Facebook Removes Viral ‘Storm Area 51’ Event

More than two million UFO enthusiasts responded to the call of “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” Facebook event page, but they recently found it suddenly blocked by Facebook because of violations to “community standards.”

The Facebook event page managed to attract a high volume of attendees and made Las Vegas strip club to pledge of bringing its dancers to entertain the masses. Without further reason, Facebook removed the page over the weekend, including the backup page set by the organizers.

The would-be raiders aired their frustration on Reddit and regrouped to share their theories. Others went to Twitter with Area 51 memes. Many agreed to the assumption that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is an ET from Area 51 and he does not want his secret to be disclosed to the public.

Some pointed out that the raid could still take place as everyone knew the time and the place already. Another one opined that Facebook has not heard of the Streisand effect. All hotels nearby are booked for the dates surrounding September 20.

The Pentagon has also done its part to discourage would-be raiders from pursuing their plan by issuing a warning that the US Air Force always stands ready to protect the US and its assets.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

08-08-2019 om 22:47 geschreven door peter  

Alien Abductee of the Fame Pascagoula Abduction Will Recall Their Horrific Experience

The alien abductee behind one of the biggest stories on alien abduction is speaking out after his shocking testimony four decades ago that sparked a media storm.

Calvin Parker was only 19 when the notorious Pascagoula Incident took place. He and co-worker Charles Hickson were out fishing in Pascagoula, US when they were allegedly set-upon by a UFO.

Parker and Hickson reported their ordeal that night of October 11, 1973, to the local Sheriff.

Amazingly, the sheriff believed what they had said with Hickson even passed a lie-detector test. The next day the area was filled with reporters from different parts of the country.

Unlike the flying saucer from another planet popularised in cartoons, the UFO described by both men looked more egg-shaped. They estimated it to be around 30 feet long with blue flashing lights and accompanied by a buzzing sound.

The alien creatures that allegedly abducted them were described as nightmarish, mumbling humanoids. These ET abductors were also said to have grey, elephant-texture skin, claw-like three-digit hands, and rounded feet. They also have a slit for a mouth but no eyes.

Hickson has died at the age of 42, but a historical plaque near the incident now stands testimony to one of the best-documented alien abduction cases in the world.

Parker is now exclusively re-stating his traumatic experience at a conference this August 17 in Pontefract, West Yorks. The event is being co-organised by the famous UFO researcher Philip Mantle.

The conference is Mr Parker’s only presentation in the UK. He won’t be speaking anywhere else as he is planning to retire and get back to a more peaceful life in his houseboat, according to Mr Mantle. The conference gives delegates a once in a lifetime chance to meet Calvin Parker in person.

Amid the 1973 media frenzy, Parker mostly stayed in the background but has now gone on-the-record with his new book Pascagoula-The Closest Encounter.

According to the book’s promotional statement, Mr Parker and Hickson were taken aboard the spaceship by the hovering aliens and subjected to an examination, where they became so terrified and thought they would die.

Tickets for the conference are available here.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

08-08-2019 om 22:38 geschreven door peter  

‘Alien abductee’ Calvin Parker to reveal all about Pascagoula Incident

By GlobalNewsEveryday

SPEAKING OUT: Calvin Parker of Pascagoula Abduction fame will recall the 1973 horror 

(Pic: FLYING DISK PRESS)

Calvin Parker was just 19 years old when he and co-worker Charles Hickson were allegedly set-upon by a UFO while out fishing in Pascagoula, US.

Both men reported their ordeal to the local Sheriff that night, on October 11, 1973.

Astonishingly, the sheriff believed their accounts, with Hickson even passing a lie-detector test, and the next day reporters from across the US raced to the area.

Unlike the stereotypical “flying saucer” UFO popularised in cartoons, the spaceship described by the men looked more egg-shaped in sketches detailing their claims.

EERY: The Pascagoula Encounter site in 1973

 (Pic: FLYING DISK PRESS)

“THE UFO CONFERENCE IN PONTEFRACT WILL PROVIDE DELEGATES WITH THE ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY TO MEET CALVIN PARKER IN PERSON”

UFO researcher Philip Mantle

The UFO they said they saw was also estimated to be a staggering 30ft long and accompanied by blue flashing lights and a buzzing sound.

Even worse, the creatures which allegedly abducted the pair were described as nightmarish, mumbling humanoids.

These “alien abductors” were said to have grey, elephant-textured skin, claw-like three digit hands, a slit for a mouth and no eyes.

Instead of feet, they were said to have rounded feet or pads.

PETRIFYING: An artist’s sketch of the alien described by Parker and Hickson

 (Pic: FLYING DISK PRESS)

TRAUMATIC: Calvin Parker says he was kidnapped by floating aliens 

(Pic: FLYING DISK PRESS)

Hickson, then 42, has since died, but a historical plaque near where the pair say they were taken now stands testimony to what is described as one of the world’s best-documented cases of an alien abduction.

Parker is now exclusively re-telling his traumatic ordeal at a conference in Pontefract, West Yorks., this August 17.

Internationally-known UFO researcher Philip Mantle, who co-organised the event, said: “The UFO conference in Pontefract will provide delegates with the once in a lifetime opportunity to meet Calvin Parker in person.

“This will be his one and only presentation in the UK.

Related Articles

PAPER CUTTING: Prof Allen Hynek said the pair ‘were not crackpots’ amid (Pic: FLYING DISK PRESS)

“After this year he will not be be speaking anywhere else and plans to retire to his houseboat and get back to a more peaceful life.”

Parker largely stayed in the background amid the 1973 media frenzy but has now gone on-the-record with his new book Pascagoula — The Closest Encounter.

According to its blurb, both Hickson and Parker were taken aboard the spacecraft by the “floating aliens” and “subjected to an examination”, whereupon the pair became so terrified they thought they would die.

Tickets for the conference in Pontefract, Yorkshire, are on sale now and can be bought here.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

08-08-2019 om 01:53 geschreven door peter  

Who Were the Mysterious Neolithic People That Enabled the Rise of Ancient Egypt?

By Joel D. Irish , Czekaj- Zastawny Agnieszka , and Jacek Kabacinski / The Conversation

To many, ancient Egypt is synonymous with the pharaohs and pyramids of the Dynastic period starting about 3,100 BC. Yet long before that, about 9,300 - 4,000 BC, enigmatic Neolithic peoples flourished. Indeed, it was the lifestyles and cultural innovations of these peoples that provided the very foundation for the advanced civilizations to come.

But who were they? As it turns out, they haven’t actually been studied much, at least relative to their successors. But our excavations of six burial sites – with some of the analyses  recently published  – have now provided important insights into their mysterious ways of life.

Neolithic Burial Sites

One reason why we know so little about Neolithic Egypt is that the sites are often inaccessible, lying beneath the Nile’s former flood plain or in outlying deserts. What’s more, if you were an archaeologist what would you rather study – a pyramid near Cairo or a possible rock alignment in some remote desert?

Well, someone has to do it. With permission from  Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)  we – members of the  Combined Prehistoric Expedition  – explore Neolithic sites in Egypt’s western desert. The sites we are currently excavating lie along the former shores of an extinct seasonal lake near a place called  Gebel Ramlah . 

• Analyzing Mummy Genes: Were Ancient Egyptians closely Related to Middle Easterners?
• Ancient Egyptian Ritual Image Predates the Rise of the Pharaohs
• A Community Burial Advances Understanding of Life in Neolithic Spain

Neolithic excavation site. 

( Author provided / The Conversation )

Though not lush, the Neolithic was wetter than today, which allowed these ancient herders to populate what is now the middle of nowhere. We focus on the Final Neolithic (4,600 - 4,000 BC), which was built on the success of the Late Neolithic (5,500 - 4,650 BC) with domesticated cattle and goats, wild plant processing, and cattle burials . These people also made apparent megaliths, shrines, and even calendar circles – which look a bit like a mini Stonehenge.

During the final part of the Neolithic, people started burying the dead in formal cemeteries. Skeletons provide critical information because they are from once living people who interacted with the cultural and physical environments. Health, relationships, diet, and even psychological experiences can leave telltale signs on teeth and bone.

In 2001-2003 we excavated three cemeteries from this era – the first in the western desert – where we uncovered and studied 68 skeletons. The graves were full of artifacts, with ornamental pottery, sea shells, stone and ostrich eggshell jewelry. We also discovered carved mica (a silicate mineral) and animal remains, as well as elaborate cosmetic tools for women and stone weapons for men. 

• 9,000 Year-old ‘Mega Site’ Found Near Jerusalem Changes History
• The Lost City of Thinis, First Capital of a United Egypt
• Rare Stone Steles With Unknown Figures Found At Neolithic Site in Switzerland

Grave artifacts from 2001-2003 Neolithic excavations. 

( Author provided / The Conversation )

We learned that these people enjoyed low childhood mortality, tall stature, and long life. Men averaged 5.6 feet (170 centimeters), while women were about 5.2 feet (160 centimeters). Most men and women lived beyond 40 years, with some into their 50s – a long time in those days. 

Strangely, in 2009 - 2016, we dug two more cemeteries that were very different. After analyzing another 130 skeletons, we discovered that few artifacts accompanied them, and that they suffered from higher childhood mortality as well as shorter lives and stature. We’re talking several centimeters shorter and perhaps ten years younger for adults of both sexes. 

Astonishingly, the largest of these two cemeteries had a separate burial area for children under three years of age, but mostly infants including late-term fetuses. Three women buried with infants were also found, so perhaps they died in childbirth. In fact, this is the world’s earliest known infant cemetery.

Interpreting the Findings From the Neolithic Discoveries

So, what can this tell us about these peoples, let alone their descendants? As it turns out, a lot. We can use the findings to make interpretations about gender, life-stage, well-being, status, and other things.

For example, why were there such differences between the two grave sites ? They could have been separate populations, but it is unlikely based on overall physical similarities. So perhaps they imply variation by status – with one graveyard being for the elite and the other for workers. This is the earliest such evidence in Egypt. 

The sites also shed light on the family structures of the time. The overall sex ratio across all cemeteries is three women to each man, which may indicate polygamy. However, the total number of burials and a lack of reference to individual houses suggests these were extended family cemeteries.

We also believe that attainment of ‘personhood’ – the age children are socialized into being ‘people’ – was from three years, given their inclusion in adult cemeteries. 

There is also clear evidence of  respect for previously buried people  by later mourners reusing the graves to bury their dead. When coming across old skeletons, they often carefully repositioned the bones of these ancestors. In some interesting cases, they even made attempts to ‘reconstruct’ the skeletons by replacing teeth that had fallen out – back into the skeleton – and not always correctly (see top image).

These behavioral indicators, together with the seemingly innovative technological and ceremonial architecture mentioned earlier, such as the calendar circles and shrines, imply a level of sophistication well beyond that of simple herders. Taken together, the findings provide a glimpse of things yet to come in ancient Egypt.

Conservation of Neolithic Sites

A key component of our work involves conservation of Egyptian (and world) heritage. We found no evidence of grave looting, unlike for sites in the Nile Valley. The last people to touch Neolithic material at Gebel Ramlah lived during that time. However, wind-related erosion has reached a point where once-buried remains lie on or near the surface.

Well preserved site verses wind‐eroded Neolithic remains at Gebel Ramlah. 

( Author provided / The Conversation )

In fact, the pace of destruction has increased significantly since 2001. Once exposed, the context of these sites can be lost, and organic material can get sandblasted to bits. This means that if we hadn’t discovered these remains when we did, they would have soon been lost forever. But sadly, this likely means that other sites from the time are literally disappearing. 

For that reason, we and the SCA have decided that, when we have studied our material, all will be reburied on site to, hopefully, survive for a few more thousands of years.

• Top image: Example skull of Neolithic people. Source: ( Author provided / The Conversation )
• The article ‘ Who were the mysterious Neolithic people that enabled the rise of ancient Egypt? Here’s what we’ve learned on our digs ’ by Joel D. Irish , Czekaj- Zastawny Agnieszka , and Jacek Kabacinski was originally published on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.

{

08-08-2019 om 01:00 geschreven door peter  

Wobbly UFO over Mexico leads some to suggest aliens are driving drunk

by Harrison Kirk

Though it may seem like an odd question, it’s now being asked after an unidentified flying object (UFO) was spotted over Mexico: Do aliens drive drunk?

Communal News reports on the bizarre sight seen over Mexico recently:

“A UFO video posted to YouTube on August 3rd, 2019 shows an unidentified flying object hovering over the skies of Mexico as witnesses comment and chuckle in the background. What’s so funny? Unlike most UFO sightings, this strange aircraft is reeling crazily in the air, wobbling and dipping up and down and side to side as though the pilot has lost control of the ship.”

Interestingly,  the video is taken against the backdrop of a clear blue sky, making it much easier to see than many of the videos of objects taken at night which often don’t show much detail and suffer from the camera operator shaking as they film the UFO.

Clearly, the Mexico UFO has the shape we’ve come to expect:

“The shape of this UFO is reminiscent of many other historical sightings, especially those from the early days of reporting strange, futuristic aircraft in the skies all over the world, beginning just after World War 2 and continuing to this day.

“In fact, it has apparently been the goal of military and commercial aircraft manufacturers to adopt a saucer-style aerodynamic shape in the belief that such a design is more advantageous for high speed flight above Earth and, perhaps, even into the upper reaches of the atmosphere and on out into space without relying on gigantic (and expensive) solid fuel rockets.”

The usual cause of these UFO sightings is man-made objects such as weather balloons or drones, but that doesn’t stop speculation that we might be seeing visitations from travelers who have come from distant galaxies to explore our planet.

And UFO sightings are on the increase:

“Worldwide, UFO sightings have dramatically increased over the last decade or two, mostly due to the fact that billions of people all around the globe carry smart phones capable of taking fairly high quality pictures and videos, leading to an explosion of UFO sightings posted to sharing sites like Youtube and Vimeo.”

This UFO was filmed at night and confirmed by police.

(Via YouTube)

But despite the origin of these objects, the one filmed over Mexico has some aberrations in that it didn’t fly in the usual straight or zigzag patterns that amaze those who see them. Instead, it appears the pilot is about to lose control of the vehicle in the Mexican video. Does that make it even more mysterious, or does it suggest the object must be under remote control?

Whatever the answer to the wobbly UFO seen over Mexico, it’s yet another reminder that there’s an endless supply of things in this universe we still don’t understand.

Here’s video of the Top 10 UFO sightings from around the world:

• Featured Image Via YouTube Screenshot

{  https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

08-08-2019 om 00:45 geschreven door peter  

Recent UFO Encounters With Navy Pilots Occurred Constantly Across Multiple Squadrons

We have exclusive details about the incidents off the east coast in 2014 and 2015, including that the objects all looked exactly the same. 

One of the biggest questions surrounding the most recent known spate of UFO encounters with U.S. Navy pilots—those that occurred off the southeastern seaboard of the United States between 2014 and early 2015—pertains to how persistent they actually were. We know Super Hornet aircrews from Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11), the Red Rippers, detected unknown objects multiple times on radar and one aircrew even had a close encounter visually with one of them, but what about the rest of the many Hornet squadrons based at Naval Air Station Oceana, not to mention the E-2 Hawkeye squadrons from nearby NAS Norfolk? We have the answer to this question and it is remarkable. 

Still, at least we now have a much better sense of how widespread these encounters were and the cultural impact that they had on the Navy's east coast master fighter jet base. This also underscores just how taboo this topic was to military aviators. The fact that these types of events could have been so pervasive, yet kept so hushed-up outside of Navy tactical aircraft aircrew circles, is telling in itself and provides good evidence as to why the Navy had to officially change is procedures for its personnel reporting such strange incidents.

All this comes as Congress is taking a high-interest in the subject as of late, with multiple briefings being given to key lawmakers with the military's top witnesses. 

Whatever the case may be, we are definitely entering into uncharted territory when it comes to this long shunned and abused topic. What exactly that will mean when it comes to actually getting to the truth of the matter remains to be understood.

• Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

{ https://www.thedrive.com/ }

08-08-2019 om 00:31 geschreven door peter  

Where in the Universe Can You Find a Black Hole Nursery?

Gravitational wave researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new model that could help astronomers track down the origin of heavy black hole systems in the Universe.

Black holes are formed following the collapse of stars and possibly supernova explosions. These colossally dense objects are measured in terms of solar masses (M⊙) – the mass of our sun.

Typically, stars will only form black holes with masses of up to 45 M⊙. These systems then pair and merge together, producing gravitational waves that are observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors.

 

{  https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ } 

08-08-2019 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Mass UFO sightings over Cincinnati as mystery lights filmed vanishing…

(Daily Star) – Social media has been flooded with reports of UFOs appearing over Cincinnati, as baffling footage appears to show lights vanishing and reappearing. Shocked witnesses Laina and Angie captured the bizarre sighting in the skies above the city in Ohio, US, on August 3. The clip begins with for bright objects moving in a line across the grey clouds. But, one-by-one, they start to vanish from sight. A fifth light then emerges on the left-hand side of the screen.

YouTube conspiracist MrMBB333 who uploaded the clip and said: “They didn’t go behind the clouds, they were in front of the clouds. “Something comes in from the left, they appear to be in a straight row and at a slight angle.” When the conspiracist switches the light formats, he claims the footage shows the planes turning “invisible”. “It was still daylight, so if they were some sort of physical craft, which I’m sure they probably were, how come you couldn’t see them?” he asks.

{ https://endtimeheadlines.org/ }

07-08-2019 om 23:33 geschreven door peter  

Watch SpaceX Catch a Falling Rocket Fairing with a Giant Net (and Boat!) in This Awesome Video

GO Ms. Tree now has two epic catches on her resume.

The speedy, net-equipped SpaceX boat plucked a payload fairing out of the sky for the second time ever on Tuesday evening (Aug. 6), during the launch of the Amos-17 communications satellite atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. 

"Rocket fairing falls from space & is caught by Ms Tree boat," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said about 75 minutes after liftoff via Twitter, where he posted a 28-second-long video of the fairing half settling into GO Ms. Tree's net in the Atlantic Ocean, far off the Florida coast.

• Related: SpaceX's Fairing-Catching Boat in Photos

Payload fairings are the protective nose cones that surround satellites during launch. SpaceX fairings are composed of two halves, each of which is equipped with small, steering thrusters and parafoils to aid in recovery efforts. 

There's a significant financial incentive to recover and reuse payload fairings; each one costs about $6 million, Musk has said. (SpaceX uses identical fairings for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.) 

And that's where GO Ms. Tree — formerly known as Mr. Steven — comes in. Saltwater is extremely corrosive, so keeping fairing halves dry makes reuse more feasible, Musk has said.

GO Ms. Tree's first successful catch occurred on June 25, during the third-ever Falcon Heavy launch. That breakthrough didn't come out of the blue; the boat had come close to snagging a fairing several times over the preceding months.

SpaceX also reuses its rockets, of course. The company has successfully landed Falcon 9 first stages 44 times to date, and more than 20 boosters have taken to the skies multiple times. Such activities are part of the company's vision to slash the cost of spaceflight, thereby enabling ambitious exploration feats such as the colonization of Mars.

The Falcon 9 that launched yesterday had a used first stage; the booster had two previous liftoffs under its belt, in fact. But there was no third landing for this rocket; Amos-17 is a very heavy satellite bound for a relatively distant orbit, so the booster didn't have enough fuel left over to get itself back home safely.

• The Evolution of SpaceX's Rockets in Pictures
• Reusable Rocket Launch Systems: How They Work (Infographic)
• SpaceX's Falcon 9: Rocket for the Dragon

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{  https://www.space.com/ }

07-08-2019 om 23:20 geschreven door peter  

How Venus Turned Into Hell, and How the Earth Is Next

By Paul Sutter 

Earth is pretty nice. but it won't stay that way.

The bizarre and hellish atmosphere of Venus wafts around the planet's surface in this false-color image from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki spacecraft. Citizen scientist Kevin Gill processed the image using infrared and ultraviolet views captured by Akatsuki on Nov. 20, 2016. 

(Image: © Kevil Gill/JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Flickr)

• Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of "Your Place in the Universe." Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. 

Everyone wants to get off the planet Earth and go explore the solar system, without realizing just how good we've got it down here. We've got a lot of air, more liquid water than we know what to do with, a nice strong planetary magnetic field that protects us cosmic radiation, and nice strong gravity that keeps our muscles strong and our bones thick.

All things considered, Earth is pretty nice.

• Related: What Would It Be Like to Live on Venus? 

But still, we look to our planetary neighbors for places to visit and maybe even live. And Mars has all the attention nowadays: it's so hot right now, with everyone practically climbing over each other's rockets to get there in to build a nice little red home.

But what about Venus? It's about the same size as the Earth and the same mass. It's actually a little bit closer than Mars. It's definitely warmer than Mars. So don't why don't we try going for our sister planet instead of the red one?

Oh, that's right: Venus is basically hell.

Dante's journey

It's hard to not exaggerate just how bad Venus is. Seriously, imagine in your head what the worst possible planet might be, and Venus is worse than that.

Let's start with the atmosphere. If you think that the smog in LA is bad, you should take a whiff of Venus. It's almost entirely carbon dioxide and chokingly thick with an atmospheric pressure at the surface 90 times that of Earth. That's the equivalent pressure of a mile beneath our ocean waves. It's so thick that you almost have to swim through it just to move around. Only 4% of that atmosphere is nitrogen, but that's more nitrogen total than there is in the Earth's atmosphere. 

And sitting on top of this are clouds made of sulfuric acid. Yikes.

Sulfuric acid clouds are highly reflective, giving Venus its characteristic brilliant shine. The clouds are so reflective, and the rest of the atmosphere so thick, that less than 3% of the sun's light that reaches Venus actually makes it down to the surface. That means that you will only vaguely be aware of the difference between day and night.

But despite that lack of sunlight, the temperature on Venus is literally hot enough to melt lead, at over 700 degrees Fahrenheit (370 degrees Celsius) on average. In some places, in the deepest valleys, the temperature reaches over 750 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius), which is enough for the ground itself to glow a dull red.

And speaking of day and night — Venus has one of the most peculiar rotations in the solar system. For one, it rotates backward, with the sun rising in the west and setting in the east. Second, it's incredibly slow, with one year lasting only two days.

Additionally, Venus once had plate tectonics that shut off long ago, and its crust is locked.

Yeah, Venus is hell.

• Related: Photos of Venus, the Mysterious Planet Next Door

Straight to the inferno

So how did Earth's sister end up so twisted?

Because Venus is made of pretty much the same stuff as our Earth, and has roughly the same size and mass, scientists are pretty sure that, back in the early days of the solar system, Venus was kind of nice. It probably supported liquid water oceans on the surface and white fluffy clouds dotting a blue sky. Actually, quite lovely.

But four and a half billion years ago, our sun was different. It was smaller and dimmer. As stars like our sun age, they steadily grow brighter. So back then Venus was firmly planted in the habitable zone, the region of the solar system that can support liquid water on the surface of a planet without it being too hot or too cold.

But as the sun aged, that habitable zone steadily moved outward. And as Venus approached the inner edge of that zone, things started to go haywire.

As the temperatures rose on Venus, the oceans began to evaporate, dumping a lot of water vapor into the atmosphere. This water vapor was very good at trapping heat, which further increased the surface temperatures, which caused the oceans to evaporate even more, which caused even more water vapor to get in the atmosphere, which trapped even more heat, and so on and so on as things spiraled out of control.

Eventually, Venus became a runaway greenhouse with all the water dumped into the atmosphere trapping as much heat as possible, with the surface temperatures continuing to skyrocket.

The liquid water that had been on the surface helped keep the tectonic plates nice and flexible, in a sense adding lubrication to the process of plate tectonics. But without the oceans, plate activity ground to a halt, locking the surface of Venus in place. Plate tectonics play a crucial role in regulating the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Essentially, carbon binds to elements in dirt and rocks, and those dirt and rocks eventually get buried far beneath the surface over the course of millions of years as the plates rub up against each other and sink below each other.

But without this process, carbon that was locked in the dirt just slowly outgassed or dumped out in massive volcanic events. So, once the oceans evaporated, the carbon problem on Venus became even worse with nothing to sequester it. Over time, the water vapor in the atmosphere got hit by enough sunlight to break it apart, sending the hydrogen into space, with all that mass being replaced by carbon dioxide rising up out of the surface.

The once and future Earth

And as that atmosphere grew thicker, the conditions on the surface grew even more hellish.

The atmosphere might even have had enough drag to literally slow down the rotation of Venus itself, giving it its present-day sluggish rates.

Once this process was complete, which probably took 100 million years or so, the potential for any life on Venus was snuffed out.

And here's the worst part about the story of Earth's twisted sister. This is our fate, too. Our sun isn't done aging, and as it grows older, it grows brighter, with the habitable zone steadily and inexorably moving outward. At some point within the next few hundred million years, the Earth itself will approach the inner edge of the habitable zone. Our oceans will evaporate. Temperatures will spiral upward. Plate tectonics will shut off. Carbon dioxide will dump into the atmosphere.

And by that time, our solar system will be home to not just one hell but two.

• Can Venus Teach Us to Take Climate Change Seriously?
• Life on Venus? Why It's Not an Absurd Thought
• Planet Venus: Quiz Yourself on Venus Facts

Learn more by listening to the episode "What Turned Venus Into Hell?" on the Ask A Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes and on the Web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to @ross_trower, Russel S., and @papermonster12 for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutterand facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. 

• Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

07-08-2019 om 23:02 geschreven door peter  

Emily Prescott

07-08-2019 om 22:22 geschreven door peter  

07-08-2019 om 22:05 geschreven door peter  

If there was ever a story in need of a “What could possibly go wrong?” lead-in, this is it. A story broke this week that an Israeli spacecraft which crashed on the moon in April was carrying tardigrades – those indestructible little eight-legged water bears that have been found on Earth in extreme conditions where no other life forms can survive. They’re also the first Earth life forms to survive in the vacuum of space. And … get your “What could possibly go wrong?” sign ready (or use Murphy’s) … they appear to have survived the crash on the Moon. (Hold up sign now , then sigh loudly.)

“We believe the chances of survival for the tardigrades… are extremely high.”

Wired broke this story on August 5th, which is almost four months to the day after Nova Spivack and his colleges at the Arch Mission Foundation watched a live feed from Israel’s mission control center for Beresheet, a ship attempting to become the first private spacecraft to land on the Moon. It crashed, but that wasn’t Spivack’s fault. However, it was definitely of concern to him because his part of the mission through the Arch Mission Foundation was to create a “backup of planet Earth” on the Moon in the form of a DVD-sized digital archive containing 30 million pages of information (let’s call it a ‘life on Earth’ instruction manual) and … get ready to hold up that sign again … human DNA samples and thousands of dehydrated tardigrades.

“We sent enough DNA to regenerate life on Earth, if necessary. Although it would require more advanced biotech than we have to do that. At least our DNA is offsite now. But note that cells and DNA cannot survive or reproduce on the moon. Yet if retrieved they could be useful.”

Retrieved by whom? Or what? They could definitely be useful if they survived intact with the library/instruction manual. And that is precisely what Nova Spivack confirmed to Wired.

“About the tardigrades in the Lunar Library: Some are sealed in epoxy with 100 million human, plant and microorganism cells. Some are encapsulated onto the sticky side of a 1cm square piece of Kapton tape that is sealed inside the disc stack. They cannot reproduce on the moon.”

As cries of alarm arose following the Wired interview, Spivack tried to cover his exposed posterior by explaining in tweetsthat, although the medium they are stored on survived, the tardigrades “cannot reproduce on the moon.” Which would be comforting information if they weren’t stuck to a disc containing instructions on how to make them reproduce.

If name Arch Mission Foundation sounds familiar, they’re the people who put a copy Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy on a disc and stuck it in the glove compartment of Elon Musk’s Tesla, which is now far out in space. The lunar library on the Moon has much, much more.

“The lunar library on the Beresheet lander consisted of 25 layers of nickel, each only a few microns thick. The first four layers contain roughly 60,000 high-resolution images of book pages, which include language primers, textbooks, and keys to decoding the other 21 layers. Those layers hold nearly all of the English Wikipedia, thousands of classic books, and even the secrets to David Copperfield’s magic tricks.”

Wikipedia! That has everything! Good thing it’s not completely accurate, right? RIGHT? Even scarier, stuck to the disc was a chuck of synthetic epoxy similar to the resin we find on Earth containing million-year-old fossilized insects that are being extracted for their preserved DNA. Spivack and his team put their own hair follicles and blood samples in the resin, along with some of the dehydrated tardigrades. The rest of them they smeared on a tape that was attached to the outside of the disc. That means it’s already exposed on the lunar surface. Hold up that sign again.

“Our job, as the hard backup of this planet, is to make sure that we protect our heritage—both our knowledge and our biology. We have to sort of plan for the worst.”

That’s the ‘noble cause’ Spivack uses to justify the Arch Mission Foundation and the tardigrades now waiting to be revived by the first alien who can read the disc – placing the essence of humanity in a safe place should that same humanity destroy itself on Earth.

Care to comment, Mr. Murphy?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-08-2019 om 21:29 geschreven door peter  

There are churches around the world claiming to have a piece of the true cross – enough that if put together would create a “Life of Brian”-esque field of crosses looking on the bright side of life. The same can’t be said of the Shroud of Turin – considered by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, complete with an image that has defied scientific verification for centuries. While most beliefs in its authenticity are based on faith rather than fact, the Catholic Church has never officially passed judgment on it and most Christian denominations now look at it more with respect rather than unquestioning belief. Still, many would like to know the truth. A new study shows once again just how difficult this is to do.

“In 1988, three laboratories performed a radiocarbon analysis of the Turin Shroud. The results, which were centralized by the British Museum and published in Nature in 1989, provided ‘conclusive evidence’ of the medieval origin of the artefact. However, the raw data were never released by the institutions. In 2017, in response to a legal request, all raw data kept by the British Museum were made accessible. A statistical analysis of the Nature article and the raw data strongly suggests that homogeneity is lacking in the data and that the procedure should be reconsidered.”

Full-length photo of the Shroud of Turin

The 1988 radiocarbon tests on the Shroud of Turin – conducted by researchers from the University of Arizona, Oxford University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology under the auspices of the British Museum — dated the cloth to between 1260 and 1390 – thus concluding it is a forgery. While the results were published, the raw data was kept hidden under a ‘shroud’ of secrecy. Why?

“For almost 30 years, scholars asked in vain for the raw data from the three laboratories and the supervising institution, the British Museum. I graduated in law, so I had the idea to make a legal request based on the Freedom of Information Act. The British Museum was the only institution to fully and quickly answer my request.”

French independent researcher Tristan Casabianca, together with a team of Italian researchers and scientists, were the first outsiders to see the raw data, and spent two years going through the hundreds of pages of research. The answer to the question of why it was kept secret eventually became apparent … the data was flawed, making the conclusion invalid.

“The tested samples are obviously heterogeneous from many different dates. There is no guarantee that all these samples, taken from one end of the shroud, are representative of the whole fabric. It is, therefore, impossible to conclude that the Shroud of Turin dates from the Middle Ages.”

Explaining to the National Catholic Register the results of his study, published in the journal Archaeometry, the Catholic Church is so protective of the shroud that it only allowed the 1988 researchers to take samples from the very edge of the cloth – an area that many believe was repaired after the shroud was partly burned in a fire in 1532. To Casabianca and his team, not taking random samples from multiple locations was a violations of the scientific method and should have been clearly stated – thus requiring the researchers to not draw any conclusions. Instead, this breach in scientific protocol was glossed over and no one was brave (or dumb) enough to challenge the British Museum on the obviously highly controversial results.

Full length negatives of the Shroud of Turin

Casabianca doesn’t fear the museum nor the Catholic Church nor those who believe science should not interfere with faith. He recommends new radiocarbon tests on threads from multiple locations.

“On a much deeper level, I would like to emphasize that those findings show why Christians should have no reason to be afraid of the scientific process. The quest for truth is at the heart of our faith and will never be a danger for our belief system. That’s why we should not be afraid of new tests on the Turin shroud.”

Good luck with that. As Russ Breault, the president of the Shroud of Turin Education Project Inc., points out:

“Politically the Church does not want to be viewed as anti-science. Hence, the shroud is often referred to as a ‘symbol of Christ’s suffering, worthy of veneration.’”

However …

“[Any] decision could only come from the Pope.”

Francis?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-08-2019 om 21:06 geschreven door peter  

The fifth largest body of water in Sweden, Storsjön Lake has something in common with Loch Ness, Scotland. No prizes for guessing what it is: a lake monster. Or, perhaps, an entire colony of them. Its name is Storsjöodjuret, and it’s a creature with a long history. In 1635, a priest named Morgens Pedersdens wrote the following, which suggests the Swedish Nessie is a beast of supernatural proportions, rather than one of a flesh and blood nature:  “A long, long time ago two trolls, Jata and Kata, stood on the shores of the Great-Lake brewing a concoction in their cauldrons. They brewed and mixed and added to the liquid for days and weeks and years. They knew not what would result from their brew but they wondered about it a great deal. One evening there was heard a strange sound from one of their cauldrons. There was a wailing, a groaning and a crying, then suddenly came a loud bang.”

The story continues: “A strange animal with a black serpentine body and a cat-like head jumped out of the cauldron and disappeared into the lake. The monster enjoyed living in the lake, grew unbelievably larger and awakened terror among the people whenever it appeared. Finally, it extended all the way round the island of Frösön, and could even bite its own tail. Ketil Runske bound the mighty monster with a strong spell which was carved on a stone and raised on the island of Frösön. The serpent was pictured on the stone. Thus was the spell to be tied till the day someone came who could read and understand the inscription on the stone.”

Fifty years later, in 1885, the monster was still attracting the attention of people in the region of Storsjön Lake. Andreas Plantin stated of the serpent of the deep: “It is said that beneath this stone lies a dreadfully large head of a serpent and that the body stretches over Storsjön to Knytta by and Hille Sand where the tail is buried. The serpent was called a rå and therefore shall this stone be risen. Since no one peacefully could cross [Storsjön], the ferryman and his wife states, along with many others, that in the last turbulent time this stone was tore down and broken in two. As long as this stone laid on the ground many strange things occurred in the water, until the stone was risen and assembled anew.”

The stone to which Plantin was referring to was the Frösö rune-stone. For those who may not know, rune-stones are ancient, raised stones inscribed with runic symbols. That the Storsjöodjuret has a connection to the Frösö rune-stone is yet another indication that in times past the beast was perceived as a paranormal one. It’s important to note, however, that the Storsjöodjuret is not just a creature of the distant past. The 1970s saw a number of significant encounters with the creature. On August 2, 1973, a man named Ragnar Bjorks had a notable sighting of the monstrous serpent. He said at the time:

“As I am the fisheries officer in this area and I was out checking to see that all the anglers had there valid permits. But instead of anglers I saw something peculiar, a big tail that was about 0.5 meters high just above the surface. At first I thought it was a piece of driftwood. But when I got closer I saw a colossal fish whose tale was out of the water. My rowing boat is 3.8 meters long and I estimate that the fish was 2 meters longer than my boat. When I was by the side of this monster I took my oar and hit it straight over its back.” By Bjorks’ own admission, “I shouldn’t have done that.” He explained why: “In the same moment the animal slapped the water with its tail so that the boat was thrown 3 or 4 meters into the air. Strangely enough, the boat came down again on its keel but I had to balance it. I believe that God was with me then.”

As for the specific description of the beast of the waters, Bjorks said: “The creature was grey/brown on top and yellow underneath and was 5½ to 6 meters long. I think it was a marl, a voracious, predatory fish that grows over 16 feet long in some countries. Yes, it was a real experience and many people will think that this Storsjöodjuret is a mere fake, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes and I’m not afraid to talk about it. Some years ago my wife saw it. It had two humps and was slowly moving forward. I didn’t believe her but now I’m convinced.”

Also convinced were Rolf Larsson and Irene Magnusson, who saw the legendary monster three years after Ragnar Bjorks. It was July 1976 when the pair, fishing on the lake at the time, had an extraordinary encounter. Larsson said: “We were about 500 meters from land and we were going home when we passed a buoy. Suddenly some waves rocked the boat. Fifty or sixty meters from us between land and the boat we saw something that moved under the surface. Then it came up to the surface, not with a splash but with smooth waves. The part of the body we saw above water was not more than 20-30 cm high and about 1 meter long. But from the amount of water it displaced we could see that it was a large object beneath the surface. I would like to compare it with an upside-down boat; you only see the keel of it. Irene was as pale as a corpse.”

Like the Loch Ness Monster, Ogopogo, and Champ, the Storsjöodjuret continues to be seen. And, just like the “big three,” it continues to elude capture and identification. The mystery of Sweden’s most famous monster lives on.

{  https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-08-2019 om 20:39 geschreven door peter  

How would you feel if you looked out your window and saw a giant ball of fire doing loops across the sky? That’s got to be one of the more unnerving types of UFOs to see. An alien spaceship might be a little reality-shattering but at least there would be a little bit of context—it’s a real weird vehicle, but at least you know what a vehicle is. A big ball of fire apocalyptically pirouetting over a small English town, though? That’s just plain odd.

The 'fireball' seen over Brixworth.

Photo: Lauren Tester

The latest mysterious fireball was seen in the skies over Northhampton, England. Luke Pawsey, 20, spoke to the Northhampton Chronicle and Echo about the video of the bizarre event, filmed by his friend Lauren Tester at her home. You can watch the video for yourself here. The footage is short, only a few seconds long, but it shows a large flaming object doing loops in the sky. You can even see the smoke from previous loops faintly to the right of the fireball, indicating that it is in fact a literal great ball of fire.

It literally looks like this.

Luke Pawsey says he doesn’t believe that the fireball was man made or a weird type of lightning. He believes that it is in some way alien. Pawsey says:

“I think it’s an unidentified flying object (UFO) but when people imagine that they think of a spaceship which I don’t think it was. But how do we know what’s out there, especially if it doesn’t exist to us? It could be aliens but I don’t want to say for certain as I don’t know.”

Strangely, it seems that Pawsey and Tester are the only witnesses to the bizarre event. Pawsey says it’s hard to believe that no one else saw a giant dancing fireball in the sky:

“It’s baffling and it really is a mystery that’s why I’m so interested in it. No one knows what it is and by the time you get someone to look at it, it’s gone.

Yet this isn’t the first time a big, ridiculous, and unexplained fireball has appeared. It’s not even the first time it’s happened in Northhampton. In 2014 a video was posted online of what can only be described as “probably the same thing.” 11-year-old Katie Real filmed a looping fireball UFO over Northampton as her parents watched. Fiona Fearon, Katie’s mom, said in 2014:

“Initially we thought it could be a plane on fire but it appeared to be dancing across the sky. It was an amazing sight. It’s very weird. [Our children] were very excited by it. It looked like a ball of fire moving around in the sky.”

Could be a wizard did it. It is England, after all.

Often, mysterious fireballs and dancing lights are explained away with two words: “ball lightning.” The problem with that is although it’s a term composed of two words we know—”ball” and “lightning”—science still considers ball lightning to be an unexplained phenomenon. It’s called a type of lightning because it’s associated with thunderstorms (sometimes) and because it looks like it’s probably electric in nature. But the list of proposed explanations for ball lightning is long and ridiculous, and due to its extreme rarity science has never been able to study it under controlled conditions. No one knows what it is, and using an unexplained phenomenon to explain away an unexplained phenomenon seems like the definition of madness.

But it’s understandable that folks would be looking for something to make a giant dancing fireball seem a bit more mundane. But at the end of the day, no matter what name you give it, it’s still a giant dancing fireball in the sky.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-08-2019 om 20:04 geschreven door peter  

David Jacobs on CoastToCoast AM warned that the marginalization of abductions has served to obscure an ongoing agenda centered around overtaking the planet via ET-human hybrids.

According to his research, this plan involves gradually populating the Earth with these entities, which he calls 'hubrids,' that look and act like normal humans, but are actually hybrids that possess mind abilities.

Since the hubrids were created and raised off planet, Jacobs claimed, human abductees are being used by the ETs to educate and train the entities for easier assimilation into our society and culture.

While Jacobs conceded that he has yet to decipher the reason behind this surreptitious infestation of the planet, he expressed certainty that humans are poised to ultimately become a second class species to the hybrids which are usurping our world.

And not only David Jacobs believes that Alien-Hybrids are being assimilated into our society and culture, Oxford professor Dr. Young-hae Chi also believes alien-human hybrid species are among us.

Dr. Young-hae Chi at the austere British institution claims bug-like aliens walk among us, and says they’re having very close encounters with humans - interbreeding to create a new hybrid species that could one day save Earth from climate change and other disasters.

The visitors are hardly altruists — they are meddling in our affairs because they share a “comprehensive biosphere” with humans, according to Dr. Young-hae Chi instructor in Korean at Oxford’s Oriental Institute.

“They come not for the sake of us, but for the sake of them, their survival, but their survival is actually our survival as well — the survival of the entire biosphere,” explained Chi, Read more here.

  

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

07-08-2019 om 18:20 geschreven door peter  

Is er dan toch leven op de maan? Mogelijk hebben we daar zelf met mislukte maanlanding voor gezorgd - HLN.be

Bron: The Guardian

Eind februari lanceerde Israël de eerste private maanlander Beresheet, tot in april plots alle contact werd verbroken. De maanlander zou nu toch voor een primeur hebben gezorgd. En wat voor één. De Beresheet had namelijk zogenaamde beerdiertjes mee, minuscule meercellige organismen die erom bekend staan te overleven bij extreme omstandigheden. 

Volgens de Arch Mission Foundation, de organisatie achter de mislukte maanlanding, zouden deze ‘sterkste dieren op aarde’ wel eens “de enige overlevenden” kunnen zijn van de missie.

Lees ook

Dit 1 millimeter grote diertje zou zelfs de ergste Apocalyps op aarde overleven

“Sterkste dieren op aarde”

Op aarde leven beerdiertjes op hoge bergtoppen, in verzengende woestijnen en in het ijs op Antarctica. Dr. Karl Shuker schreef in zijn boek The Hidden Powers of Animals dat de diertjes zelfs overleven in vloeibaar helium en wanneer ze worden gekookt aan 149 graden Celsius. 

De verborgen kracht van het beestje zit hem in de mogelijkheid om zichzelf als het ware te verschrompelen tot een ‘zaadachtige’, waarbij al het water afgestoten wordt en het metabolisme tot stilstand komt. Het is in deze toestand dat het diertje dergelijke extreme omstandigheden kan overleven.

Reëel

In 2007 ontdekten wetenschappers dat deze diertjes ook wel eens de zware condities van ruimtereizen zouden kunnen overleven. En dat zou bij deze dus gebeurd zijn.

Volgens Lukasz Kaczmarek, een astrobioloog aan de Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, is de kans reëel dat de diertjes de crash hebben overleefd. “Beerdiertjes kunnen een druk die ontstaat wanneer asteroïden crashen op aarde overleven, dus een dergelijke kleine crash betekent niets voor hen.” Hij voegde eraan toe dat de diertjes het waarschijnlijk nog enkele jaren kunnen uithouden.

Geen kolonisatie

Een kolonisatie van de maan is echter onbestaande. “Ze kunnen de maan niet koloniseren, omdat er geen atmosfeer en vloeibaar water voorhanden is,” aldus Kaczmarek. “Maar het zou mogelijk zijn om ze terug naar de aarde te brengen en opnieuw tot leven te wekken.” Gedehydrateerde beerdiertjes zijn namelijk in het verleden al opnieuw tot leven gewekt door hen in water te stoppen, waarna ze hun leven van voordien gewoon verderzetten.

Philippe Reekie, een collega-astrobioloog aan de Universiteit van Edinburgh, bevestigt de stelling van Kaczmarek. Maar, zo voegt hij er aan toe, als de beerdiertjes zich in hun normale toestand bevonden, is de kans groot dat ze de impact toch niet hebben overleefd. “In hun normale staat kun je de beestjes namelijk makkelijk doden.”

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

07-08-2019 om 01:50 geschreven door peter  

07-08-2019 om 01:14 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.sciencealert.com/ }

07-08-2019 om 01:09 geschreven door peter