made public, revealing sightings of advanced aircraft as well as classified investigations into ‘exotic technologies’ including wormholes, antigravity, invisibility cloaking, warp drives and high energy laser weapons.
Investigators even explored the health ‘consequences’ of close encounters.
In the US, UFOs are now refered to as unexplained aerial phenomena (UAPs), a phrase the MoD coined in the 1990s.
Pope added: ‘The recent release of the final British government UFO files couldn’t have come at a better time. Interest in UFOs is at an all-time high.
‘If people look at the MoD UFO files and the recent US revelations, one can easily see the UK influence.
‘The most obvious sign of this is the fact that the US military now use the term ‘UAP’ in place of ‘UFO’. We changed the terminology back in the Nineties, because ‘UFO’ was too loaded a term, with too much pop culture baggage.
‘Using ‘UAP’ enabled us to escape from the science fiction connotations of ‘UFO’ and reframe the internal MoD debate about the phenomenon in terms of the defence and national security issue most of us believed it to be.
‘This is exactly what the US military is doing now, and the US Navy in particular is trying to de-stigmatize the issue so that Navy pilots who encounter these mystery objects will make an official report, instead of staying silent, as most do at present.’
Scifi-schrijvers weten het wel: het zijn groene mannetjes met grote ogen. Maar hoe denken wetenschappers daar nu over?
Aliens. Al decennialang wordt er gespeculeerd over hoe ze eruit zullen zien. Tijdens de opkomst van de science-fiction werden ze afgebeeld als de typische groene mannetjes met grote ogen, maar nu de ontdekking van buitenaards leven steeds dichterbij komt, krijgen wetenschappers een beter beeld van onze ‘first encounter‘. En nee, het lijkt er niet op dat ze aan de verwachtingen van de scifi-schrijvers voldoen.
Ooit was Mars warm en vochtig en wellicht zelfs leefbaar. Vandaag de dag is de rode planeet koud en droog. Grote vraag is of eventueel buitenaards leven zich op zo’n koude en droge planeet weet te redden.
Afbeelding: NASA / The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA).
In ons zonnestelsel Onze eigen planeet heeft ideale omstandigheden voor leven. Veel water en andere belangrijke grondstoffen, een vrij constante comfortabele temperatuur en Jupiter beschermt ons tegen veel meteorietinslagen. Deze omstandigheden zijn uniek in ons zonnestelsel en om de equivalent van de groene mannetjes te vinden, zullen we dus ver van huis moeten zoeken. Als we hopen buitenaards leven te vinden in ons eigen zonnestelsel zullen we moeten zoeken in de extreme omstandigheden die planeten en manen in de buurt te bieden hebben. Leven op een met metersdikke laag ijs bedekte maan of een kurkdroge rode planeet lijkt onmogelijk, maar als we kijken in wat voor extreme omstandigheden sommige aardbewoners leven dan wordt buitenaards leven binnen ons zonnestelsel ineens plausibel.
In de kou Neem Psychromonas. Dit is een bacterie die in arctische gebieden op ijsschotten leeft. Groei van deze bacterie is geobserveerd bij maar liefst -12ºC. Mensen moeten hun lichaamstemperatuur op 37ºC houden, omdat anders hun enzymen te langzaam gaan werken en de stofwisseling tot stilstand komt. Deze bacterie onderhoudt echter een actieve stofwisseling en weet zelfs te groeien in de vrieskou. Hiervoor zijn grote aanpassingen in de moleculaire machinerie van de cel – de eiwitten – nodig. De eiwitten van deze bacteriën bestaan uit flexibele onderdelen, zodat deze op lage temperaturen en dus met weinig energie hun taak nog kunnen uitvoeren. Deze eiwitten zitten zo los in elkaar dat ze op gematigde temperaturen van 20ºC al denatureren (hun ruimtelijke structuur verliezen). -12ºC is de laagste temperatuur waarop nog groei geobserveerd is, maar dit betekent niet dat op nog lagere temperaturen geen leven kan bestaan. Een actieve stofwisseling is gemeten bij temperaturen tot wel -39ºC.
In de hitte Aan de andere kant van het spectrum staan de thermofielen. Dit zijn organismen die gedijen bij extreem hoge temperaturen. De onderzoeksgroep van persoonlijk hoogleraar dr. Huub op den Camp heeft zo’n thermofiel geïsoleerd uit een modderpoel in een vulkanisch gebied. De modderpoel had niet alleen een hoge temperatuur (55-60ºC), maar was ook nog eens enorm zuur met een pH-waarde van 1! Om in deze omstandigheden te overleven, zijn grote aanpassingen nodig. De mechanistische aanpassingen die nodig zijn om bij die pH te kunnen overleven zijn nog niet helemaal bekend en dit onderzoeken Op den Camp en collega’s dan ook nog. Een lage pH wordt veroorzaakt door een hoge concentratie protonen, ook wel H+. “Normaal wordt een concentratieverschil in protonen gebruikt om ATP (de brandstof van de cel, red.) te genereren, maar in deze bacterie kan dit niet,” aldus professor Op den Camp. Hoe deze bacteriën dan wel ATP genereren is nog niet bekend, maar professor Op en Camp heeft zijn vermoedens. “Waarschijnlijk gebruikt deze bacterie andere ionen, zoals natrium of kalium, om ATP te generen.” Over de aanpassingen aan de hoge temperaturen is meer bekend. Normaal denatureren eiwitten bij deze temperaturen, maar thermofielen maken hun eiwitten extra rigide met behulp van bijvoorbeeld zwavelbruggen. Door deze extra verbindingen is er meer energie en dus een hogere temperatuur nodig om deze eiwitten te ontvouwen.
NIET ALTIJD RAAK
Wetenschappers vinden micro-organismen in de meest extreme omstandigheden, maar soms is hun ontdekking toch minder extreem dan geclaimd. Zo vond NASA in 2010 in een giftig meer de bacterie Halomonadaceae. Dit meer bevatte een hoge concentratie arsenicum en juist een lage concentratie fosfor. Fosfor is een essentieel onderdeel van DNA en NASA claimde dat deze bacterie zijn DNA niet met fosfor, maar met het arsenicum maakte. Deze ontdekking zou een enorme stap zijn geweest in de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven. Helaas bleek de ‘ontdekking’ uiteindelijk veel minder spannend dan gedacht. De bacterie was arsenicum-tolerant, maar gebruikte het zeker niet voor zijn DNA.
Radioactieve straling als energiebron De temperaturen waarbij leven kan bestaan, varieert dus van arctische vrieskou tot vulkanische modder. Dit is een best breed scala aan temperaturen die op veel hemellichamen in het zonnestelsel gevonden kunnen worden. Er zijn echter nog meer vereisten dan een goede temperatuur. Voor leven zijn ook de juiste grondstoffen en energie nodig. Voor de meeste aardbewoners is zonlicht de primaire energiebron. Deze energie wordt vastgelegd met behulp van fotosynthese. Ook zijn er micro-organismen die anorganische stoffen als primaire energiebron gebruiken. Desulforudis audaxviator bewijst dat het nog extremer kan. Deze bacterie is gevonden op 3 kilometer diepte in een mijn in Zuid-Afrika. Op deze diepte vind je geen zonlicht om als energiebron te dienen, maar wat je er wel vindt, is uranium en andere radioactieve stoffen. Voor D. audaxviator is de energie die vrijkomt bij het radioactief verval van uranium de primaire energiebron. De radioactieve straling zorgt ervoor dat er moleculaire waterstof en ander biologisch relevante stoffen gevormd worden die D. audaxviator kan gebruiken.
Interessante theorie De vondst van deze bacterie leidde tot een interessante theorie. Het heelal kent kosmische straling. Deze straling is overal aanwezig en bestaat vooral uit protonen van buiten ons zonnestelsel. Wanneer deze straling in aanraking komt met een atmosfeer ontstaan er meerdere subatomaire deeltjes. Deze deeltjes kunnen, mits ze genoeg energie bevatten, tot diep in de bodem penetreren en dezelfde reacties veroorzaken als de straling van uranium. In theorie zou kosmische straling dus de primaire energiebron voor bepaalde levensvormen kunnen zijn.
“WATER IS EEN ABSOLUTE VEREISTE VOOR LEVEN ZOALS WIJ DAT KENNEN”
Vloeibaar water De temperatuur en de energiebron waarop leven kan bestaan, kunnen dus extreme vormen aannemen, maar zoals gezegd zijn er ook nog de juiste grondstoffen nodig. De belangrijkste grondstof voor leven op aarde is water. Bijna alle belangrijke metabolische omzettingen vereisen water. De reacties voor het maken van eiwitten en suikerketens, fotosynthese en veel andere processen; allemaal vereisen ze water. Daarom wordt er ook zo veel moeite gestoken in de zoektocht naar water op Mars. Hard bewijs dat er vroeger of misschien heden ten dage vloeibaar water op Mars stroomt, is een belangrijke aanwijzing voor de mogelijkheid van buitenaards leven op Mars. In de afgelopen jaren zijn er veel missies naar Mars geweest en dat in het verleden vloeibaar water op Mars heeft bestaan achten de betrokken wetenschappers vrijwel zeker. Meer recent bewijs van onder andere de Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) ondersteunt de hypothese dat er vandaag de dag vloeibaar water op Mars aanwezig is. Met behulp van simulaties hebben onderzoekers van het Planetary Science Institute ook aangetoond dat een waterlichaam van 3 meter diep gedurende een heel Marsjaar gedeeltelijk vloeibaar kan blijven.
Saturnus’ maan Titan.
Afbeelding: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.
Methaan? Dat water essentieel is voor leven leidden we af uit de organismen die we kennen. Deze aardbewoners gebruiken allemaal water. Dat is eigenlijk ook niet vreemd voor een planeet waar ongeveer 75% van het oppervlak uit water bestaat. Maar wat als er nou leven kan bestaan dat niet gebaseerd is op water, maar een andere vloeistof? Waar de aarde water heeft, heeft Titan methaan. Titan is een maan van Saturnus en kent meren, zeeën en regen. Alleen bestaan deze uit vloeibaar methaan. Het kookpunt van methaan is -164ºC, dus op Titan is het aardig koud. Wetenschappers aan de Cornell University hebben een heel nieuw theoretisch metabolisme bedacht dat kan plaatsvinden op de koude en methaanrijke planeet. Dit metabolisme is gebaseerd op stikstof in plaats van koolstof. Waar celmembranen bij aardbewoners bestaan uit fosfolipiden bestaan membranen bij deze hypothetische aliens uit organische stikstofverbindingen die kunnen functioneren bij -164ºC. Een groot probleem bij deze lage temperaturen is dat chemische reacties enorm vertragen. “Bij zo’n lage temperaturen (op Titan) vertragen chemische omzettingen enorm en zullen organismen zich dus veel langzamer vermenigvuldigen,” aldus Op den Camp. Dit maakt het bestaan van deze hypothetische organismen echter niet onmogelijk.
Een hydrothermale bron in de Atlantische Oceaan.
Afbeelding: P. Rona / NOAA (via Wikimedia Commons).
Leven op de oceaanbodem Europa, een maan van Jupiter, is een andere interessante kandidaat voor buitenaards leven. In eerste instantie lijkt dit vreemd, want het gehele oppervlak van deze maan is bedekt met metersdik ijs. Wat deze maan interessant maakt, is dat deze maan geologisch actief is. Dit betekent dat onder al dat ijs veel energie vrijkomt. Ook wordt er vermoed dat zich onder de ijslaag een oceaan van vloeibaar water bevindt. We weten dat er op de bodem van de aardse oceanen leven is. Dit leven is zeer anders dan aan het oppervlak. Op deze grote diepte dringt geen licht door en dus vindt er ook geen fotosynthese plaats. Er is dus een andere energiebron nodig. Deze energie komt van hydrothermale bronnen. Bij deze bronnen ontsnapt er een heet mengsel van energierijke inorganische stoffen vanuit de aardkern de oceaan in. Rond deze hydrothermale bronnen ontstaan hele ecosystemen. Er bevinden zich garnalen, kokerwormen, krabben en schelpdieren. Deze kunnen de energie van de hydrothermale bron echter niet zelf gebruiken. Waar bij ons planten de energie vastleggen, doen bij de hydrothermale bronnen micro-organismen dit met behulp van chemosynthese. Deze organismen kunnen energierijke zwavelverbindingen gebruiken voor groei. Deze zwavelverbinding kennen wij beter als het stofje dat de geur van rotte eieren veroorzaakt. Die hydrothermale bronnen op de bodem van de aardse oceanen heeft onderzoekers aan het denken gezet en doen concluderen dat de hierboven genoemde maan Europa dus een interessante kandidaat voor buitenaards leven is. En wel omdat de maan – dankzij zijn geologische activiteit – waarschijnlijk een equivalent van hydrothermale bronnen kent. En de hydrothermale bronnen op de aarde hebben bewezen dat de energie die uit de bronnen komt, leven kan ondersteunen.
Europa, een maan van Jupiter.
Afbeelding: NASA.
De extreme levensvormen op aarde laten wel zien dat leven mogelijk is onder zeer onherbergzame omstandigheden. Vergelijkbare omstandigheden zijn te vinden op meerdere andere locaties in ons zonnestelsel. Het vele onderzoek op Mars laat ook zien dat leven op deze rode planeet in het verleden en misschien zelfs in het heden tot de mogelijkheden behoort door de aanwezigheid van water. Onze first encounter is dan ook waarschijnlijk niet met groene mannetjes, maar met een micro-organisme dat ergens op een onherbergzame planeet wordt opgeschept door een robot. Ziet deze alien er aards uit? Of toch wereldvreemd? Dat laten we voor nu nog in het midden. Misschien gebruikt het water en fosfolipiden net als wij, maar wellicht lijkt het meer op dat theoretische organisme op de bodem van een vloeibaar methaanmeer.
Bas Cartigny (1993) heeft recentelijk zijn studie biotechnologie afgerond aan de Wageningen Universiteit. Gedurende zijn studie heeft hij zich gespecialiseerd in de microbiologie en de moleculaire biologie. Hij heeft dan ook onderzoek gedaan aan de universiteit in deze richting. Zijn onderzoek richtte zich met name op de het bacteriële immuunsysteem CRISPR-Cas, dat ook gebruikt wordt als tool voor genoommodificatie. Ook heeft hij onderzoek verricht naar schimmels en de implementatie van fotosynthese in E. coli.
Bronmateriaal:
Madigan M., Martinko J., Stahl D., Clark D., Brock Biology of Microorganisms 13th edition, 2012 pages 160-168
Atri D., On the posibility of galactic cosmic ray-induced radiolysis-powered life in subsurface environmetns in the Universe, Journal of the Royal Society Vol. 13, issue 123, 2016
Goldspiel, Jules M., Liquid Water Lakes on Mars Under Present-Day Conditions: Sustainability and Effects on the Subsurface, American Astronomical Society 2015
Stevenson J., Lunine J. and Clancy P., Membrane alternatives in worlds without oxygen: Creation of an azotosome, Science Advances Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016
Interview met persoonlijk hoogleraar dr. Huub op den Camp – Afdeling Microbiologie, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
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Meteor fireball explodes over Costa Rica – Meteorite crashes into home (videos)
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!
A meteorite made a hole in the roof of a house in Costa Rica just after the meteor fireball exploded in the sky on April 23, 2019. Photo: Edgar Chinchilla
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.
The meteorite made this hole in the roof of this house. Photo: Edgar Chinchilla
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
Some people watching the TV segment were not convinced that the women could see fairies, however others were open to the idea
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.'
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) will have to analyse the chemical composion of the rock to determine where this rock comes from… But it is … the meteorite!
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