An Anomalous Sudden Stratospheric Warming Is Forming Over Antarctica Right Now

A Sudden Stratospheric Warming is currently sweeping across parts of Antarctica right now. This is only the third such anomalous event in the southern hemisphere after 2002, and twice in 2010.

Find out now what they are and what are their possible impacts below. A sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) is an event where the polar vortex of westerly winds in the winter hemisphere slows down or even reverses direction over the course of a few days.

The change is accompanied by a rise of stratospheric temperature by several tens of kelvins.

The Earth is changing in so many ways. Hurricane headed to FL as we speak. Thanks for stopping by.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

30-08-2019 om 22:00 geschreven door peter  

In an online chat with Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins, one Twitter user asked him, “Do you believe in life outside Earth?” and he simply replied, “Yes”. So, does that mean that he believes that microorganisms may live deep within layers of ice on far away planets, or does he believe that actual aliens really do exist? It’s a pretty vague answer that raises even more questions on what he believes in and what the astronauts may have witnessed while they were on the moon.

Back in 1969 when Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin conducted the first ever manned moon landing, there was a very odd exchange between the Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control. On the third day, Armstrong witnessed an unexplained object moving parallel to them, but it was brushed off as just the third stage of the Saturn-V rocket that had brought them into space. When Armstrong asked Mission Control, “Do you have any idea where the S-IVB is with respect to us?” they responded with, “The S-IVB is about 6,000 nautical miles from you now. Over.” Many people believe that what the crew witnessed was actually a UFO.

Michael Collins

And while Collins’ response on whether he believes life exists outside of Earth was a simple one-worded answer, he isn’t the first Apollo 11 astronaut to give his opinion on other worldly topics.

Buzz Aldrin and three other astronauts (Al Worden, Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper) took part in a study where they all passed lie detector tests when asked about their experiences with UFOs. Aldrin has stated many times that he witnessed a UFO following them while he, Collins, and Armstrong were on their way to the moon. He stated, “There was something out there that was close enough to be observed, sort of L-shaped.”

Buzz Aldrin

And while Neil Armstrong never publicly discussed any interest in aliens, a letter that had been discovered suggests that he was in fact fascinated by UFOs and that he even invited a UFO expert to join him for dinner – where they more than likely discussed the topic of extraterrestrials.

Neil Armstrong

Another interesting fact about Armstrong is that he may have possibly been contacted by the “Men in Black”. In one portion of the 18-page FBI file on Armstrong, it stated that two “well-dressed” men walked into an Ohio Town Hall and asked several very personal questions about the astronaut, such as his address, how many children he had, and which restaurants he ate at. Seems a little suspicious if you ask me…

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-08-2019 om 21:44 geschreven door peter  

If you see the words “US military,” “secret urban tunnels,” “underground experimentation” and “urgent need” in the same sentence, it can’t be good news. If you see them in a tweet that links to an actual government website soliciting actual requests for proposals to satisfy those needs, it may be time to worry. If they emphasize that they need them “right away,” is it time to book the next flight to New Zealand? Or Mars?

@DARPA

Attention, city dwellers! We’re interested in identifying university-owned or commercially managed underground urban tunnels & facilities able to host research & experimentation. https://go.usa.gov/xVWCn

It’s short notice… We’re asking for responses by Aug. 30 at 5:00 PM ET.

That’s the ‘take us to your tunnels’ tweet posted on August 28, 2019 – just two days before they’re urgently needed – by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency of the US Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. The link takes you to FedBizOps.gov, the Federal Business Opportunities website where private contractors can learn about open government projects. While it seems hard to believe that DARPA would be so public with its urgent needs, perhaps that’s part of the plan – make part of the project public so no one gets suspicious. Too late for that!

@DARPA

The ideal space would be a human-made underground environment spanning several city blocks w/ complex layout & multiple stories, including atriums, tunnels & stairwells. Spaces that are currently closed off from pedestrians or can be temporarily used for testing are of interest.

Testing? Testing what? The comments on the tweets give plenty of ideas from the ridiculous to the downright scary. They also point out that there are PLENTY of vast unused or unfinished tunnels and spaces around the country that were once planned for subways, cars, pedestrians, shopping malls and other innocent but underfunded purposes that had to be closed down before they could be completed and opened.

The subterranean domain – whether human-made tunnels, urban underground infrastructure, or natural cave networks – is becoming increasingly relevant for global security and disaster-related search and rescue missions As such, DARPA is interested in understanding the state-of-the-art in innovative technologies that have the potential to disruptively and positively impact how the underground domain is leveraged without prohibitive cost and risk to human lives.

DARPA is interested in understanding the state-of-the-art in innovative technologies that may enable future solutions to rapidly map, navigate, and search unknown complex subterranean environments to locate objects of interest. To support these technologies, DARPA is looking to find locations that researchers can utilize to experiment and enhance their innovative approaches.

The short explanatory document doesn’t really explain much. While it claims the project has a noble cause – training for “global security and disaster-related search and rescue missions” – it also wants to learn how to “rapidly map, navigate, and search unknown complex subterranean environments to locate objects of interest.” Whose tunnels are they planning to find and what “objects” are they interested in? Have they found the secret underground location of the Ark of the Covenant? The hiding place of the long-rumored-not-to-be-dead Elvis? A time machine? Putin’s mini-nukes? Anybody’s mini-nukes?

Is this test a failure or a success?

All of this sounds sinister, yet it also sounds like a moneymaker for a cash-strapped city stuck with an unfinished public works tunnel and looking for ways to pay for filling potholes. (Are you listening, Cincinnati?) Is the money worth the risk of DARPA collapsing the city into a massive sinkhole for “testing” purposes?

Sorry, DARPA. Only people are innocent until proven guilty, and that’s getting a little shaky these days. Secret government agencies that develop futuristic technologies are always under suspicion.

So, what’s up with the urgent need for tunnels?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-08-2019 om 21:28 geschreven door peter  

More and more, and day by day, people are asking me for my thoughts on the “Storming Area 51” saga. I’ll get right to the point. No one at all should ever be contemplating illegally penetrating a U.S. military base or a classified government facility. Trying to break into such a place should not be considered a bit of fun. It’s dangerous, reckless, and potentially deadly for anyone who thinks it’s cool to descend on Area 51. And, you would be breaking the law, to the extent that you would almost certainly end up  serving significant jail-time. Just because the installation has a longstanding history of ties to the UFO phenomenon does not give anyone the right to try and “invade” the place. The only result for the idiots (there’s no other word that fits them better) who might be contemplating such a thing is a very, very bad one. It should be noted that something similar – to  a degree anyway – occurred decades ago in the U.K. It was a situation that led the 1950s/1960s-era Ufologists involved to become the subjects of U.K. government files. In today’s world, however, things would be much more worse than having a Top Secret dossier opened on you. Let’s now take a look at that little-known, long-gone affair.

An arm of the U.K. Government’s Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Weapons Establishment – known informally as “Aldermaston” – is situated on what was previously a military base: Royal Air Force Aldermaston, Berkshire, England. It takes its name from the village that is home to the AWE. It’s important to note that in the late 1950s there was a great deal of concern on the part of the people of the U.K. that, in the event of a nuclear confrontation, the U.K. would end up getting dragged into the maelstrom and, inevitably, totally wiped off the map. The outcome of these concerns was that more and more people chose to take a highly proactive approach to making their concerns and fears known to the government of the day. This was largely due to the creation, in 1957, of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

In an effort to highlight their views and worries relative to ever-growing nuclear proliferation, the CND decided to organize what became known as the “Aldermaston Marches.” The public was encouraged to hit the road – on foot – and head off from London to the AWE facility in the sleepy little village of Aldermaston, which dates back to the 12^th century and that, today, has a population of barely one thousand. The first such march took place on the Easter weekend of April 4-7, 1958. It was a big event, one which let the U.K. Government know that not everyone was in accord with officialdom’s policy on nukes.

Several thousand people took to the highways and the byways, all to have their say. Loudly. The presence and actions of the CND clearly had sizable numbers of the people of the U.K. all revved up and ready to go. As evidence of this, in the march of 1960, more than sixty thousand people turned up at Trafalgar Square, London, with more than one hundred thousand making the trek to Aldermaston. It’s very important to note that members of the UFO/alien-themed Aetherius Society took a proactive part in every march from 1958 to 1965 (and, as a result, became the subject of secret, government surveillance). Such was the CND’s satisfaction with the first weekend of protest, the march became a yearly event: it continued until 1965 and was briefly resurrected in 1972.

It was certainly the case that the Aldermaston marches largely went ahead with an absolute minimum of violence. U.K. authorities, though, were very concerned (and justifiably concerned) by the possibility that the demonstrations just might have been secretly infiltrated by “Communist agitators;” even by Russian operatives, passing themselves off as members of the U.K. public and doing their utmost to whip up a frenzy and to get the lowdown on the CND. Both MI5 (the U.K.’s equivalent of the FBI) and MI6 (the U.K.’s CIA) were deeply worried that the Russians had wormed their way into the hearts of the CND and those who were coordinating the annual marches to Aldermaston.

For those fucking morons (and yes, you are fucking morons) who are still contemplating heading out to “storm” Area 51, in light of the Aldermaston affair of the 1960s and the concerns of MI5 and MI6, you may want to think carefully on the possibility that some of the “stormers” among you may not be ufologists, but foreign spies, seeking out what’s afoot at Area 51. Invading a government facility is something is something that should not be on the minds of anyone. Of course, the whole thing – that began as a stupid joke – may simple collapse on itself. That would be the best outcome possible. My final words to the would-be stormers: DON’T DO IT.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-08-2019 om 21:03 geschreven door peter  

Jupiter has a total of 79 known moons and now five more of them have been given new names with help from the public. Pandia, Ersa, Eirene, Philophrosyne, and Eupheme are the names of the moons.

With the approval of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a contest was conducted by the Carnegie Institution for Science so the public could pick the names. Interestingly enough, the majority of the suggested names were submitted by children. Normally, the IAU picks out the names of planets and moons, but in more recent times, they have allowed the public to get involved with the naming process. In fact, the public has had a hand in naming several objects, such as alien stars and planets, as well as Mercury craters.

The process involved with picking a name is rather complicated. Those who participated in the contest earlier this year had to abide by several rules that included staying within the correct number of characters, as well as matching the direction of the moon’s orbit as that’s what decided the last letter of the name.

“There are many rules when it comes to how we name moons,” explained Carnegie astronomer Scott Sheppard who led the discovery of twelve of the moons that are orbiting Jupiter – and five of those twelve were the ones that were being named in the contest. He continued by stating, “Jovian naming conventions require its many moons to be named after characters from Greek and Roman mythology who were either descendants or consorts of Zeus, or Jupiter.”

So, let’s take a look at the origins of these very interesting new names for the five moons.

• Pandia (formerly known as S/2017 J4) was named after the daughter of Zeus and the moon goddess Selene.
• Ersa (formerly known as S/2018 J1) was named after another daughter of Zeus and Selene; also the sister of Pandia.
• Eirene (formerly known as S/2003 J5) was named after the goddess of peace; she was the daughter of Zeus and Themis.
• Philophrosyne (formerly known as S/2003 J15) was named after the spirit of welcome and kindness; and the granddaughter of Zeus.
• Eupheme (formerly known as S/2003 J3) was named after the spirit of praise and good omen; also the granddaughter of Zeus and the sister of Philophrosyne.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-08-2019 om 20:46 geschreven door peter  

Couple films Bigfoot hiding in Utah Mountains

A new Bigfoot sighting happened recently in Utah, a couple in some Utah mountains caught a possible Bigfoot watching them between two trees.

The footage shows what looks like some kind of a creature standing between two trees and illuminated by the headlights of the car.

We don't know exactly what it is but we're assuming it's some sort of Bigfoot creature. What do you think this could possibly be?

  

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

30-08-2019 om 20:29 geschreven door peter  

Black Aliens Base Found On Jupiters Moon Europa, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Aug 30, 2019
Location of discovery: Europa, Moon of Jupiter
Source: 

• worldwidetelescope.org

I found this fascinating black structure on the moon Europa. Jupiter actually has 79 known moons so if this one has alien bases, then you can count on the others having them too. I made a video below to show how easy it is to find this structure. It has some remarkable right angles, huge fusalodge like body, dark large openings at its center, perhaps for docking ships, and two long wings, one on each side. This is huge guys, its about 20 miles across. I also notice a lot of other structures, however NASA has blurred them out so that the detail was lost. Watch the video I made and tell me what you think. 
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

SF-video? (peter2011)

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

30-08-2019 om 20:16 geschreven door peter  

33 Meter UFO At Area 51, On Google Earth Map -  Video, UFO Sighting News.

Hello everyone. I found this UFO back in 2010 and made a video that got 1.4 million views on it. So I wanted to show the public that they can still see it. Most people don't know how to see the old photos on Google map, so here I show you how to see the 33 meter UFO.  Google owns Youtube and they both have changed their publicity algorithms...a mathematical AI code that finds anything with fake news keywords...like the words UFO sighting, or aliens and labels them as fake news, then hiding them from the public. This is Google working with the US government to cover up any UFO or alien evidence and hide it from the public. I promise you...at the end of the week I will only have about 5,000 views on this video. The UFO is real, its still there, and I teach you how to find it in this video. 

Its not Facebook the public should be worried about. Its Google and Youtube. They should be investigated by the FTC antitrust investigators for using Youtube channels data in illegal ways and uses that Youtube users do not agree too. We need the Federal Trade Commission to officially investigating Youtube and Google for potential violations of US antitrust law. By using the users data to regulate what the viewers see and don't see, Youtube is breaking its companies privacy policy deciding what a third party (viewers) are allowed to see and not see. Congress needs to investigate into why Youtube is attacking UFO researchers in such an unfair, segregated and bullying way. I will tweet to the house judicial committee about it. Perhaps they know something about this?

Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

30-08-2019 om 20:05 geschreven door peter  

Mysteries of the Moon: What We Still Don't Know After Apollo

By Passant Rabie 

We may have learned a lot about the moon from Apollo, but haven't solved all of its mysteries.

Astronaut Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin deploys two scientific experiments on the surface of the moon during Apollo 11. 

(Image: © NASA)

We visited the moon half a century ago, and have not been back since. During that time, we've launched robotic spacecraft across our solar system and learned about distant worlds. Meanwhile, scientists continue to ponder the rocky visitor to our night sky. 

The Apollo missions helped us solve many of the moon's mysteries, but there are still many more questions that have been left unanswered — and even a couple that arose as a result of the samples brought back by the Apollo astronauts. 

"There are numerous scientific questions that have emerged in part of the Apollo evidence," Roger Launius, former NASA chief historian, told Space.com. "There's a whole series of things to be gained from going back, such as collecting additional material and gathering new data."

• Related: 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Moon

(Image credit: NASA)

As NASA prepares to send astronauts to the moon once again by the year 2024, and amid mixed messages from the U.S. administration regarding the upcoming mission, scientists reaffirm that the moon still holds many secrets that we need to explore.

"We have a lot of great questions," Sarah Noble, the Apollo next-generation sample analysis program executive at NASA headquarters in Washington, told Space.com. "What has happened over the past decade was that we put a lot of things in the orbit around the moon, which has given us a global picture.

"We know where to go to answer these questions now," Noble added.

Nearly 40 years after returning from the moon, water was found inside rock samples brought back by the Apollo 15 mission. The 2009 discovery opened up a whole new area of lunar research because it suggested that water could have existed on the moon since its formation. 

Having water on the moon is crucial for future space exploration, as it could be used  for drinking water and rocket fuel. 

"For 40 years, we thought the samples were completely dry," Noble said. "We now understand that there's a water cycle, but we don't understand how it works."

We may not understand the water cycle yet, but we do have the tools to crack it now. 

"From my perspective, we have all kinds of instruments that didn't exist before," Paul Hayne, assistant professor at the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, told Space.com.

Hayne added that the instruments have become so miniaturized that they now easily fit into spacecraft. 

Aside from water, recent evidence also suggested that there is ice on the moon. A 2018 study confirmed that there was frozen stuff on the ground in the moon's north and south poles.

"The one [question] that I'm very interested in is the question of ice and the poles," Hayne said. "We'd like to know how much [ice there is] and where, and collect new data to investigate this."

In order to detect the ice on the lunar surface, Hayne said that there are new tools such as infrared instruments to detect the chemical fingerprint of ice, thermal cameras and other heat-sending tools. 

Samples of basaltic rocks, or solidified molten lava, brought back by the Apollo missions were mostly old, but some were found to be as young as a billion years old, according to Noble. (Scientists believe that the moon itself is 4.51 billion years old.)

Scientists know that volcanic eruptions took place on the lunar surface, but they are still unsure about the timeline over which these eruptions occurred and when the moon stopped being volcanically active.

"There's still some questions about how active the moon is today — that's kind of a hot area," Hayne said.

He added that besides not knowing when these volcanic eruptions stopped occurring, we also don't know what caused them in the first place — whether they were triggered by a giant impact to the moon or if the moon is radioactive.

Recent research has pointed out that moon rocks are rich in radioactive material like uranium, and a 2014 paper in Nature suggested that heat-producing elements like uranium, thorium and potassium are causing the lunar surface to expand and contract as it gets hotter and cooler. The cracks on the surface caused by this process would have allowed for the lava to flow through them. 

Hayne suggests that scientists need to revise their models of the moon's volcanic activity as most of them think that it stopped being active a long time ago, which may not be true — some scientists believe that the moon is still tectonically active. 

There is also debate over how old our moon is, with ages ranging from 4.5 billion years to a much younger 150 to 200 million years.

According to Noble, scientists have attempted to estimate the moon's age by analyzing the lunar rocks brought back by Apollo and by trying to date when the craters formed on the lunar surface, but there has been no consensus thus far.

"It's one of the big questions we want to answer," Noble said. 

However, Noble added, it's not just about determining the moon's age but rather figuring out the ages of other rocky bodies in the solar system such as Mercury or Mars.

Once we know the age of the moon, we can estimate the age of other planets by comparing the number of craters between the moon and Mars or Venus. The more craters there are on the surface, the older the rocky body is.

Collecting as much information as we can from the moon will also eventually lead to a better understanding of other planetary objects in our solar system that we want to explore in the future. -

"The moon can help us understand how to live and operate on another body, say, for example, if we go to Mars," she said.

Amid an ongoing debate over whether we should return to the moon, lunar scientists reaffirm that it is absolutely necessary we do it for the sake of future space exploration and to learn more about our own planet.

"As a lunar scientist, I'm very excited about the science we can do on the moon," Noble said. "Our current plan is to hit the moon so we can move on and hit Mars."

Hayne agreed. "We have so much to learn still about the moon, which then not only tells us about other planets in the solar system but about the Earth itself," he said.

"Lastly, it's exciting," Hayne added. "It inspires people. There's no substitute to having boots on the ground."

• How NASA's Apollo Astronauts Went to the Moon  
• Apollo 11 at 50: A Complete Guide to the Historic Moon Mission
• We're Still Learning from the Apollo Moon Landings, But What If We Went Back? 

Follow Passant Rabie on Twitter @passantrabie. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

30-08-2019 om 01:51 geschreven door peter  

NASA astronaut Michael Collins drops major alien confession: 'Yes' to life outside Earth

NASA astronaut Michael Collins who flew the Command Module on Apollo 11 in 1969, has just confirmed his belief in alien life outside of Earth.

By SEBASTIAN KETTLEY

The NASA veteran played a critical role in the first manned Moon landing alongside colleagues Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. After retiring from NASA in 1970, the astronaut has been a vocal supporter of establishing a human presence on Mars. Now, astronaut Michael Collins, 88, has opened up about the ultimate question of are we alone in the universe. In an online question and answer session on Twitter, Mr Collins’ 56,600 Twitter followers were given a chance to submit any burning queries they have. 

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One Twitter follower asked the astronaut if he believes in “life outside of Earth” under the hashtag #AskMichaelCollins. 

In a blunt but revealing answer, Mr Collins simply said: “Yes.” 

The answer excited a storm of tweets from followers who are similarly convinced extraterrestrial life has evolved on some alien planet far from Earth. 

Twitter user Gulshan Kumar said: “Probably… but no evidence…” 

Fernando Leon said: “I believe too but there is no evidence to support my belief.” 

• READ MORE: When was NASA’s last mission to the Moon?

NASA astronaut Michael Collins believes in alien life outside of Earth

 (Image: NASA/GETTY)

The NASA astronaut fielded questions from his followers on Twitter 

(Image: MICHAEL COLLINS TWITTER)

Angela Byrne said: “Yes, definitely… it would be crazy not to… and very scary.” 

Collins retired from the Air Force as a major general and left NASA in 1970

NASA

And Betty Cozatt said: “Given the literally billions of planets where life might be yes is the only possible answer. 

“But has that life evolved into a species that has developed interstellar travel. Probably but no definitive answer yet.” 

However, the next big question is whether life outside of Earth has developed enough to form intelligent civilisations.

NASA’s scientists believe the planet Mars may hold evidence of past microbial life but not developed species.

• READ MORE: Why did the Apollo 11 flag wave and flap in space?

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In other cosmic queries, regarding his time in space, Mr Collins was asked about eating bacon in space, his favourite moments from Apollo 11 and why he grew a moustache during the Moon landing. 

In regards to enjoying the bacon, the astronaut said: “No. Bacon should not be cubed!” 

Mr Collins is a former American test pilot who served in the United States Air Force before joining NASA. 

As a test pilot, Mr Collins has logged more than 4,200 hours in flight. 

Through is work in the US Air Force, Mr Collins retired with the rank of major general. 

• READ MORE: Was it worth spending billions to put the first man on the Moon?

Many of Mr Collins' followers also believe life in some form exists outside of Earth (Image: TWITTER)

Michael Collins flew the Command Module during the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 

(Image: NASA)

In July 1969, the astronaut flew the Command Module spacecraft around the Moon while astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface for the first time in history. 

NASA said: “After he graduated from the US Military Academy in West Point, New York, in 1952, he chose to become an Air Force test pilot. 

“Selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1963, he served as the pilot for Gemini X and as the command module pilot for the Apollo 11 mission, the first time humans set foot on another celestial body.

“Collins retired from the Air Force as a major general and left NASA in 1970.”

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Quick facts about the 1969 NASA Moon landing:

1. Of the three Apollo 11 astronauts, Michael Collins was the only one who did not land on the Moon.

2. The Saturn V rocket that took Apollo 11 into orbit remains the most powerful rocket ever built.

3. Michael Collins would lose radio contact with Earth every time he flew behind the far side of the Moon while in lunar orbit.

4. Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969, landed on July 20 and returned to Earth on July 24, 1969.

5. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.

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{ https://www.express.co.uk/ }

30-08-2019 om 01:25 geschreven door peter  

What Are White Holes?

{ https://www.gaia.com/ }

30-08-2019 om 00:59 geschreven door peter  

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

30-08-2019 om 00:44 geschreven door peter  

A 3.8-million-year-old skull reveals the face of Lucy’s possible ancestors

The fossilized hominid skull illuminates the earliest-known Australopithecus species

A 3.8-million-year-old fossil of a hominid skull (right) offers hints about the individual looked like (artist’s reconstruction, left).

L-R: MATT CROW/CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, JOHN GURCHE (FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION); DALE OMORI/CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

By Bruce Bower

In a remarkable evolutionary windfall, fossil hunters have discovered neatly fitting halves of a nearly complete, 3.8-million-year-old hominid skull. This unexpected specimen shines some light on poorly understood, early members of the human evolutionary family.

The East African skull, which turned up at Ethiopia’s Woranso-Mille site, has been classified as Australopithecus anamensis. It is the oldest known species in a hominid genus that includes Australopithecus afarensis, known best for Lucy’s 3.2-million-year-old partial skeleton (SN: 10/28/14).

The research team, led by paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, describes its analysis of the skull in two papers published online August 28 in Nature. 

“This specimen provides the first glimpse of the face of Australopithecus anamensis,” Haile-Selassie said during an Aug. 27 news conference. The skull, which is slightly larger than a modern adult human’s fist, also includes the first good example of an A. anamensisbraincase.

For early-hominid investigators, “this is the specimen we have been waiting for,” says paleoanthropologist Carol Ward of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Ward was not part of the Woranso-Mille team.

Until now, A. anamensis fossils consisted only of partial upper and lower jaws, isolated teeth, a braincase fragment and some lower-body bones (SN: 2/18/15). Those specimens, previously unearthed in Kenya and Ethiopia, date to between 4.2 million and 3.9 million years ago.

Then, on February 10, 2016, a member of the Woranso-Mille team noticed the lower part of a hominid skull protruding from eroding sediment. Later that day, Haile-Selassie found the braincase lying on the ground about three meters from the initial find. Soil sieving produced additional skull fragments.

Geoscientist Beverly Saylor of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland led an effort to date the fossil by estimating the ages of nearby volcanic rock layers. Known reversals of Earth’s magnetic field in Woranso-Mille sediment also aided dating.

Geologic evidence indicated that the fossil A. anamensis individual had been covered in sandy deposits where a river entered a lake. The surrounding region was largely dry, but included some forested areas. Volcanic eruptions occasionally blanketed the lake and its surroundings.

A digital reconstruction of the Woranso-Mille skull helped to establish its species. The braincase displays features, such as a long, narrow shape and a roughly chimpanzee-sized brain, similar to those of even older proposed hominids such as Sahelanthropus tchadensisand Ardipithecus ramidus (SN: 2/16/11). In contrast, forward-projecting cheek bones recall those of later hominids, such as 2.5-million-year-old Paranthropus aethiopicus. That species belonged to an African line of big-jawed, small-brained creatures that died out around 1 million years ago. It’s hard to know whether these shared traits evolved independently, or if the traits signal an evolutionary relationship.

Further comparisons connected the Woranso-Mille skull to earlier A. anamensis finds. Many of the skull’s features differ from those of Lucy’s kind, Haile-Selassie says. For instance, A. anamensis possessed a sloping face, unlike the flat faces of A. afarensis.

Crucially, the Woranso-Mille skull differs enough from an approximately 3.9 million-year-old hominid forehead bone discovered in East Africa in 1981 to assign that older find, known as the Belohdelie frontal, to A. afarensis, Haile-Selassie contends. If so, A. anamensis— now placed at between 4.2 million and 3.8 years ago — and Lucy’s kind — dating to between 3.9 million and 3 million years ago — overlapped for at least 100,000 years. That scenario contradicts an earlier hypothesis that A. anamensis evolved directly into Lucy’s kind, with the earlier species disappearing as it morphed into its descendant species (SN: 4/12/06).

A large A. anamensis group might have become isolated from its species-mates and then evolved into an early version of A. afarensis, Haile-Selassie speculates. In that case, other A. anamensis groups would have coexisted for a while with Lucy’s species.

While the newly discovered skull “fills a critical gap in Australopithecus evolution,” the evolutionary status of the Belohdelie frontal remains unknown, says paleoanthropologist William Kimbel of Arizona State University’s Institute of Human Origins in Tempe. More A. anamensis skulls are needed to assess whether the Belohdelie frontal displays traits more typical of that species or of Lucy’s kind, Kimbel says.

Paleoanthropologist Berhane Asfaw of Rift Valley Research Service in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, agrees. Asfaw described the Belohdelie frontal in a 1987 paper. Frontal bone shapes vary considerably in Lucy’s species, which includes four partial skulls, he says. “And we don’t know what kind of face the Belohdelie frontal had.”

In all its largely intact glory, the Woranso-Mille skull highlights how little is known about the relationship between A. anamensis and Lucy’s kind, Ward says. 

CITATIONS

• Y. Haile-Selassie et al. A 3.8-million-year-old hominin cranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. Nature. Published online August 28, 2019. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1513-8.
• B.Z. Saylor et al. Age and context of mid-Pliocene hominin cranium from Woranso-Mille, Ethiopia. Nature. Published online August 28, 2019. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1514-7.
• B. Asfaw. The Belohdelie frontal: new evidence of early hominid cranial morphology from the Afar of Ethiopia. Journal of Human Evolution. Vol. 16, Nov.-Dec. 1987, p. 611. doi:10.1016/0047-2484(87)90016-9

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

30-08-2019 om 00:21 geschreven door peter  

5 of Jupiter’s newly discovered moons received names in a public contest

The monikers come from Greek and Roman mythology, keeping with tradition

By Lisa Grossman

Meet the new moons of Jupiter. After a public contest, five newly discovered Jovian satellites now have official astronomical names, the International Astronomical Union announced August 26.

Planetary scientist Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., reported the discovery of the moons in July 2018 (SN: 7/17/18), along with seven others. He and his colleagues spotted the moons while searching for a theoretical Planet Nine orbiting beyond Neptune (SN: 7/5/16).

The team solicited name suggestions for the moons on Twitter. There were some rules, most notably that Jupiter’s 79 known moons must all be named for descendants or consorts of the god Jupiter from Roman mythology, or Zeus in Greek myths. But that didn’t stop people from suggesting the names of beloved pets or, perhaps inevitably, Moony McMoonface.

Here are the winners:

• Pandia: A daughter of Zeus and the moon goddess Selene, Pandia is the goddess of the full moon. One of the groups to enter this name in the contest was the astronomy club of the Lanivet Community Primary School in Bodmin, England, whose mascot is a panda.
• Ersa: Sister of Pandia, Ersa is the goddess of dew. Several people suggested this name, including 4-year-old moon expert Walter, who got the judges’ attention with a song listing the largest moons of the solar system in size order.
• Eirene: The goddess of peace, Eirene is the daughter of Zeus and Themis, a Greek Titaness who personifies divine order, justice and law.
• Philophrosyne: A granddaughter of Zeus, Philophrosyne is the spirit of welcome and kindness.
• Eupheme: Sister of Philophrosyne, Eupheme is the spirit of praise and good omen.

CITATIONS

• International Astronomical Union. Public contest successfully finds names for Jupiter’s new moons. August 26, 2019.
• Carnegie Institution for Science. The results are in! Jovian moon-naming contest winners announced. August 23, 2019

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

30-08-2019 om 00:10 geschreven door peter  

Pourquoi l’agence militaire américaine cherche-t-elle d’urgence une grande installation souterraine ?

La DARPA a publié cette nuit un drôle de tweet qui intrigue… et inquiète.

C’est un tweet qui pose question, et qui n’a pas manqué de soulever inquiétudes et probablement d’imaginer les hypothèses les plus farfelues. D’autant qu’il n’émane pas de n’importe-qui, ni de Donald Trump (qui a dit c’est pareil ?) mais de la DARPA, (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), la très sérieuse – et parfois controversée – agence du département de la Défense des États-Unis chargée de la recherche et développement des nouvelles technologies destinées à un usage militaire. Pour mémoire, on attribue l’invention d’internet à cette agence dans les années 60.

Dans ce Tweet, la DARPA indique qu’elle est à la recherche d’installations souterraines urbaines capables d’accueillir des travaux de recherche et d’expérimentation. Jusque-là, rien de très affolant. Mais ce qui est plus étonnant, et a ouvert la voie à toutes les spéculations et tous les fantasmes, est le délai indiqué par le tweet. Il semblerait en effet que ce soit urgent, très urgent, puisque la date limite est celle du 30 août à 17h, heure de la côte est américaine.

Des installations souterraines pour autopsier des aliens ?

Pourquoi une telle urgence ? Que va-t-il se passer d’ici-là ? Mystère et boule de gomme. Probablement rien, comme vous pouvez très bien l’imaginer. Mais il n’en faut pas plus pour laisser nos esprits vagabonder et élaborer toutes sortes d’hypothèses, d’autant que la Darpa n’a pas voulu expliquer pourquoi elle avait besoin d’une installation souterraine aussi vite, alors que tous les détails de sa requête figurent dans une note officielle.

« Les infrastructures souterraines urbaines complexes peuvent présenter des défis importants pour la connaissance de la situation dans des scénarios sensibles au facteur temps, tels que le combat actif ou d’intervention en cas de catastrophe. La DARPA est intéressée à explorer ce domaine pour que les chercheurs puissent analyser et améliorer les approches visant à améliorer la connaissance de la situation et les délais d’intervention dans les scénarios d’urgence. Les sites soumis pourraient aider le milieu de la recherche à identifier des sites pertinents pour d’autres expériences sur le terrain afin d’accélérer la mise au point de ces technologies. », a déclaré à nos confrères de Gizmodo par courriel un porte-parole de Darpa qui a demandé à rester anonyme.

Alors, que va-t-il se passer d’ici demain soir ? Les paris sont ouverts (et les complotistes vont passer une bonne journée).

{ https://www.presse-citron.net/ }

29-08-2019 om 23:55 geschreven door peter  

Mars Helicopter Drone Installed on NASA's Next Red Planet Rover

By Mike Wall 

The little chopper will be the first rotorcraft ever to ply alien skies.

An engineer works on attaching NASA's Mars Helicopter to the belly of the Mars 2020 rover — which has been flipped over for that purpose — on Aug. 27, 2019, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech )

The first-ever off-Earth helicopter just hooked up with its traveling companion.

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, attached the tiny Mars Helicopter to the agency's car-size Mars 2020 rover today (Aug. 28), agency officials announced. 

The duo will launch together in July 2020 and touch down inside the Red Planet's Jezero Crater in February 2021. Once on Mars, the solar-powered, 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) helicopter will detach and begin flying test sorties.

• Related: NASA's Mars Rover 2020 Mission in Pictures (Gallery)

"Our job is to prove that autonomous, controlled flight can be executed in the extremely thin Martian atmosphere," Mars Helicopter project manager, of JPL, said in a statement. (Mars' air is just 1% as dense as that of Earth at sea level.)

"Since our helicopter is designed as a flight test of experimental technology, it carries no science instruments," she added. "But if we prove powered flight on Mars can work, we look forward to the day when Mars helicopters can play an important role in future explorations of the Red Planet."

For example, helicopters could serve as scouts for robots or human pioneers on Mars. Red Planet rotorcraft could also carry instruments and conduct a variety of science work of their own, NASA officials have said.

Mas 2020, which will soon get a catchier moniker via a student naming competition, will hunt for signs of long-dead Red Planet life in Jezero Crater, which hosted a river delta in the ancient past. The rover will also characterize the site's geology, collect and cache samples for future return to Earth and demonstrate gear that will generate oxygen from the carbon-dioxide-dominated Martian air, among other tasks.

"With this joining of two great spacecraft, I can say definitively that all the pieces are in place for a historic mission of exploration," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C, said in the same statement. "Together, Mars 2020 and the Mars Helicopter will help define the future of science and exploration of the Red Planet for decades to come."

NASA plans to launch another rotorcraft soon as well — Dragonfly, which will soar through the thick atmosphere of Saturn's huge moon Titan. The life-hunting Dragonfly is scheduled to lift off in 2026 and land on Titan's frigid surface in 2034.

• Mars 2020: The Red Planet's Next Rover
• Propelling Exploration: Drones Are Going Interplanetary
• How NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Will Work (Infographic)

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/ }

29-08-2019 om 23:46 geschreven door peter  

In a bid to Expand Military Outreach, US to Launch Space Command Today

In a bid to Expand Military Outreach, US to Launch Space Command Today :- The United States will officially launch the Space Command, also known as SPACECOM, on Thursday with a White House ceremony hosted by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

US to Launch Space Command Today

The SPACECOM is a key step for the US military to establish a proposed sixth branch of the military known as the Space Force. U.S. Air Force Gen. John Raymond will serve as the first head of Space Command (SPACECOM). At launch, Raymond will lead 87 active units handling operations such as missile warning, satellite surveillance, space control, and space support, Gen. Joseph Dunford said at a meeting of the National Space Council earlier this month.

In a press conference on August 20, Vice President Mike Pence said, “The United States Space Force will ensure that our nation is prepared to defend our people, defend our interests, and to defend our values in the vast expanse of space and here on Earth with the technologies that will support our common defence for the vast reaches of outer space.”

He further added, “The United States Space Force will ensure that our nation is prepared to defend our people, defend our interests, and to defend our values in the vast expanse of space and here on Earth with the technologies that will support our common defense for the vast reaches of outer space.”

Trump had directed the Pentagon to create a sixth military branch in June 2018. He said that the establishment of the SPACECOM was crucial in protecting the country’s interests amid pressure from international rivals Russia and China.

Meanwhile, as per the former Deputy Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan, the SPACECOM will be different from the Space Force but they will work together.

He tweeted, “The Space Force will serve as a force provider for personnel, assets, and capabilities supporting space operations, while Space Command will serve as the operational command that will employ space capabilities and lead space operations. The differences between Space Force and US Space Command will largely parallel those of the other five military services and four functional combatant commands.”

U.S. Space Force launches in Colorado Springs

{ https://www.dekhnews.com/ }

29-08-2019 om 23:17 geschreven door peter  

Schedel van 3,8 miljoen jaar oud schudt evolutionaire tijdlijn door elkaar - HLN.be

Bron: Nature

Lucy behoorde tot de Australopithecus afarensis, een soort die volgens de evolutionaire tijdlijn na de Australopithecus anamensis (rechtop) op aarde rondliep. Dat betekent dat Lucy en MRD elkaar nooit ontmoet zouden hebben.
Maar nu blijkt uit een analyse van de schedel van MRD dat hij ongeveer 3,8 miljoen jaar oud is. Dat betekent dat de anamensis nog leefde toen zijn opvolger afarensis al bestond. Meer zelfs, de twee soorten zouden maar liefst 100.000 jaar samengeleefd hebben. De familie van MRD van 4,2 tot 3,8 miljoen jaar geleden en de familie van Lucy van 3,9 tot 3 miljoen jaar terug. De overlapping van de twee soorten schudt de evolutionaire tijdlijn - alsook het idee van een simpele, lineaire evolutie - grondig door elkaar.

Dat beschrijven de onderzoekers van het Cleveland Museum of Natural History in niet één maar wel twee papers in het vaktijdschrift Nature. In een eerste artikel omschrijven ze hun vondst, terwijl ze in een tweede artikel uit de doeken doen hoe ze de leeftijd van MRD bepaalden.

Lees ook

Onderzoekers werpen nieuw licht op dood van onze voorouder Lucy

Vondst van Ethiopische boer

De verantwoordelijke voor de evolutionaire ‘chaos’ is Ali Bereino, een Ethiopische boer die in 2016 per ongeluk een schedel opgroef. Hij was eigenlijk een hol aan het graven om zijn pasgeboren geitjes te beschermen tegen hyena’s toen hij opmerkte dat er enkele tanden in het zand begraven waren. Al snel haalde hij er een volledig kaakbeen uit dat hij naar het team van antropoloog Yohannes Haile-Selassi van het Cleveland Museum of Natural History, bracht. Dat team groef uiteindelijk een vrijwel volledige schedel op.

MRD

MRD - genoemd naar de vindplaats Miro Dora, zo’n 50 kilometer ten noorden van Hadar waar Lucy gevonden werd - was een man met een hersengrootte van zo’n 370 kubieke centimeter, vergelijkbaar met die van een chimpansee. Hij had uitstekende jukbeenderen, langwerpige hoektanden en ovale oorschelpen. Op die manier kon er een gezicht gereconstrueerd worden van MRD. Zijn leeftijd werd bepaald door de bodemlaag waarin zijn schedel gevonden werd, te analyseren.

Het grote verschil tutssen MRD en Lucy? Lucy had een rond hoofd terwijl de schedel van MRD smaller en langwerpig is. MRD leek volgens paleontologen nog iets meer op een aap dan zijn opvolger. Toch behoorde hij wel degelijk tot de mensachtigen. “De ruggenwervel van MRD komt niet aan de achterkant van de schedel binnen, zoals bij viervoeters, maar aan de onderkant. Dat bewijst dat de soort op twee benen liep, en dus een mensachtige is”, aldus Fred Spoor, paleontoloog aan het Natural History Museum in Londen.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

29-08-2019 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT’S BURIED UNDER THE SAHARA… HIDDEN LOST ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS BY BRIGHT INSIGHT

I love the Bright Insight’s channel and I’m always happy to share Jimmy’s latest videos, like this one, which dropped last night.
Are the sands of the Sahara Desert covering up ancient civilizations..?

Ancient Greek historian, Herodotus (484 – 425 BC) described the Nile River as moving from west to east, not from South to North, as it does today.

Jimmy from the Bright Insight YouTube channel is an Iraq War veteran who got to see some of these ancient wonders of the Middle East with his own eyes but he’s not content to merely point out how incredible they are. He has this to say about Ancient Egypt and the Sahara Desert:
“The experts have always claimed that the Sphinxmust be around 4,500 years old, yet recent geological analysis implies that this cannot be the case, as the last time the Nile Delta region had significant rainfall was more than seven thousand years ago…Right in the timeframe of when the Sahara was Green and had ten times the rainfall that it does today…

“The scientific data overwhelmingly suggests that the Sphinx is at least double the age of what we were taught in school, which of course only further adds to the mystery of ancient Egypt, itself but think about what all of this means.

“The ancient ruins and relics that have been found from the Egyptians are concentrated largely around the Nile River and this makes total sense, as civilizations exist where there’s water.
“So, combine that with the timeframe estimates of when the Sahara went from a lush green tropical paradise to a massive barren desert, several thousand years ago, well there’s obviously a connection here and going back to what I just pointed out, regarding the ancient Egyptians developing their civilization along the Nile River.

“While taking into account that the Sahara Desert was actually a hospitable environment, made up of rivers and lakes at that same period of time, we should ask ourselves if the old legends, stating that the Nile River once ran from west to east have merits… 
“Ancient rivers in the Sahara would have likely supported human migration routes. It seems to me that these areas around the rivers [in Northwest Africa] need to be excavated now.”

{ http://www.oom2.com/ }

29-08-2019 om 22:07 geschreven door peter  

29-08-2019 om 21:49 geschreven door peter